World Cup Friendly

I met Kwang Min in Hapjeong to go to a restaurant, Charley’s Philly Cheesestake for lunch. It was pretty good. We split a sandwich and fries and each got a lemonade (reviews said it was the best lemonade in Seoul). Well, the lemonade was good, but I don’t know if I’d say it was the best in Seoul. I still prefer the lemonade at the fair (fresh lemons with ice and a little bit of sugar…) After lunch we went to “Gasan Digital Complex” where there are outlet stores. I was in search of new running shoes. We looked in a few places and I was about to give up hope. We were leaving and Kwang Min spotted a Puma store. We went to it and they had a pair of shoes I liked and fit well. Finally! New running shoes! (Now I’ll have to go running-no excuses!) I also looked a little bit at winter coats but didn’t buy anything. I’m starting to get worried about the cooler weather and need to beef up my winter wardrobe a bit.

After shopping, Kwang Min and I returned to Hongdae area. We walked around and saw a little restaurant that had “rice burgers” it was like kimbap in a patty form—rice in a ‘bun shape’ and then we got tuna and mayo as our filling. It was yummy. We also got some fruit juice—so delicious! I walked to World Cup Stadium from Hapjeong then to meet Jacob. Jacob had asked me if I wanted to go to the Korea vs. Brazil World Cup Friendly game. Um…YES! Our soccer captain, John, had an extra ticket and Jacob suggested asking me. So, Jacob and I met and walked around to look for a place to have dinner. It was quite crowded so we left the stadium area and went out on the street to look for food. We couldn’t really find anything, but finally ended up getting fried chicken to go. We had to wait almost 30 minutes for the food to be ready, but were entertained by some cute little girls (sisters) running around playing in front of the restaurant.

We headed back to the stadium and ate our chicken there. Then we waited for John to arrive with our tickets. He had a GOAL event (he works for GOAL--the adoptee organization) that went until 7; the game started at 8. It was 7:45 by the time John arrived and I was getting nervous. We ran inside and then couldn't find our gate to go in. We finally made it into the stadium just as they were finishing the national anthem and got to our seats as the teams were finishing their team huddle. Phew, just in time for kick off. Our seats were good--behind the Korean goal (first half the Korean goalie was in front of us and the second half, Korea was shooting towards us). The game was pretty good, but Korea lost 0-2. Actually Jacob was rooting for Brazil and even wore a Brazil jersey! Traitor. After the game, Jacob and I walked along the stream next to the stadium. It actually leads all the way back to my subway station. We chatted a bit and then I walked the rest of the way home.  

Lunch!

In the shopping area in Hapjeong

Rice burger

Jacob and me outside the stadium

Getting ready for kick off

So awesome!

Jacob and me at half time

Awesome Game

House Warming Game Night

I made it through my long Friday at work. My 5^th graders were good and my 6^th graders were chatty (in Korean).

After school I went to Emart and got a few more snacks for my party and then returned to my place to do some cleaning. Kwang Min came over a little early to help clean and brought some food for me too. Min Kyung arrived first and she was hungry and ate some food too. Then Kim arrived. I felt bad because most of the snacks had gluten and she couldn’t eat much. I did cut up some apples so she chowed down on those. Much later Tim and Krystle arrived. Tim is another English teacher I met at orientation (went to a dinner with him a few weeks ago that I mentioned in a previous post). We played some games and ate and drank. It was fun hanging out and having a group at my place. I’m looking forward to having them all over again. We agreed we should do a cooking night in the future.

Tim trying to open the wine Kwang Min brought

Meeting old friends

Classes went fine--it was good to see my cute little 5th graders again.

After school I had plans to meet an adoptee, Jenna, I met in 2007. Before meeting her, I decided I would go shopping in Hongdae a bit. Turns out my friend Jacob was there, so he and I met up and walked around together before I met up with Jenna. I bought a skirt and flat shoes.

Jenna and I went for shabu shabu, which is a soup you cook in front of you with vegetables and thinly shaved meat. It was pretty good. Then we went to look for a coffee shop. We wandered around a bit and I showed her the area of Hongdae that is a little bit quieter and has less bars around. We found a cafe called "Chocolate Cake" and ordered a...chocolate cake--with chocolate pudding inside. It was really good. :) I had a good time chatting and catching up with her.

Hangul (Korean Language) Day! Another National Holiday

The last holiday/day off until...Dec 24. It'll be a long stretch.

Earlier in the week, Kwang Min and I made plans to go hiking on the day off. I met Kwang Min near my place so we could walk to the base of Bukhan Mountain--it's only about a 20 min walk from my place. Kwang Min printed out a map so we followed it...but...we got a little turned around and ending up climbing through a bunch of brush and saw a "bridge"/walking path above us--so we climbed over the railing and got on the path. We ate some kimbap that Kwang Min brought along; it's called Chalsu Kimbap (restaurant name) and it's realllly good. They don't put as much rice in and there is a LOT of meat. It's much bigger-almost 2x the size of a regular roll of kimbap. Anyway, I barely finished it, but left a few crumbs in the wrapper afterwards. We started walking and realized we were on a trail that only goes around the mountain--not upwards at all. So, Kwang Min asked some people--there were a few people scattered around and every person gave a different opinion. It was really funny, one of the ajushi's (older man) started saying stuff like if we went that way we were going home and should just go home then. We found the trail--actually it was where Amanda and I had gone last year. :) While we were walking, we saw 2 stray dogs. I wished we had food to give them and remembered we had a few pieces of stuff from the kimbap. The one ran away and the other stayed but was very skittish. I tried to gently toss the food towards her, but she still flinched; it was sad. I gave her all the scraps and tried to give her some apple because that was all I had left (Toby eats apples!) but she didn't want any. It was a warm day and she was panting hard so we made a cup out of the aluminum foil of the kimbap wrapper and I put it on the ground. She drank it and then carried it off and ripped it up (I could totally see Toby doing the same thing) looking for more scraps I think. Which is too bad because I was going to refill the water! We made it to the top of the peak we chose and made our way down. Later in the evening, we met up to walk around Insadong and an area along the side of Gyeongbok Palace. It's got a lot of coffee shops and boutiques.

