You Gotta Have Friends...

Not long after we arrived was one of the most important events in the year: my birthday. This time around I was turning the big 2-6. I am now officially closer to 30 than 20. Blah. However, as my mom always says, getting older is much better than the alternative. Hehe.

Matt didn't have a massive amount of time to plan my birthday but managed to do a pretty good job. Some unfortunate circumstances meant that everyone we invited wasn't able to make it but we had a fab time with the friends who came.

First off we met up with Eddie and Gisela and went ice skating at Lotte World!! You may remember that this is what I wanted to do last year but Lotte World failed a safety check or something and the entire place was shut down! Skating was so much fun! I used to skate a lot when I was a kid but I hadn't been in years. In Korea they have interesting rules about everything and this was no exception. You're not allowed to skate at Lotte World unless you wear gloves so you'll notice that Matt is wearing weird gloves that he rented for 500 won (about 50 cents).
Skating here was an interesting experience. It was ridiculously crowded and you had to remain vigilant at all times. There were kids everywhere and 85 lb Korean girls clinging to their boyfriends and bringing them down every other lap. Craziness! The ice got really destroyed too and after about an hour they herded everyone off so they could use the zamboni again.

After we'd had our fill of ice antics we met up with Dana and Curtis. This was especially exciting since it was our first time seeing them in Korea!! Next we decided to go and eat some dinner. None of us were really familiar with this part of Seoul (and since we've just moved here we really don't know much ourselves) so we ended up choosing Hooters.
This was hysterical to me on many levels. I've never actually been to a Hooters before and I thought it was funny that my first time would be in Asia. The food was decent and I got a big kick out of the dance routines they randomly performed and by my birthday song. They made me stand on my stool and use the menus as wings. When they pointed at me I had to say "La la la, it's my birthday". Embarrassing, but pretty frickin' hilarious. Definitely memorable.
What birthday would be complete without some norae bang? Plus, Dana and Curtis had been in Korea over a month and still hadn't been initiated!! Unacceptable! As you can see, they are both naturals and since my birthday we have rocked out numerous times. The highlight of the norae bang was when Matt and Eddie sang a special birthday song dedicated to me. I think Matt hit the wrong numbers and a totally random Korean song came on! Instead of just hitting the stop button and trying again they decided to go with it. (They didn't try to sing in Korean, they just made up English lyrics.) Well they must have a knack for that sort of things since they scored a 99 for their efforts! I thought I was going to pee my pants!

Okay, this is starting to get really long so I think I will make a separate entry for what happened on my actual birthday. A tad narcissistic? Sure. But it's my blog. (^ ^)