Another Weekend in So-Ko

"Aneoung-hey seyo" from So-Ko!

This past weekend was jam-packed for Ian and I. Ian did his "all Korean" diet this week, so I am sure he will write about his menu and how it went. Friday night we went to Chicken Palace with all of our branch colleagues. It is an amazing BBQ chicken restaurant in our neighbourhood. We had to wait longer then usual for our food due to language barriers because our favourite manager wasn't working, but other then that it was really fun! After that, Ian, Melissa, Andy, Leah and I decided to go to our local convinience store "GS 25" for a few more cocktails and ran into a Korean teacher from our school, Joy. She is awesome, so it was nice to hang out with her.

Saturday I went shopping with Jen and Melissa from my school. We went to one of my favourite places, Ewha Women's University area. This district is is home to the biggest women's university in the world. Needless to say, the women's shopping is always incredible!

Something there bothered me this weekend though. A homeless woman was selling a malnourished kitten and puppy. All she could afford to feed them was black bean tea water that was been given away for free on the street. She was picking them up and tossing them around like bean bags on parade. Jen loves cats, so she was heartbroken and was SO close to just buying it and taking it home. It was really sad.

Saturday night, Ian and I headed down south to Erin and Justin's place in Beomgye. (For those of you who have not read previous posts, Erin and Justin are Ian's hometown friends that arrived a little while after us!) What a fun area! Their apartment is beautiful and we enjoyed some munchies, wine and Captain Morgans before hitting the town. We went to a really tasty Mexican restaurant and then a neat bar where we drank cocktails our of a giant, hollowed out pineapple. Ian and Justin played some kind of shooting marble game before heading back in the for evening.

Sunday unexpectedly was a great day too. Erin made us all breakfast and Ian and I headed out to meet our friend from Laurier, Josh. He plays in a baseball league here in Korea, and we went and watched his game for a bit. It was awesome sitting outside, since the weather was so beautiful. After a bit of baseball watching, Ian and I decided to head to Seoul Grand Park and see what was there.

Seoul Grand Park encompasses alot. There is a Contemporary Art Museum, a theme Park called "SeoulLand" and a zoo. Ian and I went to the zoo because we love going to the zoo! It was a great time. We watched Lions being thrown huge steaks and fighting for them and watched a dolphin and seal show which was really cool! One thing that Ian and I noticed that was sad was the fact that the tigers were in tiny cages, while the lions, zebras and gazelles got large, grassy areas. We felt bad for them!

After that, I headed to Itewan and picked up some "foreign" groceries and Ian headed home to play basketball with Andy and a Korean test teacher from our school who invited them. Maybe Ian will write more about their games with all the Korean guys, but I don't know much about it other than that they had fun!

It was a great weekend! All I can say is thank goodness Monday's classes are over for me right now! I am beat!

Here are some pictures from September in Korea, including one of my classes and the homeless woman selling the animals: http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2109931&l=a1bf5&id=187905622

Here are pictures from Seoul Grand Park!: http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2109969&l=8ca89&id=187905622

Until next time!