Kara Turns 30!

Yes, this post is late, but I still thought it might be important to share with you the way in which my birthday was celebrated this year.

First, we cannot talk about my birthday without a little bit of background information. Once such piece of information, for instance, is that I LOVE my birthday. Love it! I realize that not everyone does, because of that whole aging thing, but I do. My birthday is not about aging, it's about celebrating another year of my life, and I'm a big fan of my life. So you can see why I'd be a fan of my birthday. Subsequently, I feel that a day is just not enough time to thoroughly celebrate my birthday. Hence, I introduce the birthday week.

The other piece of important background information was that this year was not just any old birthday. This year, I turned 30, so you know, it was kind of a big deal.

As you all ready know, just a few short weeks before my birthday week my mom and Roger were here. And while they were here, we spent a lot of money. So to be honest, I was a little worried that my 30th birthday was going to be a lack luster saving money birthday. That worry was just kind of silly though, because I'm married to the most amazing man in the world and I have some pretty amazing friends. The amazing folks in my life would never let me have a lack luster birthday, even if it had to be on a budget.

To kick off my birthday week, Neils gave me my present on Monday. He bought me a magenta HP Mini. I named her Maj and I love her. We were pretty much connected for the rest of the week. He also cooked a fabulous Mexican feast. We really miss Mexican food here and there's a lot we can't get. However, Neils made due with what we have access to and whipped together a really fabulous meal of chicken tacos, home made pico de gallo and home made guacamole. We ate that with tortillas, sent from home, and we were blissfully full for the rest of the night,  not to mention the next day because of left overs.

Then the rain came. And listen, when I say the rain came, I mean it started one day and it DID NOT QUIT. I've never seen rain like that before. It wasn't a little trickle that happened on and off. It was a monsoon that was constant for five days (at least) straight. This rain flooded parts of Nakhon Si Thammarat city and devastated other cities around us. The entire city of Hat Yai had several feet of water. In fact, I'm not sure it's dry even now. I saw picture of kids in Nakhon Si Thammarat literally swimming in the streets. It rained so hard that they called off school for two days. While it rained, we pretty much stayed in. Luckily, Mom and Roger left behind a bunch of food they had brought over but didn't want to carry home, because we were not interested in trying to battle that kind of rain on a motorbike for groceries. During this rain I came to a realization, rain is really depressing. I mean, up until now in Thailand, I've really kind of liked the rain. Up until now in Thailand, when it would rain it would last for a few hours, really cool things down and make them berable. Then the sun would come out and you could go outside and enjoy sunshine and some slightly cooler temps. Therefore, up until now I was a fan of rain in Thailand. However, when the rain didn't stop and the sun didn't shine, things changed. I am no longer a fan of the rain in Thailand.

Wednesday and Thursday we didn't have school, but the teachers still had to come to work. So, I made the most of the day, lesson planning and helping Neils and crew set up their classroom. Thursday was my actual birthday, so our boss let Neils and I come in at 9am (our usual start time is 7:30am). Then for lunch the Thai folks at our school threw me a little birthday feast. Teacher Ben, my Thai teacher, brought me a cake. Waradee ordered lunch from the cooks and they all set up this lovely little buffet. At lunch time Waradee came and got me out of my office and when I walked into the lunch room, there were candles lit on the cake, everyone yelled "Happy Birthday," and then sang to me. It was very very sweet! Unfortunately, neither Neils nor I thought to grab the camera (it was all a surprise after all), so there are no pictures. You'll just have to trust me when I say it was very nice. Shortly after lunch we were allowed to call it a day and go home.

Then slowly, Friday came around. The rain continued and I was worried that it would ruin my birthday party. I was worried that no one would want to come out if it mean braving the monsoon, so I made a Facebook plea with Mother Nature. I asked her to just give me that evening and that night with little to no rain. It worked! The rain stopped for most of the evening and only rained a little later that night after we were all ready at the party.

And what a party it was! We kicked off the night Korean BBQ style. Picture a meat buffet with all sorts of different types of meat that you pile on to a tray, bring back to your table and cook right in front of you. You have this little fire pit in the middle of your table and over that is set something that sorta resembles a bunt cake pan. This special cooking pan allows you to choose between grilling your food on the rounded metal part in the middle or boiling your food in the broth contained in the well all around. We met 20+ people for dinner there and made sure our tummies were full before the second leg of the party.

Partial group photo at dinner

After dinner, we headed out for drinks. Our friend Valerie and her boyfriend Big were in the process of preparing for the grand opening of their new bar/restaurant. It wasn't set to open to the public for another few days, but she graciously offered to host my birthday party. This was a surprise to me. Neils and our friend Lydia set it up, so I didn't know where the location was going to be until Friday morning. The bar was amazing! We hung out there for most of the night, chatting with friends and generally enjoying being out of the house and in a social situation. The music was great and everyone had a really wonderful time.

A look into Nakhon Si Thammarat's coolest bar

Some of the ladies

Party goers

So despite the rain, I had a really fabulous birthday. A big thanks to my wonderful husband, all my Thailand friends, Valerie, Big, and everyone from home who sent me birthday wishes, for making 30 a really great celebration!

And now that you know how we celebrated, I would now like to share with you some aging philosophies I've developed, particularly in relation to turning 30.

During dinner, someone asked me how it felt to be super old. I laughed and told him "Great! I am looking forward to 30." His eyes widened with disbelief and he asked me if I was also looking forward to 80. Ha!

I can't say that I am really looking forward to 80, but it's not right around the corner yet. Ask me again in 39 years. However, I really am looking forward to 30. I've kind of decided that your 20s are for finding yourself, discovering who you are and what you want (to some extent). And while I think this discovery is a life long process I think that during your 20s you kind of figure out where you want to start out or what you want to start out after. Then your 30s are for getting on with it. That's what I'm looking forward to, the getting on with it. I hope that in this decade of my life Neils and I become parents. I hope we can both find careers that are extremely fulfilling and that we can continue try to do our little part to make things a little a better than they were before. So yes, I AM looking forward to my 30s. I have big plans for them.

Hope you are well!