Birthdays

I know, I know, I'm really late with my birthday update. My birthday's the 14th of May, so I'm sorry to all of you that were patiently expecting an update. I will explain what happened on my birthday. 

I woke up. 

I made toast. 

I discovered that I had not changed the microwave setting from "full power" to "toaster oven" and thus I had microwaved bread on a metal grill for 4 minutes and that since the house was not burned down it was a very lucky birthday. 

Deciding not to tempt fate any further, I played videogames for the rest of the day. I did. I did. 

Then I took everyone to dinner. But first, I got presents. A letter came from mom, which was a nice touch- Grandma Dorothy's letter would come a few days later. :)  The other teachers had gotten together to get me a giant stuffed bear, a fountain pen, a bracelet, and a... poop cup. No, it's a cup that's shaped like a toilet. Really, they didn't have to. I also got an incense burner. All in all, it was a great selection of birthday gifts- things I'll use (maybe not the toilet cup), things I liked having, and it was nice to have everyone together. 

In Chinese style birthday celebration, I paid for everyone's dinner (foreign teachers, Tim, Allen, and Jenny), and we all ate at Korean BBQ buffet. It's a tasty place, full of free drinks, food, and cook your own meat. 

Allen burned himself on the grill. 

And then we went back, and my birthday was over. 

Ben's birthday was more of a frustrating day for me- my entire first class was ten minutes late, my second class had a student who argued with me misunderstanding a practical joke he played on me, my third class students arguing that they didn't have to take a quiz, and my fourth class whispering the answers to everyone before I yelled at them. It was not my finest hour. 

We celebrated his birthday at the lazy cat pizza place, a place with the closest thing to pizza that was here last year (the pizza hut now comes a little closer, but not as tasty), there were many rounds of beers for those of the 25 people who did drink, and it was spent with students, many whom had frustrated me earlier in the day. But all was forgotten as the teachers all took our turns toasting Ben (save for Will's toast, which was pathetic and then angered the students into attempting to rip off his clothes), and indeed, it was a fine time and a fine birthday. 

Hurray!