Monday, May 4, 2009

A Night I Won't Soon Forget.



My liver and head having recovered from this weekend, I guess it's time I blog about my Birthday. The simplest way I can describe how I feel right now is overwhelmed. Very rarely have I ever felt this way because of my birthday, but the sheer outpouring of love and adulation is enough to honestly make me speechless. Wait, wait, maybe adulation is not the correct word here. My friends weren't worshiping the very ground I walked on, they were simply worshiping being in my presence. No, that's not right either. Honestly, it was an absolutely amazing night and I was so lucky to be surrounded by my friends here in Korea. I still cannot think of how to adequately thank them, and probably will not know for a long time.

Alas, enough of this blubbering, onto the party. The night started at 7 at one of my favorite Korean BBQ places here in Seosan. Now, this is a small restaurant and can probably only hold about 40 diners. We brought 15 people and were the largest and loudest crowd they have probably had in quite some time. Needless to say we partially took over the place and spent the next two hours eating, drinking, and engaging in merriment. The highlight of our time here was not the giant bowl of beer and soju that my friends made me chug, but the gift I received from my friends. They bought me a Nikon Coolpix s220 digital camera. They had asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I had been joking around telling them that I needed a camera. I never in my wildest dreams thought they'd actually buy me one. It was an absolutely awesome gift and I am still rather speechless.

After terrorizing this small restaurant for two hours we meandered on down to a nice local Norae Bang. We spent the next hour or so singing songs and eating an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. Now, in Korea, on your birthday people will continually smear whip cream on your face. I have included pictures of said moments. After singing our hearts out in a generally loud and tone deaf style we proceeded to hit one of my two favorite bars in Seosan. Off to RnB we headed for what promised to be an excellent portion of the night. I was not wrong.

The people who work at RnB are not only people whose establishment I frequent, but they are also good friends. I was treated as such on Saturday. Normally, if you tell the people there that it is someones birthday they will put on a small show and give that person a free drink. Yet, with me, they pulled out all the stops and proceeded to do what amounted to a ten minute show. It began with every pyromaniacs dream, two large fireballs of 151 and flames dancing across a table.nnThis was followed by Paul doing a dance while mixing a drink and tossing it all over the place. Now it wasn't Tom Cruise in Cocktail, but it was pretty damn close. After Paul's awesome display it was Panda's turn to do his thing. Panda at RnB is known for doing dance numbers and well needless to say he did not disappoint. If this was not enough already it was followed by Jenny bringing me out a small cake and the entire place rocking out to a Korean version of Happy Birthday. After blowing out the candles I was treated to a beer bath from a stranger on the second deck of RnB.

Finally you might be thinking that I could sit down and relax, but now, there was still more spotlight time required by me. I should mention now that Waibi (pronounce Y B) and Paul have been trying to hook me and Jenny up for quite some time. Paul walked came up and told me that I had to go dance with Jenny. Now I think it should go without mentioning that my dancing skills are not that great, but dance away we did. Thoroughly embarrassed by the spectacle of me dancing I was hoping to beat a hasty retreat and find comfort back in the relative ambiguity of our table, but no. The final act of the show was a Korean Love Shot with Jenny. Whether this was her idea or not I do not know, but what I do know was that instead of the standard intertwined arms it was arms around the neck. Basically I was giving her a hug and downing a glass of something that I don't know what it was. This was followed by a kiss on the cheek and then I was allowed to sit down and relax.

A little later, and after being dragged off to another place for a few drinks with Seung Hee's friends I walked back into RnB to have a drink with Jenny. Shortly after the drink finished those who were still standing at 1 in the morning, and I must say the pack was starting to thin out moved on to CC Bar. CC Bar is another place here in Seosan that I frequent and consider the people who work there my friends. We stayed at CC bar until 4 AM and then proceeded to go find a noodle shop to have some food. By this point the pack had greatly thinned out to me and primarily all Koreans. Well in honesty it was me and only Koreans at this point because even though David is an American he was born in Korea. We had even picked up Nari who is a bartender at CC Bar. After enjoying some noodles and honestly sobering up a little bit, we walked down to another restaurant to have some Soju and eat a little bit more. Well, by this time I was done drinking and the only reason I was still out was because I had told my friends my goal was not to go to bed until the sun came up. At 6 AM, I met that goal and then finally after a very long night went home and proceeded to sleep until the world was back on the right axis. That took a lot of sleep.

Honestly, the Birthday party that I had on Saturday is one of the best parties I have ever been to for anyones birthday. It's just strange to think that it was for my birthday. I am still overwhelmed by the outpouring of appreciation from my friends and I guess it goes to still show that if you live your life the right way, people will notice. It's just a rare thing when people you respect actually turn around and show you how much they respect you. I think that was the best present of all. The camera is amazing, but to see how your friends truly feel is a rare thing, a rare thing indeed.

1 comment:

Yvonne Stuchell said...

Looks like it was a fun night with a bit of craziness...I'm glad that you had a good time with friends. Thanks for putting together the video so we could share the experience!

Love, Mom