My 24th Birthday!!

This year I got to celebrate my birthday 4 times! Definitely a first for me! When I went home for a week in March, I had cake with my family at home. (Yum!) Annette gave me Starbucks* coffee beans and a grinder to take back to Taiwan with me-- so I should be all set with coffee for a few months!!
My birthday weekend arrived and Eddie did a really good job of surprising me! He took me to the Taipei flower market on Saturday afternoon. It was spectacular! I've never seen so many orchids in one place at once! Unfortunately, he wouldn't let me buy anything because I'll be moving to a new apartment in a few short months and it would be pointless to buy plants now!

Taipei Holiday Flower Market

That evening, I knew we were meeting some friends for dinner-- what I didn't know is that they had found a Spanish Tapas restaurant in Taipei!! It was delicious!! Really made me miss all the good food I got to eat everyday in Spain!! (Dr. Yien once told me you can find any kind of food in Taipei-- I'm starting to think he's right!) I thought the birthday celebrating was complete. But on Sunday, Eddie dragged me to the "middle of nowhere" in Taipei - a inconspicuous street and address- which just happened to be a dance studio. My birthday gift from him was a month of Salsa classes for the two of us! (We had our first lesson last week and it was a blast!)

Tapas (jamón serrano & queso)


My birthday cake (I LOVE the "??"s!)

As if that wasn't enough, my classmates surprised me with cake and 'champagne' (really lemon green tea) on Monday! We had a great time singing "Happy Birthday" in different languages!

Party with my classmates!

I'm really grateful for the thoughtfulness of all my friends here! I had a WONDERFUL birthday!