Friday, February 27, 2009
Last post of the crazy update.. Sorry for the length.. I'll try to post more often :[
In other news my carrot sprouted leaves and had lil roots coming out of it. I performed surgery on carrot and eventually made it into small carrot sticks. I should have taken pictures during the surgery, but I was too into dissecting the carrot. :[
Oh I also got another hair cut at the same place. Anthea got a hair cut elsewhere a few weeks back but it cost 10k without hair washing and styling. Mine only costs 20k and has both :D I decided to go ahead and get a haircut because my ondol was broken and I didn't want to take forever washing my hair by dumping boiled water on my head. It took long enough to wash my body that way. After the ski trip, I came home and turned on the heat.. it was working for a few hours but all of a sudden the power would go out. Good thing I knew where the circuit breaker was. I flipped the switch back on but it would immediately overload again. I don't have much plugged in so I went ahead and disconnected everything before I tried again. Next try, nope back into the dark. I walked around trying to think what could be wrong. Only thing else to disconnect was the refridgerator. Since that would have really been bad I didn't even want to try it :p I then saw the ondol control pad and was like.. HMMMMMMMMMMMM and pushed the red button so it would be off when I flipped the switch again.. and wa la! It worked. I left it off for about 3 hours before I turned it back on. It was fine all night long.But the story continues.. I had school that day so I turned it back off after my shower and went to school. When I got back I turned it on for the heated flooring.. everything was fine and dandy until 7pm and boom~ there pops the breaker again. It made me sad :[ This time I left it off all night long until the next morning.. next morning when I turned it back on for hot water it was working fine! See the pattern.. it's slowly dying. I thought it was ok though so when I mentioned it to Jang, I was only joking. But on Friday when it tripped the breaker again I finally messaged Jang and was like, it's totally dead. Jang said "boil water with a stove. cheer up." She's so nice. She called the landlord so the landlord and the repairman would come on Saturday night and fix it.
So that's when I decided to just go get a haircut :D I thought it would be ok since when I got back everything would be fixed.. but no...... Jang messaged and said that the landlord and repairman would instead come the next morning. Anyway when the guy finally came and looked at it, I had thought my landlord said "4" (ne in Korean) so I thought she meant it would take 4 days to fix. But in reality, she meant "I/me" that she would be coming back with the repairman to fix it the next day. I was pretty surprised and relieved to see them the next day. I was also going crazy b/c they kept using all my clean things. They used my clean bathroom shoes, used my expensive toilet paper to wipe stuff, used my clean tub to catch the water they needed to drain, my new clean kitchen sponge, etc etc.. I kept trying to get them to use the stuff I have to dirty things but they didn't understand. I was cringing everytime they picked up something else. I did get some yummy Daeboreum rice + seaweed from the landlord though. It made me have a crap load of leftovers b/c I had cooked that day (enough for a few meals) but it was still yummy :p
Since the other post is unbelievably long, I'll just add it here.. Ashley and I went to see Marley and Me on the 25th and omg it is tear wrenching!! The movie was really really good but everyone in the theater was crying.. My tears kept streaming.. I was on the verge of sobbing haha. Few days before I had been watching all of the 2nd season of Clannad so I was already in sad mode.. I balled while watching that btw.. With all that said, if you have time, watch the movie!!
currently uploading videos of my students.. will edit post when it's finished~
A Snowy Day at my school :D
Class 4-7 Starts off good.. then the formation dies when teacher wants to get into pic -_-
4-8, favorites :D They have the smallest children.. They also clean the classroom. Cleaners are 3 tiny boys, 2 very chubby boys, and one girl. All of them very happy children.
Winter camp ended successfully :) We had some problems because the Principal came into my class when I was showing the 4th graders a movie and because the Korean teachers were nowhere to be found, but I think he's ok with it now since the 2nd time he came in to observe, he happened to come see the talkative 5th grade class that explained everything they were learning to him. Apparently he had instructed the Korean teachers to help me during camp, but just about none of them did. He wasn't very happy to see that ;D Oh well..
