Birthday Celebrations and Seoul Tower

Here we are in the staff office at DYB, and ALMOST all of my co-workers are in the shot. They surprised me (though I shouldn't have been surprised since I'd seen them do this for other co-workers) with a chocolate cake and a lovely spread of fruits in honor of my (gulp) 34th. I was really touched that they actually obliged for the photo. Sometimes my they can be very camera shy. This will be a keepsake for me, since I've never gotten a pic of them all together before.

Kyung-hee and Jeong-hyeon bought me some "bling bling" - which is an inside joke since one of my previous lessons had been on hip-hop culture and one of the new words I taught the kids was "bling bling" - and I was obviously in shock. You'll also notice my tiara, which I bought that morning at Home Plus, and thought, "When can you rock a tiara if not on your birthday?" Plus I thought it would make the kids laugh. This is clearly not the US, though, where most students would just laugh at me, and tell me how lame I was, because most of my students here just thought it was pretty. Guess I should have tried to find a princess dress to reiterate the fact that I was NOT being serious!

One of the only classes I've had the whole year I've been here (they are now 3rd year middle school students and are absolutely brilliant - it is an honor to be in the same classroom with them) made me a cake out of choco pies and surprised me at the end of the class. I will pretend that I don't know it was Yu-jin teacher who actually arranged the whole thing and wanted me to believe it was the kids' idea. ;-)

After work, we had a little "after party", and Kyung-hee ordered a pizza, I got some spicy chicken with dokh, and we had some wine and Pepsi. The girls stayed at my place until around 2am, which isn't as crazy as it sounds considering we work until 11pm.

Mmmmm... pizza. (Yes, I am a total dork.)

Here is the view from the cab of the 63 Building in Seoul where I made reservations for some friends of mine from church to celebrate my birthday on the following Saturday. It's one of the tallest buildings in Seoul, and has incredible views from the rooftop bars and restaurants. We will be going to the "Walk on the Clouds" wine and whiskey bar. I was so excited about the view, and then it happened to rain all day. Ah, well. It was still quite beautiful.

Pamela and me mugging for my camera in the cab.

Here are Yeong-ho and his wife Kelly and Pamela.

Here is that famous killer view.

The whole group! From left to right: Yeong-ho, Kelly, Pamela, me, Erica, and her husband Mike.

This is so retro-chic in my opinion. These are numbered cases where customers can store the whiskeys they purchase. One of the rules of the bar I learned upon making the reservation was that you had to buy one bottle of wine or one bottle of whiskey to reserve a table, and I remember thinking, "Who's going to down a bottle of whiskey in one sitting?" Hence the cubbies. There were some expensive collections in here, too.

The following day, Kyung-hee and Un-mi planned an outing to Seoul Tower (or, Namsan Tower). It's the highest point in Seoul. You could say my birthday weekend was one of scaling new heights, not the least of which was the very high number of 34... I'm still reeling.

Here is the last place your car will go, and the rest is either by cable car or on foot. Koreans love hiking, and there are so many different places to trek up. This one was gorgeous and fully paved, though it will still do a number on your calves, particularly if you're wearing heels (note Un-Mi's feet).

Here's a lookout point about halfway up.

Un-mi and Kyung-hee.

Could she be any cuter? And the answer is: no.

Here is the view from the base of the tower.

Before going on the elevator ride up the the 360 degree view at the top of the tower.

Kyung-hee and me at the top.

The windows all around the top show you how far you are from a specific world location. This window proved just how far I am from home.

You can buy souvenir tiles and decorate them, and then superglue them onto the wall. We decided to buy one, and to come back and visit it someday when we're older (I think we decided 10 years or less)! It makes me teary-eyed to think about it. Oh, and I discovered that Kyung-hee is quite the little artist!

Here is the home for our tile.

The journey is complete, and we're about to head back down the mountain and find some dinner.

There was a fondue restaurant at the base of the mountain! It's hard to find anything cheese-related here, so this was very exciting. Here we are on our appetizer course, and the cheese came later. We were very, very stuffed at the end of it.

Earlier in the day before meeting Un-mi, Kyung-hee and I went to Suwon Station, and I saw bundaegi again, which I hadn't seen or smelled since the summer, and HAD to take a picture even though it embarassed Kyung-hee to no end. It is the discarded chrysalis a caterpillar sheds when becoming a butterfly, and is served in a paper cone and eaten with toothpicks. I cannot describe the smell... It's something like a fermented, salty, brown, earthy scent, and to my American nose, it's just awful. I really wish I could tell you that I tried it, but I didn't. All I could do was take a picture. I guess if Kyung-hee really liked it and bought some I would have tried it, but Kyung-hee thinks it's gross. However, most of my students and co-workers really like it, so maybe it's not that bad.

Here is my birthday presents from the aforementioned class that made the choco pie for me. I love them. Two students were coerced at the last minute into dancing for me and for the class. It's adorable.