Retired Ninjas and diarrhea

Cheonan

HUGE thanks to Robin Waugh, Larry Musick, and Stac Mahuna for helping me discover the correct way to insert pictures into a blog. I am hopeful that the pictures will also be viewable in the email updates.

Rachel and I had our first big adventure this weekend. I use the term “first big adventure” loosely because let’s be honest, simply going to lunch every day seems to be an adventure in itself. Living in a rice field has its fair share of ups and downs. One of the biggest downs we have found is that there are exactly 3 buses that pass in front of our school every day. Given that we are nearly an hour outside of anything that resembles a town, Rachel and I chose to get up very early on Saturday morning to stand out and wait for the bus. On the map below you can see our bus route from CBFLIS to Cheongju. If you look closely you will notice the two places that we have to stand and wait for a bus. These locations have renewed my belief in Korean ninjas. Being the under-confident people that we are Rachel and I found ourselves standing on the correct side of the road waiting for the bus which means that we were braving the elements and unable to take shelter at the “bus stop” area. While Rachel and I stood there shivering and convinced hypothermia was only minutes away, two old women- not wearing any form of coats- sat protected from the wind in the bus stop.

Without any form of watch or scheduling the old lady got up and ran across the street without even looking. No cars slowed down. She just gracefully glided across the highway and immediately entered the bus.

We arrived at the main bus terminal in Gagyeong-dong with little issue. Using VERY broken Korean we purchased 2 tickets on the next bus to Cheonan. We, being the ignorant people we are, assumed that standing in a line would be a sensical way to board the bus. Apparently the old ladies (remember they are ninjas) had a very different idea. The moment the bus doors swung open the crowd of nearly dead, tracksuit-wearing, old ladies dropped their shoulders and plowed forward with a force stronger than that of most of the Tennessee Titans defensive line, which I am aware is not necessarily something to brag about.

Starbucks

We went to Starbucks this weekend for the first time since being in Korea. It is a strange phenomenon to enter any U.S. Based retails type store in another country but Starbucks seems to be the most perplexing. As we walked around it was as if we had just passed through a door and entered US soil, with the exception of the fact that we were the only non-Koreans in the building. One by one each and every person in the coffee shop turned to look at us. It was as if they were looking to us as a form of validation that where they were and what they were doing was American.

Lotteria

The burgers wrappers at “Lotteria” are stamped with the phrase “In*Joy”. I have eaten bad hamburgers from many restaurants, in many states and various countries. I am fairly confident to say that I have never “in*joy”ed a hamburger any less than this one. Without spending a large amount of time talking about Lotteria I will leave it to this…I do not think that my in*testines in*joyed that meal very much. I have now come to the conclusion that it is by no random circumstance that lotteria and diarrhea are rhyming words.