Monday, July 17, 2006
JULY
This month has mainly been about counting down the days until I'm home for a 4-week visit!! Can you tell I'm excited? I really am. I'll be flying into San Francisco on August 2nd and I'll spend about 10hrs there sightseeing. I'm very excited for that little layover - I've never been to SF and I'm even planning to meet up with my friend Ashley who's been living there for a few years. YAY!
But I'm mostly excited for the 4 weeks in Canada. I can't wait to see all my family and friends. And looks like I'll see almost all of you - woohoo!!! So as of today, I've got 15 days till I fly outta here. :)
Not to say things haven't been fun here too. July wasn't quite as busy as spring, but fun days worth noting were Canada Day and this past weekend's Mud Festival on the west coast's Daechon Beach, South Korea's largest.
We didn't do anything major for Canada's birthday, like go into Seoul and party large with the huge Canadian crowd there. The small group of us did our own thing here in Chuncheon and generally made it known to whoever we could that it was a very important day - this included wearing a couple of modest flags and singing 'Oh Canada' while walking down the streets. Canadians involved in the festivities included me, Lisa, Ben, George, and Ronnie. Honorary Canadians were Jin and Sulhae (technically Korean).
After plans for facials fell through, Ben, Lisa and I opted to sit, chat, and drink some decent coffee and fruit smoothies at a local bakery. Good coffee is definitely not Korean, so we'll count this as somewhat Canadian.
Next was a very yummy dinner at a western-style, somewhat fancy restaurant ('western' meaning 'the western world' - not cowboys). I shared a set menu with Jin which included soup, salad, smoked salmon, king prawns, lobster, steak, and ice cream for dessert. This was also definitely NOT Korean, so we'll say it suited the day.
After dinner, we made our way to a bowling alley where yours truly kicked everyone's asses. haha. Well, not exactly. I did get the highest score, but I wasn't blowing anyone away with my skills. None of us were what you would call 'impressive'. It was a very fun time though - especially watching the two Korean girls bowl for the first time. I think Jin's balls were the slowest things I'd ever seen go down a lane. But the funniest part was that she actually managed to get a few strikes and consistently knocked a good number of pins down. Wha????? I don't necessarily think bowlings is more Canadian than Korean, but it reminded me of growing up back home so it counts.
We continued the evening with the oh-so-Canadian soju bar and had some Korean snacks and some very Korean alcohol... lots of DongDong-ju and Soju cocktails. Korean alcohol is quite strong which resulted in what I believe to be a record-setting visit to a Norebang (singing room). I was initially against going, but ended up being one of the people encouraging us to stay for FOUR HOURS!!!!! Ridiculous. The end of this not-so-Canadian event brought our Canada Day in Korea to a close - around 5am? Good times were had by all.
Ben, Lisa, George, Sulhae, me in the Norebang. Good work with the flag, Lis. ;)
But I'm mostly excited for the 4 weeks in Canada. I can't wait to see all my family and friends. And looks like I'll see almost all of you - woohoo!!! So as of today, I've got 15 days till I fly outta here. :)
Not to say things haven't been fun here too. July wasn't quite as busy as spring, but fun days worth noting were Canada Day and this past weekend's Mud Festival on the west coast's Daechon Beach, South Korea's largest.
We didn't do anything major for Canada's birthday, like go into Seoul and party large with the huge Canadian crowd there. The small group of us did our own thing here in Chuncheon and generally made it known to whoever we could that it was a very important day - this included wearing a couple of modest flags and singing 'Oh Canada' while walking down the streets. Canadians involved in the festivities included me, Lisa, Ben, George, and Ronnie. Honorary Canadians were Jin and Sulhae (technically Korean).
After plans for facials fell through, Ben, Lisa and I opted to sit, chat, and drink some decent coffee and fruit smoothies at a local bakery. Good coffee is definitely not Korean, so we'll count this as somewhat Canadian.
Next was a very yummy dinner at a western-style, somewhat fancy restaurant ('western' meaning 'the western world' - not cowboys). I shared a set menu with Jin which included soup, salad, smoked salmon, king prawns, lobster, steak, and ice cream for dessert. This was also definitely NOT Korean, so we'll say it suited the day.
After dinner, we made our way to a bowling alley where yours truly kicked everyone's asses. haha. Well, not exactly. I did get the highest score, but I wasn't blowing anyone away with my skills. None of us were what you would call 'impressive'. It was a very fun time though - especially watching the two Korean girls bowl for the first time. I think Jin's balls were the slowest things I'd ever seen go down a lane. But the funniest part was that she actually managed to get a few strikes and consistently knocked a good number of pins down. Wha????? I don't necessarily think bowlings is more Canadian than Korean, but it reminded me of growing up back home so it counts.
