Happy Birthday to Me!

Typical, over-the-top Korean birthday cake.

R.U.D.E.  Every single one of you failed to wish me a happy birthday.  All those presents you were planning on sending me are now late.  I’m very disappointed in all of you.  Forget about checking Facebook- I’m in Korea.  And in Korea, we do things a little differently. Forget the fact that back home my birthday is January 29^th, 1988.

So, no, you didn’t miss my American birthday; however, January 1^st is my Korean birthday.  In fact, its everyone’s Korean birthday.  So while I’m a meager 22 year-old in the States, in Korea I’m a mature, one year younger than a quarter of a century,  24 year-old.

So how exactly does just having my birthday make me two years older?  

When a Korean child is born, he/she is not 1 minute old, but 1 year old.  Those 9 months of cooking in the oven somehow equivalent out to 1 year in a Korean math equation and thus, children are already one year ahead of the Western world.

So while you all thought I was 22 on December 31^st, little did you know, I was 23, getting ready to celebrate my 24^th birthday.

So happy birthday to me… and you, and you, and you!