Weekend Shenanigans

Actually, that title is deceptive as this weekend was rather laid back. I hung around Daegu with friends. Some cool stuff happened, like I spoke in Korean for about four hours on Saturday with Seong Mi and then played interpreter for Jin-oo at the expat bars in the evening, so my Korean's improved a lot. I had a lovely dinner with William at an American Chinese restaurant and good times with the girls (aka Rebecca, Kelly, and Tracy) around downtown, although my illness prevented much "revelries."

Sunday morning Rebecca, who was my guest of honor this weekend from Busan (she's kind of a big deal, you know...), and I headed down to meet people for brunch and a book exchange. The book exchange at Angel-in-us was quite popular and satisfied my literary nerd bug at the moment. I even told people about my favorite proof! Yes, yes. I am a big dork.

There were oh so many books. We actually had to leave some behind.

Laura and I, looking quite lovely and intellectually satisfied.

It was so good, in fact, that people seem interested in it becoming a semi-regular event (monthly or every couple months), which sounds pretty awesome. I guess I'm a planner for things now. Sometimes Korea really is like being back in college... but whatever. I got some new materials I'm super excited to read after I finish my new book club read, Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder.

After the meeting, Rebecca, Kelly, and I hung out in a park because the weather was randomly awesome when we noticed all these fire engines zipping through the downtown crowds, despite the high probability that they would hit someone. Kelly wanted to follow them, Rebecca was hungry, and I really wanted to see Korean firemen, so off we went towards the restaurants and the sirens.

Turned out to be a pretty big deal. Scary.

And Korean firemen look disappointingly like firemen in the U.S.

We ran from the disgusting, smoke-filled street to Italy Italy for tasty food and a bottle of wine. I was very giddy on the ride home and now I'm a little sleepy. But my apartment is full of good books, my stomach is full of good food, and my life is full of good friends. It was a fine couple of days overall.