I think I have fallen in love with Korea. I absolutely love it here!
This week we started our July session in school. This means that I lost a few of my students who went on to a higher level class. I was very sad to see them go because they were my best students!! My class of 13 is now only 6. But I'm glad that I have a smaller class b/c then we can play more games and I can pay more personal attention to them and their needs. I also gained another class. This class of six students are about 13 years old and really smart. I'm teaching them our CNN class and the lesson was about SARS. It was a very interesting class. I basically made a fool of myself since I'm used to teaching younger students. Although they are older, they are a bit more sassy. They will try to get away with anything! I can tell they will definitely keep me on my toes.
This weekend was real interesting as well! On Friday, it was my friend, Kath's, birthday. We all met up in Ilsan to celebrate. We went to a bar called Torro's and had a few drinks on the patio. We didn't leave until about 3 am. Since Yoomi, Priscilla, and I worked until 9:10 we didn't have a real dinner. Before going to Torro's, we went to Isaac's toast for a egg and ham toast sandwich... The sandwich consisted of egg, ham, cheese, corn (mixed in with the egg), and a sweet sauce. It was pretty tasty. So since we only had the small sandwich, we decided to go get something to eat before meeting up with our friends at another bar. We went to Kimbap Heaven. BIG mistake. We get there and we order our food. Since it's so late, we're the only people there. Until this older drunken man comes and in and just starts laying in on us. He's yelling at us for no apparent reason. I have no idea what's going on. Yoomi says something to him in Korean and apparently he didn't like what she said b/c he threw his jacket at her and it hit me in the head. Then Yoomi calls the police. I personally didn't think it was a big deal but her friend, J, said that we should definitely call teh police. Although we were finished with our meal, we all wanted to stick around to see the police. They finally came and started asking us questions. While they were asking Yoomi and J questions, the drunken man was all nodding at me and winking, as if to say, "Yeah, they can't do anything to me...hehehe". Jerk! Well, in the end, nothing happened to him and we just left. I have some video footage but have to figure out how to post it on this website.
Then after Kimbap Heave, we went to Bar Boom to meet up with our friends. Well, not realizing that's it's about 4-5am, we get there and it's closed. DUH. So, we leave wondering what to do. As we're walking down LaFesta, we run into a guy that I met awhile ago who was also at Kath's birthday party for a brief time. He's with a bunch of guys and we decide to all go together to a restaurant for more drinks. Nothing like rice wine, kimchi pancakes, and corn at 5 am! The guys were real interesting as well. Their ages ranged from 19-28. Two of them were in the army. In fact, one was an office and higher ranked than the 19 yr old, and made the poor guy do push ups in the restaurant. I thought it was funny though..haha.
After we finished two bowls of rice wine, two kimchee pancakes, and two servings of corn (I swear, the Koreans LOVE their corn...it's in EVERYTHING) we decide to finally call it a night. I didn't get home until 8 am. Oh, just like Las Vegas!
On Saturday, I went out with my friend Shannon and Jun. We ended up back at HO bar in Hongdae and then to Tin Pan I and Tin Pan II. I'm beginning to realize that's it's always a good time in Hongdae! This area is very cool too. I think it's similar to State Street in Madison. It's a huge college community (Hongik University is located in this area) and there are lots of small shops, bars, restaurants, food vendors, and young people everywhere. I got to taste street vendor fried squid and dumplings. OH SO TASTY!!! Everyone needs to taste Korean street vendor food... Oh yeah, and this time, I did NOT get scammed by the taxi driver! I'm quite proud of myself. haha
The last week of July, we have about five days off for a national holiday. I am planning on going to Busan to visit my friend, Claire, with my co-worker Luc. I can't wait to go. People say Busan is very beautiful and much more chill than Seoul. Plus, there are beaches. Hope it doesn't rain when we go!!!
And speaking of national holidays, I hope everyone back home has a great Fourth of July weekend! I will definitely miss celebrating it with barbecues and friends!!!
