Last weekend with Cindy

I know there should be another Daegu post first, but too bad, this one is ready now. This is about last weekend (or my second to last weekend in SK).

On Saturday morning Dallas and I woke up early and caught a bus to Busan. I was meeting Cindy there for our last (free) armpit appointment and Dallas was going to meet a friend of his (well sort of). We left early because Dallas's friend wanted to meet at 12 at a place about 30 minutes from the bus station. After 15 minutes after we got on the bus, he messaged that he couldn't make it.

He originally took a picture of me asleep on him, which woke me up. Then he made that face and I'm still not sure why.

So we had close to 3 hours to kill before we needed to meet Cindy and go to the spa. We ended up going to the Lotte Department store, eating breakfast (kebabs and a salad), wandering around the mall, having coffee, debating crappy movies, walking in the rain and finally going to a bookstore where we discussed good books we've read.

Cindy was stuck in traffic, so we went ahead to the spa/clinic without her. They got all confused, but I told them I could wait for her before our appointment. She ran in last minute and they were able to see us, but they didn't give us quite enough ice pack time, so the laser hurt both of us. Then the three of us walked back to mall and had lunch (Dallas and I split a salad and chicken skewers). Cindy and Dallas have hung out with me before and I've commented how alike they are, but this weekend solidified it - they are practically the same person, just with different body parts. It explains why I get along with both of them so well, but it's a little creepy.

Then we wandered for another little bit, Cindy got a donut, I bought a slap watch and we hopped a bus back to Jinju. We actually had to wait for a bus because the one that was there when we got to the station was already full. Dallas was really funny/sweet because he knew it was my last time to see Cindy so he told me to sit with her for Cindy-time. Then he shared his headphones with the Korean girl next to him who didn't speak English. It was pretty funny.

When we got back, Cindy and I went back to my apartment. There was a ton of crap everywhere. Cindy had a box and a bag still there from when she moved to Daegu, plus the stuff she brought for the weekend. Dallas had a pile of clothes from the night before all over, and Corrine (the girl who is replacing me) has a suitcase, backpack and box here since she is visiting her brother in Thailand this week. We chatted for awhile, then Cindy took a nap while I showered, did a load of laundry, and got dressed.

We were supposed to meet about 8 people for dinner, but 4 of the bailed (1 because of rain, 1 fell asleep and 2 were at another dinner). Saturday was a newish girl's (Emma) birthday and they created a joint facebook event for the 2 of us (even though I told them that it wasn't technically my last day). But I didn't want to go to her dinner b/c there were just took many people - about 30 - which is fun at a bar or dance place, but not at a restaurant. So I took Dallas, Cindy and Anna to the bbq I went to on Friday night. It's an all you can eat meat place with duck, bulgogi and other meat, but lots of veggies and really good salad. We stayed there for awhile, they kept toasting me and I got mad at them for it, so then we toasted everyone.

Anna took this picture of Dallas checking his teeth in his phone - a very Korean thing to do which he has happily adpoted

After dinner the 4 of us met up with Jon at Fish and Grill for soju slushies - one of my requests for the weekend. We tried to order strawberry and lemon, but ended up with 2 strawberries and some lemon slices. It was pretty funny, but I felt a little bad for the waitress. Every bar gives snacks of some sort for free. Usually it's these puffy rice things that my friend calls "beerios". This place gave us those, plus a small bowl of bondaegi (aka boiled silkworms). I have been here over a year and have avoided eating them. But because of my liquid courage from earlier, I decided I needed the experience. So I ate one. Then I made Cindy and Dallas try one with me so I ate a second. They were not good. But now I can say I did it.

At Fish and Grill

Cindy, Dallas and Anna eating ramen

Jon, Anna and me

Beerios and bondaegi

Collage of me eating bondaegi

After drinks, we hopped in a cab (and got semi-yelled at by the diver for having 5 people in the car) and went to the GNU area to meet up with Emma's bday party group. The cab ride there was one of the funniest things I can remember. Dallas and Cindy have very similar personalities and are pretty open about sharing. Jon was sitting in the front and kept turning around and telling them that those were stories you don't tell people (they were talking about times they pooped their pants). Before we met up with people, we stopped in a family mart and had a drink because the bar is kind of pricey.

