Our first birthdays in China :)

Thursday, June 1st was a work day for me, and it started off just like any other. But of course, I was determined to have fun in all my classes, lol! Everyone back at SJBKE knows what I’m like on my birthday…

Mike & I got some pop, chocolate & ice cream for my morning class students, and I showed them a slideshow of my pictures from the prom (they’d been asking me about them since the dance…”How did everyone look?” "Were any of the girls hot?”…lol!)
They also gave me some gifts from Korea: coasters, handmade soap, pens, and a bottle with little clay Korean figures inside. :)



As soon as classes were finished at 4pm, Mike took off to get some bread in Tongzhou, and I worked in the Homework Help room for an hour. After that, I couldn’t really go anywhere since I had to teach that night at 7:40.

Mike was going to get some treats from the store across the street for my night group, but he still hadn’t returned from Tongzhou. I was starting to worry that he wouldn’t be back in time…then he arrived…with cake! A huge cake to share with the kids! :)



I quickly put on my crown (it came with the cake), tied the ribbon around my neck, and Mike & I headed to the store for party supplies. All the guards and people in the street smiled and talked about me as we went to the store. Probably saying something about the silly Canadian teacher, lol!

My night class was a lot of fun! We shared the cake and had chips and pop. The kids were hysterical, they collected all the extra icing in a cup, added crushed chips & some pop, then had a game like rock, paper, scissors to see who had to drink it! Poor Antony lost and had to chug it. Yuk! When the food was all finished, I let the students have the last few minutes to themselves chatting online with their families back in Korea, while Mike & I cleaned up. Some of them were so sweet though; six of them took the tissues from my hands and insisted on helping with the mess. The kids also gave me bookmarks, Korean ginseng tea, keychains & a picture frame…so very kind to me :)

Friday afternoon, as soon as school was finished, Mike, Dick, Cynthia, Martha, Bryant, Dad & I headed in on the teacher bus to Beijing. We all split up to run errands, with a plan to meet up later at the Yashow market and then head for Brazilian BBQ for supper.

It turned out to be pretty funny…Martha & Bryant went to Guomao to the grocery store and so did we, then Mike & I grabbed a taxi to wander around Yashow and they were in the taxi in front of us. All around Yashow we kept running into each other, lol!

Later, we all ended up at the Brazilian BBQ, which is like an every-kind-of-meat-all-you-can-eat buffet. But they also had veggies, so I was happy. Everyone else ate beef, chicken hearts, mutton, pork, ox tongue…Martha describes it as getting drunk on meat, lol!

Saturday! Mike’s birthday! We decided this year to give each other bicycles for our birthdays. Cynthia, Dick, Dad, Mike & I headed to Tongzhou for a day in search of the perfect bikes. Dick was looking to buy one too.

Along the way, we got a little sidetracked, ending up in the computer market, where Mike & I bought MP4 players for each other, lol! But, hey, they’re so cool! We did eventually make it to a bike shop and found some we liked, but we kept walking down the street to see if there were any other options. The first shop had been the best, so we went back.



Cynthia did the bargaining for us, and the three of us got some really nice bikes. Mine is white & blue with a little red, Dick’s is metallic blue & Mike’s is metallic yellow. I love the color of Mike’s bike! :)



So the three of us biked our way back to Tuanli. I chose the route, but I didn’t know it was under construction, so we had to dodge trucks, dirt & dust. Then I was told “you’re not allowed to choose the route next time”…lol!

We dropped off the bikes at the school, then went for jiaozi…yum! Vegetarian dumplings are my favourite. We had cabbage, pepper & egg, tomato & egg, and pork jiaozi. When we were so full of dumplings that we were a bit uncomfortable, we grabbed a pedicab to head home. A pedicab is a motorcycle with a box attached to the back that has seating for four inside. It was Mike’s first ride in one, so of course I took a picture.



Our birthdays were nice…but we’re missing everyone back home :) Just over a month until we head back to Canada, weird. We'll be arriving in Toronto on July 9th, but Mike's going on to Ottawa to meet his parents & sister Leah, while I continue on to Saint John. Getting excited to see everyone!