This weekend was amazing! But before I get to that, on Wednesday I finally got my cell phone set up. We bought a second hand cell off our academic director for a really reasonable rate. I had a suspicion she was going to give it to us, but I insisted that we pay something. This is the same woman that gave us a rice cooker and showed me how to make the yummiest Korean food. I really feel grateful that she's been so generous, accommodating, and helpful.
Having a cell phone is really great. Especially here where everyone has one and plans are made spontaneously. We've felt so much more connected and I've been able to call up coworkers and hang out with them more frequently. Not to mention that if we're meeting people, they are so much easier to find when you can talk to them. I don't know if I'll get one in Canada yet - I think it's a novelty we could live without there. Here it is definitely more like a necessity. Maybe I feel that way because I didn't even have a land line for almost 2 months.
Ok, on to the main event. Gisela and Eddie, friends of Matt and Amber, found out about this amazing Winter Festival that was going on at a famous mountain and that there would be ice sculptures from artists around the world. We thought it sounded amazing and said that we would go with. We were supposed to meet at 8:00 and the bus was going to leave at 8:45. Curtis and I arrived at 8:20 and Gisela and Eddie arrived at 8:30. We headed to the bus station with plenty of time to catch our bus. We asked when the next bus headed out and they said 10:30. The one we'd hoped to catch had sold out and that was our next option. So we bought tickets and killed time at a coffee shop nearby. Matt told some stories about language learning that made us all cry and we just had a great time.
It got closer to 10:30 an we headed for our bus. We found it pretty easily and the next 3 and a half hours we spent between sleeping, listening to music and chatting more. I found out that Eddie and I have a similar sense of humor and we both made each other cry with silly little jokes. We got there at 2:00 and decided to buy return bus tickets so we didn't run into the same problem on the way home. Our choices were to leave at 6:00 or 11:00 so we decided it would be best to leave at 6:00 and be back in time to have a nice meal together and get the train back home.
To get to the festival we had to take two taxis, 3 people in each. When Matt told him where he was taking us he started to raise his voice and and was talking really fast and shaking his head. Matt understood from some hand gestures that there was terrible traffic and that the cabbie didn't really want to go up that direction. At first we didn't really understood what he meant until we got much closer. Traffic was a stand still and we were constantly stopping for pedestrians. The cab let us out when it looked like we'd get where we were going much faster on our own two feet. We walked the rest of the way - almost an hour through snow and ice paths with crowds of Koreans. It honestly felt like a pilgrimage because we had no signs of the ice sculptures or any neat sights until we got to the very top.
It was 4:00 by the time we reached the main attraction and we decided that we should start walking back at 4:30 to make sure to catch our bus. With half an hour to buzz around seeing all there was to see - we took pictures and posed with the white snowy background. The sculptures were pretty neat. They were mostly of characters though - like Optimus Prime from Transformers and Davey Jones from The Pirates of the Caribbean. We started to head back down. Everyone was starving because we hadn't had time to look for food. At every little tent or kiosk we were looking for things we could carry and eat. We found some barbecue chicken on a stick. I'm sure anything would have tasted like heaven, but I've never had chicken that good I swear!! We kept walking and walking and walking. We passed the point where the cab had let us out and weren't seeing many cabs going back toward town. We probably walked another hour until we saw our first cab. It was loaded to the gills with people who were waving at us as they passed. Cheeky buggers! We waited what seemed like forever waiting for an empty cab. By that time more people were crowding around and they were flagging cabs before we could. We thought we'd never catch a cab to make it to the bus station in time let alone two. A little while later - I flagged an empty one that was headed the other direction. It signaled and attempted to turn but traffic was too blocked. He turned up the road a bit and came around to get us! We all sighed a huge breath of relief. Since none of us were willing to stay behind and wait for a second cab we all piled in and promised the driver double of what we were charged on the way there. He agreed and we got to the bus station with 10 minutes to spare. None of us could believe we actually made it on time.
We were back in Seoul by 9:45 and were hungry enough to turn cannibal. We decided that close to Matt and Ambers would be a good place to have a bite since we were all headed that direction and wanted to see their appartment. We stopped at a place that served sangupsal which is a pork cut similar to bacon but not as salty. It was really good. Some of the side dishes were salads with different dressing or spice on them. We missed our train and ended up taking a taxi home. Matt came with us and spent the night so he and Curtis could play Magic together. I went to bed right away.
The next day Amber joined us and we played boardgames in the afternoon. I cooked curry for supper and we had homemade chocolate chip cookies for desert. We headed out to Nori-bang and had a great time there as well. It's so nice to have people around you don't have to explain your jokes to! When we pick a retro song to sing - Amber crinkles up her noes and gives us a huge grin and thumbs up. We sang "I would do anything for love" all together at the end, just to maximize our time. All together an unforgettable weekend.
