The weekend everything went wrong

It must be Tuesday, I am updating my blog!!

I teach two classes (45 minutes each) on Tuesdays, but am here for 8 hours. You do that math. Tuesdays are my light days! Followed by Mondays and Wednesdays with 3 classes a piece (though I have an extra class that I work overtime for on Monday afternoon, but I don’t count that because I only have 6 girls and it is super easy) and Thursday and Friday are my hell days. I have extra classes after school both days (so I stay an extra hour for overtime pay, like Mondays) and have 4 classes Thursdays and 5 on Friday. I am exhausted come Friday! So, my blogging comes during the beginning of the week.

Last weekend I (and a bunch of people from orientation and Chris) ventured to Jinhae for the Cherry Blossom Festival! I was super excited for this as I have heard tons of good things about festivals in Korea (Koreans do ‘em up and are a little obsessed with them) and cherry trees in bloom are one of my most favorite things to see and photograph!!

Jinhae is on the other side of the country from myself/orientation crew, near Busan. I left Friday night on the train to go to Busan for Friday night and Chris and I planned on taking a subway, then bus, to Jinhae in the morning for a 90 or so minute trip. The rest of the gang planned on leaving Daejeon (5th biggest city in Korea, about 25 minutes from me by train) in the morning via two rented 12 passenger vans. What could go wrong?

Everything.

The morning seemed to go off without a hitch. Chris and I made the 45 minute trek on the subway to the bus station and bought a bunch of extremely health (ha) baked goods from a Korean bakery chain called Paris Baguette. It included a Cherry filled donut to get in the spirit. Well as we ate and waited for our bus and the time wore on, we realized our bus was late. Then, we waited some more, and more. Finally, 20 or so minutes later, another bus showed up. Our 11:20 bus was MIA. So, Chris showed the bus driver the tickets, he said, “neh” (yes, like a horse) it means yes, so we proceeded and settled in for the hour ride.

We kept in contact with the crew via cell phone as they were gonna pick us up at the bus station in Jinhae before heading to the festival. We were cruising along until, we weren’t. Traffic came to an utter standstill. Those Koreans like themselves a festival! Everyone was on the road to the festival The group was having the same issue from the opposite direction. After about an hour and a half (ride was supposed to be an hour) we arrived at a station and got off. But, then I saw it said Welcome to Masan. WTF, Masan?!?! We were supposed to be in Jinhae!!! I told Chris and he got back on the bus and the bus driver just kinda waved us forward with no explanation….Shit. So, we tried to ask around, but there was no ticket counter. Finally, after many fruitless attempts of miming and asking, someone pointed us down the street. Of course, the ticket window is normally down the street from the station. We walked up and were told we now had to get on a city bus to Jinhae…umm ok, whatever. So, we found the bus and also found the insane line to get on the bus. The bus was only taking on a few passengers at a time because it was full, so we decided it would be faster (though definitely NOT cheaper) to cab it to Jinhae. I was worried about the other 17 in the group getting to the station in Jinhae and having to wait for us. It would later turn out I wouldn’t have to worry about that…but more on that later.

So $20 ish later, we were in Jinhae. The drive was so long because traffic again was INSANE. But, this time we at least were surrounded by amazing and lush cherry blossoms! We got out of the cab, with all of our stuff, and called the group to see what their ETA might be. Perhaps 20 minutes out. To kill time, we hit up the festival and made a beeline for the food stalls. Korean street food: cheap, plentiful and delicious. We ate many sugary and fried deliciousneses and something known as a potato tornado that needs to make its way to the good ol’ USA. It is a spiraled potato on a skewer, fried and dipped in powdered cheese…heavenly. After eating a Korean man beckoned us over who was given palm readings. I wanted to know how much they were, but TIK, how expensive could they be? Chris said to just sit and do it. I was told I will have many problems with money, but will live a long life. Sweet. More time to pay off my student loans!!! Chris was told her will have “mountain money” and a long life, but that he has a problem with his heart and should avoid getting angry. He then said we will get married and have 3 babies; also that I want have to worry about money because I can just live off Chris’ ‘mountain money’. LOL. After about 3 minutes he indicated that he was done and that it was time to pay up: 1,000 Won each (about $1 USD). Sweet! So cheap!!! Chris handed over 2,000 Won. The man shook his head and his hands, no no no no no! Then he said, 1,000 Won, each. Ok…So, Chris tried to hand him the 2,000 Won again. Same thing happened. We went through this a few times until the man corrected his English to: 10,000 Won EACH. IE: $20 for the 3 minute shit show we just experienced. WTF?!?! I was pissed. Chris paid him. But I was fuming!! Old man scammed the shit outta us!! Chris said he would pay for me to quell my anger, but I was still angry! Oh well, TIK.

