Buddha's birthday in Seoul

After the tea festival on Friday afternoon, we got back to the Hadong bus terminal to get seats for a bus to Seoul. The man at the window said they were sold out for both the 5pm and 7pm buses. So we ended up having to take a bus back to Jinju and then get a bus to Seoul from there. While we waited at the Hadong terminal, there was a really creepy guy who kept following people around.  We also saw the 5pm bus with a ton of empty seats, but it might have stopped at another city to pick people up. Then when we got back to Jinju, we had kimbap at the place across the street and got on another bus. When we got to Seoul it was pretty late already - around 11ish - and we headed straight for the subway and then to our hotel that Dallas had pre-booked. The place was called we2 hotel and it was pretty nice. They had a popcorn maker and coffee machine in the lobby and a gold tub in the room. I hopped in the tub and Dallas watched TV. Then he got hungry so we walked to a CU and got yogurt and bananas.

Gold tub. Yes, I took a bath. Yes, it was awesome.

We went to sleep but got woken up fairly early because of construction before 8am, which we just think it wrong on principle. We got up around 10ish and got ready and left the hotel on our way to lunch. Dallas planned the weekend and wanted to take me to a couple of places, so he chose hotels based on where we planned to go for the day. We stayed in the Jamsil area that night. We went to the subway and put our bags in a locker, then walked around a lake and got called a married couple by the little kid who gave us crackers to throw to some fish.

Walking in the park on the way to get noodles

Then we went to a famous (at least to Koreans) restaurant for lunch. It's a jjajang place, which is hand-made noodles with black bean sauce with potatoes and peas and beef usually. We split a bowl of that and kimchi mandu, which were really spicy. It was very good. I also called my sister during lunch to wish her a happy early birthday because I wasn't sure I'd be able to talk to her later.

Jjajang and mandu

Mixing the noodles

After lunch we went to a coffee shop and got take-out coffees. Then we got in a cab and went to Olympic stadium. I had been before, but I ended up on the other side last time - this side was more of a park and had random sculptures all around it. When we first walked in, we saw the rings and a row of tiki statutes. Then we saw the flame and Dallas was impressed that it always burned, but I told him they all do.

Olympic stadium

The flame

Then we saw these golf cart/bicycle hybrid things and Dallas wanted to rent one. I didn't have a problem with that and I'm actually really glad we did, because we were able to ride around the whole park this way and we probably wouldn't have seen nearly as much of it if we had walked.

Bike/golf cart hybrid. I'm glad we did this instead of walking - it was much more fun.

Dallas driving our golf cart bike. I had a wheel, but it didn't work, so I just got to pedal. He let me steer once.

Driving through the flags of the participating countries

Flags and fountains from the other side of the lake

Flowers

Another lake and part of the jazz festival. There were 3 stages - 2 outdoor and 1 indoor.

We rode all over for an hour and a half. The best times were when we'd find a bump and get speed to jump it. We also raced a Korean family once, although they didn't really know it. Whenever we passed a good or interesting sculpture, we'd park and take pictures, then hop back in and drive off.

Tiki head

Monument to the games with a list of who one which events.

Huge weeping willow

Nose pick!

Molesting the statue

Snuggles

Dancing

Sideways in the statue

Thumbs up!

This one was back in the middle of the park through a pile of weeds.

Right before we turned it in, we met our friend Eve and her boyfriend Elliot who had tickets to the jazz festival at the park. We'd heard some of the music riding around, but neither of us were that into it and the tickets were expensive. So we met them for about 30 minutes and chatted before the concert started. Then Dallas and I got our stuff and headed to Hongdae to find our guest house for Saturday night.

Our second place was a guest house called blue 2. The directions we followed got us turned around and we passed the place at first and walked in a huge circle. Then we finally saw the sign that looked like a blue ghost from Pac-man. We walked in and the lady was nice but told us they had overbooked and would we mind going to the motel, M Motel, next door. We didn't and actually ended up with a upgrade because this place was super cute and had private bathrooms. We dropped our stuff off and sat around for a few minutes, then walked back to the guest house to borrow umbrellas because it had started to rain a little bit. Then we took the subway to the downtown area of Hongdae and went shopping for awhile. Of course I didn't buy anything, but Dallas didn't really find anything he liked either, which was surprising.

Then we went to dinner at a Vietnamese place and got pho. It was pretty good, but the best part was the peanut sauce we had with the spring rolls. After dinner, we had planned to go home and change before possibly meeting other people at bars. We opted not to do either of those things and decided to just stay the two of us. We walked around for awhile to let dinner digest and it started to rain harder. Then we went to a cocktail in a bag place and each got 2 because they are cheaper than drinks at a bar. We walked around drinking those and ended up going into a couple of stores. Dallas really liked one store, but they didn't have clothes that fit his shoulders. He ended up buying both of us some ridiculous sunglasses that have velvet on them. Mine are red and cheetah print, his are green and orange. Then we went to bar called t12, which is really nice and lit by candles. We stayed there for about an hour and talked a lot.

