VIP, 8 months, and Fall Colors

Well my friends and family around the world, my predictions have come true. As the year has progressed, my blogs and updates have become less and less frequent.  My apologies about that! I'm going to do my best to keep up with them the last 4 months [yes, only 4 months, but more about that in a moment!] and continue to charm you with my witty stories, insightful thoughts, or if nothing else, just keep you in the loop of my South Korean life.

8months.
As of this week, I have officially been in the great country of South Korea for 8 months. 8 months!! Insanity! I'm pretty sure each time I hit a milestone in this year that my reactions are the same: Time is flying by, and yet it is simultaneously crawling.  I'll save you from hearing that schpeel again and confess something instead. Last week, I bought my airplane ticket home for the end of February!!  I know I still have 4 months left and you might say this is a little premature, but I just couldn't help myself when I found a reasonable deal with nonstop flights!  The excitement doesn't end there folks - on my way home, I'll be making a weeklong stop in Oahu, Hawaii to stay with an old Point Loma roommate and soak up some sunshine after freezing this winter! It will be amazing to say the least but don't worry, I'm still having amazing adventures here without merely longing for the end.

VIP.
This past Saturday, the Asia Song Festival was held in Daegu.  The Asia Song Festival is an annual Asian pop music festival held in South Korea where some of the top pop artists from around Asia (Korea obviously, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, and Taiwan were all represented this year) each play a few songs at one concert.  In the past years, the festival has usually been in Seoul with the exception of Busan for one year so having it held in Daegu was momentous. Between the 2011 IAAF World Championships and the Asia Song Festival, I picked a great year to be in Daegu!

The Daegu Office of Tourism provided free VIP tickets to all of the foreign teachers here through EPIK (the public school system) which gave us great seats down on the floor of the stadium.  They were great until it started pouring rain and people acted like they were going to melt, that is.  However, before the rain, we were able to see many of the very popular pop artists here in South Korea.  While I would never choose to listen to this type of music back home, because it is played so consistently here and everyone absolutely loves it, kpop (Korean pop music) has definitely grown on me and it was so much fun to see the groups perform.

Set with goodies for the concert!

Our first seats - later we moved by Holly and her friend more towards the middle.

so many people! the back sections were FULL of screaming, teenage girls!

Fall Colors.
It's now the middle of October and because Korea actually has real seasons (remember, they're very proud of their 4 distinct seasons) we're into fall.  The leaves are changing colors, the air is crisp in the mornings and evenings, and scarves, jackets, and boots are being dusted off.  The only things they're missing are pumpkin spice lattes, cornfield mazes and pumpkin patches, but I can't have it all, right?  I'm loving the cool down and lack of humidity that plagued me this summer.  Now if only the dang mosquitoes would finally die off, I will be a happy camper.  Well, until it gets really cold and this California girl shows her wussy side - I'm sure there'll be an exclamatory blog about how cold snow and winter really is at some point this winter.

beautiful leaves on my walk to the subway

Near Keimyung University (about 15 minutes subway ride from my house)

beautiful fall colors!

Christian Cathedral on Keimyung University's Campus.