Daegu, shopping, noreabang, bridges to nowhere, more shopping

Last weekend was a blast. Actually this whole week, except for the sinus infection, has been awesome.

Friday
3 of us, Lisa, Nicole, and I, have been going to yoga for about 3 weeks. It's awesome! I can't believe how quickly I'm getting into shape. Usually we go to the evening yoga classes because that is all our schedules allow, but Friday my morning class canceled and Lisa has Fridays off- so we went to the morning class. Wow doggie! Apparently the class we go to is beginners. I actually moaned OUCH! in the middle of class. Everyone laughed- and I was comforted to see other people grimacing in pain. Awesome. I'm going any morning I can.

Later we went out for dinner with the boys (after being invited, then uninvited, then re-invited) to say farewell to Sean, who is going to work in an even smaller town than Andong. Which is small. The boys were being extra boyish though, proving that men really are like fine wine and need to be kept in a dark quiet place until they mature into something you WANT to have at dinner, so Lisa and I went back to my place and watched more True Blood. We are into the second season now, downloaded from the internet at the LIGHTNING speed of S Korean internet. It takes me about 15 to 20 minutes to download a movie.

Saturday
Lisa and I caught a bus to Daegu to go shopping around 1pm. Daegu is the fourth largest city in S Korea, with 2.5 million people, and is a fashion center. Shopping heaven! Oh my! I didn't have any money before last weekend so I had been avoiding trying on anything because I knew I would just want. Now I am going to have to be very very careful not to blow all of money on just clothes!

It takes about an hour and twenty minutes to get there and then we took the subway into the shopping district. And both of us bought shoes with in the first 20 minutes. Shoes, shoes, shoes- shoes deserve an entire post, or several, just devoted to them so I'll just leave it at this-

These shoes rule!

Then we followed the crowd to see what the excitement was about and watched break dancers for about 45 minutes.They were awesome. And, in a city of over 2 million people, we ran into our neighbor Nathan, along with Kate and Sheena- EPIK teachers from Andong. Small country I guess. Or, none of us westerners can resist a funky beat. I got interviewed by the guy with the camera. 'Where are you from?'- 'Detroit, rock city, USA', 'What do you think?'-'AWESOME!'


After that we went back to shopping. I knew I would love the shopping here, I loved it in Mexico too because people are more my size. But here! Not only are people my size, they are actually my shape too! Except, and I think this is hilarious, I'm actually a little too busty for some of the clothes. My lil' b-cups were close to bursting some buttons! I love the style here too. It's sort of a baby doll fashion that suits me to a T! Over the course of the day I bought 1 pair of shoes, a hoodie covered in skulls, pair of sweat pants for yoga, a frilly under dress type thing, another dress, and a cardigan. All black, of course, except the hoodie, which is grey. I probably would have bought more except in many stores they wouldn't let me try anything on. I don't know why. They all had dressing rooms, some of the stores would let Korean try stuff on- but not me! Because I'm a dirty foreigner? The clothes were on sale? I don't know. But it really bummed me out.

We had lunch at a Canadian owned restaurant called 'The Holy Grill' and I had a bacon cheese burger and Lisa had a chicken gyro. Mmmmm. Yummy. Sometimes you just don't realize that you miss something until you spend $10 to have it. Although I did feel like I had a huge lump in my belly for the rest of the day...

Lisa wanted to get her hair cut so we peered in the windows of salons until we saw one where both the stylist and the clientele looked hip and young and Lisa made a semi appointment. Then we shopped some more. When Lisa went to her appointment I went to go and try find the first store we went to to get the very first dress I had tried on. I couldn't find the store and I got lost on the way back. I stopped and asked a westerner (he was the only westerner who had smiled at me all day- in Andong all the westerners at least nod. Must be a big city thing) if he could tell me where Wa Bar was (The bar was next to the salon). He wasn't from Daegu either and he stopped some Korean girls and asked them. While they were thinking about it, I asked the guy directing traffic around the karaoke in the middle of the street , he thought about it for a second- and then looked up and pointed across the street. Right in front of us. After we stopped laughing we introduced ourselves and me and my new friend Jayce went and had a drink while I waited for Lisa's hair to finish getting did. I had a martini. A dirty martini. Hallelujah! You can't get a martini in Andong. At least that I know of.

When Lisa's hair was done we said goodbye to Jayce- after exchanging facebook contact of course, and ran to the store to see if we could get the dress. Which had already been sold dammit! And then ran to a taxi, and RAN the last block to the bus- the last bus- which we made in the nick of time. The Andong crew was also on the bus.

After returning we spiffed up in our new duds and went out drinking with the crew and ended up at the super disco noreabang with konglish lyrics and the evening culminated in a 5am light saber fight at family mart. Awesome.

Sunday
I made breakfast for the neighbors, which is hopefully going to be a regular thing. I like cooking for people the only food I miss on a regular basis is big ol American breakfasts. Even Doug made it. He's been living in the canary Islands for the best 10 years with a siesta type schedule. Waking up has been a struggle for him. Hence the 'Time to Wake Up' shirt that was a gift from Lisa and I.


After breakfast, around 4pm, Lisa and I took a walk to check out more of our neighborhood. We wanted to walk across this bridge and check out the park on the other side.



Unfortunately- it turned out that the bridge didn't actually reach the other side!



So we had to walk all the way around, back through where came from. So we stopped to play on the teeter totter



And take pictures of a structure I pray I will never ever NEVER have to use



Porta-potties with
SQUAT TOILETS!







We went under the main street bridge. We do this often actually. To go west from our neighborhood- like toward downtown- you have to cross the big street at the crosswalk, checking carefully to make sure everyone is actually going to stop for the red light, or you can just take the path under the bridge. Which I like better anyways- it's prettier. I have been told there are spiders the size of your hand in the summer though.
Finally- the other side of the river! Here's my neighborhood from across the river. That's the bridge that just doesn't quite cross...

By this time we had to head back because Eric was taking us to E-Mart (like Walmart but way more expensive). I wanted to buy a swiffer wet jet but couldn't because even though they have an entire shelf filled with the wet jet liquid, they didn't actually carry the wet jet. You can get coffee that come with lotion or chapstick samples though.

Or feminine supplies for, um, Mrs Kong?














You can see all the pics here. Tomorrow- we go to Seoul!