School Days

Back to school, back to school. Well the holiday is over and school has kinda started. The school schedule here is so strange. Right now they are having early days kinda, so some of the kids get done around 2 some earlier. so I'm teaching from 1-930 Mon., Wed., Fri. and 930-1030 then 2-5 Tues Thurs. and in March i get to work Saturday! wooo! Its okay thought I do get to sleep in now. Today I am going to play BINGO and teach the little girls (Minseo, Sunny, and Jeheo) a song, and maybe get some ice cream for them. Not for me, no more ice cream for me! Weight Watchers style eating for me only! Well I added some more pictures of things that I have already talked about, not too much going on this week maybe Saturday will be an adventure?

65..ok 20

Today I went with Esther, her husband, Daniel and Stella to Gongbok Palace. It was really amazing, nothing like the palaces in London but still incredible in their own way. To enter you have to go through three gates where there are guards, just like in London but these guys look scary like ninjas ha. The palace is decorated and in the same style as the Buddhist temples elaborate and beautiful. It really was a cool experience. After walking through the palace we had lunch, I ate real sushi, like the kind that is a piece of fish on top of a piece of rice. It was pretty good. Poor Stella though every time she has something food or a game or a pencil, seriously anything, Daniel takes it. And she just sighs and lets him. So her food was brought out first and before she could even pick up her chop sticks Daniels fingers were in her soup digging out a piece of beef, and when she went to take a bite he took her chop sticks out of her hands and took it for her. Poor girl! I can't believe her patients! Can you imagine what would happen if Jake took everything Anna had constantly? That would be very very bad. Next we went to this street that was close by where we did a ton of shopping. It was a really artsy part of town and they had some really neat stuff I got something for Ryan, Danny, Anna and Carly. Then we parted ways I went to Coex mall and they went home. At the mall I pretty much just wondered around because I didn't want to go home and then I decided to go to this Hyeung Dong to go shopping I found an H&M so that was pretty sweet! Then Jenny called around 10 and I met her at Dongdemun and we got done shopping at about 2 30 am. ugh! The first place we went was a 7 story 'mall' where the people bargin with you over clothing price and everything! So I was looking at this jacket and the lady took my stuff made me try it on ooooooo it look good! ok for you 65000 won.
Its too small.
No it fit good don't zip up it getting spring.
No I think it is a little too small.
Okay for you today only 50000 won.
No its too small.
Okay how about this one?
No I don't like the color.
Oh okay this one for you 35000
Its still too small
No No No not it look good. 2500
good price but still too small
So she hides her hands behind the jacket and puts up a 2 for 20000 won hahaha yeah no. STILL DOESN'T FIT!! haha but man was she working me! It was an interesting night. And I didn't even spend too much money!

Happy New Year

Today is the official Lunar New Year here in Korea. Day two of no working was great, I went with Harry to a folk village in Seoul, to a man made river, and to a statue of a King. First stop, folk village, it was really interesting. when you walk in it looks a lot like a china town entrance with big gates but it was definately Korean style. A lot of the people were dressed in traditional Korean style clothing and playing old traditional games. We walked around the village and saw the huge time capsul that Korea made. it was huge and there is a whole huge section of the village that is dedicated to it. next we went around to some traditional homes, they are huge but at the same time so tiny. The rooms are small but it is very open and the design is really cool. We even saw some people that actually lived in these homes. They all have small fireplace type things under each room for heating the floors inside the home because in the winter it can be very cold and also when they sleep on the floor its nice to have it warm. Next we got lunch at this place called VIPS. Its like a steak house but very different. I have found that American food in Korea is just about as American as Chinese food is in America, kinda close but really not even close at all. It was still good anyway. Then we went to this huge man made river/creek that flows through the city Harry thought it was so cool because it was through the city. Little does he know there's a creek just down the street, and its not man made. Anyway it flows into the Han River and goes forever. It was in a really pretty area where there use to be a road but the road got old so they tore it up and made a river/creek. It was cool in the winter but I bet in the Spring and Summer it is beautiful. Oh its called Cheonggyecheon. After we went to see a statue of a king from the Joseon Dynasty and a huge gate that guarded the city of Seoul, when Japan had control they made the Koreans tear down the wall and rebuild it angled a little more because it wasn't straight or something and they wanted Korea to be perfect. In all it was a pretty good day. Oh while we were at the folk village a little boy in his traditional get up just dropped draw and started peeing ha guess he really had to go. And in front of a ton of people haha. When ya gotta go ya gotta go.

