Pop Up Event with Dong Gun

In the morning I skyped with Grandpa. We had a relatively short talking time compared to normal, but it was still good to see him and chat with him. After we finished talking, I called up my Mom. We talked for awhile and she officially booked her ticket!

After we finished talking, I baked a few cookies to give to Dong Gun. Last week we had talked about what we liked doing and I mentioned my cookie baking love. I got ready for our dinner date and then was off to Itaewon. Just before I arrived, he messaged me and mentioned that there were a lot of foreigners at the station. Welcome to Itaewon! We walked to the little bar/restaurant the Pop Up event was being held at. The woman checking people in was a co-owner (? I think) at Left Coast Burgers; anyway, she recognized me and was very friendly. We had to sit at a low table; it was more like a coffee table so it was a little bit awkward but in a corner so it was quieter. First we had a rice bowl with meat and salsa. Next was a bbq sandwich with pulled pork and fried jalapenos. That was delicious! The final dish was a bowl of soup with homemade taquitos, also quite tasty. I liked that everything came out slowly-I think we were there for about an hour and a half to get the 3 dishes. At the end, we were asked if another couple could join our low table as there weren't enough seats anywhere else. So the last 5-10 minutes was a little bit awkward for Dong Gun and me to talk freely.

We left the pop up event and strolled around Itaewon and then headed to Noksapyeong and walked around there, Kyeongridan and Haebangchon. We found a makgoli place that looked really nice, but there were no seats available. In the end we went to a different upscale bar/restaurant and got ciders. It was a lot of fun talking and we almost lost track of time. We ended up running to the subway station; the whole time I didn't think we would make it before they stopped running. When we arrived at the station we saw the screen and the train was still arriving so we ran down, down (Noksapyeong Station is really far underground!) and I made it just in time. Dong Gun asked me to let him know when I got home and unfortunately for him the subways stopped running while he was getting home and he had to take a taxi partway.

One of the three dishes served at the pop up, bbq pulled pork sandwich

DongGun and me

TGIF

For some reason this week seemed really long. I'm not sure why because the workload was a little bit less than normal. It seemed like each day I didn't know which day it was because most of my class schedules weren't normal.

After work I stopped at the post office and then headed to Yeoido. I took the bus there and walked along the Han River and got to see the sky change colors as the sun set. It was really beautiful. It was quite cold, but worth it. Then I walked to IFC Mall and did some shopping. Next it was time to find some dinner. I went to Charles (Korean pronunciation Chal-su) Kimbap. It's been a loooong time since I've had this brand kimbap. They are a little bit more pricey than normal kimbap shops, but it's because the kimbap is so big and stuffed with a ton of delicious smokey bulgogi meat! I ordered it to go and took the bus back home.

At home, I ate half of the kimbap and watched some Doctor Who. I also did some planning because my Mom will be coming in 2 months! I wanted to draft up some ideas of what to do while she is here. The activities and ideas are coming along nicely and I think she will have a great time!

Yeoido

Yeoido Sunset

Yeoido

Really liked this one

Giant kimbap!

Dinner with my COTs

After work I went to dinner with two of my COT's; Eunsook (my "life" coteacher-the one who helped me with all aspects of home and school) and Sophie. Eunsook's 5 years at Nokbun are up and she will be moving to a new school for the next school year (which starts March 2nd). And like I mentioned before, Sophie will be moving to teach middle school English. Lots of change going on with my COTs so there is the big unknown for the start of the new year.

Anyway, we went to a bibimbap restaurant in front of my building for dinner. I hadn't been there in a long time, but I think the owner recognized me. I had chatted with him a few times last spring when I used to go there more often. After we finished dinner we went to a coffee shop and chatted a little bit more there.

At home I took a short break and then forced myself out for my run. At first I thought I would just go for a walk, but once I was out I figured I might as well run. I wasn't quite motivated enough to run 4 miles so I decided that I would try and do some interval training. Instead of my regular run I did 2 miles of jogging and sprinting. After my run I returned home and watched some Doctor Who.

My Mom contacted me and we worked out dates for her upcoming visit! I'm so excited for her to come.

Normal Wednesday

Today was a pretty regular Wednesday. After work I came home and had my leftover casserole instead of going downtown straight away. It was nice to have a little bit of down time at home.

Class had its ups and downs. The first grammar point I thought, "ok, it's not too bad, I understand" after looking it up on my phone real quick. I was able to do the fill in the blank answers (with the provided verb) but then it came to the open-ended questions and we had to form our own answers and I was stuck and lost. It felt so overwhelming to me and I felt very frustrated. As usual, I resolved to do more studying outside of class so I'm prepared for class, but we'll see how the week progresses.

Last Terrible Tuesday

I think I successfully converted 2 of my 6th grade classes into Doctor Who fans! They had already done the review last week so my COT and I decided we would just watch a movie. I suggested Doctor Who as it is about 40 minutes long-the total class time that we have. I heard many of them say that it was fun or that they enjoyed it. The last 3 classes I had (one 6th grade and two fifth grade) did review games.

After work I went for the bi-weekly run. I managed to shave a few seconds off, but it was quite cold today and I had on many layers and felt a little heavy. I can tell that spring is on the way and the days are getting longer. Before it would be either dusk or dark when I started my run. Now, even when my run is over it's just getting darker.

I came home and made a delicious dinner....green bean casserole! I used the green beans I bought on Sunday and I had to substitute soy milk for regular milk, but it still turned out good. I even had the french fried onions (brought them to Korea with me in August) for the top. It was so nice to have a taste of home.

Green bean casserole!

Errands in Hongdae

This week is going to be pretty easy because for the most part, it's the last one us subject teachers have students. Many of my classes are finishing up and some of the 6th graders were finished last week. That means I only had 3 classes today! We did a review game of some of the previous lessons so it was pretty low key.

After work, I went to Hongdae to do some birthday present hunting for a few friends back home. I was successful in finding almost everything I had set out to get. I was wondering what to do for dinner and decided I would go to my favorite BBQ place, Bonga, but get a bulgogi stew (it's hard eating solo in Korea, especially at BBQ places). It was delicious. I walked dinner off by going to Hapjeong Station instead of Hongdae and headed home.

Routine Sunday

Back into the routine of my regular Sunday! I can't believe it's been so long since I've been to church, but with all my traveling, I arrive late in the day on Sundays and haven't been able to catch a mass.

I headed to church and luckily caught a bus after getting off the subway. It was pretty cold this morning so I didn't want to have to make the 10 minute walk! Mass was good. After church I stopped at the grocery store to see if there was anything interesting there. I picked up 2 bags of frozen green beans-green bean casserole coming up this week! I can't wait! I continued on as normal and headed to...can you guess? Casablanca for a lamb chili sandwich. I took the sandwich home and ate with some TV. Then I finally uploaded some pictures from my trips (photos for the blog coming soon!)

Before I knew it, it was time to head to soccer. I walked to soccer as usual as well. This week our high school boys had invited 6 other players to form a 3rd team, so there were 18 of us in total. Felix and Jeremy were back-Felix got married in the US back in November and hasn't been out since then; Jeremy joined maybe in mid-December. Anyway, I really missed playing with Felix. He cracks me up, but I remember the first time I met him I thought he was crazy. Anyway, our team was probably the worst somehow, and we didn't win many of our games. I took a few shots on goal, but nothing went in. I didn't feel too rusty, which surprised me since I haven't been to soccer in a few weeks.

And, wow! It's February!