Jindo Sea Parting Festival Second Time Around

On Friday night Dallas and I went to see "Iron Man 3" after I finished work. I really liked it. There was one part in particular that made me laugh really hard and it was a sort of cultural reference so most of the Koreans there had no idea why I was laughing. That happens to me in the States too though.

On Saturday morning we had to get up pretty early (for a Saturday at least) to get on the bus to go to Jindo. I went last year too (see that post here if you want to) and Dallas and I had a goal this time of making it to the island opposite the starting point. The phenomenon is pretty cool and if you want some more info, National Geographic wrote an interesting article. This time was very different than last year. First of all, the bus ride felt like forever, in part because the driver got lost for a bit. This year the weather was also slightly overcast and colder. Another big difference is that it felt like the festival part of it doubled in size. There were a ton more food vendors lined up along the path. There were also a lot more people, foreigners specifically, than last time.

Including the Ecuadorian Indian dancers who played windpipes

Boats - I tried to find out where to ride one of these, but couldn't

Again Dallas and I sort of split off from the group (although there were mostly sections of 2-6 people) and walked around. We met up with other groups from time to time, but mainly stuck to ourselves. First we saw some of the cutest dogs ever - the Jindo Korean dogs. I have no idea if they are a separate breed or what but they are adorable as puppies.

Kid demonstrating a k-squat whilst playing with puppies

I mean seriously - look at that face!

After that we started to look for something to eat and for an ATM because I only had $10 with me for some reason. Luckily they had a mobile ATM area set up near a portable 7-11. Dallas's stomach started to hurt really bad at that point. He gets stomach aches when he eats and then sits on a bus or something for awhile. Basically he had gas cramps that he couldn't get rid of. We walked around for a little while more, but he was just miserable, so we walked up to the same bench we sat on last year and he laid his head on my lap and I patted his stomach for an hour. It wasn't what either of us had planned for the day, but we talked and the sun came out and we watched the sea part from above again, so it ended up ok.

This was most of the afternoon

When he started posing, I knew he was feeling better

The sea starting to part

Dallas was feeling better at that point (he wanted to eat and buy stuff, so I knew he was fine) so we walked down and started to do the crossing. First we took pictures on some rocks and the light and his camera made them look like he was a ghost (at least that's what I think). Then we walked across the rocks and joined the line crossing to the island.

3 Korean ladies who go to my church - Rachel, Victoria and Heejin - they tried to dig up clams

Ghost Dallas

Part of the open path

That was the biggest difference. This year there was no fully cleared path like last year. There were patches of land, but a lot of it was still underwater. It was kind of annoying. The separation didn't last as long either. We were in it for less than an hour. We rushed toward the other side instead of taking our time, but still ended up at the same point when they blew the whistle. The water rushed back in much faster too and we got wet (or at least I did). It was still fun, but colder and slightly disappointing.

Crowd

Korean lady giving her husband a piggy back ride so his shoes wouldn't get wet.

Seaweed. Lots and lots of seaweed.

Lady collecting something from a trap. Not sure what it was that she trapped though.

Dallas and Ines (who tripped right here) walking back once the tide started to come back in

After we got back on land, we signed a huge banner that people had painted. They had put away the paint already, so we used a highlighter I had in my purse.

Me signing Dallas's name because he signed mine

Our name are near the weird blue eyes and the KC on the left.

Then we went into a food tent and ordered some soup to split, along with a soju. I took some pictures so you could see the inside of the tent. They throw up some plastic stools and have a limited menu, usually random soups. The best part is that there is usually a hanging roll of toilet paper to use as napkins. We left the tent and then we each had a kebob at a food stand down the road.

He's thinking really hard about soup

Huge pile of huge oyster shells at the soup tent

At that point we got back on the bus and started for home. The driver got lost again in the same spot and it took us almost 4 hours to get home. We got back around midnight, I took a shower because I was freezing and salty, then went to bed and slept solidly for 8 hours. Even though it wasn't what I expected, or had hoped for, it was still a good day and I'm glad I went.

Birthday party, long lost friends, jam packed Sunday

So back to Friday night. I got out of work really late and went home to put on make-up to go to my friend Emma's birthday party. The party started much earlier with dinner and apparently some pre-dinner drinks. Liezle met me at my house and dropped off her stuff, then we cabbed it to wine bar where the crowd was in the middle of a trivia game. I generally love trivia, but we got there in the middle of it so we couldn't really play, plus there was no background music or anything. So the two of us split a bottle of wine and talked to Cody, who was at the bar and very drunk. He told us some interesting stories and made us laugh by being completely inappropriate.