I got a new coteacher. The one replacing Jang hasn't been decided yet though.. and school starts on Monday. I don't really understand why they do everything so last minute here. Anyhow, the new coteacher doesn't really speak much English. She really tries though. She told me she's going to study all spring break. I hope she does. I can't really communicate with her too much b/c if she doesn't plan what she wants to say, it comes out as a total jumble with other random words thrown in. So far though, she seems to be having trouble becomming a member of the group of teachers we're in. Other teachers have noted a bit about her mood swings and not being really sure what her personality is like. I don't know either.. all I know is, she does what I ask her to do in class. I'm a little afraid of how she's going to teach the students though.. at least she's only teaching 6th graders alone once a week.. rest of the time she's just disciplining the students while I teach. I hope the teacher replacing Jang will be a bit better.. that teacher will have 5th graders and 3rd graders alone once a week since I don't teach 3rd graders at all.
There have been a few instances where I could tell she's not really accepted. When we were going to visit the VP in the hospital (he broke his leg skiing) she was taking a lot longer to get out of her office so we didn't wait and went down so I could go ahead and change my shoes. After changing my shoes we see her coming down the stairs so we proceed to where the car was parked. We assumed she was following us but when we got to the car she was nowhere to be seen! It was really odd. After visiting the VP everyone was waiting for the elevator to go back down and I had heard her say 'restroom' in Korean so I knew where she was going but she didn't really tell anyone so when the elevator got to our floor, we all went in. I kinda forgot to check to see if she was out yet b/c I'd been busy talking to Jang and the music teachers but in the elevator we were like.. oh crap...... temp teacher missing! @_@;.. It's so bad to forget someone :x
During the farewell lunch we had for the 15 teachers that were transferring to other schools, she totally didn't talk at all and left earlier than us. I find it strange because I was able to converse with the teachers more with short phrases in English while she wasn't able to join the conversation at all. Oh well.. we'll see how this year goes. Here's one of the times I'm glad I have my own office and aren't stuck in the middle of teacher drama.
Graduation was on February 19th and February 20th was the last day the teachers had to come in. February 19th we had a fake field trip where we supposedly went to the movies after the lunch and February 20th we had another fake field trip where we supposedly hiked all day long. I found out later that we had the fake field trips because the group of teachers I'm with actually didn't want to have to do any field trips with the male practical arts teacher. He's pretty annoying..... I mean he's nice, but he's egotistical, VERY RELIGIOUS & pushes it on everyone else, and kinda odd overall lol. I understood after they explained to me XD I don't want to suffer through another debate with him either!
This week is my school's Spring Break. Since I opted not to use my vacation days, they required me to go to school everyday. Jang told me I could leave at 12pm everyday though which is cool. I think it's like during my winter camp where they wanted me to go home right after teaching b/c they didn't want to deal with how I'm going to eat lunch everyday. But it's all good.. I can avoid the awkward meals where I just sit there in silence while they talk and talk and talk in Korean. I have learned to eat even slower (if that was even possible.. everyone knows I eat slow already), but now I do it in even slower motion. That way when it seems like they're finally finished talking, I'm not super super full from constantly eating, but I'm content!
On Thursday, GEPIK had another meeting thing set up with the teachers. This time we were to go to the auditorium at the National Museum of Korea. Some people thought that we'd just be getting a tour of the museum, but from what Jang said, it just seemed like a lecture. It was definitely a lecture.. I could live without such detailed description of hour the gold was melted at whatever temperature to solder the gold balls onto the thing. I fell asleep many times and there was a person snoring behind us. After the lecture, they fed us some traditional Korean snacks that were very yummy :D Upon exiting, they give everyone a free ticket for the museum but it is only good through this Sunday. I highly doubt anyone actually used the ticket.. we were all dead after watching the presentation. I did like the stuff on the Hanbok though. It was the only thing I didn't fall asleep for.
Happiest thing about school right now is.. the 6th graders are gone!! bwahaha.. now the middle schools can deal with the children. Here are some class pics I took.. and the new temp teacher took when I wanted to be in them:
6th graders..
4th gradersI got a new coteacher. The one replacing Jang hasn't been decided yet though.. and school starts on Monday. I don't really understand why they do everything so last minute here. Anyhow, the new coteacher doesn't really speak much English. She really tries though. She told me she's going to study all spring break. I hope she does. I can't really communicate with her too much b/c if she doesn't plan what she wants to say, it comes out as a total jumble with other random words thrown in. So far though, she seems to be having trouble becomming a member of the group of teachers we're in. Other teachers have noted a bit about her mood swings and not being really sure what her personality is like. I don't know either.. all I know is, she does what I ask her to do in class. I'm a little afraid of how she's going to teach the students though.. at least she's only teaching 6th graders alone once a week.. rest of the time she's just disciplining the students while I teach. I hope the teacher replacing Jang will be a bit better.. that teacher will have 5th graders and 3rd graders alone once a week since I don't teach 3rd graders at all.
