Thank God for Buddha

Another weekend down. Let's just say it was an exhausting one. On the plus side, it was also an extended weekend because of Buddha's Birthday and no work on Friday. Thus, the partying began early on Thursday, Kindergarten Style.

Each month we celebrate all the kids' birthday's that are in that month. This involves multiple sets of pictures, an amazing array of Western and Korean food, and an extended lunch hour a.k.a Heaven! This month we got even more decadent with the best Ice Cream cake I've ever had in my life. This was then followed by the disturbing realization that I am highly lactose intolerant when it comes to Ice Cream. But it was worth every stomach cramp and.. well, everything else that followed that cake.

After my early afternoon indulgence I felt it was only necessary to follow through into the evening by participating in the local Trivia Game. Before attempting this adventure I fueld up at my favorite outdoor BBQ place with Lucy, Dom, and Holli. Much like our last visit the food was amazing, the weather was delightful, and the company was on par. We finished up in time to get the last spot in the bar for Trivia, unfortunately it was a makeshift table that was smack in the middle of the bar, on the stage, for everyone to see. Every group had to decide their own funny, quirky, or witty name and we struggled to decide. Of course, the obvious name for the 5 of us girls was "Epic Fail" but we decided our location in the bar called for, "We're the Girls on Stage, Give Us a Dollar or Buy Us a Shot". However, it seems we were the only people who thought it was funny. GET IT? We're on stage like strippers, but we're playing trivia instead! Yah.... So after 8 rounds of getting our ass whooped, beer drinking, and embarassment, our group (also the only group of girls) was dead last. The bad/good thing about living here is every single foreigner has a college degree (visa requirement), and they're probably a lot smarter than me. Not to mention a few years older, so I'm the dumb one. I can't wait to go back to Minnesota where I'm not last in Trivia and mildly smart! Hahah. My shame of losing forced me to head home early, and luckily avoid any hang over on Friday.

However, most my friends were nursing a dirty hangover Friday so I was left to my own devices for entertainment. Seeing as though I just got paid the day before, I had one goal and one goal only: shopping. I've heard of a place in Gwangju called "Home Plus" and for my England readers, you may know it as "Tesco's". In America, its like a Super Target times 5, with multiple levels, restaurants, and vendors within the shopping mecca. Kind of a cross between a mall and a Super Target. Basically, its amazing. The only problem is, I had no idea how to get there. I tried the internet, and it didn't really help, so I decided to call some people to see if they could offer some advice. Finally I was informed if I just get on the 98 bus downtown I'd be good to go, I couldn't miss it. So I took the bus downtown in what felt like 85 degree weather and 100% humidity and waited at the bus stop for the 98. And I waited, and waited, and waited. And I waited some more until someone informed me that there will be no buses at that stop due to some kind of event (that's what I'm assuming they said anyways seeing as though I don't speak Korean). So I figured finding the next bus stop on the bus I've never rode before would be an easy endeavor, but I was sorely mistaken. After wandering around for what felt like forever I made another friendly call and figured out a different bus to take. By the time I made it there I realized that I went the opposite direction of Homeplus, to go downtown, to get on a bus, to go past my house again, and reach my destination which is actually pretty close to my house. All in all I think it took me around 2 hours, I could have actually walked there in that amount of time if I had known where it was. While I may seem a bit cranky about this situation, it actually kind of summarizes my life here: NOTHING is easy, and EVERYTHING is a learning experience. So, now I've explored a new part of town, learned a few new bus routes, and found my shopping heaven... all by myself! As you can imagine I spent hours there and once I finally made it home, I was thoroughly exhausted. I spent my evening watching True Blood, my new TV series addiction and went to bed early to get ready for my Saturday adventure.

While my last blog had insinuated a theme park adventure and DMZ tour this weekend, we decided not to. Not only are theme parks a bitch on the weekends, but a super bitch on a weekend Holiday, so we stayed in. Fortunately, I made some great last minute plans with my friend Lucy to help celebrate her birthday in the city of Jeonju. I've heard about this city before, my friend Kelsey moved there a few months after I met her here, and I know that a bunch of people have recently visited with rave reviews, and legitimately so.