Happy Birthday Emma!

Pinkie swear with Cody - not sure what we were swearig

After trivia and another bottle of wine, the vast majority of the party goers moved onto another venue. A group of 5 of us tried to go to a dance club and set it up for others to get there, but they were charging too high of a cover for any of us. I got mad at Dallas at that point due to mutual misunderstanding and when I asked him to explain something he said he didn't want to deal with me, which made me angry. Luckily there were enough other people there that I didn't need to talk to him. Some other very weird things happened that night - some of which I took pictures of. I didn't do anything too weird, other than taking what turned out to be a pretty nice picture of me and Liezle in the bathroom at the bar. We ended up leaving around 4 am. At about 9:30 on Saturday morning I woke up and went to Dallas's house because I needed to talk to him about the previous night. He wasn't ready to talk to me yet, so we fell asleep for another hour, watched an episode of Smash, he ate breakfast and then we talked about it and are fine. At that point, I went back to my apartment and met Liezle. We had plans to go to Sanchempo (spelling ?), but cancelled them at 9:30 when we saw it was raining. So we didn't feel rushed to meet anyone. We talked for about 2 hours about the previous night and other things going on in our lives. Then we got ready to go to lunch and meet her friend Nick.

Me & Liezle in the bathroom at Urban Drink before closing time

While we were getting ready, Nick called and texted her on and off trying to figure out when we would get downtown and what the plans were. He was invited to go with us to Sanchempo, but we messaged him and told him we canceled because of the rain and would tell him other plans later. He kept telling Liezle that we were late and we couldn't really figure out why he was saying that. When we finally got downtown, he was in a coffee shop with his friend and didn't want to come to lunch with us because they had already eaten. We were both starving and went to a chain dak galbi restaurant. When we finished eating, Nick met us there and we started walking down the street. Nobody said anything and Liezle and I assumed we were walking to a coffee shop that we often go to together. When we passed the coffee shop, Liezle finally asked where we were going. Nick goes, "To Sanchempo. I have a car. Get in." We just looked at each like what is going on? He told us he needed to be back for work at 6, so that we'd drive there (about a 30-40 minute ride), get coffee and drive back. We didn't really have other plans, so we got it. It was a little awkward because neither Nick nor his friend are "talkers" but luckily he played some decent music during the trip.

He pulls off on what looks like the side of the road and says, "It's open." I still didn't know what he was talking about, until I looked at the water. There is a boardwalk leading to a dock. On the dock is a coffee house. It was actually really cute, but as all of us had slight hangovers, all the rocking was not the best feeling in the world. The coffee was ok, but a little expensive and the lady was quite rude to Liezle. But after the coffee, I leaned back and the rocking almost put me to sleep, so I was ok. We chatted for awhile and then had to go back so Nick could get to work.

That's the coffee shop

Liezle and Nick ordering

Coffees

View from our table

Me, the guy I don't know who said 15 words the entire day, Liezle and Nick

Liezle and I then went to another coffee shop and split a piece of cheesecake because she had been craving it for awhile. In fact, it was one of the only things on the list of things she wanted to do that weekend. We talked some more and I realized (as always) how much I miss having her around. We text a lot, but it's not the same. Kyeong He joined us at that point and told us this disturbing story. She always makes me laugh so I'm glad she joined. Then my friend Caleb, who I messaged at 3am for some reason, who I also haven't seen in a year, messaged me asking what we were up to. So I told him to join us for dinner. It was kind of a weird plan because we were supposed to meet other people at various places. It was really cold, so we took a cab and made the guy stop on the side of the road while "boy Ryan" hopped in. Then we stopped at little further on at Diaso where Dallas was waiting for us. I hadn't told him all these people were coming, so I think he was a bit overwhelmed when everyone kept coming out of the cab. Then Caleb joined up and we set off. We didn't know the name of the place, but we knew where it was, so we had to walk.

