My Birthday!

WOW! What a fabulous birthday I had! I can sure say I was spoiled silly! My friends really love me here! My birthday celebration really lasted for the full 24 hours! 12:06am on April 25th, I began to received text messages on my phone. The night before my birthday, Mantju insisted on spending the night and waking up early to pray with me. So 5:15 in the morning she's knocking on my bedroom door..."Wake Up Birthday Gril!" She forces me out of bed and we take a walk around my apartment complex. Then at 6:30am we walk back to my apartment and I open my door to find my two friends, Angel and Sisil, standing there yelling "Surprise! Happy Birthday!" They had decorated my apartment and made me a fabulous breakfast with rice, eggs, vegetables, fruit and meat! It was delicious! Mantju, Angel, and Sisil, had the whole thing planned so well, I never suspected a thing! I was so shocked and encouraged the rest of the day... I couldn't stop smiling! They played a cd of birthday songs and got me a "Hello Kitty" cake. And so began the best birthday in Indonesia!





Then, when I got to school, all of my students had brought me a present. Allegra had also brought me a cake, an oreo-cookie cake! We played a guessing game about "Ms. Vail" - which they loved! And we had donuts and cake and opened presents! We even got some fun glasses, you'll see in the pictures! What a day at school! I don't think we did any "work" at all!





For dinner I planned to take all of my friends in North Jakarta to Pizza Hut. Tradition in Indonesia is that the birthday girl treats everyone to dinner. So I chose Pizza Hut because it was easy and its a nice restaurant. You might be laughing... but really, look at the pictures. Pizza Hut is gorgeous! So it ended up being about 20 of my friends who met at Pizza Hut. And for 20 people we ate pizza, salad, and chicken wings for 40 dollars! How great is that!










After dinner we had to go to Kareoki! I love kareoki! And to top off my birthday celebration all my friends from Central Jakarta showed up for Kareoki with me! The girls surprised me! So that was lots of fun! I have many pictures and video clips of kareoki!






Everyone sang Happy Birthday to me at the kareoki place!






Two of my friends from Central Jakarta stayed the night at my house on Friday night after kareoki. And then Saturday another friend took me to dinner and a massage. And two friends stayed the night with me on Saturday. Then Sunday, my co-worker had me over for dinner (Indian Food - delicious!) It was a celebration weekend! I feel so loved and taken care of here!