Misplaced

Yesterday Esther, Stella and Daniels mom, took Jae Eun the kids and I out to dinner. We went to Outback Steak house and ordered family style so I got to try a ton of new stuff instead of the usual Victoria's Fillet. Other than that yesterday was really quite uneventful. Today however was not. It started out at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, it was quite a drive and its set back in the mountains it was really cool and there was a lot of really neat art. The best part was there was no gift shop so I couldn't even spend any money! On our way home we stopped at Costco again, I guess we really like cheese and tacos, oh and ice cream of course! After Costco Jae Eun and I went on an adventure to the Hyundai Department Store, its like the Neiman Marcus of Korea it was somewhere around 12 stories and it had 5 basements, soo it was huge! One day when I have lots of time I am going to spend the day there. We went to see if we could find powdered sugar and vanilla because not even Costco could supply us with the things we need to bake. Who would have thought it would be so hard to find common baking goods! I guess Koreans don't bake! The powdered sugar I did end up finding only has about half a cup per bag! so I had to buy quite a few. Jae Eun need to get back home so I told her to go and that I could find my way back on the subway by myself. So after she left I did a little exploring and went to a store next door to see if they had baking goods. Well they did, kinda. Like I said the powered sugar was about the same amount per bag that you sprinkle on top of a bunt cake. And vanilla extract, YEAH RIGHT! I'm stuck with vanilla powder. Wish me luck with my baking class on Monday, I have a feeling its not going to quite turn out how I'd like it to. Anyway, after I somewhat found the things I needed and Jae Eun had left I went back to the Hyundai Department Store and had dinner. Trust me when I say trying to order food in Korea when you don't know a lick of Korean is hard! I got a pretzel because how can you mess up a pretzel, that's right, you can't cinnamon sugar amazingness! The woman behind the counter said something to me and I just kinda nodded and pointed to the one I wanted and handed her my credit card, she smiled and I walked away. That wasn't too bad I thought so I moved on to something a little more complicated, a sandwich. Which if you know anything about me I eat my sandwiches pretty much plain, turkey, cheese, olives, and on occasion oil and vinegar. Lucky for me The 'Best Turkey Sandwich' place was out of turkey so I had to settle for a Philadelphian so I pointed to the menu then pointed to the sandwich on display and pointed to the tomato and said no, the lettuce said no, pickles, no. Finally the cute ladies realized what I was trying to tell them and I ended up with just what I wanted, Yummy cheese, green peppers and garlic steak. It was fantastic, but it would have been even better with a rootbeer which I don't think I'm going to see again for 80 some odd days. I made it back to the subway just fine which wasn't a real problem since the subway station is connected to the department store, the problem was after I had gotten on the train. Jae Eun had told me something about how the number 5 train had two trains on the same track but the track split, and to make sure that I got onto the right train. Well I thought I was on the right train, the sign outside said that I was going to the next station which was on the way to Dunchon Dong, turns out that is where the track splits and I was on the wrong train! So I just got off at the next stop got on the train going the other direction, got off at the following stop and waited for the train that was going the right direction on the track that splits! Jae Eun was so worried about me I think she called me five times in ten minutes. I wasn't worried I knew exactly where I was and where I was going, I just made a simple mistake, not knowing the language will do that to a person! But her sweet worried little self picked me up right outside of the subway station by her house so I didn't have to walk home. Which was so nice since it is only 5 degrees here! And I had the worlds worst headache! So you see, I only misplaced myself for a moment and I didn't know I was lost.

