Muchas gracias.

Spanish class tonight seemed to crawl by. We learned how to conjugate -er and -ir verbs, and also learned the words for many household chores. Yuck. I am not going to have know how to say cutting the grass when I'm in Spain, so it seemed quite silly. In addition, we learned the verb for open, abrir, but we don't know the verb for close yet, since it's irregular. Luckily, we finally learned comer so I can now eat, as well as drink, in Spanish.

Anyway, the past couple days have been full of celebration, and it's all left me very thankful. My birthday yesterday was great. My first period class sang happy birthday to me. It was the birthday of a kid in the class too which made it more fun. I brought that class treats. Last semester, one of my little grade 9s and I were talking birthdays for some reason, and she wrote on her exam that she'd visit me on my birthday, and she remembered which was sweet.

Fea, Rasa, and I went out for lunch at a little Italian restaurant down the street from our school. Can you believe this is the first time I've left work on a regular school day to have lunch? We all have our prep time after lunch, so that's why we could be a little bit more leisurely. It was so relaxing and hard to get back.

This particular birthday has left me feeling especially thankful for all of the thoughtful people that I have in my life. Last year, I turned 30, and I think I was a little bit freaked about that so I didn't really enjoy my birthday as much. This year, I was so touched by all of the the people who spent time sending me messages, phoning me, giving me super thoughtful gifts, cooking dinner for me, and who have made time to have dinner with me this weekend. It's so nice to know that there are so many people out there who remembered the day, and thought happy thoughts about me.

Muchas gracias mis amigos!