I had a really great time with Greg while he was here. It was so nice to spend so much time with him, even though I still had to work the whole time. During the days, he mostly chilled out while overcoming his jetlag, exploring my neighborhood by foot some while I was at work. He came into my school a few days, too! My boss was introducing him to all the students as the new teacher, "Greg Teacher." Somehow, the kids saw right through it and didn't believe he was a new teacher.
While he was here we got to experience something uniquely Korean: noraebong. Bong means room, so I can only assume that "norae" means " singing zany Korean pop songs in a little room while what appears to be a 'madam' (though she wasn't) serves you Pocari Sweat drinks nonstop." In other words: KARAOKE. My boss treated all of the foreign teachers and the Korean teachers (and Greg) to a Korean buffet dinner, then we all went to the noraebong. I'm pretty sure Greg was scared out of his mind, but then again he and I sang a Taylor Swift duet as the 3rd song of the evening, so he couldn't have been too uncomfortable.
The next morning, Saturday, we woke up early, around 8am. We had all the reason in the world to celebrate for the rest of his visit: he checked his email and found out he got into grad school at the University of Wisconsin for creative writing (and for those of you who don't know- he was one of only 6 out of over 600 applicants- accepted every 2 years!!!) So we did some light hiking on Mt. Apsan, did a little shopping, and generally just hung out, eating and being merry. On Sunday we boarded a bus to a town called Gyeongju, about 50 minutes away. I heard it was very historical, and I figured we should see some of that while he was here. About 10 minutes away from our destination, we came to the semi-frightening realization that we barely even confirmed we were on the correct bus, and even if we were (we were) we had no clue what we would do from the bus station. Was it in the town? On the outskirts? Would there be maps? Would anyone speak English??? Well, everything turned out fine. We ended up renting bikes from right outside the bus station, then we found a tourist map nearby. We made our way to one sight, a tomb of a king of some sort (over a thousand years old) but spent the rest of the day simply biking around, along the river and into some mountains. It was gorgeous!! Though since it was a holiday weekend- lunar New Year, the traffic was heavy, and people were gawking at us left and right out their car windows. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that the sight of us caused a wreck or 4. We also got to witness, by chance, the burning ceremony celebrating the New Year. Everyone gathers around this giant pile of branches that look like Christmas trees, and fireworks are set off- then the whole pile is lit on fire. Seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen, though this is a lawless land. Something like that would require waivers and whatnot in America.
Greg left very early Tuesday morning. It was sad to see him go, but it just gives me something to look forward to when I see him again :)
I got new classes at school this week. To avoid sounding negative, they're going to take some getting used to! I'll write more about them at a later date. Right now it's already taken me about 37 years to write this entry, and I'm tired!
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