Happy Birthday?!

I am not sure if I have explained previously on my blog that in addition to my research I am also volunteering at a women's non-governmental organization called Marta while I am in Latvia. I help out with human trafficking research (which is my research topic), translations, and teach an English circle.
Yesterday I was at work preparing for my first English conversation circle when they came and told me it was someones birthday today and that we were going to sing to them. I followed everyone else downstairs to the kitchen where there was a huge birthday food extravaganza. We sang Happy Birthday (thank you Latvian Saturday school for teaching me the Latvian birthday song, everyone was impressed..not with my singing but with the fact that I knew the words) and everyone started to eat.
I then asked one of my co-workers who made all this food and she said the birthday girl did. And I said she made all this food for HER birthday celebration and she was like yeah duh. I guess in Latvia you celebrate your birthday by slaving over the stove and making food for everyone you know and even people you don't (I was introduced to her yesterday).
I remember as a kid always being sad that my birthday was in the summer and how it was always lumped in with all the other summer birthdays. Well not anymore...I guess birthdays in Latvia are happy for everyone but the birthday girl!