A wonderful weekend leads to a wonderful week!!

Ok so my blogs have become far and few. I apologize. My week days are the same from day to day, just teaching different grades. But I will back up to last weekend. I ended up staying in Seongju last Friday night to relax and prepare for a busy/crazy Saturday. So Saturday morning I woke up super early and made my way to Gumi to meet friends there to get the bus to Andong. Two of us got a bus before the other two; unfortunately we were gambling when got on the bus. It ended up being the non direct bus. So the hour trip took two hours. Luckily the seats were super nice, reclining all the way back and with a leg rest like a recliner. So we didn’t complain too much.

We finally made it to Andong and met up with the others. We headed off to the Mask Festival. When we arrived we were reunited with our big group of friends. 12 of us in total, we travel in a pact obviously.

At the festival we all made our own mask and walked around. We dined on great vendor food. Mostly consisting anything and everything you could put on a stick. Including a corndog that was covered in French fries, better known as a heart attack on a stick.

That afternoon we took a bus ride to Hanoe Village. A few of us decided to take the short hike to the top of a cliff. From here we could see the whole village. It was a nice view. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay there to see the sunset because the fireworks show started just after. So all of my friends and I sat on the beach area of the lake and watched the sun set together. It was so peaceful and relaxing.

The fireworks wasn’t like we expected. They had what they called a rope firework. It was stretched across the little lake area and ended at the top of the cliff. It burned slowly but looked like a sparkler. Really cool!

After the show we had to wait around at the bus stop for the bus back to town. So a few of us decided to give everyone a little concert and sing along with our iPods and of course dance. I have the best group of friends, we are always having fun no matter where we are.

The bus finally came and we went back into Andong. It was Shirley’s birthday so we all shared a great ice cream cake and the headed to a bar. There we ordered different flavors of Soju punch. Pretty awesome hangout for sure. After finishing drinks we headed to the norabang as always. Most of the group actually feel asleep while a handful of us did the entertaining.

The entertainment was not over though. In Korea they have what they call jjimjilbangs. This is basically a public bath house. Saturday night we arrived to late to shower so we just changed into the pajamas they gave us and found a nice place on the floor with 100 of our now closest Korean friends. After only a few hours of sleep we woke up and started the experience. Male and females have different shower areas.

I will explain the steps.

1. Go into your locker room and strip down to your birthday suit.

2. Head into the shower room.

3. Sit down on stools and wash your body and hair. At this station you saw other scrubbing each others back like they were monkeys or something.

4. There were 4 different jacuzzi type pools all a different temp. So we started with the hottest and slowly moved through all to the coldest and then repeated.

5. Shower off once again.

6. Dry off and put your clothes on.

Yes, all of the ladies in the shower room was completely necked. It is a common thing to do here when traveling or for Koreans on the weekends. They acted like it was nothing new. But they did watch our reaction very closely. They found amusement in our first experience.

The girls then met back up with the boys to hear about their shower time. It was an enlightening experience for all for sure. After a quick breakfast we walked back to the festival for a few last minute things.

The trip home was better than going, we got the direct bus and slept the entire ride. I finally made it back to Seongju from Gumi after having to wait and wait on the train and bus. Timing is the hardest part of public transportation.

This week has been wonderful!! Classes have gone rather well. I no longer stress out. I plan lessons but always change them completely at least twice before I walk into the classroom. I braved internet shopping here so now I have a cute new pair of boots and two sweaters. On Thursday I went ice skating with the 3rd graders. This has been my best week so far because I haven’t had any “bad days” with school. All of the kids seemed to behave very well and we had a field trip.

Today is Friday, I am planning on staying here tonight and probably going to Gumi for atleast dinner with friends tomorrow. I can’t stay in Seongju all weekend. I would go bat crazy. It is such a small town I am always ready to go to bed by 8. Sad, I know, but relaxing.. so it makes the weekends even better.

I promise to start getting better with my blogs and putting pictures up.