Almost a month ago, this girl turned a quarter century old. It's been a pretty rad 24 years, and I'm sure number 25 will continue in the same tradition. My birthday, itself, sure lived up to the hype. Here's what happened:
Friday: I arrived to school late (which really seems to be more like on-time for me), just in the nick of time to fill up my water bottle, grab my fan and Bible and make it to church. After church, I noticed a beautiful plant on my desk from my parents, procured by Dionne and Scott. A delightful start to a delightful day. After lunch, the English department sang to me and gave me a delicious cake. Aaaaand, Dionne hauled out a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake, too. NICE.
Saturday: Desiree had created a Facebook event for my birthday dinner to be held at my favorite sushi restaurant in Gangnam. Some people told me why they couldn't come but most people didn't respond at all, and I'm not going to lie, I was feeling a little disappointed. Desiree even called me out for being in a funk. But, as soon as Desiree, Ben and I got on the bus to Seoul in pursuit of Dos Tacos, I was on the mend and as soon as we arrived in Seoul, I realized that it was going to be a beautiful day: two of my best pals and I got tacos, burritos, nachos, etc., and had one of those great conversations that makes you understand why you're friends in the first place.
Post-tacos, we got a couple of drinks close to where we would eat dinner later and continued our conversation. Desiree kept leaving to take phone calls, and later explained that there was something wrong with her car at home that needed to be figured out pronto. Right around the time we had planned to get sushi, Desiree announced that she was super hungry and that we should go get our sushi NOW. I thought that was a little weird since we had just eaten lunch not three hours before, but who was I to question Desiree's appetite?
We walked up the stairs to the second floor restaurant and as we walked in, I noticed a big group of people seated in the corner. Upon a little closer inspection, I realized that that large group of people were all of my close friends here. Every. Single. One. Desiree and Ben pulled off one of the biggest surprises I've ever experienced. As we sat and enjoyed our sushi, talking and making plans for later, I was continually blown away by what I had just experienced. I couldn't believe how much planning, effort and time went into pulling off such a surprise about which I had absolutely no idea.
After sushi, we had some time to kill before it was a reasonable clubbing hour, so we set up shop at a chicken restaurant to imbibe a few beverages. A couple of hours later, and a couple of people added to our motley crew, we made it to my favorite club in Apgujang, Bunker. And, oh, what a birthday commenced. Since my actual birthday happened at midnight, at 12:05, Ben, Vanessa and I (all Iowa State grads) shared a shot of Jack and I told the bartender it was my birthday. I came away from the bar with a bottle of champagne, a birthday hat and a birthday song ringing throughout the club.
We danced the night away, got home at 5:30 AM and I spend my actual birthday completely, and believe it or not, delightfully hungover. Diane made me dinner that night and I rung in my 25th year in my pajamas with a bottle of water by my side, rehashing how fantastic a birthday was created for me by some of the most fantastic pals for which an expat such as myself could ask. A month later, I'm still smiling about it. Fantastic.
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