Lazy Saturday

Oh how I've missed this!

Today, I slept until 10am. I couldn't sleep any longer - my body is too used to getting up at 7am (actually it likes 6:30 for some odd reason). Not wanting to get up yet, I watched Korean dramas while laying in bed. I think I could get used to this! (except i am supposed to go to korean classes on saturday mornings at 10am... i didn't go today because i'm lazy and busy and haven't studied. if i had studied all this time, i could be a much better korean speaker!)

I've been slowly picking up things while eating the best of all breakfasts - cookies. One custard, one choco-fish and a flaky, apple-pie crisp facsimile, and drinking real American coffee (the foldger's tea bag instant coffee. trust me - it is the best coffee i've had at home this whole time (my mom sent it to me. she's awesome)). I laugh because it's a first-world problem - being accustomed to cheap (ish), delicious drip brew coffee.

Here's my new favorite thing here though. Del Monte mango juice!

It's best mixed with sprite (and if you're of the inclination - soju - to be honest soju tastes horrid... if you must ever consume it, do yourself a favor and mix it in something to disguise its flavor).

Boryeong with Tian and the Guys

So my friend Tian has a bunch of Korean friends. Some of the guys invited us out for a relaxing weekend to the west coast beach (May 25-26) Now before you get your undies in a bundle "But Audrey! Going to the beach and staying in a hotel with strangers is dangerous!" I've met them before, well, I've met Thomas and YK at least twice before and they're very nice and not creepy in the least. It was my first time meeting Oz (oh-ji). He's actually pretty cool too. (i found out he speaks some Swahili! My first Korean who knows what Swahili is!) Tian has spent much more time with them so I knew it would be fine. We got what the guys called a "condo" which is like... 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room, kitchen and balcony with a view of the ocean. It was so NICE!

We walked along the beach and went to the "water park" which was like a spa with lots of warm pools. The water made my sore knees and back feel brand new for a little while.
We cooked for ourselves. The guys wanted me to cook them some American food. I told them I could make Italian-American food. I made garlic-basil chicken. Tian and Thomas helped me. I was impressed with how well these guys could cook. It seems they liked my chicken, though as true Koreans, it wasn't spicy so they had to add something spicy. They came up with kimchi garlic basil chicken. It was very good.

 When the tide goes out, it goes out pretty far and the water thins enough to let people pass on dry ish ground as you can see there.
I really enjoyed spending time with them. Their English is very good and clear. But beyond that, they're interesting and fun people to be around. They like having fun and trying new things, and had lots of goofiness. We all stayed up late playing games and talking about stuff.
The next day we went to Daechon beach for a short time before heading back home.

In the car on the way to the beach.

I was trying to do a self camera with me and Tian but missed, and this was the picture that was taken. Thomas totally photo bombed us!

It wouldn't be a beach trip without someone sticking their head out of the sun roof.

So when we got to the beach, we made sure to bomb a photo back.

And we'll end it with a little aegyo. Look how cute they are!

Busan, May 17-19 (Jeonju too!)

So much goes on from week to week. I am busy, being at work roughly 42 hrs a week. And when I'm not working, I'm eating, sleeping or riding in a vehicle on my way to somewhere. I spend less time in my house than anywhere else. I miss my bed!

Oh but first - crap - I had to catch up by posting pictures from Jeonju!

Okay, so the first grade teacher at my school has a grandson in first grade and he lives in Jeonju. His English is fantastic and I can talk to him like I'd talk to any 6 year old. When I was visiting, they took me to MaiSan in nearby Jinan. It was beautiful!

MaiSan from a distance. Mai San literally means "horse ear mountain". 

Actually at MaiSan, Kevin and I pose in front of this temple. The stones you see piled up in the back there were stacked by hand without any mortar or cement. Some guy did this a long time ago and people rebuild the stones if a heavy rain washes them away. 

The ceiling inside a temple. 

I was told you have to bow and pray 108 times to get your wish to come true. That seems like a whole lot of bowing. It also reminds me of Barry Woolner's phrase "cosmic bellhop" - ring a bell or do something special and your personal god snaps to to serve you. (note the sarcasm)

We climbed up the mountain side behind the temple and this is the view from there. 

It was beautiful and impressive. Definitely worth the small hike. I had a lot of fun that weekend. On the way back I bought a bubble gun for Kevin and we popped bubbles in the parking lot. A kid has to have some real fun, I think. He spends so much time in school and elective activities. He's going to grow up to be a genius, and get an amazing job I think, but for now he should be a 6 year old boy sometimes. 

