Breaking Ji out of "prison" and back to Kyunghee University

Jacob and I met in Hapjeong to go visit Ji. My friend is still in the hospital after his knee surgery. He said he will probably be released Nov 3, the final push-back. And he’ll start working on the 6^th. Poor guy. Anyway, we arrived at the hospital and found him on the roof with another roommate. He didn’t have crutches or a wheelchair with him! He had started walking about 2 days earlier. We asked what he wanted for lunch and he said he wanted to break out of his “prison” and go to Wangsimni Station (big subway station with a mall and movie theater above the station). We had lunch in the food court and then talked about watching a movie. So we went to the CGV and looked at the movies and times. Nothing really jumped out at us, so we decided to pass. Ji called his girlfriend, Yeojin and told her to come meet us. We browsed in some of the stores and then went to meet Yeojin when she arrived. She hadn’t eaten anything so she went to get some bread and then we did a little bit more ‘shopping’/browsing. Ji wanted to do a photobooth thing—where you can get your pictures taken with your friends with different backgrounds and add decorations to the pictures, but when we went to where he thought the store was, it wasn’t there anymore. We went to get coffee instead and sat outside talking. Jacob had bought Uno, so we taught them Uno and played a few rounds.

Ji was getting tired—he hasn’t been doing too much at the hospital and he hasn’t been walking for long. We did quite a bit of walking earlier so he and Yeojin went back to the hospital. Jacob and I went on to visit Kyunghee University. We figured since we were already on the east side of Seoul we should visit our alma mater. Jacob did the Kyunghee University program (that I did last fall) in March. There was a fried rice/stirfry place we both knew so we picked that for dinner. When we arrived to the area, we couldn’t find the restaurant! We spent about 10 minutes walking around trying to find it. Just as we were about to give up we decided to go one other direction and…there it was! “Oori Doori” is the name of the restaurant. We got ‘pizza fried rice’ with extra cheese. Yum. It was delicious. Then we went to take a walk on campus and went to visit our old language building. We stopped to get ice cream at a Baskin Robbins and then took the subway back to the west side.

Sungmin and Yeojin

Jacob and me

Giving punishment for losing

Pizza Fried Rice--yum!!

Camera and Friends

Made it through the long day, but it wasn’t too bad. I don’t really mind it too much because I have 3 of my 5^th grade classes and 3 of my 6^th grade classes so it keeps it different and interesting.

After school I came home for a little break and then went to Yongsan to the electronics market. I met Kwang Min so we could look at cameras for me. Since my little point and shoot camera stopped working after my color run, I’ve been on the hunt for a new one. We went just to kind of feel and look at the different designs and models. I’m not sure what to do because the cameras are so much more expensive in Korea. I had price shopped a little and they are anywhere between $20-40 less back home.

Kwang Min and I went back to Hongdae after about an hour of looking. We walked around to find a restaurant he had looked up, but we couldn't find it so we went to an Italian place we'd gone to before. We ordered a pizza and salad and sat outside on the terrace. After dinner we walked around Hongdae and met up with Jacob and his friend, Bernard. Today was Jacob's Gotcha Day so it was fun to celebrate his special day together.  

Favorite Day of the Work Week

Thursdays remain one of my favorite workweek days. I love seeing my 5th graders and I only have 4 classes. Today we did a pop song. I asked them to listen for words they heard in a song. I counted how many words each class remembered and so they felt a big "competition" between them and the other classes--it was a good motivator for them to remember more words!

In the evening I went to Hongdae and met Jacob and another adoptee, Maree. She and I had been in brief contact earlier in the summer but never had a chance to meet up. Jacob is friends with Maree so we decided we'd meet up the 3 of us. We had dinner at Burger Joint, which apparently is part of a chain/restaurant in New York that is popular/famous. It was pretty good, but a lot of food so I was quite full. We chatted for awhile and then walked Maree back towards the subway. Jacob and I did some shopping and walked to Hapjeong to get some ice cream.

Also, finally snapped a picture of my new running shoes! 

Dinner--fries in the bag!

New Shoes

Concert

Classes went okay—I think my favorite 6^th grade classes are 5 and 4. They participate and are happy. Though class 5 was probably only especially happy today because they changed seats. There was open class today (and also next week—that’s when I’ll be observed) so I went with my 5^th grade co teacher to watch some of the classes. We basically just popped in and out of all the 5^th and 6^th grade classrooms and saw what they were teaching. It was funny because the students can act so differently in our room or in their homeroom. Kelly teacher said she felt betrayed by one student because he is so bad for us and was acting so well in his homeroom!

