A Quarter Of A Century Later...

Today, I am 25 years old...or as I told my kids, "Today, I am old." hahaha sorry Mom.


On top of my birthday party on Saturday, my actual birthday was full of fun, smiles, and laughter. My kindergarten kiddies were so cute and brought me lots of presents and my KT helped them decorate the classroom with birthday signs that the kids made. They made me cards and sang to me a few times throughout the day. I got THREE birthday cakes - a sweet potato (Yeah I don't really know either) one from my class, one from Nick, and a cheesecake from the Director...Nick's cake was by far the best though. It was an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. Korean Baskin Robbins' cakes blow American Baskin Robbins' cakes out of the water. There was no cake involved, only ice cream (my favorite part!) The cake had whipped cream icing with chocolate lattice and white chocolate swirls, glazed raspberries and blackberries. Inside was cherry ice cream and then the center was a vanilla ice cream with chocolate wafer candy chunks and swirls of caramel. IT WAS DELICIOUS. It was also one of the first times I've indulged in sweets in the past month, so it was extra wonderful to have a small slice!


My afternoon kids also brought me some presents, drawings, and cards, even though today was Level Tests and they all had to take these intense tests instead of doing regular classes. I was so thankful for all my wonderful students who made my birthday a little bit better.


After school let out, Nick and I hopped in a cab and went to our favorite restaurant in Korea - the Tuna House. The chefs were quite happy to see us again and we enjoyed bluefin and yellowfin morsels while sitting at the sashimi bar and chatting it up with a Japanese couple who was seated next to us. As always the fish was superb and we marveled at how the tuna just melted in our mouths. Since it was my birthday the chefs gave us some extra special pieces of tuna, and we also got to stuff ourselves on our favorites. We had blow-torched tuna with green onions and sauce, our favorite pickle and peanut butter wrapped tuna, and some amazing dark red chunks of tuna that looked more like wiggly jelly than fish. It was soooo good.


I had such a wonderful birthday - a great celebration of the past 25 years. I can only hope that the next twenty five years are as exciting and full of love and adventure! I felt very lucky to have such a good life, and even though I was far away from many of the people that I love and hold dear, I was happy that Nick and my students and my friends here in Korea did such a grand job of making it special for me.