Memory

• Baking often isn’t as easy when one doesn’t have biweekly bake sales to contribute to and 2 roommates who will eat the extras. Meh, I made rice krispie treats anyways ;) 

• It’s amazing how much our memories are triggered by our senses. All my friends make fun of me for how much insignificant smells remind me of events and memories. And when I listened to Mumford & Sons tonight, I was flooded with memories of driving to Farmington, fall sunshine, working at Macy’s, and living at Cara’s/in Ann Arbor from this fall. Despite the stress leading up to September 2011, I actually really miss that period in my life. 

American As Apple Pie

• Mmmmmmm American food. Dinner tonight was burgers, french fries, pop, pizza (yes, it may have been on a tortilla instead of real dough, but whatever) and ice cream. It was soooooo needed. And soooooo delicious. Oh and it was with Liz, Winter, Abby, Sai and Joe so it was fun too ;)
• Played Hangman with my older kids today and they were quiet AND enjoyed it for 45 whole minutes.

Just A Phone Call Away (Apr 15)

• My day was pretty uneventful and I was even going to go to bed at the lame hour of 9:30 pm...when Charlie Hunt Skype-called me! Good thing I was decent, because it ended up being his Sunday School class. They were sharing Happies and Crappies and asked me to join. It was so cool! And we got to talk about camp a little, hopefully convincing some on-the-fence-ers that they should go.
• Then, Anna called me from Convention! I was able to hear Carolyn's last Counselor Report (including her advice, "If you get the opportunity, marry your brother or marry your sister. It's a good time.") and say hello to Kim, Carter, Sky, Chris, Kevin, Jess, Alex, Carrie, Cassie, Richelle, Anna's new friend Hannah, Carolyn and Trudy. Trudy was so surprised, waved vigorously and then ran to Anna, hugged her and said, (I'm not joking) "I think I just had an orgasm." I can't wait to be an alum at Convention next year :)
• After that, Ben/my mom called! Ben told me about his birthday (yes, he really is 14) and I told them about the festivals I've gone to. It was fun to talk to them.
• I really needed all 3 of these calls tonight, as I have been getting homesick this week. Thank goodness for not going to bed early.

Strawberry Fields Forever (Apr 14)

• Strawberry festival in Nonsan today! I had heard about this festival since we arrived in Korea so I was really excited that we got to go. It was a beautiful day and we found the festival without any problem. There weren’t any strawberry plants at the festival site (you had to take a shuttle elsewhere to pick them) but there was lots of other yummy stuff: strawberry pancakes, strawberry ice cream, strawberry jam (you could make your own), strawberry cake (you could make that too), strawberry juice (bought a bunch to give to my teachers), strawberry rice cakes (not the same as the Quaker rice cakes in the US), strawberry 막걸리 (makkeolli – rice wine), and strawberry bean burgers! 

I didn't like it that much :/

There were a lot of crafts (mostly for kids though, much to Sai’s and my chagrin) and opportunities for pictures:

And we found lots of other TaLK scholars there! It was fun to see faces we hadn’t seen since Orientation. We did NOT get stuck at the festival site this time…woohoo! And on our walk back to the bus station, we found Joey-dancing strawberries: 

• We still sing Fantastic Baby all the time :) Which is extra fun because it’s played EVERYWHERE. 
• Sai came up with a fantastic way to say my name. I don’t think there’s a way to properly convey it in writing but it’s pretty much awesome. 
• Since we left the festival so early, we had lots of time to rest before going out for the evening. Our hotel room computers were connected to the sound system soooo…I watched Boys Before Flowers for a while! It was awesome. 
• Once we all got ready, we went in search of food. We tried TGI Friday’s and Pizza Hut, but it was too close to closing time for them to let us in. Finally, we ended up at this really nice samgyeupsal place. (picture) After that, we went to a club called Cocoon, where we ended up seeing some other TaLK people and dancing with a lot of Koreans. Before, we ended the evening, we stopped for McDonald’s. It was a good night :)

Born To Be Lively (Apr 13)

• Happy Birthday to my wittle brother Ben! He's 14 today, oh my goodness.

