My bus was waiting so as soon as I got a ticket I just jumped on the bus and off we went. An old lady chose to sit next to me and she gave me a little disapproving frown (I won’t say what at) so I thought it would be nice to give her a lemon vitamin drop. She was all smiles and gave me a mandarin in return. So there I was sitting on the bus listening to Wheesung’s Eternal Essence of Music, reading a romance novel with a mandarin on my lap that I really was too full to eat. After a while the lady got out another mandarin, maybe because I hadn’t started eating mine yet, and she peeled it, broke it in half and gave me some. This time I had to eat it. So again, there I was, still listening to Wheesung’s Eternal Essence of Music, reading a romance novel with a mandarin on my lap that I definitely couldn’t eat. But then I started to think that was rude. So I broke open the one she gave me and gave her half back. She smiled and ate it. I ate mine too.
The bus ride took about 2 hours. Less time than I expected. People at work told me that the roads were crazy over this holiday as everyone goes back to their hometowns to celebrate with their families. Luck I missed it going there, by the next day there were so many news reports about road jams, particularly going in and out of Seoul, it was gridlocked.
When I got to Goseong, Misook’s brother and his daughter picked me up from the station. I was easy to spot being the only foreigner in this small country town. Finally I got to see Misook again. It was like no time had passed at all. I love it when I get that feeling with special friends. I met her whole family, her older brother, middle brother, his wife and two children as well as her mother. The whole family were wonderful. I look forward to visiting again later in the year.
To wrap it up in a nutshell, our weekend was spent doing any number of these things at one time:
1. Talking about her boyfriend Joon Tae who I spoke to on the phone for the first time and I have to say I can’t wait to meet.
2. Kakao messaging with the guy in Australia who set them up and I had met at a Korean church event.
3. Catching each other up with what’s going on with mutual friends.
4. Gossiping about hot Korean actors, singers, sportspeople, comedians etc… there were never too few to talk about.
5. Shopping in the markets.
6. Walking in the countryside.
7. Sleeping during the day.
8. Watching variety shows, music competitions, dramas and sports.
9. Eating constantly – and I actually lost 1kg this weekend. There must be something wrong with the scales!
10. Cooking.
11. Laying in her mum’s bed which had heating on both sides so Misook could turn her side up to a boiling 45 degrees and I could have mine set at a more reasonable 30 degrees. I loved this bed. I wonder how much it would cost to buy and ship a bed like that.
12. Taking photos.
Country bus stop
Dog meat?
Making popcorn
The official 'Joon Tae this is Belinda photo'
For the Lunar New Year traditions we had to cook a whole lot of food. A LOT. Basically all day Sunday was spent cooking. I really loved this. All of the women were together. Me, Misook, her mum, sister-in-law and niece. It was a great but tiring day.
On the Monday all the family came together at her mum’s house and the food was placed on the table as an offering to the ancestors. Everything had to be plated up in odd numbers. 3 bunches of grapes, 7 strawberries, 5 raw fish etc. Then they poor wine for the ancestors and bow to them, again an odd number of times. Then they bowed to the eldest people and gave and received money in return.
The weekend was coming to an end and on Monday afternoon we headed back to the bus stop to catch our buses home. Me to Busan and Misook to Suwon, with plans to meet in Seoul in February. Yay, I get to meet Joon Tae! On the trip back I hit traffic and instead of the 2 hours it took me to get there, it took twice as long going back to Busan. But I made it!
Overall, it was a wonderful weekend that I sent all of today getting over by staying in bed, watching TV and sleeping. Reality hit in for about an hour and I prepped 3 days’ worth of lessons so it wasn’t a complete bludge and I did have a small shop (cough cough) at Mega Mart too. Shame I don’t have another day off. But then again, only 3 days until the weekend.
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