Birthday Love/Amor no meu aniversário

So my 27th birthday has come and gone. My birthday has never been something I have particularly looked forward to; aside from a few small parties thrown by my family (and once by my college roommates my sophomore year), most of the time people just forget it entirely. My birthday always falls right around Thanksgiving (and every few years, like this one, actually lands on Turkey Day), so all throughout high school my friends would either overlook the day or not be able to do anything because of the school vacation. By the time I got to college, I just quit telling people, because they would inevitably be back home with their families, and celebrating it a week late just seemed pointless. I expected it to be no different this year, so I prepared to enter my late twenties in a slightly depressed emotional state with little to no fanfare, continuing the relentlessly dull march toward thirty, old age, and my eventual grave. (And yes, I am a naturally cheerful person.)

Luckily for me, I was quite mistaken.

The day started off with a "surprise" party in my Korean class (I say surprise because my Korean teacher told my classmates that they would throw me a "surprise party" when I told him about my birthday the Tuesday before). It was very sweet: he bought an entire cake from Paris Baguette (a chain bakery prevalent in Asia), and one of the other students brought his guitar for them to sing to me.

고마워요,선생님!

My coworkers are very perceptive people; frankly, even if they weren't, spending seven hours a day in the same building with zero privacy outside of the bathroom makes moods incredibly contagious. They picked up pretty early on that I was feeling melancholy about my upcoming coming-of-age day, so I guess they schemed among themselves about how to cheer my countenance. When I arrived at work on Thursday, this was waiting for me on my desk:

Yes, that is my fabulously organized desk behind all of my goodies.

Some close-ups:

From the Canadian-Minnesotan couple.

From the Texas roommates.

From the Canadian.

From the Texas Tech alum.

From the foreign head teacher.

From the SFASA Alum.

My mother-in-law sent these two cards, which (miraculously) arrived precisely on time on Thursday.

Impeccable timing, Joel's mom!

To top it all off, the Kinder monthly birthday party was that day, too, so I actually got to eat the Kinder cake on my birthday. Woo!

The festivities didn't end with my coworkers, either. My first class of the day, English World 4 (English World is the first series of books when the kids start the program; these are our youngest kids, around age 7) threw me a little party. When I got to the top of the stairs on the way to class, the girls in the class greeted me and asked me to close my eyes, which I did. They took my basket and my CD player and led me by the hand to the classroom. I was then told to sit down while they arranged my gifts on the table in front of me.
"Open!"
"No, no, no!" (I kept my eyes closed.)
"One, two, three-"
"No, no, no!" (I waited.)
After some more chattering in Korean, they finally agreed to let me open my eyes. I opened them to a collection of candies, notes, and a little gift bag. Here are my spoils from the little ones:

Leah's and Noah's notes. Noah has a minor obsession with Angry Birds.

Bonny's note. She probably got help from her dad.

The green bear and the pen were both from Noah.

That night, several of my coworkers took me out to dinner (Japanese food!) and then we headed downtown for a few drinks afterward. We met up with one of Joel's friends from another hagwon and spent a few hours just chatting while Joel and some of the others played darts. It was lovely.

And the birthday festivities didn't stop on my birthday, either! The next day, several of my MWF classes brought snacks to celebrate. The most interesting gift by far, however, wasn't even a birthday gift. In my Carnival 5 class, one chapter went over major family events (e.g. family reunion, wedding, funeral, birthday, baby shower), and one of the vocabulary words was "wedding anniversary," so I explained it with the most readily available example - mine. One of the girls apparently was so impressed by this that she actually bought Joel and I an anniversary gift - well before our anniversary.

Those are real flowers in the box, too.

A close-up of the snow globe.

Friday night ended on a good note when my last middle school class of the night put this together for me:

The whole shebang.

A tower of Choco Pies and lollipops. The cake on the right is from Paris Baguette.

The note.

The white board, decorated with my partner-teacher's markers.

I now have all of the notes under the glass cover on my desk so that I can be continually reminded of all of the love I got on my birthday.

They put glass plates over all of the tables and desks here. It's a little weird, but it also provides great decorating opportunities.

Honestly, it was probably the best birthday abroad I could have asked for. You guys sure do know how to make a girl feel special.

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I thought I would take some time to write and reminisce about my awesome birthday to help make me feel better. Frankly, it has been a less-than-stellar past few days. We are at a point where we have to decide whether or not we are going to extend our contract, and for how long, so we are thinking pretty hard and actively making contingency plans. There is a lot that is up in the air, so any prayers - or just positive energy - that you could send our way would be great. Meanwhile, Joel will continue to relieve stress by killing aliens on Halo, while I continue to do so by cleaning, putting puzzles together...and writing.

Until next time.