Trip to Daejeon!

Friday morning I got up at 6am and called my grandparents' house -- my dad's side of the family was all gathered there and were starting to enter the food coma from Thanksgiving dinner! I got to talk to everyone, and it made me really wish I could be there. But it was great to hear from everyone!!! I definitely was tearing up a bit.

So Friday at school I continued to give speaking tests. But a few groups definitely made me giggle! The first was a group of 2 students who were talking about rap music in America and Eminem (yes, these were 2 of my higher level students) and they actually rapped about the first minute of "Lose Yourself" by Eminem and did a great job! I was definitely getting into it and was really proud of them! Another group was talking about Wonder Girls (super popular Korean pop group), so I asked if they would sing part of a song for me. So they all got up, but then couldn't decide which one to do, so I requested "Nobody" and they all sang and did the dance moves. HILLARIOUS. And another kid did his presentation on BACKSTREET BOYS!! That's right, BSB. He said he liked them in middle school and still likes them. I asked if BSB was more popular with boys or girls here in Korea, and he said boys! I told him that in the US they are more popular with girls, and that I was also a fan especially in middle school. I asked him to sing for me, but he wouldn't, so then I sang some for him! haha!

Immediately after I was done teaching it was time for me to catch a taxi to the train station. The Principal and VP were walking into the school as I was walking out. They of course wanted to know where I was going, since I had a suitcase with me. I think the VP offered to take me to the train station in his car, but the taxi driver we "ordered" was the husband of the secretary, so I think she talked the VP into just having me go with her husband since he was already on his way. It would have saved me 12,000 won though! Oh well....

I got to the train station plenty early, especially since my 1:44 train was actually 5-10 minutes late. This was the first train I've taken in Korea! It is pretty nice and the seats are comfortable and more spatious than the buses. UNFORTUNATELY, however, I had a bizarre occurence on the way to Daejeon in the train. There was a drunken elderly woman sitting directly behind me. She was loudly wailing/crying/singing horribly almost the ENTIRE way to Daejeon... which is 3 hours. Everyone around me was turning around and staring. I thought maybe she just had some sort of mental problem, but after 10 minutes of it, I turned to the woman sitting next to me who had turned around and talked to the drunk woman (I dont know if they know each other or not), and I asked in Korean "why?" and she motioned to me that the woman had been drinking. Oh my. If she is crazy that is one thing, but if she is drunk that's a whole other ballpark. Basically it was pretty annoying having her wailing the whole 3 hours right in my ear. I put on my ipod and cranked it up, which helped quite a bit but still didn't tune it out 100%. Luckily I was able to sleep for part of the way and started reading my new book: Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood, by Richard E. Kim. It is about a high school level book, but it is interesting.

I got to Daejeon around 5 pm and caught a cab to Stephanie's school. Daejeon is a crowded city with much narrower streets (at least the part I was in), but it seems like a cool place. Her school (and her apt) are located right next to a university, so there is tons of night life and little shops around. We dropped my stuff off at her apartment and then she gave me a mini tour of the school. Then it was time for THANKSGIVING DINNER!! It was great to see so many Americans/foreigners celebrating together. The food spread was impressive as well. There were probably 150-200 people there, and we had enough food to feed another 200 people after we were all done! I had turkey, pork loin, ham, roast beef, potatoes, sweet potatoes, banana bread, pecan pie (!!!! the embassy was lacking this), a chocolate cookie thingy, and lots more delicious stuff I don't remember already. It was great, but also I was super stuffed afterwards. Steph and I took a short walk and did some shopping -- I got a strand of Christmas lights, a new set of earphones, some Christmas cards, and a small day planner for next year. Then we met up with some of her friends and went to a coffee shop that had a private room with a big screen that we could watch a movie on, for free!! And there was free popcorn and caramel corn! We decided to watch The Bucket List, which I highly recommend for everyone! It's a nice feel good movie with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholas. I got a blueberry smoothie that was delicious and refreshing. After that Steph and I went back to her place and tried to watch Grey's Anatomy online, but realized that there was no new episode this week because of Thanksgiving. :-(

