Standing Eggs, Gorgeous Views, and a Treacherous Hike

Ah, sick days. . . sometimes the worst, but sometimes the best. I've been getting quite a bit of rest while touring. Usually I leave after lunch and get back before dinner. Yet perhaps I needed a sick day of just laying around and playing with Si Yeon! But that's today... and I'm going to start on Wednesday, so I'll get to that in a bit!

Annyeong, Jeonju!

After Maisan, I had some deliciously spicy Sundubu Jjigae (순두부  찌개) and then we called it a day!

The next day was pretty low key, I was going to take a train back rather than a bus (ha, they said it would be more comfortable! At least it wouldn't be unbearably hot). Though I did manage to balance an egg on its end! Paul's dad called me a few days later and said it was still standing. Hahaha. I can't say I'm not proud!

I would crop out the handsome guy on the TV screen, but he's Kim Soo Hyun, and he looks very touched by my standing egg, so I could not.

I made it to the train on time with no problems, but there was a problem on the train... but it didn't concern me. Paul's parents came onto the train with me in order to help me load luggage and say goodbye, but all of a sudden, the train started moving! 8-O It had left with them still on it! They had to get off at the next stop and take the first train back. I felt bad, but... it was sort of funny. Later, at least, haha.

And I randomly got this shot of Jeonju countryside while on the train. Lucky much?

And Si Yeon loved her monkey stuffed animal I brought from the States! And She had lots of friends for her too. She named her Minji!

City Tour

While surfing the net before coming to South Korea, I ran across a small organization that provides free personal tours of Seoul, your choice of where to go. (if you're coming to Seoul, and you're interested: http://www.meteoryouth.org/index.html.) The 16th was when I had booked the tour, so I headed out at 2pm that day to meet my guides! I had assumed that it would be two girls, but, ha, it was one guy! And before you go "Wow, that girl is stupid..." just know that I am alive and unharmed. They had never said it would be girls. It wasn't that sketch. He was a talkative, nice young man, called Sunkyun. First we went to see the guard change at Gyeongbokgung.

Then we headed to a hanok village where we met Sejin, the other guide, who was a girl!

And then Myeongdong! That was fun. I found idol socks (Daesung, G-Dragon, and Heechul) so I bought them! As jokes of course! Maybe... Then I found a spiderman earring for my cartilage piercing, which I am still wearing, by the way. We ate budae jjigae, which is like a bunch of random stuff thrown into a pot and boiled. DELICIOUS. It had stuff that looked like spam, pepperoni, ramyun, onions, etc. It was amazing. Apparently it came from the time when all Koreans had to eat was the US military's scraps, so they made a soup out of it. With good result! 

Next stop, Namsan Tower! Very touristy, but there were still Koreans there, and the view was gorgeous.

And the day was over! My guides were great, and I learned a lot more than I would had I gone alone. And... It would have been sad (pathetic) to go to Namsan Tower alone... it was full of dating couples, and I think it's called the Love tower or something. That would have been awkward. Hahaha.

On Friday, I went to The National Museum of Korea, but my legs hurt so much and I was so tired I spent most of the time sitting down. But the outside was more interesting to me than the inside. :-)

That was all I did on Friday, but I needed rest, because I was going to wake up at 6 the next morning to hiking with a English speaking meet-up group! I had found out about it through a blog of an English teacher and, since I like hiking, I thought I would check it out. I'm glad I did, despite the very early start!

We hike Homyeongsan, it was around 10 km. The first part was pretty brutal for a girl who hasn't actually worked out since high school. It was straight up. But fun! I survived! It was fun to speak English with people for whom I didn't have to edit out complicated grammar or big words. I was the youngest, for sure. They all kept asking me if I taught English. It was a good group, and afterwards we went and ate Dalkgalbi, a famous chicken dish of the area. 

I also met a woman who attends a church with a large English ministry in Seoul, so I'm hoping to get more information about that! I haven't been able to attend a church here yet, mostly because I don't know anything about it around here, so I'm glad I met her!

I nearly fell asleep on the subway home. I was standing, because there was no seat, leaning into my arm half way. A person in front of me got up and left, leaving an open seat, but I didn't notice. Then an older woman to my left tapped me and waved me into the seat! I tried to protest, but she insisted. How sweet is that?

Well, I was sick. I thought I was sick before the hike, but I pretended I wasn't so I could go. So I woke up feeling sort of awful in the throat area. So what do we do? Have a sick day! And sick days include looking up memes on the internet; watching Finding Nemo in Korean and realizing that it was not due to my language ability that I was able to understand nearly everything, but rather due to that I have seen it millions of times; eating healthy food, listening to John Piper on my computer, singing songs with Si Yeon, and trying on a hanbok! Yeah, lots.

 Well, I'm out! 

Music video: Ice Fortress, by Dear Cloud. I LOVE this song.

-레이첼