My birthday in Azerbaijan

My birthday was on Tuesday and it was amazing. I woke up to Happy Birthday's from my family. Mom and Dad called and I got my traditional birthday wish from them in the form of the song "Hey Heather it's your birthday" from Zoom. Thirty some years ago it was a record that you had to put pennies on...now it's at least a cassette if not a CD. Every year no matter where I am I get that birthday song. Then off to school we went. As we were getting close to school the driver was fumbling around with some CDs and was obviously looking for something. Then the song began to play and he turned up the music. It was the Azeri version of Happy Birthday. It had the same tune with a more jazzy beat. It was in English and Azeri. It was very sweet. At school I got cards from the boys and it was a lot of fun. I checked my emails and I had an email from one of the mothers of a child in my class. She speaks no English at all. Yet, she had sent me a simple email saying Happy Birthday. It was very moving to me. We have never had a conversation but she was one of the first outside of my family to say Happy Birthday. My paras arrived at about 8 AM and they were obviously talking about something. Then they asked me if they could have my attention. The presented my with my birthday present. The had gone in together to get me a Persian rug. It's a hall runner rug and it's beautiful. I cried. They also got me a CD of traditional Azeri smooth jazz. I have fallen in love with it. They were so kind. Kids came in with gifts. The mother (Yelena) who has sent me the birthday email brought me in a huge arrangement of orange roses. It was stunning. They brought me a gift, too. It's a purple ceramic purse bank. It's really quite cute. One of the mother's (Shirin) from Iran brought me a huge heart shaped basket with many different kinds of nuts in it. One family brought me green and gold porcelain plate with a dragon and gold etching on it. It's beautiful, too. I got a plant from some of my friends and a birthday pencil and some chap stick from some other friends. The tradition here it that when it's your birthday you bring a cake. So Tim and Jonathon found a beautiful cake with sunflowers all over it at a bakery our driver had recommended. It's amazing and we have been back a couple of times since. We put the cake in the faculty lounge and leave a note. Even before school started the cake was gone. It was beautiful and great. I brought ice cream bars for the kids in my class. It was a lot simpler than cutting cake and handing it out. We've had a couple of birthday's in class already and the cake thing is a nightmare. At the beginning of school I schmooze with parents while the kids work on a worksheet with the paras. When I got into the class to start I said, "Ok, is everyone ready." Apparently the word ready was the cue to begin singing "Happy Birthday" to me. It was very cute. Apparently I say the word ready every day. Who knew? On Tuesday's we have faculty meetings and this was a Tuesday so at the end of the meeting they recognized my birthday and everyone was very kind with applause. When the driver picked us up he again had "Happy Birthday" playing. We were going out to eat with friends (including our driver and his wife) to a Chinese restaurant called The Hong Kong. We had a great time there. The driver and his wife were late getting there because they had to feed the baby. We began to get worried. They walked in with a big beautiful Miss America looking bouquet for my birthday. It was so kind. The waiters brought a wine stand/ice bucket on a stand to put the bouquet in. The roses in this bouquet are huge. Like 3 or more inches high. They are amazing and still doing well today (Sunday). My birthday was amazing and people were so kind and generous. Apparently birthdays are a BIG deal here. Again, who knew? I felt very special. It was amazing.