Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is a short, sweet and special post before I continue with our regularly scheduled programming. I had my birthday a couple days ago and wanted to share it with everyone. It was a wonderful week that was full of surprises! A couple I knew were coming and a couple that caught me completely off guard. It all started on Sunday, the day we usually go to Gaeksa.

The plan was to find a bookstore that, through the awesomeness of Facebook, we'd heard sold English books. The directions were exceptionally vague but we figured to give it a shot. As wee went out on our search we ended up stopping in a small Sony store to see if he could narrow the location down for us. For once it worked! The Korean acted like a nice American and instead of just nodding and waving uselessly he proceeded to draw us a map. In the process of following the map we ran across a instrument store (very common in Korea) which we went into.

Since we'd gotten here we'd been looking for a cheap keyboard to learn to play piano on but had had no luck. Still we kept trying every chance we got. This time we looked and Catherine also asked about the guitars. They were also outside our range, the guys were rude and we hadn't even intended to look for anything so we left. Two doors down we found another shop and we went in. The man was much nicer as we tried to find out if the W110,000 guitar was the cheapest in the store. We tried using Google translate, miming but all he did was drop the price to W100,000. We continued to try and figure out if it was the cheapest guitar in the shop, considering the store layout and price progression we thought it was,  and in the process the guy lowered the price down to W90,000. It was sold.

I have begun the slow, painful, process of learning the guitar. So far I can play five chords but I rarely remember their names and can't switch between them with any speed. I am also able to play the intro to 'Day Tripper'. Not bad for a couple of days at it!

That night Catherine had a surprise for me. She'd heard about this restaurant known to have the best steak in town. So she figured we'd have my birthday dinner a little early because it was our best oppertunity. We got there, not sure if they would let us in as we didn't look very fancy with a guitar on my back, and were told to wait for a table. We got a menu and started browsing. First thing to note is that the meals were quite expensive, not outrageous, just expensive. Since it was my birthday I got the Filet and Lobster while Catherine got a Rib eye. We ordered as soon as we sat down. The waiter explained, once we got an English speaking one, that my meal included two salad bars pointing to a buffet looking area.

We got up and walked over there where they had a normal looking salad bar, make-your-own fajatas bar, pizza area, dessert plates, all sorts of things. At first we were cautious and only grabbed from the salad area but then Catherine asked a nice lady nearby if our 'salad bar' included everything. Indeed it did! We dove in with reckless abandon, the steak could be wrapped up and brought home, endless western food could not! There was some awesome corn chowder soup, actual salad (harder to find than you would think), and more. It was great!

My steak came out on this weird hot plate. Since the waiter couldn't really explain it but didn't want me to cut into the steak (as compared to Catherine who he forced to cut her steak so he was sure it was the proper color) we figured I was to cook it at the table. The lobster was great, not fishy tasting at all (ahem, Catherine) :-) It was a great night out with my lady though I think next time we'll stick to just the buffet and turn it into a multi hour affair.

I love licking the cake bowl!

Most important part of German chocolate cake!

 On Monday, the day before my birthday , Catherine allowed me to open a single gift. It was a super comfy pair of underwear. The rest would have to wait until the next morning. The rest of the night was to be filled with the most sentimental part of my birthday: baking a German chocolate cake. For the uninformed, I have always gotten a German chocolate cake for my birthday. Even when I was at school I would either buy or bake myself one. The problem in Korea is they don't believe in cakes....so Catherine, being the wonderful girl she is, had her mother send the ingredients from America. On that note, thanks again Mrs. Given! We figured out how to use our microwave/convection oven to bake the cake one layer at a time as we only had one pan and the even couldn't have fit another even of we did. The icing would also wait for the morning.

Corned beef hash for the win!

