Tuesday, March 19, 2013

"On The Road Again"


Hello! It's a cloudy, but nice Tuesday here in South Korea! The best part about Tuesday is that I have 1-2 Class and then a little break before a sole 4th grader comes in. It's a nice, relaxing day after a Monday full of classes. 

There are so many great things to post about, it is so hard to know where to begin. I am so glad I have now gotten over the shock of being in Korea. I am glad that passed so quickly and did not seem to have a lasting impression on my time here. 

Let's start with Friday. After such a long time of always working the typical restaurant schedule, (usually 2-3 days a week and then all weekends) it is hard to adjust to the realization that after I get off school on Friday, I am home for the weekend. Well, in Oklahoma I would be. In Korea, however, I am not home but out exploring this incredible country and visiting with my friends that I have made here that happen to come from every end of the earth. (Why yes, it is the coolest thing ever.) 

The past weekend held no exception to this rule. 

Friday nights, we usually all meet up and set in our plan for the following morning. This weekend's adventure? Began small when Kyla, Emilee, and I spotted an Italian restaurant right across from LotteMart. We decided to meet for dinner and finalize our weekend trip to Daegu from there. 

But first, a decision I have been so anxiously awaiting since we arrived in Korea 6 weeks ago. (I know, it HAS already been that long! Crazy, right?)

HAIR DYE! To buy, or not to buy? Is it the same in Korea as it is in America? As you can see in the photo, I was nervous for sure, but gladly settled on a color I thought would look good. (Or at least cover my blonde roots that often look grey in the sunlight!) 



The answer to that one was yes! Thankfully, my hair is the same reddish-brownish color it was before I left America. It isn't orange! YES!
(To any boys reading this, sorry. To any girls reading this, I know you totally understand!)

Now back to the little Italian place!  

The little place was called, "New York, New York" and holy cow was it so good. I had pasta carbonara and a side salad. It was so good! Kyla, on the other hand, was confident enough to try lasagna. To her surprise, every bite held a new and exciting ingredient. You name it, it was probably in her lasagna. (That being if you name black olives, sweet potato, red bean, and what we think was raisins. Haha!) We decided we would have to go back, but I think we are all counting lasagna off the menu. The girls ordered some drinks which we have come to the conclusion did NOT have alcohol and we enjoyed the rest of our evening over Italian and then ice cream. Friday was a good, good night here in Gunsan! 




Then there was Saturday. 

Don't get me wrong, Saturday was so great! However, you know those awkward get to know you games you often play at parties and on the first day of school and summer camp? You know how one of everyone's favorite questions is: "If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?" I can safely say that my answer to that question for the rest of my life would be to teleport. You see, Gunsan is right on the West Coast of Korea. (Literally, I see the Yellow Sea everyday on my way to school. It's pretty awesome.) Daegu is completely on the other side of Korea, or in other words, a four hour bus ride away. Luckily, I woke up at 5 to shower and pack so I was able to fall asleep when we got on the bus rather quickly. When I woke up, I saw it! DAEGU! What a beautiful (and huge!) place. It was so warm (and huge!). It was surrounded by mountains (and it was HUGE!). In case you aren't getting the picture, Daegu looked pretty huge. This began to make me anxious. How in the heck would we even be able to find our friends in this monster city? Luckily, some of our prepared friends created a map that step-by-step took us right to The Traveler's Bar. (This AWESOME place where we were meeting all of our friends!) 

We made it and holy moley, was it awesome! We had a fun day of visiting, celebrating, drinking, and eating. We even had green beer for St. Patty's Day! It was an awesome time! 







We left the bar for a few hours to sightsee and find a hotel. What we ended up finding was an incredible sight. After leaving our things at our hotel, we rounded a corner to see nothing but about a dozen Korean teens rapping to a small beat box that was sitting on the ground. They had gained quite the crowd, and were passing around something. My first thought, are they standing in the middle of a street drinking and rapping at 3:00 pm? Surely not. Turns out I was right. They were definitely passing around a liter of water, being careful enough to not let their lips touch the bottle. It was hilarious! Apparently, they take these rap battles very seriously in Korea. By that, I mean they always remember to keep hydrated! (Please, ignore the corny jokes. I've been watching The Bachelor late at night. I need more sleep!) Here are the rap stars themselves. If you look closely enough, you see the giant liter of water in the middle of the circle. SO hilarious! 


See? Totally giant. Totally awesome. 


We headed back to Traveler's to find the crowd had only multiplied and that we were going to go to a new Korean bar. (Funny thing here, at Traveler's the pricing of all the American Liquor was about the same. It wasn't too expensive at all! However, once you know how cheap Korean food and drinks is, it's hard to stay in a Western bar for too long, no matter how much green beer they have. 


We ended up all being split up and Laura and I ended up with our friends, Max and Andrew. We went into a small place, had some soju and a 파전 (Panjeon, which is a seafood pancake. SO good!)

