Waygooks Wandering

Ever since the grade 2's finished their exams, they've been kind of bad. I, honestly, did not think the grade 3's were that bad, and they've been done with their exams for much longer. Gianni and I have both been doing our best at our respective schools to do fun things with the kids despite the lack of enthusiasm. It's basically just been weeks of games and videos. We are in the home stretch though because the week of Christmas is our last school week of the term! After that, we both have English camp where we have maybe 20 students for a few hours per day, and we can do whatever we want. Niall and I are teaching a cooking class and a scavenger hunt class together. We're making pancakes! On my own, I'm doing a 2-day Harry Potter camp and a Sherlock/Murder Mystery camp. I'm really excited for both of them, and I have them mostly planned out. Aside from camp, we are going to do what's called "desk warming," where we do just what the name implies--sit at our desks ALL DAY. We are required to be at work even though we aren't teaching. It's different at every school though, so sometimes they might let us go early or whatever. So we'll see how that goes.

As far as what we've been up to, I've actually had some bad luck and been sick for the last week or so. Last weekend, I felt really nauseous and achy, and it carried over into the next week. I started to feel better for a few days and was eating normally, and then I got a cold this last weekend! So it's been a little bit unlucky but I've been making due.

We finished our Korean classes on Friday. I'm going to miss our teacher. She was really funny and a good teacher. We might take more Korean classes in the future, but that class gave us a nice base and taught us a few more useful phrases. Now, we just need to practice. I really appreciate that the Daegu Office of Education offered us the opportunity to take the classes because I really think I learned a lot, and we didn't have to pay a cent for them.

We've also been preparing for Christmas. Last night, I realized the advent calendar Mom sent me with Lindt chocolate inside had a mistake! Gianni was looking for the 16, but instead of the 16 we found another 10! Oh well! We also have a 4 ft tall, fake tree. It's pretty cute. It came with some ornaments, and I bought some more colored ones. One of the ornaments is a lotus flower, which is a Buddhist symbol (I actually bought it at a temple), so our tree is part Buddhist :) I also have a "Merry Christmas" sign tacked on the wall, and we bought little stockings that are hanging on the wall as well. The apartment has a bit of Christmas flare. Downtown there are also a lot of Christmas lights. It's really funny actually. They set up these light displays for you to take your picture with.

On Saturday, we went to see The Hobbit with Maria and Matthew and the old English teacher from Matthew's school. It was fun, but I had gotten up early to skype with Mom and Dad, so I was a bit tired and fell asleep at the end. It was an ok movie, but I'm not a huge Lord of the Rings fan anyway. Maria and Matthew are though. The movie was a little unsatisfying because it ended kind of abruptly and didn't seem to go anywhere, but it looked nice, as those movies usually do. When I spoke to Mom, she opened the box I sent with presents for everyone from Korea. She wanted to wait for me so that I could tell her what everything was and who it was for. I sent home presents for tons of people, and Mom wrapped them all up with me watching. I had Dad take her presents away though. She's playing Santa this year and will be delivering them to the respective people soon. Saturday night, we went over to Serena and Max's for their potluck dinner. There was delicious pulled pork and mac n' cheese! All the food was wonderful. They and their friends really know how to cook. Gianni and I just bought a cake and brought that. At their house, we also did a yankee swap. We played with different rules we used to play with when we did it in Canada with our cousins and family up there. You could either choose to steal a present from someone or choose one from the middle. If you stole from someone, then that person gets the same choice. One present can only be stolen 2 different times, and the person who went first gets to go again at the end. It was kind of a cool way to play, actually. I liked it. Gianni ended up winning 2 reese's peanut butter cups that were a half pound of chocolate each! It's insane. We're going to cut them up and use them in baking. I stole a box from someone that contained 2 large scented candles and 3 big packs of sour gummy worms! The two of us ended up with more candy than we can handle. Serena and Max are leaving to go home for a month, so it was kind of a going away party for them as well. I'll miss them. It's always fun to hang out with them and see them at taekwondo. Since they are leaving, they bought ziploc containers for us all to take food home at the end. They were like "please, just take it all!" So Gianni and I both went home with a nice haul. Thanks Serena and Max!

