“Happy Birthday” to wake me up, a fancy cake for breakfast that J and M had made …

… followed by two hours of reading and knitting in a lovely café.

Afterwards, all three of us went to watch Alba Berlin play basketball (sadly an ugly game due to fouls, trash talk, and whippings. Alba won though).

Finally at night, we had dinner at a tiny Italian restaurant …

… with a handful of extraordinary friends: the professor who mentored my master thesis in American Studies and her husband, a devoted basketball fan; my lively and charming Belgian friend, photographer and mother of 5 boys, with her sharp-witted Swiss husband, and J‘s former basketball coach, a very gentle young man from India who grew up in France and will go back to India next week to work with “sports without borders.”

Quite an experiment as they had never met before but we hit it off right from the start! I don’t remember having so much fun, so many interesting conversations, so much friendship and warmth at a long table in a long time.

I am inspired, grateful, and a year older! Thank you all 🙂