• Joe and I took the bus to Daejon together tonight. It was fun to have someone to travel with – but even though our seats were 24 and 25, we weren’t next to each other! :/ I ended up next to a Korean man. When he started to talk to me (in English), I thought he was a lot older than me (30 or 35 at least) but he said that he was still in university. (All Korean males older than 18 are required to serve for at least 3 years in the Korean armed forces – so he could have very well been 26 or 27.) We talked for a little while - and then he asked for my number! Oy. I mean, flattering, yes. But also, oy. We exchanged numbers but I don’t plan on contacting him in the future. When the bus stopped for a bathroom break, I moved up next to Joe. I hoped the guy wasn’t [too] offended – Joe and I were talking a lot before this guy and I started talking – but it was just too hard to try not to do anything awkward or not give the wrong signals in those tiny bus seats. We arrived at the Daejon bus station a little while later (it was so clean/new/pretty!) and found everyone and then headed to dinner. We had yummy food and even got to celebrate Deanna’s birthday! 

Outside of the bus terminal

Sculpture outside of the bus terminal

Mmm 삼겹살

Happy Birthday, Deanna!

• After that, we dropped our things off at the hotel (the first arrivals managed to find a decent hotel near the bus station at a good price – woohoo!) and took taxis downtown to explore the nightlife. We ended up at a bar that was kind of loud, but had a lot of nice seating (couches and big booths) and there weren’t many people there. 

It was fun and a good way to end the evening :)

Still It Takes Me By Surprise (Apr 12)

• At lunch today, Office Guy gave Winter and I some information: Surprise! Class is done early and we’re going to dinner in Gyeongju on the school’s bill tonight! Okay...
• So after teaching only one class, we met the 2nd grade teacher downstairs and she drove us to Gyeongju (along with one other staff member). We arrived earlier than most everyone else, so we were able to stroll along one of the lakes and enjoy the cherry blossoms. They were beautiful and the weather as fantastic.

Taken with Winter phone...omg right?

We eventually met up with some other teachers, wandered a little more and then had pre-dinner (vegetable and seafood pancakes) and makgeolli (막걸리 – Korean rice wine) at a very traditional restaurant. 

After that, we met up with everyone else at the main restaurant. Dinner was really good (there were a million side dishes – the vice principal chuckled when I tried to finish them/when I told him I hate to waste/leave food) and it was nice to finally talk to the staff outside of school. I mainly spoke (through Winter) to the principal, vice principal and head teacher, because we were sitting near them. But Office Guy kept checking in on us, making sure we had beverages and were eating well :) And the VP unofficially invited me to his house sometime! I hope that actually happens. He said it more like, “If I invited you, would you come?” (to which I replied, “Of course!”) rather than an outright invite so we’ll see. Oh and the head teacher was impressed with my ability to drink soju shots ;) Most people are actually...Anyways, it was a good night and I hope we have another dinner soon. 

Got The Hunger? (Apr 10)

• Found out that the meat that my favorite Street Meat Guy sells is actually chicken hearts! AHH! Smh, only in Korea. I will [probably] keep eating them though. Apparently, they are good for you. And they're yummy.

• I finally got to see Hunger Games! And I didn’t have to wait as long (only 3 weeks) or go as far (15 minute bus ride!) as I thought I’d have to. Woohoo! Oh, it was good :) Here are my thoughts (I don’t think they will give any of the movie away):
• It was a really good portrayal of the actual Hunger Games and the world of Panem. The costumes/make-up/hair were amazing (the Capitol clothing actually reminded me a LOT of the people of Oz, in Wicked), the buildings/atmosphere of both the Capitol and District 12 were just like I imagined and the people that were selected to play the characters were great actors and acted/looked as I expected (none of this “Rue was black so her death was less sad” business). However, it did fail – as I think most book-to-movie-productions do – to convey the depth of emotion felt by the characters throughout the story and to fully inform the audience of the history of Panem and the gravity of the Hunger Games situation. I don’t think that’s a bad thing though. The best things about books-to-movies are they give readers a more tangible world to imagine as they read and they get people who wouldn’t necessarily read those books more of a reason to. This movie definitely did both of those. Sai and I just had to explain a lot of things to Abby, Ashley and Jeannie afterwards :)
• The COOLEST (and most ironic) part about Hunger Games being a movie though, is that the people who see it who haven’t read the books literally become the citizens of Panem, watching the Hunger Games as the Gamemakers want them to see it, in a public venue. Whaaaaat. I mean, there are some parts that were in the movie that citizens wouldn’t see, but overall...woah. I wonder if the possibility of her books becoming movies influenced any of what Suzanne Collins wrote.
• Also, I thought it was really weird that no one in the Capitol was dressed in green, and I don’t believe that that was an accident – so I’m really curious why the costumer/director/producer/Suzanne Collins chose to do that.

