Crazy mountain hike, my crazy birthday, and my crazy friends :-)

This week had two very important days.  May 5th was Children's Day, which is a big holiday for kids here where the whole family stops whatever they're doing to play with their kids.  Which is awesome.  But what is more awesome is that they don't have to go to school or academies that day, so it was a much needed and much appreciated day off for all of us.  

Cha Mahn thought it would the be perfect day to do the hike that would take us to another one of Ulsan's 12 Scenic Sights, the Ulsan Factory lights.  It ended up being pretty cool, since we wanted to see the sight at night, I still got to sleep in really late and chill on my day off before starting the hike, which was good because the night before we had a work dinner and I stayed up way too late.  (I don't think "staying up too late" has a lot of meaning here in Korea, but, anyway, I wanted to sleep in.)  So, Cha Mahn came over late in the afternoon and we started to get ready to go.  Albert and Anriette were supposed to come along as well but they stayed up WAAAY too late at Lindie and Rob's house the night before so they didn't make it.  Cha Mahn and I started on our journey to the heavy industry lights.  

Cha Mahn told me that it was about an hour on a bus to get there, then about an hour of hiking, and then we would be there.  No problem.  I can do an hour of hiking.  Especially since there was a trail.  We grabbed the back of the bus and hung out until we finally got there.

Once we got there neither of us really knew where to go since neither of us had been there, so he bought a new monster battery for his flashlight and we wandered around for a little while looking for it and asking people if they knew how to get there.

Finally, we found a man who was clearly a hiker and he said he was going that way and just to follow him.

Now, I know it's been a really long time since I've actually been hiking, but I still thought it would be okay, since, hey, it's just a casual hike right?  Stop, take some pictures, chill, enjoy nature, blah blah blah.  Nope.  This man was like a competitive hiker and was crazy serious about it.  So, the guys took off and I tried my best to keep up with them, the whole time this old man is not even winded enough to stop telling Cha Mahn stories.  The hike was supposed to take an hour and we did it in about 35 seconds.  Okay, maybe closer to 30 something minutes, but we booked it.  

We could see everything from there.  Like, I could see South Carolina from there.  We got to the top and stopped for a little bit so that I could take a picture or two.

Nothing like the mountains!  :-)

The factory, with the lights, obviously, off.

The mountains AND the sea.  I told Cha Mahn I need him to build me a house up here.  See the huge tanker at the top left??

So high up.  In so little time.

Our guide explaining to Cha Mahn that, although we were at the top of a mountain, we had to climb down this one and go to the top of another one.  That one.  Right there.  

That one.  With the towers on it.

Beautiful day, but really windy and chilly.  Better than sweltering hot, though, any day of the week.

The video is just a little panorama of the top of the mountain, including the other mountain that we were supposed to go to.  When I turned back around I told Cha Mahn that he looked like a ghost, so he instantly started acting like a creepy ghost.  What a nice guy. :-)

Cha Mahn actually hates hiking (he did way too much hiking and trail blazing in the army) and I was not feeling climbing a whole other mountain, especially since we could the factory lights from where we were, so we decided to stay put and wait for the sun to set.  It wasn't even seven yet. . .

I asked Cha Mahn to tell me a story, since we had tons of time to kill, and this is what he came up with.  "My girlfriend abandoned me on top of a mountain.  . ."

Sun not really going down at all.  And we were starting to get pretty frozen.  Silly us.

Sunset!!  

There are a couple of ironies I should point out.  We came here at night to see the factory lights and my camera just happened to be absolutely appalling at taking night photos.  Also, my one of my students dropped my camera at school and it's not really acting right now. . .especially my memory card.  So, my poor limping camera had to do the best it could.  :-)

Almost dark now. . .

These pictures will NOT do justice to how beautiful it was.  I love cities at night, and this part of the city was lovely!

I tried to put my camera in a tree because I have to hold my camera perfectly still for about ten seconds to take decent night photos, but, silly me, it was windy, so even the tree couldn't pull it off.  :)

The thought of warm galbi jim kept us up there for the hour and a half that we waited on the sun, so I took a few quick pictures then it was time to start climbing down the mountain.  He had an excellent flashlight, which was awesome, but he also had a lot of ghost stories to tell me as we wandered through forest graveyard after forest graveyard in the pitch black woods.  Quite an experience :-)  Good times though.  And we ended up getting duck for dinner, which was awesome.  :-)  And then we went home and died from exhaustion.  Happy Children's Day!!

Then, the next day of course, was my birthday!  Woot!  But I had to work.  Lame.  Until 10.  Really lame.  But it was okay.  I met Anriette and Albert for lunch before work and that was awesome.

Plus, I got to talk to my family, and opened presents from my parents and brothers over skype, which was awesome.  Pretty emotional.  (Thanks a lot, Noah, for the tshirt, totally made me cry but NOT as much as sneaking that "Letters from War" song on the CD!  That was NOT FAIR!!  Love you!)  My family is awesome and they sent me the coolest stuff.  And it all smelled like home.  Home.

