that with the way things are going so far, this year is gonna be an incredible one. My January was great, and now my February has started off really well too. I truly experienced a wonderful cultural event on Thursday. This week in general has kept me busy, but everything about it has been great.
What I'll do here is start with what has happened from today, then go on to Friday, Thursday, and then Wednesday. Personally, I think it's easier to roll like this. If you think not, please feel free to let me know.
Today -- It is 11;35 pm on Saturday evening here in wonderful Daegu. Today has been a pretty good day, considering how little rest and how little food my body has taken in. For starters, I went to sleep around 6 am. At least, I think it was about that time. So, I made my way to Itaewon (a cool area in Seoul), to retrieve bag of mine out of a locker at the subway station. This was after a battling cramps in calves during my 3-4 hours of sleep, that began around 6 am. From there, I went to the KTX station, so I could make my way back to Daegu, by mid-afternoon. By this point, I had not eaten anything in almost 24 hours. I was making my body fast, since I had a few beers last night. Of course, I can't stop eating now, but I need the sleep more than the food.
I was actually expected back in Daegu last night, but I explained that I had a fun night, and just decided to stay the night (why pay almost 80 bucks round trip for train tickets and just stay part of the night anyway). Woo Yeup, and Eun Beoul (Korean brother and sister), asked why came home this afternoon, and I just explained that I had a fun time and didn't want to leave late last night.
The super steamy sauna in the bathhouse was a nice sight for my body. I felt the need to sweat for a little while, and I started to feel a little better. At least by that time I had gotten some milk, and a snickers bar in me too. Now it may seem weird that one, would go to a bathhouse, get cleaned up and then go to the gym. Well, I needed to feel refreshed before working out. I had been wearing the same clothes for almost two days, and my body was speaking to me in a nice tone of voice as a result of that.
My friend Greer (who is a WSHS graduate), went with me to the English Club tonight. I sometimes go to this Korean club called TD (short for Training Day, and not sure why it is called that). When I first joined, I was the only American, along with three Russians, and a Brit. Now there are four or five Americans, another Brit, and even an Aussie in the group these days. We have little topics that we discuss (courtesy of whoever volunteers to find an article from a local paper in English), and answer questions about for about a 90 minute span. In the middle, we break up into different groups than the ones we were in to begin the meeting. When all this is over, we may play a speed quiz (for the Koreans' sake), and then go out to a restaurant, and have drinks or a meal together.
Friday -- Trip to Seoul. So I boarded a train about 9 am on Friday to Seoul. Now, Korea has KTX, which is similar to the bullet trains in Japan. I don't think it goes as fast, but I may be wrong. These trains will get up to about 300 km per hour. For those who can't calculate that, it's about 186 mph. I have to do a lot of calculations in my head in this country, due to the metric system.
I was going to meet my friend Nicole when I arrived at 11, but we had a little miscommunication, and I made my way over to Insadong. Insadong is my favorite part of Seoul to visit. It's kind of a tourist trap, but I just love walking and being around all the other tourist folks (Korean and others). I ate a nice meal of Kalgooksoo, which is a noodle soup type dish, that is nice to eat in the winter time. After I bought some sweets for the family back here in Daegu, I hauled over to the Itaewon area, so I could meet Miss NIcole at 6 pm.
Nicole and I met up at The Irish Wolfhound (I think that's the name), which is a popular drinking establish in Itaewon, for foreigners. We pretty much just talked and drank beer for almost eleven hours. FYI - I did not drink or talk for eleven hours straight though. I really had a total of probably 6-7 beers. You didn't really think I was Superman did you?
I don't think I have talked with one person that much, in that kind of time frame, in a long time. The Wolfhound closed down at about 2:30 am, so we went to a place called Seoul Pub. By that point, I was a little ready for sleep, but then I heard some Tim McGraw, and got a little re-energized. I definitely enjoyed my night though most importantly.
