Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

In our little family, birthdays are big. One day is just not enough to celebrate. (Does this surprise you? Just think back 7 months - remember how long the wedding celebration lasted?) Darin's birthday technically started 2 weeks ago when he got his presents. He picked out a briefcase for himself and I was so shocked that he asked for something other than books that I bought it on the spot. I managed to get out on my own and find stuff to fill it with, so part of the gift was a surprise. The briefcase lasted a week hidden in the apartment before I finally gave in to his daily pleas of "Can please I have it now?" The jackpot was that I found a book Darin had never heard of and he loved it. I have to let this be known to the world because I was quite proud of myself and the probability of it ever happening again is slim to none.

This weekend we went out for our ritual Friday night dinner with our friends but this time Darin was the guest of honour. We went for dinner at the Hot Pig (sounds yummy, doesn't it) and then to Q'z for drinks and a surprise cake. Stephanie and I ran out with the excuse of getting snacks and got the cake so I wouldn't have to hear cries of protest from Darin. We gave the cake box to the bartender and he knew exactly what to do. Five minutes later the "Congratulations" song was blaring throughout the bar, everyone stood up clapping, and the bartender headed to our table with a glittering birthday cake. It was great!









(Note from Darin: For everyone who hates having themselves singled out in a restaurant with the staff singing and bringing a sparkly cake to your table, let it be known that it is far worse in a foriegn country when all the other patrons of the restaurant are clapping and chanting at you in words that are incomprehensible. As always it was slightly embarassing, but hey, I'll never see these people again.) After this we (actually, Darin) decided to embarass ourselves again at the noraebang. We started with 2 hours and then added another, and then another. Completely hilarious!! Somehow we got coaxed into doing Stayin' Alive.
We even had a guest singer this time. We pressured the owner, who was sporting a lovely yellow party cardigan, to join us in our room and give us a Korean song. He showed us how it was really done with the microphone and we just danced around like idiots. Four hours later we were all hoarse, but we finished the night just like last time by having a group effort to sing November Rain. I have no idea who keeps picking that song! I thought it would have ended just perfect with the second last song Bohemian Rhapsody!The actual birthday was Saturday and Darin set the agenda for the day. All he wanted was dinner and a movie in Seoul. After last night with several mishaps of people losing their balance during Kung Fu Fighting, this sounded like a perfect plan to me. When we got to the theater there was some weird event going on where they we showing movies all night long. Normally we would turn this into a movie marathon but we had bus tickets home for 10:00. The Brothers Grimm was the first choice but they had no showings until 11:00. Harry Potter was next but Darin wasn't completely sold on seeing it. There were a few chick flicks that looked good to me, but again, not what he was looking forward to. So, we had an early dinner first at Uno's Chicago Bar and Grill and had some deep dish pizza. This surprised me, as I thought Darin would opt for The Outback. Then we headed to a different theatre, so the man could see something he would enjoy on his birthday. We settled on a movie called Just Like Heaven - a romantic comedy, but not completely sappy. The selling point for Darin admitting it wasn't horrible was that the actor who played Napoleon Dynamite was in it (minus the curly fro and moonboots).

On Sunday, I let Darin chose our destiny again. He picked Everland, which is the Korean version of Disneyworld. This is a massive amusement park and we couldn't do everything in one day, so we got tickets for the portion known as Caribbean Bay. This is an indoor water park with slides, lazy rivers, tube rides, wave pools, hot tubs, saunas and pirates. We had very much fun on the double-tube ride, where we could go down together on a long, fast, winding slide. And the hot tubs were as relaxing as could be, so relaxing in fact, that we were exhausted on the bus ride home and each dowsed off a few times, which isn't all that easy to do with the maniacs who drive the buses. Not only is the ride normally jerky and bumpy, but the horn is their favourite part of the bus.

Happy 35th, Darin!!