Blessed with Friends

Today was one of those rare days that make you stop and think how wonderful and blessed we are to have friends in places all over. To be grateful for the relationships we've made in the past and the ability to keep friendships even though space and time have separated us.

I started my day by catching a train to Busan. It was an uneventful train ride and I did some work on my phone to prepare for my trip to Thailand doing confirmations and looking up tour activities. I arrived in Busan finally and after stepping out into the chilly city I was approached by a Korean and asked for directions to Nampodong. Lucky for the couple, I was actually headed there and knew it well. I explained (in Korean) which way to go. However, I'm sure my Korean wasn't perfect so I noticed that they didn't follow my directions so it's possible they didn't believe me. Ha, ha. I went on my way to catch a bus and head there for a little bit of shopping before meeting up with Oppa (a term girls use to call their older brothers or close friends that are older males). I ended up buying 2 purses; I tried to get the guy to give me a discount but he didn't budge even though I used my best Korean.

I headed to the usual meeting spot for Oppa, the Mc Donald's in BIFF Square. It was so good to see him! It has been a whole year since we've seen each other last. In some ways it seems like the blink of an eye, that year, but it also seems so long. We went to a Vietnamese place for lunch and chatted, catching up on all the things that have happened in the past year as well as reminiscing about the Inje University days.

After lunch we walked to Yongdusan, a small "mountain" (more like a hill really) and walked in the park there. There is a tower, like in Seoul at Namsan, but we didn't go up. We went to get a coffee at a nearby coffee shop he had been wanting to try. Lucky for me they had soy milk! We also at the last minute decided to order a piece of cheesecake as well. It was great fun chatting with him and we almost lost track of time since I had a train to catch!

Oppa helped me flag down a taxi and we said goodbye. Once in the taxi I told the driver Busan Station. He looked at me, hearing Korean, but not perfect Korean and gave a strange look. A little bit later he asked me where I was from. I said 미국 사람 (American) and again, he looked at me strangely. Shortly after, he turned around again and kind of gestured at his face and questioned the American statement. I couldn't think of the word for "born" so I just told him I had Korean parents. That seemed to satisfy him for the moment. He then continued in a broken conversation with me, beginning with me being an English teacher and ending with me telling him I studied at Inje University. I believe he said his son went to Inje as well. As we neared the train station, I noticed him pull out his phone and wondered if he was going to ask me for my number. We arrived and he told me to wait a minute. He called someone and then handed me the phone! I said "hello" and was greeted by an equally confused voice. The person identified himself as the taxi drivers son and asked me why his dad called him. I also questioned the reason until I looked up and saw the driver was leaning in closely listening, nodding his head and smiling. It then dawned on me that he wanted to see if his son's English was good. I then relayed this to him and he started laughing at the little joke his dad played on him. This was one of the funniest things that has happened to me in awhile and after I got out of the taxi, I just had to stand there for a few seconds to laugh and smile about that.

I boarded my train and took the one hour ride back north towards Daegu. There, I got the subway to meet up with Mike and Ahyoung and her sister in another area of the city. They were at Ashley's, a buffet restaurant chain having dinner. I joined them and considered telling them I wasn't hungry because Ashley's is kind of expensive, but decided what the heck. I got my food and sat back down and they told me Ahyoung's sister's boyfriend worked there. We ate and chatted and talked about everything going on in our lives. I last saw Ahyoung in May, so it's been awhile. When we went to leave and pay, Ahyoung said that we didn't have to worry about paying for dinner because of her sister's boyfriend (Do Hyun)! That was a nice and unexpected treat. We took a bus to their house and hung out there until Do Hyun finished work. When he arrived we went to a coffee shop on the other side of town and had a drink and chatted. Do Hyun drove us home and we had a big slumber party.

Hodduk time!

Oppa told me a drama or movie was filmed here. People come to take a picture and leave.

Tower in the park

My favorite oppa!

View looking over Busan

Mike was so smart to add ice cream between the cookies!!!

We're from Michigan!!

Camp Movie Day

We had to arrive at school a little bit early in order to make it to the movie theater in time. It was about a 15 minute walk to the theater and what a walk that was. There were 15 kids and 2 adults and let me tell you...it was like trying to herd cats. They were all over the place and I'm just glad we got them to the theater in one piece! We saw Paddington and it was a little bit different than what I can remember from the book I read as a child. The kids seemed to enjoy it but I struggled as it was dubbed in Korean! The budget for winter camp is much bigger than summer, apparently enough so we were able to get popcorn and pop with the movie! After the movie, we walked back and I was with the straggles and we got separated at a stoplight and I had 6 kiddie-cats to keep track of. Back at school, we had pizza before sending the kids home for the end of week 1!

After work I headed to Seonyudo, an island near Hapjeong area. There used to be a water plant there and they turned some of the old buildings and structures into a park area. It's really cool and has a lot of good photo spots. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I'd like to return with my nice camera to take photos. I wandered around there for about an hour before crossing back to the other side of the Han River, finding my stream and taking about a 3 mile run home. It was down around my high school time which I was pretty pleased with.

I took a short break from all the research and instead watched Doctor Who and made a rice soup. I finalized a trip to Vietnam as well.

Walking with the kiddos to the movie theater-so difficult to keep them all together!

