Pumpkin Fire Duck!?

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Let's start off this entry by telling you about our EPIK dinner in Daegu on the Wednesday before Christmas. It was something we were all looking forward to because not only were we going to see people we haven’t seen since August, but we were also going to get a huge yummy feast! Then about two days before the dinner we got an email from the Gyeongbuk coordinator that all the people who lived in “these” cities weren’t allowed to come to the dinner because there was a break out of Foot and Mouth disease and their cities were being quarantined. There was a list of the cities under the email, but thankfully our great city of Pohang was not among the others. On the Wednesday, our schools let us off work a little early and we all met at the bus terminal. The dinner was great! It was everything I expected it to be. Delicious food and hanging out and catching up with “old” friends. We didn’t stay ridiculously long in Daegu because it was a Wednesday night and we all had work the next morning.

On Friday – Christmas Eve – we went to visit our friends in Yeongcheon. We took a train around 6 and got there about an hour later. Our Christmas Eve was very quiet. With 5 girls, glow sticks and a camera; how crazy could it get?

My name in lights!

We had a really fun night. We had a nice dinner and had a crazy light show afterwards. Then we took a nice walk to the local coffee shop and had coffee and desserts. The next morning we had a nice “western” style breakfast and opened presents. After presents we caught a bus back to Pohang because we had to get ready for the Christmas party at Courtney’s house.

See, it was originally going to be at our friend Sinead’s house but she got a kitty in October, so I now officially banned from her home. Courtney so kindly offered to host the party at her house so that I could be included in the Christmas festivities.

When we got back into Pohang, we did some light shopping at Homeplus and then parted ways for a few hours to get ready and clean. The party started around 6 and by 6:30 Courtney’s house was packed with waygooks (foreigners). We had people from US, Ireland, South Africa, Korea, England, Canada piled into her two bedroom apartment.

The night went really well, with about 6 cakes and a few actual meals that people brought. We had a nice little Secret Santa distribution and then – as all adults do at this point – we played with our new toys! Courtney and I decided to get the Korean boys gifts too because of how great they have been to us since we all met. We thought we needed to get them something that guys their age could really use on a day to day basis. So what did we get them? Toy guns of course! The night ended with Skype calls to all of our families 14 hours behind!

They really liked my bow.

A lot.

Sunday, Courtney planned for all of us to go sledding at a near by theme park hill thing. When I got into the car to go sledding, I was told the plan had changed and that we were going ice skating because sledding was more expensive than anticipated. I definitely was not disappointed with this change in plans because I love ice skating! Then they told me we were going all the way to Daegu for ice skating because Dong-yup lives in Daegu and he knows of a better skating rink than ours here in Pohang. So we were off to Daegu. The drive up was really funny and interesting because the boys (Dong-hoon, Jae-hyun, and Dong-yup) brought their toy guns with them. Every so often Dong-yup would take his toy glock and shoot at nothing out the window. At first we thought that people would be scared or freaked out that these guys were walking around with guns, but no one even looked at them twice. People don’t fear guns in Korea, because everyone knows they are just toys.

Finally when we got to Daegu I started to notice things we had seen the last time we visited. I noticed the place where we ate and the bridge we walked under, and then I realized we were really close to WooBang Land! I got excited because I could recognize things, and then it clicked in my head; we were going ice skating in the Daegu Tower. I remembered now that we saw a skating rink there last time and I got super excited! I looked over at Courtney to see if she was sharing the same realization as me, but she didn’t seem even half as surprised as I was. I thought that was a bit weird, but kept thinking how fun it was going to be. When we got to the tower, Dong-yup was running around trying to find where to buy tickets. I noticed that he was on the wrong floor to buy tickets for the ice skating but “I’m the foreigner, who am I to say the Korean is wrong in Korea?” Then Dong-hoon pointed something out that made me almost throw up.

Dong-yup was not buying tickets for ice skating. He was getting tickets for the Sky Jump. The Sky Jump, as in jumping off the top of the tower. I said some very foul things under my breath and ran to the bathroom. Don’t get me wrong, I might have been totally up for this crazy idea if I had been able to mentally prepare for it. But having it sprung on me was not fantastic. We all ended up just going ice skating like originally planned and shooting each other with guns while skating.

After skating we were told by the boys that we were going to be eating a duck inside of a pumpkin with fire, for dinner. Courtney and I had a very hard time visualizing this statement and so therefore spent the whole car ride trying to explain it to each other. Courtney thought it would be a duck engulfed in flames, and placed inside a pumpkin. I thought it was be a duck inside the pumpkin with the pumpkin getting fire blasted at it from the bottom. We both have very vivid imaginations. Eventually we named it the Pumpkin Fire Duck and waited like 5 year olds in the back seat of the car. Then to make things even more exciting, it started to snow! We were so excited. We were driving to dinner and it was snowing. It snowed the whole time we were in the car, and by the time we got to the restaurant the whole ground was white! When we got served our food, we realized we were eating Shabu Shabu, not Pumpkin Fire Duck. But then after the Shabu Shabu, they brought out this pumpkin that was blossomed out like a “Bloomin Onion” with slices of duck inside it. This was it! It wasn’t quite what we were imagining but it was absolutely delicious. After dinner we headed back to Pohang I started my week of camping out at Courtney’s house.

Shabu shabu

Pumpkin.Fire.Duck

See, my elementary school (Jigok Elementary) started winter break right before Christmas, but that doesn’t mean that I have time off yet. We all have to do Winter Camps for students who want to study during the break. Winter camps are normally only a week long but everyone’s situations are different. This past week I had a winter camp at a school that is very far away from my house, but pretty close to Courtney’s so I decided to rough it and sleep on her floor for a week.

The week went by pretty quickly and pleasantly for the most part. It snowed for the first time in Pohang (other than the one time it snowed for only 2 minutes) on Monday night as we walked to the climbing center. It then snowed even harder on Thursday morning as I walked to school. I’m thrilled to finally say that I live somewhere where it’s cold enough to snow.

This weekend is New Years so stay tuned for what’s to come.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

R.I.P. Borys.
You were the best friend anyone could ask for. I love you.