There have been a few instances where I could tell she's not really accepted. When we were going to visit the VP in the hospital (he broke his leg skiing) she was taking a lot longer to get out of her office so we didn't wait and went down so I could go ahead and change my shoes. After changing my shoes we see her coming down the stairs so we proceed to where the car was parked. We assumed she was following us but when we got to the car she was nowhere to be seen! It was really odd. After visiting the VP everyone was waiting for the elevator to go back down and I had heard her say 'restroom' in Korean so I knew where she was going but she didn't really tell anyone so when the elevator got to our floor, we all went in. I kinda forgot to check to see if she was out yet b/c I'd been busy talking to Jang and the music teachers but in the elevator we were like.. oh crap...... temp teacher missing! @_@;.. It's so bad to forget someone :x
During the farewell lunch we had for the 15 teachers that were transferring to other schools, she totally didn't talk at all and left earlier than us. I find it strange because I was able to converse with the teachers more with short phrases in English while she wasn't able to join the conversation at all. Oh well.. we'll see how this year goes. Here's one of the times I'm glad I have my own office and aren't stuck in the middle of teacher drama.
Graduation was on February 19th and February 20th was the last day the teachers had to come in. February 19th we had a fake field trip where we supposedly went to the movies after the lunch and February 20th we had another fake field trip where we supposedly hiked all day long. I found out later that we had the fake field trips because the group of teachers I'm with actually didn't want to have to do any field trips with the male practical arts teacher. He's pretty annoying..... I mean he's nice, but he's egotistical, VERY RELIGIOUS & pushes it on everyone else, and kinda odd overall lol. I understood after they explained to me XD I don't want to suffer through another debate with him either!
This week is my school's Spring Break. Since I opted not to use my vacation days, they required me to go to school everyday. Jang told me I could leave at 12pm everyday though which is cool. I think it's like during my winter camp where they wanted me to go home right after teaching b/c they didn't want to deal with how I'm going to eat lunch everyday. But it's all good.. I can avoid the awkward meals where I just sit there in silence while they talk and talk and talk in Korean. I have learned to eat even slower (if that was even possible.. everyone knows I eat slow already), but now I do it in even slower motion. That way when it seems like they're finally finished talking, I'm not super super full from constantly eating, but I'm content!
On Thursday, GEPIK had another meeting thing set up with the teachers. This time we were to go to the auditorium at the National Museum of Korea. Some people thought that we'd just be getting a tour of the museum, but from what Jang said, it just seemed like a lecture. It was definitely a lecture.. I could live without such detailed description of hour the gold was melted at whatever temperature to solder the gold balls onto the thing. I fell asleep many times and there was a person snoring behind us. After the lecture, they fed us some traditional Korean snacks that were very yummy :D Upon exiting, they give everyone a free ticket for the museum but it is only good through this Sunday. I highly doubt anyone actually used the ticket.. we were all dead after watching the presentation. I did like the stuff on the Hanbok though. It was the only thing I didn't fall asleep for.
Happiest thing about school right now is.. the 6th graders are gone!! bwahaha.. now the middle schools can deal with the children. Here are some class pics I took.. and the new temp teacher took when I wanted to be in them:
6th graders..
Class 6-7 First class I tried taking pictures of.. hard to control! But generally one of the better classes.
Class 6-6 The class I like.. the boy in the middle volunteered himself as the "best English student" in the class -_-;..
Class 6-5 bad class.. see the boy in the maroon?
Class 6-6 The class I like.. the boy in the middle volunteered himself as the "best English student" in the class -_-;..
Class 6-5 bad class.. see the boy in the maroon?
Class 4-7 Starts off good.. then the formation dies when teacher wants to get into pic -_-
4-8, favorites :D They have the smallest children.. They also clean the classroom. Cleaners are 3 tiny boys, 2 very chubby boys, and one girl. All of them very happy children.
