First Weekend in Daegu

I got to see Gianni's apartment for the first time on Friday night. It's really nice, although a lot different than mine. He has a whole washing machine area, a really nice bathroom that doesn't get the entire room wet when you shower, and a huge kitchen. His living space is a tiny bit smaller, and he has less furniture and space for clothes than I do also. I live in a really metropolitan area with a lot of shops and restaurants, and I'm really close to the subway, but Gianni is in a residential neighborhood. It has some restaurants, but nothing too huge. Still, it's a nice place. When I finally made it to his apartment that night after accidentally taking the wrong bus, we wandered around the area trying to find a restaurant. We inadvertently ended up at a chinese food place, and when we walked in, I just said two and help up my fingers. She directed us to a table, so we sat down. When we came in, I knew she didn't just say two people, but I had no idea what was going on. Apparently, she thought I was ordering two of jjajangmyun (a noodle dish in black sauce). It was good, but I hadn't meant to order food. After dinner, we went to the 711 and got some treats. We're definitely making our way around the Korean snack foods! We watched some shows and hung out in his apartment. I know that makes us really lame, but we're still adapting to all this change.

Saturday morning, I woke up in time to see that Gianni's mom was trying to get in touch with him because they had planned a skype date. So we talked to his parents and then my parents for a bit. The plan had been to go to Chilseong market because it has souvenirs and all kinds of things, but one of the people who was at orientation with us posted something about an International Body Painting Festival going on. We decided to go to the market for a bit to check it out and then go to the festival because the best time to go to that was in the late afternoon I heard.

Chilseong Market was a little much for us to take in at this time in our Korean explorations. We ended up coming out of the subway into the meat and fish area of the market and had no idea to get to the souvenirs section. The fish area I could deal with, the pig heads out for us to look at was pushing it for, but Gianni kept me from seeing some of the other (ahem!) "meat." We decided we'd had enough of that for now. We'll probably try again later, and maybe look for the proper area of the market. I'd go again if I decide I want fish too. That part was really cool.

 We made our way to Duryu park for the International Body Painting Festival, but first we stopped at an underground subway food court for some lunch. We ended up at a Japanese place at Banwoldang station and got some ramen. Banwoldong station is the center station and the only point of transfer between Daegu's 2 subway lines. It has it's own theme song! Gianni and I have no idea what it is saying, but instead of the announcement saying the next station, a song always plays when Banwoldong is the next one. It's cute. Korea is very musical yet again.

When we got off above ground near Duryu Park, a girl walked up to us saying we were the first foreigners she had seen. She also just got to Korea and works in a rural area outside Daegu. Her name is Michelle, and she's from South Africa. We spent the rest of the day with her. She thought she knew how to get to the park, so we followed her. We found the park but had to walk quite a long way within it to get to the location. It's a HUGE park, so it can be very confusing. When we first entered Duryu park, there were old men and women playing games and chatting along the edges of the street, and they all stared at us! I've never felt this way in my life. It was a totally weird experience. When we found the festival, there were a bunch of white tents set up. I walked around taking pictures of all the models being painted. It's very strange for Korea to host an outdoor event where everyone is basically naked because Korea frowns on showing too much skin, especially cleavage. The painting process was really cool though, and there were artists from all over the world. When we had walked around for a bit, the competition for fantasy makeup (which includes a crazy costume) began. There were professional photographers standing under a tent, and I got up pretty close to the front because one of them was being very encouraging of me with my own, smaller DSLR. I got some excellent photos I'm proud to say! Check them out on the photo page. The fantasy makeup took about an hour, and I can't even describe these costumes and makeup to you. You have to see the pictures to understand. Then, there was a short break before the body painting competition began. Again, I can't describe this paint to you, you have to see what these amazing artists did. Most were from Asian countries, but there was one American couple. They were the only people we could understand when the host of the show asked about their inspiration for their work. Their woman looked fabulous! The entire audience thought so. Their inspiration was "female empowerment in the age of aquarius." It was gorgeous! Most of the models were women, and you could tell which ones had dance experience. They were so fierce! There were like 4 male models, and all but one looked completely mortified to be on stage! Sooooo funny! The first guy came on and looked stunned to see people. The second guy tried to make a little bit of a show of it, but he practically RAN off-stage! Another guy tried to put on a show but just looked uncomfortable. The last guy was dressed to look like a clown, and he was the only one that had a little fun with it. We were at the festival from 3:45 to about 7:30pm watching all the competitors. It was a really really excellent time. Another note: It's starting to get cool in Daegu at night! Yay! Less humidity! On the way home, we took Michelle to the subway and pointed her in the right direction, and apparently neither of us focused on where we had to go. We went in the complete wrong direction on the train and only realized when we were almost at the opposite terminal from where we needed to be! We had to turn around and go all the way back!