Surprise Day

Jacob came over so we could skype with my Mom together. We talked for about an hour. Jacob also got to see my baby. :) After talking with my Mom, I took Jacob on a surprise trip around the city. First we went to Myeongdong area so we could go to Quizno's for lunch (one of his favorite sandwich places). Then we walked through Myeongdong and stopped at a Nike store because he wanted to look at some shoes. We continued on to Jongno area and went to a PC room so we could play FIFA (soccer video game). The kind of neat thing is, I found this particular PC room last year because of my friend Mark. He and I met at Kyunghee University (he's also adopted and lived in MI) he called me his little sister. Anyway, one day I was heading to Jongno area for something and ran into him at the subway. We chatted the whole way there and still didn't finish our stories so we kept talking and walked along Cheonggyecheon for awhile. Then he said he was going to a PC room and asked if I wanted to join. I had never really been to one, so I thought I'd check it out. I realized I didn't want to play computer or video games so after I saw it, I told him I'd be off on my own way. So I remembered it was pretty nice inside and thought it would be a nice treat for Jacob.

After FIFA, we went to Dongdaemun to look at the Nike stores there. We are also on the hunt for a tshirt for my friend Ji's birthday. We went into one of the department stores and got Auntie Anne's pretzels. After walking around (it started raining after we finished at the PC room) we decided we'd check out Ewha for dinner and go back to an Italian/Western place we went to once. As soon as we turned down the alley we got concerned because the place looked pretty dark. Bummer. It was closed. So, we walked to Sinchon and were going to get samgypal (bbq pork) but looked at some Italian places along the way. I saw Seogo and Cook, a restaurant chain I went to with my Korean friend Yiseul. I suggested it to Jacob so we went to check it out. I thought we'd look at the menu and decide from there, but he followed the guy to a table. I asked why and he said it smelled so good he decided we'd eat there. We ordered a chicken and mushroom cream pasta. Yum! After dinner we went to Hapjeong and on to the...Nike store again. Jacob finally bought the pair of shoes. We split there and I came back to watch a movie before going to bed.

Finally, Quiznos!

Finally FIFA!

Delicious dinner!

Happy New Year!

In the morning I got to skype with my Grandpa. I was so happy because it's been almost a month since we talked I think. We chatted for about an hour. Jacob and I met in Itaewon for lunch. We figured a lot of places would be open there because it's the international area and more restaurant owners wouldn't be Korean and off celebrating the New Year. I'd heard about this place called JR Southern BBQ, so we thought we'd try it out. We both ordered the pulled beef brisket sandwich. I thought it was pretty good, but Jacob was really happy, being a Southern boy and said it was like home. I wanted to find a cafe or dessert place so we wandered around and found all the places on the list closed for the holiday. What to do next? We walked the the War Memorial Museum. I've been there a few times, but Jacob has never been.

After the museum we came back to my place and got a few groceries (broccoli) and I made dinner. I made my favorite stuffed meatballs. I used the stuffing mix Jacob brought from the US and the cream of mushroom soup my mom sent me. It was almost as good as usual, but I had to use soy milk instead of regular milk and it gave the sauce a little bit of a sweeter taste. I also had to buy some ground pork because the biggest package of ground beef was only less that 3/4 of a pound and was 13,000W!! We also made broccoli for our veggies. Jacob loves broccoli and we almost ate 2 heads of broccoli with dinner. When we finished eating Jacob did the dishes and then we watched The Office.

Southern BBQ for lunch

Inside the museum

Making my magic

Prepping

Cooked meatballs

Complete meal!

First Day of the Holiday

In the morning I was able to skype with my Mom. I was glad because it's been awhile since we've talked. After talking with her, I met Jacob for lunch. We just went to the emart food court because we weren't sure what else would be open. In the afternoon I updated my blog and hung out. Krystle and I met in Hongdae for dinner. First I showed her a few restaurants in the area and then we went to Oodle Noodle for Pad Thai (not as good as in Thailand!). After dinner she and I did a little bit of shopping.

End of the Work Week!

How nice to have a 3 day work week after coming back from a vacation! Classes went alright; we ended up just going to their homerooms instead of messing with the screen. Our 4th class cancelled because the teacher was going to teach them a graduation song I guess. My COT informed me that our computer system was being updated over our holiday weekend so I needed to save my files. I'm very thankful she informed me of that; think of all my plans and hard work gone if she hadn't told me!

After work, I met Jacob in Itaewon. We went to Vatos for Mexican. It was amazing. Originally I was going to get a burrito and he was going to get tacos, but we wanted to try the kimchi pork french fries. I thought it would be too much with a burrito so we split the fries, 3 small tacos and chili. It ended up being the perfect amount. After dinner we walked around a little and looked for a place for dessert. We found a nice little cafe and shared a red velvet cake and a chocolate cake with ice cream.

Kimchi Pork Fries...yum!!

Tacos

One happy guy!

Chili

Walking around Itaewon

Red Velvet Cake

Chocolate cake

Terrible Tuesday?

