Life on the Downhill~

Things are looking pretty sweet these days. Yeah, I was moapin' around a couple weekends before my vacation and a couple weekends after, but NO MORE! No use in moapin'....that's just for people that have nothing better to do. And I would like to think that I'm not one of those people (or at least pretend lol). This past Saturday I went to Ilsan, a happening city Northwest of Seoul. I took an hour and a half long bus ride, which definitely beat the three hour subway. Now of course, I was in Ilsan for about thirty minutes before I actually realized it, but I got there..hehe! Sunday was made for hiking, no doubt! My best weekends were spent hiking on Sunday. Now I know what you're thinking, "shouldn't you be going to church?" Well, no..I should be hiking..hehe!

I didn't realize that I left my phone at school until I went to pack it in my bag at midnight on Friday. Of course school was closed by then, so I would just have to get up early the next day so that I could walk to school and find it. Classes are in session every first and third Saturday of the month, and what luck, it was the second! I had previously messaged my South African friend Alida via Facebook that I wouldn't have my phone with me. Apparently the security guard was at school and notice me trying to break in, so he opened one of the doors and grunted something in Korean to me that probably meant "Go home!" I told him that my phone was upstairs because that is all the Korean vocabulary my brain could find at the moment, and quickly ran upstairs to find it. Yah! Success!! Low battery, but I found it. I walked from school to Oido station and hopped on the trains towards Ansan Bus Terminal in Jungang. 4,100W later, I had a ticket to Goyang..Goyang? I wanna go to Ilsan. I walk out to platform seven as my ticket said and nothing read Ilsan. So I went back inside the terminal and asked the lady behind the counter if this ticket got me to Ilsan. "Same, same" she said, because this was all the English vocabulary she could find at the moment. So I messaged Alida and said that I would be on a bus headed towards Goyang and I hoped that was somewhere in Ilsan. My bus came, I jumped on, handed the driver my ticket, and about one-hour later, we stopped. Well, everyone got off the bus, so I did too. I wasn't sure where we were, but since the ride should have taken 1 1/2 hour, I figured that maybe this was a rest stop. I went to the restroom, bought some steamed corn, and got back on the bus. When the cleaning lady came on she told me five more minutes, so I hoped back off. When others started getting on the bus, I got on too, only this time, the driver wanted another ticket. What? I just gave him one. Luckily there was a young girl there who could speak English and she told me that we were in Goyang. Well, shucks! The bus announcement never said Goyang and I didn't see it written anywhere. Of course it could have been written on the terminal, but all the buses were covering that. So, I hopped back on the train to ride towards Jeongbalsan, where Alida lived. Just as expected, I arrived 30 minutes late and didn't have to.

We had a great time walking around Ilsan's mega-shopping centers, enjoying some good Korean food, and watching movies in her home. I'm so jealous because her home, not bigger than mine, is more modern. She has 24/7 hot water with no on/off switch, an electric stove, lots of floor space with a bed, desk, chair, keyboard, and clothes-rack. She also has great storage and small windows along the top of her outside wall. I seem to like this style better. Her bathroom even has a ledge alongside the wall that you could put shampoo and what not. Grass is always greener, this is true.

Sunday morning we hopped on the train and headed towards Dongnimun (not to be confused with Dongdaemun) to meet 20-some other hikers from in and around Seoul. This guy William created this hiking group. Everyone just saw it on Facebook, met up, introduce themselves, and headed up the mountain. Iwangsan was mountain number one. Nice hike; not too strenuous. Great views too. Bukaksan was mountain number two. While it wasn't that intense, it did have what seemed to be over 1,000 stairs that kicked my butt for sure. This natural stair master made me cringe at the sight of stairs for the next two days. Subway station stairs "OooOoh..", school stairs "OooOoH!" My calves are like rocks!! No lie~ Can't say the same about my thighs..shame, shame! Alida and I left our belongings in a locker at Dongnimun station. Well, she apparently came down the mountain long before me. I had no idea where she was, so I met up with some of the group members at a local restaurant to see if she was there. I didn't find her, which meant I then asked around and looked for the closest bus stop. Hopped on a bus and got off at a subway station stop. Well, that stop was for line five, and I needed to be on line 3. So I rode the train from line 5 back to line 3 and over to meet Alida. After we got our belongs, we both hopped back on the train. She transfered at Jongno3ga to line 1 to meet her boyfriend, and I transfered at Cheongmoro to line 4 to go home. I arrived just in time to take a shower and talk with my mother on her phone (my skype) as she was getting out of bed for the day.

This coming weekend should be a blast as well. Going to the Irish Association of Korea's 11th annual St. Patty's Day festival in Insadong, Seoul with several friends. And Sunday, well...I think I might sleep. Or, I might ask Alida if she wants to go to Yeoido church with me. It is the largest church in the world, starts at 1pm, and is about 2 1/2 hours (including walking) from my house. Sleeping, cleaning, and chillin' is good with me though.

Tonight I plan to eat dinner with Sarah Jesson (South African) and Elizabeth Stockey (American) at Emart. Probably gonna rock the Bibimbahp again. Nothing like rice and mixed veggies with fried egg and red pepper pasted mixed with vinegar...yum! Problem though. I won't be getting paid this month because my school doesn't yet have their 2011 English budget. Well, I didn't even know I got paid out of the English budget to be honest. Aside from that, my bank is closed down due to construction, so I haven't been able to check my balance lately. I think there's one by Emart, so I will try tonight. I've wanted KB bank since the beginning of the year because it is so much more convenient for me, but Min Chan insisted I have Nyung Hyeop instead. ArRg Min Chan! I made my coworkers (grade six teachers) "cupcakes" today by icing choco pies with green colored icing and sprinkling dark green sprinkles on them for St Patty's Day.

My tooth as been bothering me once again, so this time, I called Tuffs Dental in Gangnam, Seoul to make an appointment for Saturday, March 26th. The cost will be about 70,000W, which is a huge difference from the 30,000W the dental office in Homeplus would charge. However, Tuff's dentist were trained in the US and the whole staff speaks English well, so if there was to be anything wrong, the would be able to explain it to me. An extra 40,000W for clarity..wow!! Maybe they will do more cleaning and inspecting too...who knows. I am scheduled to see a doctor tomorrow to run some cardiac labs, so I won't be eating anything 'til after. I've just always had chest pains, so since I'm not exercising or eating healthy, I figured I'd check it out. That, and it's cheaper here.

Class 6-5 was awful today. The boys were all throwing paper airplanes and other papers around while I was talking. It was totally embarrassing because it was my turn to teach and Seunghui happened to be in the room. However, Seunghui definitely told 'em off in Korean, made them clean the classroom, and stay after to write sentences...haha!!