Lazy Monday

Well I woke up around 1:30am for no reason that I can figure except I was feeling really hot and a little hungry. I had a snack but then I felt wide awake. Lucky for me, Jacob was awake watching the Holland-Mexico game. He and I chatted a little bit until the game finished--a win by Holland that had Jacob on the edge of his seat and jumping for joy at the end. After the game, he went to sleep, but I was still awake. I finally fell asleep later on.

Thank goodness Mondays have an easy start for me. This week my 6th graders wrote some postcards. It was an easy lesson to teach and a lot of fun. At the end of the day we had a staff meeting. It finished early and so I was able to head home early.

Since I passed my Korean level test last week, I now have classes on Wednesdays. It was nice not to have to go to class today. I don't think I would have been able to sit through class fully functioning otherwise. At home I had a snack and cleaned up my place a little. I did some errands around my neighborhood and relaxed. It was nice to take it easy on a weeknight and stay in. Jacob met up with one of his good Korean friends for dinner--he finished the initial part of his military service on Saturday and has a week off.

Repeat of Last Weekend

This weekend was so similar to last weekend, but it was great all the same. Jacob came over for brunch and I made some breakfast sandwiches with bacon, eggs, mushroom, onions and used the sauce from last nights dinner. They also turned out quite delicious.

When we had finished tidying up, we headed out to soccer. We got to the I'park mall early so Jacob stopped in the Adidas and Nike store to check out soccer stuff. We then went to warm-up. A couple guys were already there. The guys juggled the ball around, but I just sat in the shade out of the sun. It was so hot out. As it turned out, after the "mishap" of having 4 teams last week, we told the high school boys not to return til late fall. And then, people came late and we ended up only having about 10 people total. It would have been nice to have 3 teams so you could sit out and take a break since it was hot. There were a couple new faces this week too.

After soccer, Jacob and I took the subway to church. We stopped at the Tom n Tom's cafe and got a pretzel and cleaned up for church. This week there was a new Korean priest. He was pretty good. When church was over, we headed to Jacob's neighborhood for dinner again at the kimbap shop. Dinner was delicious-I ordered bulgogi stew and Jacob got the "military stew" (it has spam, hot dog, ham, noodles, vegetables and a spicy broth). This dish was popular after the Korean War because many ingredients were scarce or hard to find. We also got mandu. Every meal is served with side dishes, and tonight we were given 6 different sides! There was so much food on our table! We finished dinner and I took a bus home. On a whim, I stopped in the Emart to see if meat was on sale. It was marked down 49%! I snagged 3 packages of ground beef to restock my freezer.

Delicious hearty breakfast sandwich!

Skype and another Lazy Saturday

Yet another lazy weekend, but with the World Cup early mornings it seems like I need to catch up on sleep often.

Jacob came over and we skyped with Mom, Grandpa and Mart. It was good to see all of them again. Jacob got to meet Mart finally, too. And of course we were entertained by Toby walking in and out of the room in the background.

After skyping, we went to lunch in my area. The rest of the afternoon we just hung out and watched some TV and relaxed. For dinner, I made "unstuffed" stuffed peppers. It had ground beef, bell pepper, onions and tomato sauce. It turned out really good. Jacob tried the sauce as I was cooking and asked if I could make it a little bit spicier, so I added some gochujang (red pepper paste) and it was a really nice little added kick to it. We ate it with the healthy (black) rice that I have.

Jacob did the dishes and we let dinner settle a bit before heading to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream. Always a nice treat!

Delicious healthy dinner

Ice cream!!

TGIF~~Another Long Week

I stayed up til 3 to see the end of the US-Germany game. The lose was a disappointment, but it didn't matter; the US still advances to sweet 16 in the World Cup! I can't lie, in the 2nd half I did keep dozing off--it was so hard to stay awake, especially since I had been woken up around 5:30 am the previous morning from the construction site. That means I was almost up for 24 hours straight. Yowza!

