Su-hyun's birthday party!

(These decorations are also pendants that are worn by a bride and groom during a traditional Korean wedding. The birds are swans.)

This afternoon was Su-hyun's birthday party as well as the celebration of her baby cousin's 100th day. As Ally explained to me, the baby was the "princess" now instead of Su-hyun, since celebrating a baby's 100th day of life is a big event in Korea. The celebration originated many, many years ago, when it really was a big feat for a baby to survive past 100 days. If they made it past that mark, it was basically guaranteed that they would grow up as normal instead of falling victim to a not-uncommon infant death.

We went to a traditional Korean restaurant that reminded me of something I'd seen way back when I was what... 3 years old? (No laughing now...) Big Bird Goes To Tokyo. :)
Instead of having a big common room in which everyone ate, each different party gets its own room. Under the step is where the shoes go, and then the paneled doors slide open to each room.
I really like the picture on the wall... it reminded me of the one I won in the first art class. And yes, we all sat on the floor again. Besides Ally and I, a big portion of Su-hyun's family were there. Mom, dad, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It looks small, but we all fit fine! The food just kept coming, too. There was no definite "main course," like we serve in the Western world, but instead there were many many smaller dishes. They started out recognizable enough, but they got stranger and stranger to me as the meal went on. There was squid, sushi, another raw meat (I don't know what kind, but it was bright red and looked like hamburger), noodles, rice, soup, whole fish, whole shrimp, octopus, stingray, and some stuff I couldn't even begin to guess as to what it was. Su-hyun's family was really nice, and they kept offering me stuff even if I looked hesitant about it. So, yes, now I can add octopus to the list of things I've eaten. It was sliced very thinly and was cold like it had just come out of a freezer, so I'm wondering if it was raw too.

Su-hyun's mother took good care of me, though. :) When the small bowls of rice came around and I was eating mine, she started picking out pieces of meat from the fish and putting them in my bowl for me, which I thought was cute and really nice of her to do, since it's hard to get the flaky meat away from the bones in the first place, especially with chopsticks.

Me, Su-hyun's mom, and Su-hyun.

Su-hyun's aunt (the mom of the 100-day-old baby), Su-hyun, me, and Ally. You can't really tell, but Su-hyun and her aunt are on their toes to make the height difference less noticeable. :P

The happy family! The mom is 28 years old - only one year older than Ally, who wanted to know where her baby was! Haha.

Look at those chubby cheeks! ...not on me, I hope.