Friday, June 25, 2010

Paula's Pusan Pirthday Party

THAT is what the events name was. That's right folks, I no longer have an excuse for my immaturity.. I am now TWENTY-TWO! I don't have another birthday to look forward to until I'm 25 and reach my quarter-life crisis!!! In Korea, I'm actually 23 or 24.. still not sure about how all that works!

We had a girls night, in where else? But Busan on the Friday night before my birthday. It was a blast, we got off the bus at about 10PM and found a love motel (which we will never go back to again, because they wont let us have 8 people in a 1 bed room... who'da thunk?!), we had decided that we would go to Club Elune first, since we could get in without cover before 12PM.. it was 11:55 when we left the hotel.. SOO it was Laura, Christina and I's brilliant idea to just run... leaving everyone else behind. Once we got there, we realized that none of us brought cell phones! So we went in the club hoping the rest would come.. we were the three brunettes.. so all we needed to look for were 4 blondes.. super easy in Korea! WELL, we gave it about a half hour of dancing to techno and sweating our booties off and we decided to find the rest of our clan to make a mega foreigner dance party! Let's just say, within 40 minutes we had 3 wrist bands.. it was a very good night!


We had yummy cheeseburgers for breakfast and laid out on the beach for the majority of the day Saturday and Sunday! Couldn't have asked for more!! We were in Busan for the Gwangali Festival which celebrates the ocean, summer and fisherman! So.. of course we headed down to Gwangali Beach and checked out the festivities. They had traditional fisherman village replicas set up, traditional games, and a place where you could catch fish with your bare hands.. by the time we had gotten there most of the fish had been caught.. but we still tried without success!




The World Cup game I blogged about that played on the beach was on Saturday too and we went to watch One Drop East play in MurpII on Saturday night. They were awesome! I definitely did not expect to see live awesome sublime-esque music in Korea, so I was thrilled! I still miss my Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers though!!


On my actual birthday a big group of us met at Go West.. the usual spot.. and I got surprised with awesome presents and a birthday cake :) It was fabulous. I also received an awesome package from my parents and grandmother and many cards! I could not have been happier.. it was a very unexpectedly awesome birthday, thank you family and friends :) I missed everyone back home very much!!


My present from Mikan was.... A MIKAN DOLL! That's what I named it :) I had found it in a stationary store and fell in love! The sweetheart she is, got it for me for my birthday! It is just like a rubber chicken, but it is a screaching woman!! Bahaha, GREAT for squeezing at different random Koreans passing by.


This picture was when I had taken Mikan Doll out to the game!! She was a hit :)

Dae-Han-Min-Gook, clap-clap clap-clap CLAP

As the entire world knows, the World Cup has come before us! Korea is WAY more excited about their SOCCER than I thought they would be. Yes.. I said soccer and not football if any of you weird Europeans are out there reading! I find it weird that there is this much enthusiasm, because the kids don't even have organized sports within the public school systems!! Yeah, they have sports academies, but honestly what kind of sports can get done in a tiny academy on the second floor of a building?! Also, how do the Korean athletes get so good if they are constantly being forced to study while growing up?! It boggled my mind there for a while, but then I just shut my mouth and watched as they would get all hot.. and sweaty.. and accidentally lose their shirts at the end of the game. Let's just say, I've begun to care.

I also enjoy watching any team from Latin America play football.. you know the sweaty shirt thing... OH and England has some pretty nice looking players.. and Brazil isn't half bad either!

I could go on and on :) I <3 Soccer Players.. sweaty... gorgeous... K I'm done. For real.

So, the first game that I saw, was at 11PM ON A BEACH in Busan. Haeundae is my favorite beach for many reasons.. gotta love any activity that happens on the beach.. and I mean any! So they had about 4 HUGE screens set up for people to gather around and watch and they came out in droves.. TONS of people with flashing red devil horns, red shirts, and shiny silver mats to sit on, HEY it's Korea.. I didn't say it would be normal!



My friend, Ange, and I watched the game for a bit with our friends.. then went to get awesome french fries and sweet chili sauce, while people watching on a main street which is always fun. Then, we went to a place called Rock-n-Roll Bar which is on the 14th floor of a building right on the beach. It was AWESOME seeing all of the people from high above!