As you may have calculated, the 20 minutes that we were killing had come and gone. Then, so did an hour. Then another. And then, for good measure another one went by. Their 2 hour drive turned into a SIX hour drive!!! Thanks to bumper to bumper traffic. Our valiant drivers (Jon and Sarah) eventually arrived and somehow miraculously found parking for two 12 passenger vans and we all met up and Chris and I were finally able to drop our shit off in the van.

As a group we toured and ate some more. We took in some good old fashioned carnival games, Korean style. Including scoop up a fish, put it in a bowl with a whole that empties into a bigger bowl with little numbered stalls. The stall the fish swims into = your prize. Complete chance. That is gamblin’ if I ever saw it. They also had an interesting (and better, imo) turn on the shooting game. Shoot with a pretend rifle and instead of stuffed animals, you win booze!!! Sarah and Molly won some soju!!

We hiked up to this outlook point (about 350 stairs or so) for an amazing view of the region and all the cherry blossoms as they sun was setting. Perfection! Sunsets are one of my most favorite things in life and probably my most favorite things to photograph. So cherry blossoms + sunset + picture taking = one happy Kimberry! Also, we could see a US Navy ship. There is a base in this town and it was like Navy weekend or something as well, so there were Waygooks (foreigners) everywhere!! There were even fair-headed children roaming the land. Strange sight to see in Korea!!!

After our descent, we headed to the “Love Motel” for the night. A Love Motel is a motel in Korea you can rent for pretty cheaply; hourly or by the night. Korean unmarried couples use these motels to play Scrabble because they can’t do it at home since they live with their parents. What were you thinking they did?!?!

Oh, haha, I nearly forgot! The most exciting part of the day. It took us about 90 minutes to get to the motel (should have been maybe 15 or 20) again due to traffic, and struggled to find parking. We eventually found a spot in the garage and bailed. Navigating the streets with a 12 passenger van resulted in a few standoffs where we were literally cornered in, some crazy u-turns in the middle of streets and other crazy driving moves. When in Rome, baby, when in Rome. When we checked in, we found out the motel had parking, Jon and Chris went to go move the van. Well, they were gone for a conspicuously long amount of time…Upon arrival, Jon walks in and says to Sarah, we need to talk. FYI, when anyone starts a conversation with, “we need to talk” it isn’t ever good. But, when you are a waygook (foreigner) in Korea who has just parked a rented van, it is especially bad. Turns out, one of the windows fell out of the van and shattered. Yes, you read that correctly. So, the van had pop out windows in the back instead of sliding ones. The love motel’s garage entrance is covered with heavy rope to block cars/license plates from prying cameras. Remember, people come here to play Scrabble. Anyways, one of the ropes somehow got caught in the popped out window and then somehow, pulled the fucking window OUT of the van! If you aren’t familiar with glass, when it hits pavement, it shatters into a million pieces. We aren’t talking a small window. It was one of those big ass windows that are in huge passenger vans. Seriously? What are the odds? Shitty, probably. But, TIK, TIK. I guess I should have warned them all that when I travel, insanity ensues. Oh, well. $400 to replace the window. But, we all are splitting it. Molly and Sarah patched up the window for the ride home with tape, cardboard and plastic bags. They Mcguivered that shit up!

We had 4 rooms booked out for 17 people thanks to Sarah. We divvied up the rooms and bed/floor space and decided to immerse ourselves fully in Korean culture and eat dinner at McDonald’s. Also, our night had taken a turn for the worse and sometimes, McDona’McDs here doesn’t have fish burgers, so all I can eat on their menus are fries and ice cream. So, guess what I had for dinner? Yes, that is right. I probably wont be making a return trip anytime soon. After our lovely fluorescent-light dinner, we headed to a local corner store for Soju and beer for drinking in our hotel. Most of us were exhausted (myself included) and ended up in bed early…lame!

We left the next morning and figured how the weekend was going we may blow a tire and flip on the highway, but it turns out we got back in one piece. Thankfully. It only took about 3 hours to get home, so only a little longer than it should have. Overall, it was quite the interesting weekend. 

I will talk to you all later!

And PS: I have pictures up on FB in the album titled: Spring has Sprung in Korea from this weekend!