Here's what happened:
06:11am - I woke up and lay there, thinking about the bathroom that needed to be cleaned and the floor that needed to be mopped. I was strategizing, which took a few minutes.
06:16am - I had decided the best plan was to start with the bathroom, so off I went to scrub that place silly.
06:30am - The bathroom and the floor were sparkling so it was shower time!
07:00am - Everything was clean and dry. Time to make some breakfast.
07:15am - Skype breakfast with Mum, Dan, Amy, and Von. It was the perfect start to the day. They sang me a fantastic song. Here is the chorus:
"Katie, don't marry a Korean,
Katie, don't marry one of them"
It repeated a lot. The bottom line is they want me to come home.
Mum also did the birthday dance by holding her phone out in front of her. I picked up my laptop and jumped around like a loon in my room too. It was almost as good as the real deal, except slightly more dangerous because I nearly tripped up about five times on the power lead.
07:45 - I opened my gifts and oohed and ahhed. I love presents!
08:10 - I arrived at school and opened my package from Lucy. I love letters!
08:20 - My co-teacher came in with a little gift for me.
08:30 - I taught a normal class.
09:30 - There is a commotion in the classroom next to my office. There is whooping and giggling and my co-teacher comes in, candles in hand and asks me my age again. She laughs and tells me to stay where I am.
When it was time, I went in to see a beautiful cake, all lit up, and my teachers class who erupted into a very stilted rendition of Happy Birthday in English. I blew out the candles and cut the cake. Then they disregarded the slices and started digging in with schopsticks, using pieces of bread as plates. It was by far the best way to eat a cake.
One teacher sang me a song and then demanded I sing Pokarekare Ana while they sang along in Korean. After rounds of applause and many photos, we packed it up and went back to teaching.
12:30 - After lunch I went on a walk to the train station down the road with a few of my favourite teachers. It was hilarious because we got there and they broke into an yoga class, with the older teacher as an instuctor. We were swingin our arms, bending our legs, and stretching our muscles all the while completely cracking up at how hilarious we must have looked. It was a hoot.
One teacher just wanted to freestyle so we did that for a bit and I taught them how to shake their hips like I learnt at dancing. We were all giving it our best, which was not actually that great, when we realized there was a man in the station who was watching us, and possibly even recording us shaking our booties. We laughed and ran away.
15:10 - Just before my last class, three students came to visit me, armed with letters and snacks from the school canteen. It was so cute. Their letters were full of birthday wishes and lots of love. There was this one girl whom I could tell wasn't all that popular and one day she was wearing these awesome shoes so I told her. She wrote me a letter saying she had remembered my birthday from the first day I taught and really wished she could buy me shoes like hers'. It was the sweetest things and reminded me that I can have a huge influence on my students, even if I only see them once a week. Every little word spoken counts. It was a good birthday revelation.
16:10 - More snacks and letters after class.
16:20 - I went on another walk with a teacher and her university professor. He was a cool guy who knew loads about lots and his English was really good. He'd been to Cambridge so his manner was very British and it made it easy to relate to him.
He was a tad creepy though. He gave me a little notebook as a birthday present and then proceeded to kiss me on both cheeks, a very un-Korean thing to do. Then when I left he did it again!
17:30 - I rushed back to school to collect my things and raced to the supermarket for some eggs.
17:50 - As soon as I got home, I plonked in my armchair for a few minutes and read some Facebook posts and my cards from home. It was a nice little rest.
18:15 - I put on my new apron, cracked into the lemon curd, and it turned out spectacularly! Then the lasagne was in the oven, and I in the shower.
19:20 - Lucy arrived just as I was taking out the lasagne and finishing my face. She made me a card! I love homemade cards! And she also bought me an assortment of gifts which I love, especially this delicious moisturizer.
19:30 - Dani arrived, laden with champagne and garlic bread. Flip I have cool friends!
19:45 - Nicole arrived with a cake! Also gifts for me, including some muffin cups which I am going to use to make souffle and individual desserts. I am spoilt indeed.
We ate, we drank wine, we laughed, we sort of watched Cool Runnings, and we had a really, really, really good time.
11:45 - After the girls left, Lucy and I talked for ages and sent messages to her family members and friends. They wished me a happy birthday in their awesome Irish accents, because it was still the 26th where they are.
All in all I felt incredibly special and loved. I am very blessed to have so many beautiful new friends. It was one of my favourite birthdays yet!
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