Sunday was more of a relaxing day. We went down to an English used book store and restaurant called Buy the Book that I've been hearing a lot about because they were having a flea market. It ended up being kind of small and just a few people were selling their art of jewelry. It was good to check it out and know where it is though. I got a chocolate cupcake and a molasses cookie from the KAPS booth. They are the animal shelter here in Daegu, and they do a lot of bake sales for fundraising. The cookie was amazing! I needed some molasses, and the person who made them told me where to get some molasses, which I have now ordered so that I can do some of my own baking! I'm really excited. After stopping by there, Gianni and I decided that we would go to the underground mall and each get $100 to spend on Christmas presents for each other. We split up and did some flash shopping so that the other person wouldn't see their presents. It was actually kind of fun! Might do it again next year. All his presents are now wrapped up and under the tree, so starting to look like Christmas for real.

One of the groups of "cool guys" playing and singing together. Adorable.

One of the girls doing a traditional Korean dance.

Thursday was the last day of exams for the first and second graders at school, meaning that all the students have now finished their exams yet they still have about a month left of school. I don't understand the Korean education system, but whatever. I'm hoping it goes okay until then. I've been a little stressed this week trying to plan out lesson for the upcoming weeks for the kids. I can do whatever I want, which is both nice and a little daunting. I also have been planning my camps for the winter, and I think I have it mostly planned out. Niall and I are doing a scavenger hunt with the kids together as well as a cooking class together where we are making pancakes. The other three days, I'm doing a two day harry potter camp and then a Sherlock/murder mystery camp the last day. I think I've got some good ideas, and the Harry Potte r camp is almost set. I've been doing blogging classes with some of my higher level students, and I'm almost ready to get some of the answers to your questions posted. I'll post the kids' answers and then maybe you can comment back. On Thursday, some of my students I guess wanted to practice their English by doing presentations for

cool magic trick from one of my kids

me. I didn't know they were planning something, but one of my co-teachers told me at lunch. I got a lecture about street food from a group of boys and one about Dokdo island from a group of girls. Dokdo island is an island on the southern coast of Korea. Japan and Korea both claim it as their own, and the Koreans are really adamant about it, even teenagers like my students. It was nice to see that my kids wanted to practice their English. I need to figure out ways to do things like this to get the kids talking more. That's one of my goals for the new semester.

the guy in the middle is Psy :)

On Friday, I think as a treat after exams, the school rented out the auditorium at the culture center, and the kids did a talent show! It was awesome! Not only did we get a half day because we left after it, but I also got to see some of the cool things my kids can do. Although all the kids were great, some of the girls were doing dances that I consider to be pretty inappropriate for school. I shouldn't know that some of my middle schoolers can move like that. Pretty ironic considering the teachers had done a sexual harassment training lecture earlier in the week. Anyway, there were some really cool acts. Most involved some sort of music--singing, dancing, playing an instrument--but one group of kids did MAGIC! It was really impressive! I'm editing a video, which I'll post soon of as many act as I could tape, but the quality of the video is bad at times. My good camera died half way through, and I had to switch to my phone. Woops! Even some of the teachers sang a song and the principal played his saxophone! He's apparently really good sax
player, and the teachers are always talking about it. My favorite performance was a PSY compilation featuring one of the larger middle school students as Psy! It was hilarious, and the kids did a
really good job of it. If they choreographed their own dances, I'm
really impressed. Anyway, it was a fantastic talent show, and I'm really proud of my students for performing! Also, I feel I need to say something about Korean audiences. We've observed people at parade and various performances inside and outside as of now, and all of them I've noticed similar things. Korean audience members are the best anyone could ask for! If you're a musician, come here to perform! They love it all. They dance, they clap, they scream! It's amazing. At the parade people were waving and clapping at all the people going by, and at the talent show, all the kids in the audience were cheering on ALL the acts (especially the sexy dancing girls and the cool singing and guitar playing dudes sitting down). I was seriously astounded by the way they seemed to support each other.

This week was the first week in probably over a month that we went to taekwondo training three times! It was nice to get back in the swing of things. The holidays kind of took priority for a bit, but hopefully, we're back in it. I definitely need to be training because of all the snacks I keep eating, and we both need to do it if we're going to make black belt by the end of the year.

Our Korean class Friday night was good, as usual. Next week is our last class, believe it or not! Where has time gone!?

It was a good week, and now we're having a relaxing weekend at home. Today, we watched movies all day. Tomorrow we might go out to Duryu Park with Maria and Matthew, but we aren't sure yet. We are watching our friend's dog this weekend also. She's a little dog named Maia, and she's really adorable and low maintenance. Her mom, Simone, is taking a weekend jaunt to Seoul, and I've been missing my furry companion, Trixie, back home, so it's nice to have a dog around again, even if it's just for a weekend.

