Hiking in Dongtan

 The rest of my week went just fine.  We are confirmed that we'll be online all next week as well, so I guess I'll try to learn the student's names when I have to re-name them.  LOL.

I have still been having fun with outfits.  This dress is one that I brought with me, but I think it looks WAY better now than it did before.  I figured out that it looks professional with leggings, without leggings it looks like I'm not buying my own drinks at the bar ;) 

My Friday night was off the chain, as you can see.  My snack-dinner consisted of a salad, celery with buffalo chicken dip on them, and bbq tuna with smoked gouda on crackers.  Also white wine and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  It was a good, lazy night.

My aunt sent me a package with a couple of shirts - this one I love and it kinda reminds me of a Hawaiian shirt in that it's lightweight and comfy.

This one will look really good with a tank top underneath it.  The reason I'm holding it closed is because I was just wearing a half-shirt and otherwise you could see my tum tum.  Which wasn't a problem until I sent that pic to my friend Ana who circled my belly button and asked "what is that?"  I probably DONT have a weird belly button, but now is not the time for me to ask about it.  LOL

So Saturday was all geared up to be lazy.  I washed my towels and then realized that I needed more laundry soap, so I went to OK Mart to get some.  I ended up getting a few groceries as well and cleaning tabs to put in my toilet tank.  I came home, started my 2nd load of laundry, cleaned the toilet and put the new tab in the tank, and started kinda listening to a show while waiting for my laundry to get done.  I had just finished hanging my laundry to dry and gathering my bedding to take to the laundromat when H texted me.  He asked if I would be willing to go for a hike somewhere nearby.  I figured what the heck, it's a nice day and we have fun.  I suggested that we go hike around Dongtan hill, which I've kept meaning to do and then... not.  He said that sounded good, so I directed him there once he picked me up, we found parking and went on the trails.

The bugs were surprisingly not too terrible, but this looked like Mosquito Breeding Central to me.  It was pretty humid considering how much rain we've been getting lately, but the mud situation wasn't terrible.

It was super cute in areas, like this bridge.

It was kinda nice to walk thru 'nature' for a while. 

H's conversational topics were as varied as before, though he did try to convince me to watch 'Tiger King' on Netflix.

I like this pic a lot - look at the moss on those trees.

We found a little lookout area and I saw parts of Dongtan I've never seen before.

It was fun.

A lending library in the most unlikely of places!

So when we came down from the hill, H admitted that he had no idea where he had parked.  I looked at a map and told him where I thought he parked, and that I thought we should go right.  He said he thought he knew and we should go left.  I allowed him to lead and we found a charming little road with some shops and cafes.  We walked a little ways and then he checked his GPS.  After a min or 2, he looked at me and said yes, we needed to go right.  Apparently I've impressed him with my directional capabilities because he told me that I should be in the Army (no clue the correlation).  I told him my secret - in Dongtan, find Metapolis.  Once I know where that is, it's easy to figure out where I am and how I need to get to where I need to be.  

I have decided that we've figured out our dynamic.  We go on adventures, he gets us lost and I get us back.

We ended up walking next to the street, and I thought this was a fun pic as well.  The park is on the right, where you can almost forget that all the stuff on the left exists.  

The most disapproving bird statue I've ever seen.  I swear the one on the end was like 'I'd peck your eyes out if I could.'

It may be man-made, but I have to give the planners of Dongtan credit where it's due - they did try to make it seem like nature isn't that far away.

So once we got back to the car, H decided we needed to go back to the little road that we found and have coffee at a cafe.  After a slight detour that took us all around the park, into Dongtan 2, and through some construction, we found the street and this little cafe.  It was super cute, and the bathroom was adorable (tho I didn't take any pix of that).

The view we chose as we had our coffee - that's more of the park.  It felt almost European with the park on one side and all the cafes and stuff on the other.

Cutest little succulent planter EVER.

My praline latte.  The stirring stick purported to be 100% gold.  H suggested I keep it, I thought that would not go over well.  We had our coffees in the cafe, which almost seemed like we were breaking the social distancing rules until I remembered that it's only chain coffee shops that HAVE to be take-out only.  Smaller, independent ones can still have people stay in.  Besides H and I, the only other people were the 2 working there.  It was nice.

H and I talked for an hour or so, and the only weird part of the convo was when he said he's really not happy and he can't figure out why.  I told him that only he could figure that out and I suggested he take some time to think about it.  He said he had, and nothing had come to mind.  I said until he knew what it was that was keeping him from being happy, he wouldn't know what to change.  He mentioned thinking that finding someone to share his life with might make him happy.  I tried to tell him that happiness comes from within and no person would be able to make him happy.  I'm not sure if anything stuck.  My social meter was getting low, so I suggested he take me home so that I could get my bedding washed and re-charge.  He did, and I went to the laundromat and read my book while waiting for my stuff to get done.

I was invited to meet up with some people for drinks but declined.  Call it being tired from the hike or from the convo, but I was people-d out.  As it turns out, when I'm trying to talk and someone starts talking over me or just constantly interrupts... after a week of dealing with kids who talk over me and interrupt... I get truly EXHAUSTED.  I like conversations when each person gets to talk in turn, you know?  Perhaps it's not a rudeness thing, maybe he's just starved for convo - he could be an extrovert who has to be alone a lot due to corona and he just NEEDS to talk.  Either way, I couldn't bring myself to go out for drinks tonight.  Also, I probably smell from the hike - it was humid and I definitely was sweating.  The weather has been nice enough that I've had my windows open all day - here's for clothes drying quickly.  Hehe.

Anyway, we shall see what other adventures H and I go on.  We laughed a bit about how every time we hang out there is no sun.  He said that he expects after the next typhoon, that will scare all the clouds away and we'll get to hang out when there is sun.  We'll see.  We talked about going to Seroaksan together, but I'm not sure if that's going to work out or not.  It would make more sense to do that as an overnight trip and I don't think we're quite there yet.  

Much love to you, stay tuned for more shenanigans as I enjoy my last few months in Korea!  :*