happy halloween!!!

so yesterday, saturday, i went to Changwon with kim. Changwon is about a 20-minute drive or 40 on the bus. we met up and took the bus (only about $3) at four o'clock.

she had plans to meet a friend that she met on her 'visa run' to fukuoka, japan - Jin-Bum (yes, pronounced exactly how you think it is...mmmm... gin.... bum... haha...sorry couldn't resist!) we almost missed the "station", which looked like your average bus stop, but got off at the last moment.

then we hopped into his swank Kia SUV and headed for some bossum - pork...always pork... i don't know where all this pork comes from... but yeah, dinner.

we started with this spicy soup, it had cabbage and seaweed in it. i think there may have been mushrooms too, but i didn't taste them, so it was all right. it was good. this is the bossum... it sits on a flame to keep it warm. you take a peice of it and wrap it in the leaves, similar to the bacon that me and kat had... lots of korean food is eaten in this way. it was pretty tasty, though a little fatty for my taste.

since the koreans are all about the side dishes, this came with it. from top around to the right - some kind of smoked pork (tasted a bit like smoked meat or pastrami), potato salad, green salad, kimchi, and pumpkin. in the middle is a little dish of mustard . some korean rice wine to go with...

and to finish off, cold noodle soup with egg and veggies - quite good.

after dinner we had a few hours to kill before heading over to O'Briens for the halloween party so we wandered around one of the downtown areas of changwon. there's a big park where they have a light show every night using the giant fountains in the middle of the lake... we have the same thing in gimhae, but i have yet to go... anyway, we had to kill time before the light show, so we went shopping! we went to the E-Mart (!?!) and picked up some costume accessories, then went for coffee at DD. (those of you who know me well, know that i never got there, but i wanted something hot and familiar...)

to my surprise, dunkin' donuts is very different here. first off, you pick your own donuts:

yes, the donuts are all displayed along one wall, and each person takes a tray and some tongs and picks out their donuts... i must admit it makes the employees' jobs' easier, but still really weird. i got a coffee...mmmm... american coffee... haven't had a filter coffee in over two months, it was great. this is the 'roll up the rim' display! they ripped of tims... i forgot to roll it up... :(then we finally went to the light show - too bad i didn't have a tripod. there was classical music blasting and the lights and the water... it was nice, but in a really cheesy kind of way...

finally we headed to o'briens. you may remember it from a previous post (nachos...). there are two o'briens, one in busan and one in changwon. i like the one in busan better, but the one in changwon has better decor. it was a real halloween party, with costumes, jack-o-lanterns and beer... the music was great, and it was a really good time. here are some of the better costumes i saw:

girl in shower - i've heard of this but never seen it before!

GHOSTBUSTERS!!!!

rob as a ninja

pink floyd!

me, the angel... with jin-bum.

and what would a south korean halloween party be without kim jong il??? love it... and so did the koreans! good for a laugh at the least...

i just realized i don't have a picture of the 'freudian slip' - kim...there were so many pictures being taken, that i'm sure there's a couple floating around... i'll have to get one. notice i've picked up the korean peace thing with my fingers? ya, i do it on purpose now. anyway, for more check out my picasa album, there were some really great costumes, i could have been at any bar in canada. it was a great time, despite the massive hang over from friday, i only had one beer the whole night...

stay tuned for my latest attempt at cooking korea...