Birthday Week

It's official: I'm 24 years old. And believe it or not, this was my very first birthday away from my family (except for my dear hubby, of course). Most people experience this in college or something, but I have been fortunate enough to always see my family on my birthday until now, so that was pretty sad for me, but thanks to John, we made it through. Since my actual birthday fell on a school night, we didn't really do much until this weekend.

On Saturday, after work, we got together with two couples and had a fondue party. Three of them are our co-workers, and one is the husband of a co-worker. Us three girls have been planning this for a while. Shooka (the other Kindergarten 2 teacher) and I are both lovers of everything French. In fact, I have started giving her private French lessons once a week after school. So we thought the idea of fondue was wonderful. Ruth and Ricky (the Christian couple from school) loved the idea as well. So, we had cheese fondue with potatoes, chicken, bread, broccoli and cauliflower, followed much later by chocolate fondue with tons of fruit and cookies. It was awesome!! Shooka is from Iran, and is married to a Thai man who worked in Iran for several years, so their house is beautifully decorated with Persian things; it was a fun night.

Shooka and her awesome Persian cat

Clockwise: Ruth, Shooka's husband, Shooka, and I hope you know who the two on the right are. Ricky was taking the picture.

Then today, we went to church in the morning, and then John took me into downtown Bangkok for a surprise date. After kind of a struggle following the GPS' directions on the motorbike, we arrived at our destination: Crepes and Co.! What a treat!!! It's a real creperie run by a Swiss-Bulgarian restauranteur, and it is totally authentic. It took me back to my childhood memories of crepes in Paris. John and I shared two savory crepes: Ham, Cheese, and Egg,

and Bacon, Mushrooms, and Gruyere.

They were incredible!! I don't even like mushrooms and I was savoring every bite. After a while, we got a dessert crepe as well: pears, chocolate ice cream, and pear sauce, followed by the best coffee we've had in Thailand. Thanks to my wonderful husband for such a thoughtful Birthday present!! :)

Oh, and here's a photo of my class. Keep in mind that half of my class (literally, I counted) was sick this week, so there were six kids absent this day.

And a cute picture of some of the boys.

The boy on the left is Ikkyu (try to pronounce that), he is a cute boy but already prone to peer pressure. Number 2 is Top: he's a trouble-maker, maybe you can tell from the picture. :) The third one is Kong: a great kid who is being trained to be the class leader. I call him "my little man" because he looks and acts like a grown-up already. And the one of the right is Film (pronounced Feem). I know you're not supposed to have favorites, but he is. Hands down. He was in uniform that day because he was sick and joined us half-way through the day.