Birthday dinner

My birthday was only 2 weeks ago, but I've been quite active since so it feels so long ago. For example I went to a camping trip with Céline, Emilie, Viyaleta, Marizol and Isis to Putuo shan. We came back last Monday and we had a great time. We set up our tents on one of the beautiful beaches of the island and stayed there for 3 days. The weather was perfect and so was the company. To our surprise Céline and Emilie only got half a tent when they bought it so we shared mine. It was a bit tight and I think the girls wished for less snoring from me. When the tidal water set in our tents were located only 10m from the ocean, and I must say it was magic to fall asleep to the mighty sound of heavy waves. During the night the waves were glowing like neon and gold because of the plankton. Beautiful! In the morning we woke up at 08:00 AM with sunny weather and to the sound which took us to sleep. It was nice to leave the tent and walk right into the ocean for a swim. This was not supposed to be the main story of this post so I will move on. I just had to mention it while it's still fresh. I posted pictures from the trip on Picasaweb along with a few other albums. Please have a look.

Pictures of the camping trip to Putuo shan (普陀山)
My albums at Picasaweb

As i wrote in the previous post I was surprised by my closest friend on my birthday. The next day we went to a Brazilian restaurant for dinner. A few days earlier I sent out invitations on Facebook and via SMS to friends in Ningbo. 18 people responded positively to the invitation and to my joy 18 people showed up. It was a mix of foreigners and Chinese friends.

The restaurant is one of my favorite places in this city which I have visited once before. They offer a buffé for 98 Yuan and it is just delicious. Besides the dishes around the buffé table, very frequently a waiter comes out from the kitchen with barbecued meat on a sword or a stick. If you allow it he slices a piece of the meat and puts it on your plate. Every time he shows up he brings a new kind of meat from moo moo, oink oink and baa baa. Even chicken rolled in bacon...mmm, even better than it sounds. For 168 Yuan open bar is included in the buffé, but I chose not to. I really did not want to get to drunk and now I am happy I didn't.
For my Chinese friends I think this event was especially pleasant. They have probably never eaten so much meat before. Kevin misunderstood and put everything on the plate at the same time, even the food from the desert buffé. I wonder how the mix of vanilla yogurt, cake, fish and mashed potatoes tasted like.

I spend the whole Friday stressing around down town doing preparations before the dinner. Everyone, including me was a bit late for the reservation and it didn't really make me less calm. I did now show it though. I really tried to be a good host, but when I finally sat down it was hard to stand up due to tiredness. Therefor I did not greet every new arrived guest in the correct way. Anyway I improved during the evening and tried to have a chat with everyone around the table. As the Chinese tradition I went around the table, cheering and had a drink with every one, one by one. A nice tradition, but I did only drink small zips every cheer.

Angela brought me "a humble gift" as she put it. It was a beautiful Chinese fan which she painted her wishes on with Chinese characters. Kevin gave me a small wooden turtle with the Zodiac. The turtle symbolizes long and healthy life, and by giving me this gift he shows that he wishes me this. I think I have written about Paypay before, my Chinese friend. He is a extremely talented photographer and I am learning a lot from his works. His gift was a bunch of pictures, samples of his best works. It may seem silly if you don't understand the Chinese customs and culture, but this is really a precious gift and it means lots to me. Also he gave me a 3D puzzle of an old Chinese building. I will put it together when I find the time. Benson could not attend the dinner due to a business trip, but he prepared a special gift to me earlier that Armin delivered to the happening. It was a wooded 'doll' that you uses for drawings of humans, painted as Bruce Lee. When I turned it up side down I found a painted portrait of me. This was a thing that pushed me over the edge to become a bit emotional, but I did not show it. My friends brought me so personal gift and of course it's impossible not to be moved. I hope they could see my appreciation.

After the dinner we moved down to Lao waitan for drinking and dancing. I had a pain on my right side of the chest that reminded me of the lung problem so when people asked me to dance I had to refuse. They told me I had to dance on my birthday and it was hard to come up with an excuse. I kept it a secret to everyone except Armin because I didn't want to worry anyone. We were there to have fun.
We were all a bit tired and the parties in Ningbo starts at 24:00, so the bar was a bit empty. Moving on to a dance club, spending the night in the bar chatting with friends. I had a really nice time filled with excitement. One by one people started to drop off and return home, a bit early but they were tired. When I shared a taxi home with Céline and Kevin, Fredrik were still dancing salsa with Ruru in an ally.
All in all the  Friday evening was great with a perfect ending.

