4th of july in the ROK

July 3-5
4th of july weekend, and we were rewarded with a free Friday!
With our first and only long weekend upon us, we were torn whether to stick around and take it easy, soak up another much needed relaxing weekend, or venture out and explore korea a little more. lucky for us, our group is very versatile and flexible, making the most of everything- we decided to stick around Daegu, happily realizing we had yet to explore the city we’ve occupied for the last month or so. Yee women rejoice; the decision to stay meant adventures downtown, which meant SHOPPING! I think we must have gone down at least 3 times in three days, seriously, not kidding! I did score some pants and shirt and some other things, including a bucket of chicken that absolutely puts the colonel to shame! But let me paint a visual of these pants (picture to follow)! Cut in half, they are green and yellow, with a gray back w/ yellow pocket, lined along the waist with some purple and tied together with a neon yellow string! Whew, I saw them in the window and had to have them! They have become my party pants- the most comfortable things I have worn in korea hands down. But I digress…
Let me back up to Thursday after work, our first trip downtown. After walking past and in and out of what must have been 20 different shoe stores- downtown has shoe stores like it’s their business (hahaha), that, restaurants, and American Brand name stores… well we eventually got hungry, which was inevitable, and actually our original reason for heading off base; we found ourselves in a Japanese, conveyer belt sushi restaurant. I quickly put everyone in the restaurant to shame! At a thousand won per plate (which is just under a dollar), I eventually found myself looking at a 21 plate stack while couples (who were well under) looked on in what I can only assume was disgusting AWE!!! This definitely kicked Thursday night off on the right foot.
With the massacre of empty sushi plates in our wake, we left the restaurant in hopes of more exploration. And from there the shopping commenced! We did run into some very interesting, still un-obvious, completely unexplained places, like this one called the su café, which was essentially a pink buildings with windows overlooking one of the mainstreets with people in them hanging out watching tv… ummmm??? Anyway, a little more shopping took us to the end of the main shopping street, so we caught a cab home passing some a store selling cultural costumes- gonna get me one of those! Back home, we met up with ms. Dragonfly’s sister and buddies Matt and Cameron from Camp Humphreys, who we stayed with last weekend and got ready for the weekend to begin!
Let me simplify the next couple days; downtown some more, shopping for sure, got my pants! Still trying to decide whether to invest in a vest- they seem to be pretty big up here! We were shown the magic and ingenuity of the Korean snack makers- ICE CREAM IN A BAG!!! Amazing, must’ve eaten one a day everyday, except the day I thought I got food poisoning, which turned out to be sever dehydration (more on that later). The ice cream was sooo good, even after secretly linking my “food poisoning” to them, matt and I made a special trip out Friday night for an ice cream bag run! We hung out more, laughed a lot, watched some movies, ate some food, looking for blowfish, was told it was called teji by one taxi driver we thought spoke decent English, but then were directed to another restaurant the next night under the “teji” understanding and ended up instead with some delicious pork KBBQ- I’m not complaining. We also invented a new card game started by throwing cards toward and under a door, ending with an in-depth point system complete with target cups and three-point buckets and a toilet paper hammock… then 4th of july came around!
I jumped off a building, no big deal… try imagining jumping from the highest point in Daegu, approx. 123m. which is close to 400ft.!!! Trevor, Matt and I did this awesomeness just 10 minutes off base at an amusement park we’re supposed to field trip to in a few weeks: WooBang Land. Sky Jump, as it was so aptly named involved a 77 floor plank walk/jump! It was very safe, and quite a rush. The jump itself was a wire assisted base jump which ended in a target 77 floors down, which was kind of morbidly ironic don’t ya think. Anyway, we got to get all decked up in a “flash-esq” jumpsuit complete with lightning bolts, and set us up for some sick pictures. We were so impressive in our suits apparently that we got filmed by some local news crew who had us yell, what we interpreted as “fighting”, into the camera three times complete with gutteral, glorified man grunting and yelling- very macho! The jump itself wasn’t exactly as crazy as I imagined, still looking to go skydiving at some point soon! But it was definitely a wake up and memorable 4th of july!
On our way back to base after the jump, we found ourselves in a Chinese/Korean fusion basement restaurant, that had no English speakers/ actual English menu… but once again, kindness and good luck prevailed, and by ordering off of a salvaged (different restaurtant’s) menu, and talking to a family, who ended up hand feeding/ letting us sample their own meal, we ended up with some tangy breaded shrimp which were amazing! We of course had to at my request take some pictures with this gracious family!
When we got back to base we got to enjoy some of the 4th of july festivities including a frozen t-shirt contest (trying to put on a shirt that has been soaked, rolled up, and frozen over-night) which is no easy feat, and in retrospect extremely fun/humorously embarrassing! Matt ended up taking the win, coming away with some essences of Usher (cologne). Sadly, or epically (depending how you look at it), the fair was interrupted by some torrential downpour- that’s right folks, monsoon season is in full swing over here in South Korea!
That didn’t stop us for too long however. Luckily the night cleared up a little and we found ourselves once again, guess where, that’s right downtown at a “bumpin” club called the Frog. It was one of possibly 5 clubs I’ve been to (probably including grad parties), and officially the first club I’ve been carded at! It was a lot of fun once I got past the initial club-shyness, we tore it up people! That’s right, me… dancing… in public… in a club… I actually had a lot of fun. Our group is really awesome which definitely helped. Annnnd, I only got mistaken for a Korean speaking local a handful of slightly awkward conversations! All in all, a very good 4th of july!
Alas, however good and fun Saturday was, Sunday found me just the opposite. The dehydration/ “food poisoning” I’d been feeling the past day really kicked in. I decided to take it easy, stick around base, and skype for a bit. We were supposed to be going out with Ms. Liz our friend interning at Camp, who was going to show us around some more, and help me get this CD I’ve been looking for. My stomach had other plans for me… it was in constant knots, and I was just not feeling too hot in general. If it wasn’t for Trevor’s diagnosis I never would’ve realized I hadn’t been drinking hardly any fluids all weekend (that’s the last time I’m ever going to do that). At one point I decided to live by the water fountain drinking copious amounts in hopes of curing my tummy so I would once again be able to participate in my favorite pastime, EATING!!! It worked, and after a headache half-filled Monday I was back on my feet ready to feast once again (which I assume means I’m cured). Oh well, that’s all for now, it’s 11:30 PM Tuesday night, time to turn in!