Birthday in China

Birthday in china. My new friends have been exceptional at making my birthday special, I woke up at 12.30 am last night to my friend alison’s birthday text message. Then at 1.30 am my dearest girlfriend called our house- she is still not too clear on the time change! [neither am i]. this am I woke up to the kitty’s playing in my suitcase at 7.30am, as soon as I yelled at them to get out, I heard from downstairs, happy birthday! From roommate bri. I’ve gotten 6 more text messages with happy birthday in various languages, all from my new friends! And no birthday in china isn’t complete without having a nice Chinese man take you out to eat- I went with my boss and four coworkers to a nearby Sichuan restaurant for lunch, he ordered some crazy food that was actually REALLY GOOD and I don’t think I will ever need to eat again. The way these men handle the ordering process is amazing, you must have at least one food from every category: cold dishes, meat, fish, soup, desert, rice, noodles, something weird, juice, beer, tea, it was so yummy. And not cheap, about $50 for six people [that translates as pricey in this country!] it was great, and I had some time to talk to my coworkers [who since my arrival have been reticent] and I think they are warming up to me. And Wang Wei promises not to smoke, or at least to smoke less, in the office. Yeah for me. Yeah for my lungs, really. So 25 has been good so far. My bosses wife, Linda, gave me a birthday present [my only one besides my bike, which was a gift from myself anyway]- a pink wallet, wrapped up in nice paper, in a little red bag, too cute. When Jon Hakim initially introduced me to James, he said that he and his wife were really some of the nicest people. He is really turning out to be right!
Later that night I had dinner with my roommates and their men, then we went to a Women’s Day event at a bar, which was good, my friend Alison did some crazy modern dance, then there was a strange lull of entertainment, then two grrl bands got on stage and did their screaming music type event. It was not the best entertainment-wise, but a good time. A good bday altogether.
Last night I went to the thatsbj.com [English newspaper here] website launching party, it was fun to mingle with my new friends and meet other cool people… Today I am going to get my new bike [yesterday I ran out of time!] so I am super excited about that.
That’s the extent of the bday madness, thanks to everyone for sendig bday wishes, those of you who haven’t, its not too late!