Saturday morning we left at 9am on a bus trip with her school up to Songtan, a southern suburb of Seoul. This is where the US Airforce Base (Osan) is located, so there are many American stores as well as places to buy Korean traditional items. It was pouring down rain the whole bus ride there, but miraculously it was clear and sunny when we arrived at Songtan. I was hoping to finish up my Christmas shopping and did!! I found 6 ceramic vases for a good price, I got 2 huge wall fans, and I got a cherry wood vase with mother of pearl in it. I also got a calligraphy painting for myself that has my favorite bible verse (1 Corinthians 13:13) written in Korean! And Steph and I found our present for Michelle. We also found a cracked DVD store, where I got 3 DVD's for 10,000 won. So I got Bucket List (since I enjoyed it so much the previous night), Step Up 2 (since I love dance movies!), and The Guardian. Can't wait to watch them all again! I'm going to send Bucket List home with mom and dad since I think they'd really enjoy it. The whole day was pretty chilly, but that was ok because we got to see a couple tiny snowflakes! YAY! The first snow I've seen this season. We headed back to the bus at 3:00 and everyone conked out on the bus after we got on the interstate and the driver cranked the heat.

After dropping off our purchases (which was quite a bit between the 2 of us) we headed to French Toast Fest that a young teacher couple hosts for single teachers about once a month. The french toast was amazing! She even made pumpkin french toast! And she had a ton of toppings -- caramelized cooked apples, berries, chocolate chips, PB, syrup, butter, whipped cream, pecans, powdered sugar. Oh man, it was delicious! I had 3 pieces. And their apartment was so cozy. This is their 2nd year here, so they are more settled in. And being a family, have a bigger place and more stuff. They had their Christmas decorations up and it just felt like I was back in America! It was great to meet so many of Stephanie's co-workers, both my age and the older ones. After French Toast Fest, a few of us headed off to a coffee shop where I intended to get a mint hot chocolate, until I went up to order and saw a cookie milkshake sitting on the counter. I had to order that, of course! But we sat around talking for awhile, then played Uno and Dutch Blitz. It was just a nice relaxing evening. We went back to Steph's house to watch a movie, since she bought 9 in Songtan!! We decided to watch The Happening. I thought it was just an OK movie, but I was glad that I finally got around to seeing it for myself since I had heard mixed reviews.

Sunday morning I got up at 6:30 to call my aunt's house where all my mom's side of the family was just gathering in anticipation of a Thanksgiving dinner. I also got to talk to everyone who was there (although all my other female cousins were out of state as well). I laid back down for a bit, then Steph and I watched Antwone Fisher, which is another great movie I recommend to everyone. Stephanie made egg and cheese and ham breakfast burritos on tortillas for us, yumm!! Then we headed to church at 10:30. It was a contemporary service, attended mainly by people from her school and other foreigners in the area. I really enjoyed it and wish there was something like this here in Suncheon. There very well could be a foreigner contemporary service somewhere, so I should ask around about that. After church we went to a restaurant that had a surprisingly HUGE menu (usually in Korea restaurants have only a few dishes that they specialize in... as in 1-3 different menu items). I ended up ordering oven spaghetti with garlic bread, and it was delicious! After lunch I said goodbye to all Stephanie's friends that I met and we got all my stuff and headed to Costco! It is like a Sam's Club and is a good place to find American food. Unfortunately there are only about 5 in Korea (Daejeon is the closest one to me), it is a little pricey, and you need a membership card to get in. Steph had a card, so we got to shop! I bought a 48 pack of granola bars and a 1kg bag of marshmallows (I want to make rice krispie treats for my host family), but they didn't have rice krispies or oatmeal (for apple crisp). Then we walked to the train station and I was on my way at 2:50. Luckily there was no drunk old woman sitting behind me, and actually no one was in the seat next to me, so I had a little more room. I read and slept again on the way home.

Now I should get some rest for another week of speaking tests and figuring out final grades! They are due next Monday (which I have taken off to meet mom and dad). Hope you all enjoyed the long holiday weekend!! :-)