Birthday

What a lovely day. Really, truly lovely, populated by wonderful people, foods, and times. Nothing exciting, but that's okay with me; oddly, my experience here has done nothing so much as reinforce me in the belief that being alone sometimes is not only okay, but great. So today was a fantastic mixture of being alone and being in company: perfection.

The morning existed in the best possible way for Saturday mornings to exist: sleep.

Then I got to chat with my mom and dad (though my dad fell asleep while I did...hardly an inspiring reason to come home, Dad! ;) ) via Skype, and open the fabulous presents they got me which had been staring at me since they arrived with Alex and Melanie more than a month ago.

Then I got free Starbucks and (as odd as it may sound for a voluntary activity on a Saturday which was also my birthday) got some stuff done. I finished editing the current chapter of the thesis I'm working on for a local grad student, made good headway writing a piece I'm working on for one of my university's publications, got some reading in courtesy of the wonderful Flannery O'Connor, and was inspired for a potential music video parody about foreigners abroad. (Stay tuned on the writing and music video projects; they will hopefully come to fruition soon.)

By then, it was time for dinner, a great and fabulously Western affair at Foster Hewitt's, a Canadian place in Zuoying where I joined my host sister Emily, Karina, and Analicia for a delicious 5-cheese hamburger and potato wedges (POTATOES!!!!), washed down with fresh strawberry-lime soda and followed by a brownie sundae which was, thanks to Analicia's efforts, garnished with a lit sprinkler. Thankfully, the owner respected my wish that they NOT sing to me. (After all, when you've had several choruses of adorable students serenade you all week, sometimes trilingually, there's just no going back to half-hearted restaurant employees.) Analicia and Emily had great gifts of chocolate and a teddy bear and sweet-smelling soap for me, just to round out the amazingness. :)

New shirt from home! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Soooooo gooooooooooood!

At home again, I got in some more reading and TV-watching, which was absolutely wonderful. And so ends my week of birthday--though not quite, really, since it's only 11:30am on my birthday at home right now, meaning birthday wishes will keep pouring in on Facebook for a good many more hours. This is undoubtedly the longest, and may be one of the best, birthdays I've ever had.