Ninja Assassin

So what do you do in a town of 50,000 people when only about 30 of them speak English fluently? It is a fair question. It is easy to think that this town would be too small and boring. Honestly if you do not go out and explore, try new things, and use the creative side of your brain it would get old. In this town we have a good group of people who are always looking to do all those things. I enjoy going out and seeing the big cities, but for the most part my greatest memories were created in this little Podunk town. This is not what I expected. I definitely thought that after a few months I would be fed up. Oddly enough the most recent classic Geochang memory can all be traced back to my sister who lives in America.

Thanks to my sister and her ambition to want to start running, I have joined her as her virtual workout buddy. So every couple of weeks we update each other, via email, to how we are doing. How our bodies feel and generally just report on any new accomplishments in our quest to get in shape. This progressed into my friend Sarah and I going for regular runs along the river. From there we got the idea to start doing yoga. Luckily, one day while on a run I came across a yoga studio. So since the beginning of July we have been doing yoga 3 to 4 times a week (it isn't open during the weekend). Its great! I feel like my core is getting stronger, I have more energy and feel more positive, and best of all I am so tired by the end of the day that I just go to bed and don't waste any money or time grabbing a drink with friends. So when we finally go out on Friday we haven't been out all week. It makes it more exciting, the beer taste better, and it just makes less Geochang seem less redundant. So Friday after a long week of school and working out a big group of us met at Garten Bier. There we had these massive...well...beer..bongs? At least that is what it looked like:) We ate great thin crust pizza and talked about our plans to start an assassination game (this will be discussed more later). Next stop where else but the big "B" in the sky, Bonita! Now this is where things started to get crazy.

*Side note, at this point we had all had any where from one to three beers, some of us didn't even drink at all. So the following circumstances were less about alcohol and being drunk and more due to the fact that my group of friends is "special"*
 
That night I was excited because I had a brand new camera. So obviously I brought it out. It became apparent that I wasn't the only one that thought this. There were about four cameras out that night. So what happens when you have about four cameras and eight people. Well paparazzi wars of course!

Paparazzi War- A war of cameras in which the group is split up into two opposing teams. Each team member is given the camera of the person on the opposing team. Next, point, shoot, direct passion, basically try to evoke the craziest most absurd pictures possible from your opponent. Really there is no winner in this game because every picture gets more and more ridiculous therefore the laughing progresses into a full blown riot of preposterous fun.

The pictures started out innocent enough. The occasional peace sign accompanied by a few goofy faces. Then of course someone just had to go there. Someone needed to take to the next level. Oh boy did Peter ever do so. In a traditional display of male pattern testosterone induced showmanship, Peter (the kind hearted self proclaimed vice free guy that he is) ripped off his shirt and proclaimed something of an "oh ya!". So being that there are only two guys present one can only assume what the next reaction was...shirtless men abound we were in a vortex of full tilt uncontrollable energy. After not only making complete fools of ourselves (the pictures are proof) and irritating every unfortunate Korean that was sitting within 100 ft of us. We were kindly asked to "be quiet" a.k.a leave. So upholding the respect we have for the bar's owner, Nunna, we gladly paid our tabs and took the war to the streets. Now we should have at this point taken a moment to consider the fact that we represent the sole group of foreigners. Even if we do not all associate together at all times, to the Koreans the actions of one represent the actions and opinions of all of us. To this extent I do apologize to any of my fellow foreigners that may feel violated or misrepresented by our shenanigans. From posing on motor bikes, grabbing random Koreans to take pictures with, scaling the side of banks, and generally looking completely pissed. We managed to make our hyperactive personalities present. It really was great not too often, especially as you get older, do you get the opportunity to act like, well, a kid. After a good norea bong session (karaoke) we ended the night with drinks and songs and then separately made our way home.
*Oh and bonus I finally ran into and spoke to the Korean guy that always says hello to me. Turns out he is only 21 but whatever he was nice and his nickname is Mr. Hottie McHotterson, score!*

 

Jimjabong and experienced a sauna for myself I probably wouldn't have joined her. But boy was I glad I did.

When I went to the Jimjabong in Busan I had a nice time but it was like 4:30 a.m. when I went to the sauna and I was by myself (Jimjabongs are saunas that you can sleep in overnight). Totally different experience when you go with a friend. The sauna we went to was smaller  but plenty big enough for the amount of people there. Now let me clarify, when I say sauna I don't mean a hot room where you sit and sweat. That is just one part of the Korean sauna. A sauna in Korea is generally more like a health club. There are usually at least four pools of different temperatures. Sometimes the waters have different herbs infused into the water like ginseng, for your health and good circulation. Then there are the western style sauna hot rooms where you can sit and rest. The best part of a Korean sauna has to be the ajuma scrubbing. I admit this sounds really weird but don't knock it before you try it.

So you pay anywhere from 35,000 won to 60,000 won for an older woman (ajuma) wearing underwear to exfoliate your entire body. The best part is they not only exfoliate your whole body, they give you a deep full body massage, you wear a facial mask of mashed up cucumbers, and they clean your hair. Pretty much you come out feeling like a new woman. IT IS INCREDIBLE! Seriously the most relaxing thing I have ever done. For the rest of day after my four hour sauna adventure my reaction times were at least 4 seconds slower than normal. This picture is me relaxing in the TV lounge after changing into my sweats. The best part about the sauna is that it only cost 4 dollars to use it. Just one more reason to love this country.  We topped off the night with a fine dinner of another Asian delicacy raw beef. Our dish came with a soy/Wasabi sauce mixture and had little slices of pear mixed into the meat and then you mixed a raw egg into the whole dish and viola! It was fantastic. I never imagined raw meat could taste so good. Again this is something that, yes you could eat it in America, but you are not likely to find a restaurant that would serve it. At least not in Denver.

 

Full bellies and more great memories. We prepared for the next day...possibly the last day of our lives.

I had never heard of this game assassins before, but after a little research on the Internet I have found that they are actually quite popular. As the name hints it is game where you play assassins assigned to kill one another. You kill each other by either squirting them with a squirt gun, hit them with a water balloon, or poisoning their drink with a little piece of paper that says poison. As of 0:6:00 we are in a full scale war. The only places that we are not allowed to attack one another is on school grounds or at church.This still leaves our assassins plenty of opportunities to find us. Each of us knows where the target lives and works. With a little ingenuity it won't be hard for us to plan the attack. I have survived the first day of classes by cleverly leaving my school early to obtain my weapons which now sit at the base of my desk locked and loaded for action. If we hadn't made fools of ourselves this weekend I definitely think that after this week the Koreans in town will fear for out mental stability. So now what is left? Well I must survive the week collect my hit money and then head to Boryeng for a weekend of muddy fun. Until next time...watch your back I might just be coming for you ;)