the weekend has been nice and refreshing- i was mega-tired on friday when my parents left, which i think turned out for the best because i was too tired to really let it sink in that i wouldn't see them for another nine months or to really miss them. their visit took a lot out of me because i'd have to get up in the morning, do stuff with them, go teach, come home, do more stuff, get a little bit of sleep, get up and do it all over again. i think i was averaging 5-6 hours/night. but it was A LOT of fun- my friends are now in love with my parents, and i'm glad my parents got to see everyday life over here. we did some nice relaxing stuff- dinner at an italian restaurant that actually has decent food, lazy starbucks breakfasts, a night at the german beer garden, halloween at j-rock, plus some fun korean stuff- quite a few korean meals, a morning at gyeryong mountain, and the NORAEBANG which was by far one the most fun nights here so far. it was actually my first noraebang experience as well (don't know why it took so long to get there) but it was such a great release (for those of you that don't know, the noraebang is like private karaoke rooms, you pay by the hour and the room is all yours). there was some major couch dancing going on, i felt like i was right back in trailer 13.
thursday night i went to seoul with my parents to spend the night so they could fly out the next morning. we had a major griswold moment on the train. picture us looking at the tickets, thinking it said car 4, so we get in and realize we're supposed to be in car 14... meanwhile my parents look like they have enough suitcases to last a couple of years in korea, so we have to drag all of our luggage through 10 cars on a moving train. three tall whities moving through packed cars of stone-faced korean buinessmen... and it wasn't good news that my mom was leading us, because she is notorious for losing it at unfortunate times and crumpling to the floor in tears and giggles. there were a couple of close calls, but she kept moving and finally we made it to our table where she collapsed in a laughing fit. quite an achievement for her, i must say.
that night i had even better italian food than i had earlier in the week, we ate at the italian place in the marriott and had some awesome pasta and pizza with artichoke and mushrooms. ARTICHOKES- the same stuff they sell for $30 in a jar here. it was heaven. i didn't get much sleep that night, either, and passed out on the train going back to daejeon the next morning, then was very happy to realize when i got home that i had 2 hours to nap before i had to go teach. i fell in a DEEP sleep and felt like i was supposed to be getting an entire night's-worth when my alarm woke me up, and grudgingly i went into work after a cup of coffee and an americano.
anyway, onto the weekend... we all stayed in friday night where i got some much needed sleep, and yesterday alisun, melissa, and i went to gyeryong mountain to see donghak temple. they really appreciated it, especially melissa who hadn't seen anything outside of the city yet. then we went to a traditional dance that rika had tickets to at the performance hall, which was awesome to see. i thought it was mainly going to be dancing but there was a lot of drumming which i was really into. they also had 2 small bands at the bottom of either side of the stage, one consisting of traditional drums and the other consisting of a flute/horn sounding thing and some sort of string thing. i really enjoyed it because i hadn't seen any traditional dancing or anything here yet. after that we got some food from a restaurant, not really sure what the name of it was, but they cook rice noodles, chicken, cabbage, sweet potatoes, garlic, and lots of hot sauce in the middle and you wrap it up in a leaf of lettuce and eat it. it was pretty good. we called it a night- most of us were done in from the weekend and going out with my parents.
today turned out very nicely though. i thought it was gonna be crappy because it was kind of rainy and cloudy, and the plans originally were to play ultimate frisbee with alisun and then go to the citizen's league soccer game. i was surprised that alisun called to ask if i still wanted to play frisbee because i thought it would be rained out, but it wasn't. and we all decided not to go to the soccer game, which meant i didn't have to leave ultimate early, and we played 2 games. so i've never played ultimate before, and i know it's not brain surgery, but the rules are gonna take some getting used to- i think i played decently, made some good catches but basically just tried running around to look like i was playing. i enjoy running so that worked out well. seriously, though, it was nice because while we were playing with guys none of them were overly competitive and they gave me a chance to make a few catches. anyway, the people are all very nice, i'd met some of them before on random nights out but got to meet even more which was cool. and i got to show off my killer bruises from my night at the noraebang. i was a serious tambourine player that night and as a result i have a series of bruises that run up each thigh. they look pretty bad because my family bruises very easily. people couldn't get over them. secretly i like to pretend i got them from being a competitive ultimate player.
after that, i went with alisun and this girl grace to get some bibimbap, and then we couldn't hold it in any longer and had to get some noraebang action. it was a lot of fun (again). grace had to leave a little early, so then it was just me and alisun, but we sang it up like we were in front of thousands. good times. then i still had pent up energy so i ran home. and i feel like i could run some more (it's been a few weeks, no wonder i have all this energy now). but instead i have to do some laundry. and watch the latest episodes of the o.c. and the office.