Candle light bar

At that point we decided we were ready to go dancing. Most of the dance clubs charge a cover, but gay bars don't, so we ended up going to a club called Queen. On the way there, I called my sister again to wish her a happy birthday for real this time. We had a really good time at the club - I met an army guy, an old Australian and his lesbian friend who is a make-up artist and put red lipstick on me, and a Korean who befriended me for the night. We also got free shots. We danced for a long time and I forgot how much fun that was.

In the alley. Dallas likes to take "candids"so he clicks the camera button a bunch of times. There were about a dozen pictures similar to this one, but at least one of us looks weird in all the others.

My new bff, who is wearing fashion glasses (aka just frames, no lenses).

We left around 3am, got water and Gatorade, and took a cab back to our motel. While we were at a stoplight, another guy got in the front seat of our cab. His name was Ryan and he was from Manchester. He was really drunk and rambling, so I don't really know much more about him. We had to walk up a hill to our motel, but it had stopped raining by then so it was ok. When I took off my shoes, I noticed that the combination of rain and dancing had made my feet turn green from my shoes, so I washed them off in the sick, then immediately fell asleep. We woke up around 9:30-10 the next morning because we wanted to get the free breakfast at the guest house. It turns out that meant cereal or toast. So we each had a peanut butter and jelly toast sandwich. Then I washed our dishes since Dallas made the sandwiches and we left to go to the next area.

We took the subway to Samcheondong, which is an older area in Seoul. The area had old traditional houses that people still live in. It's very popular and lots of people were walking around. The area was pretty cool, but it's all these steep hills, so I don't think I'd actually like to live there.

After walking around for awhile, we went to a traditional tea house. It was really cute and had a garden in the middle. Dallas got mulberry milk and tea and I just had plum tea. The man showed us proper technique for making the tea and then left us to it. We stayed there for about an hour, drinking tea and talking.

Tea house and garden

Me in the doorway of the tea house

Mixing mulberry milk

Plum tea

After tea we were kind of hungry, so we walked around a shopping area and found an Italian placed called Flora. It was really cute, but kinda pricey. We decided to split a Caesar salad and lasagna. They came out with flower petals on them and Dallas asked the waitress if it was ok to eat them, even though I told him they were because otherwise they'd have a lot of dead customers. Both things were really good - I missed real Parmesan! Then they brought us free dessert, which was like custard with fruit on it in little shot glasses.

menu

Lasagna and Caesar salad at flora

After that, we walked around for another little while and got coffee and juice and went to the bathroom. Then we decided we were ready to get back home. We got to the bus station at like 3, but the next available bus wasn't until 7pm. At that point Dallas called Jayden, who did some research for us, directed us to another bus station and pee-bought our tickets for a 4pm bus. We got to the other station and found our way to get the tickets and our bus with 10 minutes to spare! It was an adventure! We had the last 2 seats on the bus in the center in the back. During part of the trip, the man next to me used my hip as an armrest, but it was a little chilly and he was warm, so I was kind of ok with it.

Bus ride home with new sunglasses

After we got off the bus, we went to a restaurant next to the station for dinner. Dallas had bibimbap and I had noodle soup. I had been there before with Corinne, so I knew I liked it. Then we grabbed a city bus back to my apartment, said goodbye and I fell asleep. It was a really good weekend. We didn't argue at all, had a lot of fun together, talked a ton, saw places we'd never seen before and had a bit of adventure. I will let him plan again if he wants to.

Rest of the week

The Seoul post is coming soon - I just got pictures today and I'm organizing them! For now, here's a brief summary of what happened the rest of last week.

I got a lot of free stuff at work this week. On Monday we ate cake, on Tuesday we got little red bean breads and orange juice, also my students bought me and ice cream, on Wednesday, a student's mom brought us all kimbap, on Thursday I bought all the teachers ice coffees from the convenience store and on Friday we got ice coffees from a coffee shop (but no sugar or milk so I didn't like it much).

Wednesday was a really good day for some reason. I can't tell you what was different, but I was just really happy. On Thursday after work, Dallas and I went walking by the river and talked for a long time. It was really nice.

