Playing Catch-up

Ok, so I've been slack in updating my blog in the last couple of weeks. What can I say... I've been a busy little social butterfly. So the run down since the beginning of the month.

Chusok.

Chusok (or Chuseok depending on who you talk to) is the Korean version of thanksgiving. But unlike America and Canada, this version goes for almost a whole week. It's when they have their harvests and then have a big feast and hang out with friends, family and their dead ancestors. A great party by all accounts.
I've already talked about my Chusok in the previous post... so enough said.

Canadian Thanksgiving

So as you all know, I got my job through a company called Canadian Connections. Run by Canadians. From Canada. As you can guess, that means Aussies are a bit thin on the ground here, while the Canadians rule the roost. So when Canadian Thanksgiving came around we all decided to celebrate in true Canadian style....
Eat lots and drink lots.
I love these people!
On the Saturday, I hung out with my friends and climbed Yudalsan. A small "mountain" in Mokpo.


Yudalsan

Virginia had her Mum over from Canada, so we spent the day showing her around the nice little city of Mokpo.

Then in the evening it was on to the P-bar for one of the best feasts I've had since I've been in Korea. There was chicken, mashed spuds & gravy, broccoli and cheese sauce, salads, more chicken.... the list goes on.


Canadian Thanksgiving

And when we had finished stuffing ourselves with the great foods, we over stuffed ourselves with amazing desserts. Great stuff!

The next morning I think we felt a little guilty for eating so much, so we headed out to play some Ultimate (Frisbee). Now I'm not sure how you play it, and I've never played it before... but it seems the people in Mokpo have the most unusual version I've ever seen. They start off at a huge stadium, then walk down the street carrying the frisbee for about 10 minutes. Then when they get to a park and realise it's full, they turn around and walk back down the street looking for another park. When they get to that one, and see it's also full, they go on to find another park... After doing all this walking around (which I suspect is the real exercise) they finally go back to the original stadium and after negotiating with some of the staff there, they jump through a window to get into the center of the stadium and onto the pristine field.


Ultimate Frisbee at Yudal Stadium

How pristine is this field?
Well... after warming up for about 10 minutes, we get kicked back outta the stadium with the grounds keeper yelling (in Korean) what seemed like a tirade along the lines of "Not only am I gonna lose my job for this, but they are gonna kill me in the process."
Apparently they had just laid new grass and the roots hadn't yet taken. We were literally the first to ever had played on that field.
So out we went and into the grassy area beside the car-park, where we finally played some Ultimate. Or at least a modified version of it.

School Picnic

Our school went on a "picnic". Now I'm not sure what the term "picnic" brings to mind for you, but I think going out into a nice remote area with trees and maybe a beach or stream. Baskets of food with a blanket on the ground. Everyone playing games and eating and drinking...

A Korean picnic? Well, it seems to consist of hoping on a bus. Driving for 2 hours to see a display of highschools in the area that the kids may want to go to when they graduate middle school. Then hoping back on the bus for an hour drive to Boseong Tea Plantation.


Boseong Tea Plantation

Here they hop out, go for a 10 minute walk into the tea feilds where they have their photo taken. Walk 10 minutes back to the bus and drive the hour back home. Fun.

Atleast the Bus Noriban (Kareoke) was entertaining.


Mary's Birthday

The Beautiful Mary from Mokpo had her birthday last weekend, so it was back down to the "party city" of Jeollanamdo for another bash. We started the night at a beautiful little restaurant where the owners made the grave mistake of telling us the whole place was ours. And so we took over.
Well, not really. We were quite well behaved, but being a bunch of Waygooks, I'm sure we intimidated most of the locals in the area.



Mary's Birthday Bash

After a nice diner we decided to move on to a bar. We went over the other side of town to a bar called Plastic. What kind of a place is Plastic? Well, it looks very nice, but looks can be deceiving.
When I got there, I was entertained by a little Korean boy (about two years old) who reminded me very much of my youngest Nephew in his early years. So I didn't really notice there was a bit of a commotion going on. Apparently the man at the door had come over and screamed at my friends to "GET OUT!". We are still rather confused by this as we were just sitting at a table and hadn't even started drinking yet. In fact, we hadn't even been able to order yet. Our friends at the table next door had a pitcher of beer, so we couldn't figure out why he'd decided the people at our table should leave.
A few minutes of confused milling around and he came back and once again screamed "GET OUT, GET OUT!" at us. Rather disappointed, we up and left the restaurant. Then the defiant Wagookness in all of us kicked in and we decided we weren't going quietly. We all trooped back into the stairwell of the restaurant / bar and about 25 of us proceeded to sing Happy Birthday on the top of our lungs to Mary.
As everyone knows, this song is designed to be sung as out of key and as loudly as possible. I'm not sure if we got a standing ovation from all in the restaurant, but by the time we left, the manager was standing at the top of the stairs with a phone in his hand. Somehow I don't think he was calling a recording studio to talk about the new talent he'd found in his stairwell.


Mary's Birthday Bash

Next it was on to P-club (P-club... sponsored by the Jeollanamdo Waygook Collective) for a more friendly welcome. And here we remained till the wee hours of the morning in great company and a happy atmosphere.

And that about brings me up to date.
Phew! That was a long one.