Daegu mu-mu Daegu mu-mu Daegu mu-mu mu-mu mu-mu mu-mu.

That's a VeggieTales reference. If you don't get it, too bad. If you do get it, YAY.

I went up to Daegu last weekend during summer vacation. (By the way, if you come to a new place to start teaching, I highly recommend starting a couple of weeks before vacation.) My good friend (and primary reason for being here) Kristin lives there, so I got to meet her friends and enjoy a bit more of Korea. But first, the prologue...

I am not always the most perfect communicator, especially with my recruiter and friend Sun-A. I planned to take the express bus from Changwon to Daegu, so I asked Sun-A how to get to the bus terminal. "It's behind HomePlus. Just get on bus 100," she said. That seemed easy enough, so I foolishly decided not to do any further research.

Friday at noon, I got on bus 100 and headed for the terminal. An hour and 15 minutes later, I found myself in Masan (a neighboring town southwest of Changwon) and figured I'd missed my stop. I got off the bus and called Sun-A. "What are you doing in Masan?" she said.

"Getting lost," I answered.

"Take the bus back the other way to Jungang-dong (my neighborhood)," she said. So I did -- after walking a bit to find a bus stop on the other side of the street.

Another hour went by and I got back downtown. I called Sun-A again. She told me to come on back to my apartment building, which is the same building where her office is. So I did, and I stopped by the office to figure out what went wrong. It turns out that she wanted me to go to the Masan bus terminal -- but didn't tell me where THAT terminal was. So I had no idea where to get off. This time, she said to take bus 115 to the Changwon terminal. So I decided to try it.

About 4:30 I got on the bus. It was packed with people, and hard to see out the windows -- and HomePlus is right next to an underpass, so I missed it. I rode on down the street and around a corner before I realized that once again I was lost. Sick of buses, I decided to just walk back along the route until I saw the terminal. It took about 45 minutes -- carrying my backpack with all my stuff for the trip -- before I found the Changwon bus terminal. But there it was! And I was in time for the last bus to Daegu. I even had time to eat some bibimbap before getting on the bus.

After the bus got going, I figured out why Sun-A had told me to go to the Masan terminal -- the "express" bus made a stop in Masan. Then it was on to Daegu, and about 8 p.m. I finally arrived. That's the story of how I got to Daegu.

I called Kristin and met her at her workplace. We went out to dinner with some of her coworkers, and I had the best samgyeopsal I've eaten since moving here. (That's not saying much, though -- I've only had samgyeopsal one other time.) They all work evenings, like me, so we stayed up late watching "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" at Kristin's pad before crashing out.

Saturday was awesome. It makes a huge difference hanging out with someone who both knows the city and knows English well. We went to the "Scorching Hot Festival" at Sooseong Lake in Daegu. I painted a Jayhawk on the public mural there. It was great, but by the time we walked back that way, the wall was covered and my Jayhawk was nowhere to be seen.

It was, indeed, scorching hot, and much of the festival was dedicated to ways to keep cool. There was a big area for kids to run around with squirtguns. (Made me miss Jerry's house.) There was an archway that trickled water down like a car wash. That felt GREAT.

Then we came to a big, round, inflatable pool. "That looks nice," I said, taking a couple of steps toward it. I could see there was a game going on inside -- two kids with sumo belts tied around their waists were wrestling in the middle of the pool with another man officiating. I stood there watching for all of about eight seconds before a Korean man came up behind me and clapped me on the shoulder. "You, me, do this," he said. I looked at Kristin and John and grinned. "OK."

You'll be surprised to learn that despite my martial arts prowess, I was roundly and soundly defeated before the sudden crowd of Koreans and cameras that had gathered to watch the giant goofy foreigner get crushed. My opponent was a great sport, and for my trouble I "won" a souvenir towel, which came in handy for drying off.

A few hours later, still slightly damp, I went with Kristin and John to the Artfia for "B-Boy Loves Ballerina," a dance show with lots of b-boy (breakdancing and hip-hop) and a little ballet. It was cute, and there were tons of kids in the audience who absolutely loved it. The dancing was definitely fun to watch.

After that show, Kristin and I took a bus to Pohang for the International Fireworks Festival. I wish my photos had come out. The place was packed -- tens of thousands of people crowded all along the beach and in the streets to watch the fireworks. It was the last day of a weeklong festival, and the finale was definitely grand. I counted -- 90 minutes of fireworks, almost nonstop. I never thought I could be kinda bored of fireworks, but I admit that in the middle of the third act, about 78 minutes in, I was taking in the rest of the scenery.

So that's my trip to Daegu. Kristin got me back to the bus station Sunday and I wandered around Masan for a bit before finding my way back to Changwon all by myself. Via bus, I mean, but without, you know, help.