Baby Tommy

A couple weeks ago I met my friend Jiho for dinner in Seoul on a Tuesday. He had just gotten out of the hospital. He was in car accident. Well I should say bus accident. He was on a bus that got hit and there were 23 injured passengers I guess. Pretty crazy. He didn’t get hurt much just very sore. It had been a while since I saw him last so it was good to catch up. He’s been busy trying to finish law school and apply for jobs. 

At dinner with Jiho. My favorite, Dakgalbi!

Jiho really wanted to take a picture with this sign... haha

Last weekend was my director’s baby’s first birthday party. In Korea, the babies first birthday party is a huge deal. It’s like our sweet 16 birthday party in the states. Anyways, it was interesting to attend. It was my first one; I thought it was kinda weird. It was held at a restaurant. When we walked in they sent us to a room and we ate, chatted amongst those who we came with. Amy came by once to say hello and take cards/money from people and then when we finished eating we left. There were separate eating rooms too so everyone didn’t eat together. It was strange but a free meal I guess. 

At little Tommy's bday party. Some random lady, our school cook, and Jessica.

Adam and I at the "party"

The gift towel

After the “party” Jessica, Adam, and I went to Seoul. We hung out for a bit and then Adam and I headed to Costco. We went to get cheese to make lasagna for our Korean coteachers. Costco Korea failed to provide us lasagna noodles and ricotta cheese, which was bit disappointing to say the least. We then headed to Itaewon (the area in seoul where the us military base is aka the foreign food is) to collect the rest of our ingredients. We met up with my friend Nick for dinner after at a foreign pub. It is always so good to have get a taste of home. I miss western food. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with Korean food but after a while you just really crave a good sandwich or dish from home. I enjoyed a nice BLT that night with a halfway decent beer. 

My friend Nick and I at Dinner in Seoul

Sunday morning I went into Seoul again to hang out and meet up with Jiho for church. He has wanted to take me to church for a long time now and finally we were able to go. Before I met with him I went to a familiar place to sit down, relax, and enjoy more comforts of home: Caribou Coffee. It was a great lazy morning hanging out at Bou drinking a latte and reading a book. Jiho and I met up at church for the 4pm English service. It was actually really fun and good to go to. This was the first time I’ve been to church in Korea. After the service, Jiho and I went to dinner before I headed to meet up with friend and coteacher Jessica. She has been asking me to go to church with her for a long time as well. I felt bad going to church with Jiho and not her so I went to evening Korean service with her. It was so interesting to go to it. I have never been to a Korean service before. The church she attends is fairly young. At the church they have groups or teams she calls them, which remind me of youth groups, but they are all adults. So the teams all sit together at service and then after they get together to say a prayer. They also had a section of singing at the beginning, which was normal, but then a full on orchestra appears out of nowhere. They were really good too. Jessica kept saying to me I’m so happy that you’re here Julie, thank you for coming. She really wanted me to meet her friends who already knew all about me, only good things I hope!  It felt really good to go, it meant a lot to her I could tell. 

Enjoying a cup of coffee with the comforts of MN.

N. Seoul tower view from the subway stop near church