Food and Clothing

We had another 회식 (Hweshik/school dinner) last night. I think these dinners are so fun, even if they're awkward at times. The menu was...interesting. Not the most delicious, but edible. Well, maybe not the side dishes:

These are silkworm larvae. My mentor teacher asked me to try one. So I did. It was a little bit crunchy, and then a chalky/chewy center. The flavor was really strong and salty and there's nothing I can really compare it too. It wasn't terrible, but I didn't go for seconds. My mentor teacher ate most of the bowl--she loves these things. She was telling me they are seen at fairgrounds and amusement parks a lot--at "happy places," in her words. My happy place probably wouldn't include silkworm larvae...

Another side dish (not pictured) was little hard-boiled spotty bird's eggs (I think). I didn't dare try them...

Okay, the main dish. This was a "medium" bowl (they serve a size larger), but a medium was gigantic. One of these dishes was shared between four people: 

It was a hodgepodge of seafood and noodles and bean sprouts. The seafood that I recognized was octopus, crab, and shrimp. Then there were fish eggs (the brain-looking things) and some sort of crustacean with prongs and antennae-things (I didn't try it, because I couldn't tell what part of it was edible and what was its shell). The dish was incredibly spicy, but the flavor was okay. 

The green bottle you can see is Cider (Sprite). Soju comes in a very similar-looking green bottle, so you have to be careful. But my whole school is so polite about my not wanting to drink alcohol. My vice principal wanted to do the Korean shot thing with me during the meal last night, so he specifically got a brand new bottle of Cider from the waitress and a clean shot glass and brought it to me so we could share and do our shots. Haha, it was so sweet of him.

(I finally worked up the courage at this Hweshik to take pictures. I think I've waited long enough that they won't think it's rude. I asked first, and my mentor teacher just laughed and said, "Of course!")

So now I can take pictures of school lunch, too! Here's today's: 

Not the most exciting of the meals we've had, but it was pretty basic. Top left: imagine sweet and spicy spaghetti-os (so...not that good). Then fish sticks, peach juice, my wimpy 2 pieces of radish kimchi, tofu/vegetable broth-y soup, and bean sprout rice with a really yummy sauce. I can't wait to take more pictures of lunch to show you guys! Stay tuned.

Other school stuff:

We had school pictures today. The faculty did a picture all together. There were three rows of people. I was in the back row, standing on chairs. I was standing next to the cute older janitor lady. As we were starting to smile and pose, she reached out and grabbed my hand and we held hands for the rest of the pictures. Haha. It was the sweetest gesture. My school really has been so kind to me.

I had badminton with my school again today. I'm getting better and they compliment me a lot. With the language barrier, I still feel like I'm treated like a child, but it's just comical to me, not offensive. Yeah...who knew that I'd ever become a badminton player??

I went shopping underground a little bit and found these: 

(The heart want what the heart want)

And I bought this sweatshirt: 

Ahh! I just love it. It's not sweatshirt weather yet, but it's going to be so comfy and perfect when it is. It was green, only 12,000 won, and had an awesomely random English phrase--so Korean. Love it.

Okay, it's past my bedtime. Goodnight, love you!

A Preview of My YSA Conference Weekend...

Friday: I finally got paid my 300,000 won entry allowance. So, naturally, I bought a chocolate chip cookie mix, two ice cream bars, and went to a movie.

Wish me luck with translating the directions... And I'm really crossing my fingers that my toaster oven will work. Ah...warm chocolate chip cookies sound so amazing right now...

Eh...the ice cream was okay. The cone one, at least. This bar thingy was absolutely disgusting. It was some fruit flavor that I have never had before and the center was a grainy, yucky fruit goo. It made its way down my sink after a few bites...

 Before coming to Korea, I'd have never thought it would be acceptable for me to go to a movie theater by myself. That kind of thing relegates someone to the bottom rung of society, right? Yeah...well, that's probably still true in Korea...so, it's a good thing I'm not Korean...

I was the only blonde in the whole theater. But, the movie was in my language, not theirs. Hmph. ;) So I was right at home. (I saw Maze Runner: Scorch Trials.)

Before the movie and the checking of my Korean bank account and the splurging on sugar, I walked around a cultural festival near the Chuncheon train station. It wasn't terribly exciting. But I did get this picture of some awesome mushrooms: 

So many mushrooms. Some were huge, too. Ah, if only I had taken my "Plants and Fungi" class in Korea... 

