da na na na na na

this post is all over the place. i'll fix it tomorrow. i just wanted to give you the birthday rundown while it was clear in my mind.

today was maybe one of the best birthdays ever!
i opened presents throughout the day which was fun and took a whole lot of self restraint :P
started with some of gram's. a frilly top and a black skirt first, which is what i ended up wearing today. i got a whole ton of compliments.

jerry and i went to chinese lessons and joyce beat us counting to 30. we're nothing against a 3 year old native speaker.

then serena and i went to latini's for lunch and alex was there reading so he chatted with us for a while. keith met us there. i had escargot again, delicious.

this is alex, me and jerry at TGI Fridays tonight for dinner

the bus was wayy too crowded so i took a taxi to class and the driver, a woman, was HILARIOUS. she kept reading the street signs written in pinyin, with american letters, and butchering them. i kept screaming BU DUI from the back seat. we had a funny conversation in broken chinese and english. she told me i had a long nose but that i'm very beautiful. who knows.

my coteacher bought me a pretty necklace for my birthday :) and made my class say happy birthday to me. i shared my twizzlers with them that mom had sent a while ago. i don't think they liked them. they're kind of plastic-y for them.

this is keith surrounded by and covered in all of my presents :)

steve is the one who's right in front, then alex with my sunday and jerry. i didn't really get any good pictures of the people who came to dinner. keith and jerry invited everyone to fridays and dena, martyn, josh, noe, justin, steve, alex, natalie, alan, serena, leila, gill and katie all came. it was a lot of fun. noe and i split beef fajitas that were delicious and i had a margarita and someone bought me a (virgin) pina colada and then the fridays people brought me ice cream and sang happy birthday.
when we got home, keith gave me his present, a lucky cat! i've been searching for one for weeks and weeks and he went to this special town and searched all over and had a whole team of ladies help him find one for me. it's a piggy bank and it's traditionally on the counter at restaurants because it symbolizes good luck and prosperity. i love it. it's taiwan fabulous.

and that was my day!
thank you, family for sending the cards and especially the pictures. i didn't get to show my class today, but i did show them the card with the chinese characters from uncle john and family and they thought that was way too funny.
time for bed :)