I know I know I haven't written in a couple of weeks, you can stop the hate mail (honestly people don't you have anything else to do?)



So where did I leave off…oh yes. Two weekends ago kate and I went to Taebek for Brianne 's b-day party. We spend Friday night lounging around then caught the bus on sat. Now a few weeks earlier kate had forgotten her cell phone at the Taebek bus station so our friend Pearly had picked it up. Now I was bright enough to forget my cell phone back in yeongwol so we were cell-less (not a good thing in Korea). We found a pay phone and gave Pearly a call. She said she would meet us in the main park in 2 hours. We got some grub and then went wandering. There are many exciting sights in Taebek including foreign Mormons (who else would walk in pairs wearing matching suits and ties, carrying black books and sporting Nasa haircuts?). a group of Korean hikers stopped us to pose for pictures (so kate and I are now in some random korean's picture collection). Then we went for coffee (which in our case means hot chocolate) and Pearly found us shortly afterwards.



We got kate's cell phone back and met up with biranne at her place. She had just bought a puppy so that was the highlight for a while. Over the next couple of hour people started spewing in. Around 7 o'clock we all pilled into 8 taxis and headed out for dinner (mmmmmm Korean BBQ). After the dinner (and the drinking) we went bowling. Yup that's right 25 foreigners in a Korean bowling alley. I started by smoking all my opponents in the first game but got to cocky in the second and bombed. It was around midnight when we left the bowling alley and headed for the bar. Kate, Pearly and I bailed on the bar to go to bed cause we had to get up early the next morning to head back to yeongwol for paragliding.



We stopped in at Brianne's the next morning to say goodbye among the zombie-like, some still inebriated group and headed off. We got to yeongwol and scattered to put on every piece of clothing we owned for warmth on top of the mountain. After much disorder we all pilled into various cars and got to the top of Bongrai Mountain. We hung out there for a few hours only to come back down disappointed cause the winds were too strong. So we hung out the rest of the day and pearly headed home complete with an escort to the bus station in her PJ's (which I heard about from my students for the next couple of days).



The next weekend was American Thanksgiving so Kate and I made a feast. We got the use of Kate's school for the kitchen and especially the oven. We started off with inviting 22 people but by the end there were 8 of us. All the Americans but one bailed (of course I mean it's only their holiday) so it was a fun day of Koreans (Kate's co-teacher and her daughter), Canadians (Seamus and me), a Brit (Kate of course), Australians (Mike and Suzie) and our token American (Annie). We had 4 chickens (couldn't find any turkeys), mountains of mashed potatoes (garlic and plain), veggies, stuffing, onion sauce (needed something random, it was a Brit making it) and of course pumpkin and apple pie. We were stuffed. It was good. Kate and I are still living off of the left-overs.



The rest of the weekend Annie, Kate, Seamus and I hung out. I remembered why kate and I go away every weekend cause there isn't much to do. But we had fun anyways and I even had battle wounds (a weekend isn't complete without battle wounds).

Another weekend of travel and random adventure. I left from work early on Friday to go to wonju to get a Korean driver’s license. I just finished ‘the class from hell’ (they were ok that week but still mocking, loud, and rebellious…but little did they know they were doing it in English mwha ha ha). So I was a little peeved and rushed running to the bus station (I was cutting this whole thing close. The driving centre closes at 5pm, I was leaving at 2:30, it takes 1.5 hours to get to wonju and about 15 minutes to get from the bus station to the driving center…close!). I arrive and get my ticket and kate is nowhere to be seen. The bus says they have to go and the next one will be in 15 minutes. Kate has my stuff. Aaarrrgggg!! Fine. 30 seconds after they leave she shows up. then on the last minute she bails on me (it’s ok I forgive her). I tell her I’m pissy and that I have to go or I’m gonna snap at her. She understands and goes back home. I get on the bus and calm down (I do have 1.5 hours to go). I get into the bus station and it’s 4:40pm. Should I go or forget it? No I’ll try. I get there just before 5pm. They take me in (I love this country), give me my license YEAH and then one of the girls gives me a ride back to the bus station (I LOVE THIS COUNTRY). I’m now gonna head into Seosan to visit Braden before he heads back to Canada for a month. I can stay in wonju (for $35 and take a direct bus in the morning) or I can go to seoul tonight and try and get a bus from there to season and if not stay the night in a sauna for $10. hmmm. Everyone I know in wonju is away for the weekend…I’ll go to seoul, why not? I jump on a bus.

