Another Visitor From Home (...err...Bangladesh...)

Last week, Darrell and I were blessed to have Jessica Dempster come and visit us. We’ve had so much awesomeness during our time in Korea. First, we had the lovely Leslie Price visit us in May and now another dear friend visit us in September. God has truly blessed us during our time here!

Last Monday Darrell and I left Daejeon on the shuttle bus to Incheon airport. It took about 3 hours to get there, but the time flew by…due to me sleeping the whole way. We finally arrived and were delighted to find out we were on time and that Jess’s flight would be early. Woohoo! We waited at the arrival gate for a blue-eyed and dark-haired girl, since we knew not many of them would probably come out of the Korean gate. As we were waiting, Darrell and I were having an amusing time watching the airport gate workers. They were wearing masks and running around with thermometers, checking anyone who came off the flight who could potentially have H1N1. Darrell and I were debating “if we cough, do you think they’ll jump us?” There was just too much to risk…even if it would have been funny. However, the idea flew out of our heads as we saw Jess coming out of the gate. I think she was the loudest and most excited person the Koreans had ever seen come out of the gate. It was awesome to see her! After some hugs, a small snack and a shuttle bus of fun conversation, we were back in Daejeon.

Since we still had to work from Tuesday to Friday, Jess would entertain herself while we were at work. She did many different things – came to see some of the classes we taught, met up with some people from Wycliffe Korea, relaxed and went on beautiful nature walks. When we were free, Darrell and I filled her with Korean food…and lots of it! Every breakfast, lunch and dinner we would try to go out and introduce her to something new, and she fell in love with EVERYTHING…except shrimp sticks. Haha…they kinda looked like cheesies, but she was sadly mistaken. She wrote down everything in her notebook, so when she got back to Toronto she could find some of these foods in Korea town.

Darrell and Jess thought they would try and climb a mountain while she was visiting, too. The mountain was called Gyeryongsan. Darrell knew the mountain was famous and thought it would be an adventure. Since I had quite a number of classes that day I decided to stay home and relax, so they left around 6am on Friday morning. They arrived back at the apartment by 1:40pm and looked exhausted. They didn’t realized how HUGE this mountain was, or that the side they climbed even “mountain people” found hard. When Koreans go climbing, they REALLY go climbing! They wear special jackets and pants, huge head visors, gloves, sometimes facemasks and mountain shoes. Darrell and Jess were wearing regular t-shirts and pants (Darrell ripped his pants badly going down the mountain) plus sandals. Koreans were pointing at their feet and saying “Oh, very dangerous!” but they survived and got amazing photos out of the deal.

Friday evening we met up with my cousin Chelsea and went out for dalkgalbi (chicken breast, rice cakes and cabbage in hot red pepper sauce), which was amazing! Darrell and Jess met up with Chelsea earlier to introduce Jess to our most favourite clothing store, Elves. The shirts just make you happy! Another favourite Korean pastime is going to the photo booths where you do pictures together. You can pose in the craziest positions and then add on any backgrounds to this photo. We finished the night with noraebang! Jess fell in LOVE with it as she sang her heart out to many many many songs. It was a grand Friday!

The fun didn’t end with Friday as the four of us (me, Darrell, Chelsea and Jess) headed to Seoul for a long weekend. We wanted to try and take Jess to all the places we had been that we knew she would enjoy. We arrived in Insadong and began the hunt for a motel. We had no success finding a room with two doubles beds, so we began looking for two rooms. We were starting to get worried we might not find a place since many of the motels had couples waiting in the lobbies for a room. Many of the workers told us to “come back at 10pm” and it was 6pm now, but we found a place. It wasn’t the best, but the lady who worked there was very nice.

