I shouldn't be writing this right now. It is way past my teacher bed time. But today was just so great, I wanted to record it all before any of it starts to fade away. Apologies for any lack of coherence.
First, let me start by saying after re-reading Part 1, I realized it sounded awfully close to complaining. Okay, okay, perhaps it exceeded just being close, but did actually cross the line into the complaining territory. I just want to record all parts of my experience here. And that was one of them. Also, I think that after being here 2 1/2 months, you start to move out of the "honeymoon" phase a little. And as much as I enjoy living here and even though I've travelled a bunch, it doesn't mean I'm immune to culture shock sometimes. Doesn't mean that you love where you are any less, perhaps even more as you begin to know more and more of the intricacies. So I hope you didn't take away from the last post any negative feelings. It honestly has become a laughable memory/experience. And all is well on the homefront too. My host family really is great.
In fact, that leads me to this morning. My actual birthday. And when I tell you birthdays are a big deal here, I wasn't kidding. The day started off by waking up to small little fireworks (that kind of sound like gunshots) and music to celebrate. Although I kind of think my house mom waited a little to set them off because she knows I like to sleep...haha. She then proceeded to give me a little gift-- a beautiful pair of earrings that I wore all day today!
I then headed off to school-- greeted on the teacher bus with happy birthday wishes. Got to school and was greeted by my students with more birthday wishes...and hugs :) And homemade cards and 3 beautiful white calalillies. And they insisted on singing to me with our class birthday hat. Its our class tradition. But slightly embarassing for me. And when they sang the Spanish version (if you recall, it ends with counting until they reach how old you are.) They weren't actually sure how old I was turning so they just kept going... I finally stopped them at 30. Haha.
My coworkers were great too-- some bought me lunch, another took my recess duty. More on them later.
So after school it was time for my class party. Definitely a different concept, but very typical here. We went to this nice restaraunt/bakery where there was a "play place" for the kids to run around. All of the kids in my class came and were so excited. I kind of just watched and chatted with the parents...which gets tricky since it is mostly in Spanish. They bought me a very nice dinner, we had cake (they sang again, although this time they knew how old I was) and then they gave me a present-- a very nice purse. VERY nice.
And afterwards I went out with some of the teachers to celebrate. And as nice as it was to be with my class and their parents, I really enjoyed being able to spend time with my peers. A few of them had chipped in to by me a present-- a really nice journal and a large travelling bag, both made with beautiful traditional cloth. And they had made little birthday sweets too (and sang again :) . They way they have gone above and beyond to make me feel special is absolutely mind boggling to me.
I don't know that I could have asked for a better day. I was lavished upon in a way that I wasn't used to- it just didn't stop. It felt a little strange to accept, but in the end who doesn't love to feel loved? I feel very blessed.
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