Jeonju is a city much smaller than Gwangju, roughly about 300,000 people. This definitely attributes to the style and feel of the city. It's much less of a hustle and bustle, and very very original. We visited some extremely interesting cafe's that were like nothing I've ever seen before. One was almost exactly how you'd imagine an older style Korean house to be. You open the gate and in the middle is a tiny courtyard with the house circling around it, with windows covering every single outer wall. It was so pretty, topped with the traditional Korean roof and super cute interior design. We also had some of the spiciest chicken I've ever had in Korea, so double bonus! Finally we had dinner and celebrated Lucy's birthday just how we do back home. Everyone at the table took a turn telling Lucy how special she is, what they love about her, or a great memory, and it was really great. It made me feel really lucky to know such an awesome girl and excited to spend more time with her in Korea. After dinner Lucy, her boyfriend Chris, Zaid, Holli and I decided some drinking was necessary, and we did something no humans should ever do: Drink two bottles of Jack Daniels in one night.

Obviously Sunday wasn't as fun as it could have been, but we went to a few more cafes and had some relaxing strolls through the city. We got to go to a tiny lake where they had lotus flowers and it was really pretty. I didn't bring my camera because I didn't expect much, but now I wish I did. Chris, Holli, and Lindsay were taking some pictures so as soon as they post them on Facebook I'll be sure to paste some in here to make the post more interesting. Anyways, off to watch more True Blood and eat spaghetti with the whole wheat noodles I miraculously found at Home Plus!

Reaching the Top

So, as many of you may know, I have a good friend here named Holli. She's from the South, she's got an accent, and she is ready and willing to embrace her positive Southern characteristics. One of which, is her love for the mountains. Since I've met her, a mere five months ago, I've heard almost more times than I'd like, her love for all things outdoorsy. Now, she may say that she's not a HUGE outdoors person, but since I come from the city, she's about the most outdoorsy person I know. Anyways, after she effortlessly convinced Dominique to go hiking with her a few weeks ago, and they both came back alive, I began to wonder if it was my time to embrace this countries lovely landscape and try it out myself.

At about this same time, my equally non-outdoorsy friend Fliss also decided that she needed to conquer one of these many mountains before she leaves Korea. So the four of us set a date for early this last Saturday morning to do what no big girl should ever have to do (or should probably do twice a week), hike up a mountain.

As usual, I had to make my round of calls to ensure that these ladies would be at our meeting spot on time, and as usual they quickly obliged and were subsequently 15 minutes late. I've now made it my personal goal to give them a meeting time that is 15-30 minutes EARLIER than the actual time so they will be punctual. Regardless, we met up at Dunkin Donuts and fueled up on coffee and bagel sandwiches. Needless to say, there are a handful of other foods/beverages we should have consumed instead of those. Luckily, I peed about 4 times before we even started the hike, so I didn't need a sheewee! Haha.

Once we finally figured out how to tell the taxi to get us to the mountain (which is only a mere 10 minutes from my house) we stocked up on the Korean necessities: kimbap and oranges. I was also informed that the best items to bring hiking are cucumbers and chocolate. I, however, ignored the cucumber part and only bought chocolate.

While stocking up at the bottom I observed the people around me, and once again was confronted with Koreans inherent nature to dress exactly alike. This has been observed in many situations throughout my presence here. First, and most obviously is what I like to call the carbon copy couple, theres also the missing pants syndrome with girls, but that's pretty self explanatory. The carbon copy couple is when a boy and his girlfriend wear the exact same outfit. Sometimes it's just shirts, sometimes they add the jeans, and sometimes they even have matching shoes. What we can't see, but no doubt occurs due to its prevalence in store windows, is the matching underwear. Yes, matching underwear. Everything from bra, panties, and boxers, or those mini tight short things the men wear. Now, as for the mountain attire, it wasn't as close as the carbon copy couple, but they all definitely had the same stylist (or should i say, lack thereof). It made me stick out even more than normal since I was just wearing my running shoes, a tee shirt, and some workout pants. These folks had jackets and pants that made the "shwishy" sound (waterproof I'm assuming), teamed up with hats, walking sticks, and backpacks half the size of their body. My lack of adequate attire didn't deter me though, I was motivated and ready to go.

We finally started our trek around 11 am and the initial few minutes were a bit shocking. Why is this so steep? When are we going to level off? Why is this so rustic? Shouldn't there be an outhouse somewhere, pavement, and less of a random ass slippery incline? But nope. My preconceived notions of a brisk walk along a smooth scenic path were destroyed by a never ending slope of dirt and rocks. This didn't seem to phase Dom, as she bustled along as fast as she could (no doubt to end the pain sooner rather than later because she was quite hung over). Holli of course was pretty okay with it, but Felicity, well that's another story. While I was quietly contemplating the initial shock and agony, Felicity made it about as obvious as possible within seconds of starting. This is best exemplified by her 10 minute rant on things that we should actually turn around and do instead of this:

"We could get our nails done today."