The weekend was filled with different adventures. We went shopping in Insadong and had supper at a beautiful outdoor Italian restaurant. The evening was starting to cool down, so the outside was lovely. Sunday, we went to Yoido Full Gospel Church (the largest in the world), and afterwards, we went to Gyeongbokgung, which is one of Seoul’s five palaces. Darrell and I had visited this palace before and had a fantastic time. We wanted to show it to Jess and Chelsea. It was a splendid day to visit and took lots of pictures…especially jumping in the air photos in front of the palace

That evening, we got together with Heather and Seung Jin in Gangnam. Jess was saying she had not seen Heather in 5 years and was very excited to see her. We went to Shabeu Shabeu restaurant, where we had Japanese food. The dessert of the evening was Baskin Robbins’ Ice cream balls dipped in fondue….mmmm…I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. The food was delicious, and the company was even better! It was great catching up about ‘back in the day’ times at ABU…oh…correction…Crandall University ;)

It was time to head back to Daejeon and have an evening of relaxation before Jess left in the afternoon the next day. We bought some pizza and played some games, plus both us girls communicated with our parents on the other side of the world – through the wonders of technology. It was quite nice!

It was morning…the final day. We helped her pack all her belongings and she too was terribly kind to take some of our stuff back with her. What a sweetheart! It was sad to see her go as we watched her board the shuttle bus back the airport, but we knew we would see her again once we got back to Canada. Once we are back we will plan the next big adventure. Maybe Darrell and Jess can climb the Mt. Katahdin when we get back…only this time they will be in “mountain people” gear!

What do you do when you've got time off?

Darrell and I finally got a well deserved break from work. Darrell finished intensive classes last Friday and the relaxing began. After a few days of relaxing, chillaxing, and not doing much of anything, we were off on another adventure. We left Sunday afternoon to Seoul to visit with our friends Heather and Seung Jin. After arriving in Seoul, we met them at Itaewon for supper. After being a little saddened that the Hard Rock Café was closed, we hunted for another restaurant. We went to some sort of American-style restaurant. I will admit the place was a little sketchy, but the food wasn’t too bad. We had a nice chat, catching up on news since the last time we had seen each other. Then we were off to a foreign food market to get sour cream for the nachos Heather was making that night. It was very hard not to buy things. I saw sooo many cheeses – brie, cheddar, mozzarella and even Philly cream cheese; however, when I looked at the price, I was a little turned off. Just have to wait 3 months…I think I can, I think I can…

The nachos, I must say, were AWESOME…I couldn’t stop eating. We enjoyed them while playing bunches of board games. We began with a classic – the game of Life. I won, which was again awesome, but very sad when I didn’t get any children on my board game journey. In the game of Life I was married to Jude Law and somehow didn’t land on any children boxes. I blame Jude! We also played Sequence which I had never played before and was a little worried. Heather and I were against Darrell and Seung and somehow Heather and I won each time. I think this was making up for not having children in the game of Life :P Finally, we finished with an intense game of Uno…I can’t remember who all won those rounds.

In the morning, we had a full day at Caribbean Bay: one of the largest water parks in the world. Darrell and I were quite excited! After a horrid bus ride down (for me), we made it. We arrived I believe at 9:30am and were planning to stay the entire day. We bought our tickets, locked up our personal items, picked up our bathing caps and PFDs, put on sun block (except Darrell) and were set for the day.

We started with the wave pool. The waves were incredibly big and fast. As soon as I stepped in a lifeguard stopped me and told me to take off my earrings. I didn’t understand why at first until I saw the giant wave coming at me and this wave was filled with people. All I would need is one wave with a person to pull on my earring and my ear would be done for. After a grand time in the wave pool we set off to the lazy river. This river was mighty long and had a strong current. Darrell and I had to hold on to each other’s tubes so we would not get separated. I am regretting that after we came to a waterfall and Darrell pushed me under it again, and again, and again. One does not have a lot of control when your butt is stuck in a hole and your hands and feet can barely touch the water. Thanks Darrell!

Darrell and Seung did a few rides together while Heather and I relaxed. Since Heather was 7 and half months pregnant she was limited with what she could do. Hot tubs were a big No-No, since she didn’t want to “cook the baby” :P I finally agreed to go down one of the giant tube rides with Darrell. After asking him many times “are you certain it will not flip” I agreed and went. You know what happened? It flipped! When we reached the bottom, Darrell told me to lean back which I did…just to the side :P Over we went…good times had by all!

The day was about done and we had an awesome time. We got to have fun on some amazing rides and enjoy a little sun too. Darrell might not have enjoyed the sun as much as us…due to not enough or hardly any sun screen…haha, but we had a great time. It was great to spend time with Heather and Seung Jin again. We are looking forward to the next great adventure!

