Thai Birthday

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So, I'm now 24.  I had a very lovely birthday, though I did miss spending it with friends and family from the US.  The morning was pretty typical, class as usual.  After school, we had our first meeting of Spanish club - Alex's invention.  So, Hola everyone :)  Alex started teaching a small group of 10 or so students, Yuphaporn, Jack, and myself some basic Spanish language.  He taught Spanish in English, with the difficult English words being translated to Thai by Jack!  It was all quite fun, and I had a taste of what it's like to be a Thai student.  I sat cross legged on the floor and shouted out the answers in unison with the other students.  Starting this week, Spanish club will be a twice weekly event.

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Jack, Alex, and I came home afterwards to rest before a birthday celebration at Ms. Yuphaporn's house.  At 7p, we drove over.  She lives with her mother, son, and 2 dogs in a nice house outside of town.  As we sat down at the table something struck me as odd.  In a second I realized, this was the first time I have had a meal actually sitting at a table for quite some time.  I'm getting accustomed to the usual Thai eating style - laying straw mats on the floor for every meal.  Dinner was delicious - roast chicken, tofu soup, dragon fruit, and birthday cake for desert.  They also presented me with a little bouquet of red roses!

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When we returned home Toffee, Jack's five year old cousin who lives with them, was running around very excited.  He had received a new toy - a remote control car.  For the rest of the night, we watched him race around the little red sports car.  Jack tried playing with it for awhile, and accidentally ran it into a door.  Oh, you should have seen Toffee's distress!  He jumped up and down, ran over to the car, and then tried to get the remote away from Jack (who was laughing, it was pretty funny ;).  Of course, this morning the little car has been banging into everything in site.  There were many near misses with the food (nicely laid out on the floor) at breakfast.