Weekend Warriors: Any excuse for Champagne

I have always been the type of person to think that your birthday is just one day.  I mean, it's the DAY of your birth that's to be celebrated - not the weekend, week, or month.  It turns out that my friends are amazing and know how to make an entire week better than I could have ever anticipated.  Be forewarned: there are a lot of pictures and quite frankly a lot of them are of me.  It was my birthday and dammit these incredible people made me smile brighter than I have in years, and helped soften the blow of missing my family and besties at home.  

It started out when everyone had returned from our various Japanese summer vacations.  G had been in Ishigaki - a sub-tropical paradise where she had gone diving, been to a music festival on the beach, and been practically adopted by a beautiful Japanese family (we actually had a magnificent evening with a wonderful Japanese family in Osaka too, but more on that when I post about my last day in O-town).  We were supposed to meet after my friends finished up band practice but that ended early and I raced over to the loft to catch up with friends I had been missing an incredible amount even though I had been gone just a few days.  I know, I'm a sap. 

I mean, do my friends know me well, or what?  Wednesday night they had sparkling wine at the ready for midnight when I officially turned...well...the age I turned.  I think that this is the first birthday where I'm suddenly starting to feel older.  I'm not quite almost 30, but I'm not not almost 30 and quite frankly that's a little scary for me.  If this feeling could be shared I would tell everyone thinking about teaching abroad to do it and do it early and as young as you can.  I want to take advantage of all the opportunities being silver spoon-fed to me, but I also want to return to Canada and settle down before it's "too late".  Dear everyone older than me: it's advice time now - do I stay in Asia past 30?  How soon do your eggs truly start to nosedive ('cause I'm holding out as long as possible).  Dear potential suitors reading this: yes - we're all that nuts sometimes (and I bet you are too).  Even the most adventurous lady in your life still has those questioning moments of: "am I doing the right thing?".  I can't imagine ever regretting seeing the world, but I'm allergic to cats and being alone.  End rant.  Drop Mic.

Thankfully, I have these girls to keep me halfway sane (or who are at least on my level :P) and who are the soundtrack to my life by playing Far East Movement at every "poppin' bottles" moment, and who let me try to rap.  The videos are in the vault, ladies.

Thursday was my official birthday, and in addition to some beautiful cards from my students (one card from a particular favourite that includes the phrases: "Happy Your Birthday" - on the official card, not handwritten, "I love you", "I'm so so happy.  Don't lose your smile", and "I RESPECT YOU!") my colleague made some seaweed soup as it's supposed to bring you good health in the coming year.  I mean, how lucky am I already?  Hold onto your hats...it gets even better.

We had wanted to check out 88 Star Wars, the new spot in Hwamyeong.  Turns out it's a restaurant that didn't look all that frugal, so we headed over to our typical Buk-gu haunt: Monster Craft Brewing (we go there a lot so check it out here and here).  This place feels like the living room I've always wanted: there's our friendly owner/ chef who serves up cheap beer ($3 for a house pint) and the best chicken I have ever had.  I'm not kidding - I'm probably their #1 fan.

I had met up with G who BOUGHT ME A CAKE and then M and S joined up a bit later once we mentioned the venue switch.  

The chocolatiest of chocolate cakes was shared with 2 other tables who sang me happy birthday (Saeng-il-chuka-hamnida) and engaged in polite conversation (ie. the Korean men wanted to know how old I was.  I gave them my western age rather than Korean age because obviously).

  

Could life be any more decadent or wonderful?  Well yes, in fact...it turns out that beyond all my already exceeded expectations, it most certainly was!

Saturday G and I decided that rather than heading down to the beach or the pool we would get some housework and errands done and then treat ourselves to lunch.  We ordered a pasta and a salad to share because we were being both indulgent and heart-healthy.

Nope.  That's an absolute lie.  Our salad from Wicked Spoon was actually delicious chicken fingers with hard boiled egg, a little bit of iceberg lettuce, a TON of honey mustard sauce, and a garnish of 2 cherry tomatoes sliced in half.  I did not complain.  Our spicy cream pasta was less spice more cream but had a delightful array of peppers and bacon and I'm all about that life.

Then we found G's roof.  Some sweet rays and sun salutations later? Pure bliss...followed by The Office in air-conditioned comfort.

