Joie de Vivre at Thirty

My thirtieth birthday isn't quite here yet....Sunday is the big day. I'm still twenty-nine. That's right, still clinging to the last remaining bits of my twenties. I hope to usher in my 30's with verve and joie de vivre. I am enjoying my celebrations thus far. I must say, my students here in Taiwan are the best students I've ever had, and more than I could have ever hoped for when I entered into the teaching profession. The semester is almost finished, and I'm actually a little sad that many of my students are seniors and graduating from university this semester. My Monday night level one class threw me a big surprise birthday party on Thursday night, with a delicious chocolate cake and presents (a great bottle of red) and beer (per Taiwanese tradition I had to toast everyone in the class, so I had more than my share of beer) and a homemade banner and my former students from the NTUST winter program gave me a homemade card and everyone signed it and wrote a sweet note. They gave me a present (jade) and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" in English and Chinese and Taiwanese. haha...they won! I didn't exactly finish my lesson plan that evening.

Yesterday my Presentation Skills class threw me another surprise birthday party, with another delicious cake and then the sweetest thing: each student in the class came up to me individually and gave me a flower with a personalized note and wished me a happy birthday. My apartment is flooded with flowers now, and smells great. They gave me some traditional Taiwan birthday treats (for long life--they said they normally give them to older folks, hahaha, but wanted me to experience the tradition). Later in the day, my Engineering class serenaded me with "Happy Birthday" and I even had two of the girls in my class sing a karaoke style song for me using the mic in our room. These are two girls who never say a peep in class, so I was really shocked that they stepped up and sang a song for me together. It's the most I've heard out of them all semester. They sang "Dear Diary," a cheesy pop ballad, but sweet nonetheless.

In many ways, teaching at NTUST is a dream come true for me. If I forget about all the politics and uncertainties and many of the hoops I've had to jump through and just focus on the actual teaching and the students and my daily experience with them, I must say, it's more than most teachers could ask for. I am very lucky and very happy to be here with them now. I am blessed and thankful for this experience. I wish Rachel could be here with me to ring in our 30th birthday together; it seems right to be together, since we came into this world more or less together (okay, I was 11 minutes earlier, but that's about as close as you can get). However, I''m remaining grateful that I've had such a wonderful experience in Taiwan for my birthday (and it's not even here yet). I am enjoying life and feeling like I'm making a difference and doing something I love and am passionate about. What's better than that?