Becoming cultured

My apologies. I have been lazy to blog lately leaving me so much to tell all at once....ah, where to begin?

Well, biggest news first: I have a cellphone now! It's fanTAStic! I kept telling myself the longer I went without, although frustrating then, would just make it all that more sweet in the end and it was so true. It feels incredible to have one now! Ah, so great. With Internet at my apartment now as well, I can fully reach my social potential with friends here and people back home. Yay! Not to mention I love not having to plan everything ahead of time anymore...I can return to my laid back, wherever the wind blows me, spontaneous, and late self.

Last weekend was full of new adventures and distinctly Korean culture experiences. Friday was a holiday (no work) which called for a Thursday night all school dinner celebration. Dinner was Round 1, drinks with funny snacks (dried squid dipped in a red pepper paste and mayonnaise blend) was Round 2, and the night ended as the sun was beginning to rise after Round 3 in the karaoke room. I discovered my manager's love for ABBA so we had a blast singing and dancing to "Dancing Queen" with the handful of co-workers that stuck it out the whole night.

After a few hours of sleep I felt refreshed and ready to attack Mt. Gaji with Kristen, Jerome, and Melanie. We must have been jamming too loud to Jerome's mix CD of Britney Spears, 98 degrees, Clay Aiken, and Mariah Carey that we ignored the GPS instructions to stop (oops) and kept right on driving past Mt. Gaji to end up at Mt. Sinbul a bit further down the very scary, tight, and twisty road. The new, unexpected destination was fine with me because Mt. Sinbul is home to a beautiful waterfall I had secretly been wanting to see since I came to Korea.

The hike down to the waterfall was a piece of cake and after a snack of apples (rudely interrupted by giant bees) courtsey of Jerome, we decided to explore the path going up from the waterfall. Being amateur mountain hikers we failed to pack our hiking sticks or wear the proper hiking shoes for the kind of trails we encountered. We climbed almost straight up until we reached what we thought was the top (and I'm still convinced it HAD to be because we were SO high) but when we stopped to catch our breath and enjoy the view we were told from some other hikers it was another 2 hours to the top. Whhhha?!? Kristen and I climbed a tree to get an even better view of the endless mountains and we all decided making it that far was good enough to be called a successful hiking adventure.

We headed home, cleaned up, and went to check out the world music festival going on at a park downtown. Everything seems to be called a festival here so our expectations for this world music festival were very low. I was blown away when we arrived! The first band playing out the large outdoor stage was called Gypsy from the Czech. Picture this: Eminen mixed with accordian and fiddle, speaking in Czech with the occasional curse word in English. Ridiculous but they were extremely talented musicians. The next was a Romanian band...10 or so older men standing in a line on the stage, 2 tubas, 2 trumpets, 2 bass drums, 2 saxophones, and a few singers. It was one of those things where you think, "Wow, I can't believe I just watched that for an entire hour," but there was just something intriguing about it all.

Saturday morning I hopped on a bus to go to the magical land of Daegu...home of Costco, over an hour drive from Ulsan. I haven't missed much food from home so I wasn't even going to go but decided to enjoy the social outing of it all. Costco was not that exciting (or maybe it was the fact that we were there, in the store,for over 2 hours...) but I did scored some Eggos to have for breakfast in the mornings. Leggo my Eggos! The funny thing is I never ate Eggos in the States because I could always eat my mom's waffles. But now that real waffles are not to be found, I have to indulge in the pre-packaged kind.

The long bus ride made me antsy so I couldn't wait to get back to Ulsan and check out the music festival again. There's just something about live music that is addicting. This time we visited the other stages to hear some jazz and artists from the featured country (Portugal). On the outside stage an Argentinian band played and WOW, they were so good! The last song they let everyone rush the stage and danced around them as they sang and played their instruments. Amazing. A last minute, late night soccer game watching, spicy fried chicken eating party with Willy after the music fest made for an action packed and quite exhausting day.

Side observation: Koreans love to clap...to everything...and I find it hilarious. Now I'm a bit of a clapper hater so maybe I'm a little bias, but let's be honest, some types of music you simply cannot clap along with, am I right? In my opinion, clapping is just a lame kind of exemption from dancing and I say, why don't we just all dance? What's the big deal?

Sunday after church I once again caught the last bit of the music festival. This time a traditional Korean drum group was performing where all traditional instruments were played. It one of those shows that would come to the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center...it was great and something every expat living in Korea should experience. It was exhausting and inspiring to watch as the performers drummed their hearts and ran around singing and playing other instruments out for a solid hour.

After the performance I was off to one of my manager's son's first birthday party at a buffet restaurant. A child's first birthday (which is really their 2nd because they are said to be 1 at birth) is a huge deal here. Hundreds of people are invited and it runs sort of like a graduation party. There was a slide show of baby pictures, a large table set up with framed pictures, the parents and baby both dressed in the traditional hanbak outfits, and a "MC" of sorts directing the party. Jerome and I walked in a bit late and slipped into a sit in the back of the room but as I looked around I noticed I was the only non-Korean there. The MC was doing his thing in Korean and within 30 seconds the entire room was pointing at me, people were pushing me out of my chair, towards the front of the room and the MC, and saying congratulations. I had no idea what was going on (I'm sure my face was bright red), so I sheepishly accepted the bottle of wine the MC was offering me. When I sat down it was explained that I had won the gift for having travel the furthest to be there. I ended up leaving with a full tummy, a bottle of wine, and a hand towel with the baby's name and birthday embroidered on it. Crazy!

One of the most interesting Korean 1st birthday traditions is small trinkets that represent a certain career are set on the floor, the baby crawls towards them and whichever he touches first is said to be the career he is destined for. Thomas' baby touched a computer mouse so it's said he will be a computer IT person. So fun!

Ah, no time to fine-tune, more to come soon!