After that, Max and Andrew found out that Kyla and Emilee were in a small bar across the street. We decided to head over there, and we were so surprised to find a very, very happy Emilee and Kyla and a 90's themed Korean bar. 

Yes, a themed bar. I only wish I had taken video when Laura and I first walked in. There were flashing lights, and loud music, and of course, the girls had already made about 15 Korean friends! It looked like they were having an awesome time! Then, the music began again and the dance floor flooded with Koreans and well, two white girls. I decided not to miss out on the fun and was so eager to jump into the awesome scene! We danced and danced, and I am pretty sure the guy with the bicycle on his shirt below asked if he could be my boyfriend. But you know, I really don't know. He wasn't getting the "I don't know Korean" look I was sending his way. Oh, well! We danced the night away until about 2:30. 




Another thing about Korea. The place is magical. Everyone and everything stays up so late. It is hard to go to bed on time when you know that there is so much fun always going on no matter where you are. Which leads us to the next part of the evening, and a personal favorite, Karaoke. 

We ended up waiting on some friends to head home (their bus came at 6:30). Laura and I decided it would be a good idea to keep them company until they left. This is where we went wrong. I am pretty sure half of the party fell asleep at Karaoke while the other half of us sounded like boys going through puberty while singing. Cracked voices,  tone changes, and all. It was such a fun night though, and we safely made it back to our hotel room around 5:30 a.m. (Something I am positive I could never do in America.) 


The next day, we woke up to find that we had about an hour to get up and check out of our hotel. We also awoke to find our great friend, Lee on the floor of our hotel room fully dressed in his clothes from the night before. (Trench Coat and all!) It was a hilarious, and great way to wake up. 

We left Green Motel about an hour later, in search of a legend we had heard about from some friends, Mexican Food!!! 

A few blocks later, we found it! Caliente's was our next stop on the route of exploring Daegu. SO good! It was a wonderful day so we ate outside, on the patio. It was such a nice time with the greatest friends! 

After lunch, we headed towards a park some of our friends had visited the day before. We had heard that it was awesome so the plan was to head inside, grab some ice cream, and hang out to enjoy the day. Of course, nothing in Korea is really what it seems. This park was not only a park but instead, an old fortress with a built-in zoo and small shops. WOW! We took photos of so many animals! (And as always, the cute little ones running around!) We could also see the entire city of Daegu from the fortress wall. It was such a great day at Dalseong Park! The park had it all, including: 

Emilee, Laura, Kyla and I in front of the entrance! 

Laura and I on the fortress wall. (City of Daegu in the back!)

Elephants! 

Bears!

Cute Babies with Hello Kitty Balloons!

And this man. As we were walking past the elephants, this man quickly approached us. He began to ask us the general questions we get everyday. What are we doing here? Where are we from? etc. This man was different, however. Instead of stopping there, he began to give us a lesson over the park, and basically over Korea as a whole. It was hilarious. He then followed us around the park for the next about half hour, filling us with knowledge about the park. There was no escaping all the information, even if we didn't really understand it. As you can see, I think Lee really enjoyed this guy! Haha! 

After that, we decided to head to the bus station and prepare for our four hour venture home. We bought tickets for the next bus, which was coming about an hour later. We bought our tickets, and saw some friends at the Terminal. They told us about an awesome Korean market just a block over. Of course, we headed towards Gwannum Market and few minutes later. We saw everything from Octopus to Tennis Shoes. I even got a nice little surprise near the end of the journey.









See the woman there in the pink? Well, in the market, there was a very small, old, little lady that was slicing a mysterious substance. (Later to be decided it was a fruit.) However, she is slicing it and I just stopped to look. The little woman in the pick then picked up a toothpick, picked up some of the fruit and shoved it into my mouth. Haha! That's the funny thing about Korea. No matter where you come from, they want you to love it here. They love foreigners and can hardly wait for you to try the things that they have here. After she hand fed me a few more pieces of fruit, Kyla and Laura decided we better go so we could catch the bus. After being offered more fruit and soju, we graciously declined and headed for the bus. 

We hopped on and found ourselves home a couple of fours later. After a long bus ride, we all headed to our own houses and decided to get ready for the new week ahead. (Well, I think they did. I just went to sleep!) 

As I sit here, and think about this past weekend, I realize that no matter what, the truth is that I am living the coolest life that any 20 year old could ever imagine. I am discovering things and places that some people may never have the opportunity to experience in their entire lives. That is what my experience here means to me. I always miss my friends and family, and the familiarity of home. However, I am so blessed by the opportunity to learn and experience a world entirely different from my own. I am so lucky, and so fortunate to have gotten here. I think this experience is constantly teaching me new things about not only who I am, but also, about how much I really need to think about and consider all of the little things life has to offer. It is such a blessing to be here, teaching and learning in Korea. I cannot imagine the other adventures that are awaiting me here! 


Stay tuned, because as always, there is more adventure and fun to be had here! 




Kiyana In Korea

1 comment:

  1. I love this! Sounds like you had so much fun! Happy happy joy joy!

    ReplyDelete