I had a lovely birthday!

Tiffany and I went to dinner, and then met Scott and our friend Victoria at Tino's (the Swiss restaurant / aka the only true Western restaurant in the city) for drinks and dessert.


Victoria gave me some lotion from The Body Shop, imported via a family member of hers in England, since The Body Shop isn't in China. I like to use this stuff after I wash the dishes, which I have to do all the time over here, so it was a GREAT gift!

 Washing the dishes is my least favorite chore, so of course I end up in a country with no dishwashers.

Tiffany and Scott gave me an apron (I desperately wanted one, although I never told her that) and Goldfish crackers!

When I saw the fabric, I was all, 'Oh my god I LOVE it.' To which Tiffany responded, appropriately, 'You don't even know what it is yet!'

The best part of the night was not even related to my birthday. It was a receipt. Before the waitress left, she diagrammed our table and what we all owed. See below.

Counter-clockwise from the top we have: "red" - me; "Chinese" - Victoria; "Tino" - Tino; "man" - Scott; and nobody - Tiffany.

It might interest you to know that in Mandarin, there is no specific word for my hair color. It gets lumped in with blonde and is simply called "huang2" / "yellow." Students are always really perplexed when I say, 'In English, the word we use for my hair color is "red."'