You Can Prevent Accidents If You are Cautious.

This past weekend included a Monday off work in honor or Korea's memorial day. In the spirit of embracing all that Korea has to offer a group of us used the long weekend to journey to the complete other side of South Korea to the beach town of Busan.



Heidi and I began the trip on Friday night by packing at my apartment and going to bed early in preparation for the early wake up time in the morning. We had to catch the train, you see. And not the bullet train that gets you to Busan in two hours but the slow train that is half the price and takes over double the time.

We were stoked though because the saved money meant extra things for our Thailand trip in a little over a month.

Maybe Heidi anticipated how annoying a five hour train ride would be...I didn't. I was tired, it was cramped, and it got pretty hot. Needless to say, I complained. As a result, I supplied Heidi with a candy for each complaint...she got a few.

Highlight of the train trip was indeed the scrabble game, in which, Heidi should have won but the words "forky" and "weeny" earned me over a 100 points and I took the win.

Other highlight, my Korean is BEAST. This little girl stared at us half the ride. Eventually we started talking. We managed to ask the 5 or so Korean questions I know and then used our phone for a few more translations. We were so cool we were supplied milk: Heidi's allergic and I don't like it. But we managed to fake drink it well :)



Sunday, we got up early to hit up the Taejondae cliffs. The girls--Anna, Heidi, and I--were running quite late and feeling guilty because we knew Duncan would be on time. He was..just at the wrong stop, which was a considerable distance from the right stop. It got us girls out of feeling bad and became a good laugh. Upon arrival, Anna tripped off a giant tiki-like statue and messed up her ankle (that's 1 accident).

Taejondae was awesome. Beautiful cliffs, Red-pointy statues, pebble beaches, blue water, views of Busan, catch-em-and-eat-em fish restaurants, and an imagined view of Japan. We had a blast. And it was just great to spend it together.

Perhaps, the best part. We swam in the freezing cold water at the pebble beach and jumped off a rock. I got bit, Anna scraped her thigh. (count 'em that's 3 accidents now).

We headed to Haeundae Beach next. Not necessarily my scene. I definitely outgrew the stupid-drunk-college-student scene back in fifth grade...oh, wait I never really entered it. It was interesting to observe and to be thankful I was not part of it. Heidi and I enjoyed tanning and chatting. Later, she also enjoyed watching me hurt my hand (see other blog). That would now be 4 accidents FYI.

We ended the night at Fuzzy Navel for dinner. The group of us hadn't eaten pretty much all day, so this dinner was legit. We filled ourselves on cheese fries, nachos, quesadillas, burritos, and more. It was great conversation with great people. I'm pretty glad to have befriended this crew.

We then joined up with some other ladies--Lauren and Kayse--and had some fun at Gwangalli beach at night. It was absolutely beautiful. And it was lots of fun to get to spend some time with Lauren and Kayse as we hadn't gotten to see them much.



Monday, we said goodbye to Duncan. That was sad but I'm sure it was infinitely more sad for him. After all, his compliments to me include "pretty smart girl" and a group "awesome". In my mind there's commas between it all: awesome, pretty, smart, girl.

We then went to a Buddhist temple. But before we saw the temple...we shopped. That was awesome. Heidi got these cool pig statues, Anna got Buddhist bracelets, and I got flower pots. We were happy. It was set on these beautiful cliffs overlooking the ocean. Gorgeous. It was filled with beautiful rock formations and brilliantly blue water. We were all amazed. I mean talk about pretty.

As beautiful as the views and the temple were, it still hits you while you are standing there that this place is a place of worship for many: worship to a false god. I think we all made that realization while we were there and found ourselves a little heartbroken despite the beauty.

After enjoying the views and discussing our heartbreak a bit, we moved onto a lighter activity in the form of Gwangalli beach. We'd had our fill of the over-populated foreigner beach and moved to the not-such-a-typical-tourist beach we saw last night. It was great. We laid out in the sun, Anna and I swam the length of the beach (well the length of the buoys), we played Frisbee in the water, and we got annoyed with stereotypical douche bag foreigner guy (another story for a more anti-foreigners post).

During a game of ultimate Frisbee with said douche bag, I may have injured my finger even further...that's now five accidents.

We spent most of the afternoon there with a few others--Lauren and Kayse again!--and then headed to lunch. It was this great little restaurant where we chowed down on burgers and chicken sandwiches. We did a terrible job on this trip at eating regular meals so the few we did have were absolute heaven! And we got to spend our time laughing about the trip and re-quoting are favorite moments!

Then we journeyed home. Another 5 hour journey home. 5 hour journeys with tired people are awesome. This journey was awesome. We laughed, we cried, we slept...we cherished our friendship. We ate peanut butter sandwiches that Heidi had been hiding all weekend.