I celebrated Thanksgiving with my students by doing a lesson about Thanksgiving and then showing the Thanksgiving episode of The Simpsons. It was a pretty fun lesson, and I think most of the kids like the episode. I played it with Korean subtitles, so I at least know they understood it! I taught them all about Thanksgiving traditions, like the Thanksgiving Parade, football, and giving food to the homeless. When I taught them about the food that we usually eat, they kept thinking that the turkey was chicken...they really haven't ever seen a wild turkey here, which is weird to think about considering in Newton they flock in people's driveways! I also told them the story of Thanksgiving--I should say both stories because I told them the traditional story and then what really happened to the Native Americans. I got really creative with pictures and gestures in my attempts at conveying small pox, murder, and religious intolerance (of the King, forcing the pilgrims to leave). One of my students asked why I didn't go home for the holiday. My response was writing how much money it would cost (in won) to fly home. He went, "ohhhhhh."

We weren't able to celebrate Thanksgiving on actual Thanksgiving Day because we had school. We did go to taekwondo and watched Serena and Max pass their belt tests. Serena passed 2 belts! She's brown now, and Max is blue. Master Hwang heard us talking about Thanksgiving and basically invited himself over to Serena and Max's on the weekend for some turkey! He's hilarious sometimes. After taekwondo, we went out for MacDonalds. Hardly a Thanksgiving feast, but at least it was a little piece of home on Thanksgiving with some of our lovely friends. As I was rushing off to school the next morning, I called the house briefly and interrupted Thanksgiving dinner to talk to Mom, Dad, Ben, Catherine, and Uncle Richie. It was nice to get to talk to everyone and wish them a Happy Thanksgiving even if we only talked for a second.

On Friday, I had a lovely surprise at lunch. The package from my mom came!!! I was so excited, but I didn't open it until I got actual clearance that I could open it before Christmas. She sent a beautiful advent calendar for me to hang up, and the best part is that it was stuffed with lindt chocolate balls! She also sent me some hot chocolate and chocolate spoons to go with it. I got some beautiful earrings and a Canada charm for my charm bracelet. I also got a pair of Canada mittens, Canada booty socks, and a Canada magnet. There will be no mistaking that half of me is Canadian! The presents were really amazing, and it was great to get something from home. It's really terrible being away for the holidays. At least the last time I was away for Thanksgiving I was in Arizona with my lovely cousin. I spent all night on Friday baking for our Thanksgiving weekend! It's really hard having only a very small toaster oven to cook with, but at least I have that. I think everything came out really well. Corn bread, apple crisp, and banana bread! 
The real Thanksgiving celebrations were this weekend. We got 2 Thanksgivings! It was awesome! The first was on Saturday at Serena and Max's house. We got there a little early to help out, but Serena had everything under control in the kitchen. She made both a turkey and a ham! There was a huge amount of food and all of it was delicious! I brought some banana breads made with Mom's recipe, and I think they came out perfectly. They tasted just like hers! I also brought an apple crisp, which isn't exactly up to her standards yet but was a million times better than the first one I made. Serena and Max had delicious chips and dip and American candies around the house too! We got peanut butter cups, 

Watching Koreans try turkey for the first time!

which we haven't had in a long time, and mint chocolate kisses! A bunch Serena and Max's friends came as did Master Hwang and Dae Eun from taekwondo. Gianni and I spent a good deal of the time talking to the two of them. We taught them about the food we were eating. Master Hwang didn't like that most of the food was sweet because he likes spicy food, but I think he enjoyed the ham, turkey, and banana bread. He even brought Serena and Max some toilet paper, which is a traditional gift you give someone when you go to their home for the first time. It's to wish them good luck and happiness as far as I understand. We had a great time chatting and eat until really late at night. Master Hwang was kind enough to drive us home. He wanted to see our sock collection. Ever since he saw me buying tons of socks in Seoul, he thinks I'm a "socks maniac," in his words. I've tried explaining that they were for family to no avail. We showed him the socks, and I also got him to take a look at the TV. He tried to get the cable working, but it turns out I only have one line to use for bot the cable and the internet, so I have to get the landlord to come fix it. Ugh! I feel terrible for all the problems we've been having with the place, but it's almost all set now!



