Visiting Ilsan

The time had finally come. It was time for me to finally go to Jaeeun's hometown of Ilsan. So for the weekend before Valentin's I finally made the journey to Ilsan. The night before I had a late dinner with friends at 11 P.M., my train was at 6 A.M. After an uneasy 4 hours of sleep I managed to get onto the KTX and sleep for the majority of the 4 hour train ride to Ilsan. Ilsan is a far-cry from sleepy little Mokpo. It is considered a suburb of Seoul and is connected via the Seoul Metro. Ilsan is in fact part of the larger city of Goyang, with a total population of about 1 million people. The apartments and officetels are nicer and there is certainly more to offer than little Mokpo. For my next home, this one sounds good!

The plan while in Ilsan was to meet Jaeeun at the train station where she would take me around her hometown and eventually her home for dinner with her family. Was Kyle nervous? Perhaps. I met Jaeeun at the station still feeling a bit groggy. We went out to shabu shabu with her friend for lunch. After lunch we went to coffee (my first of four that day). Next on the agenda, the arcade, yay! Jaeeun's friend had to go to work after that and we headed of to the multi-bang (much like a noraebang but it includes movies and video games in your own private room). I destroyed Jaeeun in Mario Kart, she schooled me in golf (typical Korean). We then sang a few songs with a terrible selection of songs.

Jaeeun thought it was a good idea to rent some of Goyang's "green bikes" to ride to Ilsan Lake Park in the subfreezing temperatures. We did and we froze. Jaeeun gave me a nice narrative and tour of her city and home and then it was time for dinner. Was Kyle nervous? Perhaps.

Dinner was great! It was a meal fit for kings, quite literally! Some of the dishes were specially created for Korea's long line of kings. I managed a few lines in Korean and most of the Korean I knew seemed to have disappeared from my mind. I managed to make it through with Jaeeun and her brothers help with translation. :) After dinner it was time for bowling. We had to wait 30 minutes to finally get a lane. I was scared that my bowling skills would be inadequate. Yet somehow...somehow I bowled by second best game, a 172. Success! Bowling was followed by J taking me to her old part time job, an Izakaya restaurant. We played Connect Four on the little game tablet for our table and ate some beef sashimi. After about an hour of this it is safe to say that we are now Connect Four pros. Day 1 was complete!

We planned on going to church the next day but her parents though it best for us to stay in and relax. Jaeeun made a delicious breakfast and she suggested a movie, the Sound of Music. Instead she fell asleep in her room and I fell asleep too :(. Two hours later...

We woke up appalled that we had wasted our precious little time sleeping. We went to coffee again and picked up some 똥빵 a.k.a. "poop bread" for my trip home. This 똥빵 is actually quite marvelous, little poo shaped pastries filled with different flavors like chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and *ahem* corn. We said our goodbyes at the metro station and I went to Seoul for a few hours and finally home to sleepy little Mokpo where I have been since. :(

Shabu Shabu

Ilsan Shopping Mall

Crazy Pirate arcade game!

Norae bang

Waiting for the multi room

Taking a break from video games

Ilsan Lake Park

Our rental bikes

Sticker photo!