another weekend come and gone

well it was a fairly low-key weekend but still quite nice. friday night consisted of some dalk galbi (chicken bbq) with some work friends and mike. on saturday we headed to imhae to the seongnam arts center to see a show on "Modern European Art" or some such thing. it was cool and good to know that there is a place to view other's artistic outlets close-by. we went for a tiny little hike as well and i played on the exercise equipment.

i fell asleep early on saturday night.

today i talked to my dad, nana, papa AND mom (in a separate call). i feel all caught up.

BIG bonus about today: we found a delicious thai restaurant that is just 2 subway stops away.. which is a lot more convenient than the 20-something, millions of transfers ride we normally take to get our pad thai on.

i was feeling very sluggish tonight after my weekend of heavy eating so went for a quick bike ride along the dancheon (dan river) near my house. the temperature was perfect and i took a few quick pics (sans flash) of my non-naturesque path. i did get a new camera last weekend and i love my new Sony Cyber Shot!

One of the 8 Most Spectacular Sights of Suwon

On Sunday we went to Hwaseong Fortress which surrounds part? all? of Suwon City which is around a 30 minute bus ride from my place. It has been a little while since we have done anything of cultural relevance so I was pretty pumped. The walk was cold, but it was pretty nice. Imagine the Great Wall, but newer, not as high and smaller.

Here are some pics:






Yes, that's a ninja.





On another note, Mike just bought Guitar Hero 3 and it's so fun. I suggest it to anyone who has lots of free time and no responsibilities. I'm picturing a bunch of faux-rockers sitting in a circle, "Hi my name is __ and it's been 30 days since I've rocked out and been a guitar hero". It is that good.

Happy New Year?

Well this New Year's was the quietest I've had since I was 15 or 16. I had to work the Eve until 10:05 pm and then had to work again the next day. Our company has decided that we don't require 'red days' off like every other company, but ah well. I guess I got a taste of what my life will be like when I'm 70, with a glass of wine and watching the bell ring on tv! Though, I received an email from my grandparents and it sounds like they were out on the town! Maybe there's hope for me yet.

So the weekend before I woke up with a familiar ear problem, the kind where I'm deaf! So I went to a doctor around the street hoping to get some icky cleaning done, but in the end he made me MORE deaf and below was his solution.

Sorry Russ, this isn't a Whack-a-Mole but instead hair dryers with red bulbs in them! It did indeed require me to muster all cultural sensitivity learned in 4 years of Anthropology to do this without going into hysterics. Mike did not have such training and laughingly, took this picture. He would have totally failed Anthro 010.

So I had to head to a different doctor, who did know what he was doing and ta-da! I can hear! I did find out through this process though that my health insurance has expired, so I'll have to see about that. ahem.

After 2 trips to the doctor and a little humiliation we headed into the city to meet up with Ben and Mel as it was Mel's last weekend in Korea. Don't even get me started on how sad this is, and how lost I've felt not being able to text someone with my every move.. but life goes on!

In anycase, the itinerary included:

Greek food in Itaewon
drinks at a hof called 'Joki Joki'
Swing dancing at a club called 'Harry and Peter'
drinks again at 'Fish and Grill' (a hof/food place that is ubiquitous in Korea and that serves pretty delicious food)
Singing at a Norebang (singing room, which Mike and I didn't make it to)

Pictures below from events above.