Back to teaching... My COT and I got the go ahead to return to the English room finally. Well, that turned out to be a disaster. The first class it worked fine. During the break though, the screen went out. My COT asked me if I turned the screen off and I said no. We tried touching it and it wouldn't turn back on. She called the IT person and I tried my best to keep class going as they were working on the screen. They finally got it to work and after about 15 minutes it went off again. This on and off continued all morning. It was really, really frustrating. After lunch we decided to go to the classroom for the final class. When I finished teaching, I worked on lesson plans for the rest of the afternoon.

After work, I went to Myeongdong to meet Jacob. My 5th grade COT was also going to Myeongdong area, so we took the bus together and I showed her pictures from my trip. Jacob and I met up and went to the Myeongdong noodle dumpling soup restaurant. After we ate we walked around a little before Jacob said there was something he wanted to buy. I was a little puzzled when we went to the store I got my winter jacket from and then he showed me the watches there and said he wanted to buy one for me because my other one had broke. Then we went to a dessert place that I had gone to in the late summer with my friend MK. We ordered a brownie with vanilla gelato, yum! We called it a night rather early and I came home and did some tidying up in my place before going to bed.

Dessert!

An Easy Day Back

Waking up was hard to do. Morning definitely came too soon. It was also way too cold for me. I was definitely wishing for some nice Malaysian sun and warmth.

I got to school and was one of the first ones back. Said hellos and pleasantries to the teachers as they all trickled in. My life COT came up to me and told me that I was to be helping with some interviews for an English teacher (native Korean) later in the afternoon and I needed to think up a few questions! Then she gave me their lesson plans to evaluate. I did that and worked on some other plans. Then my life COT told me to go to lunch with her and some other teachers. All the teachers were leaving the school to go for lunch. I believe the students had just a half day, but we needed to be there til 4:40.

Anyway, we went to an Italian place across from school. I ordered a cream pasta with bacon and broccoli in a bread bowl. Talk about carbs! But, it was pretty good. After lunch, we went back to school. I think we had a long lunch break because 2 of the other teachers that went to lunch with us said they were running to the bank and most teachers didn't return for awhile after I did. At 2, I went to the interviews. It was strange to be on the other side! The first teacher seemed really sweet, but extremely nervous. I liked her answers at the end (the questions I asked). The second one seemed very confident and had good materials and a good demo lesson, but I didn't like her attitude much. After the candidates left, we talked and they asked for my opinion on pronunciation and such. I felt a lot of pressure; it was hard for me to realize my input could change these women's futures. I tried to be as nice to both as I could.

I was dismissed and went back to lesson planning, because tomorrow is back to a regular teaching day. The best thing is that it's only a 3 day week (Thursday and Friday are part of the New Year's holiday) and since today was a relaxed day, I only teach twice. It'll be a hard wake up call tomorrow though. Back to giant class sizes and tons of students. Winter camp was so wonderful....

After school I started laundry and then went to Emart to get some groceries. I got a lot of heavy items and wasn't going to be able to carry them back properly...so I turned super Korean and used the cardboard boxes they have and made up a box to pack my groceries. I took them home and then went to get some vegetables from a smaller store. After getting the veggies I did some cleaning (mold has appeared on one wall and on the window sill) and unpacking. I made ramen (and added carrots, onion and mushrooms plus egg and cheese. Oh and mandu too!) for dinner and watched tv.

Groceries in a box

Malaysia Day 9 Return Trip

We got up early and ate breakfast in our room. The night we met Prof Cho we went to a grocery store and got yogurt, fruit and cereal. Then we went to check out and get a taxi to KL Sentral to get the KLIA express to the airport. We arrived ahead of schedule and checked in at the airport. We tried asking about our flight stopping in Taipei like the one coming, but they didn't really understand us. Again, we had to wait outside the gate area until it was closer time to board and our bags were screened again. We sat in the gate area and watched as our boarding time came and went. I think we finally boarded maybe 30 minutes behind schedule. I forgot when we picked our seats we were able to get ones at the beginning of a section so we had a lot of leg room, but our trays were the pullout kind from the arm and were not very sturdy. When we were served food, I was afraid my tray was going to slide off (since it was on a slant). Jacob and I watched a movie together (he read the subtitles and I had the headphones) for the flight.

Because our take-off was a little delayed, we didn't have much time on our layover in Hong Kong. The previous time at the transfer there was no one else there and we got through in maybe 3-5 minutes. This time, there was quite a line. It still went rather quickly, but I was getting nervous about our timing and after maybe 25 we power walked to our gate. We found a bathroom to change into pants and our warm clothes and then it was time to board. Unfortunately, our plane did stop in Taipei. We asked the stewardess what happened in Taipei and she said we had the option to stay on or get out and go through security again. Jacob and I both thought just staying on was best. I took that time to take a nap. Finally, finally, around 8:30pm we landed in Seoul. We took the shuttle to the main part of the airport, went through immigration, took the airport railway, went our separate ways; I took the bus from the subway station and arrived at home. The first thing I did was take a long hot shower and then off to bed.