Then, when I got to work, they had a cake for me.  Yay!  :-)  A really yummy cheesecake, and they all sang happy birthday, so it was awesome.  :-)

Here's the cake :-)  The candle apparently indicate 27, which is how old I am in Korea.  I never even had a chance to be 25 and I'm already 27.  

My cheesecake on the folder for my favorite class.

It was pretty awesome, actually.  A lot of my students wished me happy birthday, a lot of them actually sang happy birthday to me, and my made-of-awesome student, Riz, gave me a present and wrote me a letter.  Coolest thing ever.  :-)

A beautiful fan, and my letter.  :-)

The open letter.

 The letter says:   "Dear 'Nice' Jean teacher.  How are you, teacher?  I am your student, Riz!  Nowadays, the weather is so cool that I can't wait to go any picnic.  Unfortunately, next month is final exam.  No. . .!   Anyway, I was so worried about your present.  I wanted to buy a fan which has more gorgeous color however it was too expensive.  Sorry :(  Although this is small, I hope you like it.  Oh, do you know it's material?  It's Korean paper (Han-ji)  Also this letter is made by the paper.  Do you like it?  It's Korea's own paper.  It's different from China's.  I wanted to write on Han-ji for you on your birthday to celebrate your birthday in Korea!  Congratulations, ma'am.  How beautiful day is it!  I think May is so charmful to celebrate someone's birthday.  I truly hope your luck as ever.  P.S. My email is (email address) I have twitter but I can't remember it's address.  I want to keep in contact with you after you leave Korea.  I want to see your cute dog and nice family :)  Do you know my real name?  I am Su-Hyeon Kim.  Then, my nickname is Tion-Kim.  Do you know the reason? :D    Singing happy birthday song, Riz

And this is the paper.  How cool is that???

Also, in my favorite class, one of the very coolest kids I've ever met was really late, but my boss told me that she was coming she was just late.  So, about half an hour into the 50 minute class she rushes in "Sorry teacher!"  Of course, it was okay.  I hadn't seen these guys for WEEKS because they were studying for their midterm exams and they didn't have any foreign teacher classes.  She said "I just got out of school!  I'm so tired but I only came because it was your class!"  Way to make me feel like a million bucks kiddo :-)  Then another student in the class told her it was my birthday and she said "REALLY!!?  Then, teacher I'm your birthday present!"  Yes ma'am you are.  :-)

I'm really going to miss being called teacher when I go home.  And having strange children bow to me in the streets.  Good times.

Anyway, I digress.

I got out of work and met Cha Mahn, Ji Young, Jonah, Albert and Anriette for birthday party pt1.  I got to the cafe and Ji Young and Jonah handed me presents :-)

The Korean dolls in the center are from Jonah, and behind it is a tall purple and green box, that's really lovely hair stuff from Ji Young.  It's supposed to be really good for people who absolutely abuse their hair with straighteners and blow dryers and general maltreatment.  It makes my hair REALLY shiny and it smells amazing!  I should have posted this picture later but I'll go ahead and tell you.  Next to the purple box is a present from Cha Mahn's cousin who did my hair yesterday, also really nice serum for damaged hair.  Everyone feels sorry for my hair!  :-)  Then Lindie got me a cute calendar so that I can keep track of things now that I've made my life crazy again, and a pencil and a "Pinocchio" book filled with little post-its, awesome, and a charm for my cell phone.  Then Carmen got me some really nice stuff for my face and some really yummy lip gloss.  My friends are amazing.  :-)

Anyway, back to the night.  We went out.

Anriette and Jonah being awesome.

Albert and Ji Young, also keeping up the awesome-ness tradition. 

 We decided to get a little something to eat, so we went to this chicken place that I love.  We got some yummy chicken, but we also got a little something else that was a little less. . .expected.

Do you know what it is??  I thought it was squid.  It's not.  It's a chicken foot.    Did they make me eat it?  You betcha.

 Here's a video:

Jonah and Cha Mahn were not helping, telling me the chicken foot was going to stay in my stomach for three days while I had nightly dreams about the owner asking for it's foot back.  Like this:

Good night all around.  But we had to go home because Cha Mahn was taking me to get my hair straightened the next day, like a straight perm.  Because I really can't be cruel enough to my hair.  Sometimes I think I've been here forever, and I get an idea for my hair and think "It's been FOREVER since I've done my hair!  Like, at least a whole year!"  Nope.  But, he knows that I straighten my hair every single day, so his birthday present was getting my hair done.  Which was awesome, because I LOVE getting my hair done.  And it was his cousin's shop, so I was going to get to meet her, and his sister.

The appointment was for ten in the morning, and I went to bed really late so it was a little bit hard to climb out of bed, but I made it.  Yay!!

