Gianni's school started on August 18th, but he didn't start teaching until the 19th, so his school allowed him to come with Sun Mi and I to the pension office so that we could both apply for our pensions together. We will get a nice chunk of change from that once we go home. We will also be receiving severance pay (about 2 months salary) and an exit allowance, so we are looking at quite a bit of money. I think we have it set up right, so we should be able to transfer money from Citibank Korea to Citibank US, like we usually do, using our Korean internet banking on a PC back home. Gianni didn't feel well for most of that week, so he called in sick after visiting the pension office. We think the malaria pills we took in Vietnam were hitting him hard.
On August 20th, the second semester at my school started again after summer vacation. I had to teach, even though there were just 4 school days left on my contract. I taught 3 classes on my last first day of school. They decided I would just teach the second grade classes for the remainder of my contract. Poor Gianni taught way more classes than I did on our last days of school. Da Eun came down to Sangin, and we took her to our local BBQ place. It's really funny how they treat foreigners so differently from Koreans. Usually, the red pork lady or her husband does the cooking for us, but for our last time there, they gave Da Eun the tongs and scissors for grilling. I guess they don't trust foreigners to do it properly! I told the Red Pork Lady we were going home and asked for the recipe for her samjang (salty, soy bean paste that goes great with meat and veggies). Instead of giving me the recipe, she put a bunch in a glass container for me! It was really sweet. She hugged us, and we said our goodbyes. Red Pork lady is the best. Da Eun came back to our house afterwards, which was a big mess because we were getting a donation together for a new charity in Daegu to help unwed mothers. I had Da Eun go through all our stuff and take whatever she wanted, and she ended up filling up 3 bags of food and home items to take back to her place. After quite some time chatting at our apartment, we said goodbye to Da Eun as well. She's a nurse, and I keep trying to get her to come to the US to work instead. That would be really hard, but I hope it can happen. Either that or, at the very least, that she can come to visit in the US soon.
On August 21st, I didn't have any classes. After school, the vice principal and most of the English teachers got together at a restaurant near our school for my last teacher dinner. We ate Italian food, and they gave me a gift of body wash, lotion, and perfume. It was really nice of them to get me something. They all spoke Korean for the first half of the dinner but then started asking me questions about my plans for home.
Our last weekend in Daegu was a really busy on. On Saturday morning, we woke up early when the unwed mothers charity representative came to pick up our donation. We basically gave them everything that didn't sell on the Daegu Flea Market facebook group, including unopened soaps, kitchen items, and a shelf. We thought he would be coming with a truck, but he just brought his SUV, which was already packed with things from another pickup he had done. Somehow, we managed to fit it all in the car though. Right after he left, a woman came to pick up our standing mirror, which she bought from us for 15,000 won. In the afternoon, we met Maria and Matthew for our last trip to Seomun market. We ate kal guk su (noodle soup) at one of the street vendors and bought some wooden, lacquered chopsticks to use when we get home as well as some more pairs of socks. That night, we met Master Hwang and Jo for dinner. We thought it would just be the two of them, but when we got there, all the university/late high-school aged kids that always come to taekwondo class were there! We were really pleasantly surprised because we didn't think we'd get to say goodbye to them, especially Ji Hye (a really funny high school girl who has been a friend of ours since we started taekwondo). One of the university students, Hyeon Su, doesn't speak much English, but he had a great sense of humor and always had a big smile on his face. We found out that Hyeon Su and Ji Hye are dating now! Good for them. First, we all went out to eat kal guk su (second time in one day) and then we went to a place to eat fried chicken and drink beer. We planned to leave at around 10pm to go downtown to meet a bunch of people, but 10pm turning into more like midnight! We were having such a nice time with Master Hwang and everyone. Eventually, we did go downtown and played shuffleboard at MF Bar with Maria, Matthew, Marie, and Ben for a few hours before heading home around 2am.
The next day, we got our big suitcases all packed up and brought as much stuff to Max and Serena's house as we could. They agreed to keep our bags or us while we went to Ulleungdo. We got to meet their new little baby girl, Gigi. Serena was, understandably, super tired, so we went out with Max and Hailey to get some bingsu by their house while she took a nap. Afterwards, we said goodbye to them and went downtown to meet Maria, Matthew, Marie, and Ben downtown for our last trip to the board game cafe. We played a few games, including Munchkin, a game that Marie and Ben taught all of us that they brought to the cafe themselves. Gianni and I cashed in on our free drinks from our rewards stamp cards. At around 10 o'clock, all the boys were ready to go, but the girls wanted to stay out until 11 when the cafe closed. The boys all left to get chicken at the subway station and head home while the girls stayed and ate McDonalds afterwards. We said goodbye to the board game cafe owner and took a selfie with him. I think he might just miss us. I know we will all miss the board game cafe. It was hands-down my favorite place in Daegu.
