A "Long" Weekend

Technically, that's what it was--Monday was a national holiday. But of course, as is often the case with vacation, it didn't feel long. I could've gone for at least two more days! Well, except for the fact that I'm trying to save money... I wanted to wait to post until I got some pictures up, but the computer's being weird about it, so you'll have to wait a little longer on that. Friday night a bunch of us went out with the new foreigner who had just arrived. He's an Aussie who will be teaching at the school where the Irish couple was. It's so funny to hear his accent and the slang he uses. It quickly became apparent that although he speaks English, we don't speak the same language :). It was a really late night, though. My latest since I've been here. Saturday I got up to go to English Bible Study at church. After the study they ordered in lunch for us. Then I went home to take a nap before meeting up with church friends later on. They came over to the apartment and we caught the end of a movie on tv and ordered "fire chicken" and sweet potato pizza. The sweet potato pizza was much better than the Hawaiian pizza we had for the soccer game. I think it was the same pizza place, so there must just be some pizzas they do better than others. Walked around Dangjin some after that, got some Yofruito (frozen yogurt with fruit) and taught Benjamin and Min Hyung ("Brian") how to play Rummy. Cards are not very popular with the people around here. Maybe I can encourage them to try it more... ;) Sunday I went to 11:00 Korean service and 1:00 English service. I led a prayer in English service. Mr. Moon played "This is My Desire" again for everyone else to learn. It turns out that some of the students who were there the week before recorded me singing on their phones. So weird. Like most people, I don't like listening to my own voice, so I was pretty embarrassed. After church, Sang Mi ("Jane") and I went to the theater to watch "The Fantastic Four." It was enjoyable to watch a clean movie in an air-conditioned theater on a hot day. Sang Mi really enjoyed it, too. We caught up with "Rainy" and Sang Mi's friend, Mi Ok ("Carrie"--who looks a lot like Jen Buck, if you ask me) later and took Mi Ok's car to see a valley. We drove by a couple small lakes and lots of hills and fields. Very pretty. That's one thing Northern Indiana doesn't offer--hills. Anyway, we got to the place just before the sun went down, walked around a bit, took some pictures, and then sat down to eat dinner outside. While we ate our dinner, the mo-gee (mosquitos) ate theirs :(. Monday morning I woke up fairly early, went running (you would not believe how sweaty you can get in this weather!), and met the same three girls (Sang Mi, Mi Ok, and Rainy) to go to the beach. On the way there I spent my time studying some more Korean. We went to a place called Malipo. It was a nice sand beach, but super crowded, of course. Not only is it summer in Korea, but it was a holiday! I was the only one of us girls who wore a swimsuit and went all the way in the water. They were being very "Korean" and didn't want to get to dirty or anything. The way the girls here in Korea primp and dress, even when doing things like climbing or going to the beach, is quite amusing. Anyway, they got a kick out of my approach to the beach. It is especially strange for me to want to spend time in the sun. They're all desperately trying to keep their skin white. I need to remember about the UV rays here, though. They seem more powerful than back home. I've gotten sunburnt a few times after relatively little exposure. After walking down the beach and taking a whole bunch of pictures, we ate nang-myon (cold noodles) for lunch, sat in the shade sipping "cider" (basically Sprite), and then went to a nore-bang. Yeah, we're strange. Those girls love to go, and always sing the same songs. It's cute. Our music selection is quite different with them than it is when I'm with the other westerners. But, I feel a lot more free to try out songs I'm not as comfortable with. When we got back to Dangjin, I invited the girls up for dinner. I made some garlic potatos (inspired by Laura Buck) and heated up the left over kimchi chigay (kimchi soup) we had from school. Nothing fancy, but the girls really enjoyed it. They kept raving about the potatos, even though they're a very simple dish. They just thought it was a good idea for how to cook potatos (way to go, LB!). That brings me to today. Back to teaching. The day went pretty quickly, considering it's a Tuesday. My throat is sore from raising my voice, though. Even when the kids aren't bad I have to raise my voice to get their attention. Hopefully I'll have those pictures up for you soon.