Visiting Heidi and UFC 104

UFC 104 ^_^

Heidi's beautiful town

Right after class on Friday, I rode a bus to Seoul to sleep over at my uncle’s home. Eating dinner with his family, we feasted on spring rolls and discussed topics that ranged from state ownership of banks, H1N1 vaccine availability, private health care, the education system in both Korea and the U.S.A, and much more. After great conversation I went to sleep and the next day took a bus to visit Heidi, my friend from California and teammate from my time in China. Surprisingly, for the first time during my stay in Korea, my bus was late to arrive in 함양, Heidi’s town. Due to the heavy traffic leaving Seoul, my 3 hour bus ride turned into a 4.5 hour ride. The reason is that people all over the country are heading towards the mountains and forests during the weekends because the scenery is beautiful (autumn leaves and crisp air). Once I met up with Heidi and some friends, we went to eat at a famous restaurant known for its lotus delicacies. From galbi-jjim to lotus nangmyun, I stuffed myself. After lunch, we all walked around a man-made forest and drank coffee at a cute café for over 4 hours. For dinner, a local jook restaurant was our preferred choice. After learning that some friends had missed their bus back home, we all decided to stay up late in a friend’s apartment playing mafia, silent football, and various games. I think we all missed speaking English comfortably to people who could comprehend all we were saying. After staying up very late playing games and solving riddles, Heidi, Jessica, and I walked back to Heidi’s apartment for another couple of hours talking and catching up. Finally at around 5 in the morning, we fell asleep. Waking up to Heidi playing praise music, a smile lit my face. Before taking my bus back, I decided to get a haircut in the town. Let’s just say I have never had anyone cut my hair the way it was cut. After 6.5 hours on the bus, I arrived back in Jangpyeong and collapsed on my bed.
Monday evening I turned on the television after a tiring day at school and found that UFC 104 was being shown for free! I love Korea! So, I watched the entire event, and am very impressed with Cain. When the much anticipated main event came on, I started clapping and jumping down on my bed. My favorite fighter Lyoto Machida vs. Shogun Rua. After watching a painful 5 rounds, I thought it was pretty evident that Shogun won the fight. His combinations and counters to Machida’s body were evident through Machida’s beat-up body and depressed demeanor. When the fight ended, Machida looked like he even knew he lost. However, the judges scored unanimously that Machida had won! Although Machida is my favorite fighter, he did not deserve to win that fight. Although the decision was not his to make, I feel very bad for the highly prepared Shogun.

Anyways, booked my plane ticket home today and am very excited to head back. As much as I love Korea, home will always be home. There is so much I miss, but I am going to try hard not to dwell on it so that I don’t become too homesick. This Wednesday the teachers from my county are all meeting up to hike, so I will probably update again soon.

Until then, toodles! (my sister always use to write this so I think it rubbed off on me)