Happy Birthday

For those of you who didn’t know, Monday (September 5^th) was my birthday. Hadley came to visit me last weekend to hang out with me for my birthday weekend.  We were going to go to the Hite Beer Factory to get a tour but those plans fell apart. Yoma’s (one of my teammates) brother works at the factory. Hongcheon just happened to be hosting a big sports event tournament for our region Gangwon-do. Yoma’s husband was works for the board or sports place that puts together the events so he was busy here and therefore we didn’t have time to go to Hite. Oh well, I’m sure I will be able to go there soon with them. My team knows that I really want to go there and I have met “Hite uncle” (I call him that with Dajeong) that works there.  

Sports events of all kinds were going on all over town. Everything from swimming and biking to ping pong and tae kwon do something or other. Hadley and I headed over to the river on Saturday morning to check out what was going on. We saw part a swimming race where it was your everyday person who could enter. They wore their snorkels and fins. It was pretty much a joke but was fun to watch for a good ten minutes. While we were there we ran into Seamus and his wife Natalie. They are foreigners in my town from Canada… they’re married living here in Korea now and have been here for 5 years. They have Sunday night dinners usually at their apartment for all of us foreigners. I have been to a few dinners and will probably start going to more now that my friends are all leaving me and I will have more time to hang out.

Natalie, Hadley and I decided to go for a little hike. After our hike we met up with Jennifer for lunch (she’s a foreigner here from MN. I haven’t hung out with her a lot. She happened to be on my bus down to Daegu for the track events so we chatted for a while) Anyways, she had a ton of her friends that she met during orientation come to Hongcheon to hang out with her. We all headed to the river after lunch to enjoy the nice day. Shortly after we arrived at the river, the big crowd of people overwhelmed Hadley and I so we left.

All the "waygook's" foreigners in the river. The Korean's were so confused. Haha

Natalie and I on our small hike

On of the views of Hongcheon on our hike

We hung out all afternoon not doing a whole lot.  We took a two-hour nap and ate some delicious Korean bbq. Dajeong came and met us for dinner as well. We then bought some eggs so we could make my cake or cupcakes my mom sent me a package for. This was the second time I’ve used the stove oven here. It was pretty easy to use and it made the cupcakes really fast. Dajeong said to tell my mom thank you for sending me American food that she gets to try. She loved the rice krispie bars that I shared with her when my mom sent me the cereal and marshmallows. 

My stove oven

Frosting the cupcakes

Hadley teaching Dajeong how to frost the cupcakes (so crazy to think she's never done this before... Mom I told her she needs to come to Minnesota and go to the international school. I also may or may not have offered her a bedroom in our house...)

            Sunday Hadley and I hung out and wondered around town. I really wanted to watch a soccer game so we went to the Hongcheon Stadium where soccer was going on and watch the men’s final game for the tournament. Dajeong was volunteering there, my coach was working the event and there were a handful of my teammates there as well. When we arrived at the stadium I saw coach right away. We headed up towards the bleachers and people kept greeting me that I knew. This didn’t phase Hadley really because she’s aware that a lot of people know me here. It’s pretty crazy. The game was fun to watch. It was a good relaxing birthday weekend. 

The soccer field

Dajeong and her friends she volunteered with.

There were banners all over town advertising the events.

Hadley bought me penguin socks for my birthday! 

Monday was my actual birthday. I had to go to school and work which was just like any ordinary day. I did receive a very nice text from two of my teammates wishing me a happy birthday and telling me that they loved me. I love when they text me because their English is so funny but they’re getting a lot better. This text had a lot of hearts in it, haha. I also received a text from Kalie, Hadley and Jiho (Addie’s boyfriend) wishing me a happy birthday. Clayton had some of his students’ say happy birthday to me over the phone as well, which was cute. After work Jessica and I went to dinner and had some delicious dakgalbi.  At dinner I got a call from Dajeong’s father. He said “Hello Julie? This is Dajeong’s father. Happy Birthday!” It was so awesome. He speaks no English and Dajeong got on the phone after saying, “isn’t my father brave?” Korean’s often times get really embarrassed speaking English even if they know it because they don’t want to pronounce words wrong. I appreciate it when people try to talk to me in English. 

The delicious Dakgalbi birthday dinner Jessica bought me! 

Jessica at dinner

Anyways, the rest of my night consisted of Jessica and I walking around trying to breathe after we ate food meant for 5 people. Later we met up with Sally and hung out at Coffee Bene for a yogurt smoothie that I was able to fit in my stomach at that point. All in all it was a good birthday.

I’m looking forward to this weekend because it’s Chuseok “Korean Thanksgiving” and we get Monday and Tuesday off! I’m really excited because I’m going to hang out with Clayton, Kalie and Micah (Kalie’s brother who’s in Korea right now visiting). We’re going to Seoraksan National Park. I’ve been told many times that I would love it there and need to go. We’re going to do some hiking and spend time together.