Birthdays in China

I've never been in much luck for birthdays in China. Certainly having a birthday during peak season at a language school pretty much is a hit or miss that you'll have it off. If it's a weekend, the chances are a definite no. Depending on your school, if you get two days off sporadically, there's a chance. The first birthday I had in China, was July 2010. I had my birthday off. I had originally made plans, but every time I had tried to do something, things canceled. In the mean time, I probably would have been better off if I had just gone along with my original plan, and done it by myself. I had originally wanted to go to the water caves, in Benxi, a town about an hour by train from where I was living, but with only one day off a week, it was a little harder to pull off, as after 6 days of work, it's hard to squeeze in all your errands, sleep, planning, and general life. It's certainly more enjoyable if you have that short span off to do it with a friend. No one seemed to feign interest. So I thought, hmm, sleep, go to my favorite markets, a temple, a football game, and a dinner with some friends after. My roommate, who at the time, was my best friend, said she'd participate, up to the football game, and possibly join for dessert of the dinner, as she had an interview. She ended up sleeping in really late so I went ahead with my plans, however, only got to the market and went to get some cake before I went to the temple and then the football game only to realize that my wallet had been stolen. This normally wouldn't have been an overly bad thing, but it had some important cards in it, that then had to be canceled, and a police report had to be filed, in case any charges had been incurred on my cards. This took most of the afternoon, which meant I had missed the temple and the football game. As I was sitting in the police station, everyone who was supposed to go to the dinner, canceled which left me alone after a horrid afternoon. The next year, 2011, I also had the day off, and chose to plan it and just have my own day where I did whatever I wanted. However, I got really sick and was throwing up blood, and stayed in the hospital for a few days, crappy birthday #2. This year, also managed to live up to the hype, because I had managed to be released from the hospital a week before my birthday, with a system that still wasn't up to par, and classes on my birthday, as well, as a stressful weekend of multiple parent presentations, and my boss watching other classes. I had the day off before, my birthday, and tried to do a normal Chinese birthday. I was still on the sick side, so I had planned for a low energy day, especially since I had an important weekend approaching. I had gone to a painting class, which I enjoyed, and the teacher, as well as a few people that were in the area, made me some special paintings, which I'll include in pictures at the bottom. Sounds all grand and everything, and I had a false illusion that I was actually going to have a normal day before my birthday. However, as I was walking through the park near my apartment, I slipped on a wet rock, and fell into a lake, only to destroy the calligraphy scroll my teacher had given to me for my birthday, and also wrecked my ipod and phone. I ended up lacerating my leg bad enough, that I had to go back to the hospital and get 10 stitches in my leg, because I hit the underwater filtration system on the way down. Gross. So much for a simple day. To top it off the next day, I worked from 10 until 9 the next night, and I was supposed to meet a friend, only to never actually get there at a decent hour to actually manage it. All and all another frustrating round of a birthday. All I had wanted was something simple and I couldn't even get that. In the meantime, here are the photos of the scroll that no longer exists.

I'll post some other more happy and thought provoking posts later this week, hopefully.