 Saturday-Sunday: YSA Conference in Seoul

This weekend turned out to be so great! I was able to meet about 25 Young Single Adults (mostly Americans) living in Korea. A handful of people are in the military and most everyone else is teaching English in some form or another. Some of the YSA have been here several years. Such a stellar group of people, though. Really fun and friendly. 

A brief run-down of our weekend schedule:

• We met for breakfast at Brother and Sister Tollett's house in Seoul (they are members in the English branch).
• We went to a park for a service project, which was serving food to old people. We just had to walk around and distribute already-filled trays to them. The excitement happened when we were serving dessert (traditional rice cakes) and all these old people started fighting to get theirs first. And they all kept putting their plates out for more, even after we had given them huge piles of these rice cakes. Haha...the impatience was quite entertaining.
• We hung out at the park and got to know each other a little. And then we split up in groups of 4 or 5 for a photo scavenger hunt around Seoul. Pretty awesome: how often do you get to do photo scavenger hunts in Seoul, South Korea?! My group was awesome. We got pictures of Seoul Tower, World Cup Stadium, Haneul Park, and a Jehovah's Witness missionary (you got points if you happened to run into any missionaries...and, well, they didn't specify what religion...haha). Half my group also got pictures with some LDS missionaries, but I was in the other half that returned early so we wouldn't be deducted points for being late.
• We went back to the Tollett's for dinner, which was amazing and American: barbecue chicken, baked beans, potato salad, pasta salad, rice krispie treats, no-bake cookies, key-lime pie...we were in absolute heaven.
• The branch president gave a mini-fireside address. Um, I maybe don't remember if it was good or not because I had taken some Benadryl (stupid, but I was desperate for some cold/congestion relief and my cold medicine wasn't working) and I was crashing hard...I barely stayed awake.
• We watched a slide show of all our scavenger hunt photos. My team ended up winning, by the way, because we got photos with 3 different sets of missionaries (they counted the Jehovah's Witness, because we did missionary work and gave her a pass-along card...hehe).
• We went to individual homes where we had been assigned to stay. My new friend, Jackie, and I stayed with a cute family of four in their super nice apartment. We slept in the toy room on air mattresses, haha.
• Breakfast with our host family! Mm, bacon and eggs. So delicious.
• Church and a special YSA Conference meeting 2nd hour.
• Lunch after church and mass exodus to the subway to catch our transportation home.

I don't have all the pictures collected from friends yet, so this is just a preview of things I saw and did:

This was at the park where we had our service project. We were hanging out near this field and an old couple came and started a game of croquet. The old lady was so funny. She would barely miss the wicket (I thing that's what it's called?) and yell and stomp her feet in frustration. And, then, when she would make her goal, she would cheer and taunt her opponent. She was the cutest. Almost like the Korean version of Grandma Workman.

Seoul Tower in the distance:

Haneul Park and views from it: 

Those mountains in the distance reminded me of Utah mountains...aww...

Incredible view of Yeouido. You can see the National Assembly Building that I visited last week.

Haneul park is known for its "silver" grasses. The pictures don't do it justice, but it's amazing.

Ahh, gotta love the shoes here!

This was on my way home in Chuncheon last night:  

He's in the neighboring building. He was whining because his owner was leaving. I want a dog. If only I had a backyard. (A backyard in Korea?? HA!)

I will post more pictures of my weekend as soon as I get them from the YSA group. :)

So, Chuseok is this coming weekend. My principal gave all of the faculty this gift today:

A premium gift set of pure canola oil. What I'm going to do with all this canola oil, I have no idea. A lot of baking, I guess...in my...toaster...oven...

Gifts like this aren't customary for principals to give their staff for Chuseok, but my principal is just a super nice guy. And so nice to include me in his gift-giving! I have been so warmly welcomed by [most] of the staff at my school. :)

Oh, before I forget to tell you, lunch today was terrible. The fish soup was okay, but I couldn't stomach the kimchi radishes...and then we had soggy, cold, slimy, spicy eggplant. Ugh. So gross. I couldn't do it. I felt bad, but it just wasn't going to happen. Especially not after my spoiled weekend of American food...

