Happy 23rd Birthday to Me!!!

Yesterday was my birthday! :)

When I got to school, I had a very sweet present on my desk with a card from my main co-teacher, Sun Mee. She gave me a cute pair of little earrings with shell in them. They are cute, and I have them on today. It was very thoughtful of her to do something. Later on, Niall gave me a brownie cake that he made, which was also really sweet of him. He hates it when I call him sweet or adorable though, so we coined the term "mandorable," so he can be nice and manly at the same time. Also, when I turned on my computer in the morning, Google's logo was changed to cakes with candles. I thought it was a coincidence, like my birthday was the same as some famous person's and Google was celebrating. Turns out, the birthday logo was for me! I put my cursor over the logo, and it said "Happy Birthday Abbi!" I was a little creeped out at first, but I guess Goggle was just trying to be nice.

I only had one class yesterday because I had to go observe someone's open class in the afternoon. It was nice to get a little break on my birthday. I spent some time during the day planning activities for the summer and winter camps that I will be teaching later on. Right after lunch, I headed out to the school I was observing at, and it turns out that it was Grace's new school. It was nice to see her again after we got coffee the other week. Sun Mee gave me very clear directions about how to get there, and it was no problem. It did take like 50 minutes on the bus though. Quite a hike! Chris, the teacher we were watching, uses the same book we use at my school, except he has a bit more freedom to teach the kids than I do. He has to teach the vocabulary from the chapter, but from there he can do activities that he wants to do. I have to stick with the boring activities in the textbook that my students and I all hate. Ugh! I'm trying to bend the rules a bit, but I've only been a teacher for a month, and I'm still getting adjusted. Hopefully, I can be more creative in lessons in the future. His was great though. The powerpoint was very clear and nice looking, and he played games that really helped the kids practice the language. They had to direct a blind-folded student from their group through a minefield. The activities in the book are okay for listening, but there are no real production activities to get the kids practicing on their own. It's all teacher-led stuff, which can get boring. Chris did a really good job giving the kids time to speak to reinforce the vocabulary, and I hope I can inject some of that into my classes--bending the rules, not breaking. After the class, we met with Chris and the DMOE representative and talked about how things went. Then I took the bus back with the Australian guy who was watching the class with me. He also lives near Sangin, and Chris and I will be going to his school next week. Both Chris and the other guy were supposed to be at my class last week, but Chris was on an overnight school trip and the other guy's school forgot to print the right paper to make sure he came to mine. Woops!

I got home only about 10 minutes before Gianni did, but he came home and surprised me with a Baskin Robbin's Ice Cream cake! It was yummy!!! It came in a Styrofoam box, and they give you dry ice with it to keep it cold. Honestly, I had more fun playing with the dry ice than eating the cake! They also gave us candles, some matches with pink tips, some pink spoons, and a pink party hat because Gianni told them it was a girl's birthday. Korea has such amazing service. The US really needs to get on board.

For my birthday dinner, I invited some of our orientation friends as well as some taekwondo friends. It was Niall, Sian, Maria, Matthew, Da Eun, Max, and Serena. I had a really great, but extra spicy dinner! We went to a place Niall suggested where you can have traditional Korean jjimdak, which is like a chicken stew, as well as curry. We ended up with those dishes and a salad pizza. The food was good, but even though Da Eun assured me she ordered the non-spicy version, it was REALLY spicy! Still, I enjoyed the flavors. My friends were good enough to pick up the tab for me, and splitting the three dishes, the price didn't turn out to be that bad per person. After dinner, Maria, Matthew, and Sian left, and the rest of us headed out to a place Da Eun suggested. It is mostly for drinking, but with the drinks you're supposed to get some food. This place is apparently famous for jeon (전)--assorted fried, savory foods. We had fried mushrooms, fried spam, and fried fish among many other things. Most of it was really tasty. Since I like fruity drinks, Da Eun suggested I try citrus makkoli (Korean rice wine). It was actually really tasty. We also got some plain makkoli, and Da Eun mixed it with cider (the name for soda that isn't coke, in this case it was something like 7 up), which was a really good combination.
It was a really nice birthday dinner. I hope everyone else enjoyed it too. I tried to make sure I was talking to everyone, especially Da Eun because she can speak English, but definitely not when a bunch of native speakers are talking together. I served as a bit of a translator. Still, it was awesome to have her there, and she was really great to help with translating the waiters and ordering food.

When we got home, I had one more piece of cake before bed. It was a lovely 23rd birthday! Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes :)