Pink Polka Dot Birthday

I recently celebrated my 28th birthday.

An interesting fact about Chinese birthdays is that they do not celebrate their birthday on the same day every year. Chinese birthdays are celebrated according to the lunar calendar. Also Chinese people consider newborn infants one year of age at birth.

For the most part, my birthday was low key. I never announced to my classes that my birthday was coming, and so I was not expecting anything from my students. So my birthday came and went with a few well wishes, no hoopla.

In our office, shared with a few other foreign teachers, was a small gift bag with pink polka dots and a pink bow. It never occurred to me that the gift bag could be for me. So I left the bag sitting on the table in our office for a couple of days thinking it must belong to one of my fellow teachers.

A couple of days after my birthday, Mallary and one of the other foreign teachers decided to look in the bag to decipher its owner. Surprise, surprise, the small gift bag was full of birthday wishes from one of my Sophomore classes.

A few of them read:

• Happy Life with Mallary!!!
• Dear Chip Happy Birthday Best Wishes to you and Mallary!
• Chip: Happy Birthday to you! Have a happy life with Mallary :) !
• Happy Birthday! May my blessing be around your ears like sweet sounding bell and stay in your heart forever.
• Happy Birthday! Be forever with Mallary -- :)
• Happy Birthday -- So humorous you are
• Happy Birthday! Healthy - Happy - Lucky - Passionate
• Happy Birthday -- Chip I love your T-shirt
• Wishing you Chip, Glad days filled with friendliness, bright days filled with cheer, warm days filled with happiness to last throughout the year. Have a wonderful birthday.

Mallary and my teammates cooked a great Mexican themed dinner and a delicious chocolate cake for my birthday.

For my birthday, I went to a local tailor to get a coat made. I took a photo of a coat from a popular online retail store, picked out fabric, and a few weeks later, had a custom-made jacket.