Day 2 - Holiday Dinner & Snow

SNOW!!
Me & Qi in the snow
Burger King... they have everything plus a few additions like Bulgogi Burger
Holiday Dinner Korean BBQ
Korean BBQ with Kyndra's school family

Today was a very busy day for us on Jeju. Jordan, Kyndra's good friend from back home came to visit her for the holiday weekend. We were worried about how he was going to find Kyndra's apartment because my school director was supposed to take me to the medical at the same time as his arrival. As luck would have it my director was late. I told Jordan to get a cab ride to Hanmaum Hospital, looking lost off the ferry I suppose, the local police offered him a ride. Lol. They took him downtown to City Hall area, stopped traffic and hailed him a cab. I seriously doubt that the police back home would do anything like that. Meanwhile, I walked to the hospital to meet Jordan. Just as I reached the hospital a lady and man pull up in an SUV and yell at me to get in. The couple are the directors of my school, Tony & Angelina. Well I guess I stick out like a sore thumb. They don't speak very much English and start to drive away with me just as I see Jordan pull up to the hospital. Quickly, I take the keys out of my purse and point and say my friend, the keys, hospital. Ohh ohhhh & they turn around. As I was explaining Jordan how to get back to the apartment, my directors were nice enough to give him a ride.

After dropping him off, they tell me that it is not a good idea to do the medical today and that I should go tomorrow by myself. They proceed to take me to my school which is very nice. Way nicer than I expected. It takes up two floors in 5 story building, it is located beside a nice middle and elementary school in a rich neighborhood. Inside it has a fish tank, wood floors and is very clean. I couldn't ask for more. Although they do not speak much english Angelina and Tony are very nice. After the school they tell me that they want me to have a cell phone immediately and then take me to buy one. They added my phone to the school plan & it only costs me 11,000 wan out of my paycheck each month. Like less that $11 a month! Amazing! After we leave the phone company and I thank them they then take me to eat. We go to an official Korean restaurant, I mean you walk in the door and take off your shoes before entering. This is because the heater comes from the floor here. All the floors have a heating element beneath them and shoes damage it. Anyways, we sit down on the floor and they order this boiling hot, spicy, OX TAIL soup! I felt like I should try it and eat it all, after all I did not want to be rude. They laughed at how I held my chopsticks and how I dipped everything in bean paste... but seriously I love that stuff. Finally, Angelina helped me by scraping meat off of the bone with her chopsticks into my bowl. I think she hated to see me struggle. Lol. The ox tail was actually quite tasty and the soup extremely spicy! Which I LOVE!

After lunch they took me back to Kyndra's place, where I found Jordan sleeping. He awoke and we decided to do some light exploring. We walked to the gas station to get a drink. Well guess what? In Korea, the gas stations are just that, gas stations. They do not have any food inside them. Disappointed, we decided to continue our walk to Kyndra's school since her director Alice and her husband had invited the three of us to the holiday staff dinner. I remembered how to get there and earlier had pointed it out to Tony & Angelina, who were impressed by how "smart" I am for knowing my direction so early. But I have always been good with directions. Her directors were so nice they brought us dumplings to eat while we waited. Her directors took us to a Korean BBQ & ordered us some kind of pork that tasted a lot like bacon. We also got to eat chigae, which is a brothy soup and in this case had crustaceans in it. The people Kyndra works with are quite lovely and we had an excellent time.

After dinner we met with Qiana and hoped a bus to Seogwipo. Once we got up to Seogwipo it was snowing!!! We met up with a bunch of other foreigners. The bus ride up the mountain made me pretty sick feeling. And my ears popping again did not help my jet lag. At the bar I just chilled with Qi, didn't drink and played several, several hand of kings in the corner. Once I realized that nobody but me wanted to leave anytime soon I decided to fall asleep on the couch. Bars here are not like back home. The only people in the bar were friends and they have nice couches. I only woke once, when the bartender covered me with a blanket so I could sleep better. Seriously people here are so nice. We left the bar around 6 am only to find it snowing harder! We waited an hour to ride the next bus back to Jeju-Si. On the bus, all still exhausted we fell asleep and missed our bus stops! Oppps... well a cap ride back to Kyndra's was entertaining.

Later I will move into my apartment. :)