Random stuff

Chile lost. :( very sad.

Went to Caribbean Bay today -- it's part of the Everland theme parks. This one is a water park. I showed the woman my expired Chilean ID card and Ronald gave her his driver's licence to get us in with a student discount, so it was 25,000 won instead of 45,000. The lines were long even today and it's just some random day of the week!! It was sorta hot but got cold when the gray clouds came and started sprinkling. We only went on like 4 rides and I scraped my knees and some of my foot on the bottom of the pool of water when our tube tumped over at the end. Tomorrow is another work day, so I've been finishing report cards and grading essays -- bo-ring. This weekend is the Canada Day/4th of July BBQ cruise thing hosted by the Canadian Embassy...I'm pretty excited about that!

World Cup, Korea vs. Nigeria

For this game, we went to the Olympic Park. I made tuna sandwiches, bought some wine, and put it all in my backpack. We walked from Cheonho to the park and a nice guard guided us to where they were showing the game. We got there around 1:30 I think (the game started at 3:30 am -- Tuesday night/Wednesday morning). It was pretty incredible to be walking through an absolutely silent park for about 15 minutes because when we finally got to the screening area, there were a ton of people.

First we decided to try and enter. They had set up a large screen with four sections of fenced-off grass. We tried to just walk in but the guard indicated to us that we needed a wristband, so we waited in a short line and walked up to the woman. She said something to me and proceeded to chuckle in an embarrassed way and give me a wristband after my grunt and giggle saying something like "I don't know". We walked up to the front section and sat down and waited basically. We found out later that the people in the back two sections had blue wristbands, so we don't really know what was going on there because it was free. Whatever.

So we ate sandwiches, poured the wine, and waited. They started a pre-game pep-up show basically around 2 am. The people went crazy and everybody was cheering and singing their little anthem. They were also dancing. Or was it cheerleading? I'm not sure what to call it, but they had pretty effeminate dance moves to go along with their song. They literally played this on repeat and people continued for about 15 minutes.

When the game finally started...excuse me, when they finally showed the TV station showing the game, people started cheering and when they showed the players waiting to go out onto the field it sounded as if they had just won the game. After the singing and the kickoff, the moment one of the Korean players got the ball, the crowd absolutely exploded with cheers. They were so excited about everything -- it was hysterical. Literally one time they showed the goalie in the goal yelling at one of his teammates and screams erupted from the crowd.

We left at halftime to go home...I had to work today!

I think the most interesting thing, besides the way they cheer, is the way they watch the game. We were in a park, an open field, and EVERYBODY was sitting down, watching the game. I think if I'd seen it in the states, we'd be standing up.

Anyways, I'm tired, so I'm off, chao!

World Cup

We went to a bar in Itaewon to watch the first world cup game of Korea vs. Greece and it was crazy. The Koreans go absolutely nuts when anything happens. They scored a goal and the people celebrated as if they'd won the game. Pretty great. So when they did win the game, it was even more insane!

Monday we watched the Chile vs. Honduras game and the people in the bar asked who we were rooting for and then joined us in cheering on the Chilean team. Near the end of the game, a couple of Koreans wanted to share a table with us and a drink, so they joined us at our table and we talked (sort of) for about 10 minutes. They left just before the game ended, and when we were leaving we went up to pay, and they told us that the two guys had already paid for us...pretty amazing! We didn't even know them and they picked up a decent sized tab for us!

I have the 29th off, so I'm looking forward to that. Other than that, it's been the same ol same ol....It's really really hot here and our fan is on constantly and it's super humid. Pretty gross.

Off to class!

This weekend

On Saturday we had a picnic at Seoul Grand Park with Minsoo and a Venezuelan, Arturo. Then we checked out the zoo a bit and headed home...it was really nice to just hang out and the weather was nice. Hot, but nice.

On Sunday we took a tour with RAS to a cave a little bit south of the city and it was super lame! Haha...well, from my point of view it was because at Sewanee we could actually explore the caves, but here it was just like Rock City...there was a metal pathway you had to follow. Big cave, pretty cool, but super annoying and stupid to just be on that one pathway. After that we took a little boat ride and got to see some pretty scenery. Then we headed to a traditional village where we saw traditional houses and we got to walk up to their lookout place (I'm assuming this is what it was, but everything was written in Korean, so....) with a really spectacular 360 view. After that we headed home and Ronald and I went to see the movie Dragons. We liked it! I thought it was good.

June

We have new classes! I keep my oldest class and my youngest class. Tom had to quit! I'm so sad. His mom was angry because he never wanted to do his homework. Sad. And Peter is gone now to his new school.

This past weekend we went to Namdaemun market. Pretty neat. And Saturday we made another Costco trip, this time taking along my suitcase. Bought more Dr. Pepper and some cheddar cheese! I made fajitas last night and it's just not the same without guacamole/avocado *sigh.

