Can't Get Enough of Daegu!

Well, I’m back in Korea after spending an awesome 3 weeks in America! Thank you very much! To start off my first weekend of many back in Korea, I went to Daegu….3 times.

First Daegu Trip:

Sam and I wanted to say goodbye to some friends, Sandy and Geoff, who were heading home after finishing their year-long contract. Because Sam and I had decided to stay 2 years, Sandy and Geoff were leaving while Sam and I were staying. I sent them a message, asking if they wanted to get together and have dinner sometime this week. I was told “Yes! That’s a great idea! I’ll get back to you with details.” I didn’t hear and details, but Sam and talked to Geoff and they had sorted things out. So, Friday night, Sam and I arrange to meet at the bus terminal after school. When I arrive, Sam is in homeplus, so I go ahead and buy the tickets, to Yeoncheon, where Sandy and Geoff live. We stand outside waiting for the bus, talking about our Summer trips. Then, we get on the bus, still talking about everything that had happened. After about 45min, we arrive in Yeoncheon. We’re walking off the bus when Sam looks around. “Where are we?” she asks. “Yeoncheon.” “Why are we here…..?” Apparently, when Geoff and Sam had made plans, they made the plans in Daegu!! And no one told me, because everyone assumed that the other had told me. So I thought we were going to Yeoncheon, Sam thought we were going to be in Daegu, and Geoff and Sandy were waiting for us to eat dinner!!!

We hurriedly got a bus ticket for Daegu, got on the bus straight away, and headed into town. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except traffic was HORRIBLE because of the upcoming Track and Field championships happing for the next week. We arrive an hour later, enjoy a nice dinner, and head home.

Second Daegu Trip:

The next day we planned to visit Daegu, to see our friend Alex Marsh. She just moved to Korea, and we wanted to see her! She mentioned there was a Body Painting festival in town, so when we arrive we collected a bit of information before we went to meet her. Because she didn’t have a phone, it was going to be a little difficult to get together, but I figured we could handle it! I told her to meet us at the Movie theatre downtown at 2:00. 2:45 came and she didn’t show up, so we decided to eat lunch and check back later. She still wasn’t there at three, but then I received a phone call – she had gotten lost and went home. I told her to take a taxi and meet us, and then we could go to the festival! She arrived, and we headed into the subway.

Finding the festival was a little difficult, but we received some help and we made it there in time! There were body painted people all over, as well as people who paint bodies! We took some time, looked around, photographed a few pictures, and headed off to dinner. We wanted to find a good place to eat and show Alex some good food. Unfortunately we don’t know Daegu, and we defiantly don’t know Daegu Downtown, so we got hopelessly lost and ended up just going into the next restaurant we saw. It was delicious, so we ate, spent a little more time together, then Sam and I caught the bus back to Pohang.

Now that was supposed to be my last trip to Daegu for the weekend, but Saturday night I ran into a few friends who were going to go to see Usain Bolt run the 100m Sunday evening. I begged and pleaded and basically invited myself to this momentous occasion…which begins…

Third Deagu Trip:

High Jump

I woke up Sunday morning, and caught another bus to Daegu. I met my friends at the stadium. The tickets had already been sold out so they went and scalped a few. I showed up and just went right in. It was really interesting seeing such a huge even right up close! It was like the Olympics were right in front of me! There was pole vaulting, spear throwing, long jumps, and tons of running. Finally it was time for the 100m! I had seen the semi-finals before, and saw everyone run fast, but just not fast enough! I was ready to see a record be broken! They take their mark, are ready to get set, then Bolt decides to rush and jumps the gun and gets himself disqualified!! Everyone was soooo upset! The entire crowd was there to see him break the world record. Instead, they get to see him make a huge mistake.

Bolt getting some glamor shots in!

And their off! Semi-Finals

Winner of the Long Jump

Medal Ceremony for the Long Jump

Warming up for the Final

Taking his victory lap!

Oh well. Walter Dix still made second, which was awesome to see! Then we all drowned our sorrows in Mexican food before we took the bus back to Pohang.

But don’t worry…I’m going to try and see him break the 200m world record tomorrow!