On turning 30...

That's right! I'm 30 now! I bid adieu to my 20s and entered a new decade on Tuesday at 7:11am.

I had been dreading leaving my twenties and facing the fact that I am no longer a young adult but an adult. I'm in a new age bracket. And, I'm no longer going to be the 'baby' at schools where I work. Since I began teaching ESL straight out of university, I was always the youngin at schools...until I showed up at MIS and had at least five people younger than me at my workplace. Now, I'm facing the fact that only five is probably as low as this number will be...but hey, it's time to grow up, right?! Well...maybe, maybe not!

To celebrate leaving my 20s, I had a costume party in Munich with a letter 'M' theme - thanks to my friend Tristan (nicknamed Piggy) who had a letter 'P' party in Australia for his 21st. I had been planning this party for several months and collecting items to make my costume as awesome as I could, given the occasion. I don't tend to celebrate big on my birthday(s) but I wanted this party to be something special...which it certainly was!

Oooh yeaaah!

Can you dig it!?

I'm the (one and only) Macho Man (Randy Savage) *insert deep, manly voice*. I loved wrestling growing up (watching reruns of WWF (now WWE) Summer Slam make me seriously question my youth tv preferences, but hey, it was the 90s) so I wanted to honour a bit of my past with a costume I knew would rival another costume I wore for Halloween one year...well, three years but this particular version was the best. This fierce Sponge Bob costume took a LOT of time to paint and perfect so I was sad to leave it behind when I left Korea... It won me beerwards on the big day and, well, it's just hard to say goodbye to something you brought to life, isn't it? :P

Sponge Bob Square Pants - Halloween 2008, Seoul

My version of Macho Man did compare in real life likeability, in my opinion, to the real deal but the attention it got me surpassed what I got with Sponge Bob - I had a fan club! Yup! I also had several stares (some happy ones, some cranky 'WTF?' ones) on my way to the train station, on the train and upon arrival at my birthday party venue - The Hofbraukeller in Munich. It was a rainy and cold (not cool, cold) Sunday afternoon but when I walked through the beer hall to set up our beer pong tournament area, I caught the attention of four little girls who would soon become hardcore Macho Maniacs. These girls made my day! Check out the video below:

Macho Man Beer Pong

Before every shot I took in a game, they would pat me on the back, yell words of encouragement to me and then even made me signs to hopefully get me to the finals; sadly, that didn't happen. I was also very fortunate to have all of this caught on tape as my best friend, Amanda, was there to capture it all. Another amazing part of my amazing weekend was the fact that Amanda was there - she flew all the way from Canada JUST for my birthday celebration..and she even brought lobsters with her from home! She's amazing! On top of that, I had most of the people who I had invited, show up to celebrate my birthday, most with costumes to the theme as well. I celebrated for 16 hours that day and still felt great the following morning because I was still on such a high from all the greatness of the day before.

I had a fan club cheering for me, my best friend from home, a packed beer hall room full of friends and a solid 24 hours of laughter and tears of joy to kick start my 30s! When the calendar actually rolled on May 21st, I received flower deliveries from a far and lots of love and well wishes in one form or another to remind me that life is good and I'm ready to take on this new decade; I couldn't be more grateful or feel any more fortunate! :)

Love from near and far - You can't beat cards! :)

Flower deliveries to brighten my day!