23

That’s how old I am now! It has been a week-long celebration, and I felt so loved and celebrated. When an intern has a birthday, all the other interns contribute $3 for a group birthday gift. That way, the birthday person receives a gift worth ~$50 while only spending a total of about $50 for 17 other people’s birthdays. But for my birthday, I requested not to receive a group gift; instead, I asked each person save money so that they could cook dinner with me as an apartment. Last week, we had hot pot, and then I made dumplings with another apartment! I almost forgot how good food can taste – not that my own cooking is bad, but it’s just different eating with people who also enjoy the food. And it also looked aesthetically pleasing :D

So Delicious

Then we had Friendsgiving on Tuesday, which was pretty amazing! I didn’t make anything fancy, just heated up apple cider with spices and orange peel. But we had quite the spread, and everyone shared what they were thankful for. I am grateful for the community I’ve found here, and it’s hard to believe that we were all strangers just 110 days ago. And this is me and the new intern, Ruth! We finally got a picture together :) 

Thankful 

There was actually another another lady at Cru who had her birthday on the 19^th (she’s in Orlando on Lake Hart ), and our apartments got dinner together Wednesday night. I made her a cookie cake, which she said was amazing. I thought it looked cool.

Two Desserts in One

Birthday Girls + Roomates

At this point, it’s basically a week-long birthday celebration. But here’s what happened on Thursday (my actual birthday).

I got breakfast with my roommates at First Watch. It was delicious and cute, and we got a buy one get one free coupon, which makes everything better.

Breakfast with Keren & Jennifer

When I got to work, I was greeted with a lot of gifts, and it was so sweet to get presents! My remote team sent me an Edible Arrangement, and I got to see most of them on a video call that day. My new team also celebrated my birthday by getting me flowers and key lime pie, which are so much better than balloons and cake.  I spent the day in a training learning about search engine optimization (SEO) from Jeffrey Kranz, who was engaging and knowledgeable.

All the Presents

And then we had worship night, in the evening, which was super sweet! Aftyn’s friend visited from Michigan, and he jumped onto the cajon and brought so much energy. I love how people can just bond and work together through music. It’s almost magical.

It says "Savior"

This last event has nothing to do with my birthday, but Song, Ruth, and I had dinner with the Sudarmas last night! David Sudarma is the Director of Technology at Cru, and he and his family moved from California three years ago. I know the last name isn’t very telling, but they are also Asian American, and we bonded over good Chinese food, common experiences, and testimonies. It was very cute to see how excited his kids got over roast duck and char kway teow :D I was probably the same when I was little haha. Oh, and I made a small strawberry bouquet for them for dessert. So much cheaper than an Edible Arrangement.

Asian American Squad

Homemade Strawberry Bouquet

Saturday

I finally got to explore Orlando a little bit today. We (my roommates, Song, and Josh) went to downtown Winter Park, where "posh people come and spend money." We visited the Orlando Tea Exchange, Olive Oil, and Krungthep. Here are some pics from the excursion:

Teas galore

So Many Olive Oils

I Love Them

Thank you for reading! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend also 😊