Thanksgiving weekend in Korea was more than I could have asked for.

It started on Friday morning with a hillarious and overwhelming Thankgiving skype call with my whole family... grandma, aunt, uncle, baby cousin and even a few neighbors. It was a knee-slapping good time.. literally. It was so nice to see everyone. Oddly enough it didn't make me homesick or terribly nosalgic...just very happy. It was a perfect start to the day, especially because it was the start of a workday. Meanwhile, my friend Joe, who is stationed in an airforce base in Gunsan just south of Cheonan was chilling in my apartment and exploring/getting lost in my neighborhood. I met Joe once a few years ago through our mutual friends, Grace and Alec, when they visited VT. We tossed around a football for 20 minutes but let's be real, I was just gossiping to Grace the whole time. Despite our very meager aquaintance, we hit it off exceptionally well from the moment I picked him up from the train station. All of my coworkers and a few Korean friends (Daria and Judy) went to Boom Bar that night, and I introduced Joe to everyone. The Koreans especially loved him because he was a "fresh face" in our little SLP school crowd.

Saturday morning, Joe and I went to the gym. It was empty. He met Sonhun, the trainer, who told him he was very handsome. I love the trainer despite all of his impositions on my workout routine. There are gym bros and gods and then there are gym nazis and he is one of them. He is such a sweet friend though. Then, we went with Josh, Jenny and Krystin to Home Plus, a six- story super store. We were in the food court when Jenny and I ran into our students Diana (Jenny's student) and Tom (my student) who are brother and sister. Next thing we know, our two adorible students are dragging us to pick out what we wanted to eat so their mother could buy our meal. It was so sweet. It melted my heart. She wanted to pay for all five of us but we begged her not to. She brought us so much food... more than we could shovel down, but we managed. Her generocity amazed us and put us in such a good mood all day. As soon as we got home, we started cooking for our Thanksgiving potluck... ok Joe started cooking while I made little stars out of paper with Daria. He brought turkey, ham and stuffing from the base. It was amazing! We had a lot of food, even more alcohol and tons of people shoved into a tiny little apartment, but it was so much fun! The lack of space made it cozy and intimate. I met two new Korean friends, Pete and Sunbin, who were both excellent and hillariously witty in English. As corny as this is, I felt really thankful and lucky. It was a perfect Thanksgiving Korean style.

Today (Sunday), Daria invited Joe and I to her apartment for lunch. I think she really liked Joe. We met her cute litte omma (mother). And whatever it was we ate (looked like rice and seaweed rolled in a ball) was amazing. I wish I'd seen her cook the food, but she wanted us to sit and relax. After a nice little lunch, she took us to Independence Hall, which I wasn't expecting. I wanted to take Joe there this weekend. It was like she read my mind. I hadn't been there either. It's mostly a museum about the Japanese invasion of Korea. I had such a nice day. She's so inviting. She and I are becoming good friends. A lot of times we have a language barrier, but we're getting to know each other so well that sometimes we don't even have to communicate. She'll talk in Korean ad I'll answer in English and we understand each other.. of course this rarely happens, but when it does it's pretty amazing. I also pick up on her habbits as well as most Korean habbits. It's happening to all of us foreigners in just the tone we speak in, the Konglish (English/Korean)phrases we use now, and other little quirks Koreans have when they communicate. It's only my 3rd month. I can only imagine at this rate I'll become Korean by the time the year is over.

Not to leave on a sad note, but Korea has a kimchi crisis!!! What is this??? you may ask. Well kimchi, which is spiced cabbage, is a staple in all Korean meals. Everyday kimchi. Everywhere Kimchi. All day kimchi. Kimchi. Last year there was a surplus of cabbage, so farmers planted less. Bad call. The cabbage produce this year suffered a little with weather issues, and now there is not enough. Korea has had to resort to buying cabbage from China, but of course, Korean cabbage is superior, so succumbing to Chinese cabbage is an outlandish idea. Kimchi crisis. When asked which was scarier, the North Korean conflict or the kimchi crisis, a few Koreans answered kimchi. So there you have it. A sad year for Korean cuisine.

It’s occurred to me while I’ve been in Korea that being free of expectations heightens my experiences. When I least expect anything, anything at all, the most amazing things seem to happen.