On Friday I had 2 weird things happen. First, at dance, a lady from the 9 o'clock class passed by me when I was putting my shoes on, said "I love you" then grabbed and jiggled my stomach fat. Then she said something about a diet. I don't know if she was telling me to go on a diet, or telling me that I had lost some weight. Either way it was weird. After class, I found out my instructor has a middle school aged daughter. She was encouraged to talk to me from the other ladies in class and then she asked if I "had time on Saturday to play with (her)". I said maybe and to call me.

Then at work, when I walked in, my boss said, "You look fresh today." I said, "umm thanks. And he said, "What happened?" So I didn't really know what to do with that.

Green Tea Festival

We didn't have work on Friday because it was Buddha's birthday, which is a national holiday here. Most Koreans visit a temple or two to pray and get free bibimbap. Dallas and I decided to start out the long weekend by going to Hadong to a green tea festival. Before we left, I went to the glasses place to get new contacts. My prescription changed a fair amount from a little over a year ago. That's annoying. Anyway, Hadong is about an hour away by bus, although there was traffic so it took an hour and a half. Luckily I was a good mom and packed apple slices for the trip.

Waving to Dallas's mom from the bus

When we got to the bus terminal and got off the bus, we started trying to follow the directions I got from the festival website. Apparently, even though it's labeled as the Hadong festival, it's actually in Hawgae, another small town 20-30 minutes further away. That's one of the annoying things about Korea. We ended up taking a cab because we had walked a fair amount away from the bus terminal (although some kids gave us directions back to it) and it was about $20. So that was an expense I wasn't planning on and it was also frustrating. The ride itself was actually really nice and the cab driver pointed out some tea farms to us.

I didn't really know tea grew on bushes

When we got to the actual festival, it wasn't what I expected. I thought we'd be near a plantation/field whatever with lots of tea (because that's what the pictures looked like) and that it would have lots of activities and foods made with green tea. It wasn't really like that. We were starving at that point, so before we really looked around, we went to a food tent and got beef soup. The waiter was really nice and spoke decent English and warned us that it'd be spicy. It wasn't spicy at all, but I still appreciated the warning.

Flag for the festival. I wonder how much money the country spends on stuff like that. There were dozens of these in Hadong and all over the festival.

Flower sculpture near the entrance of the festival.

Tea pot sculpture

There were a few things to do, including making T-shirts, lavender sachets, and "paintings". Dallas really wanted to make shirts, so he made one for a friend of his and I colored one for him. They also had a giant tent with male opera singers in tuxes, because I guess they go together?

Dallas coloring in a cat wearing a top hat. Check out his focus.

Me coloring in Bugs. Dallas said to do the middle part red. In retrospect I would have picked another green or blue color because I think the red makes it look like Bugs murdered and ate a whole group of other bunnies.

The finished products!

After coloring shirts, we went to paint a sign. I went first. I wanted this really cool multicolored one, but that wasn't an option. Painting it yourself was also not an option. The man took a wooden board and rolled paint on it. Then he laid a piece of paper on the wood and handed me a spoon. Then the two of us rubbed the backs of the spoon on the board. He really did most of it. After Dallas watched my experience, he decided it wasn't worth the $2 to do on. It did make an ok souvenir though.

It says "Hadong Green tea festival" on it.

Flower montage

We didn't make skin. Or skin care products which was really what you could make.

They also had a lot of varieties green tea to sample. We tried this one, but I can't remember what it was called. They didn't have many foods with tea except for green tea ice cream, which I've had before and I don't like and rice cakes, which I wouldn't pay for because they are usually gross. Instead we split a strawberry smoothie.

Kids could ride around on these motorized animals. Dallas wanted to ride one, but was too tall.

The area was really pretty and had a little river and was surrounded by mountains. The weather was perfect too, so the day ended up being a nice day, even though it didn't meet my hopes.

Me on a bridge next to the river

Mountains and the river, which was really a stream surrounded by rocks. Although I'm guessing it looks much different during rainy season.

Flowers and the river

We cabbed it back to the bus terminal because we didn't want to miss the bus to Seoul, which was our next stop for the weekend. That didn't work out too well as both the buses were sold out. So we had to take a bus back to Jinju, in order to get a bus to Seoul. Still, I can cross another city off of my list!

Another shot of the tea fields

Sunset from the bus

Strange Monday

Today started off fairly normal - I went to dance class, Krista was back from her shin splints, came home and had lunch. At school things started out ok too. Then Ki-seong came out of the back room carrying two Victoria Secret bags. She and Woods had gone to Hong Kong over the weekend for their honeymoon. She brought me and Lucy presents (I think because we worked one day while Woods wasn't there). I was actually nervous that they might have bought us underwear - apparently it's semi-normal to give stuff like that to your co-workers. But instead we each got blue sparkly make up bags. It was very sweet of them.