The next day was more of a potluck Thanksgiving that Matthew and Maria hosted at their place. They are our married friends, and we always play quiz with them. They have an apartment with a kitchen, bathroom, and small living room downstairs, and their huge bedroom is upstairs. They had heard that you could order a turkey through the Daegu Compass, the foreigner magazine. The Compass brought turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce I believe. It's really nice that they have a service like this because you really can't buy whole turkeys here. Our friend, Marie, brought them a toaster oven and was in the middle of heating things when we arrived (late! because we got lost) with plates and cups for everyone to eat with. First, we went around the room and everyone said what they were thankful for. I said, "employment!" Everyone brought a dish, and boy are there some good cooks in the room. We had creamed corn, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes. Gianni and I brought corn bread muffins, which Serena had to buy us the mix for because they don't have corn meal here. We also brought sweet potatoes. While we were making them, we realized that Korean sweet potatoes are not orange like at home. They taste basically the same, but they were this ugly, green-brown color by the end. We also had to eat them cold because the toaster oven was too small to heat up the big bowl we had. Still, several people said they were good, so that's okay! It was lovely sharing food with everyone and talking. We watched a little football and some Ohio State marching band shows. Maria and Matthew went there, and their marching band is incredible. After dinner, we had pumpkin pie, our extra banana bread, and Sian's milk tart for dessert. Sian is from South Africa, so she brought a South African dessert. It's like a custard pie, and it was really good! After dessert, we got into playing some card and board games. I learned to play some new card games and bananagrams! It was a really excellent time. Everyone left at around the same time in order to catch buses and trains home.

Despite the fact that we only met our friends here 4 months ago, it's been incredible getting to know them all. Having great friends who are in the same situation as you makes it so much easier to be away from family and friends back home. Thank you to Serena and Max and Matthew and Maria for hosting Thanksgivings this weekend, and thank you everyone for being such amazing friends to us!

This weekend was just what the doctor ordered. Both Gianni and I got in a bit of talking time with our parents, which was nice. But, primarily, we spent a ton of time sleeping! This was the first weekend in about a month that we've been able to sleep in as long as we wanted both days. Saturday, we got some errands done and went grocery shopping before going to see Catching Fire with Lily and Jonathan downtown. It was fantastic! I love the second Hunger Games book. I think it's the best story. I found it more interesting than the last movie, and I like that it gets into the politics a little. On Sunday, we cleaned the apartment a little, and Maria and Matthew came over to play Settlers of Catan. We played like 4 games. It was funny because Maria won practically all the games the last time we played, and she didn't win at all this time. We got pizza at Pizza School with them for dinner, and got some snacks for dessert at the convenience store. All in all, it was a great weekend. Just what we needed. I feel at least a bit more relaxed. Also, our bathroom is finally fixed! The maintenance man fixed our sink pipe, both drains are cleared of hair, the shower is in now mounted on a wall, and it's all clean. The boiler also got fixed so that it, hopefully, doesn't drain water all over everything on our porch area like it had been. I'm really glad everything in the apartment is finally settled.

Gianni and I  breaking the boards

Almost forgot! We basically forced Master Hwang to test us for our orange belts on Thursday. He definitely told us that is when he was going to do it, but when we came in on Thursday, ready to go, he said next week. We complained a bit, and I think he realized he told us the wrong thing, so he felt bad. In any case, we tested for our orange belt and passed! Gianni didn't make any mistakes, but I made 2 :( WOOPS! I know the forms too. I just got a little nervous. Also, he sprang a sparing thing on us that we hadn't learned yet and breaking boards! Granted they are plastic boards that have breaks in them, so they don't take much force to break, but still! We were like, "umm....Master Hwang, we've never done any of this before. You didn't teach us." But we passed, so we're officially orange belts now!!!

This weekend we took the wonderful opportunity to do a temple stay at Jikjisa Temple for free. Typically, temple stays cost around $50 and give you a chance to relax and experience life like the Buddhist monks live it. Our experience was a bit different because it turned out this was a special foreigners trip to basically promote the idea of temple stays and tourism for the area. It was completely funded by the Gimcheon cultural center. Gimcheon is only about an hour away from Daegu, and it is where Jikjisa temple is. So despite not being the peaceful, relaxing weekend we were thinking of, we still got to do some wonderful cultural activities.

We found out that a bunch of our friends were going as well, so it was nice to see them-- Marie, Erin, Emily, Sian, Maria, and Jake. Our train ride to Gimcheon was easy as was figuring out which bus we had to take to the temple (hint: it was the one all the foreigners were trying to get on). We got off the bus and started following people towards the temple. It was probably a 15 minute walk, but we got to go through the culture park for part of it. We didn't get to really check it out, but it had some cool sculptures and looked like a really relaxing little park area. On the way, we crossed over a bridge over a small stream that was like the playground ones you can jump up and down and bounce on. Not sure the name for them or why it was there, but it was fun.

