First of the last two weekends

Alright, as I said a few weeks ago, last weekend was super busy, and I didn't get a chance to make a post. Sorry!!!! This weekend has been pretty busy, too, but I'm going to try to make this post worth reading! It would be a super long post if I did both weekends together so I am breaking them up.

I'll start with last weekend. Friday night, I went out for a bit with some of the guys from the gym. It was pretty calm because Kwangjungnim and one of the older guys at the gym went out with us too. It was still fun though! I really enjoy hanging out with the people at the gym. They are such amazing people!

Saturday was fairly chill. I went to Costco for a few things in the morning. Korean class was canceled so I didn't have to go to class. So I did a few things around the house. Then, I met with the people from church to practice even though I didn't sing with them on Sunday; they wanted me to come and practice anyway. After, I did a little bit of shopping in Dunsan before coming home. I decided to have a movie night since I had to be up early on Sunday morning for the Kickboxing Tournament.

Sunday morning, we met at the gym to catch a bus to the tournament. The tournament was in Sintanjin, about 30 minutes from the gym by bus. We got to the tournament early so we went for some lunch. We had bone soup. It was very yummy!!! We still had a bit of time before the tournament after we finished lunch. So I talked a bit with the guys from Daegu MMA. "Sex Machine" was there. Hahaha. For some reason, he wanted to take a picture with me...which was fine, but he wanted me to stand in front so that his head wouldn't look too big standing next to me. Hahaha. My face was bright red for the picture because they kept talking about how small my head was. I'm sure it was a horrible picture. Oh well, I don't have to look at it! Hahaha. After the picture, he introduced me to his brother, "Sex Machine 2". I'm not making this up. I was dying laughing until...he asked me to tell him who's head was bigger. Who does that? I'm in trouble no matter who's head I say is bigger. I tried to tell them that they were the same size, but they wouldn't let me slide. So I asked my English speaking buddy who I should choose, and of course, he would not help me!!!! I decided to go with the truth. The original Sex Machine's head was slightly smaller so I chose him. I hate answering awkward questions like that. Hahaha. Anyways, shortly after the tourney started, and Song Won was up first. I really wanted him to win mostly because he's the coolest kid ever, but also because he lost his first kickboxing tourney. He fought the same kid as last time, and he lost again. But, he did a lot better this time. I was very proud of him, but he was still pretty bummed. Next up for our team was the guy we call "The Driver". We don't know his real name so that's what we named him because he drove us home from the last kickboxing tournament. He was awesome! He won his fight. After "The Driver", San Won was up. She's one of the high school girls at our gym. It was her first fight, and she went up against a girl that's been training since she was 12. San Won didn't do well in the first round, but after some advice from Tae Su, Yu Noh, and one of the coaches from Daegu MMA she did better in the last two rounds. She still lost, but she put up a good fight. The last fight of the tournament was the best. Mostly because it was Song Sok's fight. He's the sweetest guy ever!!!! Plus, he is an awesome kickboxer. So, of course, he won his fight! After Song Sok's fight, Douchi and I took pictures with some of the guys from Daegu. I wanted a picture with my English buddy. He told me I had to stand in front...hahaha. So, I did...

Hahaha...he was embarrassed so he closed his eyes! Hahaha. But Sex Machine called me a play girl for posing like that. I told him it was only a picture. I have no idea why I felt it necessary to defend myself against a guy that calls himself Sex Machine. Hahaha. Actually, he's one of the Kwangjungnims at Daegu MMA so what he thinks kind of does matter since when I test for some of my belts I have to test through them. Hahaha. Anyways, next we took pictures with one of the top amateur fighters in all of Korea. He's such a sweetheart...with Douchi:

But of course with me...

Hahaha...he was goofing off! Really, he didn't want me to stand next to him (the whole big head thing), and he didn't want me to do the same thing to him that I did to my English buddy. It didn't matter to me. I think its a good thing that they feel comfortable enough with me to goof off like that. It means I making progress. Korean guys are so shy around girls! It took me a few weeks to break in the guys at Daejeon MMA, but I think the Daegu boys see how I act with our guys so they feel more comfortable with me. That being said...our next pictures were with our boys Song Sok and Tae Su. Of course once again, they were nice with Douchi's picture (it's on her camera, I don't have it), but for my picture...

