Emma In China: 祝你生日快乐！

This is a day overdue but here we go!
Oh and the title says "Happy Birthday!"

Waking up in the morning felt like any ordinary day...the feeling of missing home and the start of a new day. I got up and did my daily routine which was clean the bed and go to the bathroom. After getting all fixed up I went to the kitchen to eat breakfast and there they had set for me some dumplings and a birthday present! They got me a necklace :) I was surprised but it was a good way to start a day. Since I was spending my 16th with a different family it felt weird...Honestly, it didn't even feel like my birthday. Of course I had the feeling of "homesick-ness" getting to me because I knew it was my 16th and my family back home wasn't there with me to celebrate but when I checked my email I was spammed with emails from my family! (Spammed in a good way!) Anywho, after skyping my family back home Violet and I went out!

Violet had the whole day planned out for me. We took the bus to Xin Jie Kou where we met up with Violet's two friends. We went to a shopping area called "Fashion Lady" which is an underground market, where we could bargain. I got my nails done there! After shopping, we went to eat lunch. They asked me to choose where I wanted to eat but I honestly can't read half the stuff on the menu's....soooo i just asked them for their recommendation! They choose steak so thats what we had for lunch! I was a little bummed though because right after we ate and left the restaurant, we passed a Korean restaurant and i LOVE korean food....

Afterwards we headed over to a bakery! And guess what?! We baked a cake for my birthday there :) I thought it was cool how we could just go into any bakery and ask to make a cake! It turned out very nice too! After making the cake we browsed around other malls and at around 5:30 we headed back home!

By 6:30 we had arrived home and I thought this was the end of the day and that we were heading up to the house. Turns out we were having dinner at the restaurant in our community! Violet then told me to invite my friend, Hawk (who is also part of the same program as I am in AND lives in my community). It was very last minute but Hawk was able to make it! The dinner was very unexpected because the Guan family had a couple more people come to my birthday dinner! The people who came were: The Guan family, Guan family's friend (in college), Mr. Zhan (someone I go to for help), my headmaster from school Ms. Yu, Lin (a student who studied abroad in the U.S and goes to my school) and last but not least, my friend Hawk! Mr. Zhan gave me a Chinese song book for my birthday and Ms. Yu gave me a Chinese silk scarf (which was very nice)! It was a really great dinner because I got to converse with new people and try new types of foods.

Spending August 27th in China with a new family was a new experience but was also an unforgettable one!