November Nexen M.T.

If you have travelled a minimum in your lifetime, you will have stopped in what are called "truck-stops" - at least, we call them so in Quebec, because those are the mandatory stops truck drivers have to make after a set amount of kilometers run between cities, so small villages have set their earnings by offering cheap fast-food for the stopping drivers.

As mentioned, truck stops are not gourmet places. They have hot-dogs, hamburgers, poutine (in Québec) fries and the like. Well there are stop places along the highways in Korea too, where people stop to stretch their legs and eat a bit. The food is Korean fast-food. Japanese udon or fried cutlets, Korean bibimbap and soups.


Hisayong - the baseball crew I cheer with in Mokdong, had what they call a M.T. (sadly can't remember what the acronym stands for) on November 15,16. It's weird because I feel like it was only a few days ago that November felt so far, but we are almost Christmas. Cold winter has started in the East.

 This is crazy.

So Nexen is not playing in Mokdong for a few months and I have until December 20 to decide if next year is worth getting a season pass. If I stay in Fortis then it might be a good idea, because I can go directly after work. If I don't, well I might stay a bit longer in Canada after my contract and get back to Korea late in the season so I really don't know what is best yet. I wish I knew more about what is coming for me work-wise in Korea.

Anyways. I am going on a tangent.

When we went to the MT, we stopped at a rest stop and I ordered something that looked yummy, half-expecting something weird. It looked like small rice balls with fried crispy onions on top, with mayonnaise and greens on top. I felt like an expensive restaurant in Quebec might be selling those, with a more expensive sauce type. The food was $4.

It was exactly what I expected. And I was surprised by it. It was super simple, yet so tasty. And the amount, small enough to fill in my easy-to-fill stomach without making me feel too full. Anyways. It was blissful in my mouth.

So here we are for Korean truck-stops.

Win. 

The stop also had an amazing system of this-toilet-is-taken red and green lights at the top of each doors. Isn't this amazing? It blew my mind.

Then again. 

It doesn't take me lots to get mind-blown. I enjoy life like that.

And yes. I am creepy like that. I take pictures in bathrooms.

I had a ride from a friend going to the same place, and we got there early afternoon. The pension was really nice, with a build-in Jjimjilbang (sauna) and large rooms. If I may complain about one thing, it was that, later, we found out that there were like only 4 sets of blankets in the building.

And we  were over 40 people.

Can't have everything they say....

As soon as everyone got there and settled, we headed to a local elementary school to play Tball. We had split everyone in 4 teams and played al afternoon. It was still warm with the sun up, and was a great day out.

Haebaragi Team for the win. We ended up 2 nd place in the 'championship', so I decided that we were Nexen, as Nexen finished second this fall. Much better than being Samsung. :P

Me, looking amazing.

Frgetting to let go of my left hand after hitting, concentrating expression, huge looking layers of Nexen jackets and .....

Ball got caught.

Out.

Oh well...

I kept this picture because I think I look cute walking nonchalantly at the back, and I did not really like many pictures of the ones that were taken that day, save that one. 

Part of our evening's refreshments. There was amazing meat Bossam for dinner with goodies that came later. I actually got a bad migraine that evening and ended up not eating much, and not drinking much, and sleeping pretty early so I missed part of the fun, but oh well....

In the evening, the games continued and in the end, our team finished first. There were a couple of nice prizes but the one I really wanted, Jungho Kang's cap from when he was number 25 of the Hyundai Unicorns, went to someone else on the team, and no amount of aegyo - Korean way to act cute in order to obtain things from a man -  got me to have it.

The next day, most teams had to reform, because half of the people had gone back to Seoul so we re-teamed and played one game of t ball, and ... shoot, what's 'balon chasseur' in English? The game where you need to hit people on the other team around the legs and they have to get out of the field and throw the ball from the outside? Anyways. We still won.

Chuseok - その２

I bought a hanbok in my first month in Korea. That had been one of my goals when I got here: get a hanbok, get a traditional blanket set. I don't know why I was in such a hurry to do so, but I felt like that. However, while I can pretend to know a little bit of the most basic stuff of Korean traditional outfits, I was really shy when I just got here, to use Korean to argue, discuss and look for the best thing possible when shopping. I followed the advice of the seller at the market, and he got me to buy this pink over pink hanbok. 

It was not ugly. See how pretty it looks on my friend?

Thing is, it's not very pretty on me. And it's 1 km too long. I was wearing heels when he took my measurement and even if I told him I did, and he obviously saw it, he didn't take it properly and as a result the skirt is crazy long. I walk on it, as you can see on the picture below. I don't hate it, but I hate that it makes me look really tall, and it is impossible to walk in it. 