I asked Tae Su to turn around for the picture like 10 times before I made lemonade. Hahaha...he didn't like it. He kept saying, "delete, delete". Hahaha. Oh well, maybe next time he will listen.

After the tourney, we went back to Hannam and ate dinner together. It was so much fun because the Kwangjungnim and one of the coaches from Dunsan MMA came out with us. The coach's girlfriend and the Kwangjungnim both spoke fluent English. We had an awesome conversation. We are definitely going to hang out again. I'm excited!!!!
Sweet!!!

Too Long Apart!!!

So finally, Douchi and I were able to go out again. Her mother and brothers were in town for three weeks, and so she needed to spend as much time with them as possible. So we didn't go out at all while they were here.

Douchi's friend Michi was in town this weekend. So of course, we had to take her to Mr. Chicken and Beer for the deliciousness that is the Cajun Chicken Salad. I swear its the best salad ever made. I am never disappointed at Mr. Chicken. It's funny because one of the guys at the gym said that I was famous at Hannam because Douchi and I are always at Mr. Chicken, and apparently everyone knows me because of it. Hahaha. We are rather friendly I guess. Anyways, it was so much fun!

After, we were going to go to Kwang Min's bar, but it was closed. The Eagles didn't have a game last night so maybe they had a family night or something. Oh well, so we hit up another restaurant that was next to it. Douchi had gone there before with some coworkers, but I hadn't been yet. It was a Korean restaurant, and we ordered the Korean pancake. It had octopus and shrimp inside. It was delicious. It's weird because I like octopus but I don't like squid, and Douchi likes squid but not octopus. Hahaha. We are such opposites! Alex met us at the restaurant a bit later. He is a professor at Hannam University. It was a lot of fun, but Douchi and Michi were tired so they went home early. Alex and I hung out a bit longer. We tried to pick up some people on the street to go noraebonging with us (and by we, I really mean Alex). Hahaha. It was awesome. I think we kind of scared people because no one wanted to go with us! We ended up just going to another Korean restaurant and sitting and talking till about 4am. It was one of the restaurants that we usually go to after a tournament.

Speaking of tournaments, there is another kickboxing tournament a week from today (Sunday). I'm super excited because...Song Won, Yeu Noh, and Song Sok are fighting in it. Song Sok has been in Seoul for military training for the past month...so I haven't seen him in forever! He's one of my favorites at the gym! He is the sweetest guy ever, and he is a really good fighter. This is Song Won's second kickboxing tournament. His first tournament he lost so I hope he wins in this one. I really want him to win. He's a good kid! Of course, I like watching Yeu Noh fight because he's really good (Kwangjungnim's Ace).

Speaking of Yeu Noh, his girlfriend came to the gym this week. She is really pretty and really sweet. She speaks English very well. She told Yeu Noh that she wanted to talk to Douchi and me again. I was teasing Yeu Noh that he was a lucky guy to get such an awesome girlfriend. He said, "No, she's lucky. I am handsome guy." Hahahaha. It was pretty funny! I love it. It is true; he is a handsome guy, and they make the perfect couple. It was just fun to tease him. I asked his girlfriend if she ever went to his tournaments, and she said no because she gets scared that he is going to get hurt. So, I don't think we'll be seeing her at the tournament. I guess its a good thing because he might get distracted if she was there. He likes to focus before the fights. He is always very quiet, but after...he is hilarious!!! I'm so excited for the tournament...but tournament on Sunday means no church.

Church...I made it to church again this week. This time I sang with the band. It was a lot of fun. We met yesterday (Saturday) to practice. It was pretty sweet. Although, it made for a super stacked Saturday. I wanted to go to Costco again this week but I didn't get a chance because I woke up too late. I had just enough time to get ready for Korean lessons. Korean lessons ended at 3pm which made me a little late for band practice at 3:30 because lessons are at Daejeon Station (about a 20 minute subway ride from Government Complex which is about a ten minute bike ride from the church). If I don't have to wait for the subway, I can get there on time. It wasn't a big deal because they were still setting up the sound equipment. I think they were ok with it. We practiced again this morning (Sunday) which kind of sucked because I was that idiot once again that stayed out until 4 when I had to wake up at 8. I was so scared that I was going to oversleep that I woke up at 6 and couldn't go back to sleep. I was so tired during the service!!! Not to mention that my throat was scratchy from not resting my voice! Agh! Oh well, I think it went well. Everyone seemed to like hearing female voices on stage. Apparently for the past year, it's been a boy band. We broke the streak! Hahaha.

