#birthday noodle

When some of my students in my year 2 classes found out they didn’t have class in my birthday they told me that since the next day was Labor Day and we wouldn’t have school, that they would throw me a party.
Because of the Chinese culture, non of the girls students’ parents allowed them to come so it was all boys. Before going to dinner we had complete “bro-time” and of course they loved Jon. We were at one of the students apartments. His mom welcomed us at the door and then my student basically pushed his mom out the door so we could all hang out, like any high school boy would do. We talked about all of the necessary topics…. First they talked about video games for what seemed like 80% of the time and LOVED that Jon knew of the games that they played. Then they filled me in on how one of their friends wasn’t their because he had a date with his first girlfriend today. And then of course the most important topic… They taught us Chinese curse words.

After our “bro-time” the boys took us to this amazing Chinese restaurant. They were so sweet and got me a HUGE birthday cake (about 4 times the size of the cake the teachers got me). Jon is still getting used to chopsticks. So, when the boys told him to try the food he struggled to pick up the food and put it on his plate, but when he finally got it, all of the boys cheered! They were so great! One of my students ( the English name he chose was soup) sat next to Jon and helped him out and put food on his plate because he knew Jon was struggling.
When it was time for us to get rice a boy yelled to me “BIRTHDAY NOODLES”… Umm what? So I got a bowl of one Looonnnggg noodle. For this Chinese tradition I had to eat as much of the noodle as I could without it breaking and they count. I think it was whatever number they count to was how many more years I live. I got to 34… I thought that was bad but they told me I did good but hopefully I’ll live longer than 34 years…
My students were amazing and made me and Jon feel so loved! Nothing like a birthday to remind you how blessed you are!