Weekend in Changwon

My friend from Jeonju wasn't sure if he was able to come to hang out this weekend (due to his military service stuff), so we cancelled. Also, on Friday, I wasn't feeling all that well, so after hearing that he wasn't sure if he could make it to my place, I was the one who initiated the cancelling. I'm really not a fan of last minute changes, but have become a lot more understanding about it, especially in Korea, since almost everyone seems to act randomly. In their defence, I think they plan, they just play their cards very close to their chest until the last minute, but comes off as completely random.

Anyway, since I had a free weekend, I decided to go to Changwon (about an hour-ish from Busan) and hang out with my Korean family. It's been a while since I saw them, and will probably be the last time to see them before I leave Korea. So, I got the bus from Gwangju to Masan (very close to Changwon) at 10:05. At the 휴게소 (Rest area thingie), I got a bit of a snack for lunch, and a few people laughed at the "나는 미국인 아니에요 / I'm not American" shirt. Generally, people found it funny, and a few quick conversations started up because of it (mainly: 글쎄, 너의 국적이 뭐에요? / So, what is your nationality). After arriving in Masan, I walked from the terminal to Home Plus and met HP and YS there. Now, this is the top reason why I'm gonna miss Korea - my Korean family. HP and YS got married in January this year (January 26, actually - Australia Day), and they're just awesome. We then went back to his parents house, and waited for SJ (HP's sister), who has been studying like crazy for the Teacher's exam that they have here at the end of every year. Like me, her time overseas (she was in Australia for a year) has really changed her, and has realised a lot of things about life, etc. So, we have a few life outlook idea thingies in common, including the study quality vs study quantity.

Well, when SJ got back to the house, we got in the car, and went to Haeundae (which took us 2 hours due to the traffic), and had 등뼈찜. I guess, the rough equivalent of Roast Pork, but you use the spine (like in 감자탕), but it has the thickened juices at the bottom, with vegetables and noodles. It was damn good. We then got some ice-cream from an ice-cream shop (like Baskin Robbins, but it was a different name), and then hung out at Haeundae beach for a while.

As weird as this sounds, because of where I live, I'm not used to seeing a lot of non-Koreans in one place. So, for me, going to a place like Haeundae on a Saturday night is a bit surprising for me. Basically, i go a little Korean and say "오와... 외국인 많다!". When I chill out in Gwangju on the wekeends, the places I go to, I rarely (if at all) see any non-Koreans. It will be a bit shock for me when I get home...

After that, we came home, HP and YS went back to their place in Jinhae, and SJ and I stayed up until about 12:30 talking a lot, which is something we haven't done in a long time.

Woke up at about 10am the next day, had a shower, and had breakfast. Today was the day I was to test out the "뭘봐?! / What are you looking at?" shirt. The verdict: If you walked around e-mart naked on a Sunday night, you would get more attention than the 뭘봐?! shirt, but the 뭘봐?! shirt would come a close second. That's assuming that, when you're walking around naked, that people would giggle and laugh. :p

Anyway, back to Sunday. We decided to check out a new shopping mall, called The City 7, which was damn big. We had 삼밥 for lunch, and then checked it out. It's big, with a lot of stuff (it was damn hard not to go into the Adidas shop and check things out). We checked out the book store, which was alright. I bought a pack of cute stickers, but I was disappointed that there wasn't any CD shop to be found. After a couple of hours there, we went back home, and relaxed for a while. HP's mum (who I call 엄마) insisted that she wash my clothes from Saturday, and in true Korean mum fashion, was not going to take no for an answer. So, had to go back and get my clothes and bag ready anyway. The bus from Changwon to Gwangju was pretty quick, 2 hour 40 minutes.

When I got to Gwangju, that was when the effect of the "뭘봐?!" shirt kicked in. I think it's a combination of the following factors: Koreans never see real Korean on a shirt; Koreans never expect a foreigner to be able to understand Korean enough to know what is going on (unless your on the TV show 미녀들의 수다); and generally, which is something I'm convinced of, is that when Koreans buy shirts with bad English on it, the English is that bad, that they don't know what it means - it's just English on it. Also, Koreans stare at foreigners, sometimes to the point of where you feel like you're in a zoo, behind glass. This shirt is just a bit of pay back, in a fun way.

I decided to do a bit of shopping at Emart, which was good and bad. The shirt was creating a lot of attention, in a good way, but was getting a bit too much. This shirt is one for when you're in the mood for a lot of attention. It does make people smile and laugh, and they make the effort to tell their friend's what the foreigner is wearing. Imaging a group of 20-21 year olds at the beach, and they see an awesomely hot girl in a bikini walk past, and they something like "check her out, she's damn hot". In a way, it's kind of like that. Except that I'm not wearing a bikini... and i'm not an awesomely hot girl.

So, got back home, unpacked my shopping, and turned on the computer, and there were a couple of emails from a woman I emailed a while ago, about my job, on the behalf of my boss. She's been having issues with her agenty/recruiter, all because she asked for them to fax something to her in the U.S. As soon as she hit a snag, it was like half of the world shut down. I'll give you one guess which half did shut down... Yep, the Korean end. So, I wrote a very long email explaining things, and giving her a realistic view of Korea. The main advice being: by the time you think it's a hassle, it already is. And that she is way too overqualified for the job I have, so I was candid with her, in an attempt to keep it real. I don't want to waste anybody's time.

Thanks to my Korean family, I had an awesome weekend. If I had to make a top 10 list of things I would miss in Korea, they're number 1. Love you guys.