The next morning Catherine served me breakfast in bed. What a surprise! The even better part oof the surprise is that it included corned beef hash! I love corned beef hash and no, they don't have it in Korea.....just another thing to add to the list. It was delicious and I washed it down with a fresh brewed cup of coffee :-) Then I was allowed to open my gifts, except for a very thin card shaped one that she set aside for later. I received a couple books, one testing my knowledge of American history and another that I had almost bought at the bookstore in Seoul. Apparently my darling had nabbed them during my indecision :-) I received another pair of underwear, a couple bars of Toblerone, and a nice card from the Given family. That left two gifts that Catherine had kept to the side for last. Catherine handed me the smaller of the two and I ripped into it to find a cell phone case....for I phone I didn't have. Understanding the clue I immediately demanded the other box. I hastily opened the wrapping to find a brand new Galaxy S2 LTE!

Yes, they sell wrapping paper that looks like newspaper.

My awesome new phone!

I'd been complaining about the tiny, out of date slow, and very irritating phones the school provided to us since we arrived. Catherine, knowing how much it meant to me, had been lobbying our bosses for some time to get a newer phone. Apparently she only found out/received the phone the day before my birthday. It was an amazing gift! The best part being that it was free :-)  The school bought the phone and I just pay the bill. I spent the rest of the morning playing with my phone and icing, with the awesome coconut pecan icing, my cake.

We went to work and my plan, since I had my 'good' classes that day, was to make it an easy day if possible for my students. The plan went off without a hitch....even got better because one the Korean teachers was absent/sick for three classes. This led me to have movie day with both classes for 3 periods. Talk about an easy day :-). My next class is my speaking only class and we had a built in topic, birthdays. One of my fellow teachers, Tamna, surprised me by giving me a nice box of 6 small bottles of local berry wine. It's quite nice though more to Hillary's tastes than mine :-) Since I rarely have a last class on Tuesday's I was looking forward to my everyday class.

My card from my Darlin :-)

 They talk enough English that we could easily avoid the book but still have a good lesson. We talked until about 15 minutes were left in class and then counter teacher brought in a box. The students were immediately excited and started speaking in Korean to counter-teacher. They started opening the box and sorting supplies. Turns out the cake, as that was what was in the box, comes with candles and matches.....the candle part wasn't unusual but I never thought it would include matches! My students arranged the cake, turned off the lights and sang a half-hearted "Happy Birthday". Of course, that might have been because I led the class with a rousing rendition of the song earlier :-). The cake was delicious and I saved enough for Catherine to have a piece. I shared it with her during our next period as neither of us had class. It was during this period that she got out a stack of cards she'd had her students make as an English project: how to make a birthday card! Most were cute, some great, and others not so much but the thought was amazing! My darlin spoils me too much!

My school cake! Yum!

The Three Amigos aka the bane of my existence.
From left to right in phonetic spelling: Song-Doe, G-Don, and Neh-Mar

 I'll have you know that while the cake at school was awesome I ate such less of it than I usually would. That's because I had my special treat to look forward too! All the way home I kept thinking about the chocolaty goodness waiting for me. We had invited our fellow teachers, Liz and Tamna, to come eat some cake but Tamna already had plans unfortunately. We went upstairs got out the cake, I got too excited and started cutting a piece so Catherine yelled at me....sorry again darlin. She placed and lit the candles, Liz graciously recorded our rendition of "Happy Birthday", and I blew them out with a wish. Then I got busy cutting the cake. The sooner it was cut the sooner I could eat my slice! It was absolutely fantastic, best cake I've ever had! That might be because I know my cake fix will be filled at intervals few and far between but no matter. It made my birthday. Sure it was a great day but the cake was the coup de gras!

Turns out there was still one present left though, that little card shaped item Catherine had put aside earlier. I ripped into it to find an index card from my darlin saying I now had a year's subscription to the digital New York Times! I haven't been reading the news mucsh here because of lack of time and ability. So my lady thought it would be Alice complement to my new smartphone to give me full access to the daily news. Have I told you she's an awesome girl? Cause she is!