I met an amazing group of Korean English speakers two weeks ago. They meet every Friday to discuss a topic. Each Friday, a new person is chosen to create the topic for the following week. There are about 20 people in the group, so we split into 4 groups. This past Friday, the topic was "What was your most happy moment?" (What was your happiest moment?) Followed by the question, "What are you future goals? The answers for the first one were very interesting. The first guy spoke about his happiest moment being when he was in the army. He put in a request to become a part of the Korean army in Iraq and was able to go. I have a hard time understanding how this was his happiest moment, but the closest I can come is to think that he sees it as his happiest moment because he believes that he was doing something good for other people. I cannot imagine war to be a happy experience, but everyone experiences things in a different way. A girl that I became close to the first time I met her, Julie, spoke about taking 5 years after graduation to travel around and learn about Buddhism. She lived in a temple for two years and her dream was to become a female monk. Her goals have changed now, but at the time she was intent on pursuing that dream.
I spoke about my time in Kenya being my happiest time. Every time I talk about Kenya, I am usually on the verge of tears. It was an incredibly hard experience, but for some reason, it is one of the places that I am most drawn toward. I spoke about the village that I taught in and the host family that I lived with. The home where I lived had no running water and no electricity, but I miss it so much. I miss the 45 minute walk on the muddy road to the elementary school composed of a former farm; buildings of unsealed wood, dirt classroom floors, few books, one chalkboard hanging on a rusty nail, no electricity, and no running water. I miss the children running up to me because never before had they seen someone with white-colored skin. I miss the time that I spent at the orphanage with children that have lost all of their family members or have run away because of abuse. I remember how eager and sad I was to leave Kenya, but ever since leaving, whenever I think of it, all I want to do is find my way back. Somehow, I was able to convey all of this to the group that I was speaking to.
After the meeting we headed to the same bar we went to the first time and had Makkoli and talked. The guys that had picked me up for the meeting are nicknamed Howl and Kevin. Everyone in the group has a nickname. My nickname is Korean since they have English nicknames; 수정 (Sujeong...meaning crystal). The guys are all so funny and the girls are very nice. After the bar, a few of us didn't want to go home so we went to another bar to drink some beer. There were about 8 of us, Jay, his gf, Howl, Ian, Julie, Kingscandle, me, and maybe one other. Julie and I get along really well and she told me that she would tutor me in Korean!! Ian was out smoking and he and another guy won a little bear from the crane game for me! It's really cute! After that bar, we decided to go to 노레방 (Noraebang...karaoke). Another girl met us there. We had a lot of fun! I am pretty horrible at singing, but it was fun anyway. Julie and I just screamed at the top of our lungs, so it didn't matter.^^
After the meeting we headed to the same bar we went to the first time and had Makkoli and talked. The guys that had picked me up for the meeting are nicknamed Howl and Kevin. Everyone in the group has a nickname. My nickname is Korean since they have English nicknames; 수정 (Sujeong...meaning crystal). The guys are all so funny and the girls are very nice. After the bar, a few of us didn't want to go home so we went to another bar to drink some beer. There were about 8 of us, Jay, his gf, Howl, Ian, Julie, Kingscandle, me, and maybe one other. Julie and I get along really well and she told me that she would tutor me in Korean!! Ian was out smoking and he and another guy won a little bear from the crane game for me! It's really cute! After that bar, we decided to go to 노레방 (Noraebang...karaoke). Another girl met us there. We had a lot of fun! I am pretty horrible at singing, but it was fun anyway. Julie and I just screamed at the top of our lungs, so it didn't matter.^^
This is Julie and me at the second bar we went to. We both had our first meeting two weekends ago.
I shared a taxi with Julie and another girl when we finally went home at 5 AM. The guys stayed out to go to breakfast! ^^
So, I got home at 5AM and woke up at 7AM to go to the Mask Festival in Andong. I slept for 3 hours on the bus, therefore I wasn't incredibly exhausted when I got there. I took a taxi to meet Ray, Jen, Lauren, Amber, and Ariah at the festival. I didn't know that Amber and Ariah were going to be there; that was a good surprise! We ate when I got there and then spent some time watching dances. They were very traditional dances and we weren't quite sure about the stories behind them, so it was a little intense for me. In other words, a bit boring.
Slightly boring...hence the sleeping Ray! Plus the fact that he had a grand total of one hour of sleep the night before. He beat my 2!
Slightly boring...hence the sleeping Ray! Plus the fact that he had a grand total of one hour of sleep the night before. He beat my 2!
What was incredibly awesome though, was that we managed to run into Katie, Laura Johnson, Doris, and Anna (four other ETA's) while we were there.
These guys were awesome!! The one in red and green kissed me on both cheeks!
Manchester Represent!!
We roamed around for a while and I spent way too much money! The coolest part of the night was the B Boy dancers (Breakdancers)! They were awesome! I took video, but everything about my camera and computer won't allow it to upload. If ever I am successful at that, you'll see the awesomeness!
This is towards the end of the night at the festival. We sat in some chairs in the middle of some big area and randomly took tons of pictures.
This is a picture of Ray, Jen, me, and Anna sitting on two big teddy bears in the middle of down town after the festival!
After the festival, Ray, Lauren, Jen, and I took a side trip to Jen's place to pick up clothes and whatnot while the others found us a bar. Apparently we ended up at B on D (Perhaps Beyond). It was a good place! We had a cake for Jen's bday and ordered some yummy Strawberry Soju! We headed to a 짐질방 (Jimjilbang) afterward to settle in for the night. The girls chilled in the tubs for a while, but we were all pretty exhausted. We found Ray and scavenged for a place to sleep. We grabbed some mats and ended up sleeping in the exercise room which was about 150 degrees cooler than the rest of the place...oook, little bit of an exaggeration, but the whole place was pretty warm. Ray and I slept pretty well because of our lack of sleep the night before, Lauren and Jen not so much, and the other four left earlier to catch their bus out of there. I didn't even hear the other four leave in the morning. We usually like to refer to the annoying sleepers as "The cell phone," "The snorere," etc. "The cell phone" woke me up but I slept through everything else. The last time that I stayed at a 짐질방, Ray and I kept trying to throw stuff at "The snorer" to get him to stop. It never worked!
Anyway, we took Lauren to her train terminal and did our bow. Then we chilled at the festival for a little while before lunch. This is a pic of Ray and me at the festival under a wonderful display of pretty balloons!
I finally got to have 떡국 (ddeokguk...ddeok soup). I had been craving it for like a week! After lunch, I headed out to my train for the three hour trip home.
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