Birthday Party

Austin, Tiffany, Andrew, Jun, Sunny and Noel at Birthday Party

Today was the infamous "Birthday Party" day. Basically, every kid that has a birthday during the month of April has a party together on the last Friday of the month. This month, I had 3 kids with birthdays. Sunny, Jun (who are twins) and Noel; they all turned 6. Our library/gym room gets decorated with balloons, streamers and a massive table full with fruits and cakes. The parents send in goodies which decorate the room, and each child with a birthday has their own birthday cake. They all sit at a long table together, with their cake in front of them, and blow out their candles. The rest of the classes cheer, and perform their rehearsed song/dance. My class did "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." It is very cute and the kids are super excited for their favorite day of the month. Every kid brings in a 2,000 won present for the birthday kids, usually the presents are pencils, coloring books and other fun kid stuff. At the end of the day the birthday kids leave with a huge bag full of gifts from all of their classmates. Basically, best day ever. Not only do they get out of class for 40 minutes to sing and dance but they get a special lunch. This includes, pizza, gimbap (which is a Korean style sushi- rice, seaweed, egg, ham and vegetables), tons of fresh fruit, and birthday cake. The kids go crazy and eat until they explode. Watching them eat all of the food, boggles my mind. I honestly don't know how they can eat so much and be so tiny. It's a really fun day, but everyone usually leaves with a stomach ache, including Hannah Teacher.

My twins, Jun and Sunny with their cake

I'm so happy it is the weekend. We have already celebrated with our Friday ritual: grabbing a Cass at 7-11 (which is downstairs from work.) We have made friends with the man who works there. Now, every time we see him, he says "Ahhh Friday, happy day!" He opens up our beers, wipes them clean with a tissue and gives us free beer nuts. He is our new best friend. People in Seoul are so nice, you sometimes forget about the language barrier because they are always trying to help you. By the way, you can drink anywhere in Korea; on the street, in the cabs, on the subway, the possibilities are endless. Tonight, we are attempting a bar called Jazz Story in Hyehwa to hear some live music and consume 9,000 won beverages.