A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

This weekend was very eventful. It all started Friday night. I made friends with some people who owned a Korean BBQ restaurant. It was an hour away. In the evening after work, I headed over on the bus. In Korea, there is the city of Incheon, which is near the airport and Inchon which is south of me. My friend had always referred to where he lived as Inchon. Always. When I got there to have them pick me up, my friend tells me I am in the wrong city. I have texts to prove he said Inchon. I am so upset. He then gives me step by step directions on how to get to the correct place. I have to go all the way to downtown Seoul because the direct bus from Inchon to Incheon stopped running. I went from Inchon to DongSeoul to Gangnam to Incheon. I was on public transit from 6:30 to 11:30. I am now a genius at Seoul public transportation! When I knew it was messed up...well I was going to call it a night, but didn't really want to go home. I had a positive attitude and decided to look at it as a learning experience and adventure. It ended up being a funny story! By the way, the BBQ was very very good :)

On Saturday, I volunteered at Anna's house. It is a soup kitchen and social service center in Bundang. I arrived at 2pm. Only the priest and Mr. Chung spoke English. It was a bit overwhelming. We cleaned and scrubbed every inch of the place. It was so embarrassing because I lost weight and my jeans were not fitting. I kept having to pull them up. A Korean lady who didn't speak English gave me her sweater to cover up any wardrobe malfunctions that might be occurring. Ai yi yi. The guests arrived at the kitchen around 4:30. We served so many people. All the homeless were Korean. Even when they are homeless or so poor; Koreans try their best to appear nice looking. Some guests were mentally ill, many elderly, and there were so many people in their 30-40's. Street kids are also a problem in Korea. Anna's house has services just for them. It was a lot like the Marquard Center in Chicago. Showers, Clothing, and Social Workers. Father also suffers from Dyslexia. (You wouldn't know it since he is fluent in Korean, English, and his home language of Italian). He offers information and services to spread the word about Dyslexia. It is not well known in Korea. He has been working at Anna's house for over 20 years. He is one of the good ones. He is so inspirational. I watched him talk to the guests, simmer down a bickering two, and thank each and everyone of us for coming. My duty was to wash dishes. So.Many.Dishes. I loved doing some good for a change. I use to be "Ms. Volunteer America"...now... I hardly ever lift a finger. I need to change that. My only complaint visiting Anna's house was that I couldn't make friends with the other volunteers because of the language barrier. They seemed like an awesome group of individuals.
I came home around 8. I promptly passed out at 9. I was an exhausted cookie!

It was fine because the next day I got up with Melissa at 6 to head to the Ice Festival! It was an hour to the bus terminal and then 3 hours to the town of Hwacheon. CNN called it the fourth best Winter Festival in the world. I have to agree. It was worth the trip. There were tons of amazing ice sculptures for photo opportunities. We also got to to ice fishing!! It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be. You put your rod in a little hole and you catch a fish. It wasn't hard. I think there were so many fish in there that eventually one would hit your lure. I took out hooks, bashed their poor little heads, and caught some more.....that was until one of my litte fish got a hook through the eye. It bled all over the ice and just wouldn't come out. I had to have Bridget's boyfriend Armando do it. Fishing fail...still a princess. I would like to think my dad was watching over me laughing that day. I loved grilling the fish right on the spot and of course eating it with chop sticks. Yummy! We also decided to take a ride on a raft on snow powered by a snow ski. It looked lame, but once you were on and being thrown around the snow dunes...well it was awesome!!





The only bad part of the day was standing on the ice and hearing this deap sound and realizing that it was the ice cracking below you. It isn't a sound I would ever say was synonymous with ice cracking. I am sure we were just fine...but I have always had such a strange
and irrational fear of falling through ice.
All in all it was great company and really worth it. Those staying in Korea should make a point to see it next year.



After we made the journey back, Melissa and I had Korean BBQ (of course!) Then back at my apartment, I realized I reeked of fish and bbq pork! Haha... True signs of amazing adventures in Korea!!