We arrived at the temple where we were given orange, baggy uniforms to change into and wear for the weekend. They also gave us these little gift bags with information about the temple and the area as well as souvenir gray polo shirts (in sizes way too large for the girls--might be a present for someone later), a sewing kit, a tape measure, and a toothpaste/brush travel set. It was a really sweet thing to put together. As we were signing in, there were even these little people mascots! So cute. First thing we did was get changed and do a little temple stay orientation. We watched a video about what temple stays are usually like and the etiquette to follow and promptly realized that our temple stay was not going to be like that. They usually take your phones and things away I guess, 

This is a stupa, and that's a blue roof.

but not for us. I forgot my camera anyway-- :( You also aren't really supposed to talk unless it is necessary throughout the weekend, but we definitely did the entire time. Oh well! I'd like to do another, more traditional temple stay at some point. From the video, we also learned about the structure and buildings in a typical temple. At the entrance to the temple is a 1 pillar gate. It is open and has no doors to signify openness. It is also called the gate to truth, and you should bow with prayer hands when you enter it. After that gate is the gate of the 4 guardians. These are 4 kings who decided to guard the Buddhist faith. Each one represents 1 direction (North, East, South, West) and is holding a different object. These are the massive statues of the guys with crazy faces I've taken pictures of and seen at other temples, so I'm glad we learned what those are finally. After orientation, we got a brief tour around the temple. There was a Korean man doing the tour and another woman who I really don't think was Korean. She seemed to have trouble understanding the man speaking Korean and, thus, an even harder time translating his Korean into English for us. The tour made no sense, and we all just resorted to reading the signs posted outside the buildings to see what everything was. I did hear that the temple was built around the year 400 though! So it is really old! One of our friends from taekwondo did tell us before coming that this temple is significant because it has a building with a blue roof. Blue roofs mean the temple is old and important because the blue roof tiles are not very common anymore, now they are mostly grey or black. Another interesting aspect is that in the main hall where the Buddha statue is kept, there are 1,000 small, Buddha statues behind the big, gold statue. All of the statues except for 1 is sitting down, so it was cool to get to see the one that is standing up. It is a very beautiful temple.


Next, it was time for dinner. For monks, even meals are ceremonial, so, even though we were all starving, we had to do it in the proper way. You get a set of bowls called baru gongyang. Each of the bowl is meant for a specific food with no mixing--soup, rice, vegetables or side dishes, and clean water. You unpack the bowls using only your thumbs so as not to make a lot of noise. The smallest bowl (the side dish bowl) goes on your upper left, the water bowl on your upper right, the rice bowl on your lower right, and your soup bowl on your lower left--I think! It goes smallest bowl to biggest in any case. It was a little hard to follow when I couldn't see the monk very well from the back. You aren't supposed to talk during the meal, and you have to sit up straight. The monks had to keep reminding us of these. So you eat, and you all try to finish at the same time. When that happens, you pour some of your water into the smallest bowl and use a yellow radish to clean the bowl. You then pass the water to each of the other two food bowls in turn and clean those with the yellow radish. After cleaning all the bowls, you drink the water that is left in the largest bowl. That is supposed to be all the cleaning of the bowls that you need to do if you've done it correctly, but because it was our first time, and they didn't trust us to be properly sanitary, some of the guys (Gianni included) were made to help wash them with soap the next morning. You aren't supposed to take a lot of food because you have to make sure you finish all the food with no waste. I thought we'd be able to take more if we needed it though, which was not the case, so I was still hungry after dinner, and I had to wait until the next morning to eat.

After dinner, we made lotus lanterns using petal-shaped green and pink paper and a paper cup with wax and a wick in it. They were really pretty. We also wrote a wish or a hope on a piece of paper and hung it from the cup. We all lit the lanterns and walked around the stupa (large, stone monuments--see photo above) outside the temple with the Buddha statue in it. We walked around 3 times so that our wishes would come true. It was a nice, peaceful way to end the evening. We were told to go to bed at 10pm, so we all had a few hours to walk around the temple and hang out together before bed.


How many people can say they were woken up by a monk!? We can now!!! He came in at 5am saying "anyang haseyo," which means "hello" in Korean. We had plenty of time to get washed up and dressed for breakfast. Breakfast was much less formal than the dinner the previous night. We could take as much as we wanted, but, again, we had to eat it all. There was this yummy fruit and yogurt salad that I enjoyed a lot, but at one point, Maria goes, "the kiwi in here is really delicious." My immediate reaction was, "WHERE'S THE KIWI!?" Gianni is allergic to kiwi, and he had eaten some of the salad. He stopped eating it right away, and luckily he probably didn't have any of it, but we were both a little freaked out for a while, hoping he wouldn't have an allergic reaction at a temple in the mountains!

