Birthday Party Recap

The Birthday Boys.

This is in front of Adonis, a "Western hof" directly across the street from the samgyupsal restaurant where our birthday dinner began, a couple of hours previously. Curiously, this is the last photograph of the evening, since apparently the camera declined as the beer surged.


The evening began with this cake--which was delicious--provided by big Mr Lee (on the left), who speaks practically no English but just adores me, for some reason. I have to say his broad smile and optimistic attitude make him one of my favorites on the Young-il faculty. Students and faculty alike love this man.

About three more cakes showed up with latecomers through the course of the night, due to the fact that no one in this country communicates with anyone else. In this case, however, you heard no complaints from me! Dinner was samgyupsal, delightful Korean fatback pork barbecue wrapped in lettuce or sesame leaves with your favorite condiments. You can see a couple varieties of mushrooms at the top of the photo, and that's kimchi and tofu on the right. The white stuff mixed in with the pork is onions and garlic. Panchan in the second pic included small seasoned shellfish, pickled turnips, and cabbage. The red sauce above the garlic is doenjang, a delicious soybean paste that completes each bite:



This restaurant was my choice, heartily agreed to by Hwang, who was as red as a stoplight by the time we finished the soju and samgyupsal and moved to second round at Adonis.

Well, I'm not going to go into all the details (in part because I don't recall them), but after second round, we went somewhere else, and then ended up at a noraebang or singing room called Top Star. Well, I don't know who was the top star, but I scored 100 for my rendition of "Georgia on My Mind" and I have to say that, to the best of my recollection, I hit every note perfectly.

It was around 3 AM by this point, however, so I can't vouch for my memory--but I did score 100.