So, its my official first week of summer. I've been staying up til 3 in the morning and sleeping in. Not a good habit... I need to make a more concerted effort to go to bed earlier, but I function so much better at night...
Nik playing with a touch screen Seoul Metro map
Anyhow, this past weekend Emily and Nik came to Seoul. On Saturday I made plans to go to the Lantern Festival (in honor of Buddha's birthday) with Youngwha unni and Nik. Nik stayed at my host family's house the night before (they are so nice and let my friends crash at their house when they're in seoul!) so we headed to Insadong to meet Youngwha unni at 1. Interestingly, Youngwha unni had never really been to Insadong, only in passing. It's a huge hot spot for tourists, as it sells all the "traditional crafts" etc.
temple enterance
Youngwha unni and me
We wandered around a bit and then went to Jogyesa Temple and looked at all the lanterns hanging. They had made them in the shape of the center red/blue circle of the Korean flag! cool! I think most of the festivities were actually the next day, and the actual holiday, Buddha's Birthday is this coming Friday. We stuck around all day and saw the parade at 7:00.
During that time, Youngwha unni asked me why I don't wear much make up. Most Korean girls are very consumed with their outward appearance and everyone wears makeup. Even the guys (they sell BB cream for men). I told her I didn't really have too much makeup and she got super excited and took me makeup shopping. I am basically now set. She put all the tester stuff on me in the store, which made me freakout a bit, internally, as I'm a huge germ-a-phob... I don't think I really like mascara, as it made my eyes feel like they were kind of stuck together. But, she sure had fun picking stuff out for me~ Part way through, I realized she intended to buy this for me and told her it was too much, but she said it was necessary and she was obviously enjoying herself. it was really really really nice of her!
I was wearing my glasses that day, and afterwards, in the height of the excitement, she told me not to put them back on. lol! I told her I couldn't really see without them... We met back up with Nik and also Emily later, as Nik had split ways earlier in the day to attend a forum. When we met up, Emily told me she whispered to Nik, "Is Lia wearing makeup?!..." lol!
Emily and Nik spent the night at my hostfamilies house. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me to buy makeup remover, so I had a heck of a time getting it all off! I looked like a raccoon, but luckily with Emily's help, it all came off. Whew.
At a game board cafe
On Sunday Nik and Em headed back home. I dropped Emily off at Gangbyeon, where she was to catch her bus. We had a bit of extra time, so we got ice cream. It's tradition; we always eat ice cream together.^^
Then, I met up with Sarang and her cousin Jiyeon, who were at TechnoMart, right across the street from the bus terminal. Sarang cut her hair! She wasn't so sure about it, but I thought it looked nice and makes her look older. We went to dinner with one of Sarang's friends and then I went to Sarang's church. We tried to sit near where the Korean Sign Language interpreter sat, but we got there too late... It was a special Family Day that night, so there was lots of sings and skits etc. Towards the end, I thought to myself, wow, her church is really fun, but somethings feels like its missing. Then not even two minutes later, the pastor apologized because that night there were so many things going on, he was going to skip his sermon. Ah... I realized that's what was missing. The sermon. haha.
I spent the night at Sarang's house. The next morning Sarang had work at 10am at the English school she is working at. I hung around her house a bit and ate breakfast and talked with her dad. My Korean has definitely improved, but I still was lost much of the time during out conversation. Actually, Koreans seem really good at talking, so her dad talked to me for like an hour. We jumped from graduate school to the founders of Samsung and Hyundai, to ship building. I most definitely missed the transitions... I'm positive there were some because at the end, he somehow managed to tie everything back together. We also talked about what type of guy I like. I told him I like people who are smart, fun, and have a good heart. He laughed and told me if the person is smart and fun, he wont have a good heart and if he is good and fun he wont be smart. haha!
Afterward, I went to Sarang's work place and met her students and her for lunch. Her students are both in their 30s and are doing a program called "Prision Break," and they are there from 10am-9pm Monday-Thursday!!! After lunch, we played the game Up Words, which is essentially Scrabble, but with the added component that you can build words up.
That evening I went to Myeongdong with one of people from Tte. He is actually a student at the Korean Lang. Institute from New Zealand because hi has to get ready for his mandatory 2 year military service. Yikes! It was fun, but towards the end, it started to rain and neither of us had an umbrella. The rain continued all the way home. I called Nik and was standing at the bottom of the stairs at Sinimun station, which is right next to the subway maintenance area. I figured I'd finish my phone call before I ventured out into the rain, which presumable is acid rain or at least yellow dust rain.... After about 10-15 minutes, one of the subway station workers walked over and poked an umbrella through the fence to me!!! How sweet!!! His act of kindness made my day!
Tuesday I tutored one of my tutees for an hour. Then I went to Dongdaemun and met Youngwha unni and her husband for dinner (they're the couple that I sat next to on the airplane^_^). I got into her car and she handed me a dress! All I need now is a large hair bow (I think that's next on her list Oo) and with my makeup and new dress, I will be the quintessential female Korean archetype. Afterward, Kyungmoon and I met up at Myeondong (yes, again) because she wanted to get a pair of shoes and we needed to find a baby gift for one of the camp unnis, as we went to visit her today!
It was raining and all of the surrounding department stores closed at 8, so we ended up going to Lotte Mart, which is kind of like an extreme Target ,and got her baby clothes and stacking cups. So obviously our first time shopping for a baby gift. I brought the stuff home and showed my host mom and turns out we bought 3-4 year old sized clothes... ugh. we thought it was months not years!
He'll grow into it eventually.
Wednesday Kyungmoon and I got to meet Hyeonjeong's baby!!! We were supposed to go at 9:40 but at 9:00 I woke up from a phone call from Jeonghye unni, who was going to be taking us. She started talking about a time change, which was basically a stream of conscious in Korean; way too much Korean first thing in the morning. I croaked, "sorry, what?" But things got sorted out and we went late morning.
I didn't know it was my host brother, John's birthday yesterday until roughly 4:30 in the afternoon! I got home to get ready for tutoring and my host sister was making a birthday card. yikes! I had been planning on going to drumming lessons, which I've missed about 3 weeks in a row due to finals and Tte practices, but ended up going out to dinner, which was fun! I got him a new lego set and a watch, which he seemed to like. I used his name and made one of those skeleton words by writing his name in cursive on a piece of folded paper and cutting it out and unfolding it his birthday card. I think it turned out pretty cool~
We went to dinner and after wards they got an ice cream cake from Coldstone. Yum! When we got back, I told John that if he put some of the dry ice (which came in the cooler to keep the cake frozen) in water, it would carbonate the water and turn it into sparkling water. He took it to an extreme and dumped all of in... but it looked really cool!
Coldstone cake
we started with a cup
and ended with a bowl
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