'Appy Birrzday to me

If you can't celebrate your birthday at home, I strongly recommend celebrating it in Russia. When I polled my students, they all said their birthday was their favorite time of year, topping out Christmas, New Year's, and any other contenders without a struggle. While the birthday person is responsible for picking up the tab for, well, everything on her birthday, there are lots of gifts and attention showered on the person, and it is very nice.
As I shared my birthday with one other person at the school, we were able to split some of the costs of throwing a little luncheon of pizza, fruit, cake, candy, and, of course, wine for the toasts. Well, he brought cognac, but there weren't very many takers on that. Mostly we stuck to a small glass of wine and then fruit juice or coke of some sort. It was fun. Sergei (our nearly silent accountant) and Randy (the guy celebrating his 41st birthday) each gave me a flower and a got a plant, a mug, and a copy of Rambo 4. Each of those presents has a bit of a story with it, but the only interesting story is about Rambo. One of the teachers at the school who has never left Russia but speaks excellent English talks nearly exclusively about one of approximately 3 topics: UFO's, Russian athletic prowess, and Sylvester Stallone. I will now be equipped, if I take the movie out of the wrapper and watch it, to actually be able to respond to one of the 3 conversations.
I didn't tell my teens that it was my birthday, but my upper-intermediate adults knew and greeted me by standing and singing "Happy Birthday" in "Russian". If you don't know, "Happy Birthday" is a very international song with only slight variations in each country, and in Russian it goes something like: "'Appy Birrzday to you." They also gave me a nice box of chocolates named for the river Don in a gift bag celebrating Volgograd. There is great national pride here.
My individual student, Alexander, presented me with a bouquet of 5 red roses this morning, along with a box of chocolates. My room smells great now.
Tonight we will have a party here at the flat with some of my students, coworkers, and friends. I suspect I will hear another round of "'Appy Birrzday."