This past week has been one of the best since coming to Korea. The week got off to a good start on Tuesday night. I usually don't go out during the week, but this week we had Wednesday off because of the city election in Daegu. So, Tuesday night we went to one of the foreigner bars we frequent called Communes. Because of the election they switched their weekly open mic night to Tuesday night. A few of my friends played and did an amazing job! It was a great night with lots of friends, music and dancing. I was planning on spending the Wednesday day off nursing my hangover in bed while watching Sex and the City DVDs, but a friend called later in the day and got me out. We went to see a movie downtown, which was nice because I don't go to the theatre too often. Even though the movie was horrible, it was a good way to spend a rainy day. The rest of the week flew by and we found ourselves at Communes again Friday night for some trivia. Good times were had.
Saturday we ventured out of Daegu to go to the Bull Fighting Festival in Cheongdo. There was a bit to see on the festival grounds including an animal exhibit, a bonsai tree display, a music stage and lots of options for food. The bull fighting itself was not as exciting as I thought it would be, but we tried to make it fun by placing friendly bets on the fights. We ran into a few friends while at the festival who were leaving the festival to go to the city of Busan for the night. We thought it was a great idea, so off we went. Busan is south of Cheongdo, but instead of waiting an hour for the bus departure time, we decided to travel the 30 minutes back to Daegu and then take the high speed train from Daegu back down south past Cheongdo to Busan. A lot of people we know were on the the train back to Daegu and we could only get standing tickets. I
t must have been a surprise for all the Koreans to see us Waygooks crowding the entire aisle of the train chatting away. Koreans do not like when people talk on the bus or subway - we were loud. Upon arriving in Busan we went out to a little restaurant that served homemade perogies!! Then off to the casino we went. I am not a gambler, but the guys that we went with all wanted to play some cards. We didn't mind as the casino had FREE DRINKS! And no, you didn't even have to be gambling to get them. We spent a few hours at the casino and then we decided it was time to head back to Daegu as three of us were running a 5km run the next day. We barely made it for the last train home, but we got on and didn't even have to stand!Waking up Sunday morning for the run was in no way fun. Off I went to meet up with my friends at the Daegu World Cup Stadium to run the 5km run at the Daegu Marathon. I cannot even try to explain how many people were there. It was crazy!!! The run started on the track i
nside and then ran out onto the streets outside. We were sort of in the middle of the pack of people for the start and I think it probably took almost 5 minutes to get out of the stadium after the gun. There was no way that we could run the first 300 meters or so because there were just too many people. We all did a decent job, but agree that the last km was pretty darn tough. After the run we took a tour of Daegu on our way to breakfast (we couldn't get to where we wanted to go because of the marathon, so had to drive all around to find an alternative route).The last stop for the weekend was the National Hapkido Tournament being held in Daegu. A guy that I know was competing and a bunch of us wanted to go cheer him on and also see what Hapkido was all about. My favourite thing to watch was the 'dive rolling', where you run, dive into the air over top of cushioned blocks or even people, and then roll when you reach the other side. Our friend Jake had actually won the dive rolling event that morning, clearing 10 blocks. We also got to see some technical stuff and then finally the actual Hapkido sparring/fighting. All I've gotta say is that little Korean girls are pretty vicious.
I got home late Sunday afternoon and my bed had never looked so inviting. What a great weekend! I expect more like that to come now that spring is here.
Oh yeah - I moved apartments about 3 weeks ago. I'll take and post some photos soon!
