My 27th Birthday in Korea

Wow .. a whole year has passed since we started writing the blog! One of my first posts last year was about my birthday. And now here I am, living in Korea, celebrating 27.

All week I had been spoiled with cards coming in from my family. Getting mail from home, especially when anything that ever arrives in your mailbox is in Korean, is a welcome treat. Sarah even shipped me some Reece's Peanut Butter cups, which after the trip looked more like peanut butter pancakes.

The contents of Sarah's package - including pictures!

Mom's Card

Pancakes!

Everyone made the days surrounding my birthday feel special. I was treated to lunch by both Christine and Bre (my coworkers). One day I arrived at school to a gift on my desk from my closest Korean colleague, Grace. She gave me a traditional Korean jewellery box for my birthday. It's gorgeous!

The night before my actual birthday, JM and I joined our friend Nick and company for some NOREBANG! If you don't know what that is, well it's the Korean version of karaoke, but you are in a private room with just you and your friends! So you get to sing all the songs you want, and you don't have to listen to the random people in the bar who suck! It was our first time, and it was awesome.

Disco ball in our private norebang room

Nick being thoroughly annoyed by us singing Justin Beiber. Hatin' on the Beebs!

This year, my birthday fell on a Saturday. I was treated to breakfast in bed, but then JM had to work in the afternoon, giving some demo classes to potential students. I went with him to school because, even if JM wasn't around, I decided to make the best of it.

Yummy!

Bringing me breakfast!

JM being adorable

Home made card!

Funny Korean gift bags

A long time ago I had promised my after school class, Creative Expressions, that I would take them out to Korean BBQ for dinner. They eat cafeteria food every day - it gets boring. But admin had told me I could only do it on a weekend. This Saturday happened to be the first that I was in town (not traveling for frisbee), so I told my students to meet me at Bugil's front gate and we would head downtown. This is a class that I absolutely love. They are wonderful, funny, energetic, and all around pleasant students to teach. We went out for grilled meat and they surprised me with Ferrero Rocher chocolates for my birthday. It was so sweet.
 

Lunch with my students

Through Cheonan Ultimate Frisbee, I had organized a pick up game for later that afternoon, and we had the best turn out yet! Might have had something to do with the fact that I milked the birthday thing ... but who knows. ;)

Finally, on the Sunday JM and I went out for a really nice dinner. We hadn't been to any of the steakhouses in Cheonan yet, so we decided to try VIPS, where they also have an extensive salad bar (that has way more than just salad). It was delicious! I had a really lovely weekend and birthday. Thank you to everyone who made it special!

Jennika

Got dressed up to go to VIPS!