Mini-break!

I love my family and appreciate that they have been letting me stay with them for so long, but after a couple of weeks of their attentive care I was ready for a little independence. Lucky for me, I have thoughtful friends who happen to be very popular, and before I got to Korea I was given the contact information for the good friend of a good friend teaching in Seosan. After a couple of emails and a phone call, we set a weekend for me to come down for a visit.

It took a bit of nudging to get out of town; first my family wanted to know why anyone would go teach in Seosan, a tiny city compared to Seoul, and then they were concerned that I wouldn't survive the two hour bus trip back and forth. My uncle took me to the bus station, bought my ticket, and spoke to every staffer there he could find to tell them I came from the US and needed help getting on the right bus at the right time. An hour later, just as my bus was about to leave (with me safely on it), he ran back, out of breath and slightly sweaty, to give me my aunt's phone for the weekend. Even though I assured him I would be fine and had already used a pay phone (twice!), he insisted, and left again, reminding me to sit out of the sun. Five minutes later, the driver started the engine and was getting himself situated, when surprise! Back comes my uncle. He ran back on the bus and told me the phone was on silent. He took it off silent, called it to make sure it worked, and at last was forced to let me go.


The drive down was lovely, all lush green landscape and surprisingly few high-rise apartment buildings once we left we the big city. I listened to pretty music and thought about things and felt at peace. When I got to Seosan, I was greeted by my new best friend Jake, who welcomed me to town and spoke to me like an adult and generally made me feel very welcome. We headed to the rooftop of one of his fellow English teachers and spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sun, drinking beer, eating Jolly Pong, listening to music, and chatting while a few more friends trickled in. Everyone was so inviting and fun, and I thought to myself, If I were going to do something like this, I'd love to be surrounded by these folks.


Roof darts! Like lawn darts but with weighted rubber balls instead of sharp metal spikes, and on a roof instead of a lawn. After nearly lobbing a dart off the roof and onto a parked car, I decided to save my energy for drinking beer on the sidelines and making the occasional objective judgment call. As the sun went down and our bellies started rumbling, we made our way over to a little place called Garten Bier, where I saw two things that have changed my life forever.


OH MY GOD IT'S A REFRIGERATED CUP HOLDER! Seriously. This is so brilliant. I think I must have said "This is the coolest thing I've ever seen" (literally!) about fifteen times, until one of my new friends told me I needed to get out more. But really, this is genius. Don't you hate how sometimes you just want to savor a beer but it will only get warmer and warmer until by the end it's like drinking flat barley juice? I do. With this 4 degree Celsius Bio cup holder you never have to worry about that again! I mean really. How neat! Possibly even better than my cup holder was the beverage that stayed cool inside it. Behold:


Soju. Slushie. In mango! So delightful. I had two, and I could see these being very dangerous. They tasted like the freshest, ripest mangoes had been just been picked from the tree and chopped up right then and blended with ice and soju. The food we ate was good too, but nowhere near as memorable as the drinks. The evening progressed into the wee hours of the morning, bringing with it a climb to a hilltop observation tower, some new Korean friends, and an epic two hours at a noreh-bahng, or karaoke room, where you and ten of your closest friends can pick all the songs the MC's at regular karaoke bars never let you sing. Having spent the two weeks prior going to bed at 9 every night, this was just the kind of night I needed. Many thanks to my new loves, Seosan is lucky to have you!