July

Oh, I forgot that I went to Songjeong Market in June!

Another item off my Korea Bucket list!

Gonna be honest, I don't remember what this is called.
Basically it's clusters of deep fried veggies.

So July was a hodgepodge of things: a lot of goodbyes and last times and feelings. I'm going to write more about all of that in the next post. This one will try to be more events/fun things!

Anyways....

Let's get rocking!

The first weekend of July (one week after my LONG weekend in Seoul) I went to Busan to see the sunrise. My friend Mike had this goal to stay out all night in Busan and see the sunrise. We did it. It took us 7차 (7 rounds/stops), but we did it. Complete with bbq, breweries, convenience store beers, chicken, cocktails, norebang, and a couple beaches.

The group @ the start of the evening.

1차 (First stop)

2차 (2nd stop)

3차

The sun is rising and after this photo I passed out for 20 minutes.

A few days before the trip to Busan I got an email from the U.S. Embassy inviting me (and a guest) to a 4th of July celebration at the Holiday Inn in Gwangju. It should have been nbd, but since my school hosted Ambassador Lippert last fall the embassy called my school the day of to make sure my coteacher would also be coming to the event. A little bit of stress and a glass of wine later, we got a photo with the interim ambassador.

Let's not forget my quest to drink all the strawberry milks! This is the strawberry counterpart to the banana milk that everyone loves.

That next Saturday I had, what I thought would be, my last meal with my extended host family. I wasn't feeling great (back to back really long and tiring weekends will do that to you). But we ate at this chicken restaurant on the stop of a small mountain that looked over Gwangju.

And it was the right food for how I was feeling. The chicken is boiled with this wood (I don't remember the name now) so the meet is juicy and just falls of the bone. You eat the chicken with the broth that the chicken cooks in. The broth is hot and earthy tasting (which usually means it tasted like dirt, but I promise it was really delicious).

And then suddenly I only had days left at school. So I had to start saying goodbye.

I got to play soccer with my old students. I miss them so much.

My coteachers had a small going away party for me.
I know it's blurry, but it's the best representation of us.
And it's not staged. So many of our photos are staged.

Again, I'll write more about my feelings and goodbyes in the next post!

School ended on a Friday. And, what was probably me running away from my feelings, I went to Seoul to play with Annaliese....

Drinking soju cocktails and watching busking in Hongdae.

Eating pho at our favorite place!

Going to Olympic Park!
Make sure you read the map before you start walking.

Going to a trendy water coloring cafe!

I helped Annaliese move some stuff she was selling to other people's apartments and then I went home.

Technically some stuff happened in July, but I want to include it in my next post and since this is my blog I can do that! Because I make the rules.

-T

Up Next: I guess that's it...