Jochiwon Peach Fest

Interesting day today! First free day! A girl called to wake me up. I braided her hair. In Korea it's really special to braid your hair and a lot of ppl don't know how. She was meeting her parents who she hasn't seen in 10 years! I felt special she asked me to help her get ready. Ate breakfast then met up with Tevyn and Sara and walked down the the big peach festival! This area is famous for it's peaches so i had to check it out. The whole place was mud but everyone was walking around so we sucked it up and went walking. Diff booths and stuff to try and buy. craft tables, cosmetics made from peaches, drinks/food, all kindsa stuff. I tried white lotus tea, peaches, juice, bulgogi, peach sunscreen and rice wine. All pretty good. IT WAS SO SO HOT! I've never sweated so much in my life! I jumped in with the natives and bought a box of peaches. It was 25,000 won for 13 peaches, more than i wanted to pay but everyone else was pushing and yelling and I was proud of myself for gettin involved and figuring out how much everyone else was payin lol. Went back in time for lunch. Then chilled out til dinner. Tried to wash my muddy shoes but i think they're ruined. Later 30 or more ppl started walking into town for Noribong! (karaoke) The town was small but there were karaoke places on every corner! 10 of us got a room. It was crazy, disco ball, speakers, laser lights, multi colors videos the whole thing! Everyone got really into it. Me and the twins were just watcihng and enjoyin everyone else. We all managed to order Soju from the ppl who didn't speak english lol. I finally and did my first karaoke before we left, nothing impressive. it's more fun to watch. Walked home and about to crash! Everyday feels so long here!

Temple Visit

SO another long day. Before I started I wanna get out a few things that I forgot to mention earlier. First there are odd and even elevators, like if you wanna go to the 6th floor you must take the elevator on the right side. They skip every other floor. The buttons for all the floors are there so if you get in the even elevator and push 7 it will light up but it won't go there LOL. Not everywhere but some buildings are like that. And squat toilets are not a myth! They exist. Took a pic of one today, really interesting. Didn't use it though. Last, I had coffee milk this morning. It's like strawberry milk but coffee. IT"S AMAZING!!!

Ok so temple visit...woke up at 7 to eat breakfast, met up at 9 to load on the buses and drive an hour to get to a national park. Walked down this trail for like 20 min til we reached a buddist temple. It was decorated so intricately. Everything painted and carved and had real gold statues. The monks showed us around, helped us make prayer beads (kinda like rosaries) and old fashion copying. We all met back for lunch. Bibimbop (rice and veggies) they spooned it out and you took it and went to sit and eat. Then we were told it's rude not to finished all your food because ppl worked hard to grow the food. I looked at the food again...it was enough for 2 days. I tried eating fast, then slow then almost cried cuz i knew I couldn't eat it all. Everyone else finished at my table. It brought back childhood memories of sitting at the table forever tryin to finish my food. I'm the slowest eater ever and my stomach is small! One of the leaders came over and asked if I was ok, I said no, he said it's ok you don't have to finish. I still felt bad but snuck my food in the trash, washed my dishes and ran out. Then we walked..no hiked up this mountain to see a lil waterfall. Not impressive, although still pretty, it was called the dragons mouth and was sacred to them. A couple ppl were up there drinkin and swimmin in the water. The monk acted like it was normal and one of the ladies even offered boot leg liquor to us. Had to walk all the way back down. Sweated my butt off (it was hot and hard) It was all interesting and so pretty. Walked back to the bus drove back, ate, chilled with a girl who talked a lot and finally back in my room with AC!

First Friday

12 hours of lectures today!! I'm so tired. AND we're having a med exam tomorrow so we can' eat or drink from 9pm (which was 2 hours ago) til we finish the exam. I'm so hungry and it's only been 2 hours. Went to the Korean super walmart though so I got to take my first taxi and see the town. That was cool. Bought an umbrella, hair clips, World Cup Soccer shirts like the official ones for 2 bucks and then came back. I'm going to bed before I get hunger pains..... uuggh