Celebrating 22 Years

I'm 22! Ha, well as usual I have felt like I have been 22 for a while. THANK YOU summer birthday, NOT. anyway, I had a very nice birthday here in Korea. I did miss celebrating with family and friends. My friend Taylor came down from Ilsan and stayed here in Seoul to help celebrate my birthday. We started the day off by going to Myeongdong for the day. It is about 20-30 minutes away from where I live. It is a very popular shopping area (it felt like there were a million people in this small area - see picture) with an awesome market where you can find anything from socks, to sunglasses, to tall ice cream cones dispensed right from the machine on the street (only 1,000 WON! or .82 cents). We were on a mission to find a Dr. Fish but were unsuccessful in our search and will have to go another weekend. Dr. Fish can actually be found in the states as well. I have seen it on a talk show not sure which one, Ellen, Tyra, Oprah, can't remember. Anyway, you put your feet in a tub with a bunch of little fish and they eat the dead skin from your feet!!! AHH! I hear it tickles a lot but I am all about the experiences so I said, "Let's Do It!" The plus about experiencing it here in Korea is that is costs a little under $2 for 15 minutes, while I just did the research and found it in the US for $35 for 15 minutes. That will just have to be for another weekend.We pick a very cute Italian restaurant for dinner. I shared mushroom calzone and a creamy salmon pasta with Elyse. She mentioned to the waitstaff that it was my birthday and I was brought a very large free salad! So nice! The food was delicious and was a nice break from Korean food. After we headed back to our own neighborhood to hit up a few bars. I think my new favorite bar on our block will be Garten Bier. You get very cool cup holders built into the table for your beer that are set at 4 degrees C so your beer NEVER gets warm. great idea really.

My birthday happened to be the night that I got to experience my first noraebang. I will help translate that. Norae = Song, Bang = Room. This means that it is literally a song room. For around 17 dollars an hour (second hour is cheaper) you can rent your own private room with your friends and sing karaoke. It comes with 2 mics so duets can be sung and 3 tambourines so the other friends can still participate when they don't have a mic. I believe I have fallen in love with this ingenious idea. Some of my friends know how much I love singing, especially in groups (BWCA :) ) The best part is there was NO shortage of English songs. They had way way way way too many to pick from, so many I love. 1 hour just did not cut it so we bought a 2nd hour. It was just too amazing. I plan to go many, many times during the next year. We were so wrapped up with singing that we ended up heading home at 4 AM! It was a very wonderful birthday spent with people whose company I enjoy. :)