And so, I am a year older. Or technically just a day older every day, but as of Wednesday, I added a year to my age. I normally really like to celebrate my birthday properly, preferably with a big party, but this year I had a deadline my Food Policy program and not enough time to get it done before my b-day, so I spent the entire day in front of my computer. (And when I write the entire day, I literarily mean the entire day: I worked on it from 6 am to 11 pm that day!) While I at first was really disappointed that I missed out of celebrating my birthday and everything that I had planned for that day, I soon realized that did spend it on food policy, which is my greatest interest. Nevertheless, there are other components that make a birthday, like friends, cake, and gifts. An acquaintance of mine in Sweden posted a Facebook album around her last birthday called Birthday Week, so I thought I’d copy that idea! It started well enough: these past days, I’ve been celebrated both at my office and outside of work, gifts have dropped in, and I have more plans over the next couple of days. In Moldova, birthdays are really important, and while it is bad luck to celebrate before the birthday, it is OK to celebrate for up to three weeks after. I think one week will be enough in my case though, at least this year!

Some highlights from the past days: cake with a candle from a colleague, chocolate from another, a package in the mail from Felicia with the wonderful book Tuesdays with Morrie and a pretty bookmark (I love bookmarks!!), and a lovely lunch today at Café Leopold in Georgetown with Lucia. And I decided to finally get an i-phone, which I’ve wanted for years, plus found a t-shirt in my favorite pattern! And there are still three more days of this year’s birthday week!