A Quieter Night than Anticipated

Tonight we met up with Tina and her friend, Urim (who has a car).  Tina was a little disapointed to find out that we went to Uirimji yesterday, because that's where she wanted to take us.  We told her that we'd be okay with going again, because it was night and things are different at night.  I feel kind of guilty for not being in charge enough of my social life to save certain activities for certain people.

So, we went to Uirimji and had coffee (real espresso) and little cookies (sort of like Chips Ahoy) and chatted.  Urim is an English teacher in Danyang (the city next to Jecheon with the Gosu caves).  We found out that they know each other through their religious group.  We asked Tina how she spent her morning and she said "religious activities."  When we asked if it was church, she said no.  We were curious, but it didn't matter enough to us to risk being rude, so we didn't ask any more questions.

Urim, Tina, me and Ian on the coffee patio.

After we finished our coffee, we walked around the reservoir. It's so much different at night.  Many couples go there for dates.  It's really pretty, they light different parts with colored lights and there are artificial waterfalls.

 

One of the artificial waterfalls all lit up.

Korean social culture is very welcoming.  They are physically affectionate with their same sex friends.  In fact, in public, it's more common to see two women (or two men) holding hands or with their arms around each other than it is to see opposite sex couples doing the same.  I feel very accepted and well-liked by Tina because she will consistently loop her arm around mine.  That's a pretty good sign that we're buddies.

When we were done strolling around the park, we drove to the center of town.  Ian and I were hoping that they show us some things to do there, but we just walked around one of the squares.  Actually, I think most of what Korean's do socially is "walking around" at night.  It was nice to hang out with friends, but it was a little less informative than we had hoped.  However, we did learn that Korean legal drinking age is 20. Tina is only 19.  So, that explains some of the chosen night activity.  We never ate dinner, which was another disappointment.  But, I think Tina was also feeling us out socially and I think she didn't want to overwhelm or intimidate us.  Though it wasn't what we weree hoping for, it was a good night because she is so easy to be around.  Unfortunately, there's a good chance that she's moving to Perth, Australia in March.  But, I think she's worth keeping in contact with.  It's just disapointing that one of our strongest connections here is leaving before we are.  And I found out that she is no longer working at Sinback.  She'd rather devote her time to studying. Luckily, she gave us her email address.  I'm going to ask her if she wants to go bowling.

Earlier today when we were heading out to go grocery shopping, Ian spotted something on the ground.

 

See it?

Praying mantis! Eee!  We encouraged "him" to get out of the road to safety.

Well, tomorrow it's back to the grind tomorrow.  Next weekend we will go shopping with the two English teachers from Sinback and we will begin trading English lessons for Korean lessons.  We want our first lesson to be a trip through the traditional market.  We'll hopefully save money that way.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!  I'm jealous!