We continued the evening with the oh-so-Canadian soju bar and had some Korean snacks and some very Korean alcohol... lots of DongDong-ju and Soju cocktails. Korean alcohol is quite strong which resulted in what I believe to be a record-setting visit to a Norebang (singing room). I was initially against going, but ended up being one of the people encouraging us to stay for FOUR HOURS!!!!! Ridiculous. The end of this not-so-Canadian event brought our Canada Day in Korea to a close - around 5am? Good times were had by all.
Ben, Lisa, George, Sulhae, me in the Norebang. Good work with the flag, Lis. ;)
Me and George belting out a little Guns 'n' Roses
George was really drunk.. the rest of us were completely sober :)
This seems like a good place to complete this post, but then I wouldn't tell you about Mud Festival. I'll try to keep it short.
Every July on the west coast, the city of Boryeong throws a 6-day festival where basically everyone covers themselves in mud and days are filled with mud-wrestling, mud-sliding, maybe some swimming and/or beach activities, and of course drinking. I only recently learned that Boryeong is famous for their mud skin-products and spas specializing in mud-wraps and masks and stuff. So this mud isn't just lying around us on the ground to roll in. They supply buckets and buckets of 'Boryeong mud' that gets crated in throughout the day. There are numerous mud 'stations' throughout the beach where you can paint mud onto your body with big paintbrushes and/or just spill it all over yourself. And then of course, the big blow-up wrestling rings and slides are also filled with mud for your pleasure. It was a very original experience and pretty fun. There was a decent-sized group of us there amongst the hoards and hoards of foreigners. It was insane - it seemed as though the foreigners outnumbered the Koreans! This also meant lots and lots of eye candy for Keri. I honestly didn't realize how much I missed cute western boys with nice bodies until this Saturday. My friends back home know how I'm one of the last people 'checking out' the boys around me and generally don't think much of my male surroundings. Well, that was completely reversed at the beach this weekend. I couldn't stop oggling the boys around me. I really need to get out of Korea.
So, nothing overly exciting happened in Daechon/Boryeong, but it was definitely fun and really really nice to sit on a beach and look out onto the ocean. And we were SO lucky with the weather. It hardly rained a bit and it was warm and generally sunny the whole day; whereas Chuncheon got poured on, and seemingly the entire country has been drowned in flood waters and landslides. There seems to be quite a natural disaster happening right now... but I only know what I see in the pictures on the news. And we drove to and from Boryeong which is about half of the country away and had no problems with flood waters. We were very lucky.
I didn't bring my beautiful camera to the muddy event, so I'm just waiting for copies from my friends. There will be photos and I expect you will enjoy the images. :)
Can't wait to see everyone back home in about 18 days!!!!
Every July on the west coast, the city of Boryeong throws a 6-day festival where basically everyone covers themselves in mud and days are filled with mud-wrestling, mud-sliding, maybe some swimming and/or beach activities, and of course drinking. I only recently learned that Boryeong is famous for their mud skin-products and spas specializing in mud-wraps and masks and stuff. So this mud isn't just lying around us on the ground to roll in. They supply buckets and buckets of 'Boryeong mud' that gets crated in throughout the day. There are numerous mud 'stations' throughout the beach where you can paint mud onto your body with big paintbrushes and/or just spill it all over yourself. And then of course, the big blow-up wrestling rings and slides are also filled with mud for your pleasure. It was a very original experience and pretty fun. There was a decent-sized group of us there amongst the hoards and hoards of foreigners. It was insane - it seemed as though the foreigners outnumbered the Koreans! This also meant lots and lots of eye candy for Keri. I honestly didn't realize how much I missed cute western boys with nice bodies until this Saturday. My friends back home know how I'm one of the last people 'checking out' the boys around me and generally don't think much of my male surroundings. Well, that was completely reversed at the beach this weekend. I couldn't stop oggling the boys around me. I really need to get out of Korea.
So, nothing overly exciting happened in Daechon/Boryeong, but it was definitely fun and really really nice to sit on a beach and look out onto the ocean. And we were SO lucky with the weather. It hardly rained a bit and it was warm and generally sunny the whole day; whereas Chuncheon got poured on, and seemingly the entire country has been drowned in flood waters and landslides. There seems to be quite a natural disaster happening right now... but I only know what I see in the pictures on the news. And we drove to and from Boryeong which is about half of the country away and had no problems with flood waters. We were very lucky.
I didn't bring my beautiful camera to the muddy event, so I'm just waiting for copies from my friends. There will be photos and I expect you will enjoy the images. :)
Can't wait to see everyone back home in about 18 days!!!!
# posted by Keri May : 9:00 p.m.
