Week 2 Winter Camp and Dinner with friends

The second day with the 3rd and 4th graders went well. There are 7 of them; 3 boys and 4 girls. They're enjoying the games that I prepared for them.

After school, my COT's and I went for lunch. My 5th grade COT suggested either shabu shabu or the Italian place near school. The other COT answered, "can't you think of anything better than pasta?" So, we ended up going to a Chinese restaurant that is halfway between my place and school. They actually are known for their seafood selection and most of the items on the menu were seafood. The COT's wanted jjambong (which is kind of like a spicy noodle soup with seafood in it) so...I had to order that and then pick out the seafood.

I met Jacob in Hapjeong again; we went to Homeplus so I could find a (late) Christmas present for Jaebin. I ended up getting him a nerf gun. Then we walked to Hongdae and wandered around. At 6 I went with him to meet his Korean friends from the language program he did in the summer. I went with them to the fried chicken restaurant and then around 6:30 I left to go meet Bora. She and I walked to the restaurant she and Min Kyung picked out. They wanted to eat "jok bal" which is "pigs feet", but before you get concerned, I didn't really eat the feet, feet part. It's the meat around the ankles I guess. It was okay, but I don't think I will go out of my way to eat it again. Jacob met up with us because Bora and MK wanted to see him and then we went to get ice cream. We went to a place called Natuur Pop; I had such a hard time picking the flavor I wanted. I ended up picking salted caramel. It was so good! After ice cream, we all went our separate ways.

Week 2 Winter Camp 3 and 4s

I was a little nervous for my second week of camp to start. It was my first time with the COT and I was with 3rd and 4th graders.

As it turned out, the class went alright. The kiddos are a bit quite and shy. The COT is nice. He's a 6th grade homeroom teacher (just so happens to be the homeroom teacher of my favorite class). We got through the day alright. One little boy came up to show me his work and held my hand as he was talking to me.

After school, I met Jacob in Hapjeong and we traveled on to Yeongdeungpo to Times Square for some shopping. We also went to a few other underground and malls in the area. At the last place, there was an arcade on the top floor. We played air hockey, he did some basketball and we tried to do a partner driving game and shooting game but we ended up each doing one game solo. We traveled back to Hongdae and had coffee/tea and went to dinner at one of Jacob's favorite Korean restaurants. A little tucked away place. He got bulgogi and I ordered tuna kimchi stew. It also came with a fried egg and many little side dishes.

Playing basketball

COLD soccer day

In the morning I skyped with my Mom. It was good catching up with her. We hadn't talked since New Years. After talking, I hung out around here and relaxed a bit. My friend Ginger called and we chatted and caught up as well.

I headed over to World Cup a little bit early to meet Jacob to warm up more. It was super cold! There were 7 of us this time. There were some other people playing on the other field; we asked if they wanted to play with us but they said no. A few minutes later, they came over and I thought they had changed their mind, but they actually came over to ask if they could borrow one of our balls. I thought it was kind of silly; we won't play with you, but we want to use your soccer ball. Oh well. Anyway, since we were only 7 we played 3 on 3 and then I was the all time offense. It was kind of hard for me because I'm so used to playing defense; whenever the ball switched sides I had to run the opposite way and instead I was still trying to go and get the ball back (except now they were on my team!) I made quite a few goals (as I should have as all time offense!) and got into a rhythm after awhile. Jacob and I stayed an hour and then took off for church. After church, we went to get dak galbi (spicy chicken stir fry).

Thank yous and Good Food

Jacob and I were going to grab brunch in Hongdae, but we were both moving kind of slow, so we decided we'd call it an earlyish lunch instead. We went to a Mexican place called Grill5 and it was really good. It was so filling! After lunch we went to the Starbucks nearby to meet Eric and Katelyn from our mentoring program to help write thank you notes to all of our wonderful, generous donators. It was funny because we wrote the ones to the people we knew and then got a few others (since not everyone from our program could join to write) and so I wrote the letter for my Mom. At the end, we all signed all the letters and Eric glanced at the heading of mine, addressed, "Hi Mom" and he said at first glance he thought to himself, "Mom. Hmm, that's a strange name!"

After writing the notes, Jacob and I took off and walked around Hongdae and Sincheon. We were going to see a movie, but there weren't any tickets available. We went to a coffee shop and hung out for a bit there. We were trying to decide what to have for dinner and I remembered a French restaurant I went to with Amanda last year. The past few times I had walked by it, it didn't look open so I was kind of sad, but everything looked like it was still there (including the sign) so I thought we'd take a peak and see at least (it's on the 2nd floor so difficult to check when passing by). As it turned out, it was still in business! We ordered one dinner crepe and one dessert crepe. For dinner, we got a sausage crepe with fries and a salad. Dessert was banana with ice cream. It was delicious!

Yummy burrito!

Delicious Crepe!

Jacob and me at dinner

Fifth day of WC--Movie Day and Weekend!

We had an extra easy day of winter camp today! We went to see a movie. I forget the Korean title, but the English translation was something like "Magic House". It was the story of a kitten that gets abandoned and finds a magician's house and becomes friends with the other magical toys and animals that live there. The kids loved it. After the movie we came back to school and had pizza.

Jacob and I met in Hongdae for lunch. We went for pad thai (noodles). We were going to hang out a bit, but Jacob was looking tired and I suggested he go home and rest. I went to Myeongdong and did a little bit of shopping. Then I met Krystle for dinner. It was good catching up with her and swapping winter camp stories. After dinner, it was off to Korean class. Class went okay; we had a substitute teacher. The topic was directions; man, directions are so hard! I remember learning them last year at Kyunghee University and I didn't like it; still don't like it now.

After class, I went to Sinchon to meet up with some of my adoptee/soccer friends. They met for dinner and Jacob and I joined them after. We went to a place for drinks, but I felt really bad for Lara, Soo Bok's wife. She's around 6 months pregnant and everywhere people smoke. Anyway, I stayed for a little chatting and took off.

Fourth Day of Winter Camp

Today was fun in winter camp again. One chapter we covered was "birthdays" so we had a "birthday party" in class. I "made" a pinata out of a shopping bag and put some candy in it. They also made birthday wheels and put their friends' birthdays in it.

After school I took a quick break and then off to the airport to pick up Jacob. It took me about an hour to get there and as soon as I walked into the airport, I got a message from him saying they had landed. I waited about 45 minutes or so for the plane to dock (?) and for him to get through customs and get his bags etc.

We got back to my place and went for bbq for dinner. Then he unpacked his bags because he had a lot of goodies to give me. Before he left, I gave him a "wish list" of American foods I wanted. Sweet guy he is, he completed my list and then some. I was also able to get a few things from home that my mom mailed to his house.

Sooo happy! And yes, that is a 2 lb bag of chocolate chips!!!!

Third Day of Winter Camp and Grumpy

All through the night I was getting updates from Jacob about his flight; first delayed 30 minutes, then another 30 minutes, then pushed back to 6pm take off, 8pm take off, midnight, and then 2 am and finally 9am. Ugh, how frustrating. In the beginning they sat in the plane for almost 2 hours before they had them get off.

Camp went okay; only 6 students showed up today! Our snack was kimbap, so that made my tummy very happy. :) Our lesson was about taste/texture of food, so the final activity was for the students to "taste test" a few different foods I brought in. They really enjoyed that.

After school I came home and got to skype with Sarah and her finance (!!!) Mike. It was good seeing both of them and catching up with them for a bit.

I did some more work on my plans and tidied up my place a bit. I relaxed and watched a movie on my computer.