May 10th, My French Birthday

In retrospect, tonight's dinner was anything but normal. I realized that we were doing things a little differently, but didn't think anything of it or put two and two together. For starters, we didn't eat until 8:30pm. We usually eat around 7:20 and Monsieur joins us when he gets home around 7:40. This evening, we waited for Monsieur until he got home, which was at 8:30. Madame apologized for the late dinner, but I had a big lunch, so I really didn't mind.

The dinner plates we ate on were different than the ones we've eaten on every other night. They were fancier and looked a little exotic. I thought nothing of it and just assumed that my host parents bought a new dish set when they were vacationing in Turkey a couple of weeks ago. Over dinner (which was crêpe complete, my favorite homemade French meal), my host family mentioned that they were going out of town for a wedding this weekend. Of course, my initial thought was that I was going to be all alone on my birthday. I didn't let my disappointment show and talked with them about how exciting it would be for them to go on a mini-vacation to this wedding. 

Dinner was good, but I was a little surprised that Madame didn't try force feeding me as much as she usually does. Most evenings, she asks me if I want seconds on both the salad and entrée and then thirds after I take the seconds I really didn't want (or need). When I say "non, merci" to thirds, she always asks "are you sure?" This evening, she didn't do that. I thought it was odd, but it was nothing more than a fleeting thought. Madame was done before us, so she got up to go do something in the other room. Diane (my 10 year old host sister), whispered something in Inès's (my 16 year old host sister) ear and got up a few seconds later. Monsieur, going along with the charade, asked Inès, "where did Diane go?" because the kids aren't allowed to leave the table during dinner as they please. Inès replied "she had to go to the bathroom". I bought Inès's explanation and finished up my last bite of salad. Monsieur said "As you know, we're not going to be home this weeke-" and got cut off by the lights in the kitchen shutting off. Everyone looked up in "confusion" (turns out, I was the only one who was genuinely confused). I turned around to look near the light switch, and in walked Madame and Diane with an enormous apple crisp, 20 candles ablaze. I was genuinely surprised and couldn't contain my excitement at how well they tricked me. They sang happy birthday in butchered English and I blew out my candles. 

They then offered me a present, which Monsieur proudly bragged that he had wrapped all by himself. I commended his wrapping job and opened it to find a pretty pink scarf and glove set. When I had unwrapped my gift, they said "because Michigan is cold!!" How cute is that!? We ate the apple crisp, which rivaled that of my mother's (and that's saying something). Don't worry, Mom. Yours will always be my favorite, but Madame's was a sufficient substitute. Madame offered it with ice cream because "Kah-tee loves ice cream!" I don't know how they know I love ice cream, since I've only had ice cream with them once. I must've had lust in my eyes when gazing at la glace, because that one time clearly made a lasting impression. This time, Madame made me take thirds, since she knew I'd have room. Their act of graciousness and generosity put the biggest smile on my face. Even writing this blog post, I couldn't help but smile the entire time because of how much their generosity means to me. I'm sure every May 10th for the rest of my life, I'll be reminded of the wonderful feeling my host family gave me. 

May 10th will now and forever be my French birthday.

Affectueusement,

Katie