Birthday Fun in Indonesia

Woke up at the usual 5:30am, but today was special, it was my birthday!! Opened my cards that I got before I left and brought with me, it made me feel homesick and miss everyone from home loads!! It felt weird to think that it was my birthday in Indonesia, but in the UK it was still the 25th, the time difference definitely confuses me here, cannot get my head around it!! Anyway it was off to school just after 6am, on the way I got my first birthday pressie from Kate, a gorgeous bracelet with an Indonesia style pattern; it was so nice after only being here 3 weeks.Got to school to lots of people saying happy birthday, it is strange here, they shake your hand when they say happy birthday, nothing I have ever experienced at home.

The children were very sweet and even got pressies from some, which I was definitely not expecting.I had planned something fun for English, as we were looking at instructions writing, I thought it would great to make sandwiches before they wrote the instructions, they had great fun constructing their sandwiches, which consisted of chocolate spread, cheese, sprinkles and tomato in some (really do not get the sweet and savoury combo, but it is big here, maybe one day I will give it a try, but not convinced), but fun was had by all and that was my intention!!I also brought chocolate brownie cake to share with the children at lunch time, which they also enjoyed!!

After school, I spent most of the time not doing much, just wandering to other classrooms, talking to teachers, eating lunch, catching up on Facebook, well it was my birthday, so I thought I deserved an afternoon off.Kate and Chrissy came and said about going to for coffee, then out for dinner after and the others would join us for dinner, that sound cool to me, so finished up in my classroom and locked up, got downstairs and got into the van to have everyone throw balloons over at me, Kate and Chrissy had been fibbing, we were all going out for dinner to a restaurant by the sea, I was so excited, the sea reminds me of home and I had missed it loads.It was long journey, about an hour away from Cirebon, but we were all chatting and there was a lot to look at on the journey!!

When we arrived, it was so nice to smell the sea air again, just makes you realise how much you miss something until you don't see it.The restaurant (Juntipenyet ~ not sure if that's the name of the restaurant or the town) was all outside so you could hear and smell the sea, I ordered my yummy strawberry Fanta and the girls ordered food, as I still don't know what anything is!Being by the sea it was a seafood restaurant, so it was time to be adventurous and give things ago.We ordered fried and grilled shrimps, squid, fish, crabs and of course it wouldn't be complete without the rice, nothing would have been on my order at home, but have just turned 26 and it is going to be the year of adventures, so now was the time to start.I tried EVERYTHING and it was gorgeous, cannot believe I have not given it a go before, but was glad I had now.

After all the lovely food Ms. Indah played happy birthday on her violin and the chocolate brownie cake came out with a 26 candle in, it was so nice and made we feel that I belonged with everyone!!

Everyone had made the day so special and it is definitely one birthday I will not forget in a long time!!

xxx