kg's nephew's first birthday

my happenin' korean friend kg took me to his nephew's first birthday party last week. the first birthday is a really big deal in korea, so it was a blowout. it was at a banquet hall kind of thing. a place set up with a large buffet in the middle and several small rooms off the buffet. people reserve rooms around the general buffet for their own shindig and then all the shindigs eat from the same buffet. kind of a nice idea. you reserve the room, they take care of everything else. and the food was wonderful. although kg (and other koreans) told me not to eat the kim bap because it was cheap. if you're at a buffet, you should only eat the expensive foods. leave the kim bap for the dollar restaurant tomorrow. makes sense. but i still like my kim bap. expensive or no.



the family! around the 1-year-old baby! oh! the balloons!





there is a small ceremony that takes place with the baby. first, kg took the cake and took it around to lots of different tables trying to sell the cake to the highest bidder. he "sold" the birthday cake for about $60. he tried to sell it to me, and i had no idea what was going on. everyone had a good laugh. thanks kg! then the money, a computer mouse, some doctor thread (whatever that is), and a pencil are laid in front of the kid. his hands are held up, and when released, whatever he picks up indicates what job he will grow up to have. this kid picked up both the computer mouse and the doctor thread, at the same time. computer doctor maybe? biological human parts technician? biomedical engineer? who knows.




my favorite part, besides being the only western lady in the building and getting love from kg's grandma, was this girl in the bright yellow dress who lead the festivities with some sexy j-lo songs and a microphone. she was as fantastic as this outfit.