Two months down...

I crossed the two month mark last week, officially making this trip my longest outside the US. My previous Korea visit was a mere seven weeks, and I think I was only in Brazil six weeks. Anyhow, one of my coworkers had been warning me that I would feel some tremendous culture shock around this point, but I'm happy to report that none has occurred. If anything, the last few days were bland and busy. I had to work an extremely full day Friday followed by a half-day Saturday, so I was beat by the time my weekend officially rolled around. I also didn't have any class cancellations for the first time, so I worked the most hours yet.

After work on Saturday I joined a few friends to go to a food festival. Unfortunately we got a late start and didn't find the place quickly (traffic is killer here sometimes), so we got there near the end of the festival. We sampled some sweet-tasting spaghettie sauce, got some Korean pancakes for free (because of the presence of a 'foreigner'), and some Mountain Dew. I scored two cans because they had an alarming surplus at the end of the festival. Wish I could've carried more--it was some of the best MD I've ever had. We left the festival in search of a good duck restaurant, and sure enough found one. I can't remember if I ate duck before then (maybe in Vietnam?) but it was awesome. It tasted like well-seasoned beef; it was a little drier than beef but had a more flavorful taste. Also had a hard-boiled duck egg, green in color, which tasted almost the same as a regular hard-boiled egg. I went to Jason's house, watched some English Premier League, and called in a night.

Sunday I went to church with Jason. We attended the youth service, which was pretty similar to an American youth service but with a shorter sermon (at least it seemed short--I couldn't understand it so I read). After church we ate some cow bone soup with rice and some samgyupsal meat, then I went home to do laundry. Doug called me later that night so I went over to play 360 at his house. I guess there's some new Halo 3 campaign missions coming to 360, so if that happens, I'll be pretty excited. I also found out there's some new achievements, so I'd like to work on those. All in all, it was a normal weekend.

This week is going to be totally different. Friday is a holiday, and several coworkers are going to Japan for the three-day weekend. I had originally planned on joining, but I'd already made plans to go to a baseball game with some friends. I guess Japan can wait. =) Friday I plan to go to Gyeongju and ride bikes around the old city with some friends. There are lots of temples and historical palaces scattered there, so it should be interesting. Saturday I'll go to the baseball game, and Sunday I'll be back at Dongbu Church. I'm looking forward to enjoying the time with my pals outside of work, which bring me to my last mentionable point of interest--girls.

I planned on sharing something juicy about this here, but changed my mind. So, it should suffice for me to report that things are moving slowly forward here...just friends for now. We'll see what a weekend will do. I'm still reading Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and am having trouble absorbing everything in there. Also, I haven't studied much Korean lately. I hope to get on that soon....