Birthday fun

Yesterday was my birthday and I had as much fun as you can possibly have here, I think! First, a few girls went to the salon for pedicures. Here's the four of us smashed into one CNG:
And one of me enjoying my hand and arm exfoliation scrub;
Here is the four of us chatting and getting pampered: Left to right is me, Shahira, Andrea and Lucina.
And...the final product:
We also went to an expat hotel afterwards and had a gin and tonic, which was VERY refreshing! Only about $9 each, which is the same as California prices!
Then later in the evening I hosted a potluck dinner at my apartment and invited the faculty over. Here are a few photos from that:
First, me and Andrea. She is from Australia and lives across the hall from me--she'll be teaching Biology.
Here's one of the punch and deviled eggs in the front and Agnes and Jemima standing in the background. Agnes is a returning faculty--she's from Singapore and studied in Manchester, so she has a British husband--she'll be teaching Asian and/or women's studies (I can't keep who is teaching all the humanities classes straight). Jemima is almost 8 and is very mature for her age. She lives in the other apartment across the hall from me with her family (her father, Ibrahim is another faculty here and his wife, Nasima is very sweet--they also have a SUPER cute 7-month baby.) her family lived in Canada for many years, and she was born there, so she speaks english as a first language and Bangla as a second language. She was helping me practice the other day and we were laughing a lot.
Here is some folks enjoying my living room. I have swapped out my dining room for my living room and I like the layout much better. Left to right is; Ibrahim, Brenda, Meghan and Akosh. Ibrahim will be teaching environmental science, Brenda is from Australia and also a biologist (apparently all australian women are biologists?). Meghan is from Texas and is teaching Women's Studies and Akosh is Serbian/Hungarian and is Meghan's boyfriend. They met while Meghan was in graduate school in Budapest.
This next one is a few more people. Left to right Lucina, Ibrahim, Nasreen and me. Lucina's parents are Bangladeshi, but she lived in the US her whole life. She has lots of relatives in Chittagong, so she never has to cook! Nasreen is (I think) Bangladeshi, but I know she studies in India for awhile also. She gave me a cute pair of earrings for my birthday.
And a few more friends: Jolie, Meherun and Amina. Jolie is American and will be teaching politics. She broke her foot like the 2nd day we were here and it's been pretty slow to heal, so she came in her wheelchair. Meherun is Bengladeshi and will be teaching Economics and Amina is also Bangladeshi and will be teaching Computer Science.
There was lots of great food--goat biryani, a spicy indian veggie curry, these yummy Bangladesh treats that are like coconut-filled crepes (my favorite), Bangladeshi beef stew, kitchiri (dal and rice mixture), couscous salad, fruit salad, some spicy stuffed and fried pastries, a veggie omelette, some chickpea dumplings, a muslim dessert like pudding with vermicelli in it and I made deviled eggs and german red cabbage. I didn't get a cake--the cake here isn't very good (too sweet and weird) and I don't have an oven to make one. All in all , even though I was away from my American friends and family, a pretty great birthday! I'm glad all my new friends were here to help make it a party.