Happy Bubble

I have my own happy bubble now. It's so great. :)

I am so tired today so short post. After 21 hours yesterday, 4 hours of sleep, and another 18 hours today, its time for a nice rest.

Today was so awesome though that I have to blog about it, even if it is short.

Amy came down to Gwangju today from Daejeon! How awesome is that?! After months and months of planning and a few setbacks that she so graciously helped me though, I'm finally in the same country! And I've only been here a few days so I'm not even going to attempt to navigate the train. But she came all the way down here so I didn't have to! So cool. :)

Before meeting Amy, I met another foreign teacher, Kristi, who is also really cool. And she went to UF too! Small world... lol

Kristi, Brandi and I went to a Korean BBQ restaurant but this time it was beef. The meal came with kimchi (of course - its at every meal just like bread is in the states!) and some other banchan (side dishes, like salad) and lettuce to wrap the beef in. And some kind of raddish soup, we think. haha

Then we walked over to the YMCA where Amy was taking the taxi to meet us, and then we stopped at Brandi's place real quick and Kristi went home, and the 3 of us went back to my place and talked until we went out to get some lotion. I didn't notice until today, but along with a coffee shop in every other shop on the street, there's probably a lotion/make-up store I'd say every four store fronts. I got some awesome smelling almond foot cream. I've probably walked 10 miles since I landed on Tuesday night so I need it. And a jar that would cost about $24 in the states only cost me about $4. It's pretty awesome. Oh - and along the way we got some kickin' street food: chicken on a stick with some onions. Totally awesome, mouth watering food. For only $1.

Then Amy, Brandi, Yong Suk, and I went out to another restaurant where we had this meal that was absolutely to die for. It started out as a soup over a gas flame in the middle of the table, kind of like Korean BBQ. Into the beef broth went vegetables and beef slices. When the beef was cooked, we served ourselves. Then more beef and vegetables went into the broth and cooked some more. We had seconds. Then, some dumpling-type things and hamburger meat went into what was left in the wok and when those were cooked we ate that. And when we were done eating that, the rice went into the wok and soaked up the remaining broth. Then it was mixed with the remaining vegetables and we ate that. All the while eating kimchi and salad (the salad here is kind of like shredded cabbage instead of lettuce, with some kind of 'dressing' and other veggies. Not like back home, but still a salad.)





The pictures posted out of order. The last one with just the wok on the table was before all the food came to add to the wok. The middle is just before we started cooking and eating, and the first one is after we had finished eating everything.

Let me just stop to say real quick that every thing I've eaten so far in Korea has been the best of that food that I have ever eaten in my entire life. The pork, beef, vegetables, cheesecake at Hans and Bean Coffee... I'm not sure if it'll hold true to the food I just purchased at the mart down the street from my apartment, but I'm not expecting it to. I'm just hungry and have no food in my apartment. And I'm really tired.






Food from the mart down the street. In he last picture, the green bag in the middle was purchased from emart, not the mini mart down the street. It is potato soup: just empty packet into pot and heat on gas stove. And the third picture wasn't from the mini mart. They were so tiny in the box and I'm so sleepy that I didn't notice. That is the bag of 6 items I could choose from for 2500 Won. Very awesome though, too.

And then we took Amy to the train station and she's headed back home to Daejeon. We all had such an awesome day. I think I've found my Happy Bubble and it totally rocks.