So, anyway, my host mother drove me to the bus station after school. I left on a 3:10 PM bus for Pusan and arrived around 7:00 PM. Here's where it all goes downhill a bit. I was supposed to meet Ray at the bus station, but he and the group of ETA's we call the Korean clique had tickets to see a movie. Ray told me to take the subway to where the movie would be to meet them. First thought: Huh, how the heck do I figure that one out. This was definitely a challenge. Remember, I come from Indiana...South Bend, Indiana. Once I learn a subway system, I can do well, but at first glance it takes me a bit. I was supposed to go to Nampodong, which I confused with Nopodong. So, the first time I got on the subway, I only went one stop because I thought I was going the wrong way. I got off and had to buy another ticket. I asked a woman for help, and she was very sweet! So, I said "Nopodong" and she sent me to the right side. After I entered the gate, I re-read the message and realized it said Nampodong not Nopodong. So, I went back to the woman, looked helpless, and said "Nampodong." Turns out I was on the wrong side, so she instructed me to climb under the gate of the right side and climb under the gate of the left side. It was all pretty humorous, and I am very glad that everyone in Korea is so nice. I also met Brian Parsons (an OC from Orientation/ETA extendee) in the subway station between stops.
So, after that, I finally got off at the right stop. I found out that the group had already headed into the movie and was told to call the Jeju Crew (the group of ETA's that lives on Jeju Island). So, I did. They were all eating and had no idea how to tell me how to get to them. I called the other set of Jeju people there and finally we figured out a place to meet. The whole time I was also talking to the ETA extendees. I had never met them, but I am traveling with Nika at the end of October. I met up with the extendees in the basement of the Megabox (one location for PIFF) and then we headed to find the three members of the Jeju crew at McDonalds. Seeing as how Nika, Janika, and I are not from Pusan and didn't know anything about the city, it is a good thing that we met up with George, an extendee who knew exactly where McDonalds is. I ate at McDonalds with them; the first fast food that I have had in Korea. We then met up with the rest of the Jeju crew at the "Love Motel" that they had booked. A love motel is basically a small motel that is used for the purposes of...well...you can figure it out, but it is cheap and quite clean actually.
We then met up with many other ETA's. (List of ETA's that were there: Hillary, Elizabeth, Glyppie, Drew, Jon, Tom, Tony, Lauren S., Nikki, Jason, Jess, Christine A., Christine L., Diane, Ray, Brian E., Amelia, Maia, Franklin, Jamal, Vernon, Ariah, Luke, Bryan K., etc).
This is a group of ETA's on a stage near the beach.
Just catching up on the beach! The water was really warm too!
Because there were so many of us, we had a hard time figuring out what to do. We went to the beach for a while and played in the water and then tried to go to a club. This club had a $200 a table cover charge! Needless to say, we decided not to stick around. We headed to a soju club nearby. It was called Soju Town. We sat around and talked for a bit before we all headed out to our individual motels/hostels.
Me, Hillary, and Jon at SojuTown.
Christine A. and I decided to walk with Jon after we left; he wanted to find a 김밥 나라 (Kimbap Nara). We met up with Tony outside of McDonalds and we all sat around in 김밥 나라 for a while. I stayed with Hillary, Elizabeth, and Glippie in the "love motel." They slept on the round bed, and I slept on the floor. This was next to a very interesting chair...obviously designed for one purpose.
The next morning, I met Ray and Luke in the ticket line at Megabox. The line was pretty hellacious! We waited for an hour and a half as tickets quickly disappeared. We were only able to get tickets to one movie that we wanted to see. Ray also managed to get two tickets for another movie that almost everyone in our group wanted to see. The three of us hung out on the beach for a while after that; we climbed on the rocks that were oddly near a naked mermaid sculpture.
We met up with Diane to go to the movie we got tickets for. It is called Raised from Dust; it is a Chinese movie about Christians in China. When we got there, there was a long wait. We found out after about an hour wait that the movie was canceled. Everyone in the theatre was pretty upset and weren't incredibly pleasant to the volunteers. They called in the person responsible for the technological difficulties, and he came to personally apologize to everyone. They agreed to re-show the movie at 10:30 PM.