I Can't Even Fold It

• Zested a lemon for the first time!
• Found out that there actually is a difference in your baked good if you don’t fold in the ingredients when it tell you. Guess I should aim to be LESS like Fauna...

Fantastic Baby (Apr 7)

Yes, this blog post is INCREDIBLY long. I promise it won't happen again. But every detail of this epic journey to and (especially) from the Jinhae Cherry Blossom festival needed to be documented. You will not regret reading this. (But if you do, I'm sorry I told you that you wouldn't.)

So we woke up and finished watching Freaky Friday (heartwarming) while eating a fantastic breakfast laid out by Jeannie :) And Deanna and Jeannie convinced me to wear my pink dress outfit. And I’m so glad they did! I felt so Korean-adorable all day and they get full credit. We got out the door with just enough time to grab a taxi to the bus station to catch our 10:40 bus – only to find out that no taxis were going to the bus terminal this morning because of the marathon that was going on! What??? The group staying at Sai’s apartment was having the same problem (and so began our travel troubles for today...). Luckily, Jeanette lives close enough for us to walk – but she wasn’t exactly sure how to get there, so we wandered in and out of market stalls (and runners). And got seriously distracted by pet stores along the way (some ajummas snickered at us when we yelped, “oooh”ed and “aaah”ed over some puppies that walked towards us and tried to play through the window). We finally found our way to the bus station, where we found all of our friends too. Before we got on the bus, Deanna and I really had to pee...so we braved the squatters. AH! But we survived. Then we all headed to line up in the boarding area – with 12 of us, we had to do everything we could to make we were all on the right bus. Once the bus arrived, Sai inconspicuously body-blocked the other passengers so that we all got on and could get seats :D We only had a slight problem at the next stop – Hwan got off to use the bathroom and a guy took his seat! :( So he, Darryl and I had to resort to squeezing 3 people into 2 seats. Once we got over being angry, it wasn’t that bad. Finally, we arrived in Masan...but we still had to figure out how to get to the festival site in Jinhae. On our way to finding the right busstop, we ran into a group of TaLK scholars! It was so random! I love when that happens though. After that, we found the right busstop, waited for a long time (or, what felt like a long time...we would learn about long waits later), took pictures and finally boarded. It was so crowded!

Or, what felt crowded...we would learn about crowded later... 

There was a ton of traffic into Jinhae (the official festival site) so our bus ride was long. When we finally arrived, we were really happy to see that the predicted 10% of blossoms blooming was a very low estimate. The trees looked so beautiful.

(Photo courtesy of Darryl)

(Photo courtesy of Ruby)

The weather was completely gorgeous and we wandered, ate, took photos, and bought stupid souvenirs. OH and I tried silkworm pupas!

Yeah it was weird and I didn't like them, but hey, I tried them. Around 5:45, we started heading back to the busstop. And so began our adventure getting home...

We walked back to the busstop and waited for the bus numbers we knew would take us back to Masan (so we could catch the 8:30 bus back to Gyeongju). But as we were waiting, buses that were supposed to stop just kept driving past – because they were completely full! People standing-in-the-doorway full! We started formulating...

Plan B: Take taxis to Masan...but there were none coming. And when we called the cab companies, they said they wouldn’t send anyone! How rude. Onto...

Plan C: We would walk to the train station and try to catch the last train to Daegu, where we would then take a bus to Gyeongju. So we started walking and eventually made it to the train station...where we discovered that we had missed the last train by about an hour. Sooo...

Plan D: Find a taxi near the train station – we figured there were probably more around there anyways – and take the taxi to Masan to catch that 8:30 bus. Well, as it turns out, the taxis didn’t even think the traffic was worth the money, because there were none out and none would come get us. So we stood in the street for a little while hoping against hope that we’d find one (and seriously considering paying a normal Korean to drive us somewhere...anywhere at that point). Especially because we’d heard that motels/hotels/jimjilbangs were either full or too expensive. Ahh running out of options! Sai and Hwan even ran back over to the train station to see if there were ANY trains left that night (even one to Seoul) – but there weren’t. Eventually, we decided on...