HA ZSHE MA

Climbing at last! Today I finally got to put on my shoes and chalk up my hands at Cood the climbing gym that is just a short 15ish minute walk from Jae Eun's apartment. It felt so good to be climbing again even if it was only for a short time, I haven't climbed for a while so I got pumped really fast. The climbing gym here in Korea is nothing like The Front or Momentum, there are holds everywhere and the routs are not clearly marked and the routs that are marked tell you where to go so it kinda takes the whole reading the problem thing out because they are labeled 1,2,3... but it will do for now I was just happy to climb. After climbing I had a class with Minseo, Geeheo, and Sunny. we studied out of the book for about an hour and a half then we walked to Baskin Robins. I don't know what it is about freezing weather and ice cream but I love it! Before we had ice cream we had lunch at Pizza School. Its this little tiny pizza place that makes one size of pizza, but its pretty good pizza. People stare at me when I'm walking around by myself but they really stare when I'm walking around with three cute Korean girls and we are speaking English. Its frustrating not being able to read Korean because I think if i could read it it would be easier to figure out what they were saying and pick up words. But, I have no idea where to begin with the whole reading Korean thing, not only can I not read Korean I have no idea how to count in Korean so when people tell me how much something costs I just hand them a bunch of money and they look at me weird. Good thing most places I can use my debit card then all i have to do is try to figure out what button says yes on the pad when I sign my name, which is a challenge because its not like our card things in America, this is just an electronic pad that you sign. there is no green button or red button just a jumble of lines and circles. Eun Young brought doughnuts home tonight from Mister Doughnut and what do you know they are owned by LG. It was the first thing i've had that has enough sugar in it! No, not even the ice cream has enough; don't get me wrong I love the ice cream but I mean come on add another cup of sugar! Today I took a picture for you mother, it is of the McDonald's delivery scooters. Yes MickeyD's delivers here in Korea and so does Pizza Hut, Domino's, and most other restaurants. It is very convenient, but don't worry, I don't have cinnamon rolls delivered for breakfast. I am perfectly content with my bowl of Cheerio's and brown sugar (its more healthy than white sugar of course). But can you imagine if they delivered fast food other than pizza. That would be bad! Well I hope you enjoy the nonsense of this note and HAA ZSHEE MAA! (my only Korean word it means Don't Do That)! OH OH OH and before I forget! Grandma came to visit so Jae Eun made not just fish head soup whole freakin fish body eyeball, egg sac, shrimps with faces still soup. I didn't get a chance to take a picture though because they gobbled it up so fast! sorry.

Ice Cream Crazy

After being at Lotte World all day yesterday you can imagine how happy I was to hear that my 9:00 am class had been canceled. I got to sleep in and hang out until about twelve it was so nice because I was dead tired. Jae Eun told me it was going to be an adventure day because I would have to find my way around the subway and bus stations. Jae Eun dropped me off at my first lesson in Jamshil and from there I was escorted to the subway station and told to listen for my stop and follow the signs. Well good thing I can understand the Korean accent when it is trying to sound like it is English or I would be very lost right now. I made it to my next lesson and after that I was taken to the bus stop in 15 degree weather. It was windy and so cold! Finally the bus ride from hell! I think the driver thought that she was driving a Mini Cooper or maybe even a scooter, weaving in and out of traffic stopping fast going fast, mind you we are in a BUS, I thought I was going to fall over every time the bus lurched forward! Seriously, I literally lost my footing every time we went from stop to go, which was frequent! Good news I made it back to Jae Eun's home in one piece. We had teriyaki chicken and Chinese noodles and rice for dinner (Jae Eun didn't think I would like the noodles, they were the best part)! After dinner we went on a freezing cold walk all the way out of the complex and across the main road to get ice cream from Baskin Robins, it was fantastic Minseo and I LOVE ice cream so far I think we have had it every day since I've been here. Good thing I walk a lot. In all it was a great day and roomer has it that I will finally get some rock climbing in tomorrow!

Lotte World!