"What about going to Mokpo today?"

"I saw a great looking restaurant at the bottom."

And finally, "You guys this is fucking boring and it hurts, ALOT." This statement, teamed with her English accent is quite reminiscent of the "It Hurts Charlie" YouTube video.

Luckily, an hour and a half later when we finally reached the top, she got the rush of accomplishment and didn't complain again. This could be because I easily consumed the hiking conversation with my raves of my recent Gym accomplishments or my favorite, the hiking a mountain rap. Many of you may know that I will rock the karaoke mic to "This is How We Do It" and I figured that it would be the perfect beat to make up the best song EVER. On the down side, I didn't record it, so you'll never be able to hear "This is How We Do It 2: Mt Mudeung Style".

Back to the point: I climbed a mountain. We don't even have mountains in Minnesota. It was refreshing, exciting, and sad all at once. Refreshing because I wouldn't categorize myself as an outdoorsy girl, and the workout was great, and I really liked doing something different. Exciting because I was up so high and I used my own to legs to get there. And finally, sad because the whole time I was reminded of memories from long long ago when I was very young and my Dad and I would go on walks along the Mississippi river. I was so young, but enjoyed them so much that I'm still able to remember them, 20 years later. It made me miss my Dad which subsequently made me miss all my family and friends (which I always do, but usually try not to dwell upon). It also made me miss the fact that somehow in growing older I've lost my ability to be excited or entertained with something as simple as a nice walk outside (or in this case, an invigorating uphill battle outside). Rediscovering that ability and thoroughly and whole heartedly enjoying this hike made it a totally awesome experience.

Next on the agenda: Everland (Korea's biggest amusement park) and the DMZ. It should be a pretty awesome weekend, wish me luck! Oh, and sorry for the random placement of pictures/videos. I'm getting lazy.

Busan.. again!

What can I say? I love that city. I also despise it for basically the same reasons. But more on that later.

So, last weekend was another Busan trip. Somewhat impromptu and definitely for one main purpose: Bachelorette Party. One of Felicity’s work pals, and lovely gal I have met before, was getting married and since it was soon, but not in Korea, she decided that a Korean Bachelorette Party was necessary before getting hitched. Thus, at literally the crack of dawn last Saturday 12 girls met up at the Bus Station with their one bags packed with their cutest outfits, best makeup, and hair products galore. We got our tickets and I realized that once again we were in the back of the bus. I swear riding the express buses through Korea is like pre civil rights movement America. They ALWAYS put us in the back. I’m sure it’s for just reasons though, we tend to be loud and overly excited for wherever our destination may be. I, however, was not in that state that morning. I grabbed my window seat, turned on my iPod, got out my travel pillow and attempted to fall fast asleep.

Once we arrived in Busan we really only had one main goal for the day, food and beach. Luckily they are closely located and equally amazing in this city. We ate at a place infamous for its brunch and burgers and Felicity and I shared something very special: a real cheese burger and a smoked salmon and avocado sandwich with capers and horseradish sauce. Seriously, why can’t we get that in Gwangju? We are only like 3 hours away! Anyways, after the mouth orgasm we headed to the beach.

It was sunny but not quite as warm as I would have liked. But that didn’t stop some of the girls from stripping down to their bikini’s and soaking up that sun that the Koreans are deathly afraid of. I soaked up a little sun myself because I had to switch over into a dress after yet another one of my jeans split. And no, it’s not because I’m a fat ass, well it could be, but mostly because I only brought like 4 pairs of jeans with me and wearing the same jeans for 4 months tends to result in a bit of wear and tear. But I put the sorrows of losing another pair of pants behind me and I had a few beers on the beach. Obviously I soon had to pee so a few of us walked the beach and found a public restroom. Much to my dismay, it was a squatter. Luckily, I have actually conquered my fear and used one a week before so I was ready and willing for round two. There was only one problem, almost seconds after assuming the position my underwear fell in the squatter hole. So as I’m contemplating what the hell to do with this situation and also mid stream my door starts rattling. I figured it was one of my friends who were also dying to pee bugging me to hurry up, but no. As I spouted out in English, “Hold on!” they let me know that it wasn’t them. Then I spouted out in Korean to hold on. But nope, this Ajumma (Korean word for old lady, but not any old lady, an old lady in which the world revolves around her) wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t stop either. Peeing while squatting seriously means you pee for twice the time, something with the positioning of the bladder I suppose. After about 2 minutes of her pounding and my peeing it was time to leave. Unfortunately I also had to leave my underwear behind as well. Less than two hours in Gwangju and two articles of clothing gone. At this pace I would be naked before nighttime. As we walked back to the beach and I contemplated my clothing misfortune I let out a sigh of relief knowing that at least I packed extra underwear.

