Frankie, me and Kate

Kim and I

Kim, Bradley, Kate, me, Frankie, Gigi and Kent

The weekend brought us to Daejeon for an EPIK (English Program in Korea) reunion. We got spoiled. They paid for us to take the day off of teaching to hang out with other teachers. They paid for our 5 star hotel room and gave us $20 allowance. Sure, I'll go to that.

The only bus left at 7:20am so Kim, Kate, Bradley and I dragged our tired bodies onto the bus to find Pearly there also (the bus picked her up in her town at 6am before getting us). We slept the 2 hours down then found ourselves in a new HUGE city. We had until 2pm so what else do you do in a new HUGE city in Korea but…..costco. Kim and Bradley ended up with $200 of western food (which they mailed back to yeongwol for $16) while the rest of us were a little more conservative in our spending.

The reunion was fun complete with meeting new people, good food and even a proposal during the talent show.

The next day Kate, John (a new friend we meet) and I took the speed train into Seoul. We meet up with Seamus and John's friend Justin. Since it was the weekend before Christmas we spent most of the time shopping for gifts. John and Justin left in the afternoon to head by to their hometown and Kate left later to meet up with Andrew and his friends. Seamus and I wondered around Insedong (great traditional shops) for a few hours and then meet up with Kim and Bradley for dinner.

Sunday Seamus and I went to "what the book " this great second hand book store and got some amazing Indian food on hooker hill (sketchy place but great food). In the early evening we headed to the bus station to go home. We got there at 5:45pm only to get a rude awakening. The next bus to Yeongwol left at 10pm. WHAT?!?!?! Seamus was so nice as to wait until 8pm with me and then I read in a coffee shop till my bus. Luckily with the lack of traffic I arrived early at midnight, dragged myself home to get some sleep before work tomorrow. Good news was that our toilet had been fixed over the weekend. Somehow the seal had come off so you could lift the whole toilet up off the floor and therefore there was nothing stopping the smell from coming in. ewwwww!!!!! It was really gross. Thank goodness kim lives next door.

I worked Monday and then Tuesday was….CHRISTMAS!!!! Kim, Bradley, Kent, Gigi, Francis, Kate, and I all hung out. Christmas eve was my night. I made everyone sing Christmas carols and give me my presents. We had dinner at sarah's and then watched some xmas movies. Christmas day we spent watching more xmas movies, playing settlers of cattan (seamus bought it for me…it 's in Korean), and eating good food (we had garlic and cheese mash potatoes, stuffing, veggies and chicken complete with chocolate strawberries for dessert). It was a great day. Merry Christmas.

how we managed to fit about 40 people in Annie's apartment I' ll never now but we did it somehow. Last weekend was Annie's Christmas party. At first she was worried that no one would come but that never became a problem.

Friday we stayed in Yeongwol and vegged out. Then on Saturday morning kate dragged kim and I to her school to help out her nativity play (which was performed on Monday). She gave me the music and sent me to the students for a few hours and they worked on costumes. When that was finished we piled into the car and drove to Taebek to pick up brianne and her dog Ger. We got to Gangneong around 4:30 and after dropping our stuff off at annie's we headed out to meet up with Seamus, Stephen and Mike at pizza hut (mmmmmm pizza). After stuffing out faces we left Stephen and Mike, kidnapped Seamus and heading back to annie's to get ready. The party was great. Tons of food, homemade eggnog, good people, and complete with greasy mcdonald's breakfast and eggs.

The Monday was kate's play. I got out of school early and headed to kate 's school where I instantly became the backstage manager. The play went really well and kate was relieved to no longer have that stress over her.

Then the final update this blog was election day (or as the Koreans say is "erection day " they have problems with r's and l 's). everyone got the day off of school so kate and I took the new high school teacher (a New Zealand girl named Frankie) to Jecheon. Kate and I got needles jabbed in our noses and Frankie bought a guitar. Then when we were eating lunch we met some other foreigners and ended up talking to them for the rest of the day. They were really cool and now we have friends in jecheon.

I have now performed in Korea (and how many people can say that). Kate, Kim and I had our traditional Korean drumming performance on Tuesday night. We arrived back stage where we tried to amuse ourselves for over 2 hours only to find out later that we could have watched the other performances (oh well). Instead we got attacked by touchy children and Kim kept going into hysterics (she doesn't perform well).


We even had costumes. We looked like Korean genies with drums strapped to us (I hear it's very 'in' right now). The performance was pretty good although you can 't hear anything when you're on stage. We looked cool though. After we finished everyone came on stage and started drumming and dancing around. Then they pulled Bradley (our cameraman) on stage and randomly gave him a drum too. What a night. It was fun.

last weekend was one of those weekends were you don't really do anything but you' re tired from it anyways. On Friday was Kent's birthday so we stayed in Yeongwol, ordered pizza and played poker. It was fun but by 11 kate and I were fading so we bailed.

The next day kate and I went to jetcheong to get her a car. Her co-teacher and husband took us there. We stood around for a few hours listening to others talk in Korean in the freezing cold. Never fun. The first car we took out was nearly the end of our lives. The clutch was dying as were the brakes. Then it didn't help that we didn't know where we were going or that kate is used to driving on the left side of the road. So after a few scares we arrived back we a big 'no' for that car. The next car filled the air with thick white smoke and was quickly discarded. We had to wait for the third car to come from another lot so we attempted to converse with the car dealers. The conversation mostly revolved around the typical topics soccer and whether or not we had boyfriends.

After about an hour in pulled in an ugly puck green car. We pilled in and *gasp* it worked. And it worked well. The clutch, the breaks, the steering. All of it. So kate now has a car. We're still working on a name but other than that it 's great. They drove it to her school on Monday and she has insurance for the both of us.

After car shopping we headed back to yeongwol for a quick change and dinner then jumped on a bus to Taebek (about 1.5 hours away). Jeff (one of the Taebek Epik teachers) was leaving for Canada so there was a surprise going away party. We ate some Korean BBQ. On the way drunk Brianne yelled at some Mormons (she's always keeps you on your toes). After dinner we headed to a bar for more soju (Korean rubbing alcohol disguised as beverages) and fruit (yeah fruit). Then off to the noriban (singing room) for a couple hours. It was then around 1:30am and kate and I headed back to brianne as they went to another bar. We played with her puppy for a bit then crashed.

The next morning we all went out for breakfast. Then we headed to a coffee shop for milkshakes and board games. My group played this monkey game and you can never go wrong with monkeys. Then kate and I headed back and lounged around for the rest of the day. So that endth the uneventful weekend.