misty, kate, and derek…oh my!

now playing on e-tunes:
the smiths
hand that rocks the cradle
the smiths

welcome to the year of the cock, or as some call it the year of the rooster. i've decided that since i'm now asian i'm only going to celebrate the chinese new year. they have animals. and animals are cool. as many of you know by now misty, kate, and derek came to korea to surprise me. it actually worked out great because i only had to work one of the days they were here. i couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my first chinese new year's aboard then by having great friends here with me. the last couple of months have almost been like living in a bubble where i bascially just plodded ahead with my day to day activities: school, taekwondo, school, carrefour, etc. having them come to visit gave me the chance to show my friends my new "temporary world" and now when i talk about things at least three of them will know what i'm talking about. i also realized how much i miss my friends and how much they mean to me. its great though because with the three of them it was almost like no time had pasted. i love these guys. our week was basically jammed packed with activities. we went to insadong, meyongdong, hongik university area, dongdaemun market, namdaemum market, and even the infamous carrefour. we took a dmz tour, did the inwangsan shamanist hillside walk, hung out in a noraebang, and drank giant pitchers of beer. we ate kimchi, bbq, corn/puddidng treats, dried squid, and tofu soup. we drank soju, rose wine, and hot coffee drinks in a can. they got to see old and new ansan town, ansan park, my apartment, and even my school. and best of all we spent probably 20 hours plus on the subway. some of my best times were spent hanging out in my apartment being are goofy selves.

here are the highlights from dmk tour 2005:
1. me seeing derek at the ansan bus terminal and saying "what are you doing here?"
2. kate and misty waving to me in front of homeplus
3. airmattresses in my apartment
4. my sympathy jet lag
5. being giddy like schools girls and not getting any sleep until 5am on that first night
6. me sleeping on the airmattress [what was i thinking]
7. making breakfast for the gang
8. koreans playing on the frozen river especially the kid riding his bike on the ice
9. misty wanting a squishy mat
10. watching dmk in the madness of the grocery store
11. man walking pig down street
12. misty thinking that the choco boston creme would be filled with vanilla creme
13. dmk all saying "annyong haseyo"
14. dmk meeting the infamous bbq lady "madame galbi"
15. toasting with soju
16. misty and i stealing a poster
17. the cocks club
18. the girl in restaurant taking our photo
19. misty's sushi latte
20. the korean fashion shopping
21. finding the giant anime posters
22. eating mcdonalds on my floor
23. coffe at lotte hotel
24. cleaning lady standing in the bathroom while i was using it
25. the texans on our dmz tour
26. kate asking misty and i if the tourguide mentioned "lunch"
27. d's rabbit hat
28. misty asking tourguide where she bought her jeans
29. misty and kate walking down the tunnel
30. the guard at dorasan gettting mad at d
31. getting our passports stamped at dorasan station
32. dmk all buying stuff at the "factories"
33. the tofu soup
34. tea at sarangbang
35. playing dress up at sarangbang
36. kate's steal of a buddha
37. toasting to the new year in my apartment with rose wine
38. madame golbi being open on new year's day
39. d+m discovering hot coffee drinks in a can
40. the doll store
41. "hi. what?" "hi. what?" "hi. what?" [misty playing with blythe]
42. finding out the first blythe was a keychain!!
43. eating bbq with my closest friends
44. the seaweed with seasames
45. ninja-d
46. scaring our waiter in old ansan
47. photo booth madness
48. giant pitcher of beer
49. waking up everyday for a week seeing dmk in my apartment
50. hanging out in my apartment on new years day
51. the inwangsan shaminist hillside walk [seeing people praying all over the mountain]
52. the pizza hut delivery scooter delivering pizza at inwangsan shaminist area
53. finding a table in the trash
54. trying to walk to dongdaemum market and going under a tunnel
55. the craziness of doota department store
56. eating in the food court
57. panhandling and rating korean fashion in doota department store
58. being denied two cabs when trying to get to meyongdong
59. cold sweet potato fries
60. misty buying two more blythe dolls
61. dmk coming to school with me
62. dry-ice beer with flashing multi-colors
63. the 6:30 am noraebang night
64. singing bad metal songs
65. misty wanting a diet coke and doughnut at 6:30 am
66. being a zombie on saturday after noraebang night
67. SWEET EGG TOAST SANDWICHES. yummy!!!
68. d playing video game
69. kate craving salt, "everything has sugar!"
70. alleyway dinning experience at namdaemum market
71. lady exchanging money from a cardboard box
72. eating pizza hut on my floor
73. dmk experiencing carrefour
74. hanging out in starbucks in myeongdong
75. my blythe purchase
76. kate succuming to the pressure and buying a blythe too
77. buying a toy samurai
78. the good luck rice strainer i bought
79. m + d's head turning every time the music played on the train
80. wonderwoman blythe lighter
81. misty tampering with my hairdryer
82. misty diffusing my hair [can you say shirley temple hair]
83. misty and kates bunny slippers [now we all have bunny slippers!]
84. the drawing of dmk on my board at school
85. zander, one of my students, pointing to the picture and saying "no, teacher, no!"
86. the many talks we had
87. the floral gum experience
88. kate taking pictures on the bus to airport
89. dmk needing an extra bag for all the stuff they bought
90. coasters, a teapot, a rabbit keychain, and wonder woman stuff from dmk [how sweet]
91. showing dmk my taekwondo moves
92. the underwear fashion show
93. pumping up the airmattresses every night
94. the blythe doll show i did
95. discovering the crunky bars
96. random meetings with the candian girl in the all the western resturants of ansan
97. the man at bus station who thought he took our picture but didn't
98. playing on the frozen river with dmk
99. all the crazy t-shirt logos
100. HAVING A WHOLE WEEK WITH MISTY, KATE, AND DEREK!

that pretty much sums it up. i'm sure i might have missed many other things so if i think of more i'll post them. have a great day and be well…