While we were in the coffee shop I told Kyeong He that she wasn't allowed to make nice comments to Dallas today - that it was a test. On the walk, she said something about him being handsome and I said, "no". Then she was telling me a story about how she's going to be careful about it when other guys are around because if she compliments him but not the other guys, maybe they will feel bad. It was kind of funny, but also nice. Luckily I think only the girls heard this conversation. We went to the samgyupsal place again and split a large amount of food. Five of us were eating though, so it really wasn't that much. Caleb had already eaten, but he sat and talked to us.

Kyeong He and Liezle did most of the cooking

After dinner, Kyeong He went home because she was really tired. The 5 of us then went to another coffee shop (do you see a repeated theme). This was a bit of a fancier place, but had comfy chairs and we stayed there talking about vampire apocalypse and other bizarre things like that. I remember how much I enjoyed hanging out with Caleb and he and I have very similar senses of humor. The bad thing is that he's public, so our hours are off. After coffee everyone split up. Liezle and I went home and watched a movie and talked a lot more. We ended up going to bed between 2 and 3 and right when we were about to fall asleep we heard the clompy upstairs neighbor coming home. She banged around for about 10 minutes and then settled down.

My latte at the dreadfully named Coffee Brown

Sunday morning we had to wake up around 9 because we were meeting our friend Lindi at (can you guess?) a coffee shop. Lindi left Korea on Monday, so this was our last chance to say goodbye. She also needed to give Liezle back a guitar. She couldn't stay long because she hadn't finished packing or cleaning. After coffee we went shopping downtown. I bought some shoes - green sneakers that I had been wanting and finally found in my size. Then Nick met us again and I left for church. After church we had a planning team meeting where we listened to a seminar and then talked about long term planning for the church and what needs the people who go to church need. After the meeting, we all went to a pasta restaurant to meet up with another group of people for a goodbye dinner for Corinne. The food was ok, but the worst part was that it took over an hour from when we ordered to when we actually got our food. It's a good thing that I enjoyed all the people around me!

t-shirt I debating about buying - I didn't get it

Salt & pepper shakers at Lucia - they were actually cuter in person

When I got home, I did a bunch of chores including dishes and laundry. Then Dallas came over and we went on a walk through the little park area near our houses. We stopped halfway for coffee (shocking I know) and then walked home again. I like Sunday walks - alone or with people - and I hope I keep them up. I'm sure there are some other stories from the weekend that I could add, or that I forgot, but this was the gist of it. I'm really glad Liezle decided to come and I was happy to be able to see a bunch of people I hadn't seen in awhile. Overall it was a pretty good weekend.

Routine week with bonus free stuff!

I totally didn't realize that I hadn't posted about last week - whoopsie! I keep saying this but don't really get all that better at it do I?

Most of it was a typical week - Monday was dance with Krista, then a lesson where my student gave me some bread things and quick dinner with Dallas.

Sesame seed breads - these had some kind of paste on the inside and were really good

Tuesday was Bible study, trip to Emart to get some groceries, a nap and nothing extra special at school.

Wednesday was dance class and dinner out because I need time away from school because I get really bored right now since I'm not teaching many classes this week and next. When I came back my boss asked what I ate and I told him kimchi bokimbap (sort of like fried rice) and he was surprised and asked if I liked Korean food. I've been living here for about 2 years now, so yeah. I also wore my hair in a ponytail for the first time on Wednesday and he said that I looked like a totally different person.

Thursday was interesting. I met up with Jamie and Corinne at the Barbie cafe. The owner gave Olivia some ice cream and we decided to sit outside. After maybe 10 minutes, the owner came out and told us that a guy wanted to smoke out there and would it be ok (because Jamie is pregnant). We said we would go inside. When we got settled inside, the owner came over and said the man (who apparently is a doctor nearby) bought us a snack as a thank you for moving. We said we didn't need anything and she said that he had already paid and brought us over brownies and ice cream which were awesome. After coffee I went home and met Dallas for a quick coffee and a quick walk around the block during a break of his.

Coffee and brownies at 11 am

Friday I had lunch with Krista and Kyeong He after dance class. We went to Yummy House and this is the first time I actually ate there (other than toast). We ordered sausage and cheese pork cutlets. They were good, but not the best I've had. Then Dallas came by during a break and sat with us. The owner likes him because he goes there all the time. Kyeong He thinks he's really handsome and tells him so all the time, so I told her she's not allowed to complement him anymore. After lunch we got coffees and she did coffee art on the lattes. Apparently mine was Puss in Boots - do you see it?