Monday, January 26, 2009
January 17th&18th
For Anthea's birthday on the 19th, we went to TGIF in COEX mall to eat (celebrated the weekend before). We also met Anthea's friend Frank, who's here for one year in the navy marines (or something like that), and hung out with him in Yongsan, Insadong, and one of the palaces. Ashley and I gave Anthea the last cat from the three smelly cats, Kuro and gave her hand warmers to put in Kuro. I have Kuta, Ashley has Mike, and Anthea now as Mike. We also got her a Green Tea Icecream Cake from Baskin & Robbins. I thought there would be some cake in the icecream cake, but no.. their cakes are completely icecream. It was a gigantic ball of green tea icecream.. It was good though XD
Since my last post, I've gone on 3 snowboarding trips!! They were all super fun :D First one, Ashley, Anthea, Jack, and I went to Konjiam (곤지암). To get there, you go to Gangbyeon station and take a bus from there all the way to Gonjiam. From there, you take a shuttle bus up the mountain but I think we got off a stop too early so we ended up taking a taxi (only cost 5k won though). We were cheap so we didn't buy lift tickets, but it was ok b/c the courses were really really short. We were able to walk up the mountain every time to go down it. We're all beginners so it's not like we needed the super slopey ones anyway :D We were extremely tired after that day though.. lots of exercise climbing up over and over! The lift price was 41k I believe for afternoon and then rental for the board and boots was 27k. Pants rental costs 15k.
The day before Gonjiam, Anthea, Ashley, and I went to Anthea's coteacher's house for the Lunar New Year's dinner where you eat a bowl of rice cake soup. After you eat the soup, you gain a year in age. Ashley came back to Guri with us and slept over at my place so we could head to Gangbyeon together. After Gonjiam, Jack and Ashley crashed at my place again :D I like it when people stay over! My place is too big and lonely.. I download so many tv shows on my computer now because it's too quiet without something playing all the time. Anyway, the next day Anthea and Frank came over and cooked spaghetti and meatballs! It was yummy :D I didn't have a can opener at the time so Frank showed us his useful army skills by cutting open the can with my knife lol......January 27th
The next day we all met up for some samgyetang (sp?). It's an entire chicken cooked with sticky rice in ginseng soup. It also has a jujube which adds flavor but because my mom forced me to eat too many of those, I kinda don't like them so mine goes to Ashley everytime :D We met Jack's friend Jihun and Jihun's friend but I 
don't remember his name...... Ashley and Frank also ate some bugs. I think she said, "YUMMY" and downed one really fast. Ashley is weird. I like what Anthea said in Chinese: "You have bugs in your stomach." Anyway, after that, Ashley and I went to take some pictures of ourselves in Hanboks at the tourism center. The first picture makes it look like Ashley is the daughter and I'm the mom :( Everyone else went to the Seoul Tower (Namsan?) but I'm scared of heights so I didn't go :p We ended the night at the Dokbokgi street with some really good cheese dokbokgi and seafood dokbokgi.January 31st & February 1st
Our next snowboarding trip was to Jisan. It was a really fun trip because we decided to spend the night there :D Jihun, Frank, Anthea, Ashley, and I spent a night in a tiny pension sleeping on the ground. It was really close to the slopes so oh well.. it was an interesting experience anyhow! Jihun taught us how to play this Korean game with 4 sticks and a board. It was a lot of fun, especially when Ashley goes, "Ok I'm on Jihun's team." and he goes "Ok let's make teams." and then she goes again "Ok I'm on Jihun's team." and he again denies her lol. Anthea and I bought a package where you get lessons for 2 days and it also pays for rental and lift fees for 180,000 won. It was totally worth it! Both days we had one instructor dedicated to the two of us.. so it was pretty much private lessons! We can both go forwards and backwards and do beginner turns now. I'm still really bad at turning from forwards to backwards though. We both busted are butts and knees the two days. It was expected though.. if you don't go all out and bust your arse practicing and doing whatever the instructor says, it's a waste of money!
