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Review of my first real weekend in Korea

Fridays at my school are “special days” this could be field trips, cultural days, cooking days etc. This last Friday was a cooking day! My morning students made; mini hamburgers & frozen bananas (dipped in chocolate). My afternoon students are divided up into 4 classes; one class made hotdogs, another mini hamburgers, another pizza, and another egg salad sandwiches. I think I have found the root of the Asian obsession with taking pictures, they do it at the schools! They seriously took a picture of each student with his or her mini hamburger and then again with their frozen banana. The students couldn’t eat them until after they had taken a few posed pictures with their food. I can understand a few staged photos here and there but I would rather just get some candid photos and call it a day. I kind of understand the reasoning; schools are much more like a business here than in the states, the schools need these photos to advertise their school. However I was just waiting for a kid to drop their hamburger all over the floor because they were too busy posing for the camera. Luckily everyone got to enjoy their creations without any accidents. The afternoon class was a little more chaotic, we had all the students downstairs in the gym each set up at their own station, there were only about 30 students and 3 teachers plus me, but when you have a propane stove top, an electric dutch oven thing and every student has a knife things get a little stressful. Plus about 12 of those students are spaztaticular, they have only been learning English for a few months, they are older but so much harder to control. I am still trying to figure out the best classroom management for them, I am trying to decide between punishment vs reward, I might end up doing some type of mixture, like a point system.

On Saturday I really mostly slept a lot. I am still getting used to the time difference, I think the week took it out of me. However I live really close to the river, it reminds me a lot of Portland’s waterfront. There is a bike trail, a small rose/flower garden, running and walking trails right along the river. There are basketball courts, soccer field, children’s playground, a stake part area, a rock climbing wall, and fountains. There is a swimming area but it isn’t open, I’m not sure why it isn’t considering it’s summer. However one of the fountains is super cool, you can run around and play in the water but the best part is that the water will go in time with the music playing. I love watching it and it is fun seeing the kids run around and have so much fun. There is also a metro station that stops right by it and I think every Saturday they have an open air market. I love to go here on my off time, it is a nice place to get outside and enjoy a little sun or people watch. I spent some of Saturday here and Sunday morning here too.

Saturday night I hit the web to find some friends. I found a meetup website that looked promising. I found a group that was getting together Sunday evening for a walk in one of the older parts of Seoul and then going out to dinner, the area is called Insadong and Bukchon . I really wanted to go but it involved taking the metro, I haven’t been on the metro in Seoul yet and I was a little apprehensive about trying to do it on my own. I left a comment seeing if anyone that was going lived near me and wouldn’t mind helping me out. There were no takers, so I just decided to (wo)man-up and just go for it. I got to the metro station alright, I am pretty sure there is a faster way to get there but I took the route with the least turns and kept to the main/busier roads. While I was heading up the escalator to the station I heard some people speaking English, so naturally I waited for them to catch up to me and asked them to take pity on me. They most helpfully obliged! They helped me get a metro pass, which they call a T-money card (best name ever), and we chatted during the trip, they made sure I got off at the correct stop and even gave me their number just in case. The girl was from Montreal and the boy was from Tennessee. I transferred to my new train and got to the meeting place with plenty of time to spare. There were about 9 of us that showed up for the walking tour and dinner outing. I really like the idea of meet ups especially in new cities, it can really be difficult to make new friends. We saw some of the old traditional houses which was interesting to see among newer buildings. We walked around the shopping area too, it is more of the arty area. I would love to go back to this area and look around some more.  Dinner was very good, we went to a vegetarian restaurant that mixed Chinese and Korean style of cooking together. One of the guys that was there, lives pretty close to where I do and knows some girls that live right around where I live. I have added them on facebook and I think we will hang out later this week or weekend. After dinner a few of the other girls and I went to a late night shopping area, this is an open air market too. Where they have lots of great look knock off designer bags/sunglasses etc. The area is called Dongdaemun, am sure I will being going back again! After that I was able to get myself on the right train home and find my way back to my apartment! I was feeling very proud of myself and I really think I can handle this subway system. It’s crazy how much there is in Seoul and now I feel like I have it at my fingertips. I really want to explore and see a lot, so I hope I can make some new friends that will come with me, it is always more fun to explore with a buddy : )

I hope everyone is doing well!

PS: Shout out to my dad! Happy Father’s Day! I hope you had a great Father’s day!! I love you so much!!!