Random Stories

Teaching English is a lot of work. I'm not sure how rewarding it is, yet. Haha. But I love interacting with the kids outside of class. They're adorable when I don't have to force them to sit in desks.

Lunch is always fun. (And, it was super delicious today: a huge bowl of noodles with egg and carrots, kimchi, honeydew melon, and a corn dog!) Today, I sat with the 1st graders. One of the girls kept watching me eat. I'd catch her looking and she'd smile at me. We did that a few times, haha. Also at lunch, one of my 2nd graders came up and high-fived me loudly. The faculty sitting next to me laughed. (I may have found a high-fiver replacement for Josh. Only temporary, of course.)

Yesterday, some of my 4th grade girls stayed a little bit longer after class. I let them show me a Korean TV show on YouTube. It was a "scary" reality show about ghosts. Like a lot of Korean shows, though, it had the feel of a cheesy game show. Haha. But I humored my students and watched for a little bit anyway--bonding time, you know. 

Oh! My 5th grade girls visited me in my classroom one day last week and had me play a K-pop music video. They made me wait 'til it got to the part where the main singer rips off his shirt. They didn't know the English for it, but they mimed that he had really good abs. Haha. And then they all screamed when it got to that part. I was cracking up.

I wore my hair down the other day (usually it's in a ponytail) and the 5th and 6th grade girls went crazy, "Whaaa! Whoa!" Well, I'm assuming their reaction was because of my straight hair...maybe I just had something on my shirt or forgot to put on pants that day.

I've been rewarding my classes this week with small prizes because they reached their 10 sticker mark. My treasure box is full of pencils, erasers, candies, and a handful of US pennies. They got excited when they saw them. "Money?!" And then they found out how much they were worth...haha...

Some of my students' artwork:

And I get to draw, too!

Yesterday, I had to show up for a parent meeting thing at school. I was introduced to the parents who came (only about 10 or so), along with the new vice principal and another new teacher. While I had been waiting for it to start, though, one of the moms came up to me and asked if I had eaten "lunchee" and then gave me this rice cake snack/dessert:

Haha...sometimes Koreans are too nice. I saved it and tried it today. I took one tiny bite and decided, eh, I'd rather have a choco pie. I've had similar rice cake things before. They're edible, but not great.

But that mom was so nice. I've run into her a couple times before. Her son's in 1st grade. She's so proud of him. He's a cutie, too.

A different mom visiting yesterday saw me in the cafeteria and exclaimed something in Korean. One of the lunch ladies translated, "beautiful." Haha. The mom returned her tray and then came back and stood in front of my table and just stared at me and smiled while I was eating. Awkward...and flattering, I think?

Oh, so I realized today that my grocery store only carries individually wrapped rubber cheese. So I had a rubber cheese sandwich for dinner. Blegh. And then a little package of Ritz-like crackers called Zec and...wait for it...a choco pie.

I'll leave you with this picture I took on the subway the other day...I have to laugh at some of the fashion I see here...

The shoes say "MORE IS MORE"... the socks, though...

Exploring Yeongdeungpo, Sunday

Church, and they all speak English!

All the members were so nice in this ward. Most of the people are here with their families for a military assignment. One couple works for the embassy. And there are a handful of English teachers, like me, who work at Hagwons and public schools (though, most of them live in the Seoul area). I was almost to church, following Google maps, when a cute family in a van pulled up and asked if I was trying to find the church. I climbed into their van, between two carseats, and they drove me the rest of the way (which was only half a block, haha...). But it was nice to make some friends and walk in with people who knew where they were going. Because check out the size of this massive building:

I think it is the biggest church building that's not a temple that I've ever seen. It's beautiful. Kind of juxtaposed from its surroundings (ok, I've never used the word "juxtaposed" before, so the grammar may be incorrect...don't judge me, ahem, Josh).

I stayed longer after church to socialize with some of the English teachers. Actually, a handful of them have ukulele lessons after church with one of the senior missionaries. So I just listened. And sang some of the songs when pressured to by the senior missionary, haha. Also, I learned that there is a single's activity/overnight thing next weekend with some spiritual fireside-y stuff and games and meals. I'm going to go! I'm so excited. And one of the girls is letting me stay at her apartment so I won't have to sleep on the floor (because all the beds are already taken at the house where it's taking place). Also, she let me know that I can stay at her apartment anytime so I won't have to have anymore of my jjimjilbang-under-maintenance adventures. :)

Lunch...I broke the Sabbath, I know...shhh... 

