A taste of Mongolia and the heart of Thanksgiving

So this past weekend was quite a journey. On Friday night I went with my coworker to a Mongolian restaurant. The whole thing was kind of an amazing experience because I had never eaten that kind of food or really experienced any of the culture other than a video of people drinking fermented mare's milk that my mom showed me. (My mom is a geography and global studies professor). It was also wonderful because I got to spend some time with the people that my friend had met through the Mongolian club she started. This was actually very interesting because the girls were pretty close to me in age. In addition, the whole thing was amazing because the food was so good and I got to see a corner of Seoul that I did not really get to explore before.
Saturday was interesting because there was a Thanksgiving dinner I was trying to figure out how to get to all the way out in Incheon. I knew I was going to have to stay at work for a long time, since it would have taken way too long to go all the way back to my host family's apartment, and then all the way out to another city. Of course, Saturday also happened to be the day that i had almost literally nothing to do. This was because the 17 year old boy who is in charge of planning things for Model UN forgot to tell me that the training could not happen this week because too many people were busy, so I showed up and everything was locked up tight. I did get into the office and sat there for a while working on English to English translation for a document I used Google translate on to do the initial translation from Korean. However, the whole thing actually turned out to be pretty cool, since my coworker treated me to lunch and introduced me to a bunch of volunteers participating in a campaign about littering and trash in Seoul. They were all really nice, and we managed to communicate with each other with a mixture of English and Korean, or "KONGLISH" as Korean people say. The girls in the group decided I was like a "happy virus" whatever that means. Then, I got on the hour long subway ride to Incheon. I found the correct building by finding the main building and getting some help from one of the pastors who spoke English. The whole Thanksgiving meal was amazing and the atmosphere made me want to stay forever. I met a bunch of English teachers and some of the kindest people I have ever met. These were people who wanted to listen to my story and made me want to listen to theirs. I would recommend the Sojourn Fellowship to any Americans looking for a community. The best part was that I could not find the subway station after the dinner, but a tiny Korean man realized that I needed help, recognized the building, and happened to belong to the same church that had hosted the dinner I had just attended. he was very kind, and told me he hoped to see me at a service some day.
Of course, by second guessing myself and not paying much attention since I was so full of turkey and potatoes, I got lost and ended up having a journey back that a journey that should have been 100 minutes ended up taking closer to three hours, something that put a bit of a damper on my amazing mood.
Sunday I sat in bed for a long time because it is very cold here now, thinking of my adventurous last few days with a satisfied grin.
Be thankful for something,
Elena Giselle