Everyone was in a bar called Garden Bier. I had never been there before, but it seemed like a nice place. They only serve beer. There were probably 25-30 people there and while Cindy, Dallas, Cody and Jon sat at a table, I made the rounds and talked to everyone. Anna was walking around too, bought me a beer, but then got kinda sad and went home. At this point, the night started to get a little weird and some mini-drama happened. Although nothing actually came of it so I won't bother explaining. Dallas called me over to their table and Cody showed me pictures of his mom. We sat around telling stories and stuff for about 30 minutes then decided to head out to a dance club.

There are 2 new dance places in Jinju. One is called g&u and that's where we tried to go first. When we walked up, they told us that they weren't serving any alcohol that night and most of the people I was with wanted to keep drinking, so we left there and headed to the other place called Blue Ketchup. It was pretty packed and is more of a Korean bar. I walked in a the usher guy literally grabbed my arm, turned me around, and walked me back to the elevator. No other "foreigners" even made it out of the elevator. Most people left at that point and either went to another bar or home. A decent sized group went to the family mart for supplies and then back to g&u. There are lockers there for your stuff and the lockers are in a parking lot behind the club, so we just sat there for a little while before actually dancing. There was also a back room where I ended up for most of the night because people wanted to talk to me before I left. It was nice, but I didn't really get to do too much dancing.

Sitting in the parking lot and drinking

Hanging out by the lockers

Ally, me, Cindy and Dallas inside the back room at G&u

At around 3 or 3:30, Cindy, Dallas and I went home. The rest of out group had left in pieces and the remaining people headed to a norebang, but we were all exhausted, plus we were meeting people for brunch in the morning. We all headed back to my apartment, where I made Cindy sing "I'm glad you came" with me since we didn't go to the norebang. Dallas didn't want to sing, so he danced with my swiffer instead.

Dallas dancing pre-Swiffer

On Sunday I got up, took a shower, then woke Cindy and Dallas up. We met Josh, Anna and Cody downtown at Beans Farm for brunch, then walked around the market for a little while. It was a beautiful day. At 1:15 I had to leave for church so I said goodbye to Cindy which was super sad, but I know I'll stay in touch with her. She and Dallas went back to my place and packed her stuff then Cody took her to the bus station.

One of my favorite pictures of the weekend with 2 of my favorite people. This is also how unpacked my apartment was a week before I needed to leave

Church was really nice. They posted a prayer request for me in the bulletin and then about 20 people went to lunch at a soup place. I didn't take a picture, but I think someone did and I will post it eventually. This place also has really good tofu. Then most of the group went to Cold Stone, where we were joined by Hein, Dallas and Josh. After ice cream, I said goodbye to another handful of people and the rest moved on to the river. My request to Ilani when she asked what I wanted to do for a going away thing, was to play 30 seconds. I've talked about it before on game night posts, but it's a really fun game. We ended up with 4 teams of 4 (Josh, Dallas, Ilani and I were on a team) and it was hilarious. I wish I had videoed some of it. Most people left at that time, and 2 guys went to get coffee, so Josh and I played against Ilani and Dallas. Ilani, Josh and I are all the same age and Dallas is almost 10 years younger than us, so watching him play makes us laugh extra hard. Josh and I are very similar and we think alike, so we totally kicked their butts. Then 7 more people showed up to watch the musical fountain, and we played another round. It was still fun, but it was dark so it was hard to read the cards.

The river near the fountain

Ilani trying to explain something to Dallas and Lance

Josh and I share a brain so naturally we were unstoppable at 30 seconds...until the group of Saffas showed up

The second (or 4th) game

After the fountain and our game ended, a group of South Africans went to dinner, and the rest of us went home. I was really tired, but ended up staying up until 2 am posting pictures and checking facebook and email. I had a wonderful second to last weekend which just makes it that much harder to leave.

