It's been a really relaxed few weekends since coming back from our vacation home. It's also been pretty surreal. It's strange to think that it's already been a year in Korea. We're participating in some of the same activities that we did last year and starting a new semester at school. But this year is totally different! We came back to Korea knowing exactly where we were living and working and with our lives here already established. I can't believe that it's already been a year and that it's only been a year and things are so different for us. Different in a good way. It's weird and wonderful to be doing some of the same things but with a totally new mindset. There is a whole new crop of English teachers that came to Daegu last week, and it's strange to think that they were us only a year ago!
Gianni has started at his new school, which is even closer to our house. He just takes a different bus every morning. We got to meet the new girl working at his old school, and she's very nice. We've been kind of lazy and kind of trying to get ourselves back to our normal schedules, so we haven't been going to taekwondo for the last two weeks. That ends today, we plan on going a lot this week and starting back up. Also, we start a new Korean class this week, so that will be fun. Daegu's heat and humidity are finally starting to break for fall. It was this exact weekend last year when I noticed the humidity was waning a bit. Strange that it was the exact same time as last year.
Our first weekend back in Daegu, Gianni entertained my whims by going to some more places in the Korean stamp book. It was a long, hot day of walking. We went to Suseong Lake first. Suseong Lake has a small amusement park next to it, but it's for children. We went inside just to check it out, and it seemed like it was kind of dilapidated actually. Maybe that was just because it was during the day, so the lights that usually come on at night were off, but it didn't look like the nicest amusement park ever. Gianni and I walked all the way around the lake. It's a really pretty path with a boardwalk all around it. There's even a fountain in the middle of the lake. They use it to put on light and water shows at night. Unfortunately, the duck boats were closed! Suseong Lake has paddle boats in the shape of ducks that I really wanted to ride in, but for some reason they weren't operating on a Saturday afternoon! Instead, we finished off our walk around by getting bingsu from a cafe that is built into the body of an old airplane! It was really awesome. The inside had bright white walls and was decorated with Hawaiian shirts. I guess it's a franchise that came from Hawaii or something. After that, I decided to make Gianni come to Momyeongjae Shrine. I thought it was way closer on the map than it was. Actually, it's pretty close to the National Museum, so I should have gone there when I went to the museum by myself last month. Oh well. We made it there anyway. It was a traditional Korean-style building, and it was made as a memorial to a Chinese general named Du Shizhong, who came to Korea to help the Koreans fight against the Japanese Invasion of 1592. He was then naturalized under the Joseon Dynasty in Korea. Gianni and I were dying of heat stroke by the time we were finished there, so we took a break at starbucks before heading downtown to meet our friends. Gianni and Matthew were hungry, so they grabbed some chicken from a cart in the subway station that is always busy. Now we know that it was busy because it was actually really delicious chicken! We then met up with Serena and Max as well, and the 6 of us walked around, browsing hiking stores.
We were too exhausted to do anything elaborate on Sunday, so we just slept in and tried to get rid of the jet lag. I impressed myself though because I had no jet lag whatsoever when I came home for the two weeks, and barely anything when we came back to Korea. I woke up earlier than I normally would that first weekend, I was getting tired by like 7pm, and I woke up one morning at 5:30am, but aside from that it was fairly manageable.
This past weekend we saw Matthew and Maria everyday. Starting on Friday with a trip to the board game cafe with Thomas as well. I got the highest score in Ticket to Ride that I have ever gotten. On Saturday, Gianni and Matthew took part in a hilarious TV appearance. I'll see if I can get him to talk more about the day itself. But it turns out that Korea actually invented the printing press, not Gutenberg! There's a professor in Seoul who is writing/wrote a book about this, and there's actually a lot of evidence proving it. One of the big networks in Korea, MBC, is making a TV documentary, and Gianni and Matthew were extras! They played Gutenberg's friends, and they had costumes and fake beards and everything! The pictures were hilarous! They left in the morning and did the filming at a printing museum near the DMZ, and they weren't back until 5am. Another hilarious TV appearance for the books. While they were doing that, Maria and I went to the Daegu International Body Painting Festival. Gianni and I went last year, and I enjoyed it, so I wanted to go again. I took some more good pictures, and it seemed like it was way more English-friendly this year. The announcer was interpreting for the artists after each painted person came on stage. I guess they noticed how many foreigners came last year, and decided to change things. It was really nice. After the show, Maria and I headed to my house for some pizza and ice cream. We watched some TLC shows and hung out. Sunday, we met Maria and Matthew again for a short trip to Seomun Market. We are all going to Jeju together next weekend, and we are looking at doing a long hike of a volcano! It should be really cool, but we needed some gear. I wanted to get a new backpack for travelling. Gianni and I have been working with my LL Bean bag, which is great, but I wanted the kind of bag that takes the weight off your back. I got a nice, new backpack with all kinds of pockets and clips, so I can use it for travelling and for hiking. After Seomun, we walked downtown and grabbed some food and made one more stop at another discount backpack shop before heading home.Since coming back to Korea, we've just tried to do a lot of relaxing and easing our way back into our routines. We'll see how it goes this week, and we're very excited to go to Jeju this coming long weekend for Chuseok, "Korean Thanksgiving." It should be an excellent trip.
