birthday present

thursday: birthday party for our Argentinean Barbecue Master. 30 sharp. so we started singing when wednesday turned to thursday. in the morning we showed a slideshow "of the best pictures from the last weeks" which then turned out to be mainly funny pictures of ABM. in the evening restaurant offered starters and champagne instead of dessert, and afterwards we had a party on the beach with delicious cake and (drinking) games. we also gave him a present, a tandem flight with a parasuit on the dune.

saturday: a day in bordeaux. nice city, and the small historic center was just enough for the 5 hours we had. i was there with a turkish girl, who took me to a turkish restaurant in the end. they had mainly kebap to offer, but after she chatted with the owner for a moment, a new guy from the shop nearby came and decided to bring products form the shop - baklava etc. nice. and it made me happy to see he talking in turkish, the wide smile on her face while talking her mother tongue. in the evening back "home" we had wine tasting. seven wines in an hour and a half, good cheese and some grapes. and after that a dinner. main course: a whole baby pork barbecued. very good, soft and juicy. although a couple of people became vegetarians for this meal (too-cute-to-eat-effect).

sunday: back to the dune to see ABM and turkish girl fly (who didn't get a present but wanted to try it anyway). I took a tandem bike with an israeli girl who never biked before (in 29 years, imagine!). but it worked well and was really amusing: 1) we were able to chat all the way, not too many problems with hearing one another 2) hill up was lighter since we were two to bike (she got the idea of biking pretty quickly) 3) hill down was really fast since together we were heavier than others. unfortunately there was not enough wind in the dune. so we waited. and waited. (i almost burned myself, forgot the suncream, stupid me. i think i'll survive with being red for a couple of days, hopefully no peeling.) after two hour, some rain, wind going up and settling down again we gave up and biked home. too bad. maybe there is time to do it this week (which is our last one here). because it is a perfect present. too bad i don't have extra hundred bugs.

on sunday evening the talk about the last week started. we are all very tired and somewhat homesick, but yet it'll be sad to leave all these amazing people behind. luckily i'll be probably meeting them in conferences and meetings for the next 30 to 40 years.