This weekend holds pretty true to my previous statement. On Friday, my friend, Daria, set me up on a blind date. I didn’t expect much, but to my surprise, I had a lot of fun. She doesn’t speak much English, but we’re becoming good friends. My date on the other hand spoke well, but of course it was awkward at first as most blind dates are. After drinking a few bottles of soju (the Korean version of watered down vodka… at least that’s my take on it), the night went smoothly. Daria stayed with us for dinner, which was nice to ease the tension. We had a Japanese sushi type meal, but there was so much foreign seafood I didn’t even know what to do, so Daria acted like a little mom and showed me how to eat all these different shells and fish foods. She left around ten and blind date and I went to Wa bar near my house and kept the conversation going for another few hours. It was a nice time. He’s not quite my type, but he was genuinely kind and very mature. I’m not sure if anything will come of this and I’m not expecting it to. I’ve learned to expect nothing from most men. I’m a little jaded by them.

Saturday was another amazing day I did not expect. I hadn’t even planned to go to Seoul, but last minute I decided it was a good idea, so I took off with Josh and Jenny. Unfortunately, we are complete idiots and jumped on the train going south rather than north and we had to backtrack and lose half an hour. Luckily, we were able to catch a train north within 2 minutes. It was a miracle. We walked around this market area, Dongdaemun, where we found a bunch of cheap crap we probably didn’t need. After shopping a bit, Josh told me he thought he saw Hannah and Stephen, and to my surprise there they were just a few feet from us. I knew they were in Seoul and we had plans to meet up for dinner, but I never thought I’d bump into them so casually on the street. They informed us of this lantern festival along the Cheonggyecheon stream so we tagged along. It was absolutely amazing and beautiful with the lanterns glowing against the dark night. And the night wasn’t too cold. The G20 Summit is taking place in Seoul currently, so there is a bit of international attention in the big city. This was one of the attractions for the event. After finishing our stroll along the stream, it was exactly the time we planned to meet for dinner anyways, so together we headed to On the Border to meet Reuven and Ben for a real deal Mexican meal. It was the best margarita, chips and salsa and enchiladas I could’ve asked for in Korea. Pure bliss. Every time I’m in Seoul, Mexican is always a special treat. I planned on going back to Cheonan that night, but Jenny and Josh told me to just stay on their motel floor and leave later, so I took them up on their offer. We went to a makali (rice wine) bar and then noribang (karaoke room). I was exhausted and actually passed out in the noribang with everyone belting ridiculous songs. This morning we had a delicious Irish brunch, did a little exploring and headed home. It couldn’t have been a better and easier little weekend escape. Sometimes things just work in mysterious ways, especially when I’m least expecting it.

In one of my elementary classes, calld New Hi Kids, there exists little Alex. He is tiny and cute as a button but the most anoying thing ever. Not only the teacher finds him irritating, it's the whole of us. The class and I have an understanding. He likes to pick on the tallest kid, Kevin. It's exactly like watching a little chihuahua bite and bark at a big black lab. I have never seen anything like him. He definitely has a Napoleon complex for his age, the way he pesters the bigger kids until they eventually use their size to intimidate him. There is just no stopping this baby monster.

To clarify, if my last post seemed like a downer, it wasn't. I don't regret a single moment here. I just find myself in shock sometimes. Believe me, it's honest and pure shock, not horror. Occasionally I just start laughing to myself (even in public!) about what a wild chapter of my life this is.

Speaking of wild, I'm going on a blind date on Thursday that my new Korean friend, Daria, set up for me. She sprung this on me today. We were originally going for dinner just the two of us, but she's a sly one, and threw in a side orde of her single Korean dude friend. Random things like this keep happening to me in this fascinating country.

Sometimes, when I actually have time to breathe, I think, what is it that I'm doing here? In my cozy little Americanized apartment, with all of my physical comforts from home, photos, decor, blankets, clothes, down to something as simple as a pencil from a Richmond restaurant, it escapes me where I am for a few hours time. But being human, and not some animal creature, I don't hole up in my home. Unlike a hermit or hibernating bear, I venture out, in all times and seasons, now being a cold one, verging on winter. And I usually don't see the differences. I just see the people, bars, cars, streets; it's just the world I happen to live in. But there are times I catch my reflection and the world around me is unerving, the face staring back at me looks so foreign, to me, and most noticeably, to everyone else around me.

It snowed today. Maybe it was just thick rain...

This weekend my coworkers and I went to the DMZ, the demilitarized zone seperating North and South Korea.

We started the day at 8am by taking a train into Seoul. Our tour bus left from Itaewon (the foreign section of Seoul) so we explored a little before the tour started. The only Taco Bell in Korea is located in Itaewon, so I insisted on eating there at 10am. No one complained. There's nothing better than Taco Bell, any time of day.