Here's pictures from my "long" weekend in Busan with Jongsoo. We had a great time, but tired out from excessive walking + carrying shopping bags. (i say "long" because a 3 day weekend just doesn't cut it!)

This is outside the train station in Busan. 

It was colder than we expected so we bought these "couple shirts" with hoods. In Korea, couples do all kinds of cutesy things together. They're not so big on PDA (public display(s) of affection) but they do dress in matching outfits, wear cutesy couple matching accessories, and have couple rings.

That was... Friday night. We went to this place with a ton of street vendor carts and ate delicious things. Grilled chicken kabobs, spiral cut fried potato, freshly squeezed lemonade, and more. 

Saturday we did most of the things - shopping and beach walking.

This is just outside of Shinsegae. Supposedly this is the world's largest shopping mall? I don't know. But I do know it's very big. The Lotte version of "Trevi Plaza" is amusing to me. 

The entrance to Shinsegae. Here we bought a bunch of stuff. I got new clothes for work, and we found and bought expensive macarons. 

 We took the macarons to Haeundae beach and ate them there. They were absolutely delicious! (flavors melon, strawberry and intense chocolate)

A nice girl offered to take our picture. She took a few angles. I like this one best. 

There was no real sunshine to speak of, but it was still warm. Those people with bare skin on the left are foreigners, guaranteed. Real Koreans hate the sun and cover up every square inch of skin. 

White skin is considered beautiful here. People go to great lengths to prevent tanning - they even wear long slip on sleeves and gloves! 

When the school staff goes outside I pop my collar like everyone else - to protect my neck skin from the sun. Lol. Actually my friend at work did it for me the first time. They were all surprised to hear that I like the sun and voluntarily stand in the sunny places without sunscreen or coverings. No sun hat, sun screen or other. 

These two kids were so cute sitting and waiting for the waves to come up and get them. So much fun!

The scenery at Haeundae beach is beautiful, btw. 

Found this funny ad on the side of a building. 

Yes, that's a car parked on the side of a building.

We didn't hang out at the beach much/for long. We went to the aquarium right after this. 

This catfish was so old, he was blind, so he hung out up top awaiting feedings. He was cute.

Jongsoo enjoyed the part where you could touch and pick up some sea creatures. I was happier just taking the pictures. I've never liked touching these things. Lol!

This fish had derp written all over its face. 

An eel.. maybe a moray kind? I would have taken pictures of the names but I was being lazy. 

This is an electric eel, a very large one. It reminded me of a short anaconda, it was so thick!

Reverse or inside-out jellyfish. I forget the exact name, sorry. 

A HUGE octopus. 

I've got more pictures, but this is getting long enough and I'm not near to done. Agh!

From there, we went to Gwangalli beach where J was depressed to find his favorite burger place closed. 

But the beach was beautiful, and we eventually found some other yummy food. 

It was very pretty in the dark too. The buildings above light up and change colors, and the bridge is all lit up as well. 

The next day we pretty much just spent travelling back home. 

No time to spare

By the time I got my internet working, it was time to shower and get ready for bed. Then I spent the last half hour resizing photos and uploading them. My internet abhors uploading large file sizes - well actually my nighttime internet is slow and worse quality than it should be. Oh well.

I'd wanted to get the beach pictures up. I went to the beach 2 weekends in a row, first on the east coast and then on the west coast. Living on a peninsula has its perks!

Besides travelling on the weekends, I haven't been up to much else besides work. I'm at work over 40 hours a week. Three days a week I take the hour long ride to Chungdae for dance class. We've learned 3 songs now, and are starting number 4. Just finished Psy's Gentleman dance. It's fun, but it makes your thighs burn. ><'

Here's a picture of "non" (noh-n) - a rice paddy.

They're called "pat" when they're just dirt, and "non" when there's water in them and it's the same when the rice grass is planted. (and the rice grass is called non aegi (aegi is baby)). I think rice paddies are pretty. It also seems interesting to me how this country which is surrounded by water on 3 sides fills itself up with more water to grow rice. Sometimes I think of that story about the little dutch boy who stuck his finger in the dike. There's a lot of water here in Korea. You'll notice the hazy white sky.... Yeah that is stuff in the air... I assume most of it is moisture but I wouldn't doubt there's some pollution since this country manufactures SO much. Actually - the amount of things and variety of things made here is phenomenal. But yes - Korea - land of water every darn where.

