Depressing Monday

Wow, what a killer day. We had to say goodbye to FOUR participants...

Jenny and I went to spend a few last minutes with Maren before she left. It was hard to say bye, but we have made tentative plans to meet in August. I kind of packed a little. Emily, Yangyang, Kim and I went to the bibimbap/noodle soup place for lunch. After lunch, it was time to say bye to Ki...and shortly after Ki, Megan and Colin left. We were all kind of in shock...Jihye took Kim, Yangyang, Emily and me out for ice cream to cheer us up. I packed a little more and then we met up to go to dinner. It was a small group...Jenny, Emily, Yangyang, Kim, Hee Eun, Prof Cho and me. We went to a place for BBQ ribs; it was pretty good-not a lot of meat for a lot of work. After dinner us girls went to a Twosome Place for coffee and to chat.

Cooking our ribs

Time Flies...and now it's the end

Again, I find myself apologizing to my readers...we had such an incredibly busy week!

Tuesday!! (Wow, really sorry!)
It was a terrible Tuesday, but in a different sense. I wore my new shoes to class and kind of ruined the heel. We made ho dduk (a fried pancake filled with sugar-you may recall from the beginning of my time at Inje...) in class. I burned my hand with the hot sugar while I was eating. We went to Taekwondo and we had to participate in groups with native Koreans doing their 'dance routine' final. It was terrible because we didn't learn the dances so we all looked like fools. After class, our Taekwondo instructor took us to lunch. We had a kind of chicken stew. It was pretty good. We had a shortened language class (because of the lunch). After class, some of our group went to go hike Sina Mountain (the mountain I hiked with my host family most recently). I wanted to go, but I had to teach. After teaching, Jenny and I ran into Tim's brother, Ben. He arrived to Gimhae on Monday and Korea on Saturday. He was still jet lagging so he didn't go hiking. We took him to BioTech for dinner, but later we went to eat at a BBQ place with the hikers. It was really delicious. Emily burned her fingers on a glass; the cup was sitting close to the cooking apparatus and when she picked up the glass it was super hot! Milan also burned his lips from cooking with his chopsticks and then eating with them. It was such a disaster!

Chicken stew lunch

Last language class!

Wednesday: We had our final Kindergarten class! We played games with them outside and said goodbye. In our conversation class we had yet another guest! He's an adoptee from Maryland. We had lunch in the teachers cafeteria. Then we went to movie class. We watched a movie called "The Classic". Jenny, Emily and I had just watched it last week, but I missed a lot because I was lesson planning and the subtitles were difficult to read. Unfortunately the disc was scratched and skipped a lot. After I taught, I met up with Tim, Ben, Ki, Em, Maren, and Jenny for dinner. We went to HomePlus to hang out and then headed over to The Dog House. We had some nice conversation, reflecting on our experiences and talking about first impressions. After the Dog House, we went to the Spicy Kimbap place.

Dinner!

Tim and Ki left a note a few days ago saying this was the best place to get kimbap and the note was still hanging up!

Thursday: Happy Graduation Day!! We didn't have any classes!  Emily and I went for a run around campus, but it was very hot. Our ceremony started at 5 and we had quite a few of our friends from ET come. We had to give a short speech and also received our certificates. Jihye had a video of pictures with a special note on each picture for us. She also played the video I made. After the ceremony, we went to a BBQ place for dinner. After dinner, the group went to the Makgoli place. Emily, Jenny, Maren and I came back to ET for a short break. Jenny had bought us each a small little cake from Paris Baguette with fruit on it so we wanted to enjoy our cakes. We went back out to meet the group and shortly after we moved to The Dog House.

Roomies and Maren

Most of our group at graduation plus Host Families

Mihye, Em, and Songhee at dinner

Jung Yoon and me at dinner!

Maren, Em and me with the cute cakes from Jenny!

Friends at The Dog House

Chul Woo, Em, me and Ji

Friday: We had lunch with Professor Cho (language and culture teacher). He treated us to a soup that was made from dried vegetables and then a special beef patty. Most of us walked back down to campus (it was just up the hill). We had a funny walk back; Ben was imitating people's walks and it was entertaining. Back on campus I just kind of hung out here. We had a group of about 11 go out to dinner for Tim's last meal here. We had a kind of meat-on-bone plus noodles and vegetable stew. It was spicy, but tasty. Again Maren, Emily and I returned to campus for a little before joining the others. We met them at the Makgoli bar for Tim's last time. Megan, Maren, and I got hungry so we went to get some smoothies from Issac Toast. When we returned to the Makgoli place Em and returned from getting ice cream, but we decided to go back out and get a pizza toast from Issac's...it was so good!! We left the Makgoli place and went to The Dog House for the last time as well.

Lunch with Prof Cho

Beef Stew for dinner

Pizza Toast from Issacs!

