My Korean Birthday Celebration - I'm 27 and 28! (read to find out why?!?)

Hi Friends,

Thanks to everyone for the amazing Birthday wishes and presents. My emotions were mixed heading into my Birthday week as I was looking forward to my big day however I wasn't looking forward to being by myself. It was silly of me to be worried about it as the day and the weekend following were amazing. I'll admit at midnight on the 12th I was super sad, I don't think I've ever been by myself before at the stroke of midnight on my day. However I had my good friend Lauryn online in Ottawa to talk me through the sad period.

On the 12th I woke up to my parents on the phone singing Happy Birthday it was the perfect alarm clock. Then my oldest sister called and then I talked to my friend Bracken and we sang the 'Banana song'. Singing that song was such a treat!!! (for those of you who don't know the banana song it rocks, ask me one day when you see me in person)

My school day was 'same-same' except I was surprised by gifts from my co-workers and then a mini birthday party at the end of the day. After school I met up with some of my friends and we went to a vegetarian buffet and then to this great bar called the 'Ethnic Bar'. The "Ethnic Bar' is super cool. You walk down into it and it's super dark with candles and funky material hanging from the ceiling. You get your own little space for your group where you sit on pillows and get served fancy drinks. So far I've been to two different ones and both have been amazing, this specific one even has a shallow pool in the middle with goldfish.

On the weekend I went for a great run/hike near my house. I discovered all these amazing trails and I felt like I was in a Ontario forest for a bit. It was super hot and sunny! I could smell the pine and the air was so ffresh! As I was jogging I ran up and saw a pink Hoola-Hoop hanging in the tree! So you can imagine what happened next-there I was in the middle of the forest with a few random Koreans walking by hoolahooping :)

On Saturday night my friends Maria and Ethan had a rooftop B-B-Q. We drank and played a game very similar to the washer game from home (Ethan built it, it was pretty good, not as good as my Dads though ;) ) . We had a great night of games, drinking and eating! Three of my fav. things!

I slept over at Maria and Ethans's so that we could get up early-ish and go to a Bamboo Forest. Despite being pretty shmamered the night before we managed to get up and be on the road around 11. The forest was fantastic, it was my my first time in a Bamboo forest and I can truly say I was impressed. I learned that Bamboo is closer to the grass family than the tree family and that Bamboo is super bendy (as I tried to shimmy my way up one). I managed to swing from a couple but didn't get to far up. Ethan did the best as he got about 10 feet up. It was great to get out of the city for the day as I had almost forgotten what complete silence is like.

Now to talk a little about this 'Am I 27 or 28' business. In Korea they believe that when you are born you are a year old. Therefore by Korean standards I am in 28 years old. However, I don't buy it for one minute I'm going to stick with my western age of 27.

It's mid-week now and I'm looking forward to next weekend. I'm heading to Seoul to take my level one Reiki course from and American Reiki Master who is living there. I'm really excited about it as it's been a long time since I've looked forward to learning something new. Again thanks for all the amazing messages and gifts, I'm so lucky to have so many great friends and family.

Hugs and kisses from Gwangju!