Roughing it

This was a three-day weekend for the school, so Stanley, one of the Korean school administrators, invited the foreign teachers (Hannah, Rob, me) and other Korean teachers (Tyrone, MJ) to his family's vacation home in the mountains about an hour north of Busan. The air was so fresh, and the views were really gorgeous.





We also visited a Buddist temple and a small waterfall, but my camera batteries were dead. Once at the cabin, we BBQed and drank and basically hung out around the fire since it was so freaking cold. It was really, really fun.

...Until we had to sleep on the floor, Korean-style, and use the outhouse in the dark. Those two things were not fun. Oh yeah, and MJ got sick from too much soju. Parties are parties I guess.



During the trip, everyone picked the Korean name Suni (pronounced "sue-knee") for me, which apparently means "nice, good girl," so I guess that first impression I always make in the States is just the same here. dammit. I don't know why I hate that so much. I was hoping to sort of reinvent myself here.

Before we left for home on Saturday, we had to gather and BURN all the trash. Hannah and I couldn't believe it. We couldn't just put it in bags and toss it. Instead we spent probably 2 hours burning everything - even plastics. The trash thing here is really, really weird.

The rest of the weekend, I spent shopping and fixing up my apartment. One of my favorite things here so far is the way that Koreans try to write English on so many of their products, but it just doesn't translate very well. This was on a wine glass box I bought:

"Sometimes clearly, at other times purely
Parka Glass can make a difference in your life
Parka Glass bring out a clearness and cleanness
We hope to make your life more comfortable and relaxing
through the happiness of Parka Glass experience"

Isn't that awesome? The thing is, the wine glass IS making my life better. I love it.