Tim's goodbye speech to Em, Kim and me

 Saturday: I had a nice early wake up call at 8AM from Ji telling me we had 8 people playing soccer at 9. Thanks Ji. We all met up and managed to wrangle a few other guys as well. Ji had some friends from his major that met us at the fields as well. It was so sad, our last soccer day! The guys grabbed the keys from the Student Union to unlock the small field. One of the guys tossed the keys to someone standing next to the lock...but he missed and the keys...well, they went flying into the LOCKED field. Luckily, there fencing wasn't tight to the gate so someone slipped through and grabbed the keys. It was kind of funny. We played for a little over 2 1/2 hours and it was so hot! We had a pretty big group; we ended up breaking into 3 teams of 6. When we finished, Jenny and I went to the teachers cafeteria for lunch (my last Saturday lunch there!). Later I went into town with Emily. In the evening, we met up to go to dinner-it was so sad we only had a group of 5!! As we were leaving, we ran into Professor Jongman. He wanted to go to dinner with us, so we went to get his daughter Sally and went to Buffalo, a chicken restaurant; it was quite full-circle because it was the restaurant we had our first meal as a group at Inje AND we sat at the same tables. Prof Cho treated us to dinner which was so sweet. Ki said he would treat us to ice cream, so we went to Baskin Robbins and got a huge tub of 5 different flavors to share. Maren, Jenny and I went to get coffee and Prof Cho again treated us. When we returned, Emily was back from her evening in Pusan with MiHye, her host sister. Jenny had to study but Maren and I helped her pack a little.

What are the odds the keys would land there?!

Love this pic!

I will miss these days!

Buffalo Chicken

Buffalo Chicken

Ki with our giant tub of ice cream!

 TODAY!: Maren, Jenny, and I went to the kimbap place for lunch. After lunch Jenny and Emily wanted to get some coffee, so we went to a Twosome Place. While we were waiting for their drink order, I hear "Amy! Amy!". It was one of my students; a lot of them were there having coffee with a professor of theirs. He wanted me to go meet his professor, so we went to say hello. We finished waiting for Em and Jenny's drink when another student came back and said their professor wanted to buy me a cake to thank me for teaching and working with my group. I felt kind of bad; I've never met this professor before! But she insisted and said it was the Korean culture. Instead, Jenny, Em and I picked 3 slices to try. We went to go say thank you and were invited to sit and chat with them for awhile. In the afternoon, I caught up on random tasks like journaling and packing. In the evening, we went to our most frequented BBQ place for "the last supper". After dinner, Prof Cho took us to a Twosome Place for cheesecake and coffee. 

The cakes Emily, Jenny and I got from my students' professor

Hazelnut Caramel Mocha!

Jung Yoon and me!

Monday Off

I had a nice relaxing day... Jenny, Emily and I went to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch. We ordered bibimbap and son kalguksu (hand cut noodle soup). You get those two bowls of food for 4,000W! After lunch Em and I went hiking on the mountain behind BioTech. While we were hiking we spotted Maren hanging out at one of the breaking areas. We talked with her awhile and then decided to try to find the temple on the top of the mountain! ...success! It was maybe another 5-10 minutes of walking. Then in the evening, I tried getting the movie project I made for the group onto CD's without much luck. Maren and I caught up-I hadn't really seen her since Saturday afternoon. I can't believe we are about to start our last week! I'm calling it an early night!

Jenny and me at the restaurant

Em and me by the temple

Last Weekend of the Program!

I realized that today is the official last weekend of our program. I will be here for another week after we finish up, but almost everyone else is leaving Friday or Saturday...of this week. It is so hard to believe our time is almost up; it still feels like we just got here.

I was feeling very tired this morning and slept through my alarm. I slept a long time. Emily, Jenny and I went to Kimbap Country for lunch. In the afternoon, I spent awhile going through some of my things, packing a little, and throwing away a lot. There are still many items to go through before I can say I'm finished...

Jenny and I went to dinner at BioTech and ate our bread we got from last night. We also talked about her possible future studying in Seattle next fall. :) Emily and I plan to go for a run this evening. Tomorrow we don't have school because it is a National Holiday!!

One of our favorite places to visit in Gimhae...

24 Hour Trip to Busan!

Friday: We had our final music class with Director Kim. We sang our three songs and also had a little discussion about our memories and time here. After class Milan, Ji and I met with the Hall Director to get an award in another dormitory. During our festival week our RA's told us we had to write an essay about our life in the dorms at Inje; we could win a prize if our papers were chosen. Turns out Milan and I did the best of the foreign students (or were just the only ones to turn a paper in...) and Ji placed 2nd on campus. Anyway, we had to receive our awards and take pictures with the Dean of Resident Life or something like that. Ji got Happy Money; Milan and I got really nice tea sets. I gave Ji a lunch ticket so he could eat in the cafeteria with us. After lunch he treated Emily and me to Baskin Robins. :) Then it was off to our last writing class! I went over to teach my class, but when I walked in the guy in charge looked surprised to see me and said he had tried to call me to tell me we were cancelling due to the lack of students that day. I went back to finish preparing for the evening. At 5:45 a group of 7 of us met to take the school bus to Haeundae Beach in Pusan. When we arrived in Haeundae, we found a nice Italian restaurant to have dinner. Emily, Jenny and I split a set meal that had pizza, carbonara pasta, and a salad. We went to a bar and grill to meet up with a few other friends from our group and their friends from InKAS. We were able to meet more adoptees from the US and Netherlands. We went to Club Elune which was free for foreigners before midnight. It was okay, but Emily, Maren, Jenny and I left early to head to Vesta, a jjimjilbang (sauna/bathhouse/spa). Unfortunately, the pools were being cleaned so we couldn't soak, but the sauna rooms were open so Emily and I went into one with hot rocks and laid in there for a little. Finally the pools opened up and we soaked for a little before heading to bed. 