My alarm woke me wayyy sooner than I wanted it to! I got ready for school and somehow managed to get to school a little early. Classes went okay; two of my 5th grade classes on Friday are really far behind the other classes-it was strange to teach them a lesson that is almost 2 chapters behind.

After work, I went in search of some fruit (small peaches) and stopped in a kimbap shop to see if they had japchae bap (the noodle dish I like). They did so I decided I'd order that as my dinner and bring it home. I also got some bread from a bakery. I came home and tidied up the place a bit. Things got a bit neglected during the week. Then I went to the bibimbap restaurant in front of my building and got Jacob a take-out meal. Jacob came up to my area for dinner and we had dinner in. It was nice to relax and stay in. The rest of the evening was pretty low key-we just watched some TV and relaxed before he headed home.

Lions Club Farewell Dinner

Nothing too exciting at school. There were some computer desks along the window and they were never used but the students always played with them. As it turned out, they finally took them out. So, we had to go to the students' homerooms for 2 class periods. I love teaching the 4th graders because they're so excited about English and the activities. I had a writing game where they had to pick one word out of 6 on the screen. Hidden behind each word were "stars"; they needed to collect stars for points. You would have thought they won the lottery when the word they wrote had 6 stars behind it! "YAAAAAYYYYY!!!" Haha.

After work, I stopped at home briefly. Then I went to one subway station to meet Jacob. We went to the Gwanghwamun area to meet up with the Lions Club. As we left the subway station, an elderly gentleman asked me which direction Gwanghwamun was. At first listen, I didn't understand him and was just going to shake my head and hands and keep going; Jacob was still in motion too. But he said it again and I spoke a little Korean and pointed the direction to him. I felt happy that I helped him.

We waited for the group to arrive and saw them entering the building next to where we were standing. Jacob and I walked over there and saw the InKAS president; even though Jacob works for her they're not on good terms because he also works for GOA'L (and she despises GOA'L). So, it was a little bit awkward. She was so surprised to see us there too, but Mr. Kwon greeted both of us with big hugs. He pulled Jacob aside as we were walking to dinner and said "whatever you do, don't mention you work for that other ogranization!" We kind of chuckled and said we know, and she already knows that he works there.

The dinner was at a nice Italian place. We were greeted warmly by the Korean Lions. I saw one elderly member who I remember from my trip. He actually went out with all the guys and me to watch some of the World Cup soccer game that was being played at City Hall in the rain! Jacob and I sat at one of the "kids" tables. I also ran into another adoptee, Adam. I met him in Chicago at the Lions Club picnic in 2012 and randomly re-met him in Korea through my friend Krystle and her friend Tina. (Small, small world!) He was surprised to see me there. His brother was on the tour so he was visiting with him. Jacob was feeling a bit uncomfortable with the president there; she also kept glaring at us I think. But he decided he'd stay after all. The Lions Club members had some speeches and Ms. Kish was given a special award as an honorary Lion. Then we were flooded with InKAS propaganda and a major plug for them. (They help provide touring stuff for the trip; volunteers and some planning) Dinner was broccoli soup, a salad and a small, thin steak with some vegetables. After dinner some Korean Lions were leaving and Jacob and I thought it would be a good time for us to duck out too. I said my goodbyes and got hugs. It turns out Mr. Kwon will be here 2 more weeks, so I'm hoping I'll be able to see him a few more times before he leaves. Though he is staying longer because his older brother is sick and he's not sure when he will be back in Korea.

After dinner we went back to Jacob's area. He stopped at Burger King to get a snack and we sat and ate in the park. We went to his guesthouse so I could fill up some water bottles before I grabbed a bus to come home. I ended up staying up til 1 to watch the US-Germany soccer game.

The Lion that I met in 2010

Giving Ms. Kish her honorary award

Mr. Kwon giving a very heartfelt speech-as always.

That's my baby.

Steak dinner!

LIONS CLUB REUNION!

 Right before I had my first class walk in, I noticed I was getting a call from Mr. Kwon! I answered and chatted with him briefly. He told me the Lions Club group was going to the DMZ tour and having dinner and going to a show in the evening and I could join. He said he'd call back later.