Our tour bus towards North Korea took off at 11. Besides my coworkers, there were 5 old geisers that went with us. They were annoying. This one man was extremely awkward, from Finland, which may explain a thing or two.

The first thing we saw on the tour was a park made to honor the two Koreas. There are ribbons everywhere around the park, symbolizing hope for peace and unity between the two countries someday. It was a beautiful park.

After the park, we were taken to the Dorsan train station. It is not currently functioning. It serves as a peace offering of sorts from S Korea to N Korea, showing open lines of transportation if they ever open their border. South Korea is very adventurous with this train line, hoping that if North Korea ever opens its border, Korea can one day have a transeurasian train line, meaning trains from the south could travel through north, into China, through Russia and esentially into all of Europe, up to as far as Great Britain. Nice projection, but for the time being, it is desolate and eerie, just sitting there completely abandoned.

Last, we finished our tour by climbing through this small and narrow tunnel that North Korea built in an attempt to invade South Korea. This is of course only one of many different tunnels. North Korea coated the tunnel with coal in an attempt to disguise their real intentions and instead claiming to be "mining for coal". It was such a small space, I was surprised that almost 10,000 soldiers were in there at one time. Ever heard of clostrophobia??

The tour ended back in Itaewon, Seoul. We went shopping around the area for a bit and ended with a delicious Mexican meal. When I said there was nothing better than Taco Bell, that was my stomach talking at 10am. I retract my previous statement. There is nothing better than authentic Mexican food. That, I will never retract. I wish Cheonan had Mexican food. I think it's really only America that has a Mexican place on every other street. God bless America.

Here in Cheonan, we just finished celebrating Halloween. Well, for starters, Halloween doesn't exist in Korea, making it even weirder. At our school, the kinder kids went "trick-or-treating" in broad daylight at 10am just around the block of our school. All the mommys passed out candies to their kids and classmates. Then they went through the school haunted house begrudgingly... my boss forced everyone in... even the 3 year olds... no quitters/losers at Cheonan SLP school! God forbid! It was a bit freaky to be honest. I know I was spooked by having my leg grabbed in the pitch black haunted house. I think they could have catered a little better to the teeny tiny ones. Overall, Halloween day with my students was a blast. I even got to lay in the coffin and scare kiddies. It did make me nostalgic for Halloween back home.

After school. I took Julie, Jenny and Josh to the burger place, Soho, that I loved so much for its warm, cozy atmosphere. It was just as "magical" (in Jenny's words) the second time around. Again, it was a quiet and cozy little safe zone after work. The owner is Korean, but speaks English, French and learning Spanish, which explains why his restarant/cafe is so European-inspired. He pulled out his guitar after we finished eating our delicious burgers and serenaded us while we sipped on coffee. He sang beautifully and clearly in English and French. I was impressed.

There was one foreigner party at Kooma bar over the Halloween weekend. It was for foreigners due to the fact that Koreans don't celebrate it. I was Superwoman. I got hit on by Spiderman, asking how business was going, fighting crime. Lame. And a red crayon bought me a tequila shot, but he was a total bro and he was dressed like a red Crayola crayon. Eventually we left and went to Boom Bar because it was also Krystin's birthday and it's our favorite bar.

At Boom bar, Jenny told me I remind her of her 22 year old sister (she's 26). It was the best compliment anyone could've given me (espcially as an older sister myself). It makes me feel a little closer to some kind of idea of family. Even though I'm the older sister and I've never been nor will I ever be a younger sister, I am one here :) It made me think about my sisters and the wonderful relationship we have. I miss them a lot and it's nice to feel like that void can be somewhat filled while we're miles apart.

On Sunday, Rex took me to lunch during his break (freaking 4 hr long break) from work. It was a beautiful day and we ate outside. We had kalbi, which is barbecued pork. Sometimes at school I feel like a freaking vampire because I never see the daylight, so having a Sunday outside, even for a bit, was perfect. Then we got coffee up in the mountain/countryside near the big Buddha statue. Coffee is big here... people are always drinking coffee at all times of the day. Most any public place has a coffee despencer machine or atleast hot water. It was this charming little place (all the coffee shops are) he's been frequenting since he was a child so he knows the owner. It's so nice having a Korean to show me around and take me to new and hidden places that I wouldn't know on my own. I'm really enjoying his company. I'm learning a lot from him.