I ended up getting Jihun to take me to the medical center before we left because someone had run into my hand with their snowboard (ran into me completely but board hit my hand) so I just wanted ice. They used something called "Mentopas" (we call it menopause :D ) that's sorta like a very liquidy bengay/icy hot. Since the lady had a ton on her hand and asked if anywhere else hurt, I decided to get some on my knee. Oh my goodness it hurt soo bad when she started applying it. She didn't just lightly apply it.. she freakin rubbed it in! And then she wrapped my leg up extremely tight so that I couldn't bend my knee at all and it smushed my bruise @_@;.. I think I'll wait for ice next time. It was more painful that falling on the knee. Penny came to ski with us on the 2nd day so we went back with her to her hotel to spend a few days with her. So for how much we spent on everything: Taxi there shared by Frank, Anthea, and me because we missed the bus - 85k/3; Lessons/rental/lift - 180k; hotel - 24k; food ~ 20k.. = 242k. Not bad :D
Penny's hotel was really nice! I got to take a really nice hot bath @_@ It felt soo good. Anthea and I had some problems sitting up b/c we strained our neck muscles way too much from having to get up so many times after falling. I had to claw the wall to sit up from the bed lol. I figured out a better way after a few times though. If you use a hand to lift your head up from your neck, it's much easier b/c then you don't need to use your neck muscles! During our time with Penny, we went to COEX, Myeong-dong, and Hongdae with her. We also got some interesting sticker pictures XD A bunch of these pictures were taken with Penny's phone.. it has a lot of interesting settings >_>
February 7th
Unfortunately b/c my school seems to have short breaks or something, I had to go back to work on the 4th (Wednesday) so we couldn't plan anymore trips/outings that week :[ But Frank, Ashley, Jihun, and I did meet up on Saturday to go to a free Korean class at Sookmyung University station (kongbubang.. if interested, look that up in google) and then to Yongsan to shop afterwards.
February 14th (VALENTINE'S DAY!!)
The weekend after, Anthea went home to NY, and the rest of us met up again on Saturday. Jihun and I had lunch together, and then Frank joined us for ice skating. Ashley was sick :[.. but we still met up for class. We went to Wolfhound pub in Itaewon for dinner because Reach to Teach had a gathering there, but we were a little too early so the pub people didn't let us sit at the tables. So instead we just had fun sitting at the high tables and ate a yummy dinner! The hamburgers are wonderful there by the way. They're seasoned very well all the way through and the portions are large so the cost was very reasonable. After dinner, we went to say hi to the Reach to Teach people before leaving to get some ice cream at Coldstone. Ice cream is good..... :D
February 21st
Our very last snowboard/ski trip was last Saturday :) Ashley was still sick so she stayed home and read a billion books on her ereader instead lol. Frank invited one of his friends so we had 4 in total (perfect for the # of discount tickets we had). We ended up paying 7,500 for rental and 31,000 for lift for the morning and afternoon times. It was super cheap b/c the bus ride there is free as well :D Jihun was really nice and stayed with me the entire time, even with me going down as slow as possible. As Frank says, "That's not snowboarding." Jihun had enough patience to wait for me XD. The slopes were pretty clear in the morning so I could go down without being too scared of being hit, but the afternoon session brought a lot more people and I started getting run into. I got hit 5 times.... I only got hit bad 2 times though, other 3 I managed to fall as hard. It was a really good day! Because of the lack of people in the morning, Jihun and I went 
down the two hardest slopes one time each. I ended up going down completely straight on the slopiest one though b/c it was soooooo scary!! Closer to the bottom it's not as scary but when you're at the top it's bad.. I slid at the top b/c the snow is more packed/icy from the faster boarders/skiiers and couldn't get back up for a while lol. I kept sliding everytime I tried to get up b/c it was too steep and icy. But just to say I have, I've gone down the steepest slopes at Jisan thanks to Jihun :D I wanted to start on the easier slopes but I was DENIED. The New Orange lift broke down while we were in line so we ended up going to the Blue and Silver lifts. The right most slope is fun :D It's really curvey but it's super long and fluffy. The snowboarders do their tricks on two parts of that slope so it's fun to watch them. Next time, I don't think I'll go snowboarding if my knees are still messed up though. I think I strained them more purposely trying to not fall on my knees b/c when I got home, everytime I got out of a chair or my bed, my knees would give out lol. Yesterday was bad.. so I tried to stay on my feet all day cleaning instead of sitting down. Everytime I sat down and stood back up I had to use my desk to push up and had to keep my knees bent for a while before they could lock properly
