The last two weekends have been lying low trying to save money and slow period in the festival season. There is a childrens orphanage several expats active in their church volunteer at sometimes. A friend hasnt been able to come to several of my weekend trips as he was volunteering so I said when I had a quiet weekend I'd like to come along also.

The orphanage was at the end of the subway line and there were two other american volunteers from the same church. The kids mostly preschool and elementary age were running around in the large field outside kicking a football.

We went inside to leave our bags. A small toddler saw me and crawled over. She didnt need to know who I was but just stood up and raised her hands for me to pick her up. Once in my arms she was happily perched and didnt want to come down even though she'd never seen me before in her life.

Then we went outside for the boys soccer practice. We went to a neighbouring taekwondo studio where we all started throwing soft balls at each other. Since they are familiar with my friend it was more like he was the target and they were all attacking him. This was a mix of some local kids as well, not just the ones from the orphanage.

After we changed venue again and went to a local school field. They did more warm up exercises with more kids from the neighbourhood. It was nice that they all interact and dont discriminate against the kids from the childrens home.

I had a string of chocolate dollar coins I had brought to share with the kids. The plastic was too hard to tear and you needed scissors. One of the kids caught sight and ran over with his hand out. When I tried to say you need scissors he grapped the pack and shredded it with his teeth like a piranha and handed then all out to his friends.

It was nice hanging out with the kids, some of them my nephews age, and if I wasnt so far away in Chilgok and busy with weekend festivals all the time, I'd like to try going again sometimes.

After that we went downtown to try to watch Thor. The first theatre we went to 5pm was the last show which we missed, the other theatre nearby wasnt playing it any more. We decided to get something to eat. My friend took me to this kimchi fried rice place, similar to the fried rice I had in seoul.

There is grill and large pan in the middle of the table and they cook your meal on the spot. We each wanted different items but they wouldnt let us have one pan each, so instead we had to tell them to do half on each side.

After that we tried the movie theatre in Daegu Station. This is a Lotte Dept store on the first five floors, then a Lotte Movie theatre on the top floors. Luckily we caught the last show after 6pm, as most theatres were no longer carrying the movie since it was a few weeks old. This was one of the best movies I've seen in a while.

Going back to the bus stop later they were doing a downtown street festival on their main shopping street as part of their Visit Daegu 2011 campaign. We saw a vendor selling turkish kebabs and souvenirs. There was a big stage setup with live acts and a big crowd watching.

I also checked out an Uzbek restaurant Tashkent. I always thought this was a bar but they had the same menus as Samarkand another Uzbek restaurant around the corner. The food was halal and they had nice uzbek pop music playing, so we'll check it another time as we had already eaten the fried rice.

This week we also had no classes on tuesday as it was a holiday for the schools anniversary. I used the day off to go to the ymca downtown to buy a used bike. I got a good one with front and rear suspension for $50. The seat also has suspension and is springy. Their are multi gears and it can fold in half for storage. Back home I paid $400 for a similar bike.

Then I had to ride it all the way home from downtown to the tail end of Chilgok. Took me about 1hr 40 mins but was ok as a one time trip and now I know how long it takes. This weekend coming is the Ulsan Whale festival and following weekend is holiday weekend with the Haeundae Beach Sand festival so will be out and about again.

Oh, and did I mention classes are cancelled again Wednesday for Sports day?!!