................Taking Flight...............: Middle of the Week

Nothing too exciting at school. Though I did decide I would add something to all my classes to get to know my students a little bit better. I gave each group (5 groups of 4-6 students in each class) a piece of paper and asked about their favorite KPOP (Korean Pop) band, American band, computer/online game and an open-ended question where they could tell me anything they wanted me to know. I also went around taking pictures of each group so I can start looking at faces and trying to learn some of the names.

Well, I got some very interesting responses to the open-ended question. They ranged from "we want candy" to "we should have a samgypsal party" (samgypsal is a thick cut of pork, like bacon that you grill). Some of them were quite entertaining. And part of the photography was a major fail, because a lot of the girls and even some of the boys became "camera shy" and hid their faces.

After work, I met my friend Kwangmin for dinner in Hongdae. He is a Korean and he plays soccer with us on Sundays. Maybe I mentioned him from Sunday's post. He found GOA'L because he met a Korean-Canadian adoptee while he was living in Canada and she talked about how she was in Korea through GOA'L. When he returned to Korea, he volunteered as a translator for GOA'L.

Anyway, we met for dinner and went to a Thai place. I ordered some stir-fried rice noodles with chicken. When it came though, I think there was also chunks of tofu and small little shrimps in it. We had a really nice time talking over dinner. He's a pretty neat guy--he's either 40 or 41, but looking at him you'd never guess it. After dinner we walked to a coffee shop and sat outside and had tea. The only bad thing was the mosquitoes that ate me up. As customary Korean culture, he walked me back to the subway even though the cafe was near his place.