Juan's Trip

If you are a regularly reader (not that I can imagine that there actually would be such a person) you would have noticed that I didn't post an entry last week. Well, it was because nothing much happened until the weekend when Juan showed up for a visit.  Juan arrived at the train station on Saturday night, and David and Hye Song were kind enough to drive me there to pick him up. We all went out to eat some samgyupsal and Juan was later introduced to the game of darts. On Sunday we went to play soccer at the World Cup Stadium practice field--the first grass field I'd played on since being in Korea--and I has a none-too-impressive premier there. Oh well. I took Juan to my church's Bible study, then we met up with Jenny for dinner before going to play some pool at Billibow. 

We got up early on Monday morning to hike up Palgong Mountain where a 1,400-year-old hatted Buddha sits on the summit to receive worshipers and pilgrims and the thoughtful masses who wish merely to contemplate his serenity. Juan found it hard to make the journey, and so it took us much longer than I anticipated for us to reach the top and return to the bus. Because of that, I was a little late to work, but I was able to switch classes. Tuesday was a day that will go down in my memory forever: the day I ate dog soup. Juan, Kai (a Korean student), and I took a taxi a few minutes away from Wall Street to a sketchy-looking place that smelled quite foul. We were ushered into a small room that looked as though it had been a child's bedroom a few decades before it's current operational status as a dining room. We were promptly served a boiling soup within which was a healthy (in all senses of the word) portion of dog meat and vegetables. I eagerly enjoyed my soup, finding the taste to be quite good. Juan, however, and perhaps to his credit, found it difficult to stomach the meat. I ended up eating about half of his portion after he gave up on it.

Wednesday we went to Chilseung Market so Juan could get some souveniers. Unbeknownst to me (since it was my first time there), boiled and roasted and gutted dogs were in abundance at the market for your casual perusal and photo-taking pleasure. We partook, as Facebook can now attest for you. We saw lots of seafood as well, and ended up not getting any souveniers at all. We instead went to Doctor Fish, the place where you can dip your feet into a fish tank to have them nibbled on. From there, I went to work whilst Juan enjoyed a 90-minute Thai massage. On Thursday, Juan had to catch the train to Seoul to depart, so we went to the train station and said our goodbyes after a quick but packed trip.

Other than that, I saw the Renee Zellweger film about her going to Minnesota (I don't know the name, because the title was translated into Korean) with Jenny and we had a nice date in the now-warm weather. It's like Daegu went straight from winter to summer, with no time for spring. She still has a cold, but when she gets to feeling better we might go to Gyeongju. My dad and stepmom arrive on the 23rd, which now seems like just a few days away. I'll have some time off work then, which I'm looking forward to. It's tough not having a spring break this year....but not having to teach high school is more than ample compensation.

Meet the Parent

Normal work week, with the exception of the an introduction to Gorilla Burger, a newish restaurant that serves ridiculously large, savory, and delicious burgers at a decent price. It's unheard of in Daegu, but nevertheless, they are there. I had my first taste and David, Doug, and I have agreed that eating there is to become a weekly event.

Juan is coming this weekend to stay about a week. I'm hoping it'll be a great time. My dad's coming three weeks from today, so I'm also looking forward to that.

Jenny and I are doing well these days. We saw the movie The Reader on Saturday. Not a fan. It was absurd to me and not much romantic at all. I was dumbstruck by the selfishness exhibited by the characters, which while quite realistically depicted, was frustrating and exasperating to watch. Plus it was a little creepy. Oh well. I met Jenny's mom on Saturday night at a coffee shop. She was a stereotypical Korean woman: well-dressed, polite, direct, observant, and faintly formal. Though Jenny translated all our conversation back and forth, I could tell she studied my words and face with scrupulous attention. Jenny told me later that her mother, who had never before seen a foreigner up close or heard one speaking to her, was surprised by my "yellow eyelashes and strange eye color." Apparently my appearance was too alien for her to adjust to comfortably, but I expect comfort will come with time. After all, I hardly notice I'm surrounded nearly exclusively by Koreans. It just seems normal now.

I finished Song of Solomon (did I mention that already?) and am now halfway through The Painted Veil. I'm looking forward to finishing it and moving on to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night but I'm enjoying Veil for now. It's just a little too normal to enjoy, considering what I've read recently. My mom's also sending me Moby-Dick in an Easter parcel which I'm greatly anticipating (for many reasons) and I'd like to cracking on more of these books that I've got on the shelf, although it looks as though April may not be my month for getting lots of personal time for reading.

There's more to tell but I don't know that it's necessarily suitable for the blog at this point. But I can tell the next month is going to be fantastic, and May even better...