Today we went to Lotte World, but before that I did some other stuff. My day started off with English lessons with Leo the art teachers son. I think they went well and instead of an hour he wants to do one and a half hours so that is great! I guess I'm doing something right. I had a long break between lessons today and I ran some errands with Jae Eun and wrote Elder Ika and Elder Choi letters and fried up some hotdoggy things for Eric and Minseo. Finally I had my next English lesson and it was Minseo's group so it was Minseo, Sunny, and Geeheo.( I have no idea how to spell her name but when I find out I'll fix it) they were good for a while but they are only 6 or 7 and they got restless so we played a matching game then we took them all to Lotte World!
Lotte World is a famous indoor/outdoor theme park in Jamshil, its about fifteen minutes from where I stay. It was pretty impressive. It is the only indoor theme park that I have ever seen. but the coolest part of Lotte World was Magic Island. It was my favorite because even though it was dumping snow the outside part of the theme park was still open. I went on the coolest roller coaster and the lines were really short because no one wanted to wait outside in the cold, which made the lines inside short too because I guess people thought whats the point of going if we can't go outside? Whatever the reason I was pleased with the small amount of people.
I didn't try any new Korean food today but at Lotte world I had Dippin Dots!! I also had caramel popcorn, but really all that matters is that i had Dippin Dots and they were fantastic! Well thats about it for today. Don't forget to check out the pictures from Lotte World.

Busy Day

Today was the first full day of teaching. It started out a short walk away from where I am staying, but today we drove because it was so cold! After my first two hour lesson with Eric and Eugene I had a little lunch, waffles and hot chocolate that Eugene's mom made with steamed milk! yum. Made me feel right at home. Breakfast for every meal or in the words of the littles "when dad is home hot breakfast cold breakfast, cold breakfast, hot breakfast and when mom is home, cold breakfast, cold breakfast, cold breakfast!" Love you Mom! Next was Iris and Kevin's home in Jamshil it is in an newer apartment complex and there is serious security here. you have to have passwords to get inside the buildings. they were cute and scared of me at first but they eventually warmed up and we had some fun. My last stop was next to Lotte World where I will be headed tomorrow I taught Stella and Daniel they are so cute! Daniel was so shy he wouldn't even look at me I think he is in third grade, but after a while just like Iris and Kevin, Stella and Daniel warmed up to me and I had them laughing in no time. It was a long day, three two hour lessons then I came home and made tacos. I tried to upload a video of Eric after he had eaten too many but it won't work hopefully I can figure it out. I didn't try any new Korean food today but only because I didn't have a chance. Esther, Stella and Daniels mom fed me some yummy brownie thing and more hot chocolate. No crazy adventures today but tomorrow I'm sure there will be. Wish me luck in Lotte World!

Sunday and Soondai!

Today was my first adventure in Korea all by myself. I had to figure out how to get back to the church I got to yesterday! It was intense! When I got to the subway my card didn't work, I had to call Jae Eun who had me hand the phone to any one I could see. The first person I tried to ask for help just shook his head and hands at me, so I moved on to some random group of kids who probably thought I was crazy, he talked to Jae Eun for about 3 min then handed me the phone Jae Eun then told me that he was going to take me to the station manager to get my card fixed. I followed the kid to the station manager and he tried to fix the card but it still didn't work. Finally we got it working and I was on my way. When I got to church a lady introduced herself and helped me through the lesson in Relief Society, in Sunday School a cute old man that has an American daughter-in-law asked if he could translate the lesson. He did a pretty good job but was more interested in finding out about me than translating for me. In Sacrament an American who is married to a Korean woman who grew up in Maine, anyway, they have lived in America for ten years and now they have been here for about 6 months. He translated the meeting for me and talked to me after for a while they are really nice. Everyone here is so concerned about what I am eating! Today i tried three new things, I tried soondae which is pretty much noodles that the wrap up in the same stuff they wrap sausage in. It was NOT good. I also tried dakboki haha. It is like a rice cake, they make them in all different styles the one we had today was hot, and it had a spicy sauce on it and had the same texture as jello. also NOT good :) they sell the kind we had today at carts on the street like hotdog vendors in New York. Then for dinner we had spicy pork and rice. That was good I liked it. I took Eric and Minseo to Baskin Robins today for ice cream and we also went on a freezing cold walk in  18 degree and windy humid weather to find an apartment building where I will be teaching tomorrow. It was so cold that we didn't even get all the way there and we got a taxi back home.