After breakfast, we participated in a Buddhist prayer/exercise ritual. They do 108 prostrations and pray for something with each prostration. It is a mental and physical training exercise. A prostration is a full bow. You begin standing with your hands in prayer position. Then you bend your knees and kneel on a mat. Then, you put your forearms on the mat and touch your forehead to the mat so that 5 point of your body are touching the mat (knees, elbows, and head). The last part of it is to flip your hands so that your palms face up and you raise your hands up slightly. After doing all of this, you put 1 bead on a necklace. You do this 108 times for 108 beads on a necklace. There is a significance behind the number 108 that involves multiplication. A certain number of prayers for a one thing multiplied with prayers for another thing...I can't really remember. Gianni and I both have nice prayer necklaces now that I feel like we had to work hard for! We all did them together as a group, waiting for the last person to stand up before doing another one. One of the times the hole in my bead wasn't completely open, so it took me entirely too long to get it on the strand! I was the last one to stand up that time, and I was totally mortified! We filled out surveys about how we found the temple stay before changing out of our orange uniforms and back into regular clothing.

The rest of the day was spent doing cultural activities organized by Gimcheon culture center. They took us out to lunch at a san gab san (Korean BBQ) place, and that was really delicious. Afterwards, we went to a cabbage field and picked out our own cabbages. They are surprisingly easy to pull out. We stuck those in a bag, thinking we would be using them to make kimchi next. Turns out, they had cabbage at the kimchi place for us, so AGAIN we get stuck with two huge bags of cabbage! How does this keep happening to us!? This is the second time! The next activity was to make summer kimchi. I think the cabbage they had was already lightly pickled, all we had to do was put some red pepper paste all over each of the leaves of the cabbage and stick it in a bag to take home.

Making kimchi was our last activities, so the buses took us right back to Gimcheon train station. On the way off the buses, someone was handing out bags of plum jellies. Apparently, Gimcheon is known for it's plums. They are yummy candies. We were earlier than expected, so we got in the huge line of people to try to change our tickets to an earlier train, and we were successful. We had to pay $2 more because it was a nicer train than we had been booked on though. The nice train is the same as the nice bus we've been on before. It had wider seats with more leg room and an adjustable leg rest.

We made it home around 4:30pm and made plans to see Gravity in 3D with Maria and Matthew later on that night. We went straight home and put our things down so that we could go buy the tickets at the theater downtown. We got the tickets and had some time before the movie, so we played some games in the arcade on the same floor as the ticket office. Gianni was really excited to have his first Korean arcade experience since he loves games, and we hadn't found one for him to play in before this. We also got some quick dinner at KFC. It was a wicked tense movie, but really amazing! The 3D didn't bother me too much the way it normally does, so that was good. I am really glad we saw it. It was a nice end to another great weekend here in Korea.

Last week, we were too lazy and tired to go to quiz, so we slept instead, so last night was our first quiz night in a few weeks. We started out with a free pitcher of beer from one of the two Halloween quiz beer challenges that we won. The first round theme was "JC." It was about people with the initials JC, so, of course, JC Chasez from NSYNC was one of the answers! We didn't think we did too badly on it, but apparently we did because we ended up in 10th place after that round. The second round was famous people's body parts, so there were pictures of hair, eyes, abs, backs of heads, etc. We did really well! We climbed up to second place after that round! Why knew we were so good at body parts! One of the questions in that round is going to kill me though because it was a picture of Randy Jackson hugging someone. You had to tell who's head it was, and you could only see the back. I thought it was Samuel L. Jackson, but Gianni disagreed. I then suggested Jamie Foxx, but that was denied also, so I ended up just writing Samuel L. Jackson. Turns out, the answer was Jamie Foxx!!! UGH!!! That one is going to haunt me for a while. The last round was 7 deadly sins. We didn't do too terribly, and we actually stayed in the same place. We managed to tie with another team for second place. The tie breaker was name as many words as you can that start with Z (scrabble rules). Maria did all the writing, and I blank on stuff like that anyway. The other team had multiple people writing at once. They beat us by 3 words! Three words, and we would have won money! Or if we had gotten the Jamie Foxx question right, we would have won second without a tie breaker! DAMN! Oh well, free beer again!