Second to last week in Jinju

Sorry - I can't believe it's been almost 10 days since my last post. Time flies - my Wii tells me that too (it's been 5 days Ryan, you should remember to test yourself everyday - shut it Wii).

Anyway, the main reason I was waiting to post was because I was (and still am) waiting on my friends to post pictures so that I can explain the weekends better.

Where did I leave off? Last weekend in Daegu...ok well part 2 of that story is still in the works due to the aforementioned lack of pictures.

This past week has been odd, but fun. I didn't do anything on Monday because I was really tired from the weekend. I got one box packed with sweaters and stuff to send home. I don't know how I accumulated so much stuff, especially since I haven't really bought any clothes here.

On Tuesday I had dinner at the yogurt chicken salad place with Dallas and Cody. Dallas had never been before and I wanted to make sure I saw Cody before I left. He originally was going to be in Ulsan on the weekend, but luckily his plans changed and he stayed in Jinju. We just had dinner then called it a night.

On Wednesday I met up with Josh, Dallas and Mike and took them to one of my favorite restaurants in Jinju - the dak galbi place. We chatted and ate and chatted some more. Those are some of my favorite guys and everything with them is relaxed and fun and I will miss spending time with them. After dinner (which was spicy because even though I said only put a little in, Dallas was teasing and said a lot and they listened to him) I made the boys go with me to the rock foot path and try it out. It's still hilarious to me that this even exists. They all hated it, but it's a Korean experience (at least that's what I told them).

Thursday was bowling night. We met at our usual time at the kimbap place and 2 new people joined up for dinner, but then didn't bowl. It was crowded when we got there and Dallas and Mike's balls were being used by other people, so Dallas asked if he could use one of the balls along the wall. The man working there gave him a really nice ball and said it was for curving. Dallas's mom sent a care package that got there on Thursday, so we were eating sugar cookies and we gave one to the guy for helping us. Plus everyone there is super nice and we probably would have given him one anyway. Mikey ended up using the ball and got 6 strikes in a row. It was pretty awesome. He still didn't beat John's high score from last week, but it was close at 192. Dallas and I were really tired, so we left after 4 games instead of staying for the 5th.

John, Mike and Dallas have the 3 high scores in our fake league. Ally wishes he were that cool. (And I'm #4!)

Dallas and Mike had a lengthy discussion about calluses 

Mike curving the new ball

On Friday morning I went to school with Dallas. One of my students is one of his students and she asked me to go and visit her. It was fun. He has a giant classroom and you wear slippers instead of shoes inside the school. My student is in 3rd grade which is his first class. On the way to school we stopped at a coffee shop and got coffee and English muffin sandwiches. He has about 40 minutes of prep time before any students show up so we ate and he set up videos etc. for the kids. When the kids got there, Emily (my student) ran over and gave me a hug then ran to her seat. He has 4 tables of 6-8 kids each and just about everyone of them asked if I was his girlfriend. He has a co-teacher for most classes, and this is one of his better co-teachers. This guy basically walks around making sure they are paying attention and not going too crazy. Dallas used me to help show them conversations. The topic was "How are you?" "I'm happy/sad etc." At the end of class they play a game and the kids are nuts! But it's pretty funny. Then Emily ran over to me, hugged me again and another kid came over to talk to me too. Later, when I had her, she told me to come everyday because Dallas picked her while I was there.

Friday night was my last prayer service meeting. I will really miss those meetings. I think they do help me focus my prayers and thoughts and I really really will miss the people that regularly attend - they are my church family and have made my time in Korea extra special. After service I went to a bbq place with Seth and Ilani then went to Dallas's house and watched "Hercules" while he cleaned and did laundry.

The weekend will be another post, that I will try to do later today, but no promises!

