International Day, Hiking

Hey folks!

After receiving some bad news from home and having some stress at work, it's been a long week. So I'm just relaxing on a Sunday evening, listening to my new favorite online radio station called Radio Latina, a French radio station that plays latin-style songs in French, Spanish and English. All of the advertisements and talking is in French so it's like music to my ears! I miss French SO much so I love being able to listen to it whilst jamming to some great tunes.

The week was difficult because I found out that one of high school classmates died last weekend. I was not close with him, but some of my closest guy friends from home were. He was like a brother to them. To add to everything, I also got a very sad note from one of my best friends explaining that her roommate was seriously injured in a freak accident and they are waiting to find out if her brain is injured since she's in a medically-induced coma. Needless to say, it has been really hard to be away from home this week because my friends are hurting and I can't give them the support I want to. So I was kind of distracted this week and was missing home, wishing I could be there to give support to my friends. It's been hard dealing with it by myself here, even though I have Val who has of course been wonderful and a shoulder for me to cry on. When you go through things like this you just crave the company who share your pain, you know what I mean? I know my friends are well-supported at home, but I wish I could do more than send an e-mail, talk on a short phone call, or send cyber-hugs. So that's what my Facebook status was referring to this week, if you're wondering. I'm OK, my friends aren't and I can't help them. It's the worst, feeling so helpless.

Annnyways, the point of this blog was not to depress you. I actually have happy things to share. So let's get to them.

On Thursday after work I joined Val at International Day at Ajou University (where he is taking his language classes). This was an all-day event where all of the international students set up booths representing their countries and served food and had activities. The festival was concluded with cultural performances by some of the students. Sadly I missed most of the food and activities since all of that closed at 5 and I didn't get there til 5:15 or so, but I did manage to get some Turkish ice cream and of course a Cameroonian pancake. There were SO many countries represented there, like Poland, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, China, Japan, Lithuania, Vietnam, the U.S., etc. It was awesome! I was in heaven, being in such an international community haha. During the performances I got to do things like watch a Mongolian play this awesome cello-like instrument, enjoy Polish girls firedancing, jump along to the music with the Germans who performed a drinking song/dance (what a surprise haha), and participate in a Turkish circle dance similar to the Hora. It was really fun but tiring since I had come straight from work!

Friday I went with Val to his tutoring session with this ADORABLE little boy named Sang. He 11ish and he just sits there and smiles if he doesn't know the answer. I've come with Val a few times when he goes to teach him just cause I like to be with him whenever I can and watch him teach because he's so good at it. Sang's mom doesn't speak a word of English but she's very sweet (I can just tell!) and always prepares food for V & I when he teaches. On Mondays I often go with Val to teach Rachel & Ryan, the brother and sister I mentioned in an earlier, because they just live across the main road from me. Their mom speaks great English and their grandma is always there. The grandma doesn't speak any English but I guess she really likes me and always just watches V & I and smiles. I wish I could talk to her! I guess a few weeks ago V went without me and their grandma was like "where's sexy?" haha. Even when I'm exhausted after teaching my after-school class on Mondays I like going to see Rachel and Ryan and their mom & g-ma. When I do come I usually help Val teach or just sit and watch. They are Buddhist and their mom is studying Buddhism in English (to practice) and she offered to take me with her one time so she can share it with me. I was like YES I would love to, so I think we're going to do that soon. Rachel is going to be a student at Sannam starting in March (that's when they start new grades here) so I'm excited to have her there. Her English is SO good, WAY better than most of my current students, so she'll do great.

After V and I went to Sang's on Friday, I took him to Outback (by his request) for our one year9-month anniversary. I finally got my salary so I insisted that I treat this time. I ordered steak and V ordered seafood pasta and we drank yummy wine. Our waiter was ADORABLE and tried to speak English to us. He was so sweet and sent us home with extra bread (Val's favorite thing of all time). We gave him a tip even though it's not customary to tip waiters here, and we also gave him a penny I had in my wallet as a souvenir. He was so excited he told us he was going to pin it onto his shirt (that's already packed with flare as part of his uniform). On our receipt he wrote "thank you and good luck! :)". Even Val admitted that he was adorable. Not in a I'm-attracted-to-him sort of way, but in a he-has-a-sweet-personality way. You know what I mean. The delicious food, casual atmosphere, memorable waiter, and special occasion made for perfect date night. To conclude the night we came back to my apartment and watched Toy Story on youtube (thanks, illegal internet movies!).

Today we went on a hike with Taylor (mentioned him in a previous post also...he's Val's American friend from the language school) and Taylor's Korean girlfriend Jin. I hadn't met her before and she was really sweet and her English is excellent. There's a mountain in Suwon that we decided to climb...I don't even know what its called actually. Hmm. But we hiked for about 2 hours, and it was really nice. The foggy and overcast weather was ideal for hiking but not ideal for the view at the top, as we couldn't see much! It was very nice to do something different and physical this weekend instead of the normal just sitting around. The cartoon at the top of this post says it all about the hike-- that is not an exaggeration in the least. Hiking is a common weekend activity here and people take it very seriously. Everybody was wearing those matching hiking clothes, visors, nice hiking shoes, and using those sturdy plastic hiking sticks. No joke. EVERYBODY. We were totally underdressed in our sweatpants, oversized t-shirts, and dirty sneakers. It was so bizarre! Also, about halfway through the hike there was a resting area that had workout machines. You are probably thinking, who the heck works out during a hiking break?! That would be the Koreans. Now I know how they all stay so skinny. These outdoor work-out machines are common here, but I never thought I'd see one in a location like this. So as we were sitting and resting, the Koreans were on the machines working their shoulder rotations, doing sit-ups, and.....wait for it....hoola-hooping. It was the most bizarre thing. Here we were on the side of a mountain and there's man, dressed in fancy hiking clothes, hoola-hooping. I had to laugh. I took pictures, which I will be posting soon. You have to see it to believe it.

The end of the hike was the coolest part. To get to the true, rocky peak of the mountain, we had to use a rope to assist us up the steep rocks. There were 3 ropes strongly fastened (I didn't even notice how) at the top of the "peak" and they extended all the way down to the base of that part. So to get up you scale up the rocks using the rope. It was pretty epic, though the view at the top was disappointing because of the fog. Nevertheless it was refreshing to do something new and see a new part of Korea. After hiking down the 4 of us got dinner at another one of those cook-at-the-table restaurants, but this time we had to take our shoes off at the door and sit on the floor. It was awesome and the food was delicious. We got pork and cow meat that was especially savory and tasty and I even tasted some mini jelly-fish tentacle thingys soaked in vinegar. They tasted like vinegar and felt like rubber. Yay new but odd sea creatures entering my stomach!

And that brings us to now, sittin in my PJs on my bed and bloggin'. It's 10:15 so I gotta go to bed (yup, living the wild life!). Thanks for reading! Pictures soon.

Love,
Mel