Night on the Town

In the morning I skyped with Mom and Grandpa. It's been awhile since we've connected and talked for more than a few minutes. I was so glad to see them. It is so hard to be away from them.

After we talked I decided I'd head out before I was to meet Dong Gun. I first went to a bookstore and browsed there for a few things. I wandered outside a little, but it was so cold! I had a brisk walk along Cheonggyecheon (my favorite stream) before crossing City Hall and looking for a Starbucks to sit in and warm up. I sat in the Starbucks and enjoyed people watching until it was time to meet Dong Gun. He said he wanted to have dinner right away, so I changed the location of our meeting spot and walked from City Hall to Insadong. 

We met in the subway station and I took him to a traditional Korean restaurant that Katie had shown me. After dinner we took a stroll around Insadong and looked for a makgoli jip, but didn't find anything. We wandered back towards Jongno area and Dong Gun said we were on our own Camino del Santo Domingo. Finally we found a place for makgoli and also got kimchi cheon (pancake, for lack of better word) as a side. It was fun talking over makgoli and he showed me a video clip of when he was on TV in Peru! He's had a very interesting life and traveled quite a bit.

Next we went to noraebang, a singing room. Koreans love karaoke and they're all pretty good singers. I was a bit hesitant at first to go just 2 people (normally big groups go) but I remembered that Jeong Kwan and I had fun when we went in Gimhae just the two of us so I said we could try. For 1 hour and 5,000W we sang a bunch of songs, but it was hard because he didn't know many American pop songs and I definitely can't sing any Korean ones. We did try one Korean song I knew, but it was by a young female artist so he joked that he was going to change into a girl to sing the song. 

After singing, we decided to walk around a little bit more and search for something else to eat. It was not too late at night and I was surprised how empty the downtown area was. It was also one of the only times I've been downtown that late at night so it was really nice. I mean, I've been there in the evenings, but it felt a little bit different since it was quieter. We wandered towards City Hall and were headed towards Namdaemun, but I realized there wouldn't be much in that area. I suggested turning towards Myeongdong so we headed that way and found a cafe. We had tea and talked a little bit more before going to the subway station to find the subways had all stopped running. We got taxis to take us in our separate directions.

City Hall

Shaking the Makgoli

Makgoli and kimchi cheon. Staples from my Inje Days

Noraebang

Cheonggyecheon with lanterns

Out and Home

After work I headed downtown to do some shopping and other errands. I stopped in Insadong to look for some traditional gifts for the friends in Vietnam I will see and thank them for hosting me for a night. I went to a bibimbap restaurant and got take-out to have dinner at home.

I returned home and really enjoyed the bibimbap! I ate dinner with some episodes of Doctor Who and relaxed in.

Yummy bibimbap

Daddy-o's 60th

Today would have been Dad's 60th birthday. It's hard to imagine him at 60 now. I still think about him every day and miss him so much.

All this talk about leaving Korea...last night I had another dream about leaving Korea. That's 2 in 3 weeks! I'd better just put it out of my head and focus on the present and enjoy each moment.

I enjoyed seeing my 4th graders today too. They are so cute and all want to try English. I wish they could keep that excitement and courage as they got older.

After work I headed home to go for my biweekly run. I was feeling a bit tired so I did a rather slow run this time. It was colder today and I think that had something to do with it. The extra layers (compared to Monday) made me feel heavier too.

Since it was Daddy-o's birthday, I decided to make some of the ravioli to honor him. My Mom made a cherry pie back home and I wished I could have had some of that! Instead I baked a few of my cookies. I think any dessert would do, as my Dad loved all sweets.

Middle of the Week!

Work wasn't too bad. I forgot about how sweet my 4th graders are, but I was surprised to see how much bigger some of them looked in just one month! I talked about my travels a little bit with my 4th grade COT.