Daegu weekend - not safe for work (or children) - part 1

This weekend I went to Daegu to say goodbye to Cindy (even though she's coming to Jinju next weekend) and do some other things. I had a list of stuff I sort of had planned to do and just about none of it got crossed off that list. And I was perfectly happy about it. Dallas and Josh waited for me and the 3 of us got the nice (express) bus to Daegu. We got to the city around 10, got a motel room (where the lady gave us some interesting looks and questioned our need for multiple toothbrushes), dropped off our stuff and left. Cindy was going to meet us out for a low-key evening, but she lives about 30-40 minutes from downtown and since it was already 10, she decided to stay home. So I ended up walking around with Josh and Dallas trying to follow this awful map to a bar they wanted to see. We had dinner and went to a couple of bars, walked down a scary alley or two, and ended up taking shots of whiskey with a bartender after he closed the bar.


I can't really post most of what happened the rest of the night, but at some point around dawn, after I just got home, I had to go back out in pajamas to pick up Dallas, who dropped his can of Pringles on the ground and promptly ate them anyway (although none that actually touched the ground). Josh's facebook status pretty much sums up the weekend, so I borrowed it from him:


My Weekend in Quotes: "Daegu 'Kimchi' is delicious", "This KOREAN map says to keep walking until the end of the street","OMG they gave us the slut bed","Two toothbrushes or three *wink, wink*","I think this map is wrong"," Read the comments","Set the Swan to RAMMING speed","I hope none of us have herpes","It was like 200 degrees and tasted like picante sauce, and no he wasn't Mexican","I feel weird. Why? I just bought two girl shirts. It is ok this is KOREA!","Ryan it is your job to tactfully tell him to leave, k!","Blue, PICK BLUE!!!","We should have learned by now not to listen to Korean maps","He's my style","Whiskey shots!","I'll ask him, hey do you think he is hot, do you want to have playtime with him?? Yes right now!","Ryan, help me I am lost in Mokpo!","We have been walking for three hours and haven't found anything","I'm hungry","What, Tommy doesn't have a cell phone where he is?","Best PORN ever!","The best part was the surround sound snoring","Thank god he is pretty","He stole my choco cookies","It is an experience" .Thank you Ms. Ryan Hackman and Mr. Dallas Nickell for my my first trip to Daegu so memorable. Thanks for the invite!


More of the tamer parts of the weekend (including pictures) coming soon. I have to wait for Dallas and Cindy to send me their pics or to post them on facebook. Here's one from a photo booth we did Sunday afternoon to hold you over.

Kids essays - Part 12 - Songs and food

So I don't have much to update. My days recently have been busy at work preparing for finals and writing tests. This semesters seems to have a lot more tests and grading that usual. I'm also starting to develop a bit of senioritis and don't feel like doing any work, but I still like my classes. I have been doing well on my essays though, in part because I go to Dallas's after work and grade while he lesson plans, instead of coming home and screwing around on the computer.

Today was election day here in Korea, so it will end the annoying trucks with loud speakers announcing candidates, but it will also end things like this and this:

Candidate number 4's truck with his lantern self

Because it was election day, all the public schools (and some academies) had the day off. I didn't, so I was mad at all of my friends. I had lunch with Josh, Dallas and Anna at a chicken place and then we went for coffee. It was a nice day and I was sad to have to leave them while I went to work. It also made me miss Liezle some because she and I used to do stuff before school at least once a week and I miss having someone like that (well and her obviously).

Some of my kids are finishing this semester early because they are studying for their school mid-terms. One of my favorite students, Ian, knew I was leaving soon, so he wrote me a rap song. Here's the cover art for his album:

And here's my song:
Woman: Ryan Hackman
by E Anne (featuring D to the K) ** DK is another student in class who is good at beatboxing**

Beatbox solo by D to the K
My name is Ryan Hackman
I like to play some hangman
Everybody thinks I'm cute
You got a problem, dude?
Hugh Jackman is my man
He lives off by X-man
I'm from Georgia
I drank lots of vodka
With my black friends
Jamaicans hold ma hand
Nothing can stop me
I'm the wannabe
Now I'm in South Korea
Riding ma new Kia
I gotta eat to live
But I couldn't leave
So I got to work for W
So F*** you

Yea. He used to sing the first 4 lines at least once a class, if not multiple times. I will miss him. On another note, here are some older essays that I posted on facebook but never posted here.