Plan E: Take the next city bus, no matter what number it was – we’d figure out where it was headed once we were on it and finish the Plan from there. Finally having somewhere to go and a plan that didn’t involve waiting got us pumped up again...enough to do a cheer right in the street in front of about 100 Koreans. We circled up, put our hands in the middle and shouted something – and when we turned around, literally all 100 of those Koreans were staring at us. Not inconspicuously either...flat-out gawking. We all burst into laughter. Our adrenaline was pumping but I think it would have been hilarious under any circumstance. So bus 315 arrived and most of those Koreans had the same idea that we did. But no way were we getting split up. I ending up being in the position to allow our whole group to get on the bus...so I blocked anyone else from getting on with my long arms until our whole group was in. There were some grumbling Korean men but I didn’t care. We were all going to be on that bus. And we were...it was soooo crowded though.

Since everyone was a little stressed out, I played “Fantastic Baby” on my ipod, so that everyone could hear it.

After playing it several times throughout the day, that song kind of became our theme song and it was more and more helpful and hilarious as the evening progressed. At the playing of it this time, we all said “Wow...fantastic baby” at the appropriate time and the Koreans around us just smiled. Hey, at least they weren’t throwing or shouting things at me :) After that, Hwan, Chanda and I started forming a new plan...

Plan F: It seemed like this bus was heading towards the Jinhae bus station...awesome! Catch any bus out of here, preferably to Gyeongju, Pohang or Daegu but we weren’t going to be picky. Then we found out this bus was actually headed away from the bus station. Oh. So with the help of the bus driver and an아주씨who turned out to be an off-duty bus driver, we found out we were actually on a bus that would take us to Busan. Seriously??? We happened to board a bus that could actually get us out of the God-forsaken, black-hole-of-public-transportation that was Changwon/Jinhae??? Lucky is too insignificant a term. The bus drivers gave us all the information (in Korean, so thank goodness we had Hwan, as well as Liz, Joe and Sai) to form...

Plan G: Take this bus to the outskirts of Busan, then follow some students who will be going the way we need to go (yes, kind of weird) onto another bus, to the subway or taxis, that will take us to the train station, where we will board a KTX (express) train to Gyeongju. Great! When we arrived at our stop, the bus driver told us to get off and we all cheered as we exited the bus. I’m sure we confirmed for MANY Koreans that foreigners are 미쳤어that night. So we’re at the bus stop.

But the bus is taking forever to get there and we were getting antsy, partly because we’d been trying to get home forever and partly because we weren’t sure what time the last train was – waiting anywhere was dangerous. So along came...

Plan H: Take taxis to the train station (it can’t be that far, we are in Busan after all, and there should be more taxis around here anyways)...but nope, talking with the students we were told to follow confirmed that the bus was the best option as there weren’t actually many taxis in this area (yeah, we had only seen like 2). Eventually the bus did come so we reverted back to Plan G and followed the students. On this bus, we relaxed a little as it went through several outlying neighborhoods on our way to a subway station. We were very amused at one point because Hwan was telling us the next part of the plan and he turned behind him to tell that person – except it turned out to not be someone in our group and he scared her so she scared him...and we all burst into laughter because everything was funny at that point. The bus driver yelled at us (in Korean) to be quiet. Okay, so then we got off the bus, enjoyed Busan for about 3 minutes and disappeared underground to buy subway tickets (which you can purchase with your TMoney card – cool!).

Our 3 minutes of Busan

After a quick bathroom break, we made our way deeper down to wait for the train and buy cheap vending machine coffee. We had to wait a long time for the train and now we really started to question whether we’d make the train. Another option had been to get taxis when we got off the bus but as we were debating whether to ditch the subway go do that, it showed up. We piled in and all got seats (woohoo) and started charting out our timetable for the rest of the evening. After some quick math and a conversation with a Busan native, we realized we were not going to make the last train. So...

Plan I: Take this subway line to the Busan bus station (the end of the line) and catch the 11:30 bus (the last bus) back to Gyeongju (it was going to be tight, as our subway was expected to arrive at the station at 11:15 and we’d have to buy tickets).

