September 2009

I realize I haven't updated in almost a month...even after saying I would update more. Thanks Brad for calling me a liar and making me feel bad ^^ just kidding!

So..where did I leave off?
Ah the next week was my first week of actual teaching! I helped create a simple lesson plan which included me giving an introduction of myself to each class. The lesson was relatively simple so the first few classes went smoothly (plus my novelty as a foreigner was still in play so most of the kids were well behaved).
On Wednesday I ventured into Hongdae to try and find a nice box of gift chocolates because it was my coteachers birthday the next day. You would think that something simple like that would be easy to find...but it's not!

Anywho, the next day after school was over we had a little party in my 5th grade coteachers room to celebrate. We have had many little parties..("Diana come, it's so-and-so's birthday..we're going to have a party" "Diana come, one of the teachers just got married/engaged so they bought everyone pizza" "Diana come, it's friday...we're going to have a party") which mostly consists of us eating food (we've had pizza, cupcakes, a cake made out of rice cakes, ddukbokki, mandu, juices...soda...oh so much eating) and talking (mostly the other teachers talking in Korean...until the coteachers start talking to me about Kdramas or Kstars haha)

That was pretty much the finish to my first week - schoolwise anyway. On Friday I headed out with my friend again to Hongdae area (I don't remember what we did exactly but most likely another night dancing until the wee hours of the morning).

Saturday my friends and I got together to check out Yonsei University's festival called Yongojon in Sinchon! It was really fun and exciting to be around the area because the students have sooo much pride and school spirit! Basically during the day time Yonsei University plays different sports games with their rival school Korea University (? I think that's their rival...I don't really remember exactly but their school color is red haha). At night the students put on their school color (Blue for Yonsei, Red for Korea University) and in large groups they plague the streets of Sinchon going to restaurants and bars demanding free food and drinks. They sing, dance and chant their school's songs in the streets and even have mocking chants for their rivals. It was cute watching how into it they all were and all the different chants and games they knew.

My group headed to a bar for some drinks - we ended up staying there for a while and then heading out to the Yonsei campus. There we watched a performance (by who? I have no idea.) and had some free beer. Once the crowd dispursed we mingled a bit with a group of study abroad students from Germany. Afterwards we left campus to go to this bar called Mike's Cabin? which we hung out with mostly NSET - we eventually left because it was getting too crowded and we were hungry so we grabbed some food and then called it a night

Sunday I had dinner with my orientation roommate in Myeongdong. Myeongdong is known for its great shopping so of course we had to do a little shopping before dinner! There are many different shops here, mostly Korean brand clothes like WhoAU (Korean abercrombie), Basic House or Korean make up stores like The Face Shop and Missha. There is also a huge Lotte department store that spans 3 buildings! Our first stop was the Forever 21! If you don't know...back in the states I pretty much buy all my clothes from Forever because thats the only place I can really afford. Unfortunately the clothes at the Forever21 here are really expensive! Well, not super super pricey but definitely more expensive than in the states - and they sell a lot of old clothes that were in stores in the states a couple months ago. Strange isn't it? In any case after some shopping we wandered around to find some food and ended up grabbing some jjimdduk (sp?) which is a dish with chopped chicken, spicy soy sauce and glass noodles mmm! one of my favorite korean dishes :)

The next couple of nights after school was over was spent going to various places near by to eat..Mr. Pizza (korean style pizza with sweet potato mousse filled crust! sounds strange but it's amazing! for those of you in California I hear there's one in LA..you should try it. ^^) and Baskin Robins! No ice cream here does not taste the same as the Baskin Robins back at home (even in these chain restraunts I find the food here is different, not in a bad way but just different. Mostly it has an artifically sweeter taste to it I think...but I kind of like it and have long gotten used to it by now ^^).

I did finally get my cell phone this week after almsot a month of being without one! I was so excited...you never realize how dependent you are on your cellphone to communicate with others until you're stripped of the privledge. It is a simple Cyon Ice cream phone (you can youtube it for the cute and catchy CF with Kim Tae Hee) in white!
My coteachers and I wandered around to the various cellphone stores around our school after lunch and finally decided to stay with LG's service. They gave me the phone for free and the standard 30,000 won sign up fee (to be paid in 3 monthly installments of 10,000 won). I pay a base fee of 13,000 won per month and then from then its about 100 won per minute of airtime use and 20 won per text. They also gave me a cute cell strap, extra battery, plastic cover and two different kind of battery chargers for free ^^ (or "service" as they refer to it in Korea)

I did however, have to sign up for another bank account because my Hana bank account (which I signed up for through orientation) was created with my passport number and I needed to use a bank with my ARC number. But it turned out to be a good thing because I use my second bank account as a savings account (as to not tempt myself to blow all of my salary on clothes and debaucherous nights out). Other than the hassle of trying to find another bank I had fun walking around with my teachers (we had ice cream together too ^^).

On Friday of this week I met up with some friends for dinner in Namdaemun (it is also known for it's shopping but more geared towards an older crowd. They have a lot of traditional items here as well). Part of Namdaemun is actually burned down - supposidely some drunk man tried to burn the whole place down and now they're rebuilding that area. Afterwards we headed over to Myeong-dong for some shopping and then headed home.