Alright so that's about it for this week, I will try to post again next weekend but I can't promise anything. It gets kind of crazy on tournament weekends.

Last Weekend

Sorry, I missed my post last weekend. I was super busy, and I didn't have time to write about it.
Saturday, we had Korean lessons, and after I went to get my hair cut. It looks super cute. See:

I was kind of hesitant about going back to the same salon because last time I asked for the same haircut and the girl said that she couldn't do it (which was fine because most stylist can't do it) and so I got a different style instead. I had also asked for a "Magic Straight Perm" but she suggested a different perm instead. My hair was still wavy and a little bit frizzy as well. So I figured I should go back to the same salon and have them fix it rather than explain the problem to a different salon. I got a different stylist this time and she did an amazing job. She "Magic Straight" permed my hair and cut it perfectly!!! I was super pleased because....

Saturday night was Trevor's last Saturday night in Daejeon. He was one of the foreigners at the gym. He is moving back to Canada. So, we sent him off Daejeon MMA style. A bunch of the people from the gym went out. We started out by Hannam. We had a ton of food. Some was American and some was Korean. I tried everything including...

Oh yeah, I can say that I have eaten sea snails. Something to add to my resume...jk. Seriously, they weren't too bad...they were just very salty. It was so much fun because some of the guys that don't normally come out with us came. It was really cool. It's really funny because Korean guys can be really shy about things. So, us girls, well at least I do, like to tease them and get them to blush. One of the Korean guys did a fake kiss on one of the other guys as a joke...so I thought it'd be funny to do the same thing...

...and it was very funny! (My hand is covering his mouth in case you can't see it). I did it to Simpson, and he's always a good sport about those things. He's the one that went out with Douchi and me several times. He is super sweet and funny too! Anyways, it was a lot of fun. After, we went to Yellow Taxi in Dunsan Dong to hear a friend of Trev's and a friend of Mell's play in a band(two different people, same band). It was cool because they played a lot of the rock songs that you don't normally hear in Korea. The night was a lot of fun, but I went home early (and by early I mean 2am) because...

Sunday morning, I woke up really early because I wanted to go to the MMA Tournament that Song Won and Yu Noh were competing in. I had to be at the gym at 7am. When I got there, Tae Su and Simpson were there to wish the guys luck. They didn't go to the tournament because they stayed out all night with Trevor. This is normally the kind of thing that Tae Su would compete in except there isn't an MMA fighter in Korea that wants to compete against Tae Su. So, it was just Song Won and Yu Noh competing. One of the guys, Chin Tek, went to watch. His English is really good, and he helped me study my Korean.

The competition was in Gumi which is his hometown so he went to the tournament and after the tournament he went to his parents' house. Anyways, so we took the train to Gumi. When we got there, the boys weighed in. In case you're not familiar with these kinds of tournaments, the guys diet for a week ahead of the tournament and don't eat anything the day of the tournament until after they weigh in. So, the guys weighed in, and then we went to eat. We ate soup...I hate soup...but it wasn't for me it was for the guys so I sucked it up and ate it...well, some of it. We went with some of the fighters from our "family" gym. It's funny because when I go out with a bunch of Koreans...they always watch me eat. Here, it was no different. At first, I was self-conscious about it, but I'm used to it now. They just want to make sure that I like the food. After we ate, the guys sat and talked for a while about fighting. Koreans love Mike Tyson...so of course, Mike Tyson came up a bit in the conversation. Personally, I'm more of an Evander Holyfield fan myself so I can't say that I like Mike Tyson very much. I'm not that passionate about it anyways so it doesn't really matter. I did talk to a few of the guys from the other gym for a bit about other things. One of the guys spoke English extremely well. Guess where he learned it??? American Movies. Hahaha...it cracks me up. The best Korean English speakers learn their English from the TV or movies. Another one of the guys is a top fighter in Korea. He is really nice, and he helped out with our boys giving them advice. It's crazy because the top fighters are always the sweetest guys ever. Anyways, after a while we went back to the gym to get settled in for the competition. Song Won was up first in the tournament. He only weighs 55 kg so he's usually in the smallest weight class, and they normally have the smallest weight class go first. I was really nervous for him because I think this was his first MMA Tournament. Earlier this year, he had his first Kickboxing Tournament, and he lost. So, I really wanted him to do well in this tournament. He didn't let me down. He was awesome!!!! He won his fight.