Cha Cha Cha!

Today I went with Cha (the guy that lived with my family 2 summers ago) and his friend to the Coex aquarium. It was really cool once we finally got there, I think we drove in circles for an hour because his navigation system was freaking out. Seriously circles, u turn after u turn and around a block 3 times come to find out this is common for Cha when he isn't sure where he is going. But, he is a better driver than a bus driver so I'll at least give him that. The aquarium was awesome, from the insanely creative displays to the fish that were bigger than me. It was what an aquarium should be. It even had the cool thing that you walk under and the fish swim over you. Huge turtles, carp, some crazy thing that I couldn't pronounce, seals and a manatee. After our adventure to the aquarium we went to a Buddhist temple I saw my first real live monk. That was pretty cool, we saw some way old buildings and some fascinating art that was painted on the celing of the buildings, and a massive Buddha. Next stop the coffee shop, this is very common here in Korea usually when you hang out with people you go drinking or to a coffee shop. Hot chocolate for me, YUM! We were there forever just talking and hanging out, it was good to see Cha again. We stopped at a department store on the way home and looked at beads for my Pandora bracelet, don't even worry that they are about 3 times the price here. Won't be buying one of those! Finally home and poor Cha wants to Skype my mother, too bad it was 3:30 a.m. and she was asleep. Next time maybe he can talk to her. Then we went to dinner, we tried to find the Chinese restaurant that I like but sadly I couldn't remember its exact location so we went somewhere else that was just as good, but their chop chay wasn't as spicy sadly. And that my friends is the end of day 1 without any children!

Free at Last!

Today was my last day of teaching until Monday. It is a huge holiday here this week starting tomorrow so no classes! I started my morning off with a lesson with Leo, followed by a nice bowel of Cheerios. For lunch I met up with Harry (a son of one of the teachers that Jae Eun knows) for lunch at a Japanese restaurant. I had sushi, first time since leaving the U.S. kinda strange, I thought I would have had at least had more than one roll by now. It was pretty good though. After lunch was my LAST CLASS! We did some workbook stuff then we played Where's Waldo and UNO. They're my little girls and you know how little kids get when they're excited for something? They would NOT sit still today so mostly we just played and talked. During our lesson I got a package from my fabulous mother filled with only the best things, vanilla, nerds, Junior Mints, a cake mix in the box, powdered sugar, some jewelry, medicine and some stuff for the kids and family I'm staying with like taco seasoning. Great package! After class I met up with Qwon at the Coex mall and we had dinner at this Japanese resturant called Teriyaki it was okay, i had a philidelphia roll but it had pickles on it. . so that was pretty nasty. I really really want a vegas roll from Sushi In Joy though or an unugi tempora from Teru. after dinner we went to see Gulliver's Travels at the Coex mall theater. Ok so we should invest in this idea. . . multiple kinds of popcorn!! Caramel, cheese, regular, garlic, and there may have been something else but i can't remember and the best part is you can pick more than one kind! so of course I had to go for the regular and caramel. It was fantastic! Then it was time for home. I ran in to some Americans and a Canadian. the Americans were from Kentucky and Utah and the Canadian from Ontario I think. They were very interesting bunch. Good thing I got off at the next stop. The rest of this week should be an adventure. Wish me luck!

SCHOOL!

Today the kids started real school. That means I had all morning to myself. I woke up at ten, had breakfast and went to Lotte Department Store. I was a little overwhelming. Kinda like Hyundai Department Store. From there I went to my classes and then came home. Jae Eun came and picked me up today from Jamsilaru because it was snowing and it was really wet snow. She knew I didn't have an umbrella and didn't want me getting too wet when I was walking home. How sweet of her. After dinner (She and the kids had fish head soup, I had chicken and rice), I had Eric's class, we did mad lib's the kids loved it. Eric and Minseo have a hedge hog who doesn't have any food left so today Eun Young brought home food for him. . too bad it was dog food! Ceasers dog food. But don't Eun Young said it was okay because it was nutritious! I don't think they fed him any though. That is about it for today.

p.s. every time I write the word nutritious I think about the time Jenna Morgan and I made a menu for our Powell trip one year and we had 'Delouse and Notorious' salad, chicken and rice, and brownies I think ha. Oh man. Can't believe she's getting married! Love you Jen!