As I went to a picture studio not one, not two, but three times already, I saw how different colors of hanbok make me look pretty different. As in, darker colors look amazing on me, but light one make my face look huge. I also noticed that, surprisingly, the big cushion on my head does look nice on me, and I prefer the old-style middle bang separation than the wanna-be-modern fringe when wearing a hanbok. Side fringe is ok when wearing gisaeng outfit.

That was nice on me, but it's odd how I never really paid much attention to it. I mostly was looking at the overall look with the hair, not sure if it was the style that was best for me. I had just finished watching Hwang Jinyi at that point and wanted the Gisaeng look.

When I went the second time, I went for more natural for the hairstyle, and chose the queen/princess outfit. While I liked the richness of the costume better and the double layered skirt, and the colours, I know that the top part, the pink/purple, is not my colour. At least not near my face.

I found out that darker colors were better with me when I went for the third time, with my parents. I can totally pull off the light pink, just not for the shirt part. And the crown thingy looks better on me than the smaller accessories. I am sure that's because of my big forehead.

The young queen and the queen mother eh eh eh

So Chuseok being around the corner for a second year in Korea, I wanted to have a new hanbok. One that would be my size and of which the color would look nice on me as well. I asked my friend for help and we went to Jongno 5 ga in a small store where a nice lady and I talked for a long time to find out the right color and style. We picked a new pattern she had just completed for the fall fashion and I decided to go all silk, instead of polyester. It cost me a hundred bucks more, but I wanted quality this time, and I got it.

Ironically, the colors we chose are usually the colors the mother in law wears at their sons/daughter's weddings, but on my, it didn't give the mother-in-law-effect. I was really pleased with the result. That's me trying it on at the store. The feel of the silk is blissful. Makes you want to wear it all the time. I wish I were a rich lady in a traditional house that could wear those all day.

So on the last workday before Chuseok day, I wore my hanbok to school. I had no science class or any class that required me to move around like crazy so I just decided I'd do it. I was the only one in my school ho did. Sadly, my school is not big on traditional event so the kindies didn't wear anything special. Was okay tho, I was happy anyways.

The fun part was me going to the baseball game directly after work, still in my hanbok.

It was the first time I got so many picture requests from the people I hang out with at the stadium ;)

Nexen Away Games (part 2)

So after Gwangju I went to Daejeon, where two beautiful games, in which we cut through Samsung smoothly like butter were waiting for me. I am glad I went. I took the train to go, the train back, and the game ended up early enough on Sunday for me to be back home around 1am to be ready for work on Monday. That was a great weekend.

That weekend, in Daegu, there was their international body painting festival. While there was a lot of body being painted but I didn't see nakedies. IMO the costume show was mor interesting than the naked people anyways. Took a couple pictures. I'm happy we got there at the time there was stuff to do in Daegu, otherwise I dunno what I'd have been doing. 

Apparently, Samsung's baseball field is the smallest one in the whole pro baseball league. It's ironic taken that a team with such a big sponsor has it for its home stadium. Oh well. I hear they will be changing stadiums in the end anyways so that might change. I really liked that stadium though, because we got to see our player form crazy up close without paying crazy ticket fees. It was a blissfull feeling to cheer on our players as they left the ground after the game, and have the see us from up close as well.

I spent the night at Inter-Burgo, the hotel where the players apparently stay at - though I haven't seen any - and while the place was nice, I found it funny that such an expensive hotel should not have a basic hair conditioner. The shampoo was for "hair and body" and that was it. Even Love Hotels in Korea have toothbrushes shampoo, conditioner, masks name it. There was a mini-pot on the roof though, which is ind of cool.

In the entrance there was this huge vase made of millions of tiny shells, a North-Korean piece of art, of which there is one there and one up North. There had apparently been a North-South Korean meeting at that hotel at some point in time and this piece of art was given to the hotel.

On the second day I went to Donhwasa, a temple on a mountain near downtown Daegu. It was really pretty. I was scared of Samsung, as they are the no1 team, and I felt like I needed to throw away the gred of wanting a second win, so I felt like a walk in the forst all afternoon could do me good. Throw away all your greed and life will be good to you. 

Well life was good to me that weekend.

As I walked along I started craving coffee. Then I thought about how, on those touristic spots, stuff is always overly expensive and not that good. I was thinking that if I were to open a coffee shop, I'd love to open  decent one on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere like this place, and surprise customers with amazing coffee and nice service.

And what do I not find?

Not only was the coffee amazing, the coffee shop was really nice. Nice furniture, a few different settings, an open terrace and a restaurant on the second floor. They roasted their own beans too. I fell in love with the place. Shame that I never go to Daegu.

Anyways, had a great time in Daegu, and a big part of it was thanks to Nexen. Keep aiming up. We can do it this year!