My rice was shaped like hearts and stars

I didn't see him at first because the cup was turned. This is right side up though, so you should be able to see him.

I met Dallas for dinner after he went boxing, then went back to school. We didn't leave until after 10:30 which annoyed me a little bit. I'm going to continue the Friday story with my weekend post because Liezle came to town and actually met me soon after I finished work (she took the wrong bus) and that's where I'm starting the weekend :)

Aboretum - adventures in Jinju

On Friday Corinne and I had lunch at Dal Oasis and we both got what we always get - no new adventures there. She's leaving in 2 weeks and I am really going to miss weekly lunches/coffee dates with her. She's been a really good friend and it's nice having someone who is in a similar life position (although she is much more cultured than I).

Camilla on a tree in the playground that we passed on the way to lunch

Cool looking restaurant

During lunch we planned (or tried to plan) our trip on Saturday. One problem was transportation. There used to be a train that stopped very close to the aboretum, but that train station closed when we upgraded to a newer train. Unfortunetly the new train doesn't go there. Corinne tried for over an hour and I ended up having to ask two co-workers for help. Eventually my co-worker Lucy found out how to get there by vus and called me with directions. It was very sweet of her and I should bring her a thank you present, but I forgot about it - whoops.

Friday after work I went to Dallas's house and played Catan with Jayden and Dallas. Dallas technically won, but we didn't notice until after Jayden won. After the first game we decided to play some other card games including Korean "one card" which is like crazy 8s but much meaner since you can play jokers which make the next person pick 15. I ended up with almost the entire deck more than once. I ended up leaving there at 3:30. It was the last night I would see Jayden, so we said goodbye on my walk home. I will really miss him and having lunch dates with him.

The next morning I woke up at 9 and met Corinne for coffee. Then Krista showed up and we went back to the coffee shop. We had to wait 20 minutes for the correct bus and then rode it for about an hour and a half (maybe a little less). We sat on the big bench seat in the back and it was like a roller coaster, we were sliding across seats and once my legs popped off the ground. It was kind of fun though. We got to a little bus station then transferred to another bus - a 001 which we didn't know existed. That bus ride only took about 5 minutes, but a whole bunch of adjumas got on and it must have been market day because they had tons of veggies. They blocked the aisles and sat directly in front of us, so we barely got off the bus. Luckily the driver was nice to us and waited and dropped us off on the side of the road directly in front of the arboretum.

Lady sitting directly in front of me in the aisle

The entire area is quite large and has 4 or so green houses, a small "zoo", a waterfall and a bunch of hiking paths. The first place we went was the tropical greenhouse. On the way we saw a camilla tree and while we were taking pictures we found a broom. Naturally we played witch and jumped off a little wall while riding the broom.

Flying

Field trip that showed up - that's when we walked out

Under a giant palm leaf

After that greenhouse we crossed a Japanese looking bridge and that's when the real picture taking started. Corinne really likes taking pictures of flowers. Her camera died shortly after crossing the bridge so I let her use mine while I used my phone camera.

Me on the bridge - go to my facebook page if you want to see more pictures, although some of these are duplicates

Me and Krista in front of a pink flowered tree doing Korean poses

Taking pictures of taking pictures. Krista had never seen a daffodil before and they made me extremely happy because we have them along the driveway at home and that's how you know it's spring.

After that bridge, we walked across some stepping stones, then went down towards a lake and had a bathroom break in what was a surprisingly clean bathroom. Then we walked along a stream and crossed back and forth between rocks and bridges.

Me and Krista on the bridge across the stream

I made them attempt this - you need more people to get a full fan effect but I applaud their effort

After crossing the bridge, we crossed right back over because the wooden path was full of families having picnics. There were a lot of people there, but this was the only place that felt even slightly crowded. Kids and grandparents and whole families were eating giant boxes of food, playing games and sleeping in pop-up tents. The best was a kid in a power-wheels like car that was remote controlled by the dad. I'm so getting one of those. Then we sat on a bench at the end of the stream and ate our lunch. I had some crackers (I didn't have time to buy real food), Corinne had almonds and dried apricots and Krista had some apples to share so I basically had a decent snack.

Picnickers lined up along the river

After lunch we went to the temperate green house. While we were in there Corinne said she spotted a kid who she thought looked like Dallas in profile. I took a picture later and am pretty sure I freaked out the kid's parents - oh well. I don't really think he looks like Dallas, but it was a funny situation.