In the evening I met Kwangmin in the subway station at Yeodio (where he works) and then went on to Gangnam area for a concert. Kwang Min volunteered as an English teacher for North Korean defectors last year and they were having a benefit concert. We had dinner before we went to the concert. He picked up the tickets and then we sat outside a little before the concert started. It was so cold today! I'm not ready for winter that's for sure. The concert was pretty good. A few orchestral pieces in the first half. Then after intermission they had a few 'opera' type singers sing along with some songs. We ducked out halfway through the second half because it was getting late and it was about an hour commute for both of us to get back.

Breakfast sandwich--yes, I bought the more expensive whole wheat bread!!

A cool musical water fountain outside

Waiting for the concert to start

Tuesdays with Jacob

Classes were a little difficult today. I had 5 classes and had to teach 3 different lessons. It kept things from being boring, but it also threw me out of my rhythm once you ‘learn’ how to do the lesson with the kids.

After school I went to Emart to buy a blanket to bring to school. My 5^th grade co teacher suggested I have a blanket because I sit by the window in the teachers’ office and she said I might be cold this winter. While I was there, I also grabbed some whole wheat bread, cheese and bacon. I decided I should get stuff so I can eat a bigger breakfast in the mornings. I usually get hungry around 2^nd or 3^rd period (between 10 and 11). I dropped everything off at home and went to go meet Jacob for dinner. We went to the same BBQ place the first time we met. It was, for some reason, a little bit better this time. Maybe because we were both really hungry it tasted especially good. After we ate, I ran to the “dollar store” to get a few things and then we went to the same coffee shop we went to the previous week. We sat and chatted for awhile. 

Jacob grilling dinner

In Daiso

Canadian Thanksgiving

Kids were okay today. Nothing too special happened at school.

At my housewarming party, Tim had mentioned a get together for Canadian Thanksgiving. He deemed me an honorary Canadian, being from Michigan. He also named Min Kyung honorary Canadian by being married to one and Kwang Min also because he lived there for 3 years. So, I met a group of the Canadians—Kim, Tim, Krystle, Priscilla (also mentioned earlier-the day of the color run), Amanda (another English teacher I don’t know too well) and Sallya (another English teacher I don’t know well). We went to a restaurant called Rocky Mountain Tavern. It was mostly just western food, though they did have poutine, which was not given a super high rating from the Canadians. I got a Tex-Mex burger and it was pretty good. After dinner we went to a café and sat on the roof terrace and chatted.

Canadian Thanksgiving

Some of our food

My Tex-Mex burger

Min Kyung and me outside on the terrace--I love this girl!

Tacos, soccer and church

I met Jacob for lunch near Hongdae. We went to a Mexican restaurant—I had a burrito and it was pretty darn good. We walked around a bit and tried to decide what to do. I brought all of my soccer stuff along because I didn’t know what our plan was—I had been thinking I’d just walk to the stadium again after we had lunch. But, we hung out and ended up going back to his guesthouse for a little before soccer.

There were so many people at soccer—we had 14 people I think. There were a lot of returnees there this week. Some of them I hadn’t seen before or some I had met awhile ago and hadn’t seen since I’ve been back. It’s a bit harder to play when there are over 12. The space gets a bit cramped and its harder to play-everyone is clustered together.

I left early again to head to church. Before soccer started, one of the guys, Andy asked me if I was coming weekly now. I said yes. He also asked if me leaving early was weekly as well. I also answered yes and told him I go to church at Sogang at 7:30. He lives near Sogang so he actually gave me a tip about getting there a little bit easier and with less walking. It was so helpful because I was actually a little early for church and had time to change into regular clothes and make it into the church before mass started. The Korean priest had mass, but the Indian priest gave the homily. It was really good—about being thankful and making sure we say thank you and really mean it.

On the way home, I stopped in Hongdae and went to Issac's for toast with Kwangmin again. We walked to Hapjeong Station and I came home.

Mmm burrito

Hungry for a burrito!

Jacob wanted to play photographer--and wanted me to wear his sunglasses

Jacob's reflection in his sunglasses