(Photo courtesy of Darryl)

Many of us slept most of the 59-minute/32-stop ride, but as we approached the last stop our adrenaline got pumping again because we realized the only way we were going to make it on time was if we literally ran. So we stretched our muscles (yes, we actually did this) and stood near the doors and when they opened, all 12 of us booked it. We were slowed on the stairwell by other people who were not in as much of a hurry but after that, we were unabashedly sprinting through the subway and bus stations (which, thankfully, were connected). Hwan bought the tickets, I peed REALLY fast, and we ran out to the platform. We arrived at 11:25 and even managed to all get seats (much to the chagrin of a few 아주씻). WHEW!!! We were so happy and seriously couldn’t believe it. When we arrived back in Gyeongju (only about an hour later), I practically kissed the ground. Most of us were starving so we took taxis back to the restaurant area of town (near Jeannie’s apt) and Sai took us to a Chinese place he knew of – but they wouldn’t seat us because there was 12 of us. How rude (but isn’t that kind of how our night had gone?). So then we went to a 삼겹살 (samgyeopsal – Korean barbecue) restaurant...and as we walked in they were playing “Fantastic Baby”!!!! Ahhh, more perfect timing could not have been planned! It was dubbed the perfect place for our victory dinner (plus, it was called “Beef Before Flowers”...AHH!) and we thoroughly enjoyed the food and drinks that followed the incredibly unpredictable, unforgettable, unifying day that was April 7, 2012 :)

Mmmmm

Beef Before Flowers!

Jeannie, Sai, Christian, me, Darryl, Hwan, Chanda, Julian,
Joe, Deanna, Ruby and Liz...we survived!

Coat to Wear (Apr 6)

• Talked to Kristin again yesterday, with Jane this time!
• Good day at school with ALL my students. Grades 1/2 were crazy, but the normal kind. They listened pretty well, the X system is really effective and even the worst kids said goodbye to me at the end of class. Grade 3 was great...we were missed In Ho but with just the 3 of us (me, Chae Young and Dong Yun) we had a lot of fun: we danced, practiced phonics, colored paper easter eggs and played go fish (with real cards). Plus Chae Young’s coat was adorable! (It inspired me to go to HomePlus after school and not come back until I got a cute one for myself...which I did XD.) Grades 4/6 were also great. Dae Han was sick, which was sad, but the other kids were so cute. They don’t know a lot of English but they try really hard and they really liked the Easter PPT I showed them (thanks Shelby!). Plus, I brought some Dove chocolates from my secret stash to share with them...they were so yummy and the kids liked them too. We also decorated paper eggs and did an egg hunt, which they loved too! They even stayed after class just so they could play it again; I finally had to tell them that I needed to go home!
• After school and getting a coat, I packed up and headed to Gyeongju. Arrived without a problem and met up with Jeanette, Ruby and Christian. We went to Anjapi Pond to meet up with everyone else and, despite the freezing temperatures (literally), we really enjoyed the beautiful area.

(Photo courtesy of Christian)

• After that, we went in search of dinner – and eventually found a yummy restaurant after the one we planned to go to was closed. Most of the girls ended up sitting at the same table (and so dubbed the “sorority table”) and one of the workers helped us make our food really yummy. We all drank lots of soju and beer (standard procedure with the kind of meal we had) and then moved onto a soju bar, where we had pomegranate soju and played Truth or Dare. When Deanna, Jeanette and I got home, we had planned to watch Mean Girls but put She’s The Man on instead...a fantastic substitute (though only Deanna stayed awake for the whole thing).

Cheap & Cheerful (Apr 4)

• Fantastic audition from The Voice: Korea that I’m listening to on repeat right now:

• Slept for the weirdest amount of time last night: 6 pm – 5 am. I felt better and got everything done though! Too bad I can’t keep that schedule every night...well, I suppose I could, but I would have no friends.
• Dinner tonight – kimbap, meat-on-a-stick, kimchi, radish and soup – for BOTH me and Abby cost only ₩5500 ($4.87). I love this about Korea.
• I got to Skype with Kristin tonight. I have missed talking to her...and it was especially great because she understands how ridiculous all of the stuff I’ve had to go through with my school is (between her experience in Korea, our shared views towards administration and our similar sarcastic wit).
• I’m excited for the weekend, as always :)

Cheese Factor, Set to 9 (Apr 2)

• Finally opened my supply of cheese from Anna and Dad/Barbara. Ohhhhhhhh cheeeeese. It had been too long. I’m so thankful that Mike told me you can get all kinds of cheese at the Costco, near Gumi. I can’t go 4 more months without it.
• Last week, I was thinking to myself that the road near my bus stop kid of needed to be fixed (a lot of heavy trucks drive on it every day, so there were nice hills in the pavement). But then I decided that it probably wouldn’t happen soon because they have to close the intersection and the weather has been really weird lately. NOPE. Those would be reasons for avoiding fixing it in Michigan. When I got back from Gumi this weekend, it was fixed. Woah. I never even saw one traffic cone.

