A crazy weekend and another on its way . . .

It feels like the weekend just ended, and here it is- Thursday night and I'm packing my bag for this weekend's misadventures . . .

I have vacation days right and left during the month of May due to fabulous holidays like Children's Day and Buddha's Birthday. Last weekend was a five-day weekend, and this time around its a three-day weekend. Naturally, I used this free time to bounce around as much as humanly possible. There are tons of new pictures on my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/83719566@N00/. But anyhow, here's a quick recap . . .

Thursday- Went into Seoul and got lost. Surprise, surprise. But I like getting lost. It shows you another side of the city, and corners that you probably wouldn't have found on your own. I ended up at Gyeongbukgong Palace and Anguk, an artsy neighborhood in downtown Seoul. The palace was interesting, but overrun with schoolchildren. But I can say that I've been, and I took some beautiful pictures. Anguk was really much more my style, if a little overpriced. It strangely reminds me of San Diego's Little Italy, only much much different. There are a million and one little hole-in-the-wall art galleries that I want to check out, as well as museums galore. But a girl can only do so much in a day.

Friday- Went to the Korean Folk Village in Yongin with my co-teacher, Young-shin. Its basically a Korean version of Conner Praire, if you're familiar. Nevertheless, it was good fun and gave Young-shin and I some bonding time. She really is amazing. I really lucked out in getting such a fabulous co-teacher. We hang out a good deal outside of school as well. I think we don't have *that* much in common, but we seem to compliment each other nicely.

Saturday- SHOPPING DAY! Pretty much the entire day was spent at Dongdaemun Market in Seoul. Its basically an entire neighborhood that is transformed into an outdoor market on a daily basis. And you can find ANYTHING. Sneakers to sushi, its there. I ended up getting two skirts, three shirts, three pairs of earrings, one headband, a purse, a wallet, and miscellaneous food . . . and for about $25 US. A little flea-market-retail-therapy never hurt anyone :) And I'm looking more and more like a Korean girl everyday, now that I'm sporting their styles . . .

Sunday- Okay, the weekend was a blast, but Sunday takes the cake. I met up with a few friends to go to the Lotus Lantern Festival in Jonggak in celebration of Buddha's birthday. On a side note- I LOVE having friends here, and these girls are AMAZING. Seriously, I see good fun in my future. Courtney, Rachel, Jaimi, and Christine hail from the U.S., while Jen and Helen hail from the U.K. After the lantern festival, we ended up in a bar in the Dongguk neighborhood and met a bunch of Korean university students that are English majors. Five hours of dancing later, we hit up a noraebang (that's Korean for karaoke bar) and sang to our hearts content. I don't know if I'll being going to a noraebang again soon though, because I suck. Big time. Karaoke is not my forte, in case you couldn't have guessed. Anyhow, after a few hours of singing debauchery, we went to a 24-hour restaurant and feasted on egg rolls (which are something totally different here in Korea- its basically a gigantic omelet rolled up like an enchilada and smothered in sweet tomato sauce). I didn't get home till 8 a.m. . . which was okay because Monday was a holiday . . .

Three days of teaching later (I'll have to post more about my teaching experience at a later date, this post is getting a little long), and I'm packing my bag to go to on a road trip tomorrow. The girls that I hung out with on Sunday invited me to go to Incheon, a beach/island city west of Seoul. There are rumors floating about of beach camping and eating live octopus in the plans. Should be good fun . . . but don't expect to see any pictures of me eating octopus . . .

Till next time . . .

Anyong ki haseyo,
Dana