Winter Vacation

So my winter break is over and I am getting back into the swing of things. Fortunately, we are on a winter schedule for the month of January and part of February, which means that I work about 3 hours a day. This leaves me with plenty of time to begin private Taekwondo lessons with Rick at a friend’s Dojang (a Korean Dojo) free of charge. So the next time any of you see me, watch your step!

But to just rewind for a moment, my winter break was quite eventful. It began when I was introduced to a Korean named Owen, a 21 year old in the ROK Air Force home for the holidays, who had previously been an English teacher at Rick’s hogwan. His English is nearly flawless, not to mention that he’s about 6 foot 4. That’s pretty tall for a Westerner and mammoth for a Korean. Overall, he’s a really cool guy.

Every day over the break mimicked what I am about to describe. That’s right, we pretty much did the same thing every day and it was still a ton of fun. After sleeping in, Rick and I would find a cheap place to eat. Now we are talking about all you can eat for between 4 and 7 bucks a person. We would get noodles, wontons, sausage, soup, kimchi (of course) and fried pork loin. And I am not saying 4 or 5 wontons, but 15 of them. Same goes with everything else. I actually don’t recall us every finished all of the food we got.

Our next stop was a famous coffee house in Sangju. The barista imports his own beans from all over the world and blends his own flavors. It’s much better than anything Dunkin’ Donuts could offer, however, the prices, although not crazy, were a bit more expensive (4 bucks for a coffee, all one size). At this point we would normally meet up with Owen and go to either a pool hall or arcade. Both are insanely cheap activities. At the pool hall, it costs 1,000 won (80 cents) for 10 minutes. Meaning that for 2 hours at a table, with 3 people, it would cost 4 bucks a person. Similarly, the arcade is 1 play for a 100 won (8 cents). 3,000 won lasted me nearly 2 hours at the arcade.

We are getting to the part of the night were I must censor most, if not all of the material. Bar hopping and drinking at local hotspots until the wee hours of the morning is about all I care to say. Just understand that we had a very, good time.

I am actually quite sad that the short holiday is over already. I could probably have gone another week without work. But, alas, it’s back to the ‘grind’ for me. Hope everyone else had as much fun as I did on their vacation. Happy New Year!