Trimuphant return to Daegu?

So on a somewhat whim I went to Daegu last night for the first time since May. It was Ben's birthday and in true Ben-Style he threw quite the shin-dig. Swing dancing, Salsa, tons of people I haven't seen in months. Yes, yes, it was fantastic. However, I received both a very good and very bad compliment last night. Let's start with the good:

Now, most women like to get compliments about how pretty they are, how thin they look, how beautiful, etc. However, last night I was told that since someone last saw me I seemed taller. TALLER! I had almost resigned myself to the fact that I can never, ever change the one physical quality that I would really like to. I wasn't wearing heels either!

And the bad:

Mel and I, after going to get some street meat met some very young GI's. Along with some obviously desperate compliments one said that I was 18. I said, "yeah, not so much.. I'm 25." His response was "Damn girl, you look good for 25!" Good for 25? Since when did being 25 mean you were old, and that it was something to overcome?! I was rightly pissed off and got a little yelly. The only redeeming thing about the whole event was that Mel had decided that we should pretend to be Southern American, so it all happened under the veil of heavily overdone accents.

Chuseok, 3rd Edition

It was my third Chuseok here in Korea (the equivalent of our thanksgiving). For my first I went to Busan, last year I was in Beijing and this year I stuck around Seoul. If I had any money at all, or wasn't planning on going to Thailand in 2 weeks I would have gone somewhere. In anycase, I had 5 days work-free and some friends from Daegu came up to visit. Mel had actually been down all week, covering for another teacher on vacation so I was a happy camper. Aside from chilling with her during the week we went out in my neighbourhood Friday night, Saturday went into the city to meet up with Carey, Ben and others for delicious Greek food. Mel bought a puppy somewhere else in the city when efforts to swing (dance, that is!) failed. On Sunday I showed Carey and another girl around Bundang and did some shopping. I had Tuesday and Wednesday to myself and visited with some mIore friends but also went for an amazingly long bike ride. I made it pretty much into the city and it was absolutely beautiful weather which wasn't completely outshone by the flowers, river and mountains in the background.

Everything is going well, though Mom is on my mind a lot! I miss you tons, and know you're a trouper.

In Jeongja I found this English Academy and felt like I belonged here. That's me climbin like a monkey:

Above are some shots of what I bike by everyday, as well as my sweet, sweet ride!

The Novelty of it All.

It seems that in Korea a lot of places believe that they need more than the standard wine, coffee and beer to draw you in. Here you can pet a puppy while you drink a beer, or sit in a bar decked out in only Barbie decor. Last night I went out with a friend to celebrate the end of her Saturday classes to an area of town near to mine (but much nicer). We went to a garden bar, complete with dogs. At first I thought that the wine was a little pricy but got over that immediately when I found out that they give you a free plant after you buy a drink! Maybe this would be less exciting for those who aren't so into plants, but I am, AND I thought it was a really cute idea.

Other bonuses for this area are that there is a Quiznos Subs and a pretty kick ass black market store.*

Less than a month to Thailand!

* I'd like to say that by 'black market store' I mean a place where I can buy Doritos, cheese and chocolate from home, not guns, grenades, 'The Best of Michael Bolton' or anything else you would find offensive or dangerous.

my heart is sad :(

i heard that a fairly famous market in seoul opened somewhere near my area on the 9th of every month. it being sunday, and me having the day wide open i decided to find it. i did and it was pretty interesting, and also heartbreaking. this market boasts a variety of vegetables, textiles, herbs and livestock. you can guess where this is going...
anyways, here are some pictures.





it was obvious to tell which animals were for eating and which were meant for pets.
this is the cutest dog ever! as everyone knows i'm sure, koreans sometimes use dogs as meat. i HOPE that this little guy wasn't meant for that though he was tied up in front of cages that clearly were.

for loving.
cute chickies.
bunnies.
chickens.
goats.
for eating. :( now, i've seen this a bunch of times before: that being dogs caged and sold for food. what made me almost lose my cookies was not this but the full smoked dogs that were being sold beside. i gagged. i also couldn't bring myself to take a picture and assumed that anyone who was a dog/animal lover wouldn't want to see it. those images have haunted me all day. RIGHT after seeing that i made it to the pet section where i met a golden retriever that i fell inlove with right away. if it weren't for the endless guilt for leaving the other hundreds of puppies behind i would have adopted him (no matter what mom and mike say!)
i don't know what was going on here. this guy isn't cutting those snakes, he was just stretching them out to a crowd of koreans. i took this picture and was promptly yelled at by 2 men. i don't know what's secret about this or why i can't take a picture of a snake being treated well, while it's ok for me to snap tons of pics of animals being treated in a way that would send PETA in it's entirety to korea with torches, but meh.

anyways, other than that i've been biking TONS and loving it.

miss you.