Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I feel so disconnected from America. I didn’t even realize that 9-11 was the other day until almost the whole day had gone by… Things are still going well here, except for the cut from American reality. I can’t believe I have been for 2 full months! It’s crazy!

So I’ll back track to last Friday, the 12th… I worked as usual till about 835 then went to home to pack. Then got a call from my boss telling nerida and I to come eat with them. So we did and then we went straight to downtown afterwards to walk around and hangout with people! Then it came time for me to go home so I could finish packing and leave for the train station at 3:15AM. My train left on time at 4am. It was the longest 3 hrs of my life… I fell asleep a few times, but got woken up by the announcements and/or the person beside me getting up and out (diff people came in/out at diff stations). So finally got to Pyeongtaek and took a cab to Songtan which is where my hotel was (the one nerida and I stayed at last time we were there…very nice and cheap!). Took a nap till about 11:30 till I got a call from Erik asking where I was! Lol I should have been with him by then, not just waking up!! Ugh. I would. So finally made it to the subway station and headed to Suwon. When I got on the tube, a group of really cute airforce boys got on too! I didn’t talk to them cuz they were standing a little too far to make conversation, but not too far to make eye contact! Lol eventually they got off and the REALLY hott one gave me the “nod”!! ugh. Why do I have to go back to TX?? Lol jk During this time of me scoping out these soldiers, my friends hopped on the subway so that we didn’t have to wait for the next one. They finally found me after getting on the subway 10 cars behind the car I was at! :o) suckers.. so an hour and 15 min later we arrive in seoul only to change subway lines a couple more times to actually get to where we were going, Itaewon!!! We got there and shopped all day! I made some good purchases. Before we decided to leave Itaewon, we wanted to grab some cold stone. While we were in cold stone, I felt something on my ankle. I reached down to brush it off and realized it was this HUGE bug!! I screamed, spilled my powerade, and jumped REALLY high and jumped around! Lol needless to say EVERYONE was looking at me and laughing after realizing it was only a bug… but this bug was HUGE!!!! Omg. I couldn’t believe I did that, but if you know me, you probly CAN believe that! Lol well, we left there and headed back down to the subway station. After erik and april got off in Suwon, I snoozed here and there. During a couple stations I would look up at the marque to see what the next stop was. I guess I was sleeping when mine went off, cuz I had to get off at the next stop and take a cab back to Songtan. I can’t believe I missed it. That happened a lot this weekend… hahaha So finally made it back to the hotel just long enough to wash my face and change clothes to meet up with some other friends! We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant down the street from the airforce base and then met up with some other friends around that area. Well, we were playing darts and one of my friends was being stupid and wanted someone to throw a METAL dart through his hand..well 3 of his other friends took one dart. The first 2 missed, but the 3rd guy nailed it right through his left ring finger. It went straight through without any problem.. it was sick! Someone pulled it out for him and it was dripping blood everywhere, but it shortly stopped and he was fine. After this eventful night I went back to my hotel and slept in till about noon the next day! Yes!! It feels soo good to sleep in while everyone else is up and getting ready for their day! Lol (not like I wake up early anyways!!!) Eventually I headed back to Suwon to meet erik and april again. We had subway for lunch. Suwon was deserted…. It felt like a ghost town cuz it was a national holiday, called Chuseok. It’s pretty similar to our Thanksgiving. So typically everything is closed and everyone is in their home with their family. So we had the city to ourselves pretty much! So we ate lunch then walked around Home Plus (a Korean walmart) and bought tons of stuff there! Then headed back to the train station…just barely giving me enough time to get there without being late. Good thing…my train was delayed a few minutes. On my way home, I watched two of the three movies I bought. 3 and a ½ hrs later, it’s time for me to get off the train…I forgot one DVD on the train in the case…and my new little Korean fan I had bought. Sad day. Ugh. Oh well.

So on my way home, I totally forgot that I didn’t have any cash on me. So when I got out, I realized that I needed the cab driver to go to a bank so I could get some out. So he drove me to about 20 atm machines, but guess what?? They were ALL closed. Cuz it was after midnight…so, finally about 20 min and 15 dollars later I called nerida and went by her house and borrowed some money. Geez. I was soooooo lucky she answered. Idk what I would have done…

So MONDAY!!! I woke up a lil late cuz I was suppose to meet my friends and go to another friends’ house for Chuseok lunch. Well, I finally got there an hour and a half late cuz I woke up late and my eye was sore cuz of a stupid stye… anywho, we had the BEST Korean lunch I have ever had!! We had a little bit of everything:
Bibimbop
Barbeque Chicken
Shark
Cooked Bacon (it might have been beef, but not sure)
Egg fried fish
Beef and potato soup
Lightly fried sweet potatoes
Lightly fried greens
And a couple other things I can’t remember
Doesn’t this sound amazing!!? Mmmm. There was kimchi too, but I didn’t eat any…yuck! We also had fruit for dessert with icecream!! Yummy!! After that we played some Korean games and then I taught them how to play phase 10 and they loved it! There was about 15 people at lunch and about 8 of us kids playing the games!

Later that night I went to eat dinner in downtown at PAPA JOHNS with a new friend I met in downtown Friday night! We had fun! Her name is Izzy and she teaches 8yr olds on one of the army bases here in Daegu. She only lives about 15 min from me (bus ride), so I think we’ll hang out often! Anywho, we had fun and today was just a regular ol’ day at work!

BUT I BOUGHT A BIKE TODAY!!!! It’s cute! It’s white with big tires and black and hot pink writing and décor on it!! I can’t wait to take a couple pics so I can show you! I’ll do that soon! It’s gonna be so much easier to get to work and faster. It’s hopefully gonna work out my legs! Yay! I can’t wait to take it around the lake too!! Yay! Well, its’ 3:30 am…I’ll talk to ya another day!! Peace out!!!

SNACKS i eat in korea!!!

and this is the fish cake that's mixed in with the dukboki!!! it's actually quite tasty if you like fish. (yes, it's cooked) so that's it! i love it!!!!! i love the snacks here!


this is the actual piece of dukboki.. tasty!


this my friends is dukboki... mmmm... it's prnounced duck bow key... tasty!!! but spicy. see the red stuff. yea, that's not bbq sauce! lol


these are korean snacks! you can pick them up at the grocery store or they serve them in bars to make you more thirsty....clever.. hmmm. anywho, the white ones are candy covered peanuts.. really tasty and the other ones are green thingys that i don't know what they taste like, but they're grrrrreeeeat!!! :o)



my boss and i being crazy at work!!