"happy birthday in retard!"

thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes last week and over the weekend! and i am very much looking forward to receiving all of the belated cards that have been promised... :)

for my birthday, i celebrated last week with friends and neighbors and then spent the weekend in madrid.  on wednesday i was surrounded by many of my favorite people and felt so loved, then in madrid the weather was exceptional and i felt loved by mother nature -- and i had a great time hanging out with jenngel (a more thorough madrid update to come soon).

i arrived back in trieste late last night and was not at all looking forward to monday morning and the beginning of a full week of school.  however, at 8:40 when the students began flooding in, one girl, M, came over to me and said, "good morning miss liz! happy birthday in retard!!!"

"in ritardo" means "late" so i expect that she was attempting to say "happy late birthday" and it was just the cutest thing ever.  i died laughing and it was the best start to a chilly monday morning i could have asked for.

x!