shopping, hiking,...

Friday,

On Friday I didn't have to come to the school, so I slept more than usual. I needed to get out, though, so I went downtown around 1 o clock. First, I hit up McDonald's for lunch. The place was crowded, mostly with schoolgirls. I grabbed a Shanghai Spice Burger and ate surrounded by gigglingness. Sated on western food, I traversed the streets of "Il bang ga" (the downtown area of Anyang) and dropped into one of my favorite clothing stores. Only in Korea, well, probably only in most foreign speaking countries, but man, what strange t shirts you can find. I saw one that had an article printed on it about the mouthharp. Of course, anything with English is top. I found a long sleeve with colorful cassette tapes printed on it. On the bottom it reads, "Vintage cassette tape illustration from norwegian magazine." It's best not to think too much about it. I also found a pair of pants, surprised they would fit. The dude at the shop told me I looked very handsome, and I just smiled and nodded. After that shop, I walked around looking for my favorite cafe. Sometimes I get lost in that maze of shops and cafes and it took me a good fifteen minutes to find it. Other times, I'll know right where to go. Confusion abounds. I finally got there, ordered a cappuccino (I don't know if it's the espresso or the milk, but man their drinks are good). I got it to go, and walked over to Stop, another clothing store. I got some pretty cool sweaters there a couple months ago, so I thought I would check it out but the selection wasn't as good and their customer service was a little dreary. I ended up buying a couple button ups for about fifteen bucks each, so I could look a little snazzier for the new semester. Not that vintage cassette tape shirts aren't snazzy. After that I went home, ended up grabbing a pizza (the rare double western food day) and went to bed.

Saturday,

I had to get up early on Saturday. One of the coolest teachers at my school, Mr. Kim had invited me to go hiking with his schoolmates. They're all in their sixties! Mr. Kim and I took the train to Dongducheon, a good two hours, and I nodded off on the way. We got there at ten and all his hiking buddies were waiting, decked out in their anoraks and hiking shoes. I was lacking in the hiking garb, but what's a guy to do? My brother met us too, his scraggly self. The hiking friends were a little standoffish at first, but things loosened up as we hiked. We walked from Dongducheon station to the base of Macheon Mountain, and climbed and climbed. I thought we reached the top a good three times before we actually reached the top. Wearing Vans isn't a good idea for hiking, I slipped a couple times, but nothing serious. Once we reached the top, we lunched on Korean food and sandwiches and fruit. The sandwiches were some strange mixture of ham and cheese and jam. Yeah, strawberry jam between the slices of ham. hamjam. jamham. After lunch Ryan had to rush back the way we came because he was getting his internet connected. I continued on with the group, descending the mountain on the opposite slope.

When we got back down to Soyosan station, it was about 330. We drank some soju and makkoli and ate some soup. I was exhausted. I was supposed to meet some friends that night, but they cancelled, so I joined the old dudes in Noraebang and sang classics like Hotel California and Heart of Gold. Singing My Way with a sixty year old Korean guy who speaks very little English was pretty surreal. The whole experience was really heartwarming, though. When I see older men on the streets, usually I'm met with a scowl or a loud cough or I'm just completely ignored, and I'm sure that if I were to have seen any of these men on the street before this day, the same would have happened. But after that day of hiking, they called me a friend and even invited me to their next event in March. I got home at about ten that night. It was a pretty amazing day.

Sunday,

Last Sunday I went to a English group and hung out, watched an episode of Desperate Housewives and talked about it. It was kind of lame. This sunday I was going to go again, even though I was pretty tired from the previous day's excursion, but I got on the wrong train. I got on a rapid to Cheonan, thinking it would stop at my transfer station, Geumjeon where I'd get on a train to Sanbon. Unfortunately, it didn't stop until Suwon and if I tried to go back from there, I would be a good 30-45 minutes late to the group. I hadn't seen a friend of mine who lives in Suwon in a while, so I called him up instead, and we grabbed some lunch and talked about the kind of stuff indie rock obsessed nerds talk about (new music, pitchfork, great albums of 08, etc.) Lunch was some weird soup with chewy chicken parts in it, but I ate it anyway. Basically, we didn't really know what we were ordering. I think the lady running the restaurant just brought out whatever for us, to mess with us. After that we grabbed a beer and a coffee (not the best mix) and sat outside in the cold wind, watching the ladies pass and talking more about Animal Collective, Dan Deacon and the like. I took a train back to Anyang, picked up some pasta and broccoli near Anyang station, and walked home. It was a decent day.

Now, it's Monday and I'm a little nervous about starting the new semester. I have my first class in a couple hours and we're just going to introduce ourselves.

I can't stop listening to the two songs I have by this san francisco band called Girls.

As my coworker just said as we finished eating pears:
The End!