approx. 4 months in

As I lie here torturing myself by watching the delicious new season of Top Chef, I figured I'd update the ole blog.

A recent addition to my to-do list has been watching all of the Oscar Best Picture winning films. All. Forever. So far, I've gotten through "All Quiet on the Western Front," which was surprisingly good considering it was released in 1930, and "Cimarron," which honestly, I fell asleep both times watching it. I can rent movies for pretty cheap on iTunes, so it makes this a convenient adventure that I'm going on.

Speaking of adventures, the clock is ticking down. Tomorrow is Boryeong Mud Festival and in 11 days, I will be across the equator for the first time. Bali here I come! and with bells on. Since I've been in Korea, my hair has started turning red (really, i think my hairdye has a reaction with the water. there is no way i'm a redhead.). My skin has gotten so pale, the last time it was like this, I was in the womb. The overcast weather is not my favorite part of Korea. That, and working inside during all hours of daylight. I feel like a vampire sometimes. So between mudfest and Bali, we shall determine if my skin has truly forgotten how to make itself tan.

Okay, here are some pictures from my latest adventures:

We have gone to Rodeotown Jimjilbang (spa) a few times now and done the Doctor Fish. It's these turkish fish that eat all of the dead skin off your feet. They kind of starve them, so they'll eat anything I guess. You sit there for 20 minutes, and it costs the equivalent of $2.08.

So a jimjilbang is a spa basically. There is one part that is men, women and children all together. Then for the massages and the saunas and everything else, you split men and women. That's when everything gets naked. I haven't been past the communal part yet. And I don't know if I really plan on walking around in the buff with a bunch of ajumas (older korean women). So, we had a little squad of korean kids watching us the whole time we were sitting there. I think they felt they had us trapped. They were very lucky, having 2 foreigners sitting still and free to be stared at for 20 whole minutes.

This is a random picture from one of the US World Cup games. Obviously, since I'm wearing my 4th of July tie dye shirt. This is my group of friends and I at Shisha House. It's a hookah bar, for those who don't know what shisha is. You'll have to forget the ones on the end. They were feeling audacious.

Last weekend, Tom and I went to the National Cemetery. It was very breathtaking and pleasant. The weather was hot and sticky, but it's probably very nice to go there in spring or autumn. This is a coy pond near the entrance of the Cemetery.

Tombstones - Koreans are obsessed with picnicking. Obsessed, to the point that there were people picnicking in between some of the headstones. I'm sure it was one of their family members who had died, but still. I didn't have the nerve to sneak a pic of them.

And a close-up of a grave. I thought it might be interesting to see one with Korean writing. If I work very hard I can figure out what it says. But I'm not willing to work very hard right now.

Here is a grave with a box of treats in front of it. I'm sure they are the soldiers favorite foods. The family must come and replace them habitually, because I checked the dates. The food was all still good!

Some fun street names. Here's your chance folks. if you ever wanted to know how to say white tiger road in korean, there it is. If anyone you know is looking to get a tattoo of the korean word for Loyal Justice Road, you can trust these characters to be accurate. I tell you this for the sake of public knowledge.

This unfortunately, is the tomb of their most recent president. Apparently, he jumped out of a building after some scandal (here's the deets, courtesy of LA Times). It's a shame. The suicide rate in Korea is through the roof. Not just in Korea, either. The pressure to gain honor for your family is actually that dominating. Thankfully, I won't be participating in the honor-failure/suicide brigade, being that I'm pretty honorific myself. Oh, but this guy, he's buried above ground. That's how they do it. He's in that big green lump on top of the marble structure.

This is their Tomb of the Unknown soldier. It was extremely beautiful. The tall thing shoots up the middle of a vast courtyard. The silence here is deafening. This is a picture of the left-hand side of the structure. You can see how the wall goes out and there is a copper statue on the left hand side; there is another one on the other side. Impossible to capture both by photo. Honestly though, the coolest part for me was seeing statues with korean faces on them. It's the little things man. haha.

This is a plane that would land on an aircraft carrier. It took me a while to remember, because you can see part of the words "arresting hook" in the picture, but they're spelled wrong. typical. in case you're wondering - an arresting hook is a giant cord that catches on this hook, and essentially weighs the plane down so it doesn't fly off the end of the SHIP (dad said, "it's not a boat it's a ship").

A long line of planes that flew in WWII and the Korean conflict. Most of them were made by American countries. That was interesting to me, maybe you'll care, maybe not.

I TOUCHED ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, they had them sitting outside to get rained on and everything. I'm sure I'm not the first person to touch one of their planes. I was excited though. So far, I haven't been allowed to touch anything. Well, I touched the ex-presidents grave when nobody was looking. woops.

One last beautiful shot before our National Cemetery Adventure expires.

On the way home, I bought a lotto ticket. I could win 6,000,000 won!!! (about $4,000) I didn't. Honestly, I didn't know if I had won or not, because I couldn't read what the instructions were. But Lynn-teacher informed me that I was not, in fact, the recipient of the wad o' cash.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned the matching boyfriend/girlfriend outfits yet. If so, just deal with it. It's funny enough, you're allowed to laugh twice. So everyday is Sadie Hawkin's in Korea. Typically, you see at least one of these matching pairs every day. In the mall, they even sell matching underwear sets. Boys wear, what else, boy shorts (soooooo gay), and girls wear tiny versions of regular underwear. This couple isn't the matchiest, but it's hard to get close enough to take a picture. They get spooked real easy-like. As you can see, I think Mr. Hawkins caught me in this instance.

here's your random picture of food for the day. DELICIOUS american style burger. grilled onions, bbq sauce, jalepenos. .. . . . . man, i'm hungry. Yours to look at, courtesy of KRAZE Burger near City Hall subway stop.

And this, of course, is a picture of the "smoked oyster" aisle in the grocery store. ew. this is my dad's version of heaven.

until next time, annyeongi que seyo