The long road home

So after saying our goodbyes at camp, and having a lunch of fried eggs and french fries, and pissing the bus driver off because we took foreeeever to get loaded on the bus, we headed to our next destination. My understanding was that we were headed to Woman Plaza, where we had first started this adventure a month ago. It was kind of our home base away from camp. So I got on the bus ready to wind up in a familiar place. Only, two hours or so later, we were somewhere else entirely. Welcome to Korea. This kind of thing happened all the time.

So, turns out we were to stay that night at Daebul University. We chose roommates and found rooms. Trista and I walked into our room (well, Trista limped in because she broke her foot about a week before this) and it seemed pretty similar to our camp dorm rooms. Except I had left my sheets at camp because I thought we were going to stay somewhere decent. Bad move. But that's not the worst of it. We timidly peeked in the bathroom to find, what else? A toilet full of poop. I mean full of it. I quickly backed away and tried not to throw up. And gallant Jonathan tried to flush it. Which just resulted in the water filling up the toilet bowl and almost overflowing. Which resulted in Trista and I grabbing our bags to search for another room. We found our rooms, begged for blankets and pillows to lay on the nasty mattresses (the blankets not being much better as they were covered in hair and smelled like cat pee. But better than nothing. I think), and then got dressed for our farewell dinner with the governor. After another lovely speech from the governor and an award for Tank for being the best teacher in the program (I'm sure this had nothing to do with the fact that he was male and the oldest teacher in the program...thanks Korean cheauvinism!), we got dinner. A buffet. But not the kind of Korea buffets we had grown accustomed to. This one was amazing. We left so very full and happy! And then were given gifts and were even more happy! And then had to sleep on the nasty mattresses. With one tiny blanket used sleeping-bag style to avoid actually touching the mattress. Which meant being very cold. And not sleeping much. And then it was morning!

The next day we were set to go to a "traditional folk village." Again, we had no idea what to expect. We got there and things seemed better than expected. There was electricity, our room had a bathroom (granted, 17 of us were sharing said room, but still. A bathroom!) and there was a cute puppy. We set up our "beds" (blankets on the ground. Really? Another night without a real bed?!) and then went to mingle. Although my "group" of campers isn't really good at mingling. We kind of stuck to each other. But I did go on a walk with Alice, who I had hung out with quite a bit during our first week of orientation here. Little did we know what that walk would turn into. We were walking in the dark, minding our own business, when this young Korean guy comes up to us asking if we know where such-and-such a thing is. We looked at each other and said, "Uhhh, sorry." Then he said, "Do you know where Shayna is?" This we did know. So he asked us to tell her that Jackie was there for her. Uh...guess our walk was over? So we headed back to the rooms and began a quest for Shayna. We only knew who she was because Jackie had called earlier looking for her. And she said "Oh my gosh, what if he is HERE?" Well, we went to find Shayna. Which took forever. There were a lot of rooms (of course mine was the only one with a billion girls in it.) and no one knew where she was. We finally just started calling her name to the closed doors and found her. And told her to follow us. And we led her to Jackie. And left her there. And were worried that she might be murdered, but thought we could probably hear the screams if he tried anything since they weren't too far away. Anyway, he didn't propose marriage like she was worried he was going to, but hung out at our camp for the night.

I wish I could say that night was over at that point. I hung out with some people for a bit before deciding to go to bed. I'm not sure what made me think that I would be able to sleep in a camp with 100 teachers drinking themselves crazy, or in a room with 17ish other girls being loud and drunk and annoying. I think I fell asleep about two hours before I was supposed to wake up. And then we headed to the bus to make our way to another city. I didn't have great hopes for the hotel. But turns out it was pretty nice!

In the days since camp ended, we have seen museums, burial mounds, bus seats, lots of bus seats (especially because no one else sits on our bus....apparently they don't like the Damyang camp teachers...), roads, rest stops, restaurants, we said goodbye multiple times to our Korean co-teachers as they met us in Gwangju and then a couple more met us in the next city, and now we are in Seoul. Where we have had free time for the firs time in five weeks. Kind of crazy! The hotel here is amazing and kind of makes me just want to sleep and take bubble baths all day instead of exploring the city. But I only have two days here so am making the most of it!

Then home sweet home! See you all soon!

Also, my lovely friend Kayla had her baby girl today at about 4:30pm: 8 lb 10 oz. Congratulations Kayla and Cody and welcome to the world, Ila Rae!