Dallas jr. The best part was that he had 2 siblings (a brother and sister) and they all wore this same sweatsuit but in different colors. The brother also had some sort of beekeeper looking hat.

After that greenhouse we went into a topiary garden of sorts with some fairy tales made of flowers and moss. Krista and I saw "The Little Mermaid" and instantly started singing "Part of your world" at a decent volume. Luckily Corinne doesn't care, or at least pretends she doesn't. While we were waiting to take a picture, this little girl was talking to them and held Prince Eric's hand. It was super cute.

She needs better role models

Us copying 2 little Korean girls who performed the Nutcracker before we hopped up

After the topiary garden and tulips, we went to the "zoo". It was mainly cages of birds which was kind of sad. They also had some really cute meerkats, goats, Korean raccoon dogs (I will tell you more about this later) and donkeys.

They had statues of rhinos, but no actual rhinos

Look at the baby's face - he had just fed the donkey a potato chip and that was his reaction when the donkey ate it. His mom had the same reaction about a minute later when she fed the donkey. Donkeys love Pringles apparently.

This vulture was very nice and kept flying around while we were taking pictures. These things are the cutest ugliest animals ever.

After the zoo we climbed a huge set of stairs because they were all over the property and Krista wanted to climb at least one set before we left. Then we walked around the mountain for awhile before we found another green house.

Me and what we deemed "firework" flowers

Us and a bunch of phlox (which I was able to correctly identify - thanks mom and the side of our house)

 On the front side of the green house was super creeptastic Snow White and only 4 creepy dwarfs. Seriously, look at her face!

I will suck out your soul! HI HO!

On the backside of the green house was another small hike up to this waterfall. Krista and I decided to do the Korean heart pose to make our bridge picture more interesting. Then I waited on that bridge while Corinne and Krista climbed up to the top bridge so I could take pictures of them. Then I walked up there and we walked around another mountain path and ended up in some weird rock garden area.

Waterfalls are awesome - even man made ones.

 At that point we had been walking for about 4 plus hours and were ready to go home. We flagged down a cab, who ignored us at first, then followed us out of the park and took us to the bus station. Then we got some snacks at a convenience store - I got an ice cream bar and a kimbap triangle. A man sort of yelled at us when we started to get on the bus, but then we showed him our bus cards and he left us alone. We still aren't sure why he was talking to us because you don't have to buy tickets for the city buses, you just pay the driver directly.

We got home around 5:30 and I took a nap for an hour then met up with the girls again to walk to dinner for a birthday party. It was Heejin's birthday and we went to Dal Oasis again. I got the usual (as did Corinne), but I also tried garlic dipping sauce, so I mixed it up some. Then we sang and had cake and another lady from church played the ukelele while we were singing. Heejin and another friend made a treasure hunt using small pieces of paper they had hidden around the table. On some papers the word "jewel" was written. Other had tasks or missions. I ended up with 2 - a jewel and a mission. My mission was to hug my favorite person. Corinne said, "me" and I said "ok" and hugged her. Some others were to dance the Gangnam style dance, shake hands with someone at another table and make someone laugh. The jewels were little prizes including toe socks (that was my gift), rubber gloves and a bottle of water. It was very fun and I stayed until close to 11 when Brandon drove me home. I was exhausted in a good way and fell asleep almost immediately.

Lighting candles - this cake was really good - chocolate but light and fluffy

Little snacks the owner gave us. Lance and I had a whole debate about what they were supposed to be/taste like because I thought they looked like little chicken legs. We had this debate for like 20 minutes with different ideas (closed off, spicy Bugle was another option) before one of the Koreans was like - the name of the snack is little chicken legs.

Russian nesting doll glass - she will always love you

My toe socks, jewel and mission papers

On Sunday after church we were supposed to do a scavenger hunt that was cancelled last weekend due to rain. Unfortunately, not many people stayed to do it, so we decided to hold off again and instead went to lunch at Beans Farm. I had a cheeseburger, which was good but they took forever and a day to make it. Then Cara, Corinne, Inis, Ilani and I went to a couple of stores. I bought a head band and some shoes (which I think made Dallas sad because I never buy any when I'm with him). After shopping I went home and did dishes and watched about 5 episodes of "New Girl" before I went to sleep. It was a great weekend!