Classes went fine-our 4th period was cancelled because they were having an educational video for the students to watch I guess. At lunch Mr. Kwon called back and I also talked with Jason. He told me to meet them at their hotel when I was finished with work. The afternoon passed slowly-I was so excited to see some familiar faces.

I took the bus and made my way to their hotel. I arrived a few minutes before them and saw the bus pull up. The first one off the bus was Ms. Kish. She was also a chaperon for my trip, though she is not a Lions Club member. She gave me a big hug. I saw Mr. Kwon next and got a big hug from him. :) He introduced me to some of the kids before they went to their rooms to freshen up. I also got a hug from Jason. Brenton participated in my group as well and was there as a "role model"/cool guy for the participants I guess. There were also 3 women that were in their 40's+. One of them lives in Grand Rapids and is active in an adoptee group that I know of. She actually heard about the trip through me when I posted information about it. I felt kind of proud to have contributed to the group numbers.

Jacob was going to meet us for dinner, but when I found out the show was in Hongdae, I figured it would make more sense for him to just stay there and skip dinner since he was running late from work too. The group walked to a Chinese restaurant in the area. We all got jjajangmyeon (a kind of black bean sauce with noodles) and shared mandu and sweet and sour pork for dinner. It was pretty good. When dinner was over, we walked to the subway and headed to Hongdae. I felt like the expert telling them to stand on the left side of the car because the doors to Hongdae would open on that side.

We met up with Jacob outside the exit and I introduced him to Mr. Kwon first. Then as we were walking he also met Ms. Kish. Who told him to take care of me or she would beat him up. She's a character for sure. I introduced him to Jason as we got closer to the venue for the BBOY (break dancing) show. It turns out Jacob had already seen the show last year, but it was still a free performance for us. It was okay, but the seats were just benches which was really uncomfortable. My leg started cramping up really bad. There was one performer that looked like our friend Todd from the mentoring program. It was a story about these high school kids and them fighting and becoming friends at the end even though they're all different (jocks, geeks, etc).

After the show, we got some pictures and went our different ways. I ended up walking back part of the way with Jacob and taking a bus home.

Mr. Kwon and me!

Got to introduce Jacob to my Chicago Appa!

Mini 2010 Reunion! L-R: Brenton, Jason, Mr. Kwon, me and Ms. Kish

Terrible Tuesdays

What a long day of teaching. I had my tough class of 6th graders and after them one of the worse 5th grade classes. It's sad because that 5th grade class hadn't been so bad, but recently they've taken a turn for the worse. One boy had his cellphone in class and I asked to have it during the class period. He thought it was funny and was hiding it and wouldn't give it to me, so I told him he would have to 1. Give me the phone and 2. Wait after class (this period is right before lunch) for wasting our time. At the end of class I made him stay and he seemed a little bit unsure of himself and not as class clown-like. My coteacher said he seemed a little scared to be alone and have to stay.

The first class after lunch has one boy I had been struggling to reach and had the turn-around in the past month. I make it an effort to praise him as often as I can since he's been doing so well.

On Monday I had my friend MK order rain boots for me through her account and have them mailed to my address. While I was at school I got a text message saying the package would be delivered between 11-1 and if I wasn't going to be there could I send permission to leave it with my building doorman. I responded (with more help from MK) that it would be fine. When I returned home, I saw my package! I tried on my blue rain boots-they're a little on the bigger side, but I think it will be okay.

After work I came home and started working on dinner. I had a lot of veggies that I didn't want to go to waste. I made stuffed mushrooms, meatballs, homemade tomato sauce and pasta. Everything turned out pretty well. Again I was able to use the second burner, but it  still took me an hour and a half to get everything completed. I think having the small work space puts a hamper on my efficiency and slows me down some. At least I hope so. Jacob arrived as I was finishing everything up. It has now become routine that he does the dishes after I cook. He was looking for a translator for his friend and I remembered my volunteer from the mentoring program, EunHa. He gave her a call and they chatted a bit to work things out. I was glad to have helped his friend out with a good translator.

Dinner is served!