I was so proud because his opponent was at least 5 kg bigger than he was. I don't even think the score was close (I can't tell you what it was; mostly because I don't understand Korean). Next up, some of the guys from Daegu MMA (our "family") competed. The guy that spoke English lost his fight because his opponent got a lucky choke hold on him. He had some serious points up until the hold. He was so upset. I felt bad because he really is a nice guy. In fighting, even the best fighters lose sometimes because the other fighter gets a lucky position. You just have to be content with doing your best every time. I struggle with it too though. I hate losing. The other fighter from Daegu won. Their top fighter competed the day before and won. After a few fighters, it was Yu Noh's turn. Yu Noh is Kwangjungnim's "Ace". He is very good in his weight class. He's a really nice guy as well (like I said the top fighters are always the nicest, except for Tae Su...I don't know what happened there...hahaha...jk...Tae Su's a nice enough guy...he pretends to be mean). I really wanted Yu Noh to win too, but I wasn't as concerned because he competes all the time and wins all the time. Plus, in the kickboxing tourney he won his match in 5 seconds. It was crazy. So it came as a surprise that he lost this tournament. Jk, Jk, he WON this tournament. He was awesome!!!!

After the tourney, Chin Tek went to visit his parents and the rest of us loaded onto the train to go home. When we got back to Daejeon, we went out for some celebratory samgipsal. It was delicious as always. It was interesting because Yu Noh never goes out with us. He's a very quiet guy. Even during dinner, he was still quiet, but Kwangjungnim told the guys that the last piece of meat was for me (weird but whatever). So, Yu Noh helps me put the meat on the lettuce and add the extra stuff to make "the perfect bite"...that's what he called it. Is that not super sweet??? It's definitely a Korean thing...American guys would never do this! Oh and you know what else Korean guys do? They count the number of days they have been dating their girlfriends. Yeah...they know the exact number of days they have been dating! How crazy is that? On the 100th day they have to get them a special present. Wow, it's unheard of for a guy to remember such things in America. Hahaha.

So that was pretty much my weekend, last weekend. It was definitely a good, fun-filled weekend but I was exhausted all week. So this weekend, I decided to take it easy and rest a bit. I just went to Costco for a few things and then to Korean lessons. However, on my way home I got stopped by two women who wanted to share their faith with me, and by share I mean, they chased me down the street until I would stop and listen. Seriously??? How many are there here in Korea? This was almost as weird as the last time. This time they claimed that God was really a man and a woman...there's God the Father and God the Mother, and if you don't believe in God the Mother you're going to Hell. I asked them if they believed that Jesus Christ was the only way to get to heaven why would not believing in God the Mother put me in Hell? They couldn't give me an answer. Geez oh Pete! If Korea wasn't challenging and confusing enough, you throw in all of these new beliefs that I've never heard of! Hahaha. CRAZYNESS! But, that is why I came to Korea to experience new things!

"Camping" and by "Camping" I mean "Retreat"

So this weekend, I went "camping" with the gym. Camping was a lot of fun! We didn't really camp though. Hahaha. We stayed in a large cabin that had a few different apartments. They call them pensions. We stayed in one of the pensions. The last of the rain from the typhoon made it a bit rainy and muddy but that kind of made it better. I think it might have been too hot if it wasn't rainy. We also had fun playing around in the mud. The pension came to the gym to pick us up in a van. There were 15 of us and we all had to cram in this van. It was so funny.