A Thousand Conversations

• Happy April (Fool’s Day)!
• Donuts for breakfast before heading to the bus station. Christian doesn’t think donuts are a legit breakfast food. Crazy.
• Liz, Jeanette and I managed to get the same bus home :)
• Everyone, read The Help. It is a fantastic novel. As I said earlier, I really like seeing movies before reading the books. Therefore, it really surprises me when the characters are so much deeper in the books that in the movie. I think I forget how talented authors can be. [I love Skeeter Phelan]
• After arriving back in Pohang, Liz and I stopped by my apartment to drop off our stuff before heading to church. Abby, Ashley and I had told Liz about PICC and we decided to go this week. Good thing I have a visual memory and am good with directions...I had to re-find the place myself! But I did it and we arrived with lots of time to spare. There were so many new (to me) faces there today. It was really fun meeting even more new people. Today, we sang “As the Deer” and it almost made me cry, thinking of singing that song at Firebowl at BKC.
• When church was over, Liz and I headed downtown for dinner and some shopping. Uneventful, except that we were able to talk about a lot of things – and in a few short hours get a lot closer :)
• While waiting for the bus home, we ran into Nicole and Edward, EPIK teachers that we met at Abby’s a couple weeks ago! It’s so fun to just run into people we know around town! They ended up getting on the bus with us (to go to HomePlus). Edward and I stood at the back and had a fantastic conversation with some 15-year-old Korean girls. They were so giggly but seemed to like practicing their English on us. They asked all the standard questions (What’s your name? How old are you? Where are you from? Are you boyfriend and girlfriend?) and were really cute. After Edward (and Nicole) got off at HomePlus, the girls and I kept talking. They asked if I had any questions for them, so I wondered what they wanted to do when they grow up. Two of them want to be actresses and the other one wasn’t sure. We also talked about Kpop and Korean movie stars. IT was really cute how excited them got talking in English, and when I spoke Korean. Before they got off, they said “See you next time!” and I told them to keep practicing English. I hope they do! And maybe I will see them again, since we were riding the bus I ride around town all the time :)
• Sherlock Holmes AND Pirates 3 on TV!
• Breaking into my stash of Girl Scout cookies from Anna!!!

Glow in the Dark (Mar 30)

• Glow Party at a Westerner bar in Gumi. Met so many of people (ran into the same EPIK teachers that Abby and I met at HomePlus a few weeks ago!) and had a lot of fun. Plus, bars in Korea don’t really close...we left at 3 am but easily could have stayed way later. Also, 151 kind of kills your taste buds and makes everything taste like juice.

Birthday Wish (Mar 29)

• If today hadn’t been my birthday, I would have had a pretty bad day. I was witnessed to by a couple of ajummas for about 15 minutes (despite telling them that I don’t speak Korean...more than once), I fell up the stairs twice (spilling my coffee once), and my kids were not good. I even told them it was my birthday! Grade 1 wasn’t too bad but they didn’t really get the concept of birthdays and were more crazy than normal. But in my grade 2, I finally had to say, "Today is my birthday and I had candy that I wanted to share with you! I am supposed to be happy today and you are making me mad!" They responded with "Sorry Teacher Emily" and I said, "If you can do the alphabet songs without being bad, I will give you the candy." Ahhh! I suppose I should have known better than to try to mess with the routine I've developed – but American kids would be all over candy and a movie for the day! Oh well.
• BUT enough of that...there were PLENTY of good things that happened today too! I had some birthday banana bread and got to talk to mom (the first time since orientation!) before school. And just a little while after Winter and I got home, we went downtown to meet Abby, Liz and Ashley for birthday things. We waited for my favorite Street Meat Guy but he wasn’t there! So we got coffee instead, where we just talked and laughed and told stories. Then we had chicken-on-a-stick and hot-dog-sausage things while we walked around and shopped. We finished our evening at Baskin Robbins, with the fondue thing – that Liz sneakily put candles in before they brought it up! It was so sweet and a perfect way to spend my birthday :)
• And as always, I love my Facebook birthday wishes – it’s like I get to celebrate with ALL of my friends, no matter where we are.