A few hours later we decided it was time to get ready for our evening and we headed to our Hotel. Actually, it was a “Love Motel”. In Korea they have special Hotels dedicated to one thing, and one thing only, banging. This may seem a bit gross but hey, people bang in regular hotels too, these love Motels were just much cooler inside. So disregard your notions of boring furniture, shitty TVS, and bedside tables filled with the King James Bibles. These Hotels come equipped with big screen TVS, equally large beds, and the “couples” pouch filled with everything from combs to condoms. Since there were 12 of us we also splurged and got the suite so we also had a great stereo system hooked up to two computers and a pool table. The strange thing about these love motels though are their abundance. They are seriously everywhere. My theory on this revolves around the fact that most Koreans live at home until marriage, and anyone knows that the last place you want to get it on is under your parents roof. Not to mention they all sleep on floors so a nice private place with a BED seems like a legit option.

After a few hours of music, makeup and some champagne we headed out to the same place we always go in Busan, The Fuzzy Navel aka FN TACOS *that’s really what their sign says). We had Burritos and Margaritas galore. We also all took turns with our toasts, to the bride, to each other, and to the one thing that all of us surely have in common, our life in Korea.

The night ended in a fancy night club with free plastic rings with green laser lights attached, real American music, and wayyy too much money spent.

Now, back to my theory on Busan and why I love and hate it almost equally.

The Pros: It’s a legit city, it’s got everything you want food wise/ You aren‘t destined to only Korean with the one or two non-Korean foods which are mainly of the fast food nature. Con: You will spend a shit ton more money on that food because it‘s in demand and well, I would be a broke ass.

Pro: They are way more culturally diverse, on the beach there were clusters of different ethnicities, White, Black, Indian, South East Asian. Con: I didn‘t come to Korea for it to be the same as America. I really enjoy experiencing Korea through Gwangju because it is, well, Korea.

Pro: They speak English EVERY WHERE. Con: They speak English EVERYWHERE. I enjoy my private conversations that are held very publicly because I know no one will understand. Plus, I enjoy practicing my Korean and nobody even tries to speak to you in Korean there.

Pro: It’s definitely a vacation destination. Con: If I lived there, where would I vacation in Korea?

Anyways, the reason I’ve been thinking about these is because I will be signing on for another year in Korea and the hardest decision is do I stay in Gwangju or move to Busan? Oh well, I have another 7 months to decide.

Festivals

Well, today is Thursday and I'll give you a little bit of a recap of my week and how lovely it has been and will continue being.

Monday was, well, not that amazing. It was basically as normal as it gets. Wake up around 9, go to work, play with kids and sing songs, eat tasty delicious lunch for free, play with more kids, come home and lounge. Although, there was one kind of exciting personal event for me. I have started going to the gym more frequently (lets not confuse this with frequently) and I actually ran a whole mile after my half hour on the elliptical. Even though less than two years ago I'd run about 5 times that much in one workout, I'm still proud I did it. Small steps you know? Anyways, on to Tuesday...

Tuesday was Field Trip day! Two Field Trips in almost less than a month = awesome. Tuesday was also "Sponge Day" at our school (derived my schools name, iSponge). Basically, because its the day before the nationally celebrated Children's Day (May 5th) iSponge decided to extend the fun an extra day and so we went to a Bamboo Festival. I was very excited because I knew that Korean's LOVED their festivals but I haven't been able to go see one yet. So, once again we packed into the mini bus, drove out of the city, and enjoyed a half a day of fun in the sun.

Lisa is an Ajumma in training. Look at that ultimate sun protecting shield.

