My Birthday

My birthday started with a walk through the crisp fall air to school.

Beautiful fall day - perfect for a birthday!

My first student of the day greeted me with cards and chocolate. On bus duty, several people wished me a happy birthday. After my study hall devotional time, the kids all sang “Happy Birthday” to me and my friend Katrina Custer brought me chocolate and a card.

I showed up at my room for my next student, and Katie Roberts had taped a Happy Birthday sign to my door…. and left some chocolate and a card in my room!

In orchestra, the girls were acting suspicious. They went out to “go to the bathroom” at the beginning of class, and came back, sang “Happy Birthday,” and gave me gifts: a Korean fish keychain, soap, and yummy-smelling candles! So sweet!

My pile of birthday gifts... most were edible!

Later in the day, I witnessed an “asking” for Christmas banquet. At BFA, the banquets are a big deal and guys come up with really elaborate ways to ask girls to the banquet, and they start on the day of the Basel Herbstmesse (today). I was in the copy room printing off lesson plans for next week, when one of my students walked in with some paper and a cardboard axe. He was just a decoy, however. The target girl for the asking had been handed a note by her teacher asking her to the banquet and telling her to go to make a copy to find out who it was that was asking her. She came in and my student was chopping paper. She looked in and was kind of confused, but then the boy that was asking her to the banquet appeared behind her with a bouquet of flowers. She said yes.

After a day full of chocolate and entertaining events, it was time for Herbstmesse. This is the annual fall fair. Everyone at BFA takes busses to Basel for a fair. The highlight of the night is always the bumper car ride. From 6:30 to 7:30pm, the middle schoolers took over the bumper cars, and the high schoolers had their turn from 7:30 to 8:30pm.

Loads of fun on the bumper cars!

It was a fun but exhausting day. Time for bed!