This was actually the first time I caught the last subway home! I was walking with my friend and it was getting close to midnight but I didn't really think much of it because I figured it wasn't too late and there are so many trains that always run (subways close here by midnight and a bit earlier on weekends). As we were walking we heard an overhead announcement in Korean and I jokingly told my friend 'that's the message saying we're screwed' and then...of course all of a sudden all the people around us started running because yes that was the call for the last train. So we ran too needless to say and caught the last train home ^^

The next day was...ASIA SONG FESTIVAL!!! Yes, I'm obsessed with Kpop. This concert had many stars from all across Asia including Korean pop stars...SNSD, 2NE1, Big Bang andddd my favorite...SUPER JUNIOR! Yes, I was very very very VERY excited. We ended up getting over to the Seoul world cup stadium much later than expected and headed all the way back to the end of the line. But, it was madness so we ended up just running and joining a crowd walking into the stadium. In the end it didn't matter much because if you were not in the standing area you could not really see any of the performers on stage very well, you had to watch the big screen. But all in all it was still really fun! My first Kpop concert in Korea so of course I had to buy a fan light stick (if you watch performances of kpop artist many of their fans will hold these light sticks matching the color of the group their supporting and they'll wave the stick in the beat to their songs).

And yes if you were wondering...when Super Junior came on I did go a little crazy. Probably screaming much more frantically than the elementary school girls there. OH which reminds me! I ran into my students at the concert haha it was so cute they recognized me and called to me because I probably wouldn't have recognized them at that time ^^;;.

The next day I went up to N Seoul Tower! We ended up accidently hiking up Namsan mountain for a bit because we went the wrong way but after a super steep hike up a hill we finally made it to the tower! We first went to the teddy bear museum (yes a museum of all teddy bears! telling the story of Seoul! how cute right?!) and I had a cute overload. Everything is so adorable in Korea. Afterwards we took the elevator up to the top of the tower. You actually can't go outside of the tower but the view from inside is still beautiful! You can see all the city lights and have a panoramic view of Seoul. At the bottom of the tower there is a light project going on but we didn't get to see it in action unfortunately (because we wanted to make sure we caught the subway home).

Phew...are you getting tired of reading without pictures? I apologize ^^;; I will try to add some pictures once I get caught up (I know I keep saying this...they're not empty promises I really do want to blog more! There are so many good moments I want to share with all of you! I'm mostly blogging about my adventures exploring Seoul rather than my school experiences because I wrote down what I did around the city but not in school)

Anywho! So finally the last week of September!! Monday I went to COEX mall to meet up with Matty (it is the stop between us). COEX mall is freaking huge. It has an aquarium, department stores, lots of eating places and even a kimchi museum! We wanted to check out the museum but it was closed that day :(. We ended up just shopping a bit and grabbing some dinner. Tuesday I went out to dinner again and Wednesday some friends and I headed to City Hall to sign up for some free Korean language classes.

Side bar!: English-Korean classes with 1st grade teachers
Some of the 1st grade teachers kindly offered to help teach me Korean to help me better acclimate to living in Korea. My coteacher bought me a self study book and the other teachers have given me a first graders text book and have been helping me learn useful phrases and practice pronucation. I'm also helping them with their English because they're interested in improving their speaking skills. They've been really kind and helpful - one of the teachers even bought me a bunch of stuff I wanted for my apartment! They really take care of me and it's so nice to have people to talk to and I can ask for help from :).

Sometimes we just do fun things too like talk about Korean men/their husbands and shopping~ or we'll have cooking days! They taught me how to make ddukbokki! I really enjoy my time with them...but I'm sad one of the teachers is leaving in January for a year in the states :(. If you can't tell I'm growing quite attached to the teachers here at my school. They make me feel like I'm not alone here. Like I said before I couldn't imagine being at another school.

Anywho! Back to City Hall and signing up for classes. It turns out that the class with absolutely no Korean background conflicts with my work schedule so I had to opt out of taking classes until I have studied enough to pass the first couple classes. We had dinner at Omurice (which is delicious!) and then headed back home.

Thursday I'm not sure why but my friend and I decided to grab some fried chicken and drinks so we ended up having delicious Hotsun (fried chicken made for women) and cocktail soju! It was a delicious and fun Thursday night to say the least haha
The next day some of the teachers took me out for dinner and drinking to celebrate my first month in Seoul! It was fun drinking around my place and after they left and I went back home I planned to go out but my friend and I ended up staying in because I didn't feel well (don't worry it wasn't from the drinking!)

The last weekend of September I spent mostly in Incheon where there was a global fair happening and the R-16 Bboy competition! We spent most of the time wandering and exploring the fair grounds rather than at the actual competition but we came for the last battle which was exciting. Afterwards we took pictures with the teams and wandered around for some fair food. On Sunday we came back to Incheon for the hiphop concert (with Drunken Tiger - korean hip hop legend! I used to listen to him when I was in middle school that's how old he is. and Epik High!) again another free concert! Well sort of, the previous day we got in for free to the fair but on Sunday we had to pay like 5,000 won or something? Still very cheap to be so close to them and to see the concert!

Phewwww! So that was my September in Seoul ^^ and seeing as I'm at school right now and about to head home soon I won't start on October yet...but it will come soon! For a preview lets just say October was filled with disease, drama and dates haha
Until the next post~ Hope you're all staying healthy, happy and warm ^^