When we got there, it was really cool because the guys did all of the work. They said that in Korea, a woman never does the work when they are on vacation. One of the guys, Tae Su, was the "head chef" and the meals were better than any of the restaurants we have eaten at here in Korea! All of the younger boys had to help him in the kitchen. I told him that he was going to make his future wife very happy. The food was amazing! We had samgipsal and bulgogi.

We got to the pension early. Check in wasn't until 2pm and we arrived at about 11ish. It was up in the mountains with several waterfalls. It was beautiful! We did some hiking. Although no one told us that we could leave our bags in the van so we hiked up this mountain with our bags. They got kind of heavy. It wasn't really too bad. I wasn't miserable, and I was still able to enjoy the hike and take pictures. Although, every time I stopped to take pictures Tae Su kept telling me to hurry up in Korean. I got so mad at him. I made San Ha translate to Kwangjungnim why I was so angry. I told her that they have lived their entire lives here in Korea, and they can see this anytime. I just got here and I don't know how long I'm going to stay or if I will be able to come back to this place. I want to see and experience everything. I think Kwangjungnim talked to him about it.

It was funny because Tae Su is younger than me but the entire trip he kept telling me he was just worried about me. Everything I did he would tell me to stop because its too dangerous. Hahaha. I was just climbing a tree and he started freaking out! I am such a kid because I still love to climb trees and this tree was the perfect climbing tree. I wanted to climb over the fence to go down to the river, and he made me crawl under because going over is too dangerous. I was teasing him that he didn't really speak Korean because he only said two words in Korean "Palli wa" (hurry up), and the only English word he knew was "dangerous".

Anyways, the trail we went up had these cool stairs its called the 300 stairs or something but there's 300 stairs to lead the last bit of the way to the top of the mountain. Some of them were really steep and it was a really good workout. Once again, Tae Su was right behind me telling me to "Palli wa". My calves are seriously sore today from the palli wa up the stairs.

There was a really cool bridge up there too leading to another mountain, I wanted to walk across it but guess what? Tae Su said it was too dangerous and to palli wa. Grrrr. So I took a picture in front of it instead. Hahaha.

After our hike, we had a few minutes before check in so we just sat around for a bit. After we checked in, Tae Su and the guys started lunch. While the guys were cooking lunch the girls took showers! Hahaha. At lunch, we sat outside under a shelter at some picnic tables. They cooked the samgipsal on a grill in front of us. It was so good because it had the charcoal flavor to it.

After lunch, we cleaned up and changed clothes to go swimming in the river. They told us that we weren't going swimming on this trip so Douchi and I didn't bring our swimsuits. I went in with just a tshirt and shorts. Mell brought her suit, and Douchi didn't go in. She took pictures. They were good pictures too! We had so much fun swimming in the river! We brought a soccer ball. While Tae Su was figuring out where would be "safe enough" for us to swim, some of us started kicking the ball around. I kicked the ball too hard and it bounced off one of the guy's legs and landed in the middle of a rice field! Hahaha. It was so funny! Have you ever seen a rice field before? It has tall grass in a flooded field. So it was very muddy and we couldn't see the ball. One of the guys went in and almost lost his flip flops so he had to go barefoot through the mud to find it. Another guy was sitting on Tae Su's shoulders to see if he could see the ball. It was so funny! He finally found the ball, and we walked down to the river. It was so much fun! The water was super cold but we splashed and dunked each other. We also played volleyball with the soccer ball. It was so much fun! We were trying to play water polo but Tae Su decided it was too dangerous with the rocks. Hahaha. So we decided to head back to the pension where we took our second shower of the day. Hahaha.

Then, we decided to play basketball on a "dirt court" which was more of a weed and mud court instead. We played with a volleyball (go figure, volleyball with a soccerball and then basketball with the volleyball). Nothing makes sense. We slipped and slid all over the court and we couldn't bounce the ball because of the weeds. It was hilarious! We were all covered in mud. So we all took our third shower of the day. We hung our clothes up on the balcony to dry so we wouldn't track the mud into the pension, but the wind started blowing later during the night and the clothes ended up everywhere! This morning, I found my shorts and tshirt along with two guys boxer shorts in a tree under the balcony. It was so funny because I grabbed them and brought them up. One of the guys was like hey that's my underwear and grabbed them from me. It was hilarious. He kept thanking me for finding them for him.