July 28-August 1 is a holiday for me, so I don't have work. Ronald and I are gonna go to Tokyo! I'm excited for that. It'll be nice to have a real break and not just a weekend. On the 29th we're gonna see Zed, a Cirque du Soleil show. Sorta pricey flight-wise, but it's high season.

Other than that, it's been sorta busy with report cards and essays -- I just finished today. It's been sorta hectic getting the new classes ready, but once we settle in, it'll be fine. Can't wait for the weekend though! Today we have to work when nobody else does -- it's a national holiday, Election Day. The kids don't even go to school. Grr.

Lotus Lantern Festival/Buddha's 2554th Birthday

Ok so I know I haven't written in a bit, but I've been sort of busy...I had open class with my Social 3 class and Jerry's parents came. Last weekend there was a Lotus Lantern Festival. I uploaded pictures on picasa of that...it was pretty and there were just a TON of people. The parade on Sunday lasted about 2.5 hours!

This weekend, Ronald and I took the KTX train from Seoul Station to Busan. We spent Friday there in Busan. The first thing we did was find a jimjilbang (like Dragon Hill Spa I talked about earlier...a bath house of sorts) and take a nap. We'd stayed up all night to wait for the train. So we slept and then wandered around a bit and found the beach and then we went to Beomesa Temple. You just take the metro to the stop and when you come out, it directs you to where the buses take you up to the temple. So it was very easy getting to and from there. This was Buddha's 2554th birthday, so the temple was open 24 hours. When we got there, they were putting on a show and all the lanterns were hung. When it got dark, they lit all the lanterns. Very pretty. What was also cool was that there was a natural spring fountain they drank from...I will put up pictures of this, but we also saw this at the Seokguram Temple. But I'm getting ahead of myself...we stayed to watch the show and people kept adding little bookmark looking things to the lanterns -- each lantern had one and I assume it was some type of prayer.

After the show was over, we headed back down and they started some little fireworks. The line to wait for the bus was HUGE. The bus we did get on got stuck going down because a car was parked badly. What ended up happening was that some men came and they lifted the car and moved it a little bit towards the curb so the bus could squeeze by. After this we went to bed.

On Saturday we went to Gyeonju to see the Seokguram grotto. Something that was apparently very cool that Ronald had seen advertised. It was raining pretty hard, but we took a bus from Busan (pretty nice for 4,000!!!) and then had to take a local bus to another part of the city. I had to go to the bathroom so we got off the bus too early and used public restrooms at a museum. Then we waited about 30 min for the next bus to come and that one took us to the stopping point for the bus that takes people up to the grotto. After taking that bus, the driver told us that the next bus was at 6:20. At this point it was about 5 pm. So Ronald went back to ask about the last bus and that was synonymous with next for the driver. Anyways, we went to see the grotto and it turned out to be just one Buddha. Apparently pretty historical, with a lot of religious significance. But that was it. So we headed back to where the bus was coming -- but it was already 6:24. So basically we missed the last bus. So we started walking down the mountain in the pouring rain. What would have taken literally 2 hours to walk was cut down to about 20 minutes because a nice Korean family stopped to ask if we wanted a ride -- yes. So after this we hopped on a bus to Daegu. When we got there it wasn't raining too badly, and we took a cab to what we thought was a jimjilbang. It wasn't. So we paid a whole lot of money and the taxi driver just took us to some other one.

So we spent the night there and on Sunday we walked around a bit and went to eat at The Holy Grill, a mexican food restaurant. It was really good. Owned by Canadians. After that, it was time to head back to Busan. So we took the bus back, walked around in Busan some more, and spent our last night at a pretty nice jimjilbang. Monday morning we caught a taxi and took the train back to Seoul.

Today one of my students, Sehoon, tied himself to his chair today with his backpack strings. That knot was pretty hard to get out and he couldn't move...pretty funny.

Otherwise work is pretty monotonous. Same thing every day except for today and tomorrow...speaking and writing tests!

Speaking and writing test days are so nice. You take an hour of class to do them. Apparently they took almost the whole class period a few months ago, but they changed the exam. Now, there are four prompts: 2 speaking, 2 writing. We give them an hour, but it doesn't take that long. They hardly know the vocabulary anyways, so they can't really answer the questions.

Teacher's day is on Saturday. What a bummer...why couldn't it be on a Tuesday or Thursday? Those days are so long.

Tickets to Busan have been purchased for the weekend of the 21st. Tomorrow I have to see if I can buy the return via internet...I hope so! If they're all out, I'm screwed. Reena and Mark will be staying here...sorta funny...we're trading cities for the weekend basically. They live in Masan though, which is about an hour away from Busan. We'll be staying in Busan and I think will have a full day to see the grotto, a huge castle/temple thing hanging off a mountain. I sure hope the weather's good.

Today the AC has officially been turned on. It's hot and sticky. Yikes...what am I gonna do when summer is finally here!? I think I'll melt away.

