Another Year Older

Last Friday I celebrated my birthday! It was strange to be so far away from home and miss celebrating with my family, but I want to say a huge "thank you" to everyone who sent cards, emails and packages! It made my day extra special. Since my birthday fell on a Friday I decided to make the most of my school day and planned "cookie parties" with some of my classes. This is what they call it when we let them bring snacks to eat during class, usually only on special occasions. I also brought a Korean treat called "choco pies" for the kids. It's pretty much like a Little Debbie snack cake with marshmallow in the middle, but they love it! Unfortunately, my birthday was not a good enough reason for the students to modify their behavior at all, so it turned out to be a frustrating evening. Holly and I went out to eat pizza after work with two of our coworkers, which was a nice way to finish off the day.

Saturday we planned to spend the day exploring Dongdaemun Market in Seoul and doing some shopping. As I said in my previous post, the torrential downpour kind of made this a challenge, but we didn't let that stop us! Thank goodness for underground shopping malls!! We also found a nearby Starbucks to take a break from the wetness. For dinner, we met all of our coworkers and Korean friend, Joey, at an Italian Restaurant called "Mad for Garlic." We'd heard good things about the food, which turned out to be true. In my opinion, the meal didn't seem extra garlicky tasting, but they did go a little wild with the "garlic" decor of the restaurant...garlic bulbs attached to huge pendant lights, custom sconces in the shape of garlic cloves, random strings of garlic hanging from the walls, etc. Actually, it was all very nice and I'm glad to have such great people in my life to share it with. See below for a photo (from the internet...I forgot to take any pictures that evening).