But after basketball, we took showers and Tae Su and the boys started on dinner. After dinner, we played games, talked, listened to music, and danced. It was a lot of fun. We stayed up all night. Well, I tried to anyways, but apparently I was sleeping in my chair and Tae Su made me go to bed. Hahaha. Poor Tae Su, I gave him a hard time all weekend!

This afternoon, the pension drove us back to the gym. Once again we crammed in the van. But, one of the guys got a little car sick and started vomiting in the back seat. The back seat was the most crowded because there were six guys in a four person seat. All of the other guys were really sweet about it and held a plastic bag while he was vomiting. They were tapping his back and everything. No one made him feel bad about it either. They had to have been miserable but they were trying to be light about it. Luckily, we were only ten minutes from the gym, but the back smelled like ramen from the bag of vomit. I had a window seat and Mell and I stuck our heads right by the window. Her and I were both about to vomit too from the smell. I don't know how the guys in the back did it. Those guys are quite possibly the nicest people I have ever met in my entire life.

It was an amazing weekend! I cannot wait for the next trip!

Korean Food

I realized that all this time I have been talking about my experiences in Korea I haven't taken much time to talk about the food I eat. I know I have mentioned several times that Koreans eat a lot, but I haven't talked about what. I'll start with my favorites.

The Seven Elevens here in Daejeon have an extremely delicious tuna kimbop that I absolutely love! Kimbop is stuffed with rice and various veggies and sometimes a meat or cheese (it comes in different meats including ham and beef, as I said my favorite is tuna) all wrapped up in seaweed. It is very yummy!!!!

There are many restaurants throughout the city that serve samgipsal. It is the Korean barbeque that I mentioned after I first got here. It is served with many delicious sides. The restaurants have a burner in the middle of the table where they put a small grill to cook the samgipsal. There is different types of samgipsal from thinly sliced bacon to a thicker beef. They place the meat on the grill, and you can add whatever sides to the flavor the meat. I like to put the gimchi and garlic on the grill. They also have a few different sauces that you can dip your cooked meat into before eating it. One is a red pepper paste sauce, one is more of an oily sauce, and then there's a vinegar based sauce. My favorite is the vinegar based sauce. Most Koreans like to eat the samgipsal with just a sauce. I prefer to put it in the lettuce leaves that they serve with the samgipsal. I stuff the leaf with the samgipsal, gimchi, garlic, and the vinegar sauce. It is very delicious this way. However, most Koreans don't like salad so they avoid lettuce...hahaha.

Another popular food here in Korea are "pancakes". These pancakes are made with a bisquick type mix with veggies and various meats added to it. The most popular I believe are the seafood ones. I have not eaten a lot of them, but I do like the octopus ones. They are really good, but I do think that it depends on the restaurant that makes them. I think that some of the pancakes I've tried didn't taste good not because of the type of pancake but because of the restaurant.

One of the most popular dishes and one of my favorites is galbi. There is different types of galbi. My favorite is tok galbi which is chicken. Once again, the restaurants have a burner in the middle of the table, but this time they put a large skillet type bowl with handles on the burner to cook the food. They bring the food uncooked on dishes and dump it all in the big bowl with some sauces. They come by the table to stir it. It is very delicious.

Another popular dish is dopoki. I didn't like it at first, but its growing on me. Dopoki is a really doughy noodle. It's served in dishes like galbi. It is also served by itself.

One of the most traditional dishes is bimibop. The best bimibop I had was at the Buddhist temple I went to on Buddha's Birthday. It was so yummy!!!! Bimibop is rice with sprouts and turnips and I think gimchi too. It's all mixed in together with a red pepper paste. Very yummy!

Perhaps the most popular dish here in Korea is ice cream! Koreans love their ice cream (and doughnuts but we won't talk about that). Every convenient store has a variety of ice creams for less than 1,000 won (which is $1). They even have milkshakes in a pack...its crazy! The most popular ice cream dish I would say is the pabingsu. It's shaved iced with little candy jellies and red beans. It is really good. It sounds disgusting, but its delicious.

