Ever heard of Eulalia?

We had an invitation on Sunday to attend the Eulalia Festival with a girl from my work and her husband, both Korean. I've never even heard of Eulalia, so my English vocabulary is ever expanding. Apparently Eulalia is some sort of grass like wheat that has been planted in Seoul on the top of World Cup Park, which is a huge hill, also known as an old garbage dump which has been converted into a park.

There were tons of people, almost exclusively Korean, who came to attend this festival, which consisted of stepping 2 feet into a Eulalia field and snapping photos to make it look like you're in the middle of Saskatchewan in summer. Kind of weird, but a unique Korean experience anyway. We capped off the night with some Sam Geyop Sal, a bacon-like meat that's done similar to Korean BBQ, but on a tilted metal plate, so that the fat runs off and through your Kimchi, which is being heated and fried at the low end of the plate. Let me just say...friggin delicious. We've had it a few times and experimented with a few different restaurants and it seems to get better and better.


A couple of days before on Friday night we ended up going out with the Korean middle school teachers for some drinks after work. It turned into an all out affair and lasted until the wee hours of the morning. Which, in turn, wrote off Saturday for us, which was supposed to consist of an all day hike up Bukhan Mountain. I was a little disappointed that we didn't go hiking, but we'll get there another time.



We also booked a November trip to Seorak Mountain, which is in another province. We'll spend 2 days hiking in Gangwondo, through different trails in the park. It's supposed to be one of the more beautiful areas in Korea and I've never been before, so I'm looking forward to it. A couple of other teachers from work are coming too and the tour is pretty much exclusively foreigners and is done entirely in English. It should provide a good opportunity for meeting new people as well.

In other news, Korean lessons resume this Saturday. I'm going to hit up the OEM Seobinggo lessons and see what level I end up in. With all of the practice that John's had, I doubt he'll be in the beginner level, but we'll see how they place everyone.

Anyway, glad to know everyone is full of turkey. I managed to go with John to KFC last night after work and eat chicken while pretending it was turkey. It didn't really do it justice...but we tried. I don't think I'll be eating KFC for a long while.