Mmm...Indian food. And I didn't have to speak Korean! The chicken masala was extremely spicy. I choked on a jalapeno before realizing that's what it was and almost died. I was crying. But it was so nice to eat in a non-Korean restaurant. (But still no tipping...gotta love that.)

Yeouido Park (how many more vowels can we cram into "Yeouido"?)

...it's technically just the romanization of the Korean word...but it's just one example why learning this language is so difficult. Seriously, pronouncing my kids' names is the hardest. They say the sound "aw" so I say "aw." "No, teacher...aw." That's what I said! 

Anyway...back to the park...

A paradise in the middle of a big city...reminded me of Central Park, a little bit. But Asian.

King Sejong, the Great. He's the dude who created Hangul, the Korean writing system, and did lots of other important monarch-y stuff. In the Joseon dynasty, according to Wikipedia.

This little girl on her tricycle riding around Sejong...haha.

I don't know what any of this is. Because all the plaques are in Korean.

Josh, I think you should tattoo this on your back...or a bum cheek, whichever you prefer.

Hibiscus flowers...

Such a fun Sunday atmosphere...families picnicking and couples canoodling and children playing...

 

Isn't this amazing?! I've never seen lily pads before. I know I probably didn't need to travel halfway around the world to see them, but, well, it's one way to do it.

I love seeing traditional Korean architecture.

And then there's the new and modern artwork: 

But I think this one is really cute. :)

Next stop: Ankara Park (because why not?) 

This park was built as a measure of goodwill between Korea and Turkey. Or something like that. So, this is a Turkish house, not Korean.

Much less crowded than Yeouido park, not nearly as exciting or hip, but still very beautiful and relaxing. Which, from the looks of my sweaty, tired face, you can see I needed it...

"I'm like what the what, seriously, seriously." (for Josh)

Churro and ice cream, because TravelAdvisor made me do it (peer pressured on the Sabbath)

It was delicious, but entirely too small.

Views of Seoul and the Han River 

I hiked up to the highway, onto the bridge a little ways to check out the view. Pretty cool. I wasn't sure if it was like the Golden Gate Bridge, where you can walk or bike (I only saw bikers here), so I didn't venture too far.

Laurie should come water-ski in Korea. Just because. ;)

I booked a ferry cruise online a few days ago. (One reason why I was randomly hanging out at parks earlier--because I had to wait for the cruise which was at 7:30.) There was a wide range of tourists and Koreans who rode the ferry with me. But definitely a lot of couples. You could even walk through this cute love tunnel and take pictures, like this Korean couple: 

Nope. Not me. I rocked that solo walk through the tunnel of love!

This was the ferry I was on, just an earlier group.

We went under some cool bridges. My favorite was the one with the metro going across.

As nice as the city lights were (though, not as exciting as expected, to be honest), I was a little distracted. See if you can spot why: 

Yeah, an early Happy Halloween to you! Part way into the ride, I realized I had chosen a seat right in front of some lovely spiders. I was kind of fixated watching them spin their webs. But, also, it gave me the heebie jeebies. I felt responsible to monitor them, too, because people would come and stand against the railing--little kids, too. 

At one point, a little bug flew into the web and almost got stuck. The spider got so excited, but then the bug got away. Aw...I was looking forward to the spider mummifying the bug and sinking his Korean spider teeth into it...

Um...yeah, of all the things to see and do in Seoul... Yeah, okay, you're right. Traveling by yourself for so long and not speaking to anyone outside of the occasional Korean who wants to shout "hello" at you...maybe isn't the healthiest... Haha.

There was a water show at one of the bridges. Kind of cool. Not spectacular.

The floating stage. You can go and see live performances here. Concerts on the weekend are free, but I didn't go to anything this weekend. I got Turkish parks to visit, bro.

Well. Ta-da! That was it. My long 2-day weekend in Seoul. I rushed back to the subway (2 transfers) and caught my 10 pm ITX back to Chuncheon. I'm becoming so pro at this public transportation thing. Ah, so independent. So mature.

And then I came home and lesson-planned 'til 3 am. Er, not so mature or responsible...