On August 24th, I taught 3 classes and left school early to pack and get ready. Gianni had a teacher's dinner, but Sun Mi came by our place with her car and took me to the post office to mail 3 more boxes home. Later that night, a girl whose husband is in the military came to pick up our cups and mugs. She even agreed to bring the second shelf we another military spouse who wanted to purchase it. That girl is on bed rest at the moment so was unable to pick it up. I said she could keep the money if she brought it to the girl on bed rest. That was the final pick up. After she left, our house was practically empty of anything we had purchased ourselves. There were a few odds and ends that we ended up leaving in the apartment, maybe the school or landlord can use them. If not, they will probably just trash them, and people usually come by and grab good items that other people are throwing away. We just ended up leaving a few towels (that we were using and couldn't donate), a sheet, a comforter, trash cans, a dish drying wrack, and a clothes drying wrack. We piled all that stuff up in the corner before leaving.
August 25th was our last day of school. I had to make a speech to the school in the morning, which was really nerve-wracking. I guess my fear of speaking in front of people hasn't completely gone away. I said a few sentences in Korean that I wrote on my own, so here's hoping they were correct! I just said, "I taught at Sangwon Middle School for 2 years. I love Sangwon Middle School." I taught 4 classes on my last day, and I was supposed to leave early afterwards, but I had to make the rounds saying goodbye to teachers in all the other offices. I went up to the 3rd grade teachers office to talk to the 2 English teachers there (Hye Rim and Mi Sook) and to my old office across the hall to say goodbye to the woman who fixes all the school's computers (Min Jung). The teacher who always came to my after-school teachers class, Hana, brought me down to say goodbye to the principal. I got a gift from Hana and another from the other teacher who frequented my teacher class, Mr. Son. Then, I went around speaking to all the English teachers in the main office (Mrs. Lee, Hyun Joo, Go Eun, Yeung Eun, Sun Mi, Su Kyeong, and He Yeong). I got a sweet Hanbok card from one of the head teachers, translated by Yeung Eun, and Sun Mi gave me some pretty silver earrings earlier in the day. As I was saying goodbye to the principal, I realized that Sun Mi must have left, so I was really bummed about not being able to say goodbye to her. Mrs. Lee and the head teachers walked me out to the front of the school. When we got home from school, we did a bit more packing and made sure things were finalized since we left the following morning. Gianni called to cancel his cell phone plan after his last bill in September (I did it earlier in the week). That night was our last night downtown and the last night seeing Maria and Matthew...for now. We went downtown for shabu shabu with two of Marie and Ben's friends, Laura and Josh. After dinner, we went to a cafe and ate delicious waffles and played cards until late into the night. I got a little emotional saying goodbye to all of them. Teaching English in Korea was a little like I imagine college should be like. I didn't have a really close-knit big group of friends in college; they were all from different social circles. But I was really happy to have been able to experience this for the first time with Marie, Ben, Maria, Matthew, Sian, and Gianni.
Lasts and Leaving Daegu
On August 26th, Gianni and I converted some money to Taiwan dollars, finished packing up, and went back to my school to do some banking stuff. We used Sun Mi's computer to transfer all my money to the US account to use in Taiwan and made sure Gianni's was in the right place too. We had to pay the landlord the final gas and electricity bill, and I gave Sun Mi the money to pay our last cable and internet bill. Sun Mi told us we should eat lunch at school, so we did. It was really nice of the school to let us do that, especially since Wednesday lunch is always special lunch, so we got a strawberry milk shake thing with our bibimbap. After lunch, Sun Mi walked us to the front of the school and gave me 2 hugs and said goodbye. She has really been so helpful to both Gianni and I over the last 2 years. She was my only main co-teacher, and I couldn't have asked for a better one. I hope Sun Mi can come to Boston one day. I will miss her a lot. We went back to our apartment to collect our bags. It was really hard for me to leave our apartment. Our little apartment in Daegu was our first home together, and I will always remember it fondly. It's going to be hard going home and not living together immediately. Gianni and I have definitely become accustomed to it. We still had really heavy bags, despite leaving most of our stuff at Serena and Max's. We grabbed a taxi and went to the bus station to go to Pohang. I booked us an AirBNB there, and they met us at the Pohang bus station. It only takes about an hour to get to Pohang from Daegu. The plan was to stay in Pohang for a night before taking the ferry to Ulleungdo the following morning. We were staying with an older married couple named Jade and Peter in their very nice apartment. I think they mostly wanted to practice their English by hosting guests from all over the world. They had decent English and were nice to talk to. They picked us up from the station and later drove us to the beach where we went to a special seafood restaurant Da Eun recommended. We had "mul hway" (raw strips of fish, noodles, and veggies in a cold, slightly spicy, sauce). It was really delicious. We walked along the beach for a bit, ate some amazing bingsu at a coffee shop, and headed back to the apartment to rest.
