The Life and Times of Zach in South Korea

This weekend was a little less hectic than the weeks prior, which was a somewhat welcome departure.  On Saturday, the weather was quite pleasant here.  I opted to take a leisurely stroll around my surroundings to get a better feel for the town and all it has to offer.  Here is what my apartment building looks like, by the way.  Naraville, raise up!

  After a brisk 40 minute walk or so, I stopped by Coffee Tree (커피 나무).  It's this small-town coffee shop that has almost the same aura as places in Boone.  I seem to visit at least once a week, and the owner is super-nice.  I just dropped in for a latte, and around 3 hours later I was finally heading home.  The owner introduced me to her friends, and we talked for hours.  Everyone spoke English very well, and it was nice to meet some Korean people for once.  In addition, she also invited me to go to church with her on Sunday (more on that later).  Here's some of the pictures that her friend took.  It was a cute, pink Fujifilm automatic camera, very much like a Polaroid.


Disclaimer: The picture on the right looks like we are a couple, but that was not the intention.

Here is a picture of her friend and me that was taken by his girlfriend, who happens to be best friends with the owner.  Yes, I do know everyone's names, but I don't want to butcher them with inaccurate spellings.


Around dusk, I walked the approximate 39 steps back to my apartment. I called up my neighbors, and we ate dinner together at some restaurant that was a novel experience for everyone.  The appetizer was some fried circles that looked like small Funyuns and silkworms.  The latter was not so hot... in fact, it's the worst thing I have tasted in quite a while.  It was crunchy and then had a slimy, nutty taste that penetrated every tastebud.  Two glasses of water later, I was still writhing from the aftermath of that culinary disaster.  Luckily, dinner turned out much better than the initial impression of the place.  I ordered tofu kimchi, which in theory sounds like a vegetarian dish, right?  I was reminded quickly that I reside in Korea when the dish had almost as much pork in it as it had kimchi.  I am not complaining in the least, for the food was fantastic.  Nick and Nicole did not fare as well with their selection; it turned out to be a plate of snack foods.  It had dried bananas, beef jerky, and peanuts on it.  We had an enjoyable dinner, regardless, and then subsequently left to go to another bar down the street.  They specialized in fruit cocktail soju, so we gave it a shot.  GET IT?!? ZING.  We had a pitcher of the strawberry and the kiwi; the strawberry was much too tart but the kiwi was delicious.  That pretty much concluded Saturday night.

Sunday was an interesting day.  I woke up around 9:30-10ish to be ready for church in time.  I was picked up around 10:45 because she was running a few minutes late.  We get there and it is a very small congregation, as in maybe 15 to 20 people total.  Service was good, i guess (it was entirely in Korean), and it was fascinating to hear/attempt to sing popular hymns in Korean.  We definitely sang O Come All Ye Faithful at one point.  After service, I was greeted by pretty much everyone and grilled with questions.  Afterward we had tea and rice cakes, which they informed me was customary.  No complaints on my end.  I was invited to lunch with the minister and his family, so I politely accepted.  We had homemade ramyun (ramen/noodle soup/whatever) and it was excellent.

After lunch, they took me and the minister's son to another church for a youth lesson.  I got to meet a lot of really nice people that are close to my age.  They seemed really excited and enthusiastic to try and speak English with me and insisted that I attend again next weekend.  After another sermon, all of the guys were taken to the local elementary school to play soccer.  This was awesome, for the talent level was quite high.  I was thrilled to find some other people my age that were big soccer fans.  We played for approximately two hours; I was exhausted by this point.  My touch wasn't horrendous considering I have yet to find any soccer shoes my size and was playing in Chucks.  My only complaint was that the field is artificial turf resulting in this:


That is after a pretty long healing period; it was bleeding pretty nicely.  I didn't care, though, because I had only soccer on the brain.  I am pretty sure that I will attend at least one of the different church segments in the coming week,  but three sermons in a foreign language was a bit much for me.

That pretty much concludes my weekend.  Nothing too exciting or crazy, but it was memorable nonetheless.  Until next time.

+.03 points for today's reference.  That's right, it's my game so I can give arbitrary point values if I feel like it. You should feel ashamed if you don't get it, especially with St. Patrick's Day around the corner.