I'm so lucky to have friends from Masan to Daegu willing to come into Busan (and even Hwamyeong!) to visit.  My wonderful, hilarious gentlemen from the Air Force even brought me a little taste from home (Tito's Handmade Vodka) from the base.  We had some cocktails and pizza (and even a visit from adorable little Oscar, K's pup!) before heading back up to G's roof to watch the sunset.

Once darkness fell we all jumped into cabs and headed down to Gwangalli Beach for our very own Midnight Garden Party (literally it was so hot our group of 15 people had the place for ourselves!).  I'll leave you quite simply with some photos because the stories?  You just wouldn't believe 'em...

Three big nights, three "Happy Birthdays", two cakes and candles, and countless phenomenal friends celebrating my first birthday in Korea.

Thank you

xoxo

How do you Sunday Funday?

I've been staying in on Saturday nights to take full advantage of Sunday mornings and it's been paying off.  The past couple of Sundays have been pretty spectacular.  Great friends, great food, lots of walking - just a grand ol' time before heading back to work on Monday (let's be candid - my job is great and I don't start work until 12 PM Noon so every weekend feels a little longer than back home!).

Last weekend I was going to go to Jinhae for the Cherry Blossom Festival but the weather wasn't great (it ended up raining) and the air quality was giving me a headache.  The bus to Jinhae would have been nearly an hour after a 20 minute subway ride and I just wasn't ready for that.

 

After wandering around trying to find a salad bar (not quite as advertised - it ended up actually being a Vietnamese Hot Pot restaurant), we went over to an Italian spot that advertised several salads and thin crust pizza.  I've found that most of my friends and I have similar tastes so we can usually split a couple of interesting dishes and be reeeeaaaaallly happy!

The spicy garlic chicken pizza at Pasta Vanita was actually quite spicy (and I put chili flakes on everything).  The salad hit the spot with a lovely balsamic dressing and thinly sliced apples.

We found a pretty rad little arcade with mini-norebang rooms.  The Paradise Coaster was a pretty epic 4D Dinosaur experience (and we got to wear pretty spectacular and fashion-forward glasses).

We topped the evening off with my absolute favourite food I've had in Korea: Chicken from Monster Craft Brewing!  The above image is a half portion...can you believe it?  We also found some adorable calico kittens that reminded me of my childhood pet, Angel.

This weekend's Sunday Funday we ventured out into Gwangan (Gwangali Beach).  I discovered a place with fantastic margaritas, tasty tacos, and a wicked patio called "Fuzzy Navel".  Apparently there are a few different bar. restaurant concepts under the Fuzzy Navel Company, and I got myself a membership card because I have a Korean phone number now and I'm allowed to do stuff.  Wa-hoooo!

Gwangali Beach is the ultimate mix of Wasaga Beach, Vancouver vibes, the concentrated area of bars in Miami, and Korean spots.  There are also a ton of Sushi restaurants I'm dying to try.  Summer here is going to be unreal.

My lime Margarita was tasty and I ordered the breakfast tacos (that were supposed to have eggs on them I'm pretty sure, but avocado and bacon made me pretty happy).

We were told that Beached Bar had a wicked view so that's where we headed next.  Mark and Craig were great hosts and it was cool to talk about some of their experiences in Korea as well as back home in Manchester and Christchurch, respectively.  The vibe was really cool, the music spot on, and the company fantastic.  Then came the Marmite...

We were still a bit hungry after the tacos so K had my fries and I had an interesting skewer of really awesome sausage (not Korean "hot dog" sausage), a couple of potatoes, chicken tenders, tomato (yummm), and mushrooms (double yummmm).  We'll certainly be back to Beached Bar for some sporting events (and Australia Day...next...year...).

I discovered the panorama setting on my phone so just get excited for some pictures of the water, okay?

We walked down to the seawall and all the way around and back up to KSU enjoying some of the last buds on the trees this time of year.

We were really jonesing for some Indian food but were unable to find it (if you know where to get Indian food in KSU please let me know in the comments!).  We decided to take a chance on a little nook near the KSU subway station and it did not disappoint.  Our Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pizza had the perfect amount of crust, some really nice seeds and slivered almonds, and was a good size to share.  at KRW 14,000 it was really good value.  We'll certainly be back to "Man in the Kitchen" soon for its great atmosphere and delicious pizza.  Take a closer look at the kitchen in the photos and you'll see the Chefs being adorable and posing!