Quarter of a Century

Celebrating my birthday in Korea this year felt different despite it being the second birthday in a row spent abroad. Growing up it seems everyone always thought twenty-five was something special to celebrate, so it was strange to not celebrate with family and old friends. Regardless, my friends made it amazing.

Reservations were made at Ashley (an American style all you can eat buffet) with the help of my Korean teacher, Won. As a result of my birthday also being the last day of the school year, I stayed behind at work for a bit to organize some things for Monday, the new school year. Because of this, I was running late to my own dinner. Thankfully many of my friends were on time ... but to all of our disappointment, I learned while still on the way that they did not have unlimited wine! A big part of going to Ashley is that they have the equivalent of $3 unlimited wine, which is amazing, so I was quite devastated. Won called Ashley again to confirm about the wine, I guess when they said they had wine they failed to mention they had bottles of wine to purchase, not the usual unlimited wine. So at this point, there is a group of us in the subway station and a group at Ashley already and some stragglers throughout Bundang (my area). We were going to change locations, to another nearby Ashley with unlimited wine but learned that some had already started to eat at the original planned location. At this point I took a step back in the plans for the rest of the night.

I was led to Ashley, the originally planned location and the rest is still unknown magic to me. I walked in to James telling me that everything had been sorted regarding wine. Later on, Won showed up with a box of bottles of red wine for all to share. When does that happen in real life? Restaurants never allow you to bring in your own drinks!! Seriously still blown away at how amazing my friends are.

Part of the magic was also the wonderful cake and birthday hat!! So fun. This also truly surprised me.

                                           

Not to mention how many of my friends were able to come out and celebrate with me! The rest of the night was spent at a place called The Big Chill for drinks, darts and pool!

THANK YOU <3

To finish out my birthday weekend, Liisa and I went up Namsan. It's still quite cool in Korea, so the top was quite cold. I had been wanting to do this for so long now as I had only been there once before, during my first week in Korea and at night so I wanted to check it out during the day.

<3