There are many other Korean dishes that I haven't mentioned, and I'm not promising that I got every ingredient correct in the dishes that I mentioned. It is very difficult to know for sure exactly what I am eating since it is all in Korean. Most Korean meals are served with rice, gimchi, and soup. Every meal that I have eaten at school has been served with rice, gimchi, and soup. They served spaghetti one time with rice, gimchi, and soup (weird).

Alright, so now that everyone's mouths are watering with the deliciousness that I have shared with you...I will start with the details of my week! This week was very hot and most people are on vacation so the gym was pretty dead all week. However, we did have a visitor. A spider decided to join the class during jiu jitsu and even though I was screaming, no man in the room offered to kill it, and no one would let me kill it. I asked San Ha why no one was killing the spider, and she said that you cannot kill a spider at night time. If you kill a spider at night, you will have bad luck. Seriously?!?!

On Friday, I went out with Kwangjungnim, Song Won, and Mike for some samgipsal after my workout. It was pretty good. Song Won is quite possibly the coolest kid in Korea. He is always at the gym training, but he takes the time to goof off with me to make gym a little more fun. He's hilarious! He helps me with my Korean, and I try to help him with his English, but I think he's the better teacher.

On Saturday, I went to Korean class with Mell. After, we stopped by Jungangno Station for some shopping and some food. We had some dopoki and kimbop. After, I made a trip to Costco to pick up some yogurt and vitamins. Later, I met Mell again for a little snack and some talking. It was pretty relaxed.

Today, I made it to church again! Yay! I was so proud of myself; three weeks in a row! I've really been slacking lately! I met some of the new girls from SLP, and I saw one of the foreign guys that had checked out the gym. He works at Poly which is a very demanding school so he doesn't really have the time and energy to make it to Daejeon MMA. So he joined a gym closer to Munnyeon dong. We talked for a bit, and I talked for a bit with the girls from SLP. They are all pretty sweet! It was a really good Sunday. I even stayed for Bible study. I was kind of hesitant because the last time I went to Bible study, it was mostly men, and I didn't quite feel welcomed to the conversation. But I heard that more women were going to Bible study now so I decided to check it out. It was really good, and I was finally able to ask my question about "seeing God" like physically. They confirmed my original suspicion that it was in fact a cult. For those of you new to reading my ramblings, when I first arrived in Daejeon, I was greeted by a sweet woman who asked me if I was a Christian. When I told her I was, she asked me to go to dinner with her. I said sure thinking it would just be us two. However, a few other women joined and started talking about seeing God physically and asked me why I couldn't see God, and if I wanted to. I was really freaked out. I told them that I had to leave and rushed out. They had said that Koreans were deeply spiritual and that's why they could see God, but the pastor of the church I am attending told me that it was not true. After Bible study, the worship team asked me again to sing with them. I really want to, but I hate saying that I will do something when I cannot truly commit to it. Maybe that is what I need to do though so that I will be more motivated to wake up on Sunday mornings. I told them that I would think about it and let them know in a few weeks after I get back from camping because I am going to miss church again next Sunday to go camping with the gym.

This weekend was pretty chilled because I am trying to rest up for next weekend! I am super excited about going camping! I cannot wait! I am not sure who all is going, but I know that Douchi, San Ha, and Mell are going and that's good enough for me!

Ah! Refreshing Summer Vacation

So this past week was summer vacation. I don't think I realized how much I needed a vacation. I was kind of scared for this vacation because Douchi still had to work and Mell, Janet, and Mariana went out of town. The guys from the gym were still around and San Ha, but I was afraid that I would miss my family too much if I spent too much time alone. I'm crazy I know, but whatever! Hahaha. I'm me and I'm ok with that! This week was definitely refreshing though! I slept in late every day!!!! Hahaha. I did some grocery shopping (I hadn't gone in about a month...there was nothing in my refrigerator). I also cleaned my apartment really well!!!! I hadn't taken the time to really clean in a few months so I know my apartment needed it! I also went to the gym earlier than I normally do; so I got in a better workout! It was very nice. I did better with my Jiu Jitsu because I wasn't completely exhausted from working all day. A couple of days, I met Douchi for "dinner" before my workout. I enjoyed the time with Douchi, but eating before a workout is never a good idea! Hahaha...especially when its super hot outside. Oh well, you live and learn right?

