Beer and Blossoms

BEER AUCTION

I knew Koreans drank a lot, but I didn't understand it fully until last weekend when we attended our first beer auction. What's a beer auction you ask? Well, it's when someone is trying to get rid of a bunch of their random items and nobody wants to buy them, so they instead auction off items to the person who drinks the most shots of beer. I'm not sure how common they are, but after this experience, I would highly recommend them because it was a blast. One of our Changnyeong friends', Rody, had finished his contract so he was needing to get rid of the last of his items. It was an awesome way to get rid of stuff as well as for everyone to hang out with him one last time.

We ended up having the auction at a tiny restaurant and bar in Changnyeong where he knew the owners. We were all a bit hesitant at first because there were about 15 of us, and maybe 6 of 10 bar stools available. They insisted we come in and shortly after we noticed that the owners were already a bit drunk and were immediately serving us beers and sake. A few minutes later, Rody started auctioning off his items and friends were betting 3, 4 and 5 drinks of beer. Luke and I were very proud of the items we won: one Lego Star Wart, one Star Wars poster (from a macaroni and cheese box) and one space paper mobile. Luke's quote of the night: "I...LOVE...SPACE!" #TeamworkMakesTheDreamwork

About twenty minutes into the auction, people were up to 14 drinks. (About 6 drinks turned out to be a full glass.) And by the end of the night, the owner himself had bet 32 drinks to win a 60oz. beer mug. Yes. The bar owner. And yes. 32 drinks of beer (a little over 5 glasses). Some of us were worried for his health and therefore he "only" ended up chugging beer from his new 60oz. beer mug. It was - in every sense of the word - excessive. Everyone was freaking out, his wife (also drunk) was having a ball, and many random trinkets were won. Feel free to watch the ridiculousness of the owner drinking his 32 drinks, or just keep scrolling to see pretty flowers.  :)

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyZJe7tmZ1c&w=854&h=480]

After the big finale, we all turned in for the night as we were planning on going to the Cherry Blossom Festival the next day in Jinhae!

CHERRY BLOSSOMS

The weather Saturday was gloomy so we decided to hold off on Jinhae and try again on Sunday. And after Friday night, none of us minded some down time and a lazy day. Mine consisted of eating poorly and not changing out of my pajamas. It was great. That night, everyone joined to play a new game. Luke downloaded Jackbox on his PS4, which is a bundle of games where everyone connects their phone to the TV and plays along. Drawful, the new game we played is like a backwards version of Pictionary. We each draw a different prompt and then everyone has to guess what the prompt was for each drawing. It can get pretty difficult but that makes for some hilarious drawings and guesses!

Sunday morning, the whole crew took the bus into Jinhae which is about 30-45 minutes south of Changnyeong. We got there around noon and walked around the Cherry Blossom Festival for a while trying to keep track of everyone's whereabouts in the midst of a million people. There were so many tents of food and merchandise that we all got a little sidetracked at one point or another. (But hey - I got a running jacket for under $10, score!)

The whole reason we went to the festival was to see all of the GORGEOUS Cherry Blossom trees which only bloom for a couple weeks at the beginning of Spring. The girls were of course all about it. And the guys were just jumping up and down they were so excited to be in so many pictures. So. Excited. We grabbed a quick dinner and followed the train tracks to the festival. Selfies were being captured left, right and in between and tripods were setup all over the place. It was so crowded that you literally had to make sure you didn't get a selfie stick to the face as someone turned around to get better lighting.

I on the other hand, am still experimenting and learning about my DSLR and thankfully have Hannah and Cameron to teach me what they know. Currently upping my photo editing game and hope to get into some "30 day photo projects" just for fun and practice. This festival was a great opportunity for it, and although Luke hates stopping every two minutes for me to take a picture, adjust and re-take the picture, he's been very patient...plus I'm sure he secretly appreciates everything I'm capturing.  :)

A Weekend of "Seoul"

Ladies Weekend in Busan