His cousin is really awesome.  And she worked really hard on my poor damaged hair.  She didn't speak a lot of English so Cha Mahn had to do a lot of translating, but she was really cool.

I don't really know anything about a straight perm, but I'm a trusting girl, so there I sat.  She also manicured it and put a LOT of treatment on it so that it could have a little chance to heal.  And she also gave me the hair serum for my birthday, which was incredibly generous :-)

I met Cha Mahn sister for only a second, while I was wrapped up and my hair teased. . .whoops.  She was on her way to Busan, so she just stopped in quickly.  But she seemed cool, even though we couldn't talk to  each other.
I need to study Korean a lot harder. . .

After she was finished Cha Mahn and I went out for lunch and got some bi bim bap at a place nearby that was famous for it.  He said that they had been in business for 80 years!  And it was pretty delicious.  Anyway, here's the new hair and the lunch:

She also thinned it out a lot, which will be really nice for summer, but it's strange to only have what normally one person would have on their head :-)  Do you like it?

Cha Mahn serving the soup.  :-)

Really yummy cold soup.

The bi bim bap before it was mixed up.

Really delicious beef :-)

The bi bim bap after it was mixed up.  Really delicious.

Then I came home to relax a little before the party at night.  I was really excited about the birthday party, Lindie and Rob was coming and I feel like I never get to hang out with them anymore, so it was bound to be epic.  And, of course, it was.

Cha Mahn had to go home for Parent's Day, so it was just a night for the foreigners.  But before he left he took me to Baskin Robins and got me a beautiful ice cream birthday cake :-)

Isn't it pretty?  This is outside Second Factory, one of our favorite places.  Good food, but the best thing is it has a really pretty deck so we can eat outside.  We've never eaten inside here.  And we come here. . .too much.  :-)  Mini wanted some cake.  :-)

My friends are famous photo bombers.

The cake :-)

My crazy friends, John Mark, Anriette, and Rob.

This is how we eat cake.  They gave us all spoons, but no knife, so we just ripped into it.  :-)

They gave us the cake in a cooler with dry ice.  Not a good idea.  We had to play with the dry ice.  So, this is some dry ice and some of Lindie's Cherryade.

The cake was delicious.

The dry ice was endlessly entertaining.

Lindie and Mini :-)

We kept playing with the dry ice, and added more and more things to see it to see what would happen.  I forget who poured Pepsi in it, but it was pretty cool.  And in order to understand what's happening in this video, there are just a couple of English and Afrikaans words that Lindie cannot handle.  One of them sounds like "poof" (sorry Lindie) and for no logical reason, when the dry ice started boiling, Rob said it, and here's what happened:

The face at the end of the video became the most amazing thing in the world that night.  We watched that video at least 200 times.  Awesome.  Thank you, Lindie!  :-)

Tradition dictates that you have to move around a lot at any sort of gathering, so after we finished the cake, we headed off to get some more goodies.  We went back to the chicken place with the chicken feet, but this time, there were no chicken feet.  There was, however, this little thing.  Lindie, being African.

I also did a really embarrassing thing here that I should post since I'm posting everyone else's embarrassing things, but I don't think I can make myself do it.  Maybe 12 or more years ago I had this friend named Lindsey and she did this thing called "Chubby" where you squish your face together to make yourself look fat (or fatter in my case) and you tell these stories  I think there were three stories, I only remember two, but on Valentine's Day this year for some reason I thought it would be an EXCELLENT idea to show it to Lindie and Albert, and now they push me to do it whenever they think I'm in a coerce-able mood.  So, I did it.  On video.  You'll just have to take my word for it.

So, we were there for a while and then we had to leave again, because, you know, tradition.  I had this meat a few nights ago with Cha Mahn and Carmen and I absolutely had to share it with everyone else because it was one of the best things I've ever had in my entire life.  They are ALWAYS crazy busy, but they found room for the six of us and it was fantastic.

My Korean friends said this was pork.  But none of us know how that could be possible.  It actually tastes very similar to heaven.

 A little bit about most meat places here.  They give you the raw meat, and you force the men folk to cook it for you, while you steal every little bit before they have a chance.

Delicious.

Our lovely chefs.

Then, we had to go somewhere else.  Can you guess where?  Nori Bang!

It was awesome.

And Terry came!  Which was also awesome.  So, the seven of us headed out to sing every silly song that we could find.  

Like this one:

Then Albert did something REALLY special and sang a birthday song for me.

Sarah Brightman.  Phantom of the Opera.  Awesome.

The man's part/finale was something no one could believe.  Unfortunately, I can't show you because my blogger thinks all of the videos are too big.  But we all lost our minds.  It was fantastic.  THANK YOU ALBERT!

And then Terry and Albert sang a lovely song and everyone sang along.  Those are always the best songs.

Awesome.  :-)

But, of course, we had to go to at least one more place, so we went to see Carmen at work, hung out there for a while and then all went home exhausted.

Good times.  Really good times.  Thank you, everyone for an awesome birthday.