Trip Summary: AWESOME!

Trip Quotes:
1. "I'm going to be angry at you for 30 seconds."
2. "You're a pretty smart girl."
3. "You can prevent accidents if you are cautious."
4. "Nailed it."
5. "The average person needs 13 hugs a day."
6. "Chemical compound boy."
7. "I feel like a thousand lightening bolts are hitting my back."
8. "You've had peanut butter and bread this whole freakin time?"

Favorite Trip Memories:
1. Anna falling off a tiki statue in front of loads of Koreans.
2. Being the only ones swimming in the pebble beach.
3. Punching Duncan.
4. Frisbee, frisbee, and frisbee.
5. Heidi making us late to meet up with Duncan.
6. Spending time with awesome people.

Sadly, in finally finishing this I realize why I wish I journalled or blogged quicker. I know I'm forgetting some top moments and quotes...but let's just say it was awesome. And let's just hope someone in the crew remembers.

Funny Stories TWO

I promise I'm in the process of writing an epic post about a Busan trip a group of us took but the picture formats are proving difficult. So to appease the masses--read the two people that asked when I'd post again--I give you more funny stories that have recently occurred.

One
Sung-Joo is a new boy in our class. He is also a baby. A big baby. In fact, his constant temper tantrums make me completely reevaluate my love of small children. Every day he cries at least ten times. He also doesn't speak a drop of English nor is he learning it well. Therefore, when he cries in my classes it goes on and on and on and on and on and on. Usually, I ignore him completely in hopes that he'll realize that his tantrums do nothing to get my attention. Today, he took it further ad fell to the floor and screamed louder. In an effort to save my ear drum, I imitated him. Hoping he'd see how ridiculous he looked. I also repeatedly said, "I'm a baby, I'm a baby." Now, whenever Sung-Joo cries the class points at him and yells "baby." I'm sure in America I'd be fired, here it's working and we're keeping it. BABY!

Two
While teaching the five year olds to count to ten and recognize the written numbers we played a game where fish had the numbers written on them and they fed them to a cardboard shark I made. I had my hand through the shark (sort of like a puppet) and would grab their hand while they fed the number fish. It was love for all the kids, they found it hilarious and tried to earn more fish (by correctly identifying the number). When it was Ho-Chun's turn to feed the shark, before the shark could "bite" him...Ho-Chun bit the shark. Seriously, my shark has teeth marks.

Three
Also, while teaching the five-year-olds their numbers, I realized how much "six" sounds like "sex" when Ji-Ho started screaming "I have sex now" over and over in the hallway at me during parent pick-up. Apparently, "sex" is a universal word because every Korean in the room stared at him and then at me. I didn't realize my face could get so red.

Four
While riding the subway the train often stops suddenly and people are jerked around. One morning, while getting off at the super posh Apgujon stop, it also stopped suddenly. A woman dressed to the nines in high heels,a business suit, subtle Korean make-up, and probably five different types of plastic surgery was not prepared for this stop and she completely fell. When she fell she gave a typical Korean scream. And collectively the subway car returned this scream. She laid there, people literally stepped over her to get of at the stop (the subway car was overflowing with people), I didn't see or hear anyone offer help, and I being the typical obnoxious foreigner laughed: laughed quite audibly too. I'm sure I'm hated, but HECK that was hilarious!

Five
Minseo used to say "no I love Kara." In an effort to teach her the correct English I taught her to say, "I don't love Kara." She still thoroughly enjoys saying it correctly and I still laugh. While standing next to Minseo's homeroom teacher from last year (who still says Minseo is her favorite student), Minseo decided to use this new English ability differently than normal: "I don't love gym teacher, I love Kara." Maybe I should teach them only nice things?

Sex
While in Busan, I was on a beach talking with Duncan. Duncan likes to be mean--read he likes to pick on people which is why I like him. And he started proclaiming girls can't punch. Knowing I was more than capable of such a feet, I asked if I could punch him. He agreed. As I prepared for the punch, Duncan inserted metal rods into his shirt--read, I'm lying. And when I punched him he curled over in pain--read, didn't even flinch. I immediately withdrew my hand in pain. And dealt with it hurting the rest of the weekend. When I went to the doctor three days later, not only was the finger broken but the knuckle was dislocated (or rather knocked out of alignment). After, I cried like a baby in front of the doctor and nurse (hey now, three shots and a popped in to place manuever hurts). The doctor also wouldn't let me leave before he taught me how to punch.