Our very last snowboard/ski trip was last Saturday :) Ashley was still sick so she stayed home and read a billion books on her ereader instead lol. Frank invited one of his friends so we had 4 in total (perfect for the # of discount tickets we had). We ended up paying 7,500 for rental and 31,000 for lift for the morning and afternoon times. It was super cheap b/c the bus ride there is free as well :D Jihun was really nice and stayed with me the entire time, even with me going down as slow as possible. As Frank says, "That's not snowboarding." Jihun had enough patience to wait for me XD. The slopes were pretty clear in the morning so I could go down without being too scared of being hit, but the afternoon session brought a lot more people and I started getting run into. I got hit 5 times.... I only got hit bad 2 times though, other 3 I managed to fall as hard. It was a really good day! Because of the lack of people in the morning, Jihun and I went 
down the two hardest slopes one time each. I ended up going down completely straight on the slopiest one though b/c it was soooooo scary!! Closer to the bottom it's not as scary but when you're at the top it's bad.. I slid at the top b/c the snow is more packed/icy from the faster boarders/skiiers and couldn't get back up for a while lol. I kept sliding everytime I tried to get up b/c it was too steep and icy. But just to say I have, I've gone down the steepest slopes at Jisan thanks to Jihun :D I wanted to start on the easier slopes but I was DENIED. The New Orange lift broke down while we were in line so we ended up going to the Blue and Silver lifts. The right most slope is fun :D It's really curvey but it's super long and fluffy. The snowboarders do their tricks on two parts of that slope so it's fun to watch them. Next time, I don't think I'll go snowboarding if my knees are still messed up though. I think I strained them more purposely trying to not fall on my knees b/c when I got home, everytime I got out of a chair or my bed, my knees would give out lol. Yesterday was bad.. so I tried to stay on my feet all day cleaning instead of sitting down. Everytime I sat down and stood back up I had to use my desk to push up and had to keep my knees bent for a while before they could lock properly
February 24th
Jihun's birthday! Jihun opted to celebrate his birthday at my place so that we could do the cooking thing on his list of things to do. His mom made chopchae (sp?) and he brought over ingredients for dokbokgi! We also ordered a pizza and I cut up a bunch of veggies to eat with dip & washed some strawberries. We also ordered a sweet potato cake for him. I'm not a huge fan of sweet potato and Ashley isn't either so we made sure he took the rest back home with him XD We watched "Secret" while we ate everything. It was a really good movie! Parts of it was kinda creepy (especiailly the opening music) but it was a nice story and I liked the piano parts. If you haven't seen it, I recommend watching it :) Jay Chou is the main character and he's also the director/one who wrote the movie. For his presents, Frank paid for the pizza (wa ha ha), Ashley bought him a LED light thing that was shaped like a person that had suction cups on its hands and legs so you could stick him anywhere. It was pretty cool :D Jihun definitely had a lot of fun playing with it lol. I made a crochet cat for him with "POSCAT" on it. Jihun had this weird story where he says POSTECH has a club called POSCAT where they observe cat behavior. Their campus has a ton of stray cats so it's really easy for them to study the cats. But in reality, that's not true.. there is no such club that observes cat behavior but everyone believes him b/c POSTECH is known to have a ton of cats -_-;.. It's the name of the club he's in and it actually stands for Postech Computing Algorithm Team. LAME.. Anyway, we walked Jihun and Frank to the station and Ashley came back to my place to stay the night :D Jihun being in our group makes me feel even older. When I was picking up the cake and the lady asked how old for the candles, I automatically said "24" and had to correct myself to 21.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Anthea and I at the beginning of the stream :)
Anthea asked me whether I wrote about it on my blog yet and nope.. I hadn't yet. It wasn't the most memorable experience but since I've done it 2x now, maybe I'll just comment :p There is always a long line for women's restrooms, especially in coffee shops because there is only one stall. While for the men's restroom, there is one stall plus one urinal. So if you gotta pee, you're just in and out. Those that need that stall don't need to block the others from doing a number one. While for women, the line just gets longer and longer. This time it was another emergency-- it was almost time for the countdown for New Years! Happy New Year by the way! I had 10 mins (or 15? don't remember) when I started waiting, by the time there was 4 min
utes left and the men's restroom was pretty empty, I went over there and had Anthea block the door for me. We made it in time for the countdown but I think wherever we were, it wasn't the place the website says. The website says theres a big screen TV and a light show. Well, we were at the mini fireworks/scrolling light stuff but there was no TV in sight! I think Anthea was kind of disappointed :p But it was fun still!
