my day...

I don’t even know how to begin describing to you the hilarity of the day that I just experienced. First of all, I slept in this morning. I set my alarm for 6:30, and only ended up getting out of bed in a panic at 7:10…we leave for school at 7:20, so it was a bit of a rush, but I made it and was actually early. We got to school, and I was still feeling quite out of it, and proceeded to fall up the front stairs at the school. Now, this would be embarrassing at any school, but even more so at my school because I fell right where all of the parents drop their children off, and then proceed to congregate and visit with each other…many many people saw me fall and it was quite funny. This last story, by the way, was particularly for my sister, with whom I share a love of watching other people fall.

I had a fairly normal day in classes, nothing really out of the ordinary happened… and then it was time for homework class…

Let me premise this story by saying that my birthday is on March 28th…this will make sense in a second…

I went to my first homework class, with my grade 6’s, which was basically pointless because they just finished writing exams, and had no homework, so we sat around and played “Guess Who” for half an hour.

Then it was time to go to my grade 4 homework class. I’m not sure why, but this class absolutely loves me. I don’t really know what I ever did for them, but they love me. They also ask me random questions about myself, all the time, like when my birthday is. Every time, I tell them that it is March 28, they know that my birthday is March 28, I have shown them on a calendar, they definitely know that it is on March 28th.

Anyway, today I walked up to the classroom and the Thai teacher was standing outside the door. This was strange because she is usually inside with the kids when I get there. I noticed that she said something in Thai through the window as I was walking up, but I didn’t think anything of it. Then I noticed that the classroom was dark, but she didn’t say anything about the kids being in a different classroom so, again, I thought nothing of it. I opened the door and noticed something glowing, and then all of the kids jumped out and yelled, “Surprise! Happy Birthday!”

Just a reminder, the date right now is December 20, not March 28th.
There was a Garfield birthday cake that said, “Happy Birthday Ms. Jill!” and there was a pile of presents on the desk. I had no idea what to do. I just stood there for a second and the kids were all looking at me with these huge smiles of excitement on their faces. I was going to tell them that it wasn’t my birthday, but they looked so excited and proud that they had done all of this, that I just couldn’t do it. They pulled me over to the cake and made me blow out my candles and then they started shoving gifts at me.

Still, I had no idea what to do.

Now, I should tell you that most of the kids that go to my school are stinking rich. Thailand is also a gift giving country, so they don’t skimp on presents. I got a full sized bottle of good perfume, one silk and one woven scarf, one purse for me and one purse for my mom (because I told them that my parents were coming for Christmas), and a wallet.

The whole time I was trying to decide whether or not I should tell them that it isn’t even close to my birthday, but I just couldn’t do it, and it honestly wasn’t because I wanted to keep the presents. As I said, Thai people are very gift-giving people, and they are also all about saving face, so if I had told my kids that they were wrong and that it wasn’t my birthday and I didn’t want the presents, it would have been a double insult. And they all looked so excited and happy, I just couldn’t tell them. I still feel quite weird because I feel as though I lied to them or something, but I guess it’s more that I just didn’t point out their “mistake”.
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The funniest part about this is that I was talking to a different teacher after I had received all of my gifts, and she had seen my kids preparing for this “party” and asked them what they were doing. She says that they knew that it wasn’t my birthday, but that they just wanted to throw me a birthday party. So now I really have no idea what’s going on. Krista made a good point, though, that they probably would have gotten me gifts on my actual birthday, so now I just won’t tell them when my actual birthday comes around.

I still think that it’s incredibly weird that they didn’t just have a random party, but very specifically a birthday party, even though they knew it wasn’t my birthday. I feel very strange right now, and I don’t know how to describe it, it’s kind of a mixture of guilt and wanting to laugh because it is so ridiculous…mainly I have been laughing (I was also laughing for the entire homework class…they kept thinking that I was smiling because I was happy that they had thrown me a party, which I was, but I was really smiling because I was trying really hard not to laugh at the surreal and ridiculous situation that I was in at the time).

Ah the joys of Thailand, you really never know what is going to happen to you. I know that I have said this before, but up until now, this is by far the funniest, and strangest, thing that has happened to me in Thailand.

We also had Christmas dinner tonight, put on by the head Ajarns (kind of like head principals/owners of the school) which was fairly good but, apparently, in Thailand, stuffing comes in loaf form. It was weird…kind of like meat and bread and spices all mashed together…I was not a fan, and I LOVE stuffing!

Last random comment…we have been cold for the past few days, seriously, we have been wearing sweaters, and you know what the temperature is? 20 degrees! I don’t know how I am ever going to come back to a Canadian winter!