Last weekend in Jinju

This post is late because, as usual, I am waiting for some people to post pictures. I decided to go ahead without some of the them, and I will just add the pictures to another photo round-up (hopefully in the near future, although since I've repeatedly asked for the pictures and I still don't have them, who knows when you will actually see them).

Saturday morning I got up early because I couldn't sleep. I didn't sleep well all week because I was nervous about packing/leaving plus stressing about things that I have no control over right now like the future and jobs/insurance/bills/money and all that crap. So I did some more cleaning, then met Dallas for breakfast at Paris Baguette where I ate a chicken salad.

After breakfast we went to Angel in Us and had coffee then went for massages. A friend of mine told me about a Thai massage place near my school. On Thursday I went to see if I could make appointments for us because I knew Dallas wanted one too. I walked in and they asked if I wanted a massage right then, I said no, we sort of worked out some details for a 10am appointment but as I was leaving I heard rapid fire Asian (still not sure if it was Korean or Thai) and thought I should pop my head back in. That's when they figured out they don't open until 12 on Saturdays. So I said 12 was fine. They didn't write anything down, so I was a bit skeptical. But when we showed up, they recognized me, said hi. Then they looked at us and decided we wanted a couples massage, so they put us in the room together. We had talked about it before and were wondering if that would happen. Luckily neither of us cared that much. They gave us shorts and t-shirts to wear instead of being under blankets, and honestly I think I would have rather just been in underwear. Especially since half way through they take off your shirt anyway, which they put back on again before you flip over to your back. They did different stuff to me and Dallas. He has more knots than I do and his lady punched him a couple of times. She also did some weird twists and spine cracking things, but I think my lady realized I do not bend that way. They were really nice massages, but I bruise like a peach apparently because I have clear thumb print marks above my butt and a couple of small ones on my arms. Still worth it.

After massages we met up with Josh at emart and Dallas got some food. Then we met up with Anna and the four of us went to Jinju castle. I had never been charged to go to the castle before, but this time they made us pay. Apparently if you show your resident card, you don't have to pay, but we didn't know. It was only like $1 so I just paid it. We got to watch a reenactment of something (changing of the guard or capture of Japanese people or getting a new general - we had no idea and it was all in Korean). Then they did some weapons demonstrations which were pretty cool.

Me and one of the musicians who played a shell - look at his hands!

Josh and the guy we dubbed "black ninja"

Anna, me and some dressed up dudes. They were excited about taking pictures with us.

After taking pictures with some of the people dressed up, we walked around part of the castle and took more pictures, including some on Nongae's rock. Then we walked to the fat buddha and took more pictures. Then we walked to the other side of the river and tried to find a convenience store that sold aloe water for Josh. We found a random temple apartment building and got stared at by lots of Koreans. Anna got cranky at that point and her feet were hurting, so she took a cab home.

Dallas "climbing" the castle wall

Our reenactment of Nongae and the Japanese general

Anna, me and Buddha (I can't believe it took over a year before I got a picture of him)

Anna and a Jinju memorial statue for peace or equality or something

Anna bought me that Power Rangers balloon/pinwheel. Then we made Dallas run after some kid with a broken arm and give it to him.

Dallas walking and dancing

View of the Nam River from the bridge closest to the castle

Josh and the random temple gate. Complete with guards with "chocolate stomachs"

The boys and I went to the bamboo forest, which was on my bucket list of Jinju. the only time I'd gone there was during lantern festival, so I wanted to see it not lanterned. We took lots of random pictures, ate some lollipops with unusual flavors and met up with Caleb. It was a great afternoon. I love hanging out with Josh and Dallas and Caleb fit in with them pretty well. Then we went for dinner at a noodle/soup/dumpling place. Only Dallas and I ate though. Then we walked downtown to a theater because friends of ours were performing in and/or directing "The Vagina Monologues". I was kind of gross at this point because I didn't have time to change my clothes or shower again, but whatever. Now I know to pack an extra shirt in Dallas's backpack.

Path through the "forest"

Me and the Nam river from the bridge close to the musical fountain

Caleb left at that point because he didn't want to watch the play or go to the after party bar because he doesn't like it. Josh was helping out, so he had to run inside. Dallas and I waited outside for a bit and chatted with people. I noticed that I had somehow lost an earring. He was tired and not really looking forward to hearing about vaginas for 2 hours, but luckily the play was really really good and he ended up in a decent mood.

Anna doing her monologue which was sad

Caroline doing her monologue which was funny and kind of uplifting

Bows at the end

Then the vast majority of performers and audience went to Beast Bar for a few hours. We played darts, danced, drank, laughed a lot and had a lot of awful pictures taken (don't people know they need to edit - it's called cropping and it's not that hard!!??). Then we moved on to singing. About 30 people (possibly more) went to a norebang, but we slipped out, had some people go inside and pull out some others and went to a different place. During this time, we ate some toast from the street lady and Anna and Dallas performed a street dance to a Lady Gaga song. Our group ended up being about 12 people which is a great size.

One of the awful pictures except that I love it of me and Josh because it captures how we are

Anna and Dallas "dancing"

We sang a bunch (for 2 hours). John and I got some of duets in, which made me happy. Dallas and I got in a bit of a fight because I was being a jerk (which I don't remember, but I can believe because I sometimes do that to him) and then he wouldn't talk to me so I got mad at him. Then everyone left (it was a little after 4 at this point) and went home. I was sad because of our fight and because it was my last night with most of those people etc. so I cried for a little while then ended up getting about 3 hours of sleep.

John singing

I'm not really sure what's happening here

I woke up and cleaned/packed some more, did some other email type things and went to Dallas's house and woke him up at 11 to talk about it. We figured out we were both being annoying, then took a nap and watched cheesy videos. He cleaned up his apartment and we went to Daiso for some last minute shopping. Then we went back to my apartment and Anna met us there. I cleaned out my fridge and cabinets and gave them most of my food. Dallas took a nap and Anna and I talked for awhile. Then we met up with Mike and had dinner at the new bbq place. We were all really full, but decided the best thing to do would be to go bowling! Jon and Lindi met us there and it was a great time. Anna, Mike and Jon were a team and Dallas, Lindi and I were the other. Our team won twice and theirs won the last game. It was a perfect ending.

Mikey got a turkey!

We all said goodbye then I walked back to Dallas's with him and Mike and said bye to Mike. Then Dallas came back to my apartment. It took me about an hour to totally finish packing and cleaning. I showered and he wrote some letters home to his family. Then he held my hand and we went to sleep. I will seriously miss a huge group of people. I wish them nothing but the best and I hope our paths cross again.