Randomness...

Our friend had a birthday dinner with pumpkin duck! it was so delicious...but i kind of tasted like ham..either way, it was the best ham-tasting-duck baked in a pumpkin i've ever had!!

N8 was the only blond on the subway!

Hey all! Sorr for being so lazy about the blog...but we finally have something to talk about.

We have had our ups and downs this weekend. First off we have some bad news, after coming home from school on friday afternoon N8 and I realized that our motorbike was gone! A few days before we realized that the door to the battery box on the motorbike was tampered with which was a clear sign that someone was trying to hotwire it. So with the help of a young high school student, we called the police and made a report. We are both really bummed about our loss, but its not the end of the world. I dont think that it will be returned because its probably already been sold to someone else. oh well...it was fun while it lasted.

Even though that was a major downer for our Friday night, we were busy getting ready to go out to Seoul on Saturday for our friend's birthday party. A bus to Seoul only takes 3 hours from Gangneung and we arrived at our hostel at 6pm. We brought our friend Marta a small cake and sang happy birthday and started getting ready for the evening. We went out to Itewon, which is the forgeiner hotspot because it has lots of shopping, a forgein food market, and forgein food restaurants. We ended up going to a Thai restaurant which was amazing! It took me back to my time spent in Chaingmai, and it reminded me how easy it was to gain 20 lbs in 4 months. Delicious! Afterwards we walked over to a hukabar called Bricx and it was pretty nice. The small dance floor was totally dark with little streams of green and red lights that would put small dots on everyone in the room. We met up with quite of few people there and we also had some korean friends with us, which made things seem more normal. We had more cake and drank, danced and smoked huka. Afterwards we walked over to a 'noribong' which is a karaoke room. Yes, just ONE room where you go with your friends and sing to one another. Everyone was pretty drunk at this point so we were singing some MJ, Abba, Madonna, and such. We were kicked out after an hour, because thats all we paid for, and we ended up in another bar called Bungalow and created the best dance party ever. Most of us just ended up on the smal sand dancefloor and started movin' and groovin' and had the whole place dancing in like 30 mins! it was very fun.

The next day we were dying for some hangover food and landed this AWESOME burger place. This was the first time in a long time that we have been able to have a big hunk of juicy meat on our plates! The burgers were 100% australian beef, which smelled amazing, and they had all different kinds of burgers. I've been dying for cheese lately so I ordered the Cheesy Cheese Burger, our friend Brett ordered the Ambulance ( Hashbrown, burger, bacon and a sunny side up egg) and Nathan got the Islander that came with a thick slice of pineapple. We also splurged on some chilli cheese fries.. I WAS IN HEAVEN!

You know you eat too much when it hurts to breathe..and believe I was in pain, there was no more room for my lungs to expand. The meal was pretty amazing and much needed. We walked around Itewon looking at shops and small vendor stands and finally made our way to the forgein market and What The Book. The forgein market is comparable to the mexican markets in Pittsburgh, where it's a small store with maybe 3 or 4 isles of random food and treats. I got a small glass bottle of maple syrup for a friend, because she has been wanting pancakes so badly, and it cost $9! For ourselves, we bought some cilantro and 4lbs of cheese! I've been so happy with the cheese lately. We made some quesadillas with flour tortillas that someone gave me and i've been making cheese sandwiches and everything. Next we'll have to make some cheesey spaghetti. I also made a killer veggi soup with a hot pepper and dumplings. It had the perfect punch to it!

So now we are back to the grind and enjoying working at school. Now we have Halloween to look forward to because we are hosting a pregame- halloween party. FUN!

Travels and Tidbits

I have become more and more homesick. I'd like nothing more than to be close to my family right now. N8 and I both have strong family ties and its hard to be away for so long, even though its only one year. Thank goodness we have each other! I hope you all know that we miss you and we think about you everyday.

I think about my family even more whenever we go on little outings or traveling adventures, because I wish you all could experience this with me. Two weekends ago N8, Jose and I went to Gyeongju, which is supposed to be a very historically rich city. We arrived on Friday and searched around for a cheap motel. We were only allowed two people per room, but since all white people look the same, we were able to sneak N8 up afterwards and all sleep in the same room for only $25 (all together). We walked around the city area for a while and saw that there were small hills everywhere. Some small and some larger grassy mounds of earth which we found out are burial sights were scattered all throughout the city and the city parks. It was a chilly night on Friday but everyone seemed to be out enjoying the evening, children where screaming and playing and flying kites, couples were out holding hands and old people were drooling on the benches...it was a lovely evening. We walked through a park when it got darker and we were able to take a cool snapshot of N8 at the top of the grassy mound with the moon in between his arms.

Later on in the night we were told to visit a place where they have rebuilt temples that surround a small pond. The lights from the temple are reflected in the water and make for a very romantic evening, even though there were tons of people there. Koreans seem to love their tourist attractions. They all gather round with there very large and expensive cameras to all of the tourist sites located on the map. The next day we ended up going to Bolsaka temple, which was also rebuilt and restored and again there were many many people there. I, personally, like to travel with more seclusion but it seems as though we can't get off the tourist path. The temple was not that exciting or impressive especially since it isnt authentic. We ended up taking a nice hike up a mountain and reached the top. My fellow friends really enjoyed the challenge of the hike and were proud of the completion of it, I truly enjoyed the scenery from above. The mountains surrounded us with a thick mist covering them which made your eyes sleepy. There was a stillness on the top of the mountain that was calming and relaxing. many people do these kinds of hikes and bring a small picnic, but were too eager and forgot to bring food so we had to rush back down in order to find something to eat because we were starving!

We ended up leaving that evening on the bus back to Gangneung. It was a short trip that wasn't too eventful or spectacular but it was nice to get out of our city and see something different.