Friday, Douchi and I skipped the gym to go to Seoul for the afternoon. We met up with one of my friends. He met us at Seoul Station, and we went shopping. It was interesting because he was super patient while Douchi and I looked at clothing. Also, I've never met a guy volunteer to go shopping. I told him we could meet up later, but he wanted to go shopping with us. He thought we were crazy though because we split up when we got inside the store! Hahaha. We always do that and don't even think about it, but he was so confused...he wasn't sure what he should do. He didn't know if he should go with me or her. Of course, Douchi and I always meet back up in the dressing room and help each other decide what we want. One of his friends met up with us while we were shopping. So we had not only one but two guys voluntarily shop with us!!! Wow! Hahaha. We only went to one store because we found everything we needed, but we also didn't want to subject them to any more torture. Although, they never would have said anything! Hahaha. They were surprised that we didn't shop more than we did. After, we decided to go to Holly's Coffee to sit and talk for a bit. It was nice. Then, of course, we had to go eat...I mean this is still Korea...you have to eat every time you go out with someone its the law! We got a Korean pancake which has octopus and veggies inside it. It's not too bad. I kind of like it!

After, we headed back to Daejeon. We met up with Song Sok (one of the guys from the gym) at Mr. Chicken and Beer. It's his last weekend in Daejeon for about a month. He is going to training for the army. He's definitely one of my favorite people at the gym. I hate that I won't see him for a month. It's going to suck even more when he leaves for the army next year. I won't see him much at all :(
It was a relaxing evening. We just hung out at Mr. Chicken all night and talked.

It was definitely a good week! I am glad I stayed here. I think if I had gone away on vacation, I may not have relaxed like I needed to!

Summer Vacation Kickoff

Summer vacation officially started at 5:15 Friday afternoon! Of course like the dedicated gym member that I am...I went to the gym for a few hours before heading home. Thursday was Mell's birthday so Friday night we celebrated with a b-day dinner in Dunsan. We were only going to be out for a few hours because I had to go to Korean lessons, and Mell and Janet had to catch their flight for China in the morning. As always, a few hours is never a few hours. I totally slept through my Korean lesson, but somehow Mell and Janet managed to catch their flight. It was a really fun night, and I am glad that I went out. I am not happy that I skipped my Korean lesson, but this is summer vacation and I'm the only one actually spending my summer vacation in Daejeon...so I'll forgive myself this one time.

After waking up late for my Korean lesson, I still had time to catch my Jiu jitsu lesson on Saturday afternoon. I was still exhausted, but I had promised I'd be there so I dragged my lazy bum to the gym. Turns out, one of the girls bailed on the lesson and the other one was running late. Kwangjungnim was really mad that one of the girls had bailed and the other one was late. He kept telling me that I was a good person for keeping my promise even though I was tired. Koreans are really big on promises and commitments. I am so glad that I made it to the gym. After the gym, we went out for some Korean barbecue, I think its called sumgipsal or something like it. I had not had any Korean barbecue since the first week I was here. It was delicious!!!! After barbecue, we went noraebonging. It was fun, but there were only three of us so it was not as fun as it usually is. Then, of course, we ate again. Koreans are constantly eating!!!!!!! I have no idea how they stay so thin; they are always, always, always eating! It's crazy!

Today, Sunday, I woke up in time to go to church for the first time in a few weeks. I've felt so badly about missing church. It has been one thing after another, and I never seem to be able to make it. So I went and I met a few new girls, and I talked to a few familiar faces. One of the girls is studying in America, and she came home for summer vacation. The other girl lives in Daejeon with her family.

I am a little nervous about this week. Everyone is either working or going away for the vacation; so I am probably going to have quite a bit of alone time. It will be good for studying Korean and cleaning my apartment, but I'm not sure how much of that I can stand! Hahaha. This may be a test for strength of character. Hahaha.