Mosquito eye soup

Worm soup

Monkey brains. Also, arg cause it's sideways!

Jindo - Sea parting

This past weekend was Easter weekend. On Friday I went to a Good Friday service at church and we watched some videos and sang some songs. It was very quiet and meditative. After that I met up with Dallas and we watched the Hunger Games with Mike and Britney. On our way to the theater, we stopped in a store downtown and Dallas bought a shirt. He also changed clothes in the middle of the store. He somehow left his phone there, which we didn't find out until after the movie at midnight - when the store was closed. We also had to leave early the next day, so Mike ended up going to the store for him and finding the phone.

On Saturday morning we got up and met up with people at church to ride a bus to Jindo for the sea parting festival. Once a year in Jindo in Jeollanam-do Province, the seas part and you can walk to a nearby island. It's due to the difference in high and low tides and you end up with about a 50m wide "road" that's about 2.8km long. Not sure if it happens Easter weekend every year, but it seemed to fit in with the theme.

The festival itself was kind of lame. The food wasn't very good (although Dallas loved these chicken things) and there wasn't a lot to do in terms of activities. But it was a beautiful day and we were at the beach. There were about 30 people in the group, but we sectioned off very quickly and Dallas and I stayed by ourselves most of the day. 

Parade thing - these guys played for like 4 hours

Dallas eating chicken

We got there 4 hours before the sea parting, so the beach started off pretty empty

Dallas likes to take random pictures. Sometimes they come out decent.

Climbing on rocks. He also likes to pose, which is fun for me because he will do some ridiculous things.

We took lots of pictures on the rocks, walked around, then climbed up to the top of a hill and I napped/laid on a bench while he read the second book of the Hunger Games series. From the top we could see the sea starting to part. We stayed there for a bit, then went back down to the bottom, where we met up with some more people. 

Sea beginning to part at the opposite side

The middle opening up

Then we ended up separating again for the actual walk in the sea. It was really cool and an experience I won't forget. The water was pretty cold, but not the coldest I've been in, and it was slippery, but I didn't fall. There were random crabs, starfish and lots of people picking up clams and seaweed.

The line in the background is the first set of people crossing. There were hundreds of people, but honestly it didn't feel that crowded except when we walked down the stairs to the beach.

Our friend Hein dressed up as Moses (he wasn't the only one).

me on the water's edge

Holding a starfish. They were all this grey color with bright orange spots.

Sunset on our way back right before the tides came back in

The tides came in super fast. There was a boat warning people to come back. The also were selling those big boots, but I was fine in flip flops.

Group shot right before we rode the bus home

The bus ride home was long and I slept for a little bit then talked to Dallas when he finished the book. I went home and slept for 10 hours straight without moving. 

Sunday morning I got up and met Dallas and Anna at church. There was a good sermon, one lady made peanut butter eggs and then we went to lunch. After lunch we went shopping at E-mart then Homeplus because Dallas was trying to find plastic eggs for his class. No luck on that. Then we went to dinner and home. Sounds like a lot of eating, but it really wasn't. It was more talking and walking around. It was a long day/weekend, but a lot of fun.

Family and bowling photo round-up

Sometimes I miss my family. And then I find out they are all around Korea so I don't have to: 

Sara clothes shop in Daegu

Barbara clothes shop in Daegu

Ann clothes shop in Jinju

Holly coffee - everywhere

Sorry about the weird formatting on those pictures.

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks of bowling. The last 3 weeks have been really good for our group. Dallas got his first turkey, then the next week he got another one plus has the high score of the group with a 177.

Dallas's first turkey

Dallas's second turkey. He didn't want to take the picture, but we made him. It's a requirement after a turkey.

Then Danny, who has joined us a couple of times and is a pretty decent bowler, got a turkey.

