Cherry and chocolate...

From the first day I got here I have wanted to have cake all the time. I don’t know why but I just couldn’t get it off of my mind.

To my surprise my host sister had bought home some kind of pie. I asked her what it was and why she had bought it. I was quite surprised when she said that it was for my host dad’s birthday that would be taking place in two days. Of course I didn't know this until someone told me, and I started to panic. What would I buy? How do Koreans even celebrate birthdays?

I decided to ask one of my good friends who is currently living in Sweden. She's a Korean herself and her piece of advices was really helpful and I came to that conclusion that I was buying him a cake.

Beside the piece of advices she gave me she also told me about the Miyeok guk (soup) which is a traditional Korean birthday dish consisting of sea weed. By my opinion it looked a bit like you would have walked on a beach and picked up the first green thing you find floating in the water. And as usual I was a bit skeptical about if I would like it or not. But I really did find it delicious.

But back to the birthday. I started to wonder about the cake. Was it a good idea? Wasn't the family also going to buy him a cake? I told my host mom that I was going to buy the cake and she seemed to be really happy to hear that. But as the day went by and the birthday was on the door steps and we went to the cake shop, where you could find the most beautiful cakes to a ridiculously low price. After we had chosen the cake (which was a chocolate cherry cake) and I was ready to pay, my host mom suddenly didn't think it was that a good decision after all. I tried to change her mind but without result, we were heading to the shop next-door where my host sister translated my host mom’s plan to what I should buy. And as weird as it may sound, or that’s what is sounded like to my ears, they wanted me to buy a pen. After hearing this I tried to hold it in, but i couldn't. I started to laugh. I don’t think they really understood why even if I tried to explain.  

And there i stood holding a small packet and a card in my hand, reaching some thousands of won’s over to the lady behind the counter. It was quite embarrassing, but I have to say that it was nothing compared to the feeling I got when giving the small packet to my host dad. Or the fact that he about one to two weeks later gave me an almost exact copy of the pen. When I asked him why he answered "Oh, I have plenty of those". x_x'

Well, I did get my cake. But it had its price. And to be honest my daily dreams of cakes didn't end there.