Bohye and Samgypsal

Classes went okay. My COT let the students pick their seats and it was a bit of a disaster. Each class was so chatty and loud. At the end of almost all of them, we had to tell them that they would be going back to their old seats because they couldn't concentrate on the lesson.

I had to go make copies so I went down to the main office. When I opened the door, I noticed a bunch of staff and some office workers sitting around the main table in the middle of the room eating fried chicken. When the door opened they turned and some of them looked a bit startled. I bowed/nodded to them and walked to the copier. One of them got up and told me to join them for the chicken. I tried to decline and said "I'm okay" but they kept insisting and in the Korean way, I finally had to join them. After eating the chicken and cleaning up, they said there was ice cream too and I got some ice cream. That was a nice surprise and unexpected Monday afternoon treat!

After work I went to Hongdae to meet Bohye for dinner. She and I did a little bit of shopping before Jacob joined us when he finished work. I gave Bohye a few suggestions of places we know in Hongdae and she picked Jacob's Imo's place for samgypsal (bbq pork). It was really delicious. It was served on a grill on an angle so when the pork cooked the juices flowed down through the kimchi and bean sprouts at the bottom of the pan. There were also mushrooms and garlic cooked on the pan as well. We finished dinner and walked back to the main part of Hongdae. Bohye said her best friend was also in Hongdae and she wanted to introduce us to her, so we met up and had bingsu together (shaved ice). We got fruit and yogurt bingsu. It was pretty good.

It was getting a little late and everyone had stuff to do in the morning, so we all went on our ways, but as we were leaving, Jacob noticed a famous Korean KPOP singer (one he happens to love) and just to double check he asked Bohye if that was in fact, Hyunah. She said it was her. Jacob wistfully watched her walk away and we said goodbye to Bohye. I then suggested to Jacob we go follow them and see if he could get a picture with her or something. He declined a few times, but we kept walking in the same direction so finally he agreed. We caught up to them and he snapped a picture before one of her crew members came over and said that we couldn't take pictures.

After that, Jacob walked me to a bus so I could take the bus home.

Samgypsal cooking

All finished now add egg, rice, lettuce and other veggies

Fried rice!

Jacob and Bohye

Fruit yogurt bingsu

Skype and Soccer

This morning I skyped with my Mom. We talked for over 3 hours! It was really good to just talk with her. I have a countdown until I come home for my vacation and it's only 38 days. I'm super excited.

After skyping with Mom, I mixed up my cookie dough to restock the frozen dough. I'm still amazed at myself that I never thought to do it before. It's really great--I love that I can just thaw a few and in 10 minutes I can have just 6 or 7 cookies out of the oven. It's perfect. Next I ran to get a few groceries and some food waste bags. While doing my errands Jacob messaged me that he was back in Seoul from his language summer camp teaching.

I took the subway and then bus to get to his place. We hung out in his guesthouse for a bit before going to get dinner at the kimbap shop. After dinner, we got ready for soccer and headed to the World Cup stadium. It's been awhile since we've played there; they are adding one more field so there will be 3 footsal fields. It's not completed yet, but it looks like it will be finished soon. We saw Felix and Stefano there and the guys talked about the World Cup. A few more arrived and we headed to our field. This week we had 11; maybe it had something to do with being from 8-10pm. I managed to have one goal. I also played opposite Jacob which is always tough for me because he's hard for me to defend against. Plus I'd rather be on the same team. :)

Seoul Racecourse Park

This morning I woke up not too early, but not as late as I would have liked either. I started doing dishes and noticed a lot of fruit flies. Last week I had a bit of an incident with quite a bit of them in my food waste bag. Well, I didn't learn my lesson from last week and within 5 short days the bag was yet again overflowing with fruit flies and other disgusting insects you don't want to see under your sink. I pulled everything out from under the counter and bleached it. I also managed to close the bag tightly before many fruit flies flew out and trapped them in there and took the bag outside to the container on the street.

I tidied up my room before heading out to meet Krystle. As usual, she was running late and I had to wait about 15 minutes for her at the station. We had decided we wanted to do something besides the typical lunch or dinner date and I suggested the horse race park. She looked it up and thought it sounded like fun too. We were both kind of scared to try and bet (I'm not sure I'd even know how to do it in the US, let alone in Korea with a Korean betting card!) so we didn't, though maybe if I return to the race park I will just for the heck of it.