Yeah, not only did I go on a rock climbing -ish escapade and knock it out of alignment again less than a week after getting it fixed, I went bowling the day I got that second fix. Only hours, after promising my doctor I'd be careful so I didn't have to get a plaster cast...I don't think he understands my desire to fully embrace ever moment I get in Korea.

What a Funk.

I've been in a funk.

I'm not sure completely why but I know it's there.

Sure there's a few things that have been hitting my heart hard but really they aren't hard enough.

I've been going through the motions of this thing called life instead of living life.

Making the better story.

And it seems that I just kept getting more funkified rather than finding some joy.

So not typically me.

Today, though that all changed.

I wish I had a video to show you, to explain how great today was.

Or I wish someone had taken some photos so you could see the frozen moments.

Alas, none of those exist.

But Just trust me it was good.

In Bible study Tuesday, we talked about being humble. This section is not going to be humble. I'm a sinner and forgiven, so sue me.

Minseo
Honestly, I share the most stories about this girl and I know that leads people to think she's my favorite. To be honest, I really enjoy most of my other students too and don't know that I could choose from amongst them a number one (now if you're letting me name the top four I could do it...). But the fact is Minseo was the child I had to work the hardest for and because of that I get quite a bit of joy out of how much she enjoys me now.

Today, we went to a children's museum. Minseo is usually pretty independent but at this museum--like the last museum--she just wanted to be with me. She wanted to show me things she found and see what I was looking at too. She wanted to hold my hand when we walked anywhere; in fact, she wanted to hold it bad enough she fought with whoever was holding it to get it. On the bus ride home she finally mastered the ability to say, "I don't love Kara." Now everyone at Haba thinks I'm weird for letting this happen but honestly, I know it's not true and I don't mind her learning the English for it instead of "no I love Kara." In fact, she even learned the idea of "I don't love" and spent some time telling me what she did and didn't love. She always ends the day with an "I love Kara" so my feelings can't be hurt.

I've noticed Minseo doesn't like the other teachers at Haba. In fact, they often try to get her to say in Korean that they are her favorite (I think they do this because they think I can't understand...I can). They offer her sweets in exchange for her saying "I love you" and they kidnap her for hugs and kisses. I've never had to do any of that. Minseo tells me all that time--and in the middle of crowded places--that she loves me. She kisses my cheek several times a day. She runs to greet me with a hug each morning. She says, "hug please" countless times throughout the day. It's a great feeling to know that a child knows you love them, but maybe even better, is knowing they love you. It's great to be loved.

I recognized that today.

Samuel
Samuel is autistic. Samuel is violent. Samuel tries my patience. Today, Samuel and I became friends. Today, I fell in love with Samuel.

Perhaps, that's ultimately why my day was so awesome. And to be honest I can't think of how it happened. At the museum I was showing all of the kids things and they were all listening and following me around until we got to a play kitchen. After that Simon, Minseo, Samuel, and I went places together. Samuel found everything so great and he got so excited about everything we saw. We found a mirror and had a good time talking to "Kara 2" and "Samuel 2." He learned the word giant and embarrassed me by calling me one in crowded places.

Maybe it was the fact that I realized he liked me today. Any time we got separated, he didn't call for the other girls as he usually did but he shouted my name until I came. He just wanted to be with me. And like Minseo, he wanted to hold my hand. And while we played great walking games, sometimes, we just walked and held hands.

Again, it's nice to be loved.

Finally, we ended our day with K-nex. Samuel and I had fun. He laughed so hard and that makes me laugh so hard. I'm not even sure what we were doing. It started out with a dinosaur on my head and ended with K-nex bombs being thrown. It was great and it made me enjoy Samuel. I finally had fun with him. And when all the other kids saw our fun and wanted to join in and thus made Samuel hit them. I took his side. Seriously, they messed with him first. And for me to defend Samuel is a big thing. Because usually I let it all be his fault.

Now that I love him, I think it will better. You work for someone you love. And I'm going to work for Samuel now.

Waygooken
In Korean, "waygooken" means foreigner. We went to a park/museum today filled with school children. Probably hundreds of them. And I was the only foreigner. I felt like a celebrity. Like Brad Pitt. Like Jennifer Aniston. Like Jeff Probst (okay, well how I would respond to Jeff). It does great things for the self esteem.

Waiting Games
I know they embarrassed Grace teacher. But honestly, that's stupid and I don't care. I thoroughly entertained my students yet again with activities while we waited for forever for the activities to being. I like this. I like that I can think of games on the spot and make them happy. I like that walking is more than walking.

I don't feel like I adequately explained.

Maybe because it's a feeling.

A feeling only I can feel.

Ultimately, I fell in love again today.

Or rather, I was reminded how much I loved.

And am loved.

Goodbye funk.