Giant Kimbap!

Feeding the pup. I wanted to take her home!

This is the path Amanda went up last year and I couldn't follow. So steep!

At the top!

In Bukcheon

In Bukcheon

In Bukcheon

Samcheong-dong

Gyeongbok Palace at night

Easy Tuesday

I was so tired this morning, for the first time in a long time, I was woken up by my alarm. It was raining today and I was a little concerned because my 6th graders were going on a field trip and with the rain I wasn't sure if it was going to be cancelled or not. The 5th graders were supposed to go on a field trip today too, but theirs was called off yesterday. I had done my lesson planning so, I was prepared in case they were still there, but I was hoping it wouldn't be necessary. My co-teacher hadn't arrived by 8:50 (when we usually head to the English room) so I was getting nervous--when she finally arrived I went to go ask her and she told me they were still going. Whew. I worked ahead on some lesson plans for my 5th graders and also did some online training for my EPIK program (the group I'm hired through).

After school I took a little breather and then headed to Hongdae to meet Jacob for dinner. I stopped in a shoe store in the subway and was tempted to buy some shoes...but resisted. For now. I met Jacob and we went to a Greek restaurant. It was pretty good. I had a chicken gyro. When we left the chef started talking to us (in Korean) and asked us where we were from. When we said "American" he asked us "but you're Korean people right?" He asked us what part of America and when I said Michigan he asked me if I went the U of M. I said, no, but my older brother did/is. Then he points to Jacob and asks me if Jacob is my older brother! Jacob is 23 so he told him, "she's my nuna" (older sister) and the chef just looked at us like we were crazy. We left the restaurant and went to a coffee shop and got iced tea. We sat and talked for a long time.

Picture courtesy of Jacob

Yeoido and Han River

Classes went okay. The first class missed about 20 minutes because the vice principal made a really long Monday morning announcement! The other 3 classes had a pop song lesson, so it was pretty easy. They enjoyed it.

After school, I went to Yeoido (an 'island' in the Han River, though it's mostly attached to land). It's a big financial/business area. I met Kwang Min and we went to dinner at a BBQ place. We had a set menu that came with pork--and then squid and pig skin... I only had the pork--I wasn't up to the squid or skin. Though everyone says that having pig skin is good for your health/skin I'm not too sure about that. After dinner, we went to a pie/bakery shop and got a few little pie cups and a cream puff to go. We walked to Yeoido Park and then on to the Han River. We sat by the river and ate the cream puff. Kwang Min also helped me with some Korean.

Baking, Soccer and Church

This morning I didn't do much--caught up on my blog and uploaded pictures. Then I went to Hapjeong to the Homeplus to meet Kwangmin and buy a beater. We got to the store and the sales clerk actually recognized me/us, haha. I also got a measuring cup, but it's not in the measurements that I'm used to, so it's a little difficult to use. I wish I had brought measuring cups along.

Anyway, after shopping, we came back to my area and had lunch at a bibimbap restaurant near where I live. Then it was time to tackle cookie baking. Kwang Min had never baked before so it was fun showing him what to do. I made my favorite pudding cookies, but I don't think the pudding mix was as much as normal because they weren't as moist as they normally are--but I'll get to that later. Well, we tried using my new beaters, but even at the lowest setting they are way too fast/powerful. The butter went flying when the beaters touched them. Another problem is that the bowl is kind of shallow, so the next purchase is a bowl with taller sides! So, we just used muscle power to mash the butter up. It was a little bit of work, but not too hard. The first batch we put in came out a little burnt-but only on one side of them. The rest turned out pretty nice. However, later when people were eating them I noticed they were crumbly and they're never crumbly. :(

After we finished baking we headed out to soccer, bringing along a cookie for every person. Kwang Min also took about 5 cookies back with him (he put the batter on the tray!) I handed out cookies before soccer and everyone seemed pretty happy. :) We had 10 people show up for soccer. Originally Jacob and I got put on the same team and I teased him because he wanted to be on opposite teams so he could play against me (he's a forward and I play defense). Then John, our captain, made me switch to the other team because there was one guy wearing a shirt the same color as the pennies. The last 5 minutes that I played were probably the best--I had two big defensive plays (against Jacob) and I also had a good shot on goal.

I took off for church and made it there just in time to change into regular clothes and sit down. Father Bernard had mass again, but the other 3 priests were also helping with the mass. After church I stopped in Hongdae to meet Kwangmin and had dinner. We went to Isaac's Toast (the sandwich place I ate at while at Inje so often) and I got the "bacon best" sandwich and a kiwi juice. Mm...just like in the old days.

Isaac Toast!