25th in Korea!!

It was August 31st, my birthday. I had plans to meet my friend Minkyung in front of Yeongnam University. After classes,I went home to change into more comfortable clothes. Then I headed out for the bus stop that would take me to the university. I arrived without any problems and I met my friend there and she was talking with a crowd of girls surrounding her. I realized that I knew some of them. They were her closest friends. We all introduced ourselves and they started asking me all kinds of questions. We were all starving so we decided to go eat some Korean food. I chose Sangyeopsal, which is one of my favorite Korean dishes. I remember the place clearly sitting next to a group of girls. Remembering all their names would be difficult so they told me English names for me to remember them by. There was Amy, Rachel, Cindy,and Hyoeun. It was nice though I could speak to them in English or Korean whatever I felt most comfortable. We ate a lot but also talked a lot and mostly about me, lol.

We started cooking the delicious pork belly meat. It’s basically bacon or close to it. Then the girls started asking more questions like, why am I here? Do you like teaching? How long do you plan to stay in Korea? I then explained to them my reasoning. They also asked me what my job was before and I told them I was swim coach back in the states. The conversation was nice and then the difficult questions came. Do you remember our names? Then Minkyung asked me, what do you think of my friends? Tell me one by one based on their personality. Wow that was difficult one because I had to make sure I didn’t say anything stupid, lol. Also four of them I just met so it’s not easy to tell that quickly. Anyways, it was a great dinner and I ate a lot of food.

It was great birthday feast. So afterwards we walked down the street looking for the next thing we would do. I decided it was a great idea to go to 'noraebang' or karaoke. In Korea, they are very popular. They are everywhere. Korea is very small so everything is in rooms or 'bang'. You have PC room, DVD room, drinking room, karaoke room, spa room and many more. We found a nice room where we could sing with all six of us. One of the girls, Cindy started off singing and it was hilarious.

She liked many American artists like Avril Lavign, Cold Play, Katie Perry and many more. We sang over and over again. We switched off but I think Cindy sang the most. I sang American songs cause they wanted to hear me sing in English. I sang from artists such as Blink 182, Foo Fighters, Linkin Park, Jay Sean and Eminem. It was a great time.

At first it was just myself, Cindy and Hyoeun and Amy. Minkyung and Rachel were missing but I soon figured it out when they showed up about 20 minutes later with a huge cake with candles on it.

I was surprised and just living in the moment. I made a wish and blew out the candles and then we ate some of the cake which was delicious. Paris Baguette has some amazing cakes. The night soon came to a close and though our crazy karaoke time was over, I knew it wasn't my last. I said my farewells to my new friends and thanked Minkyung for a great time. It was one of the best birthdays I've ever had!!