Days Off Rock!!

My school is officially the best school in Korea. The principal decided to give me 4 days off before the second semester of school starts. That means I get Monday – Thursday off and go back for the first day of classes on Friday. I know that Friday seems like a weird day for school to start, but that is just the way things go. Anyways, I decided I didn’t want to waste away my days off because I didn’t want to regret not getting anything done. Since Sunday was such a late night I decided to use Monday as a sleep day, but I didn’t end up sleeping as long as I wanted to. Monday night I met up with Nick and Tracy for our weekly Shabu Shabu nights. I decided to walk to the restaurant and meet them, which is about 45 minutes, but I left later than I wanted to, so I only walked about 20 minutes before I jumped on a bus for the rest of the journey. After dinner Nick and I headed to Lotte Mart to buy some cleaning supplies and then we ended the night with some ice cream from McDonald’s. On Tuesday I didn’t sleep in. I set my clock for 9:00 a.m. because I wanted to climb the mountain that is by my house. Although I was up that early I didn’t actually leave my house until 11:00 a.m. I walked to the mountain, which took about 45 minutes and then I started to climb. It was going really well, but about 30 minutes into the climb when there were endless stairs to climb I really started to feel it in my legs. That could have also been the effects of walking to the mountain as well. I climbed to the pagoda at the top of the mountain and then I decided to keep trekking to see what was beyond the pagoda. I came across the most beautiful view of Incheon atop the mountain on some rocks. But, just when I thought the mountain had no more to offer I kept on trekking. There was more of Incheon to view and I even found my apartment building. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my camera with me because I didn’t think I was going to climb as far as I did. Once I had climbed to the end I decided to head back down. Going down obviously doesn’t take nearly as long, but my legs felt like spaghetti, so I thought they were going to give out on me. It was such a beautiful day to climb the mountain and there were many Koreans out and about climbing the mountain as well. Once I got to the bottom I was going to attempt to walk the 45 minutes home, but just couldn’t do it, so I opted for the bus. I ended up with a minor sunburn on my shoulders and neck, which made the climb worthwhile. All I did when I got home from climbing was have a snack, shower, and get ready to head out for Joanne’s birthday. I also met up briefly with Nicole to pick up all the goodies she brought me back from Canada when she was there for two weeks. I met up with Joanne, Ross and Carmela for dinner in Bupyeong. We ate dukgalbi, which is always delicious, but the service was awful this time. We enjoyed delicious macaroni salad, beer, and dukgalbi together.

Joanne and Carmela enjoying beer, kimchi and dukgalbi at Joanne's birthday celebration.

Ross looking uber sexy in his red and white striped apron and me enjoying the meal.

When we finished dinner Ross headed home and Carmela, Joanne and I headed to Woodstock for a pitcher of beer. While Joanne and I were ordering beers Carmela snuck off to buy Joanne a birthday cake from Paris Baguette.

The delicious mocha flavoured birthday cake Carmela and I bought for Joanne on her birthday.

We sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her and enjoyed very tiny pieces of cake because we were still stuffed from dinner.

Joanne and Carmela outside Woodstock with the birthday cake ready for Joanne to make a wish.

The birthday girl cutting the first slice of her birthday cake.

Nick and Melissa showed up for the birthdays festivities while were finishing up at Woodstock. Carmela went home after Woodstock, while Joanne, Nick, Melissa and I headed to N’s Pub for some more drinks. Joanne and I stayed for one pitcher of beer and then we left. I wanted to catch the last train home and Joanne was sad because friends that said they were coming never showed up. I got on the last train home, but it ended up ending its route at City Hall, so everyone on the train had to get off and wait for the train that would end it’s route at Dongmak station, which is where the train usually ends. Since I don’t speak or understand the Korean language the guy on the speaker who was telling us the route changes was basically saying, “Blah blah blah.” Had I known what he was saying I would have been less worried and confused about what was happening and if I was going to make it home. It definitely made for an interesting end to the night though.