Living away from one’s own country is often
exciting, but sometimes the absence of home comforts and family can leave you
with feelings of melancholy. So in order to avoid feeling blue on my birthday,
I decided to dedicate the entire month of April to celebrating the anniversary
of my birth. This basically meant that any activity that I deemed fun or
interesting would, by default, be in honour of my birthday (when in reality it
rarely was).
Another reason for wanting to milk the
attention is because my birthday this year fell on a Wednesday. Who wants to
join a midweek party? Nobody! Luckily, my students also remembered my birthday
(perhaps the constant hints prevented any forgetfulness) and helped me to
celebrate with a tower of cupcakes, oreos and Choco Pies. The chocolatey cylinders were adorned
with candles, chocolate sauce and sprinkled with M&Ms, which I am told
spelled out MR. D. (They do realise my surname is Cole, however they informed
me that the “D” stood for Detention…no idea why…).
After school, I went to a café with Kate and Becky, where a young girl serenaded me with a very cute, if not a little repetitive Happy Birthday greeting. After leaving the coffee shop, I was pelted with dust and dirt. Thankfully, it wasn’t the deed of a birthday-hating member of the public. Mother nature is a cruel mistress and as such, decided to pummel me with a grainy blast to the face. I later learned that I had been caught in one of Beijing’s worst sandstorms for many years. Nothing makes you feel special like a mouthful of sand.
After school, I went to a café with Kate and Becky, where a young girl serenaded me with a very cute, if not a little repetitive Happy Birthday greeting. After leaving the coffee shop, I was pelted with dust and dirt. Thankfully, it wasn’t the deed of a birthday-hating member of the public. Mother nature is a cruel mistress and as such, decided to pummel me with a grainy blast to the face. I later learned that I had been caught in one of Beijing’s worst sandstorms for many years. Nothing makes you feel special like a mouthful of sand.
For my actual birthday celebration, I
invited some friends to my place. We ordered Chinese takeaway, (the REAL kind of
Chinese takeaway!) played card games and ended the night at KTV. It
was wonderful to spend the evening with my close friends, albeit a little
poignant at times, as some of my friends will be leaving Beijing soon.
I was recently invited to a Chinese
barbecue. This involved driving to the outskirts of Beijing, and barbecuing a
variety of meats on sticks. 烤羊串儿 (lamb kebabs) are very popular in Beijing and usually coated in
cumin. Anyone who knows me well will understand that I am a terrible Welshman,
due to being a reluctant lamb-eater. But because I choose to believe that
everyone had gone to all this effort for my extended birthday party, I felt
obliged to partake in the excessive eating that took place that afternoon.
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Finally, this event may not be connected to
my birthday in any way, although it’s too amazing for me not to
include it in this blog entry. This evening I met a robot that served me ice
cream (let's refer to it as birthday ice cream). I stumbled across the Ice Cream Robot booth and saw that for a mere
10RMB, I could be served original, blueberry or mango ice cream. I excitedly
paid the robot lady and watched in awe as she filled a small cup with ice
cream, added blueberry sauce and a robot-handful of nuts. My inner-geek and
outer-ice-cream-addict was overjoyed with such a treat. I feel that I may have
to make many return visits!
Tôi đã có một bữa tiệc sinh nhật rất tuyệt. Tôi đã có một buổi tiệc ý nghĩa, vì bạn bè của tôi sẽ chuyển đi. Chúng tôi đã đi karaoke. Gần đây tôi đã ăn thịt nướng ở ngoài trời… ngon miệng và rẻ tiền.
Tối nay, tôi đã thấy một rôbốt phục vụ kem! Rất tuyệt!
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