29/30 birthday

In korea when you are born you are one year old so as a foreigner there can sometimes be confusion about age. According to my Lonely Planet travel guide: "...Women can get married at 16...men [must]...wait until...18. Age of consent for sex (outside of marriage) is 18. 20 to vote, drive, purchase or consume alcohol and cigarettes..." So a woman can get married at 15... awesome?

I woke up for an otherwise regular work day on friday 2 November and showed up at my school. I was awkwardly asked to join another teacher in an empty classroom, something we never do and I knew something was up. Unfortunately for the secret keepers, they sent me away with someone who does not speak English all that well, yet, and the small talk was - it wasn't. I was walked back down a hallway and greeted by a staff room full of young Korean children and co-workers with a cake and candles. They sang a version of happy birthday after giving me a birthday hat and then I blew out the candles after being tackled by the 3 foot tall animals. Before I was even close to holding a knife, fingers were already going at the icing on the cake in healthy quantities and I laughed and laughed.

After class was over for the day, the teachers attacked the left-overs with ... chopsticks! I captured some photos on a timer over the course of about 10 minutes... That night I met some friends in Ulsan, at a long table in the University town. There, a new friend Dong Jin, violinist in my new string quartet joined a rowdy bunch of Waegooks. David was celebrating his birthday the next day and Michelle was on her way out of the country; much to celebrate. A tradition I was introduced to was smearing cake on the face of the special guest, in this case guests.