Waiting for the bus to Kid's College with Jonah and Sarah. I am obviously thrilled to be going to work.
Wow...it's been a REALLY long time since I have written last. Three weeks I think...so I have alot to catch you up on. By the way, "Abbi sonsaengnim" means "Abbi teacher." It is what all my kids call me. I have been battling a cold and bronchitis for 2.5 weeks (dang yellow sand), so I haven't really felt like writing after I get done at school. Also, I know this is pretty late, but I hope everyone had a Happy Easter.
Things about Korea (warning: these only have to do with bathrooms) -- 1) It is taboo for a woman to smoke in public...therefore the women's bathroom reeks of smoke and ashes are everywhere. It's pretty gross!! 2) Just because I don't live in a 3rd world country doesn't mean that I don't have to pee in a hole in the floor. Some of the women's bathrooms don't have "western style" toilets...instead they have these things that look like urinals in the floor. The first time I encountered on of these funny little contraptions I was in a subway station and I had to walk out TWICE to make sure I was in the right bathroom. It was really confusing and I didn't want to do it wrong. I thought it might be a little awkward if I asked someone to show me how to use it...so I decided I would just have to suck it up until I could find a REAL toilet. I have since figured out the hole in floor...however these are mainly found in bars. This seems like a HORRIBLE idea to me. I feel like I need to hold my jeans up so they don't touch the floor and I can barely hold myself up because I don't want to touch anything for balance. Needless to say I probably look as awkward as I feel.
Now...on to my crazy life in Korea!!! On Easter weekend Brett and I went to visit my friend Alisia and her husband Jared in Jeomchon.
I worked with Alisia for six months at the coffee shop in Dallas, and they came to SK to teach the same time I did. They live in the middle of SK and their town is really relaxing and much smaller than Incheon...and white people are a hit. Brett and I had to take a 2.5 hour bus ride from Seoul to get there, so we left right after school that Friday (the 10th I think) and we hurried to Seoul as fast as we could to catch the last bus. We made it in time, but the seats were sold out. SO...we had to find a place to stay. Our best plan....go to the expensive Marriott and ask the bus boys if they knew where any cheap motels were. We definitely looked like two hobos...waiting in line with a bunch of hoitie toities while the nice bus boys offered to get us a cab (which was expensive!!!) We found a love motel in the sketchy part of Seoul for about $60 (EXPENSIVE (for here)). We caught the bus the next morning at 6 and got to Jeomchon at about 8:30am. Then we caught another bus at 10:30 with Jared and Alisia and went to Andong for the day. This place is famous for its mask festival in September (we obviously missed that.) Oh, and the Queen visited Andong once too (if you care.) They are also famous for some traditional meal that I can't pronounce.
We ate it...I didn't like it...but I can say I've tried it. While we were there we also crossed the longest footbridge in SK.
It was really pretty and there were a ton of cherry blossoms blooming. (The cherry blossoms only bloom for 1.5 wks in the year and then they fall off and you don't see them until next year. So it's a really big deal to see them.)
That night we all went to a jimjilbang because Jared and Alisia hadn't experienced one yet....AND it only costs about $7 to stay there. It wasn't my idea...as I was starting to get sick and I would have rather splurged than to sleep on the floor, but I'm a good sport. After about 1 hr in the women's bathroom, we all met up in the common/"sleeping"/eating/noisy area. All the Korean kids found us in a heartbeat and followed us around shouting out all the English words they knew. They annoyed me at first...that was until they started to tell me how pretty and beautiful I was. I decided they could follow me wherever they wanted. The lights stayed on until 2am and the next morning (Easter morning) I wanted to die. I was SOOO sick, couldn't breathe, and I was dripping sweat because the floor heater was set somewhere around 115 degrees F all night. All in all though Easter was pretty nice. Alisia cut my hair, and we had a really good Easter lunch - Chicken galbi.
It's some sort of barbecued chicken that is in a big sauce pan with cabbage and sweet potatoes and sauce. It's my new fav!! Not sure if I've told you how Koreans eat, but it is always family style. I love it!!! Everyone eats from one big dish in the center of the table....and it's so much fun!! (I get the occasional hand cramp from chop sticks though...lol.)
The next weekend (4/17-4/19) was not very eventful for me. I was sooooo sick. That Friday Brett and I went to our Korean friend Yumi's birthday dinner (galbi)
...and afterwards Bill and Jess came to Incheon and went out with us.
All of the English teachers were supposed to go hike a mountain with our principal, but I felt so bad on Sat that I opted out. I saw pictures and it looked beautiful and like a lot of fun. Instead I stayed in bed all day and watched Mulan with Korean subtitles.
I finally went to the doctor on the 23rd (after being miserable for almost 2wks). HA-HA-HA. AWKWARD. I couldn't really talk to anyone there, but I knew what cough and sneeze was in Korean...and I figured the Dr. probably knew green and yellow. So I figured those words, along with my newfound acting skills, could get the point across. They took me into what looked like the Dr.'s actual office and you sit across from him at a desk. Then you tell him/act out what is wrong, and in the middle of talking some strange woman just lifts your shirt up without warning from behind. Turns out the dr. wanted to listen to my lungs....but geez they could have acted it out to show me before they just did it. I would pay money to see the look on my face when that happened. It was nice though bc the Dr.'s visit and my prescription combined only cost about $15.
Last weekend (4/24-4/26) started out as a "we're gonna take it easy" weekend. That was just a curse. Brett got a call from Bill on Friday and the next thing I knew I was packing for 2 days. Friday we went out in Hongdae (party central in Seoul).
We met a lot of new friends and had a blast!!! Then Saturday, Brett, Bill, Dave and I went to Lotte World (this huge indoor amusement park) and went bowling. After 5 straight rounds of gutter balls I finally got in the swing of things. Dave ended up owing me 500 won (about 50 cents). Get this...they have a real shooting range in this indoor childrens wonderland...and you don't have to have a license - it's cheap - and you can pick from an array of handguns. Watch out North Korea!!!
The children's wonderland. (There were hot air balloon rides going around the top.)
We ran into Angelina at the shooting range.
The next day (Sunday) was sooo much fun!! Bill has a scooter (don't let the wimpy name fool you...those things can go) and I got to drive it (only in a parking lot of course.) I looked like an amateur. Lucky Bill and Brett didn't see me tump it over when I tried to turn, or accidentally take off when I tried to stop. However, one Korean man got a kick of it and he stopped his car and rolled down his window to laugh at me while I tried to lift the heavy thing back up. We also turned alot of heads when we all three piled on to ride to the subway station.
That day in Insadong, they were celebrating Buddha's birthday. We met up with a bunch of friends and went to enjoy the festivities at the "Lotus Lantern Festival."
They had tents lined up an entire street and you could do all sorts of things.
You could make all sorts of crafts such as a lotus lantern (go figure), these Buddhist bracelet things (made one but don't know the significance), or you could do stuff like tea meditation.
Tea meditation
A Korean tradional dancer
A really cool drum show
There were so many things to do that I didn't get to do it all. That night at 7pm they had a huge lantern parade. It was awesome. It was just like something you would see on Mulan or the travel channel. They even had those huge Asian dragon floats that spit REAL fire.
It was a huge step up from the Athens homecoming parade. It lasted 3 hours but we only stayed for 1. Last weekend was AWESOME.
We have off work May 4th and 5th because the 5th is Children's day. SOOOOO.....we are going to Beijing, China this weekend ( 5/2-5/5). Yay!!!!!!!
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