Closer to 50 than birth.

I will not argue or deny that I am now seriously old. Not needing a walker or AARP, but sometimes it feels like just yesterday I was in high school and running around acting obnoxious and irresponsible. Nine years after I first got my drivers license, I am now running around Korea acting obnoxious and somewhat responsible. The concept of being 25 was not even a figure in my brain when I was 16. Being 21 was prevalent for obvious reasons, but 25.. I never thought about being that old. Sure, I assumed that I would make it here, but I wasn't ever sure if my maturity would allow me to actually turn the big 2-5. Watching the calendar days tick by approaching my birthday, I wasn't plagued with the usual joy of celebrating for an entire week (only child syndrome.. sorry, friends). Maybe that was because I was in Korea, thousands of miles away from anyone who has known me for more than 7 months. Still, I wasn't anxiously anticipating hitting the quarter of a century mark. But, like most things seem to do in Korea, I was very pleasantly surprised by how great it was to get older.
I have been blessed enough to meet some amazing people here in Seoul. I've met some that are, well, not so great. But I've been lucky enough to fill my time with some awesome individuals. My actual birthday fell on a Sunday, but I decided to celebrate on Saturday so we could have a proper night out. We went to dinner at Hooters on Saturday for several reasons: 1) on your birthday, you don't feel like Korean food.. you feel like western food 2) we were fascinated to see if a country that is so anti-cleavage would deliver the hooting goods. While the Seoul Hooters wasn't quite the same atmosphere as the ones State-side, it was still a success. The waitresses lit me on fire with a shot, gave me a free tank top that they wrote all over with sharpie and the food was pretty decent.

 This is the gang at Hooters. I'm still not sure how/why we had pirate hooks. They just had them sitting around!

From Hooters, we headed to an amazing firework show. Although I was pretty sure the festival was just to celebrate my birthday, it turns out that it was actual a gigantic international firework festival that lasted over an hour and was contributed to by several different countries. I've seen a lot of fireworks in my life, including Bastille Day under the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but this absolutely took the cake. It was MIND BLOWING. No picture I could've taken could do it justice. It was simply spectacular.

After the fireworks finished, I went to meet up with friends out at the bars who could not attend dinner. I looked like quite a class act with my Hooters tank top, birthday hat, and second hat that was a birthday "gift" from my "friends". Let me explain the second hat. Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows my feelings about Canadians. I do not judge ALL Canadians by my disgruntled meter, but I do tend to make a lot of jokes at the country's expense and not particularly like a Canadian person until they give me a reason to (Andrew Heard, you are the biggest exception in Korea haha). No, I don't hate all Canadians. No, I don't think their country is a TOTAL joke.. but it is a pretty hilarious one. Any way, I digress. So my friends here in Korea are aware of my feelings and enjoy sending me all things that mock or joke about Canada. And in true karma fashion, they tricked me with a birthday gift that was the ultimate Canadian "gotcha". In a dollar store, they somehow found a full rimmed hat with the words "Canadian, eh?" on the front. They covered the writing with bows so that I did not know there was even writing on the hat, and then forced me to wear it. I felt obligated! They got me a... "gift". Hideous or not, of course I was going to wear it. Well, it wasn't until about 5 hours later while standing alone, washing my hands in a bathroom did I realize the true meaning behind the hat. All the bows had fallen off by this point and the Canadian slander was finally visible to me. Great friends.
The next day, my actual birthday, I went to dinner at a buffet near my house named Ashley. Yes, it is really called Ashley. Here's proof:

It was one of the best places I've ever eaten and we all have sworn to return. It was no Mi Amigos, but it was a GREAT birthday dinner!
The birthday was more than successful, and I'm so thankful to all of my friends here who made it such. I miss all my friends and family back home, and appreciated all the love (and gifts) they sent, but I will see you all for the big 2-6. :)

This was the awesome cake given to me by my friends and personally decorated by J. Wray herself. Loved it!

This.. is what I looked like all night. My cute tank top and awesome skirt were pointless.

 These are 5 ladies that I'm a big fan of! Marissa, Andrea, Stephanie, Jessica and Liza.

 Two people who made the night (and any night out with them) a ton of fun! Liza and Tom.

 I probably have never looked better.. but at least Jess and Sabrina look gorgeous!

 No one harasses me more than Clare.. but I like it!

This kid planned just about everything, coordinated with literally everyone (I still have no cell phone) and, well, is everything you could really want in a friend. Love me some Wrayzie!