Now here is where the fun begins. So little known to me I miss the seoul stop and keep heading off and I end up in Suwon (about an hour away). I keep looking for the subway, can’t find it (because there is none), finally ask and find out that you have to take taxis here. Ok. Try to get the taxi driver to take me to the express bus terminal. But I’m at the express bus terminal (the suwon express bus terminal but I don’t know this). They take me to the other bus terminal (which of course isn’t right) so I start calling people to try and figure this out. Now it’s a good things that with my spontaneity I’m also extremely calm in these situations. I get a hold of dusty and he talks to the driver…I end up right back where I started. Oh well. I find out that a bus leaves for soesan in the morning at 7am and I’m about to look for a sauna when I get a hold of braden. He gives me the number of one of the Korean teachers. She talks to a taxi driver and (light bulb) I’m told I’m in suwon (ahhhhh). That explains everything.

So I find a sauna in the bus terminal and $8 later I’m naked in a hot tube. Now it’s one thing to be a naked foreigner with another naked foreigner, it’s another thing to be the only one. I didn’t stay there long. I go to the sleeping area and start reading. About 15 minutes in I get interrupted by this Korean man speaking to me in English. He’s a nice man who works for Samson traveling around a lot. We speak for a couple hours. He keeps exclaiming that he can’t believe I’m staying in the sauna. Westerners never stay in the saunas (whatever…it’s cheep). At midnight I go to the woman’s sleeping area and crash until 6:30 get up and catch the bus.

I arrive in soesan at 9am and get picked up by braden. We have breakfast and then head up a mountain. We meet these cute Korean girls who play with us for an hour or so with hoola hoops and jump rope. Then we head down and meet up with some others teachers (Michelle, Korean English teacher, Abi, English teacher, and Harmony, new English teacher) for sushi. Yeah I love sushi and I’ve been missing it like nothing else. It was amazing.

The weekend was good. Full of risk, good food, theological debates ( I haven’t had those in a while) and hanging out. On Sunday I hopped on a bus back to seoul. I got to seoul and had to wait 2 hours until the next bus, then it was 30 minutes late so by the time I got back to yeongwol it was 10pm. Late night but a fun weekend.

I think I have a talent for strange people finding me here. This weekend was girl’s weekend. I set after school to Gangneong to go visit Annie, only to find out that the bus doesn’t leave until 7pm. Oh well, I headed back home, had some dinner than headed to the bus station again. Nope, not 7pm but 7:40pm. So I opened my book and started reading. About 30 minutes in I get stopped by this Korean guy who offers me coffee. I tell him no thanks. The bus shows up and we start lining up. The same Korean man is standing behind and starts talking to me. I don’t know Korean, he doesn’t know English. You’d think the conversation would end there. Nope. I get on the bus first (he’s taking a smoke break) and I sit down and put my bag on the other seat. Now there are maybe 5 people on this bus for about 50 and the Korean guy decides he wants to sit right next to me. I move my bags reluctantly, hoping he’s going to leave me alone. He still tries to talk to me (it’s not going anywhere) and won’t he stops for a bit I put my headphones in and start listening to music. About 30 minutes into the drive the bus decides to break (great). The Korean man put his jacket on my lap (ok thanks, with the bus stopped it was getting a little cold) then left to help fix the problem. They worked on the bus for 1 hour and the Korean man kept coming back in and tucking me in with the coat (ok creepy!). finally we got the bus going and ended up in Gangneong. He then insisted on staying with me until Annie showed up, thank goodness that wasn’t very long.

Annie and I headed to Emily’s house for a get together. We hung out there till around midnight then headed back to Annie’s. we then preceded to stay up until 2am talking which wouldn’t have been all that bad except I woke up at 7:30am unable to get back to sleep. So I read until 10 when Annie woke up. We had some breakfast and headed to e-mart for some winter shopping (yeah $10 sweaters and $15 jeans).

We jumped on a train in the afternoon to Donghai where the girl’s night would be. We were the first ones to get to Megan’s place. Megan and i headed out to get some things done while annie stayed to greet the others. I wanted to get my hair straighten so we went to this Korean salon. 4 hours, $130, and 3 koreans later my hair was cut, permanently straightened and wonderful (a little expensive but it means I can be lazy for the next 6 months). Back to megan’s then we headed out to dinner. We had Korean bbq. It was good. Then we headed back to megan’s to get dressed. They convinced me to put on heels and makeup and an outfit (what is korea doing to me AHHHH!!!!!). we went to a bar and got drinks and snacks for $5 each (I love kroea). We stayed there until 3am then crashed back at Megan’s. once again, I was up at 8am. So I read. Everyone else got up at 10am, we had some breakfast then headed back to our homes. Kate, brianne, and I took the bus to Taebek (where kate left her phone) and then kate and I headed back to yeongwol. We got back around 5pm had a glorious English breakfast for dinner (ahhh gotta love that grease) with kim and crashed at 9pm. What a weekend.