After being at the festival for about 10 minutes I realized that it's the first time my boss or her sisters have been out in public with me, and I think they were a bit amazed at the attention I get. First, they noticed the bit of stares, then they realized that every child that saw me would say "Hi!" and it didn't stop there. We were at a crafts booth when some guy with a microphone comes up to me and started speaking minimal English. He then asks me if I know any Korean, and I reply in Korean, "A little." After this he blabbers in Korean for quite a bit but I only recognize the words, "pretty" and "Do you have a boyfriend?" I looked at my Boss and she looked so surprised. She uttered the words, "Privacy!" in English and tried to ignore him. This got me thinking about how accustomed I've become to the treatment I get here. I know I've written plenty of times that I'm essentially a freak of nature here, and not necessarily in a derogatory way, but I don't think Korean people realize how they isolate us. I then decided to do a little googling and see if Korea was really that homogeneous. I may have not done a super thorough search, but obviously North Korea was #1 in terms of homogeneity but they also said that South Korea was a close second. It's strange because I couldn't imagine growing up and not knowing a single non-white person. Or being so amazed by them that I would literally stare at them and point and say "LOOK ITS A FOREIGNER!"

Luckily, I’m not alone in the non-Korean living in Korea struggle. There are plenty of people to relate to and talk to that speak English and I have been absolutely blessed to have met them and all of the wonderful Korean friends as well (and my little Korean cuties below!)

Back to the Bamboo Festival. It was along a river which was so nice to see because coming from Minnesota I’m accustomed to water EVERYWHERE. Here, its mountains, mountains, giant sky scraping condos, and flashy lights for every kind of store ever imaginable, oh yah, and mountains. But at the Festival there was a river and even a little mini boat trip that we went on. As you can see below we were all strapped up in our life jackets for our 2mph 10 minutes trip around the river, and it was lovely.

It reminded me of the boat trips at home and the fact that I’ll be missing out on something that I really love. But, you gotta give a little to get a little and in the case of moving to Korea, I gave up A LOT to get just as much in return. During this field trip I got to see a bit of the Korean lifestyle I haven’t seen before. The crafts, the beautiful flower displays, and the pride that they take in their countries natural resources. It was a lot of fun, and I even got a little color!

Here we have a Kim Jung Ill in training. Or at least his stylist.

Another good thing about Tuesday was that everyone I knew also had Wednesday off for Children’s Day. Also, as most of you Americans know, May 5th is Cinco De Mayo, aka another excuse to get drunk on Tequila. So Dom and I headed out to a bar appropriately named Tequilaz . It is basically the only Mexican place in Gwangju and as I understand it, mainly frequented by only the foreigner community. It was a lot of fun and now I know where to go to get some tasty Tacos when the urge strikes. But, I had to make it an early night so I could go for another adventure on Wednesday, The Green Tea Festival.

Once again me and my main ladies (minus Felicity) headed to the Bus Terminal to see another side of Korea. Our destination: Boseong. Our mission: Green Tea Festivities. The bus ride was a little over an hour and a half and took us through a side of Korea I haven’t seen before. Normally, we get a nice countryside view on the way to Busan or Seoul but this was deep in the middle of no where. The trees were luscious and green as we headed up mountains and it reminded me a lot of my trip to Maui. When we arrived we got dropped off at a random uninhabited Bus Station and got in a Taxi who knew exactly where the white girls were going, the festival. The down side of middle of no where taxi rides, they’re really expensive. We were in there for like 5 minutes and it was 10,000W. Normally it takes like 30 minutes in a taxi to get that pricey. Anyways, once we got there we saw the sprawl of people and the lovely temple like structures and tents. We also saw the highlight of our trip: GREEN TEA ICE CREAM. Soft serve style I might add. It was DEEElicious.

Then we walked up a quiet calm country side and it was much different than the previous festival. More of a sight seeing festival than a fair and we started to hear some kind of drum noise. We walked a bit farther and realized that we recognized this beat. Finally we came upon an open area with a giant sound stage and discovered that it was the “apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur” song blaring on a stage full of prepubescent Korean girls thrusting their asses. This brought on a roar of laughter from us as we uncovered that this supposed cultural experience was basically being tainted by inappropriate dancing by Koreans who most likely didn’t understand the lyrics to “Baby Got Back.” Needless to say, we were entertained by the Western influence and also a bit let down that the Festival didn’t live up to our expectations. On the plus side, we got out of Gwangju for an afternoon and did something other than sit around our tiny apartments and watch TV. Don’t worry, I made up for lost time later that night by watching about 3 episodes of How I Met Your Mother.

All in all, it was nice to get out, especially that the rain had finally let up for a few days. I have also taken it upon myself to use up some of my 15 vacation days this Thursday and Friday for some Molly time. So, I’m currently sitting on my rooftop with my coffee and I am determined to write a few posts about my last few weeks in Korea and make up for my lack of blogging. I’m also looking forward to hopefully, finally, getting some call time in with some friends back home so if you see a random number calling you, ANSWER IT!