Life in Korea: Goodbye Korea, I'll Miss You

Tomorrow is the day. After 3+ years in the land of the morning calm, I'm finally leaving, for real. To mark this momentous occasion it seemed one day of partying would not do... so we made it a goodbye weekend!

Friday:

My last day of work. I'm unemployed and have no job prospects, but I've never been more excited! It was really hard to say goodbye to my kids, especially the kindergartners. Some of them started to cry, making me bawl like a baby, too.

I got some flowers, notes from the kids and many, many hugs. My boss gave me a plaque in appreciation of my work and a set of bone china tea cups and saucers. And the final paycheck was pretty sweet :)

After work we went to eat Deok Sam. It's pork barbeque with thin slices of rice cake that you grill and then wrap around the meat and kimchi. So delicious. I'm drooling just typing this. The hardest thing to leave will be my friends. We work together, we play together.

After dinner we went to a second place to have some drinks and then the girls went singing. I just had break out my vocal stylings once more. We were in fine form. I'd say the highlight of the evening would be Lisa trying to sing Mariah Carey's 'Touch My Body.' I think Mariah would be shocked :)

Saturday:

Before I left Korea there was one dish I still really wanted to try. I'd eaten the bugs, the squirming octopus...but I hadn't tried the scariest dish of all, Boshintang. Boshintang is dog soup. Coming to Korea that was one of the first things people said to me, "You know they eat dogs, right?" Actually, most of the Koreans I know are younger and have never eaten it, it seems to be more enjoyed by the older generation. Anyway, I did it. I ate the dog. They're dogs specially farmed to be food, its not like I ate a poodle. It was edible, but not something I'd ever eat again. Ever. The meat was stringy and a little beefy, but not much. The soup was like a beef broth. There are no pics though, because I didn't want to offend the people in the restaurant who were eating it and enjoying it. Korean's are touchy about the dog-eater stereotype.

After quickly downing some ice cream to get the taste of dog out of my mouth all us girls got dolled up for a night on the down.

First stop, Casa Maya for some delicious Mexican food. Then we headed to the Rocky Mountain Tavern for some drinks, Canadian style. After that it was dancing until the wee hours of the morning.

These guys had a lot of fun, too. We found them passed out on the street and couldn't resist the photo op.

Sunday:

The end of the party season. I met my bookclub for my last meeting. They had even let me choose the book :) Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides. We decided to meet at the Doctor Fish Cafe where we had delicious drinks then got our feet cleaned up by fish. They're a special type of little fish that feed on the dead skin off our feet. It was the strangest feeling ever!! Kind of like a ticklish, mild electrical shock. But my feet did feel really fresh after!