My Wonderful Korean 24th Birthday! from Jamie Lomazzi on Vimeo.

On November 20th:
I had THE most wonderful birthday here in Kroea! The day before my birthday I arrived at work to find my desk covered in handmade cards from my kintergardeners! It was so sweet! And then the school bought me a cheesecake with candles to share with my co-workers! Also, one of my Canaidian co-workers suprised me with a McMuffin from McDonalds. Then, the kinterdardeners had a field trip to the local aquariaum along one of the beaches. We had so much fun looking at penguins, otters and sharks-they even let us hold a few starfish! After work, the other foreign teachers and I went to an American style diner near our house and ate super yummy cheese burgers. One of my co-workers suprised me with a cupcake shaped cake with candles too! You can see some pictures from it on my facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2179030&id=29903436

On my birthday-day I relaxed and went to the hospital where my physical therapist and the head nurse suprised me with some presents (a girft card to an English book store and some bodywash). After that, I bought some supplies to make some really special cocktails I created using Korean makoli(rice wine). My birthday party began around 7 and everyone met at my house to enjoy cocktails and chat. About 17 people came and we were all able to squeese into my little apartment-definately at maximum capacity! A few of them even brought me presents (a beautiful Korean painting poster of some cherry blossoms, a big, beautiful house plant and sweatshirt that read "Boston Massachubettes" from Kelly because we think Korean English mistakes-Engrish-is hilarious and we used to live in Boston together). After that we headed to a traditional style (looked like a tea house) Korean restaurant where we all enjoyed about 5 different dishes (way more than we could finish) and drinks. Then my friends and the whole restaurant sang me "Happy Birthday" and I toasted them for coming and being such wonderful friends. I felt so happy and blessed to be surrounded by so many people and for being able to share this experience with them in Korea. When it was time to pay our bill came to onlly 5,00 won each (thats less than $5 a person-talk about cheep!) Then we headed to another traditional style place and had drinks, chatted and played foosbal. Finally, we all went to a bar to listen to some live music (a band that plays classic American rock songs) and danced the night away (though I did remember to look out for my ankle). It was such an amazing birthday!!