Children's Day

Apparently you cannot upload videos to youtube if you are in Korea. Weird.

Today was Children's Day which meant that there was no school and no academies. Today, we visited the Costco on the eastern side of the city at the Sangbong metro station (line 7). The membership costs 35,000 won a year...pretty nice! So we bought tortillas, chicken, shampoo, cups, cranberry juice, hot sauce, and DR PEPPER! So exciting. Pete was in the apartment the whole day basically because he's job searching and doesn't have a computer so I said he could come over and use one of ours for free. So when we got back we took his photo and he uploaded it to wherever he'd been applying to. Then I made fajitas/burritos, though it's very sad to not have guacamole or cheese.

It was too smoggy/foggy/cloudy to go to the glass cafe on the Dongjak bridge, so maybe Saturday instead...

This past week

Thursday I had the day off because it was a school holiday. It was really nice not to have to go to work on that long day! So Wednesday night Ronald and I met up with Pete to check out Hunter bar and MTB bar.

On Thursday Ronald and I decided we would go to a spa and swim in a pool or hang out in a jacuzzi if available. First we went to the Happy Day spa, but it turned out that they had renovated the whole top floor where the pool was to a wedding ceremony center. So we left there and walked back to the metro. I bought a pair of cheap hiking shoes from the side of the road, and we were off to the next spa! I knew that Dragon Hill Spa had a common area pool because I had been there with Charis, so we headed there to the Yongsan metro stop. We hung out in the pool for a while then decided to get massages and with that came a free hour in their jacuzzi. Or so we thought. We ended up fighting the guy at the end because he had told us the wrong price, which was way more money. So we made a deal and paid a little bit more than we had wanted to.

We were going to go to Cafe Cloud on the Donjak bridge to watch the sunset, but after fighting with the guy at DHS, we missed it. So we went back home.

Friday we went out to Hongik University/Hongdae and went to a hookah bar there that Pete knew of. After that we went to another bar around there but decided to leave after that because there were a ton of foreigners there and most of the places there were clubs. Back in Cheonho we went to California bar that had black lights and after one drink decided to go back home and watch a movie. It was about 5 am at this time, so we watched part of a movie and then went to bed around 7 am.

Saturday we had planned to go to Itaewon to see if we could get Ronald a phone (he needs one with emailing capabilities) so we rolled out around 3 pm. Once we got there it turned out there was only one phone place (this had been a recommendation from a language exchange friend of his) and prepaid phones don't have internet. So we walked around for a bit before heading over to Gangnam. We were going to meet Sheena and her husband there at the metro around 8 pm, so we decided to just go there and hang out for a bit. First we went to a Paris Baguette to have a snack and sit for a while and then we went to the Book and Spa cafe again. There we had hot chocolate and then did the Dr. Fish.

After that, it was time to meet Sheena, so we met up with them and went to a bar nearby. We hung out there for about 2 hours and then they decided they should go because they needed to catch the metro back home. So we did the same thing and ended up catching the very last train of the night at 11:30 (lucky!). We were hungry since we hadn't eaten dinner, so we went to a restaurant across the street and had pizza. Then we went home. We watched another movie and fell asleep.

Sunday we went to Yongsan to buy tickets to see Ironman 2 in 4D, but it turned out Ironman 1 was in 4D or Avatar. So we bought tickets to see Avatar in another theater at 3:15. We were going to meet Charis in her neighborhood to go to a spa for a scrubdown, but she woke up pretty sick, so we had about 4 hours to kill. We bought a cable for the TV and looked around for microwaves, but they were all too expensive. Still the cheapest one we've seen was in E-Mart for 59,000 won. We decided to just go to the metro stop where the movie theater was to look around and hang out for a while. It turned out there was a huge Lotte shopping mall so we looked around for shoes for Ronald and then went to try to find the movie theater. The movie theater was in the Times Square mall. It was enormous. Very pretty architecture too. At the bottom of the mall was E-Mart, so we went there to verify the microwave price and we ended up looking at a little wooden floor table. So after the movie we went back and bought that and a couple of floor cushions to have a place to sit and chill on the floor and eat dinner, etc.

The movie was sorta strange. Your chair moved, and sometimes they would blow out flower smells or a thing would hit your feet. It was pretty hot in there, so we were always glad when a windy part was coming.

We went home after that and made mashed potatoes and omelettes for dinner and went to bed. I think I'm getting sick again, so I'm taking lots of vitamin C and I took some sudafed and advil. We shall see...

I get Wednesday off, so we will be going to Cafe Cloud!

Ok I think my enteritis is almost gone...yay! Yesterday I only had one student in my last class because they are all taking exams in their high schools...yuck.

Tomorrow I don't have to work! Yay! I think Ronald and I are gonna try to check out a hot springs spa...it's like 6,000 won and you can stay there for 15 hours without repaying...nice.

Ok off to work. Yesterday it was raining but the day before was beautiful. I hope it gets some consistency soon...