Danny adds the appropriate level of awesome-face for a turkey

I already mentioned my high score 161 game, but then after Dallas and Danny got turkeys, I finally got mine too!

Turkey time!!

The usual crew - Lindi, Jon, Dallas, me, Mike and Ally

Cindy's birthday in Daegu

Last weekend was Cindy's birthday. She had a somewhat week long celebration. Her actual birthday was on Wednesday and her co-workers bought her a cake. Then she had a mini-party on Friday and someone else got her another one. Then another guy got her a third one on Saturday for her party. She loves cake so that was good for her!

Cindy's 3 cakes

 Dallas and I went up early Saturday morning (9:40 bus) so that I could drop off a box at her new apartment. She lives about 30 minutes outside of the city. I warned her not to get too drunk Friday night because I was coming on Saturday and she needed to be up for another night of partying. She tried, but failed. When we got to her apartment she started getting sick. But she didn't want to just ditch us, so we took a cab downtown. We had to pull over for her once and luckily the cab driver was really nice about it and actually thought it was kind of funny. He even pulled out a plastic bag and handed it to her when she got back in. We went and had lunch, but she still couldn't keep anything down so she went home right after that.

Dallas and I stayed in the downtown area and shopped. He got lots of things - shoes, a sweater, a really nice suit jacket. I got a purse (a nice one for cheap, but not fancy name brand) and more socks. We met up with a friend of his from orientation (public schools get that, I didn't) and walked around and shopped a bit more. Then we rented a motel room and dropped off our stuff. We went Cindy around 8 and went to dinner at a BBQ place. It was good, but slightly awkward because I expected lots more Jinju people to be there. A whole bunch bailed because there was a charity event in Jinju that weekend, plus others had mandatory school training.

Dallas and I left dinner early and met up with his friends again and got some drinks. It was one of their friend's birthdays too so we celebrated a bit with him.

Let's get drink y'all!

This was randomly up in the bar, so I thought I'd give a shout-out to my family and take a pic

You can write post-its and put them on the wall. Try to find ours.

We then went downstairs to a club and danced and drank for awhile. Someone (seriously, it wasn't me) turned the setting on my camera and I didn't notice until much later, so all the pictures I had all night were black or so bright you can see faces. It made me sad. We club hopped for the next couple of hours. During this time Dallas bought cotton candy and got it all over his face, I bought us 'couple' phone charms, I bought a kebab for Cindy and he ate it, I somehow cut my arm and lost my sweatshirt, Cindy switched shoes with her friend and Dallas called them adjuma (grandma) shoes, and Cindy and I traded many misspelled texts. At the end of the night we met back up with her to say good-bye, then we went home and slept.

After some editing, this was the only decent shot from her birthday of us

Couple phone charms. They lasted for a day before we took them off.

The next morning we got up and met Cindy for brunch. She was late, so while we waited for her, Dallas got his haircut. Then we walked around for a little while. We had brunch at a place called "Christos" and we split eggs Benedict, which were ok. Some of Cindy's other friends joined us towards the end, but we left so that I could go to the Hello Kitty Cafe. I've never been a huge Hello Kitty fan, but Cindy is. This place was just one of those Korean places I needed to see (even though HK is Japanese). Everything down to the toilet paper was Hello Kitty.

Outside the cafe

Back wall of the cafe

Cindy and Dallas at our table

Man's bathroom

Woman's bathroom. Some kid (who was old enough to know better) totally snaked me in line. I was mad because I really had to pee.

Pretty sure she's giving you the finger

My latte with a profile view of Hello Kitty. Dallas' was different, but I haven't stolen his pictures yet.

The back wall of another room

After Hello Kitty, we stopped for take-out kebabs for the bus ride home, then caught the bus back to Jinju. We were close to the last people on the bus and got separated. I sat next to a nun who immediately started to pray the rosary and kept on for the next 20 minutes or so. I fell asleep for a little bit, but not for long and then we were back home. I don't really remember if I did anything else, but I don't think so. Cindy is fully recovered and she had a blast, so the trip was definitely worth it!