Foreigner Gifts and Birthday Boxes

Thursday:

So I was told that these random acts of kindness (the random broom, milk, rice cake) are called foreigner gifts. So cute. Today my lovely Korean Grandmother gave me extra grape juice. And I got the broom that she told me I could have yesterday. Such a wonderful woman.

I also got my bank account today. Yay! I feel like a person again. It was very funny when I went to the bank. After I got my bank account I wanted to exchange some of my US dollars to Korean Won, since I was there. Well the man got a little confused with the exchange rate. He tried to give me 20,000 Won for my $180. I was very nice, and he felt awful. He was so nice "I'm so sorry!" On and on...

I tried Mandu today. It is a dumpling, with I believe Kimchi inside. It was actually very good. Luisana will have to show me where to get it, because I must have it again.

This is Mandu. It is a yummy steamed dumpling. 

Saturday:

OMG! It's my birthday, or it was my birthday. Started the day off right. Talked to Mom, Sue and Lynnae while they were at happy hour. Definitely a lot of fun. I got a large assortment of things in my wonderful birthday box. I am so excited to eat the jam. I can't decide if I want to eat it with a spoon, or savor it. That will be tricky. We will have to see how this plays out. Anyway back to business.

Look at all my awesome birthday box surprises! I put the Driver penant up right away.

The girls and I left for the KTX at about 9:15am. Our train left at about 10am, since it was a little late. It was a pretty fast train ride. And not a bad price either. Since there were 4 of us we were able to get a family pack, which meant we had a table, and it was less expensive. We arrived in Seoul and immediately decided that food was first, then shopping. Very important. We looked for a good place to have my birthday lunch and decided on California Pizza Kitchen, nothing Korean about that. It was very yummy.

Kaylee and me on the KTX.

After lunch we needed to shop, since that was the point of the trip. Most of these girls have been in Korea several months and they needed new essentials. The basics (even though we got a little carried away). We shopped and shopped and shopped. It was a sprint, no marathon for us, we were on a time limit. After shopping concluded we headed to a little chain restaurant in Korea call Pho Bay. It had some really good noodles and friend rice. As we made our way back to Daegu we were sitting on the train (minding our own business) laughing a bit maybe, come on it's my birthday. We were shushed on the train. It's not polite to be loud. This in turn made everything twice as funny.

This is a service button at the restaurant. You push it when you need help or assistance. This way the waiter didn't bother us until we needed him. Genius 

We arrived back in Daegu and Christine decided that an adventure on the bus was very important. So we got on the bus, where we got in trouble because we were not fast enough. Surprise, surprise. I guess it was the day to learn the cultural customs. Made it back to my apartment where I ran around like a crazy person trying to get ready to go out for the night.

When we finally all got together (we lost Victoria before we even left because she was trying to meet us at the wrong place, my fault of course). So I set out to have a "STELLA!" moment and we did eventually find each other. We made our way downtown where lots of fun followed. We were bar hopping for a while *gasp*. But after the bar hopping was when the real fun began. That fun was called Noribang.

The whole gang (at least for this night) 

During Noribang, you and your friends rent a karaoke room and you can sing any songs you want. It was amazing. We were belting out Michael Jackson, N'SYNC, Katy Perry and many many more. It was a blast. The next morning not such a party. I was so tired. I started my birthday at 7am and it ended around 3:30am the next morning. I was just a little bit tired. Thankfully a lovely Christine was making french toast and I was invited. Delicious.

Oh Noribang. You are my new best friend. 

Well another adventure chronicled. Many more to go.