It's Monika's birthday today!
But since we were preparing for a surprise for her, almost no one congratulated her in the morning. So the morning started off the same like any other mornings, especially for Monika. I could see sparks of disappointment on her face.
The first destination we'd go to was a rice paper factory, where we were going to make a colorful handprint printed on rice paper. Mine is quite messy, especially I didn't get to decorate it and it even took me ages to arrange my name. Aside from making a colorful handprint, making a fan is another activity using the stamp method. I don't want to show my fan since it looks like a joke. Really, it was even more messed up than the rice paper artwork.
Shortly afterwards, we headed out for lunch, and then next activity was followed with cycling! This is, again, one of the most anticipated activities in the program. As for me, I'd rather find cycling a very seldom activity to do, so doing it after ages would be a great experience.
Midway to the "finish line" we stopped to have a bite of cold fruit ice bar, in a hot day. Cold fruit ice + hot day = paradise.
We also snapped some pictures in some spots, but too bad the pictures hadn't been uploaded yet.
Later on, we went straight to the hotel before the dark, and this, is where the whole Monika's birthday plan started. She was with me when we got off the bus and headed towards the storage which kept our luggages. I found mine, but she didn't find hers. Her luggage was one with moss green color and her Chinese name on it. I was certain she put the luggage near to mine.
Until that moment, I hadn't realized that it was actually part of the plan.
My roommate who witnessed her looking for her luggage, immediately took me to our room and told me that it was part of the plan, and that I didn't need to be worried, because the luggage had been taken in the first place (by Audrey) and possibly kept in her room. After the short briefing, my friend and I emerged and started acting.
"Maybe it got swapped with another group's luggage." I told her, but now Monika's expression had drastically changed, now pale and worried.
Luckily, she said, she didn't keep anything precious such as money, passport, or valuable items in her luggage, but still she kept most of her clothes in there.
At the same time, all of my friends from Group 4 wanted to go shopping the mall we visited on Sunday. I was about to come with them when Monika hesitated, forcing herself to look for her luggage. I decided to accompany her though, since she was my cousin and I wouldn't dare to leave her alone in such a crucial time like this (not that crucial though, she had no idea). I came up with the idea to distract her by knocking each rooms in the fifth floor corridor (where our room was located) and asked every residents if they saw a moss green luggage or if their luggage got swapped with it.
But the result was none, of course. I already knew where the luggage was ;).
Carissa, you're a great actress ^^ (self-appraisal)
Monika already looked desperate and we decided to stay in our friend's room (who decided not to go shopping with the others). Once all of our friends returned, we gathered in Audrey's room to practice singing for tomorrow's farewell party. There were more than twenty people inside the tiny room. LOL. We went on singing without even paying attention to the stressed out Monika who sat at the corner.
Just about time, the door bell rang. Turned out it was the fu dao yuans who came to summon Monika. As she went outside to be "judged", all of us stopped singing and put out the hidden cake to prepare the surprise. But the so called missing luggage stayed where it was, which was in the closed closet.
After the candles were lit, we emerged out of the room and...
SURPRISE!!!
We all sang Happy Birthday.
Aww...Monika was struck and stunned at the same time that she was speechless.
We all sang Happy Birthday.
Aww...Monika was struck and stunned at the same time that she was speechless.
"Monika, we got a present for you." We told her to close her eyes while the missing luggage was dragged out of the room. When she opened her eyes... "It's your present!" Haha, you should've really seen her face. ^__^
Anyway, we got back to the room and it seemed like now, everyone including Monika, sang the song excitedly. LOL
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