June has already started off as an excellent month. The weather in Korea is similar to the weather at home (at least if I remember correctly!) it's been around the 80's and sunny most of the time. Of course, "sunny" here means its bright out but there isn't ever that perfectly blue sky like we get in Minnesota which is really depressing. There is always some sort of overcast from the smog/pollution. I'm getting really excited to see some blue again when I get home!
The first weekend in June was the Queer Culture Festival aka gay pride. A couple friends and I decided to go to the parade on June 2nd in Seoul. Homosexuality is really looked down upon here, and they don't really seem to even recognize it at all which is really upsetting. That being said, they still had a parade but it was about 5 floats and lasted 30 minutes... did I mention this was the 13th annual queer culture festival?? I can't imagine what the first one looked like! But still, it's a step in the right direction for Korea! On that same note, it's been extremely frustrating reading about back home and hearing all the different news on homosexuality laws. It makes me upset when our country decides its going to be a leader in everything else, to the point of taking military action, but then denies its own citizens, on its own soil, the simple right of getting married, or in some cases, even visitation rights in hospitals. I just don't understand what everyone is afraid of if we allow homosexuals to get married! Sorry crazy religious people, if you don't believe in homosexuality, then don't be a homosexual. Problem solved... I could go on and on about this topic because it makes me so angry how ignorant and selfish people are being but no one is reading this blog to hear about political beliefs so I apologize for the tangent! Moving on...
It was Memorial Day in Korea on June 6th, so we got Wednesday off from work. Tuesday night we had our staff party as a thank you for how hard we all worked for open class. We went out to a Korean barbeque restaurant and ate and drank more than enough. Drinking with co workers is very normal here. I've heard stories from people that work in big companies like Samsung and you basically have to drink to get close to the boss and move up in your position! Luckily, it's not like that for us, it's just for fun!
Wednesday I went to my first Korean baseball game since we didn't have to work. I don't know that much about baseball but they were pretty bad. By the fifth inning, there were only 4 hits total, from both teams and I can guess that wasn't because the pitching was that amazing or anything. A lot of the batter's averages were lower than .200... I guess that's why there is only 1 South Korean in the MLB! The game was still a lot of fun though. It's nice because you can bring in any food or drink from outside. You can also leave and come back if you want to. The inside of the stadium pretty much only had KFC and Burger King, literally almost alternating between each store with a few GS25 convenient stores in between. So nothing like the hot dogs and nachos and ice cream deal at home! The atmosphere was also a lot more fun I thought. Everyone had those noisemaker blow up sticks and then they have this "cheerleader" man who is kind of on a stage and he directs which cheers they do. Each team had one of these and when it was their team up to bat they would cheer almost the whole time! After work tonight I'll put up the videos and pictures! I didn't stay until the end of the game but I think the Doosan Bears beat the Wyverns? Maybe...
The next weekend, June 9th, a couple of us decided to go to Caribbean Bay, Korea's waterpark. It's part of the theme park Everland but has a separate admission. It's the worlds largest indoor and outdoor theme park and it was HUGE! There were so many slides but a lot of them weren't on because it wasn't the high season but it was still really fun. My favorite was the Aqua Loop where you are standing up straight in this capsule, and then they count to 5 and the floor drops out from under you and you drop down and go around this loop. It was really terrifying but fun at the same time...
Here's a commercial of the Aqua Loop!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WeQCZyzbaA
This past weekend, I went to Muuido again, the little island close to the airport. I went there last fall too in September but the weather was much nicer this time. I only got a little sunburn but not bad considering how much we were outside! It was a great way to relax and enjoy the nice weather while being close to the ocean!
Otherwise, nothing is very new here. Classes at school are going well! My kids are learning so quickly and they've been really good lately, even Samuel (aka Lion)! In the meantime, Molly and I are planning out trip to Thailand at the end of July. We already set up a cooking class and a visit to an elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai so I'm pretty excited about that!
Have a good week! And Happy Father's Day to all the dad's around, especially to the best dad of all... mine!
Love, Meghan
