Emotional Week

Where did I leave off - so last Wednesday (the 30th) I was supposed to meet Dallas and Jayden for dinner, but they canceled on me and we switched it to Friday instead. Luckily I happened to be messaging Josh at the same time Dallas cancelled, so I ended up meeting him instead! I had beef soup (solangtang) that I love and he had something that I can't remember. Then we had coffee (well he had an orange smoothie) and chatted about his plans for moving to Africa and other things that were going on.

On Thursday, I went to Brandon and Jamie's and we read Ecclesiastes with Elizabeth and he told me about this cool website to find hymns and look at their history and stuff. I got my new schedule on Thursday and wasn't totally happy about it because I work until 10 every night now, but I'm learning to deal with it. On Friday, I switched back to "regular" hours so didn't have to start until 2 (except that day we went in at 1 for a teachers' meeting). I met Krista for lunch and she gave me a belated birthday present of peanut butter cups! After school, I met Dallas and Jayden at Holly's and we had coffee and chatted until it closed at midnight. Then we walked back to Dallas's apartment and talked for a little bit more. While I was there, Dallas made me "take-out" of their leftovers - soup that Jayden made (it was delicious) and some mandu. Then they walked me home around 1:30.

On Saturday, Cindy was in town and I met up with her for lunch at Pasta Bueno. She had coupons from before I left Korea last time but the waitress took them! We split a chicken salad and I had risotto. Then we walked around downtown for awhile and had coffee. We made the rookie mistake of not looking for seats before ordering coffee and thus had to sit in the smoking section, which wasn't bad until 2 guys came in, sat next to us and lit up. We left there pretty quickly. We rode the bus over to the driving range to meet Cody and Cindy's boyfriend, Torin. They were on their last few balls when we got there and then we all went back to Cody's apartment. We chatted for awhile, then Cindy and I left to get ice cream waffles (for us) and beer/soju (for the guys). Then we played Wii for a little bit while we waited for another friend to drop off his fish tank. Then Cody left to meet some people at one bar, but the three of us decided to go a different bar and play darts. I need to remember to take a picture of one of these kinds of bars - basically it's a wall of fridges with different priced beers. Then we went to an arcade next to the bar and Torin played we basketball and Cindy and I went into a coin room. This was something I wanted to cross off my Korean to-do list. They are little rooms, maybe 4 people fit max, with a video monitor and song book. Then you pay 1,000 won ($1) for your choice of 4 songs and you sing them. The strangest part was that we had to answer random trivia questions in Korean before we could sing the songs. We obviously just guessed. Then we met up with Dallas and Jayden at Urban Drink and hung out with them for about an hour. Cindy and Torin left because they were tired and needed to get keys from Cody. I stayed with Dallas and Jayden for another hour or so and we talked about lots of stuff then cabbed home.

On Sunday I got baptized with Ilani at church. It was a really awesome experience and I'm glad I waited until I was totally ready for it instead of just doing it. Brandon baptized both of us and I gave a short testimonial about my journey with Christianity. It also happened to be Elizabeth's last day with the church, so we all prayed with her before she went back to Cambodia. After service, we went to VIPS, which is a buffet restaurant directly next to my apartment. I had never been before, but it was really good. The funniest part about that was someone had called ahead to make reservations, but my group of 4 was the first to arrive. We ended up changing tables 3 times while they were arranging us for close to 30 minutes! The best part of the buffet was salads, especially a mango and cranberry one which was basically sliced of semi frozen mango, crasins and slivered almonds.

Me giving my testimony. Clearly I am still a hand-talker in Korea.

IEC took up 2 rooms! Thanks Elder Kang for dinner!

After dinner/lunch I met Josh at the coffee place across the street and we talked for a long time. He dropped off some of Dallas's stuff at my apartment, then we went his to apartment so I could get keys to his bike lock. He was planning to leave before I got out of work on Monday so this was out last night together. It was semi-awkward because I didn't want to cry but I did and I think he felt the same way. I know it was hard for him because he is basically ending a chapter of his life - saying goodbye to me was saying goodbye to Korea and a bunch of other stuff as well. Luckily I know we will stay in touch for a long time and I can't wait to see pictures and hear stories from Africa. I really will miss our weekly coffee dates though.

Hopefully I won't take so long before I write stuff because I know I'm forgetting to/not adding details because I'm cramming so much in here.