4th of July weekend

As you all know, this past weekend was the 4th of July weekend. My personal favorite holiday weekend of the year. It's got it all...sun, water, beer, family, fun, food.

This year however, I was obviously unable to partake in the usual 4th of July weekend festivities, since I'm on the other side of the planet from anywhere that celebrates American Independence.

Not to be thwarted, however, I determined to make the holiday weekend an enjoyable one anyway.

Sadly, I pretty much failed at taking pictures. In my defense, it is difficult to safely bring a digital camera on a raft on the river. So, that is my excuse.

Yes that's right, I went white water rafting. Well, the rapids weren't all that intense to be honest. They SAID it was rated a 4.5 out of 6. However I'm not so sure. But yes, there were rapids, and yes, it was FUN.

It was a pretty crappy day, which bummed us out a lot because the main draw for my friend Tony and I in signing up for the trip was the bungee jumping opportunity after we finished rafting. Unfortunately they do not operate in the rain because if the cord gets wet it loses its bounce, which could really put a damper on the experience.
But oh well, we were still going rafting and I was so excited for the chance to be on the water! Not only has it been nearly a year since I've had that chance, but it was 4th of July weekend afterall, and that kind of requires you to be on the water in some capacity. So, I was excited.

It was sooo much fun. I may have had the most fun of anyone, if I do say so myself.
I went with a tour group so there was a group of about 40 people, with 9 people on a raft. The company that hosts it is very encouraging of goofing off. So, while paddling down the river, there were sporadic splash fights, races, and chants. Even though no one really knew each other, it was like being with a group of 40 friends.

As we approached a sandy embankment where we planned to beach for a little while, 2 guys on my raft stood up to play chicken with each other, and both went overboard. Then, one of them came around and pulled me out of the raft into the very cold (but water! glorious!) river. So he and I continued to horse around, dunking and splashing each other. Then we went to the raft and pulled out a few more. By this time we were at the embankment so we all swam and played and dunked and splashed. Then some of the guides turned a raft upside down against the embankment to make a water slide. So several of us took turns running and sliding down into the water. My new friend, with whom we had tried to drown each other earlier, and I kept challenging each other to various ways of sliding on the raft. I told him to go head first. He told me to stand. I told him to dive off, etc. After a while, most of the people got 'too cold' and were standing around on the beach. this included my friend Tony. I kept urging him to swim with me, but he wouldn't. So in the spirit of the day, I grabbed him by the life jacket and threw him in to the water, and i did a cannonball in after him. Then one of the guides came up behind me and grabbed me by the life jacket and dunked me in a few times for good measure. Then i got out and chatted to some new people here and there. I was talking to a few of the pakistanis. There was a big group of them, and their raft was definitely the funnest one. They were splashing everyone and chanting and having a great time. So as I was talking to them, one of their friends wanted to take a picture. He told me to get out of the picture but the others said to stay in, so I did. Then after the picture I grabbed the big one by the life jacket and threw him backwards into the water. We had another splash fight, and then it was time to continue on down the river.

I don't need to tell you that I had a freakin blast. I have always been someone who loves the water to the point where I can't even really comprehend someone who doesn't. I'm like a fish...or, maybe a mermaid. So getting a chance to play and swim in the water was definitely the best way I could imagine to spend my holiday weekend. Despite the fact that the water was cold and it was raining. (psh, cold water? it was nothing for a polar bear jumper like myself!)

Anyway, that was my Sunday, July 3. July 4 itself was a Monday so of course I had to work. Nothing special really went on that day. I talked about the holiday to some of my students. Then on Tuesday afternoon, which was 10pmish Monday back home, i looked at the clock and realized it was just about fireworks time on Sisseton Lake. After a few realtime email exchanges with my brother, I went ahead and decided to give calling him a shot.

So I spoke to my parents, brother and uncle on my cell phone while they were watching the fireworks on the lake in Fairmont and I was in my classroom in Korea. Very, very cool.

I should mention that on Saturday I made the long journey to Pyeongtaek, which took me about 3 hours from Janggi, although is actually about the same distance from Seoul as I am now.

Pyeongtaek is where I will be moving to in September to begin my second teaching year. Only this time i'll be teaching middle school at a public school. Which means less work, more training and support, and more vacation time. So excited!

I was really really tired that day, so kind of wished I had postponed the trip to another weekend. But once i was 2 hours into the journey I couldn't really back out.

My school is in a rural area of a small city. Smaller than Gimpo. My village will be smaller than Janggi. In fact the village name includes 'eup' which indicates a rural area. I didn't have the energy when I got to the train station to find the bus to take me to the actual village i'll be living, so I just hung out in and around the station.

Even though it is a small town and a really rural area...

The train station is AMAZING. 1) there is an airforce base nearby so there were foreigners (americans/non-koreans) EVERYWHERE. i mean the place was crawling with them. I actually made a new friend within 5 minutes of getting off the train. Then later chatted with another American. This may not seem very remarkable to you. But given the size of the town and what I'm used to...this was really, really remarkable.
2) The train station contains a movie theater, high-end department store, a food court (with mexican food!!!!) and a fancy grocery store WITH FOREIGN FOOD SECTION.

It seems landing a job in Pyeongtaek=major windfall.

Plus, I like the fact that it's rural. It kind of reminds me of home. And yet it's location makes it clear that it shouldn't be hard to meet people.
Although I will say that the saturation of foreigners may make it more difficult there than it was here. When you live somewhere where you go your first month without seeing any other people that look like you, when you finally do find them you become instant friends. But when there are Americans everywhere, the novelty isn't quite there. So there may not be as many instant connections, but perhaps those that are made will be based on something other than mutual language ability.
Perhaps.

Anyway, whatever. I'm excited to go somewhere new, and that this somewhere looks like it will be really awesome. I'm really looking forward to it.

And, even though I was concerned, my boss doesn't seem to be angry that i'm not staying. And, i'll have 10 days between contracts so i can travel! Not sure if i'll be able to leave the country, depends on my visa, but if not i can still go to Jeju-do, which would be sweet. 10 days on the beach! yay!

Oh and the best part is, my roommate will be gone forever in exactly 6 days. OH.YES.


here is proof that i SUCK at taking pictures. This is pretty much all I got from the awesome day of rafting. And nothing from Pyeongtaek. My goal from now on is to step it up about a thousand notches.