Thursday -- This day was the first day of the Lunar New Year. A very incredible experience. I had to wake up a little earlier, get cleaned up and even get dressed up a little too. The uncles were bringing their families over to the house. Food was being prepared all day Wednesday by three of the women, and then the Ancestral Rites was going to be performed a short while later. The Ancestral Rites is a little difficult to explain, but there is a feast prepared, there are some little pieces of paper in Hanja (old Korean language), that are placed on this little facade looking thing. To keep a long story short, the family members are taking turns giving thanks to their ancestors through bowing, and lighting candles in their honor.
When all this was finished, the big meal was served and we all sat down and ate together. We ate something called ddeok gook. It's little rice caked looking things served in a soup with dumplings. It's supposed to help bring you good health through the new year. After we finished eating, we all went into the grandmother's room, and I joined the kids in the family and bowed to grandma. When we are bowing we have this thing we say that translates to wishing someone good health and a happy new year. So after we finished bowing and saying this, Grandma handed us all envelopes with money inside. I got the equivalent of 20 bucks, and I wasn't expecting anything at all, but the father prepared me that morning by teaching me the proper techniques. I got a 10 spot from the mom and dad as well.
We ate some fruits and traditional rice cakes for dessert, before embarking on a short trip to the cemetery. We visited the grave of the grandfather, and so I watched that little ritual as well. The setting was amazing. I had never seen a cemetery in Korea until that day, and being out in the hillside area was just beautiful. People were everywhere paying homage to past relatives, and bonding with other family members as well.
We went back into town after this short journey, and a few of us headed into downtown for a movie. I took Woo Yeup, and two of the female cousins to see a movie called "Glove". This movie was excellent. It is a Korean movie about a baseball team from an academy for all deaf students. It deals with a baseball star whose career seems to be fading away, and he's asked to come volunteer to be a coach for this team. Anyway, it was one of the best movies I have ever seen.
We got a taxi back home after eating fancy hot dogs on the street, and joined more family for ANOTHER meal. This time two of the aunts on the dad's side came over with their families as well. So I got to bow and received another ten bucks from one of the uncles, who would not let me refuse the money. The man doesn't speak a lick of English, but we do have some pretty decent conversations in Korean, and we both show each other a good bit of respect as well. After the meal, I went with Woo Yeup to see two of the cousins who were at a PC Bong (Room), and we played on the computer for an hour or so. Then we came back home and played Yutnoori, a traditional New Year's game. I had learned the game previously, so I was pretty happy to play it again. The adults played a card game until about 11:40 pm, and then everyone finally left.
It was probably the longest holiday of my life, but it was a very enjoyable holiday as well. I learned a lot of customs, got to visit with some good folks, and ate a ton of food -- which is always important.
Wednesday
I woke up to a world of busyness going on around me. A few of the aunts were over helping the mom get ready for the big day on Thursday. Actually, they showed up a little bit after breakfast. My day was rather interesting in the afternoon though. I got to visit with my friend Greer, who I went to high school with, and we ate some Gorilla Burger. One of my favorite places to eat in downtown Daegu is Gorilla Burger. It's got some pretty good sized burgers, and some really greasy onion rings.
We were going to go visit one of the markets, but I made a mistake of getting us on the wrong bus. So we had about an 80 minute journey out to almost nowhere (if you include the round-trip). We visited a local department store though, and found very, very expensive boxes of ginseng. Then we finally got a taxi to Seomun Market, which is the big outdoor market in Daegu. It's a pretty fun place to buy super-cheap stuff, and even better place to eat good Korean food as well.
When we left the market, we went back downtown and visited with my friend Marina. I was under the impression that I was meeting her and some of the other English club friends, but it turned out that the others wanted to go somewhere else. So Greer, Marina, and I went to Coldstone Creamery together, and ate some pretty awesome tasting ice cream. We also had some pretty long conversation as well. We talked for probably a good 90 minutes, before we all went separate directions back home.
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