Who says you can't have a good birthday in rural China! You definitely CAN! Before I was really sad thinking about spending my birthday in Qinghai away from my friends and family. However, to my pleasant surprise I had a great birthday in Qinghai. My birthday was yesterday March 15th. I spent it with my program partner Julie and staff from the CDC. I had two birthday cakes and a great birthday dinner. I guess the CDC staff really felt like they were comfortable with me because they sure were friendly when they painted my face with frosting. They not only did it once, but twice! I just couldn't get away from getting frosting all over my face when a birthday cake was around. On the night of my birthday all the staff took me out to a birthday dinner. As part of the tradition they order everyone a big bowl of long life noodles, which are these really thin long noodles. Before anyone eats, everyone pulls out a bit of noodles from their own bowl, wishes me a long and happy life and places it into my bowl. It was really sweet. I felt like I was surrounded by close friends. On a different note, I think I spoke too soon when I said the weather was nice. The sand/duct storms are in and man is it bad. The air is totally filled with dust. It is hard to keep my eyes open and breathe. Dust Everywhere!! Julie and I both feel kinda sick from the air pollution. Our throats are starting to feel sore and our sinuses are a bit plugged. Definitely not fun!
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