Day 16-Weekend Walking

This weekend was one of those crazy moments in life where you are having such an amazing time but end up being completely exhausted by the end of it...yes yes, that would be it.  My weekend started off strong with having a friend of mine sleepover Friday night.  She got here around 1030pm and then we went out and explored the area.  One of the coolest things I discovered this weekend was that every Korean park has workout equipment built into it. Which means that people can use it at any time...who would have thought!??! Maybe that is why Korean people are so thin, they workout all times of the night at the park (when we got there, no one was there though so...that was a fail). 

After exploring the town, buying a toothbrush and dancing in the streets we headed back to my tiny apartment for some tea and ROLO HOT CHOCOLATE (best thing of life).  I seriously recommend everyone bring a warm drink that they love with them when they move somewhere in the world, there is something about a glass of warm yummy that makes life a beautiful thing.   While drinking the warm beauty I was shown some pretty cool Korean beats that I am really enjoying!  The cool thing about Korean music is that there are always random English words or sayings in them so even if I know just a snippit of one, I can sing along!! :P

After the sleepover we woke up around 11 and headed to Seoul to meet a friend in a place called Itaewon.  Now Itaewon is the "Little America" of Korea (I could be wrong but that is how I felt being there) there are a lot of army guys around and it is very multicultural, also I found the majority of people around spoke English.  As soon as we got off the subway I saw people of all colours and began to smile and giggle feeling I was back in North America for a split second. 

When we all met up we went to a bar which was playing English music, had a menu in all English and the waiter was a young man from France.  I LOVE Korea but I was very happy to run into people from my neck of the woods since it has been 16 days since I have been able to walk down the street and not have people staring at me.  I can imagine Itaewon getting old fast and just wanting to be back in my Korean community but this was a time where I really felt I needed a taste of home.  It is here I can buy shoes that are bigger than a size 8 (since that seems to be the biggest size here).   We later on went to an AMAZING Mexican restaurant that is ran by a really wonderful American man.   It was sooo delicious, a little hole in the wall that I was so impressed some of the girls found it.

The cool thing about being there is that although it is "Little America", it is still in Korea so of course there are similar things.  For example, there are still a group of men with watermelons piled onto their trucks screaming out of speakers for you to buy them.  There are still tiny Asian woman pulling huge carts with hot food that they make in front of you and sell for cheap and OF COURSE there are still many street vendors, trying to get you to talk with them .  I had a great time there and will enjoy going back another day in the near future. 

After that we went exploring and slept over at another girls house, it is amazing at how many little gems are in each neighbourhood if you look for it.  It makes me want to go and explore my neighbourhood more and more, so many cool things to see and discover and I know as time goes on and the walk to and from school won't excite me anymore and it is than that I will go and see what is around.  

One thing that is really neat about Korea is that in almost every convenient store there is a small seating area with a microwave and hot water and chairs and tables for you to sit and eat noodles or rice or whatever it is you buy at the store.  So this morning when we were headed to church we went to the store and got some seaweed and rice, crackers and some Korean cookie things and just sat in the store and ate before heading back into Seoul.  At the convenient store one of the things that was discovered were these Oreo thingies that are so light and omgosh amazing...I am sorry I discovered them because they are sooo good.

After breakfast we travelled to church and met up with a group of Korean guys from church and got to spend some time getting to know each other and played a game in a coffee shop and it was lovely!!! We then had church and then went out to eat again.  Now in one of my other blogs I talked about the food court at the malls here and how they are literally just a display case that you see all the food with a number.  You pick the number and tell a woman at a register who gives you a number and then you look on a cool screen until your number is called a chef has your food for you.  Here was what I got:

It was only 5000 won (5 dollars) for the MOST food ever (SO YUMMY)

Once we parted ways and I headed home I had to go get my pictures taken for some immigration thing here called an alien registration card.  So I showed up after a hectic day and honestly, I KNOW I didn't look amazing but I am pressed on time and needed to get these photos taken so I headed to the Emart by my house to get them done.  Once I got there the man brought me to a mirror and told me to fix my hair and take out my earrings.  I did what he asked only for him to shake his head at me and continue to tell me to change my hair and put on lipgloss and dang...he was not impressed with me.   The picture turned out horribly but hey, he tried :P.  The culture here continues to amaze me.  Anyways I am now exhausted from my hectic weekend, my feet are basically just huge blisters from the inappropriate shoes I chose to wear, I have to teach tomorrow and go to the immigration office and therefore shall end this addition to my blog...oh the surprises that await me :).