Then, last Thursday, we watched the game right beside the river!! It was pretty fun, especially since I brought my Mikan Doll to scare the Koreans around me!! ... explanation in the next blog about Mikan Doll! Korea lost to Argentina though, so it was sad :(

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

A Weekend with Intensity

For the past two weekends, we (the chicks and I) have been staying in Jinju because we were legit out of our 'hood the entire month of May!!! It has been really awesome, I DO miss meeting new people though, that is the best thing about visiting other cities.. fresh meat :) Wow, that sounds intense. We'll make it flowery.. 'Meeting new people and lighting the flame of friendship.'

So, this weekend, we decided to spice it up a bit and go have a picnic at the river on Friday night. It was awesome, and the losers who just HAVE to go to the same bar to drink everynight didn't come.. and that's ok, because they don't deserve to take part in such a cool picnic party!! All of us brought some different food, we had mandu, kimbop, fried chicken, raspberies, watermellon and parfaits, soju, Hite and Soju Smoothies too :) We had some music playing, and there was about 7 of us so there was lots of talking to be had. We also met a bunch of Koreans and offered them food and drinks (because they always do to us when we walk by a picnic.. normally). We headed to Rubys and had a good dancing time afterwards!



The next day was the BEACH! We decided to go to Samcheon-po (Sam il dae) because it is the closest to Jinju. HOWEVER, when Claire, Troy, Laura and I took a cab (never doing that again!) instead of a bus (like everyone else was doing later on).. we negotiated 40,000Won for the ride to 'Nam Il Dae'.. well the ride that was supposed to be 45 minutes.. took a bit less than 2 hours! And up to the 1 1/2 hour mark.. we still had nooo clue we weren't REALLY going where we thought we were. Air Heads! We saw this huge bridge that looked wicked awesome.. everyone was like 'we better not be going over that'.. and I was thinking 'YES! We're going over the bridge'. We had a tie 2 and 2 of whether we were going to call Kevin who can speak Korean and who was driving to SAMCHEON-PO in a bit to meet us, they wanted him to see if he could figure out where we were going.. Troy and I thought we shouldn't call him of course, we just wanted the ride to take its course :) and not interfere!

WELL, we ended up getting dropped off in the town of Namhae (Nam il dae, Namhae.. get why we ended up there?!).. BUT luckily, there is a beach about 20 minutes into the town that is 20 times nicer than Samcheon Po's, so all was well. Kev, Oscar, Choi, Mikan, Tom and Kev wound up meeting us at Namhae, so it was fun times :)




Later that night, a bunch of the GNU girls and I dressed up in wigs and went out on the town to celebrate Eve's birthday and to unfortunately say goodbye to her :( She is my gemini twin, and I cannot wait to see her again someday down the road. The wigs were... itchy... not my thing whatsoever.. I made it to Kamui and took it off after 5 minutes!! But it was fun to walk down the streets of Jinju in them.. people probably thought we lost our corner or something or were headed to gang up on another hooker and steal her corner!!


All in all the weekend had a little kick to it, it was SPICY! <3

The Day I Gave My Maw-Maw a Penis with a Face for Her Birthday

Hardcore stealing internet right now in Dunkin' Donuts! And listening to a foreigner's conversation with a Korean chick about the song Barbie Girl.. he definitely just compared himself to Ken.. I'm gagging right now. And I would beg to differ! (I've never seen this guy before)


Anyways, I have missed my blog like crazy! I hope everyone back home is doing well! I love you guys! I just talked to my parents and grandmother this morning on Skype.. I love how awesome technology is!

So here is a super funny story:
It was my Maw-Maw's birthday on June 2nd, so I sent her.. what else.. other than a Penis Statue that I had bought at the Hwagae Market. I have posted about the penis obsession here in Korea before.. just scroll down! Basically, it is a sign of fertility and protection.. the figure is literally everywhere! Well, my Maw-Maw got it, and she told me that my Paw-Paw asked her what it was? And she said, well its a penis! He says, I've never seen a penis that looks like that, mine doesn't look like that! And my awesome smart funny Maw-Maw said, maybe it would look like it if you drew a face on it?
BAH, I love it!