Happy Birthday to me

I turned 32 on Saturday. I don't feel old until I actually write the number down (or the kids play their crap music too loud, I eat spicy food, or I drop a stitch in my knitting) and then it's like - boom, you're old. It was very good birthday weekend however and reminds me both why I love living in Korea and why I miss home.

On Friday night, my friend Kyle had a going away party. She has been in Korea for 2 years and decided it was time to go home (with a brief trip around Southeast Asia first). I didn't really tell anyone about my birthday because I feel kind of jerky telling people they should come celebrate me (unless they are good friends or family in which case I remind them on a daily basis due to my awesomeness). A huge group of foreigners and a couple Koreans met at wine bar (the literal hole in the wall bar) to say goodbye. Around 1am my friend Cindy shouted "happy birthday" then other people heard it and spread it around. Kyle got on the microphone, made me go up in front of the room (which I hate) and then made everyone sing me "happy birthday". It was awkward but sweet. I left soon after and went home.

I was woken up on Saturday morning by a call from my brother telling me to get on skype so that we could also add my sister to the conversation. This was extra sweet because it was still Friday night in the US and not technically my birthday so the fact that they remembered to call a day early was nice. We chatted for about 30 minutes (and they attempted to lecture me about my drinking problem which was ironic considering they think drinking a bottle of wine a day is normal), and then two of my cousins joined in the conversation. In total we spent about 2 hours on the computer catching up and sharing internet videos about Saved by the Bell.

After skype, I met up with a group of people from church. They shouted "surprise" at me when I walked into Beans Farm (a brunch place downtown). They bought me some lollipops, earrings and a brownie cake. They also bought me pancakes and coffee! After eating, they lit candles and sang and we ate the cake - it was really good but super chocolaty. Then we went to a coffee shop and talked for a few more hours. We intended to play a board or card game, but it just didn't happen.

Me laughing at someone during "Happy Birthday"

Brownie cake with candles

Konglish (combo Korean/English) on the cake box.

The top of the cake - "Shoot the love"

After coffee, I went home and took a short nap. Then I met up with Liezle, Cindy and 2 new guys. We wanted to play screen golf, which is just like regular golf but you hit at a screen instead of on a course. We hadn't ever done it and wanted to see what it was like, but when we got there it was $20 per person to play and we didn't want to spend that much since none of us are good golfers. We went to a bbq restaurant and had dinner and drinks and talked for awhile. Three other people joined up towards the end and they bought me an ice cream cake. So we lit candles and they sang. When we were almost finished we learned that it was Jon's (new guy) birthday 2 days before, so we added extra candles and sang again.

Soju cheers!

Dinner group (minus Liezle who took the picture)

Baskin Robbins ice cream cake - 4 flavors of ice cream - chocolate, cherry, blue raspberry with poprocks in it and melon. We gave the entire melon section to the waiters because none of us really liked it. Plus we were being all foreigny and taking up a lot of space etc.

Me, Anna and my candle-lit cake

Cake aftermath and Jon's candles. The cake is pretty cool. It comes in a Styrofoam box with dry ice. You tell them how long you need it to stay cool and they add enough dry ice for up to a few hours.

After cake we decided to go play pool. We had a pseudo-tournament of 8 ball. Cindy and I were partners and we sucked pretty bad, but were better than a few others. We played for around an hour or so then went downtown to Beast Bar. Two more people joined in at the bar and we played some darts and danced a little bit. Jon and I also got a free birthday drink.

Me and Cindy at the pool hall (although it's not really a hall). We sucked really bad.

Jon, blurry Dan, me, Cindy, blurry Hyo playing darts. Dan and Cindy were and team and Jon and I were a team. We tied 1 game each.

Then the group (minus one who bailed and he's only 24!) went to Pop Junko. Korea has these places called noraebangs, or singing rooms. I will write another post with more details, but it's basically a karaoke bar with just you and your friends. Pop Junko was built soon after I got here and it looked really nice. I'd been wanting to go for forever, but we never did. I told Liezle around June or July that if we hadn't gone by my birthday, we were going to check it out. So we did. You pay for a group entrance fee which buys you 2 hours of singing. But you also have to buy some food. We ordered chicken. Then Dan told them it was my birthday and they brought us a whole bunch of other food for free, which was really nice. We sang the entire 2 hours including a Disney medley, Wilson Phillips, Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi and a few other gems. At this point it was almost 5 in the morning, so I decided to go home and sleep.

Sign on the boys' room. The girls' room had a similar one, except not (for obvious reasons).

Chicken. It was really good, kind of tangy. It also has peppers, potatoes, onions and  some other vegetable in it.

Free food - japjae, pappingsu, fried egg with something spicy in it, crackers and edemame. They also brought a bowl of ramen.

Anna, Cindy, me and Emily before the singing really started

Not our room, but another in the building. Each room had a different theme.

Liezle and Cindy belting out what I believe is Green Day.

 On Sunday, I went to church, some people wished my happy belated birthday, then we went to lunch as usual. After lunch I went to Brandon and Jamie's and we played Catan for awhile. Then I went home to write 2 tests that I had to give today. My mom called Sunday night to wrap up my birthday weekend. I am thankful for everyone who called, wrote cards, posted on facebook or joined me in any of the celebrations! Thanks!