This weekend, Gianni and I joined a group of 10 other people on a trip to Seoraksan National Park with Waygook Travel. Seoraksan is a mountain in the northeast corner or South Korea. It is actually on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites that are under consideration right now. Our friends Jonathan, Lily, Sian, and Marie were in our group, but everyone else was new to us. We had an excellent time getting to know these people throughout the weekend. They were lovely :)

The tour started when the bus picked up us by Dongdaegu station at 5:30am!!! It was actually about 20 minutes late for the pickup, which was scheduled at 5:10am, so we were up at 4am. We had to take a taxi to the station because the trains weren't operating yet. It was way too early to be alive, but apparently not for our tour leader (and the owner of the travel company) and his friends. They were all drinking already and encouraging us to drink! It was completely ridiculous. We got them to leave the music off and let us sleep for a few hours, but as soon as we made the stop in Pohang to pick people up, he made an announcement saying, "now that the sun is up, we are going to play music. Come and buy drinks at the front of the bus." It was absurd! It was still only maybe 7:30am! We didn't stop to see anything special along the way, but we took frequent stops for bathrooms and convenience store food, but, primarily, for the tour leader and his friends to have their smokes. It was a little frustrating, honestly. Also, we didn't get real food all day! The place we ended up stopping for food was the smallest rest stop ever, and we attempted to get things to tide us over that weren't cookies and chips. We ended up with "pizza hotdog," which was basically a pizza hot pocket and not at all satisfying. As we approached Seoraksan, the tour guide decided it would be really funny to sing a made-up, tuneless song about the mountain into the microphone on the bus. He and his friends thought it was hilarious, but all the paying guests thought it was totally awkward and stupid.

After a really long drive, we made it to Seoraksan (san means mountain is Korean, by the way). It was beautiful! Absolutely marvelous. The national park had all the amazing fall foliage. We walked around a bit, drank out of a well at the temple in the park, and took the cable cars up to the top of the mountain. The cable car ride was even steeper than at Palgongsan, but this time they were the cars that fit about 50 people, so it was a bit cramped. Luckily, we got a spot by the window, so I could take some nice pictures. The views were amazing. Seoraksan was cool because the mountain was all jagged and very high up. We walked down a trail by the cable car station, and ended up at a look out point at the top. We took some pictures there, and then literally mountain climbed to the top of a massive bolder. From there, you get an even better view. It was really scary getting up there though. There are people who help you out and watch to make sure you're ok, and there are some ropes to help you get down, but otherwise you're on your own. No gear or anything. I seriously felt like I was going to die, and I'm not scared of heights or anything. Getting up there was really steep and scary though. We made it up, and Gianni and I got some pictures together. At the top of the bolder, there was a man selling medals for $10 for getting up there. He would carve your name into them. I laughed to myself because they would totally do the same thing at home, except at home they wouldn't be personalized, and they would cost at least that much, if not more. Getting down, we had to shuffle on our butts the whole time. At the base of the mountain, we got some makoli, which the area is known for. It was corn flavored, which was pretty interesting...



After spending a few hours at the mountain, we drove 20 minutes to our accommodations. It was a beach-front hotel. The 12 people in our group shared one room with two bathrooms (although the lights in one of the bathrooms didn't work). How do we fit 12 in a room you ask? Well, it was our first Korean style sleeping experience. We all had sleeping mats, which we laid out in different places on the floor of one large room. It was actually really nice, like a slumber party.

After getting settled, we had a BBQ! It was delicious food. We got both steak and lamb and some potato salad. Unfortunately, we had to eat inside because it was raining, and it took FOREVER for the food to be finished. We were already famished from the day of not being taken to a real place to eat, and I was kind of fed up. Also, the tour leader asked the males on the tour (and the paying guests!) to help unpack the food from the bus. He asked nicely, and this wouldn't have been a problem, if he hadn't also asked us to do EVERYTHING ELSE! First, we all had to collect wood from Seoraksan for our bonfire later because they only had enough for cooking with. Later on, he also asked Sian and MJ to help cook, and he made everyone else carry the bonfire wood (which, again, we collected!) to a place on the beach for a fire. When the first place we put the wood down wasn't good enough for him, he made us carry it to where he wanted to go. He wasn't even carrying a stick or helping in any way! We also got a free cocktail included in our package, and that was strong enough, thankfully. It seems like the only thing these people do really well is drink and make drinks. The rest of the night, we hung out on the beach, playing with fireworks (we got some more roman candles and a heart-shaped sparkler), and drinking with our friends for a bit before we hit the hay.