Mud, Mud, and more Mud!!

Hello All!

Last weekend Darrell, my cousin Chelsea and I went to the very famous Boryeong Mud Festival. We decided to go for the day instead of the weekend because poor Darrell had to start intensives on Monday (he needed as much sleep as possible). We got up at 7am in order to get ready to take the 9:50am train to Daecheon (not to be confused with our Daejeon). This was my and Darrell’s first time on the slow train. It was no KTX…I mean I could actually see things go by in slow motion…haha, but it was a nice ride. As soon as we arrived in Daecheon we had to get our stuff and get off quickly because, like the KTX, the train does not wait for you. Quick as bunnies we were! However, we made it off and once we were in the train station we were being bombarded by our first Korean man saying “Hello…Where are you going?” to which Chelsea answered, “to the bathroom.” Haha…very nice!

After our trip to the bathroom we went hunting for a taxi driver. It was very easy and we pretty much didn’t have to tell him where we were going. We knew what he was thinking “oh, foreigners…to Mudfest.” After a 10 to 15 minute taxi drive we arrived at the beach and once again there was more bombarding by more Korean men asking us if we wanted a place to stay. They were all over disappointed when we kept saying “no”. It was time to fill our bellies with Korean food and then we were off to the beach.



The first we had to do was find a place to put the book bags. We were first going to find a hiding place in the bushes, but then we were thrilled to find lockers. In went all the bags, the clothes, shoes and jewelry…but the cameras were going to stay free. I must say I had no real desire to play in the mud, so I was in charge of the cameras. That way I could capture every express on their faces. We were ready and off to the mud – Well, Darrell and Chelsea went down to the ocean first to play in the waves, but THEN it was off to the mud!

Darrell and Chelsea went through so many different mud activities. First they went into the mud pool, where they would splash, role, and even hug loads of mud. It was a nice start! Then it was off to the mud jail where Darrell and Chelsea were imprisoned in a mighty jail where the ‘guards’ would throw mud at them. Poor Chelsea had her mouth open when this happened and she REALLY got a face-full :P While we were walking around, we saw so many different colors of mud. Chelsea wanted to take part in that color scheme, so she got herself painted blue. So many people were painted with so many colors – blue, green, purple and reddish-orange. So many ages were involved in getting the pretty colors. The youngest we saw was a very tiny baby boy who was being painted green. At first we was doing okay…until he looked at his body and saw green everywhere. He started to panic and cry, but his mother made them keep painting – kind lady! I am at least happy Chelsea did not panic and cry…although they would have made great pictures :P

It was an enjoyable day of mud! But soon the day was almost done for us and we were getting beat and sleepy. Which meant dear Darrell and Chelsea needed to get cleaned up. The only things I needed to clean off were my sneakers. They were filled with mud! I remember thinking to myself “maybe I should take them off” but I’m glad I didn’t. So many people were falling or slipping in the mud because it was EVERYWHERE! Even Darrell came close to falling a few times. A small boy even slid right into my legs…so yeah…it was everywhere. I am very pleased I left my sneakers on or I might have been falling with a very expensive camera and that would have been very VERY bad.

Darrell and Chelsea had one last round of mud paint and then they were off to the sea, the Yellow Sea for that matter. They were very salty when they came out, but at least most of the mud was gone…most of it. There was still some hiding like in the ears…yuck! So, the three of us salty and oily beings were off to homey Daejeon. We had a great time, plus we were also very pleased we only stayed for a day. It was a very windy day, so some of the attractions were not up due to the wind. Even the waves in the Sea were being watched by the lifeguards. Small children were being knocked over by the waves and even Chelsea had a little tumble. However it is a very nice day trip! We left at 9:50am to go there and we took the 6:55pm train back. Both train rides were about 2 hours long plus also needing to count a taxi ride back to our apartments. It was around 9:30pm when we made it home and a nice air conditioned apartment with a sweet hot shower was priceless.

There’s only one thing I can tell anyone who might be in Korea and interested to go: make sure you have a great bunch of people or a great set of friends to go with. There is nothing worse than going and not having fun because you went with the wrong people. The company you are with can make or break the trip. Suffice it to say we were in GREAT company!