But I must dry my hair and sleep. 

Two pictures

The first grade teacher sent me these two pictures from the Osong trip.
The first is me wearing a replica wig from the Joseon dynasty. They wore these very elaborate hairstyles with huge heavy metal pins in their hair!

The next is me with the first graders. Aren't they cute? They're a little noisy sometimes, but they get along well and they generally listen to me. The thing I like most about the younger ones is they're more willing to try to talk to me, regardless of the difficulty. We don't communicate perfectly, but we get by and they don't act all put off because I don't understand them. :D

May 10th, the weekend of the 11th (part 1)

The 10th was the school outing to the Osong Beauty and Cosmetics Expo.
My first thought was "What are gradeschoolers going to get out of a makeup expo?"
The expo is outdoors in a series of huge plastic tents. The first tent we went in answered my questions. It started out with the story of Narcissus (in Korean and English! woohoo!) and then went into historical views and concepts of beauty. They had prints of famous paintings of beautiful women! Very cool.
The expo had a lot of interactive things for all ages. There were cameras that took your picture and aged you. There were places to try on products. The kids' tent had different things you could do like pick out scents and put them on a wrist band to wear, style mannequins' hair, get makeup done and such. Pretty cool.
There was even a place where they projected poetry on the walls. *_*

Waiting in line. 

Beautiful things from Korea's cultural heritage: these are hairpins worn ...probably during the Joseon dynasty... don't quote me on it.. they've been wearing these pins for at least a thousand years. They're very big and full of jewels. The aristocracy would have worn these. 

Traditional hanbok which were worn for weddings.

The poem I liked the most. 

They had a hall of photography including photographs of beautiful people. Many of these were Korean, no surprise. But I saw Yoo Ah In and HAD to take a picture. Sadly, it is blurry! And I couldn't retake the photo because my group was moving on and leaving me behind. 

This is a "spot the foreigner" photo. (she was very pretty. but yeah. everytime you see a foreign person, it's strange... and then you remember your face is strange too.. unless you're my friends jongsoo, khoi or tian... Asian faces that blend in everywhere but native English speakers). 

At first I thought these two guys were some variety of clown. It turns out they're professional beggars. The photographer guy was  telling me that beggars aren't totally looked down upon. There's some story of honor among beggars - how though they have nothing, they share what they get with all the others. It was an interesting story.. I should look it up for you all sometime. 

A selca (self-cam = self camera) picture of me in "full makeup" with the Osong Expo mascot statues in the background. It wouldn't be Korean if it didn't have adorable mascots. (i should say, "full makeup" is a term Koreans use, and it means what you'd think. Koreans take beauty and appearance very seriously, so many women constantly wear full makeup. I know when something important is going on at school because most of the teachers will be dressed up more than their pretty clothes, and have full makeup on.)

The next day I went to Jeonju with the first grade teacher. I was in Jeonju last February, and it was beautiful, but Jeonju in May is even more beautiful. All the flowers were in bloom and the trees were green! It's much more worth it to go to Jeonju in spring!

The first grade teacher has a grandson in 1st grade. His English name is Kevin. We went to visit him at his house and stayed the night (jeonju is a 3 hr trip from here). The idea is I have English conversations with him to help him improve and practice his English. The kid is a genius, as far as I'm concerned. He speaks English at high level, and the things he doesn't know he picks up pretty quickly. After meeting up with him and his parents, we went to the hanok village to get bibimbap. We came across a university's dance recital and stayed for a few performances. 

"Look at all the grandmas!" Kevin's mom exclaimed. 

After dinner, Kevin, his grandma and I walked around the hanok village a little and went to the "castle" - a remaining gate from the wall (the same wall i mentioned in an eariler post). 

I love all the colorful and ornate paintings!

Well, it's after midnight so I need to call it a night. I only stayed up because I was a little weirded out because I mixed lemon and bleach in water without thinking and realized "oh yeah, acid will release the chlorine... shoot!" and so I opened all the windows and cracked the door open. So now it's really cold in here, but hopefully if there was any gas, it's gone and I can sleep in peace. 

I think I'm fine - I didn't feel any burning when breathing. I see clearly, have no choking or coughing, or any of the other symptoms. Life lesson learned. Goodnight all!