Korea National Museum

So Thursday and Friday were the same as all the other ones. I just had classes. For my little girls on Thursday we did some book work, but that is no fun so we played UNO then we went on an adventure for marshmallows! 4 stores later we found some. It was tricky to say the least. What did we do with these marshmallows that we desperately needed? We made Rice Krispy Treats of course. I got the idea from this cookie thing that Eun Young brought home on Wednesday night called Hangwah. Its a Korean traditional cookie that pretty much looks like a Styrofoam packing peanut rolled in rice cereal. And the best part, it tastes about the same. So I decided to add some sugar. They liked my treats! Friday Esther made me dinner, she made Sam Gup syahl. . Its like fatty bacon that they put inside a piece of lettuce with rice, tuna paste and your choice of sauces, all of which were good, and I have no idea of their names or what was in them really, sesame oil, soy sauce, and other things made them up I think.
Saturday I got to sleep in and talk to my parents on Skype for a while because Jae Eun, Minseo, and Eric all had to go to school. At about 1, Jae Eun, Eric and Violet came to pick me up and we went to the Korea National Museum. It is a really cool building and it's HUGE! We spent about 2 hours on the top floor looking at stuff. We took a break about half way through and had some lunch, at lunch pretty much all cafeterias here have the same stuff, noodles, soup, a different kind of noodle, curry and rice,  and pork cutlet mmmmm. so i had rice with weird curry sauce and rice. It was alright but I saw a little cafe right outside the cafeteria so I decided to get me some hot chocolate and a muffin. I waited in line, got bumped and pushed. Typical for any line you are standing in. Personal space? What is that? People literally stand on top of you even when there is no need at all so in all of this i got bumped and when I was handing my card to the cashier we both mishandled it and it dropped between the counter and the fridge. That was an easy fix. So I got to be the line holderupper because they couldn't process any other transactions without me going first. At least my muffin was amazing right?  Then looked around the gift shop and went back to the 3rd floor.  (Mom I got you something! It's going in the mail tomorrow). After our visit to the 3rd floor we made our way to the auditorium for a free performance where they played some traditional Korean instruments. A big sideways harp sounding one, a huge bamboo flute thing that had a breathy sound and what looked like a drum attached to a stick with some strings that you played with a bow and of course an electric violin, no Korean traditional show is complete with out one of those! It was a really cool show, other than the part where the entire time the accompaniment music was making my eardrums bleed because it was so freaking loud. The best part was at then end when these four girls that were doing the show were dancing around playing their instruments, picture this, off the stage jumps the drum string thing, violinist and bamboo xxl flute. They're all skipping and spinning and dancing around when WHACK!! The flute chick spins around and hits the violinist in the face with the flute thing as she skips merrily into the spinning bamboo flute of death! It was so funny! Good thing that was the last number... or was it!? So the girls all go off stage and after a few minutes they come back for an encore, well everyone but the violin chick. So they're playing this song and all of the sudden the accompaniment music stops. So they all stop. They stand there for a minute then they start the song over. . It was 3/4 of the way over! Ugh! So they start again, then at the exact same part of the song it stops again. They stand around for a second then they just finish it without. It was okay ha.
After the performance we headed back to the museum and went to see two last exibits on the first floor. one was this huge famous Incense Burner of Baejke. It truly nothing less than amazing. It was Huge! We also saw this amazing crown and belt from the Silla Dynasty made out of gold and some other jewelry made of gold. It was so cool.
On the way home Jae Eun took a wrong turn and we drove close to 10 min in the wrong direction which in turn made our trip home extra long because of the crazy traffic. Finally we arrived home. Jae Eun made Kimchi fried rice, no thank you, I ordered pizza from Pizza Hut. It was so good!
In all Saturday was a good day. Oh I also became a member of the Finger Bandits thanks to Danny.