During one of my break times, Lucy started yelling at a student. The other teachers yell sometimes, so at first this wasn't strange. But then she really started yelling - like mad yelling. Woods actually left his class to see if everything was ok. I asked her about it later and one of the teenage boys in the class said some rude things to her - they weren't swears, but it wasn't nice either (she didn't tell me what he said). It was odd because she usually doesn't get upset like that, but I think it caught her off guard because most students in Korea are respectful of the teachers (especially the Korean teachers).

Then I went to dinner with Dallas. This isn't unusual except that his school had a surprise volleyball game today, so we went later than usual and he changed at my apartment before we went out and had to borrow one of my shirts. Then we had an ice cream cone after dinner too.

Then, after classes ended, we ate chocolate cake with chopsticks. I'm still not sure why we were eating the cake, but it was good, so I didn't care. Their was sort of a staff meeting going on too, but it was all in Korean, so I just sat there.

Currently it sounds like there is a party going on outside of my window in the street. It's just after 11, so it's fine for now, but hopefully they shut up soon. So that was my day!

Busy week

My weeks always start out as fresh, with not much planned (that's not really true - I always have 3 days of dance class, Bible study, dinner with Dallas on Monday and usually at least one thing planned for the weekend, but otherwise...) and end up with things here or there. This week is more packed than usual.

On Monday I stayed late in dance class and did yoga/Pilates with the class. I did not have a dry inch on my body after that. Sweating from exercise is one of those times where you feel good and disgusting at the same time. Like you feel good about being disgusting. At work, my boss bought everyone (teachers included) hamburgers from Lotteria (Korean McDonalds). I'm not sure why - I think as a thank you for the wedding or something like that. Delivery men kept coming in at intervals with new bags of burgers. It was pretty funny. Then I met Dallas and we split a sandwich and had coffees at Holly's and chatted for awhile. That night I was supposed to talk to a friend, but he had to cancel because of work stuff, so I did laundry and updated the blog and made fried rice. Oh yea - I also used my rice cooker for the first time and found out that if it's plugged in, its on. I found that out when I came home from school and it was really hot still. Thank the Lord my apartment didn't catch on fire, but now I know.

On Tuesday I usually have Bible study, but I got a text in the morning that Jamie (pastor Brandon's wife) went into labor so it was cancelled. Hopefully I'll get to meet the baby soon, but the latest update is that everyone is healthy and doing well so far. I got my taxes done and Dallas came over to leave some shoes that he wanted to return instead of taking them to school. Why, I'm still not sure, but whatever.

Wednesday started off basically normal, dance class. Went to the post office to mail my taxes and send my sister a birthday card. It was Teachers' Day, but most students didn't really do anything. Some gave us candy and one little girl gave the 2 male teachers pens and the 3 girls barrettes. Woods and Ki-seong left for their honeymoon around 7:30, so I took over one of his classes. We're starting a women's fellowship meeting once a month on Wednesday nights. The idea is to meet with other ladies from church and talk to each other - get a better glimpse into their lives, hear their problems and have a safe place to air yours, ask for prayer requests etc. It's not a Bible study, but more of a way to connect to people in church outside of church because after the sermon it's usually pretty hectic and you don't really get to have "good" conversations. This Wednesday was our first meeting and we stayed at a coffee shop from 10-11:45. There was only a group pf four of us because a couple of people were sick and some already had plans, but more plan on coming to the next one. Then I had a Skype session with Josh, although it was only messaging not talking. Still it was nice to get to have a conversation with him instead of trading off text messages, which I'm glad we do, but still. He's going to help me update my resume and start looking for jobs, which makes me go into panic mode. I still have about 6 months left, but I know it will fly by since this first six months has.

On Thursday I had 2 extra classes because Woods was gone, so my day was pretty full. Luckily the students were really good for the most part, except one class who didn't do their homework. I got to leave a little early because there is only 1 class at the last time slot and I didn't have to teach it. So I went home and made a sandwich. Then I went over to the university area and met a group of people for drinks. I didn't stay long because I still needed to pack for the weekend and was planning on getting up early on Friday. It was nice getting to see these people though because I often don't get a chance to on the weekends because all of our schedules are busy.

Friday we had the day off, but the weekend will be in separate posts. I hope next week ends up being just as fun at this week was!

I Got Worms

If you get the reference in the title, then we will be friends.

There is an indescribable feeling when you walk to you desk and there is a pink pill sitting on your lesson plans. This feeling increases when your boss comes over and says, "Oh that pill is for...I don't know how to say it properly, so you don't get worms."

Ummm. Yea. He said as long as you take one once a year, you should be all right. This is what he gave me. I'm chalking up my thin hair to this pill, so hopefully within a week I'll have my beautiful, thick model hair back :)