Vinyl

So every week I meet up with a Korean girl to have a language exchange. We usually go out for dinner and speak English and then get drinks and I practice my terrible Korean. Last week we met in Hongdae, had tacos for dinner and then went to this little sidewalk bar that sells cocktails in a bag.

It's a really cute little shop.





Peach crush! My favorite sugary girly drink in Korea.



And this is Jaeyeon with her long island iced tea.

Deokjeokdo

So, this weekend I went to Deokjeokdo, an island off the west coast of Korea, with a bunch of people as a going-away party for a coworker of mine and his wife. The weather was supposed to be terrible but ended up being quite nice, so that was lucky and a pleasant surprise.

We brought enough stuff to stay for a month it would seem:



The ferry ride there was a bit chilly...



Once there, the people from the pension we were staying at came to pick us up in their vans. It was quite the cozy ride.



This is about half of the group enjoying day one in front of our tent community.



Jason (the host of the party) in charge of the grill.



Part of the crowd around the fire on night one.



Barbeque!



More campfire.



The next day we had lovely weather so we spent the day lounging on the beach (don't worry mom, I wore sunscreen....but I got burnt anyway).



I clearly don't belong on beaches.



More beach chilling.



The tide was out, so a few of us walked the maybe half mile out to the sea. It was sandy and not muddy at least, though.





Then we climbed the mountain up to sea this abandoned Korean War bunker and I pretended to do something adventurous. This photo isn't particularly convincing...



The view from up the mountain was lovely.



The view from our tents was lovely as well actually.



That night our fire burned the craziest colors. It was really cool but slightly disconcerting.







I almost stepped on this beautiful moth in front of our pension. It was like the size of my fist.



Proof that I had a tent--and I even assembled it myself. And slept without a nightlight!



Here is the tent community being disassembled. Note that almost everyone has the same $20 Tesco tent that would have been miserable had there actually been inclement weather. There were actually quite a few us who camped...I think maybe 3 or 4 other tents had already been taken down by the time I remembered to take this photograph.



This dog was so cute!



The sign for our beach.



I look so happy to be out in nature.



There was the craziest fog on the day we were leaving...I couldn't really capture in on film but this gives you at least a bit of an idea.



Heidi and I posing with a statue of a fisherman...which is apparently what Koreans do when they go to Deokjeokdo. Oops.



Chilling outside the convenience store while waiting on the ferry home.



The ferry home. :(



Goodbye Deokjeokdo!!

Back on the Grid

Emily made it to Korea!



So we went to the noraebang to sing some karaoke Korean style.









The next day was rainy so we went to a coffee shop.



Then we made some omelettes.



Mine was vegan!!!



Then some tourist activities. Here we are at the King Sejong Museum, dedicated to the king who invented the Korean alphabet.



Emily wrote her name in Korean!



Then we went to one of the palaces and were mobbed by middle schoolers wanting to interview us for their homework.


























Emily with the pagoda in glass.



Korean food with Jiyoung in Insadong.





Emily meeting Gold class, my new kindergarteners.



















Seodaemun- the prison museum. depressing.



Emily by the Han River!



Dalk Galbi- spicy chicken with cheese and cabbage and such.





Our date at my favorite kitschy subway cafe.





Goodbye Bots!



I'll write more soon!