On Friday, we did our usual deal and hung out at Radio. That has definitely become our club, and since Woo Min gave four of us VIP cards, we get 10 percent off on all our bills. I'm just really comfortable there. And Woo Min is more than just a bartender/owner, he's a good friend. In fact, he'll be one of the four friends carrying me in for my wedding.
On Saturday, Jeong Mi and I went to another bar owner/friend's wedding with Bryan and Kim. Mike is the guy who used to own Go Bar. It's the bar in Inha that we have frequented quite often over the last couple years. He's always been really good to us, and I was even on his big, blow-up advertisement out front of the bar.
So we went to his wedding at a wedding hall in Bupyeong. While the wedding hall was pretty similar to many of the others ones we've been to, it was the food that stood out. This was probably the best wedding buffet I've had in Korea yet.
Another really cool thing happened at the wedding, too. Apparently there's a bit of tradition with the throwing of the bouquet that is a bit different from America. In America, we have the single girls get up there to catch it. In Korea, they want a soon-to-be-married girl to do it. As luck(?) would have it, Jeong Mi is the only girl who fell into that category.
So she got up there in front of a big crowd and caught the bouquet of nice, yellow roses. We even got a free cake as the couple who came away with the bouquet. That was really fun.
There was a soccer game Saturday night that I really wanted to go to, but Bryan and Kim we're trying to talk Jeong Mi and I into going 93 km south with them to Anseong, where they would be running a 10k the next day.
As has been my habit over the last couple of years, I usually don't do anything big on Saturday night, and then so something restful on Sunday. But that's a habit I've been trying to break, and have been successful so far.
So I decided that we'd take Bryan and Kim up on their offer and join them down south. So we went home, packed our stuff and headed to Emart to get some supplies. One of those supplies included a Rayboard for me. It's this awesome skateboard with only one wheel in front and one wheel in back. The center of it is a big spring, so you move it by rotating your feet back and forth. I always see students buzzing around on them, and decided it would be my summer toy purchase.
We got on our way around 3 p.m. and got down there around 6 p.m. We would've gotten there sooner, but we saw a sex shop in a tiny pink trailer by the side of the highway and we had to stop and check it out. Did we buy anything? Oh, the stories we could tell.
Anseong is a very small area. This little town might be smaller than my home town of Franklin, PA. And Franklin only has about 6,000 people. What I'm saying is this place is AWESOME. There are no huge apartment complexes or neon lights. It's just small buildings, a main street and actual houses with yards and gardens. It was like being in Small Town, USA, South Korea.
The 10k was happening as part of Anseong's cultural festival. It was like a smaller version of Applefest. They even set up a big stage in the town square area with some little (falling apart) carnival rides and food booths. On the stage was a variety of martial arts shows, singing and bands.
We hung out in the area for a bit after we arrived, and Bryan and I were flagged down by a police officer who asked to see our IDs. As he was checking our IDs, he was asking where we were from, how long we've been in Korea and how far they were running the next day.
It was too perfect of a day to be upset. And really, we think he just checked our IDs as an excuse to practice some English with us. We were joking that we are probably the only two Americans who have been in that town since the war. The more we thought about it, the less it seemed like a joke.
We stayed that night in the Shot motel, which was pretty newly built. It had great gear on the inside, and Bryan's room even had blacklights. Unfortunately, our blacklights were broken.
We got up bright and early the next day to make our way to the race site. It was just a few kilometers outside of the small town at the public square in front of the local hospital/old folks home. There were a ton of tents and spaces set up for the various teams and organizations who had runners entered.
We didn't have a tent, so we just hung out while everyone was stretching and getting ready.
When the time came for the race, Bryan and Kim got into place, and they were off. They took a little over an hour for their 10k. Kim has been running lately, but Bryan hadn't trained at all. Also, the heat was just sweltering. I was just hanging with Jeong Mi and I was sweating.
After the race ended, we headed back into town to hang at the festival some more. We first went into one of the event halls to see some of the Chinese-inspired art. While there, an older man came up to me and asked me if I spoke Korean. He then proceeded to lead me around the whole exhibit and explain all the paintings to me. He even introduced me to one of the teachers/artists. He was a little surprised when I asked to take a picture with him. But it's that small-town mentality that's so nice.
We headed across to the square after that because there was a mariachi band from Mexico City who played. And they were GREAT. We bought a couple of beers and hung out to listen to them. It turns out they are staying in Bucheon, which is just 20 minutes away from us on the subway. So we got their email address and I said I'd send the names and numbers of local bars. Hopefully we can see these guys again.
We hung out for a little more after the Mexican band finished, took int he festival, are some corn dogs and relaxed. We then hit the road to make our way home.
Since it was only about 5 p.m. when we got back, we decided to grab some galbi and beers and hang at Radio a bit to have a night cap.
All in all, this weekend was full of new experiences and really fun times. The weather was beautiful and we were with good friends. If it gets any better than this, I won't know what to do with myself.
Picture time!
Mike's wedding
Anseong 10k
No comments:
Post a Comment