happy birthday to ma' boy

i got him a cake that looks like a bear. and can be worn as a hat! seriously, i don't really know if anything can beat that. we made sure to dig into cut pieces from the back of the bear's head first, and haven't yet eaten his face. ha.

friday was a celebratory day filled with many many (too) many drinks. we started the evening with a dak galbi dinner with our co-workers, and inevitably, a couple bottles of soju. i know i've spoken of this beloved korean staple before, but soju really has grown on mark and me. it's easier to drink than vodka, but still packs that same powerful punch, and you can get a mickey-sized bottle for less than $1.50 CDN at any convenience store. asah! (oh, by the way, i'm slowly picking up korean; "asah!" translates to "great!" - and by "picking up korean" i really mean imitating my students and co-workers who imitate students).

after dinner, friday's party led us to downtown uijeongbu for an anticipated self-mandated pub crawl. we ran into some fellow english-speaking military who pointed us in the direction of a club with FREE tequila shots for the ladies - danger bay. we kept our wandering and after several failed attempts at finding a good spot we ended up back near our stomping grounds at a place called "beer ocean." i definitely had a couple of oceans too many in honour of the birthday boy ... i broke my non-puke streak and ended the night in my well-practiced state: professional thrower-upper. happy birthday mark, now please hold my hair back...

needless to say, saturday required some much needed downtime and couch-lounging recovery. on top of the hangovers, we've both been fighting colds, and mark woke up with a swollen ankle + limp after his birthday breakdancing. we watched several VBS documentaries and a haunting in connecticut (thumbs down) while eating pizza school and watermelon. lovely, indeed.

i'll let the pictures do the rest of the updating. here are some miscellaneously ordered snaps of the festivities. instead of sorting, you get cleverly-quipped captions!


mark at work with his birthday cake from his fave student, bill. bill spent two weeks of hard earned pocket money on said cake. two weeks! he told mark teacher that his "purse was now empty." how unbelieveably cute is that?? don't worry, we saved bill a piece. oh, and also, just to point out, all i got on my birthday was a class full of assholes.

i don't know if bill's cake can compete with my bear ... perhaps it's dog-bones-for-arms will give it a cakewreck vote. hehe - just kidding!

downtown uijeongbu looks remarkably deserted in this pic

nearing the end of the birthday evening celebrations - seemingly awesome tricks with mirrored elevator doors...

ah! look who's in the elevator: our blurry and somewhat scary-looking friends.

birthday dins, sit-on-the-floor style


in asia, the flipping of the bird means "fuck you" - it's a universal symbol.

there was a pre-bar trip to the firing range. it was unfortunately short-lived.

shots of tequila, free for the ladies (though i'm pretty sure conor paid for all of these)

dave's face on the side of the english friends bus! seriously, he's a celebrity for his school.

my masterpiece of a birthday card for mark - all 24 candles painstakingly cut out of origami paper. that's LOVE! it also reads "happy birthday" in korean, or more literally: birthday congratulations.

fun times with the bear cake - both look so happy!

speaking of looking happy (and i'm ohso brave to put this on the internet) but look who can pass out with a SMILE on her FACE!