When we first go there we were afraid maybe there weren't any races at the track and only on the screen because the track part looked pretty quiet. Then all of a sudden there was an influx of people; they appeared out of nowhere and stood along the fence. We went and joined them and it turns out there was a race! It was exciting even though we didn't bet on any horses and knew absolutely nothing. I had been to a horse race park in Busan in 2011 with my host family; that one and this one are part of the Korea Racing Authority (KRA) so both seemed slightly similar to each other. There was a tunnel that lead to a park/playground on the in field of the track. We walked around there a little and then went back to the track side to watch some more races. I think the last race of the day was around 5pm because when we left after that race a lot of other people were leaving as well.

Krystle and I parted ways on the subway and I came home. I got kimbap and made mandu for dinner. The rest of the evening I just relaxed at home.

Mural in the subway

Horse Racecourse Park

Weigh in

At the finish line!

Krsytle and me in free visors!

Found this little cutie

At the end of the last race

4th of July!

I had to explain what 4th of July was to my students. One class had no idea what we celebrated on this day, but I guess it makes sense because I don't know other country's independence days or their holidays either.

After work, I headed to Hongdae to meet up with Jacob. We went to a new restaurant called The Beastro; we heard that it was new American cuisine. I thought that would be a fitting choice on the 4th. As it turned out, they had a special menu for the 4th, which was fine, but we're curious to see what's on their regular menu and need to go back again! We ordered the fried chicken with grits and macaroni and cheese. Both were really good. For dessert we got the PB & J Bread pudding. That was really delicious too--served with a scoop of ice cream on top too. Yum! We finished dinner and decided we'd walk it off and walked to Jacob's guesthouse. He had to pack and get ready for his weekend of teaching a summer camp and I thought I'd hang out with him a little bit more before heading home.

Jacob and our yummy dinner!

PB & J bread pudding!

Me with our delicious dessert

Eric's Farewell BBQ

After work I stopped at home to grab some cookie dough. Then I met Jacob at the subway and we went to his guesthouse. Our friend Eric is leaving Korea in a few days. He was the program coordinator for the Mentor Program we did. Eric lives at the Inkas guesthouse with a few other people we know. He'll be heading back to the US to start grad school in New York. Anyway, he wanted to get a few people together for a BBQ on the roof of the Inkas house; Jacob's guesthouse is 2 doors down from the Inkas' house.

We tried using the oven at Jacob's house, but it was taking a long time to heat up so we ended up just taking the dough over to Woori Jip (the name of the Inkas house) and I popped them into the oven there. When we arrived, Eric and some other friends were finishing up preparation and taking stuff to the roof. We had samgypsal (a bacon type cut of meat), kimchi, tofu, rice and veggies. It was a nice night to eat on the roof. It had rained earlier in the day and was still a bit overcast, but it was cooler out. It was a fun night and sad to know Eric is leaving.

The spread!

L to R: Jacob, me, Patrik, Kasey and Eric

Intermediate Korean Class

Work went alright, nothing to special to report.

After work, I stopped home to change into my rain boots because rain was in the forecast. As it turned out it really only sprinkled a little and all while I was in class so I didn't need to get them. Before class I did a little bit of shopping--I had to buy my new level textbook-and then ate the dinner I packed.

Class went alright. There are a few new students and a few familiar faces from my previous class. At the end of the 4 chapters a test is required before passing on to the next level. I'm a little nervous for this section; looking ahead most everything looks new and my guess is that I'll be doing this level a few times at least. Which won't be a bad thing-there's nothing wrong with repeating until I get something!

Jacob's Friend and July!

Tuesdays continue to be one of the hardest days of the week. The first two 6th grade classes were the same as yesterday's lesson. The third 6th grade class was my bad class. They were surprisingly quiet, but not attentive. After them, one of the harder 5th grade classes-they were quite loud and rowdy. After lunch, two more 5th grade classes and they were okay.

When work was over, I stopped at home for a short break before meeting Jacob at my subway station to head to Hongdae. We met his friend, Sam. Sam is in Korea on an adoptee tour, Journey Tour. One of my friends from a long time ago at Korean Culture Camp also went on the same tour! What a small world. For dinner we went to Bonga, one of our favorite BBQ restaurants. After dinner we went to a cafe to chat a little bit more. It was fun meeting one of Jacob's good friends from home.