busy busy busy

well, it's obviously been a little while since I've posted so here's the short and sweet : )

Karate - I went to a Karate class and got my ass kicked...it was fantastic! Unfortunately the days of the classes are Thursday and Friday nights, and Saturday mornings....aka I won't be able to actually join the class and go regularly. Weekends are for adventures! : P

Ulsan Tigers - A group of us ventured to the Ulsan Tigers soccer stadium and watched their pro team! It's great fun, and I will definitely be going to as many games as possible. I miss watching sports!

Cherry Blossoms - It is the time of year for all of the Cherry Blossoms to bloom and they are GORGEOUS! Hannah and I ventured to GyeongJu and walked around for hours through the streets lined with cherry trees! It was beautiful. We then found this PERFECT little coffee shop. It was amazing...so cute, I felt like we were in Italy, not Korea....but then I wouldn't be able to order my beloved hongcha late!

April 14th - Black Day - this is a day dedicated to all those single out in Korea. You are supposed to eat Chinese 짜 장 면 (black noodles) and they will bring you luck in the dating world. I didn't have any black noodles....guess i'm screwed : P haha

Random - The weather has still been pretty back and forth between being nice, rainy, cold, warm, ..... Luckily the weekends have been really beautiful. I've been able to explore more of Ulsan now seeing many markets, Ulsan Grand Park, and running into numerous students on the street! It's great fun and I can't wait to explore more!

Korean clothing - Their style is pretty fantastic, unfortunately with more curves, it doesn't fit me too well. Whoopsi! They do have some very funny t-shirts though. Mostly just the English translations or sayings are hilarious. My favorite shirt I have seen thus far (and unfortunately I did not buy it...epic failure): It had a picture of a bicycle on it and said bicycle and underneath it was written:
"I don't even want this bike back
just made these flyers to tell
you that i hate you, bike thief.
Hope you ride my bike without
a helmet and get hit by a monster
hope my bike takes you."
hahahahaha what does that even mean!

Couch - I found a couch! It's blue and pretty and was only 30,000 won (less than $30). It was pretty dirty, but after Hannah and I carried it 6 blocks and up to apartment 401 we cleaned it off and made it all nice! We already get stared at all the time for being foreigners so just imagine the looks and laughs Hannah and I received as two girls carried a big couch down a busy street. This is also in a society where the boyfriends carry the girls purses and shopping bags and the girls carry nothing! assah!

Beach in Namchang - FANTASTIC DAY!!! Hannah, Ryan, Melvin, and I spent most of the day this past Sunday at a beach in Namchang. It was so entertaining. We couldn't go five minutes without Koreans coming up and talking to us. We had a group of Koreans stand behind us yell "ATTENTION" "ATTENTION" and then start taking pictures with us. The main guy was wearing a bright pink sparkly jacket and had clown face paint on. After that two men came up and started talking to us. They saw that we were drinking Makali (Korean rice wine) and decided that the Makali we bought ourselves was not good enough. Therefore, they went and bought 3 bottles of good Makali and procceeded to drink and talk with us on the beach for an hour or so! Completely random and so much fun!

Sports Day - We had a sports day at my school which was really entertaining. The kids were split up by grade and into two teams. They all had their colors and just did a bunch of random games and races. It was really cool to see the parents get involved in them as well! They had a dad race, mom race, and even a grandparents race! The grandparents were my favorite. They ran with their kid in a hula hoop around a cone and back. A lot of the kids didn't like it too much because there are so many students that they spent a lot of the day just sitting and watching.

Amethyst caves - Hannah and I went on a random adventure off to Eonyang to the Amethyst caves and it was definitely not what we expected. There wasn't a lot of amethyst to be seen in the cave, but what we did see was quite beautiful. Then there were some petroglyphs and different exhibits...? A dinosaur hall, human evolution hall, Egypt hall, Tribal Living display, and a really random acrobatic performance...what in the world?! hahaha I really could not believe what was going on down there. It all just seemed so out of place and didn't have much to do with Korea at all! Very very strange, but a great adventure indeed!

Ganeolgot Cape - This one time Hannah, Ryan, Melvin and I decided to go to Ganjeolgot lighthouse to spend the evening "sleeping" on the beach to watch "the earliest sunrise on the entire Northeast Asian continent." It was insanely cold, there wasn't much sleeping involved, but it was well worth the gorgeous sunrise in the morning. Even with the slightly overcast sky it was amazing!

Obviously more adventures to come!