happy birthday to me!

yup.......i turned 28 last wednesday.......and what a day it was. the day before i was given a traditional burmese outfit that i was to wear on the special day. one of the guys i live with told me that i should wear yellow lipstick to match with purple eyeshadow!! hahahahaha! too funny! i would look like the easter bunny if i wore that. it turned out that i didn't have to wear makeup---thank goodness! but it was fun to wear the burmese clothing. that consisted of a blouse and wrap skirt. the people i'm teaching planned for 5 monks to come to the building where i teach and we fed them a fairly elaborate lunch of various dishes----a veggie stir-fry, fried beef, fried fish, some chicken curry, some kind of soup and of course rice! after they finished eating they said a prayer of protection for me and we presented them with a tray of things (incense, flowers and some other stuff). after the monks left we ate the same menu of food, went home and relaxed and then met again for dinner. here's where the funniest part of the day happened. before dinner they presented me with a cake and the leader of the group had written "happy birthday loree" on it with icing and was pretty proud of that. i was impressed he spelled my name correctly. then they sang to me , i blew out the candles and they said to cut it. so i began cutting the cake and they said "now try it, teacher." then after a small bit of confusion i found out that i was to cut a piece for me and try it. so after i did, the whole thing was taken to the kitchen and we sat down to eat dinner. dinner was a veggie and chicken noodle dish. very tasty. lucky for me we didn't have to have rice at both meals!! (i'm getting used to the rice. i don't hate it so much anymore. good thing!!) but they never brought out the cake again. i left after a while to get a call from my mother and to call t. met some friends and then went back. they were very worried about me being out after dark. i assured them i'd be fine............and i was. all in all, i was so touched by their generosity. these people have next to nothing but somehow manage to be so generous to me. i miss my friends in sokcho dearly and want nothing more than to be back there with them, but i can already see that it is going to be a sad good-bye in june. oh yes.......the cake did reappear the next day during our break between classes!