The weather was a little iffy when we arrived in Pohang. It was overcast and rained a little bit. We were a bit unsure of weather the ferry would be leaving on time the following morning. Jade called the terminal to check for us, but they hadn't made a decision, so they said to call back at 7am to find out. In the morning, we got a text message saying that the ferry would be delayed until noon, maybe, but that we should call again at 11am to find out. We got up early and went back to sleep upon hearing the news. At 11am, Jade called and found out that the ferry to Ulleungdo was cancelled! We were crushed. This was the third time we had tried to go to Ulleungdo. The first time we tried to book tickets ourselves, but they were all sold out. The second time we tried booking with a tour, but it was too expensive. And now the ferry was cancelled! It seemed as though the ferry only sails in perfect weather conditions. We were disappointed but also glad, in a way, because if we had gone, we would have been concerned the whole time about whether or not the ferry would be returning to Pohang on time. I'd rather spare ourselves the stress of worrying about that. We had to change all of our plans that morning. Luckily, we only lost a little bit of money on 1 night in an AirBNB, but the rest was refunded. Instead of going to Ulleungdo, we decided to go back to Daegu on the 28th, spend the night with Marie and Ben there, and then head to Seoul from the 29th to the 2nd before our flight to Taiwan. After I arranged all of that, we took the city bus in Pohang to see one of the main tourist sites, Hamigot Cape or Sunrise Cape. The Cape has a large hand statue sticking out of the water, and if you go at sunrise, the hands looks to be holding the sun. It was really pretty, but there was almost nothing else in that area and the bus to get there was really long. We had some coffee at a local coffee shop, took a few pictures, and headed back to downtown Pohang. Gianni really felt like seeing a movie, so we saw American Ultra at a theater near our apartment. It was a really entertaining stoner action movie. We got back to the apartment a little late and headed right to bed.
Jade was good enough to make us breakfast/brunch every morning. Her food was really good and simple. She also gave us plenty of coffee and tea to drink. We took the bus back to Daegu at 10am on the 28th and went straight to Serena and Max's. Serena's mom is visiting to help with the baby for a few weeks, so it was nice to see her again. We spent probably an hour in their guest room sorting through our things. I filled one bag with things we would need for Taiwan and another with just our extra clothes and stuff. Max had a bag scale, and we found out our bags were both 5kg overweight! He was nice enough to drive us to the post office with a bunch of our stuff and help us get 2 more big boxes in surface mail, putting us well below the bag weight limit. When we got back to the apartment, they had some errands they needed to do, and we wanted to get to Marie and Ben's. We got to see Gigi awake for a few minutes, and we took some pictures together. Max and Serena are going to Spain when Max's post in Korea is finished in about 6 months, so they are on to big adventures. And Serena is writing her doctorate dissertation at the moment. Hopefully, we will get to see them both again soon! Gianni and I grabbed a taxi to Marie and Ben's house, and we waited in their hallway while they finished an errand they were running. We played some Munchkin and ate dinner at a really tasty BBQ restaurant in their neighborhood. Back at their place, we played a few more games of cards, but I really wanted to get to bed because I had a headache. I'm so happy we got to see them one more time and have one last fun night together before leaving Korea. They were nice enough to open up their apartment to us even though they are also in the midst of packing. They are staying in their apartment for 1 extra month, and their apartment is fabulous. They moved the futon into their spare room for us to sleep on. Marie is going home for a few weeks for a friend's wedding, and Ben will stay in Korea and wait for her. After she comes back to Korea, they will go together to Vietnam to get teaching jobs there for 6 months. Hopefully, they will be able to make it to our wedding.
We booked tickets on the 10:50am KTX to Seoul on August 29th. Marie helped me get a taxi to take us back to her apartment while the boys brought our bags downstairs to meet the taxi. We said our "see you soons" and left for Dongdaegu. Thank you again for letting us stay and being such awesome friends Marie and Ben! On the KTX, it only takes 2 hours to get to Seoul from Daegu. Our hostel, Pencil Guesthouse, is only about a 2 minute walk from Hongik University Station which is connected to Seoul Station by the airport railroad. It was really easy getting here and will be really easy to get to the airport on Wednesday night to fly to Taiwan. After having some down time in the very comfortable hostel, we went out for some coffee at the You Are Here Cafe. The cafe is jointly owned by the creators of two different Youtube channels, Eat Your Kimchi and Talk to me in Korean. Talk to me in Korean is a channel where you can learn to speak Korean, and Eat Your Kimchi is all about Korean culture. Gianni really likes Talk to me in Korean, and Eat Your Kimchi videos were a really big part of how I decided I wanted to come to Korea. Simon and Martina, the creators of the channel, taught me a lot. The cafe and our hostel are in the same area, Hongdae, and in a kind of quiet area of what is normally a pretty crazy part of Seoul. The cafe looks like a house with all the different rooms used as sitting areas. There is also a video booth where you can talk and record yourself and maybe make it in one of the EYK videos. The desserts, food, and drinks are all really tasty-looking. Gianni got a plain cafe latte, but I went big with a delicious nutella smoothy. After enjoying our drinks, we walked around Hongdae for a while, just browsing. But it was hot, so we came back to our hostel to rest before dinner. For dinner, we got delicious sandwiches from an upscale place near our hostel. I miss sandwiches SO MUCH!
Our plan is to go to Suwon Fortress tomorrow and Lotte World on either Monday or Tuesday. Maybe we'll go to Insadong one last time or to Buckchon Hanok Village or ride bikes on the Han River, but we will see. We are very much into relaxation time before Taiwan and before our big flight home. Send out good vibes for Taiwan's weather, everyone! We will be in Taiwan from September 2nd to 10th, and then home on the 11th. See you then Boston!
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