The four of us went back to the hostel to relax for a while. Ray and I fell asleep on the floor for a little while while Diane and Luke watched tv. We left to meet up with the rest of the Korean clique. Ray and I decided to eat somewhere other than the buffet; it was a little too expensive for my tastes. We ended up heading to see the movie that Ray had gotten tickets for instead. Ray and I were going to go, but we met up with Amelia, and Ray gave his ticket to Amelia. He and I ate at Burger King before the movie; yup that's right, fast food twice in one weekend. Bleh!
The movie that Amelia and I went to is called Meisie. It is a South African movie about a 7 or 8 year old girl, Meisie, who is really good at math. A teacher, Ms. September, moves into her village and begins teaching at the only school in town. The teacher sees the girl writing math problems on the blackboard in the next classroom. She walks 20 kilometers to talk to Meisie's father to ask him to send Meisie back to school. He refuses, saying that she needs to take care of the goats instead of going to school. So, the teacher makes a pact with Meisie to tutor her everyday; the teacher walks 20 kilometers everyday to tutor one little girl. The two create a bond. The father finds out that the teacher is tutoring Meisie and confronts the teacher. After he sees his daughter praying to go to school at her mother's grave, the father has a change of heart and accompanies Meisie to school. It was an incredible movie, and the director was there to explain the process and answer any questions the audience had. Apparently he has worked in Hollywood and hated it. His name is, I believe Darrell Roodt. When he realized that he hates Hollywood, he decided to stick to Indy films. The one and a half hour film was filmed in only eight days and edited in five weeks. There were only four people who helped film. The actors and actresses had never been in a movie before, let alone ever seen a movie. The director told us that the little girl who starred in the movie cried throughout the whole movie the first time she saw it. Amelia and I talked to the director for a bit afterward; he signed our movie tickets.
Afterward, the Korea clique went to a concert and Ray and I went to the movie that was showing from earlier, Raised from Dust. It was incredibly boring, and Ray and I both fell asleep. We met up with the concert group, and I went to the concert for a little while because Amelia let me use her wristband!
Christine, Diane, and me outside of the concert!
We headed out to a club called Foxy. We met up with Franklin, Jamal, Vernon, and Sarata. We danced until 5:00 AM; we had a lot of fun! It was nice to dance; it had been a while.
On the way to the club there was a sign that said "Indiana" (where I'm from), but what you can't see is the Indian head sign above it. The guys in the pic just decided that they were going to be in the pic rather than move!^^
I slept in the hostel Saturday night because the Jeju crew went to Jinju for the night. I slept in Diane's bed, because she had to leave at 7:00 AM anyway. I woke up and took the subway to the bus terminal. It was somewhat of a guess where the terminal was, but it ended up being a pretty good guess. I was going to take an 11:40 bus, but I got to the bus at 10:28, so the driver let me exchange my ticket out to take the 10:30 bus instead. I got back to Wonju around 2:00 PM and waited around for Lauren and Jenna to come to the station to pick Jeremy and me up. Jeremy came in at about 3:30PM. Jenna had been in Wonju since Saturday morning.
Lauren had to go to practice, but Jeremy, Jenna, Lauren's cousin and I headed to my apartment so I could change. We decided to watch a movie before Lauren's choir concert; Born Ultimatum was sold out so we watched Nanny Diaries instead. It was actually a pretty good movie despite the fact that we showed up 20 minutes late for it. We spent some time at a coffee shop before we headed to Chiak Yay Sul Kwan (Chiak Art Center). Cafe Novellino is quickly becoming one of my favorite coffee shops around my area. We walked to Chiak; Lauren's concert started at 8
7:30PM. Hwi Kyun met us there, and my host mom and host sister came to see it as well! The concert was Christian and there was a dancing along with singing; there was a children's dancing group and a really interesting adult dance.
Can you see Lauren? She is the tall one in the third row down.^^
This is one of the dances.
This is the kids dance!!
She danced while the choir sang. It was beautiful!
After the concert, Lauren's host family took us to eat Shabu Shabu, a Japanese dish where
vegetables and meat are cooked in a broth. It is really good! Lauren's host father, Hwi, and Jeremy were drinking together; they were drinking soju which I try to stay away from as much as possible. I finally headed home around 11:00PM and still hadn't lesson planned or showered. Lesson planning was delayed until Monday morning.
Hwi Kyun and Jenna at the Shabu Shabu restaurant.
Jeremy and me at the Shabu Shabu restaurant!
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