We walked up and down the stream that night, took a bunch of pictures, got to watch a live concert of CAN, Park Ji Young, and some other duo that was popular 20 years ago. We also found a super cheap ice skating rink! We ended up going ice skating for our New Year's Day plan :) The rink is at exit 5 of City Hall station. It's really big, you can't miss it. It's much smaller than the picture online, but hey it's super cheap. It's 1000 won per hour to enter plus you get skates. If you need gloves, its 500 won to rent. Lockers are also 500 won. You buy a ticket for a 
time slot (to control the crowd.. there are a ton of people) and then line up for skates when it gets close to time. They redo the ice every hour cuz it gets scraped up like crazy with the amount of people but it's a good amount of time. I usually take a break at the hour anyway :p
cowfish~
The next day (1/2) we met up with Ashley at COEX for the aquarium to see fishies! COEX is a huge mall with a lot of high end stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and it also has REALLY awesome restrooms. :D The aquarium was fishy fun like always but it didn't only include fishes. It had frogs, tarantulas, alligators, "korean squirrel" aka chipmunk, monkeys, and many other things. The exhibits were a lot more crowded than the aquarium back at home in Atlanta, but they were very interestingly laid out. One room turned all household appliances, sinks, water tanks, phone booths, bed stand, toilet, anything you can think of into mini aquariums. It was really neat :D Once you get to the last souvenir area and exit that, you're completely out of the aquarium and back into the mall. It was an odd feeling.
Anyway, since we had past by a dimsum and noodles restaurant we wanted to try earlier, we went back to that to eat. It was Jackie Chan's restaurant. Really :p There's pictures of him doing kung fu poses on the outside too. There wasn't a long wait for seats, but they were understaffed so things moved a little slow. They also ran out of a lot of food and it was still only 4:30pm. All the dimsum items I wanted to try (though overpriced) were already sold out. I ended up getting "SangHong" or however you spell it. It had a crispy outside (like a fried spring roll) but the inside was some sort of sweet potato paste. It was pretty good :D Ashley's and Anthea's meals were pretty good too.. we need to go back there sometime! As the waiter said when I asked him 'What is Sang hong?' he replied, "It's delicious."
New gadget I bought that lets me turn my laptop into a tablet!
PNF Duo~ 69,000 won :D
They voted on the best turkeys from each table~
Hmm so what other important dates did I not blog about? Let's see..
11/27: Thanksgiving! Awesome Turkey day! I taught my kids about Thanksgiving all week and about how we call it “Thanksgiving” and not “Thanksgiving Day” like the stupid book teaches it. My coteacher helped explain it by telling the kids you say Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. without adding the –day usually while for things like Memorial Day, President’s Day, Labor Day, all regular words? you add a “day” to it. At this point they would do the “Ahh..” to indicate they understand. The 6th graders had a chapter on it but the 4th graders didn’t so I made 
them draw turkeys and listen to some funny turkey songs on youtube. http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=B0GWAwV5uBY and http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=hd4h5xKLGuE . However, because they watched these, the kids gave the turkeys sunglasses, dragon tattoos, and afros.. They did learn the proper sound a Turkey makes though: Gobble gobble! Or .. Turkey turkey! ;D That night, we went to Doorae Church in Guri for Thanksgiving dinner. Sarah, another teacher in Guri, invited us to go eat with them. It was soooooo good. We even got to take home leftovers. I was in heaven :D
11/29: My birthday! I had to work that day (Saturday class) so I met up with Anthea and Ashley at night at Gangnam to go eat at Outback Steakhouse! Outback Steakhouse in Korea is all about service. While we were waiting in line, they handed each of us a small bowl of cheesy fries with ranch dressing (I think). And then at the end when we asked for boxes, they boxed everything up separately into nice bags and gave us each another loaf of bread sealed in plastic and a ball of butter. My steak was super awesomely yummy! If we ever go back, I'll probably get the steak again. It was the flame grilled steak I believe. Ashley's ribs were completely worth it too. The full rack was definitely a full rack, unlike 
back at home when I got the "full rack" it was smaller than a half. After eating, we walked around Gangnam and had Tanner buy me a scarf and a hat. We wanted to shop around more but unfortunately since I didn't get back from teaching till kinda late and Outback Steakhouse was farther than I remembered (saw it one time when I walked to the next station to look around the area on my own), we ran out of time. We separated around 11? Anthea went back home and I went to Ashley's place to sleep over!
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