Pasta Carbonara and salad part of the set!

Pizza and pasta carbonara part of the set!

Lights for the sand festival!

 Today: Emily and I went back to our hot rock sauna room and also soaked in some of the pools before getting ready for the day. Emily, Maren, Kim, Jenny, and I walked from the jjimjilbang to Haeundae Beach (about 10 min). Emily, Jenny and I went to have lunch with one of Emily's Korean friends who was an exchange student in the United States 3 years ago. Her friend, Jaemin also invited two of his friends along. We went to a Mexican restaurant and all ordered burritos. It was pretty good, but they were really busy so the service was so incredibly slow! After lunch we went in search of a McDonald's for a chocolate dipped ice cream cone. We walked on the beach then and enjoyed the sand sculptures. Jenny needed to head back to campus, so we left. As we were leaving, she spotted an outdoor foot spa, so we soaked our feet for a few minutes before taking the subway and bus back to Inje. Tonight I am just planning on getting some busywork finished and heading to bed early! 

Jung Yoon and me at Haeundae Beach!

Cool sand sculpture

New friends!

Jung Yoon and me soaking our feet!

Outdoor foot spa! Look at all the ajushi's and ajumas!

 

Birthday Continued!

Wednesday- Birthday!!!

In the afternoon Jenny, Emily, Maren and I went to Pusan. We went to the mandu restaurant we went to about a month ago...so delicious! After lunch we shopped a little and then went to Tom and Tom's for Honey Butter Toast! :) We also went to a photo booth place, but it wasn't very good and the options moved too fast; we didn't get to decorate all of our pictures. We headed back to Gimhae; Jenny and Emily told me they were having dinner with their ET groups, but that their groups were joining together and since Jenny's leader was Ji I should join them. When we got to Gupo Station to transfer buses, we actually ran into one of our friends from ET. He was on his way back to Inje too; he came along to dinner with us. We were going to our favorite restaurant  서래, a BBQ place-when we arrived it was everyone from our program. :) After we ate, Ki and Emily came out with a giant cake and somehow got the restaurant to play Happy Birthday over their sound system as well. Professor Cho showed up and got me a special bottle of soju! We went over to the Makgoli place where I stayed for about an hour; I was meeting my ET group for another little party. They had asked me my favorite Korean snacks the day before and I said "Oh Yesuh" (cake-cookies similar to Debbie Cakes); they made me an "Oh Yesuh" birthday cake!! It was amazing! They also ordered chicken after. We took goofy pictures and hung out. It was a really wonderful birthday. :) I feel so lucky to have so many friends. I also received birthday cards from some friends and family at home-it was so special to have those to open and feel loved from home. :)

Emily, Jenny, Maren and me at the mandu soup restaurant!

Cutting my (2nd) birthday cake!

Most of the IIIHR participants

My Oh Yesuh (3rd) Birthday Cake!!

All of the cards and presents from my friends and family from all around the world!

Today: I went into town to call my Grandpa-it was still my birthday back home and I really wanted to talk to him on my birthday. I also was fortunate enough to talk to my Mom on my birthday too. :) Culture class started out well; we played yut again. Our program students won 4 out of 4 games against the Chinese students! Then we learned a new game called "Hwa Du"-flower fight. It was kind of a complicated game to learn; there are many rules so it was a little hard following our professor's explanation. After class I went for a short run on my own. Emily came with me to my class. Halfway through they said we needed a break and then they turned off the lights. They came in with an ice cream cake from Baskin Robins! It was so sweet of them. After dinner, Emily and I went for a run. Later we are going into town to see if there are bags of bread from Paris Baguette.

Emily and me with some of my students

My Ice Cream (4th) birthday cake! Notice the cute little bunny!

Birthday in Korea!

Last night we went to 개집 (The doghouse) to celebrate Ben's going away. We were going to go to the Makgoli place, but it was all full. On the way to 개집 I saw some of my ET group members hiding behind a car. After we were at 개집 for a little, the ET members I saw came in with a cake and the candles all lit. :) It was so sweet. We sat at a smaller table to talk and have cake. They also bought me some nail polish and lotion. They had to leave and wanted to make sure I shared the cake with the group for Ben's party. At midnight everyone sang happy birthday to me and I got hugs and the European kisses. 


It's noon now and my friends and I are about to head out to Pusan for lunch, shopping and the beach. Updates and photos to follow! :)

My ET Group with the cake!

My 1st birthday cake in Korea! :D

Benjy's going away present: soccer ball with well wishes from all of us

Eating cake with some of my ET friends!

Birthday picture with my twin!

Birthday picture with the best roommate in the world!

My birthday presents! The cards were so special to get in Korea!