Visiting Daejeon

The weekend before Halloween I went down to visit Sam and Tyler in Daejeon, all by myself!  I was really scared to ride the train alone, because I don't have the best history with getting on the correct train, but I made it and it was actually really simple!  I took the fast train there on Friday night after work, and the T.V. on the train said it was going 298 km/hour, which is pretty fast(about 185 miles/hour).  That night we just chilled out in Sam's amazing two-bedroom apartment.  I don't know what I would do with all that space!  I'm used to having just enough space to fit a yoga mat on the floor, but not enough space to actually do yoga.  Her school is treating her right!  The next day we went to Expo park, which was a bunch of futuristic buildings from some science fair back in 1993.

Expo park

A jumping picture with cucumbers growing overhead

A futuristic playground, surrounded by water.  And yes we played on it:)

Later we rode a ferris wheel in a little amusement park next to Expo park and got to see a nice view of Daejeon at night.  Then we went to this natural hot spring foot bath.  It was just randomly outside in the middle of the city, and very crowded with locals.  The locals made sure we knew to wash our feet before stepping into the hot water.  And when I say hot water, I mean burning hot water!  I had to keep taking my legs out of the water because I couldn't handle it, and the Koreans were just sitting there like it was no big deal.  It was a little chilly out too, so the rest of me was kind of cold and my feet were on fire.  But, afterwards my feet felt great when I put my shoes back on.  

We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant which was about what you would expect for a Mexican restaurant in Korea.  About halfway through our meal, a Korean rock band came in and started playing.  We went from some nice quiet Mexican music playing in the background to blaring electric guitars, so loud we couldn't hear each other.  Not really the venue for that kind of music, if you ask me, but it was amusing anyways. 

Korean rock band at The Cantina

We went walking around the downtown area after that.  It reminded me a lot of Hongdae, kind of like a smaller version of it.  We saw a woman handing something out, and since I love and am addicted to free handouts, I went up and asked for one.  Turns out they were lighters she was handing out, and she said something in Korean to me as she handed a couple lighters out to Koreans but not to me.  I assumed she said not for foreigners or something like that, so I was sad and walked away to catch up with Sam and Tyler.  Soon after I felt a tap on my shoulder from the woman and she gave both me and Tyler a lighter, saying the same thing she said before.  Thanks to Tyler, I know she was saying 'only for men,' as in the lighters were only for men.  I must have looked so sad not to get a lighter that she chased after me to give me one.  

Also, I would like to share a new hat we saw on the street--the sleeping bag hat!  If you look past the man trying to break all the blocks, there is a girl wearing a ridiculous looking poofy hat.  

Sleeping bag hat

Since the girl worked at that game, we passed her later that night.  I asked her (with Tyler's help) where she bought it, and she said she made it herself.  So I guess Sam and myself will not be sporting the sleeping bag hat fashion anytime soon, sadly.  

Sam and Tyler also introduced me to Pocari Sweat, which is a Japanese athletic drink kind of like gatorade, but it tastes like grapefruit.  It's pretty good, actually.  They had a block of real cheese in Sam's apartment as well (from Costco) and it was so amazing to have real cheese!  I ended up going to Costco later that week (one of my coworkers had her mom send their extra Costco card) and bought a large block of cheddar.  That block is almost gone now, since I couldn't stop eating it once I opened it.  It's funny how something so simple as cheese can be such a big deal in another country.  

I said bye to Sam and Tyler on Sunday and headed back to Seoul.  It was nice to see some familiar faces and share our different experiences.  And I traveled all by myself and didn't get lost!  :)