Walking to Seonyudo

Seonyudo

Loved this

Finally Unni and Jaebin

Today was my last day of teaching the 5th graders. Tomorrow we're going to see a movie and next week I take on the 3rd and 4th graders. Anyway, after work, I went to meet my unni finally. It's almost been a year since I've seen her! It was great catching up with her and seeing Jaebin again. When I arrived, she was finishing teaching her art class. There were 3 kiddos there and when she returned from dropping them off downstairs to their parents, she returned with a baseball hat for Jaebin. One of the boys' dad is a manager for a baseball team in Seoul and he used to be a player; his number is retired now, so he must have been good! Jaebin was so excited to get the hat, complete with a signature on it.

We chatted about a lot of stuff. Jaebin will be going to the US next week and stay there for a month and attend a school in LA. Hwa Sun will join for a week before returning to Korea. In February they will move to a new apartment; it's in the same complex so it's not too big of a move, but a lot for her to prepare. She also made a snack for Jaebin and me. She cooked some tuna with onion and hot pepper sauce.

She and Jaebin had to meet a family member in the evening, so we said our goodbyes and I headed home. More trip hunting and feeling overwhelmed!

Jaebin using the nerf gun I got him for Christmas

Little dude in his new hat

Low Key Day

Today was pretty low key. After camp I did more travel research. Then on to Myeongdong to do a little bit of shopping. Class went alright, but somehow I moved up a level! I didn't think I passed; I'm not sure HOW I passed...but when I went to sign in for class, the assistant told me that I was in the next level. Maybe they got tired of me in there, hehe. Anyway, I'm in Intermediate 2 now!

Pictionary with 5th graders

Snack time!

The Hobbit

We had good snacks at camp today! Col-Pop (Cola and popcorn chicken) AND waffles. The kids loved it. Another easy day with the 5th graders. Amanda called me in the afternoon to chat and say goodbye before she starts on HER adventure-11 countries in 11 weeks.

I walked to World Cup to the CGV Theater. I watched The Hobbit in 3D. I was a little worried I'd get motion sick, but I had read some ways to avoid getting sick so I tried doing a few things and either those helped or the 3D didn't affect me. The movie was pretty good, but now it makes me want to do a very incredibly long Lord of the Rings marathon and watch all of them. I'm also interested in rereading The Hobbit.

After the movie I stopped to get a few groceries at HomePlus (sometimes better selection and different varieties there) before walking back home. I made dinner with stewed tomatoes and cracked some eggs into it. It turned out alright, but could have used some more spice to it I think. I continued looking up trip information, but what really took a long time was coordinating my weekend trip to Busan and Daegu! I'm so looking forward to heading down south to see some friends there.

5th graders during snack time

First Day of Winter Camp

I had seven 5th graders in camp today. It was a pretty low-key day and I enjoyed the small class size. After the kiddos left, I stayed until 4 working on plans and doing trip research.

When I got home I had a belated Christmas present waiting for me. A wonderfully wrapped package from Lexington, Kentucky! It was exactly what I needed on a blah working day. Mart did a good job picking out a scarf with all my favorite colors and stripes! I love stripes!

I did a bit of grocery shopping and continued researching for my upcoming trips!

Avenue of Stars and Return to Seoul

This morning Mike and I got ready, checked out and headed across the harbor. We looked for a restaurant to have brunch at but kind of failed. Instead we went straight to the Avenue of Stars and walked along the harbor. The weather was really nice-mid 60s so much warmer than what we had the previous days. After taking a stroll and looking at hand prints of famous actors and actresses on the ground, we looked up a place to have our last meal. We found another dimsum place in a hotel and decided we'd check it out. It looked quite fancy but wasn't really out of our budget. We ordered a noodle soup, a "pancake" that was kind of like a baked pastry with onion, 2 or 3 dumplings and 2 kinds of dessert-egg tarts and mango pudding. Everything was great!

Getting ready in the hostel

Beautiful day in Hong Kong

Avenue of Stars

Jackie Chan's handprints

The harbor behind me

In our fancy hotel/restaurant

Last meal!

Yummy pudding and egg tarts for dessert

After lunch we walked a bit to find the bus stop that had a bus to take us to the airport. Once we got on the bus it was about an hour ride there. In the airport we returned our transportation cards to get the deposit AND was able to receive the remaining balance on them which was really cool I thought.

Walking to our bus

Check-in and security didn't set us back too much for time, but our gate was a realllly long walk, though I just think the Hong Kong airport is relatively large. We settled our accounts and then it was time to board the plane. I watched the end of "Begin Again" and got to see everything but the last 10 minutes of a movie called "I Origins". It was a bit slow but I did want to see the ending and outcome. Bummer. We were served a decent meal on the plane, but the best part was the Hagen Daz ice cream!

Shortly after take off

Dinner, complete with haagen dazs!

When we landed there was a mad rush to get on the shuttle train and lots of shoving to go up the escalators. Mike and I were commenting "welcome back to Korea" and such and another American started talking with us about the pushing etc. At the customs line, we picked the Korean line instead of foreigner line just because we figured the Korean line would move faster. We had to wait a bit for Mike's bag to show up off the baggage carousel and then we were greeted by his Korean Mom. She was so cute! We walked around a bit while they were trying to remember where exactly they had parked the car and to locate the lot. It was about an hour drive back to Seoul and I was really grateful they drove me home since it was nearing midnight.