Having a cell phone is really great. Especially here where everyone has one and plans are made spontaneously. We've felt so much more connected and I've been able to call up coworkers and hang out with them more frequently. Not to mention that if we're meeting people, they are so much easier to find when you can talk to them. I don't know if I'll get one in Canada yet - I think it's a novelty we could live without there. Here it is definitely more like a necessity. Maybe I feel that way because I didn't even have a land line for almost 2 months.
Ok, on to the main event. Gisela and Eddie, friends of Matt and Amber, found out about this amazing Winter Festival that was going on at a famous mountain and that there would be ice sculptures from artists around the world. We thought it sounded amazing and said that we would go with. We were supposed to meet at 8:00 and the bus was going to leave at 8:45. Curtis and I arrived at 8:20 and Gisela and Eddie arrived at 8:30. We headed to the bus station with plenty of time to catch our bus. We asked when the next bus headed out and they said 10:30. The one we'd hoped to catch had sold out and that was our next option. So we bought tickets and killed time at a coffee shop nearby. Matt told some stories about language learning that made us all cry and we just had a great time.
It got closer to 10:30 an we headed for our bus. We found it pretty easily and the next 3 and a half hours we spent between sleeping, listening to music and chatting more. I found out that Eddie and I have a similar sense of humor and we both made each other cry with silly little jokes. We got there at 2:00 and decided to buy return bus tickets so we didn't run into the same problem on the way home. Our choices were to leave at 6:00 or 11:00 so we decided it would be best to leave at 6:00 and be back in time to have a nice meal together and get the train back home.
To get to the festival we had to take two taxis, 3 people in each. When Matt told him where he was taking us he started to raise his voice and and was talking really fast and shaking his head. Matt understood from some hand gestures that there was terrible traffic and that the cabbie didn't really want to go up that direction. At first we didn't really understood what he meant until we got much closer. Traffic was a stand still and we were constantly stopping for pedestrians. The cab let us out when it looked like we'd get where we were going much faster on our own two feet. We walked the rest of the way - almost an hour through snow and ice paths with crowds of Koreans. It honestly felt like a pilgrimage because we had no signs of the ice sculptures or any neat sights until we got to the very top.
It was 4:00 by the time we reached the main attraction and we decided that we should start walking back at 4:30 to make sure to catch our bus. With half an hour to buzz around seeing all there was to see - we took pictures and posed with the white snowy background. The sculptures were pretty neat. They were mostly of characters though - like Optimus Prime from Transformers and Davey Jones from The Pirates of the Caribbean. We started to head back down. Everyone was starving because we hadn't had time to look for food. At every little tent or kiosk we were looking for things we could carry and eat. We found some barbecue chicken on a stick. I'm sure anything would have tasted like heaven, but I've never had chicken that good I swear!! We kept walking and walking and walking. We passed the point where the cab had let us out and weren't seeing many cabs going back toward town. We probably walked another hour until we saw our first cab. It was loaded to the gills with people who were waving at us as they passed. Cheeky buggers! We waited what seemed like forever waiting for an empty cab. By that time more people were crowding around and they were flagging cabs before we could. We thought we'd never catch a cab to make it to the bus station in time let alone two. A little while later - I flagged an empty one that was headed the other direction. It signaled and attempted to turn but traffic was too blocked. He turned up the road a bit and came around to get us! We all sighed a huge breath of relief. Since none of us were willing to stay behind and wait for a second cab we all piled in and promised the driver double of what we were charged on the way there. He agreed and we got to the bus station with 10 minutes to spare. None of us could believe we actually made it on time.
We were back in Seoul by 9:45 and were hungry enough to turn cannibal. We decided that close to Matt and Ambers would be a good place to have a bite since we were all headed that direction and wanted to see their appartment. We stopped at a place that served sangupsal which is a pork cut similar to bacon but not as salty. It was really good. Some of the side dishes were salads with different dressing or spice on them. We missed our train and ended up taking a taxi home. Matt came with us and spent the night so he and Curtis could play Magic together. I went to bed right away.
The next day Amber joined us and we played boardgames in the afternoon. I cooked curry for supper and we had homemade chocolate chip cookies for desert. We headed out to Nori-bang and had a great time there as well. It's so nice to have people around you don't have to explain your jokes to! When we pick a retro song to sing - Amber crinkles up her noes and gives us a huge grin and thumbs up. We sang "I would do anything for love" all together at the end, just to maximize our time. All together an unforgettable weekend.
1 comment:
another fab adventure on the other side of the world
your life rocks!
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