In the morning, we found out that the tour leader actually got into a fight with two of the people in our group, and it almost came to blows! He actually threatened them and made derogatory comments about their being British (he was South African, so were all his friends, but they all had Korea wives and girlfriends it seemed). We also realized that our friend, Lily, was really sick all night! At first, she thought she had the flu, but now she's thinking food poisoning. None of us got sick, but she had to leave the trip early because she couldn't even keep fluids down.When we woke up with the rest of us, she went to a pharmacy, and, luckily, the man was really nice. He got her some medicine and helped her and her husband get a bus home because she was feeling so bad. It was really too bad because we like hanging out with them, but I think she's feeling better now. None of the tour guides were around at the time, which is annoying, because she and Jonathan had no help in figuring out what to do. Another example of just how terrible this tour was.

Cool dragon carving at the temple

Giant stone Goddess statue

We got up fairly early in the morning to visit Naksansa Temple, which was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. Despite the fact that this was a planned event, none of the tour guides were around in the morning when we were scheduled to leave. They had been drinking for over 12 hours, so we figured as much, but it was completely unprofessional. If there is a scheduled event, someone should be there to take you on it. Anyway, we asked the hotel manager who pointed us in the right direction. I'm glad we went because Naksansa Temple was really beautiful. It was a built on a mountain, so there were beautiful views of the ocean. We got our first experience seeing the ocean in Korea this weekend, which was nice. The temple has a massive stone statue of the Goddess Haesugwaneumsang in a clearing on top of the mountain. There were beautiful colored lanterns decorating the temple as well. I really enjoyed it. We walked back to the hotel for our breakfast. Again, the food was really good. I had tons of eggs and toast. It was yummy! 1 of the guides was making breakfast, which was good of her, and her husband made an appearance and seemed in better spirits in the morning without the alcohol in him. He was much nicer and more helpful, refunding the money for Lily and Jonathan's ATV trip since they had to leave because Lily was sick.

Gianni driving cautiously

We got back on the bus and drove to a spot where we were going to ride ATVs. It was really fun, and we had both never done it before. It was on a track, and some courses were more challenging than others. We got to do it for a half hour, and it was awesome. I took my camera on part of it, and I tucked it in my coat when I was driving. I think I got some good pictures.

Sian and MJ singing on the bus

Present for Ben

After ATVs, we drove all the way home and were back in Daegu in time for dinner. During the last half hour or so of the drive, they decided to make the bus into a noraebang (노래방)! I had heard of this, but I haven't experienced it in Korea before. Apparently, work retreats are very popular, and they typically rent a "party bus" with karaoke (or norae) capabilities. Again, the tour guides were a bit nicer, apologizing to the guys in our group who they got in a fight with the night before and giving them free drinks. I don't think the guys thought that it made a difference, but at least they tried and were actually sort of nice the second day. I also want to mention that I found Ben the most amazing present during this trip. For some reason, they sell poop with faces on it. You can whack it like a mallet, and it laughs! Hopefully, he'll find it hilarious!

So we made it back to Daegu on time. Some of the members of our group were worried about making it because they had trains to catch back to other cities, and I was really surprised we actually did make it on time because, again, there were frequent smoke breaks. As we got off the bus and got our things, the tour manager and his wife (who I didn't have a huge problem with, but some people in our group did) decided to wear their professional hats, hoping that people would forget the rest of what happened. They hugged people and thanked everyone for coming. As if we want to hug people who have done a horrible job the entire time!

For dinner, Gianni and I went out to eat at a Japanese place by our house. We had udon noodles and onigiri, which translates into rice ball in English. I am addicted to tuna triangle kimbap and onigiri. It's delicious for some reason, and all it is is canned tuna! I can't explain it.

So to sum up this weekend: Seroaksan, Naksansa, and ATVing were all excellent. So, the events on the tour were amazing, and I'm really glad we got to do these things. But let's be real; all the tour guides had to do was plan to go there and take us there. The food was also really good, but I only give half the credit to the tour guides because I saw their friends helping with most of the cooking and even some of the paying guests helped, like us. There was a huge lack of professionalism on the part of the tour guides, who are also the owners of the tour company. True, they did turn it around a bit for the second day, but some of the things that occurred were, in my opinion, inexcusable, and it was too little too late. I understand that there are some tour companies that cater to more of a partying crowd, but I had no indication of this from this tour company before boarding the bus. If I had, I would have chosen another company. The tour guides really needed to gauge their audience right from the very start and be able to see what kind of a group we would be. That's half their job! They should have known we weren't a partying group and toned it down. They were not able to do this, so the mood wasn't something I wanted to be a part of. I will never be booking with Waygook Travel again. I can do a much better job planning on my own. That being said, if you're looking for a party tour, then this is the tour for you.