Posting a few pictures from the Thursday and Friday, taken by Vincent and Armin.

Being surprised by Céline, Emilie, Armin and Vincent on my birthday at Starbucks

Showing off with the watchCheering with ViyaletaBoris and a piece of moo mooMy reaction when I opened Bensons presentShowing the portraitCéline with my present from AngelaEmilie with the Zodiac turtleEmilie and VincentRuru and Fredrik

Suplise!

Tired and late for class. This is how my Thursday started. Still I decided to start the day slowly so I took my time getting ready to face the sunlight. I arrived in the classroom more than 10 minutes late. To my big surprise I was met by smiles and applauses. "What have I've done?", I was thinking, but when my dear class started to sing Happy birthday in Chinese it came back to me: It was my birthday. With a smile on my face I took a seat and enjoyed the singing. It turned out they had practiced the song in Chinese before I arrived at class. I felt surprised, happy and appreciated.
After class my friends joined me for lunch at a restaurant of my choice and it was my job to order the dishes. I tried to order to satisfy everyone around the table but failed. The restaurant is specialized in spicy food and the French girls are not so fund about hot spices. Anyway we enjoyed nice company during the meal. Time for coffee and we moved out business to a cafe near by. This was especially nice, because normally only Armin and I drink coffee after lunch. We played a game of "Fia" and once again I totally dominated the board game! OK maybe not dominated but I left the cafe with another win in my record.

Pleased with my friends attention this day I took a taxi to the center of Ningbo for shopping before my teaching class later that evening. My plan was to buy for new clothes for the dinner Friday night. I've booked a table at a Brazilian restaurant to celebrate my birthday and to have a good time with my friends, and for this event I needed a new outfit. I did not find anything to buy that afternoon, but I received a present from a friend who is manager of a store down town, a new belt. This was very welcome because I wanted to buy a new one for some time. 

For a few weeks I wanted to buy a new wrist watch and I found just the one I want. Two weeks earlier Emilie and Armin helped me pick a watch I really like but I wasn't sure I could spend the money so I decided to wait. This Thursday I went back to the store to see the watch again and my opinion had not changed, this was the watch for me. I checked the watch for a few minutes but asked the owner to keep it for me for a few more days, until Sunday at the latest. It is not that often a man buys a new watch so I wanted another opinion and maybe some help with the bargain. It was now time for me to head towards work. The office is located 15min of walk away from the city center. I put on Daniel Merriweather in my earphones and started to cruise the avenue in the sunlight. Even though it was rush hour in this huge city and everyone was looking at the foreigner, I felt swallowed by the music and atmosphere and had a nice feeling of being alone for a moment.

My class turned out great and everyone was happy with the evenings agenda. Armin called me during the break. He told me that he and Benson was shopping down town and wanted me to join them for a beer after my class. Not a bad idea, even though I was a bit tired. Benson, who is Chinese, could help me bargain for the watch. We decided to meet at the big Starbucks after my work and one of my students offered me a ride which I accepted.

At Starbucks I found Armin to be alone. Benson left to see a friend so no watch for me. Armin suggested that we should have a quick coffee and then head down to Lao Waitan for beers. This made me a bit worried because I talked with Céline the day before about doing something back at campus. We ordered coffee and when I asked Armin about the others he told me that they are back at campus doing nothing and he looked a bit nervous. I became a bit suspicious and Armin looked over my shoulder. I turned around and to my big surprise I see Céline, Emilie and Vincent walking down the stairs from the second floor, carrying a cake with burning candles singing Happy birthday! I was stunned and it was to impossible to hide my joy. After blowing out the candles I hugged them all, obviously happy, and they handed me a present. We went upstairs, sat down and cut the cake. I was extremely curious about the present and was ordered to open it.
I could not believe my eyes! They bought the watch! Just one hour after I left the store they arrived to buy it. A perfect gift, because apparently I really wanted that watch. They, along with Helen, Charles, Viyaleta and Fredrik, have truncated money to buy the watch for me.

We ate the delicious cake and I felt surprised, chocked and mostly appreciated. This was a great ending of a great birthday! I went to bed that night with a big smile on my face and I am not sure that I ever felt so appreciated. I am grateful for my wonderful friends who paid lots of effort to show it to me!

I will soon update the post with more info about the dinner party we had last Friday.