It was my birthday this week. Like last year, I had class on the day itself, although this time I was not listening to Senior 1 students’ exams, telling me about their favourite things or what they would do with £1 million. This year, I gave my class a quiz. I did something similar at the end of last semester, and it worked reasonably well; this time it also went pretty good.
After work, we – me, my colleague, and three other foreigners from another teaching programme at the university – all went out for pizza to a pizza place called Tube Station. I had had pizza from there before, but usually it was take away. I did not realise there was also a restaurant, in the university district nearby.
It was a lot of fun, and we all enjoyed it, if the heat was a little oppressive (it has been really hot here recently; sometimes even in the high 30s or low 40s, and when I got back home at about 23:00, it was still 33°c!).
On Monday night – the day before the big day – I went to a burger restaurant called Blue Frog, with some former colleagues from RDFZ. That was nice, if we ate a little late because some people did not turn up on time.
Many students wished me a ‘Happy Birthday’, which was nice, and a couple also gave me gifts. One gave me a toy of a Japanese cartoon character. The other gave me milk. He told me that he knows Europeans like to drink milk so he thought it was a useful gift. I like milk, so, you know, it is nice to have more! I also got a travel pillow from another student, because they know I travel a lot. Practical gifts, all around haha.
