October 18, 2008

The double 2 club

I turned 22 in Seoul. Despite it being my very first birthday overseas, the presence of friends who took time off to celebrate with me makes this an extremely memorable affair and all of a sudden anam-dong feels like a home away from home. We first went to this cheena restaurant with red lanterns and had a scrumptious dinner. Martin sang me a German birthday song (sweet lyrics! and thanks to him for the translation), Tien Kwan sang me half a Cantonese birthday song plus the zoo version, Xiang Feng sang me a chinese one together with China national anthem (thanks to Jean's prompting), Samuel sang me a liang po po hokkien song (the local flavour! brought a piece of Singapore to me), and the rest managed half a korean birthday song on top of the normal happy birthday song. on top of that, Jean got someone she knows to speak to me over the phone in dialect (cant rmbr whether it's hokkien or teochew) wishing me happy birthday and yes. i had a conversation with a stranger in DIALECT, on the eve of my birthday, in a chinese restaurant, IN KOREA!

All these remind me of the phrase “在家靠父母,出外靠朋友。”
I'm so glad we met here, thousands of miles away from our hometown.
Somehow on my 22nd birthday i feel so much more mature compared to when i was 21. I wonder if it's the experiences i accumulated through these 12 months, or that being on foreign land makes me more independent henceforth more sensitive to my surroundings. or maybe it's simply because everything is unexpected. like we were all having so so so much fun that i almost forgotten that it was going to be my birthday in a couple of hours. like living in the moment, for the moment. it's like a huge huge bonding session with people from all over, people that I never thought i'd meet 2 months ago.

We proceeded to Star Beer to chill after dinner. Aishah brought paris hilton along and we sat there trying to get other people high. 6 litres of beer plus peach soju as well as normal soju. chatting about everything and anything while trying to get our faces into every single photo. that was really really fun. After drinks we headed over to Lev's birthday party at another pub. His was another grand affair with lots of international students, mainly from Europe.. The finale of the day was 노래방. we were practically screaming throughout the hour, with the tambourines ringing plus aishah and kian hong dancing in front and the rest crazily laughing at the back..

I came back to find my besties' video clips in youtube. I can imagine them recording that in vivo with people staring. Hey girls.. i want that cake k!! thanks for the surprise.. =) though i don't really understand the part about the card and open-in-sequence thingy that QY mentioned.. lolx.. i suppose the postman must have lost his way somehow coz there's no card.. will check the postbox tomorrow.. =) thanks for the birthday song girls! and the yummy looking cake that i didnt get to eat!! =(

My dad called my cell on his way back from work asking me how everything was and wishing me many happy returns of the day. It was really unexpected so i was really really glad.. and my phone bill prolly will hit its all time peak next month.

Birthday has never been a yearly event for celebration but if i can reflect on all the above mentioned and feel such joy and happiness from the deepest of my heart, i think it is indeed special.

For all the friends that has walked with me and are walking along me, THANK YOU.

To Mummy, a bigger THANK YOU! for all that you've done as well as the moment in time we shared 22 years ago. I LOVE YOU!! ^.^

With this i put a stop to my fourth 18th birthday and embark on a new journey seeking the number 23.

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