After work I stopped at the post office and then headed downtown. I can't really say I explored, but I did wander around a little bit before stopping at a kimbap shop to get dinner. I keep thinking about how it's almost February and half of February I won't even be in Korea...and that means it's almost only 6 months left here in Korea! It seems surreal to think about my time ending here. Part of me is thrilled at returning to the US and being back in the comfort of home with friends and family there, but part of me is sad thinking about this chapter ending, and knowing I {most likely} will never have an experience like this again-to live in Korea. Anyway, all that to say I wasn't sure what to eat for dinner, but thought about what foods I would really miss and kimbap was on top of the list. I also got hoddeok (the sweet fried stuffed pancake) as a nice treat.

Class was okay. I really don't know how much gets through to me, but like I said, at least I'm getting some Korean once a week. I keep telling myself I should be speaking more and trying more. This teacher doesn't give us a specific break, but we usually finish a few minutes early instead. I like this more and I was able to get home a little bit earlier than normal.

Another catch up day

First day back teaching after a few weeks "off". The kiddos weren't too bad. And my 6th class was cancelled because the school has changed the schedule and there are only 5 hours in the day now for the rest of the year. We had to reschedule that class for Thursday.

After work I returned home and organized my photos and did some other little tasks around the house. I ran to Emart and the vegetable store to get some groceries and made dinner. I watched more Doctor Who with my dinner and just enjoyed being back at home.

Catch up Day

Well, the good thing about having to go back to work was being able to ease into it. We subject teachers didn't have any classes and it was only a half day for the whole school anyway. At lunchtime, the group of subject teachers went out to lunch at a restaurant nearby. One of the male subject teachers paid for everyone's lunch which was so generous! We all had a kind of spicy pork stir fry with a bibimbap, steamed egg and a soybean soup on the side. Ahhh...it was so good to be eating Korean food again!

We returned to school and I did more lesson planning, but the time was cut short because we had a staff meeting at 4. The meeting wasn't long and we got out of work 20 minutes early. I headed home and decided it was time to get back into running after my vacation. I suited up (but it wasn't too cold today!) and went for my 4 miler. I was surprised that my time wasn't much different than normal.

When I returned home I made some dinner, unpacked, did laundry and cleaned. All that good stuff that had been waiting for me for the past 9 days! My room was a disaster area, so it took the whole evening cleaning the place up. I also watched some Doctor Who, which was sooo nice.

Yummy Korean lunch

Return to Seoul

I had an early, early morning. My alarm woke me at 4:30 and I was out the door a little bit before 5, surprisingly ahead of schedule. (Luckily I had packed my glasses so that saved me some time!) I met the taxi I had "ordered" the evening before from the hotel and we were off to the airport. There was no traffic (seeing as it was 5 am on a Sunday...) and we arrived at the airport after about 20 minutes, while it had taken us about an hour the afternoon before. I had given myself a cushion thinking there might be at least some kind of hold up, but since there was none, I arrived way ahead of schedule and figured I could have slept a little bit more.

I checked in and went through security with no hitch. Then it was just waiting for my flight. I found my seat and then was asked by the older Korean couple if I could swap seats with them because their friend was sitting directly in front of me. At first I hesitated; my bag was directly above me and as we were going to be taking off soon all the compartments were closed. It seemed like it would be a hassle moving my bag, but then the man said he'd move my bag for me. For the whole 6 hour flight I was in and out of sleep. At one point I did wake up and the ajuma covered me with her jacket which was nice.

We landed and I took off for home, unhappy with the cold and rainy weather that greeted me in Seoul. About an hour after leaving the airport I arrived at home. I had a package waiting for me-a belated Christmas gift! My friend Brian sent me a Doctor Who (one of my favorite TV shows) themed scarf and hat. He also sent me files for all of newer shows! What a great gift and welcome home.

I cleaned up and unpacked a little bit before heading to Hapjeong to meet Dong Gun. I decided after eating Thai food for the past 9 days I really wanted Korean food! I picked jjimdak, not thinking about how it's chicken with noodles (which I love) and that I've been eating noodles all week! It was delicious nonetheless and the kimchi on the side definitely helped remind me I was eating Korean food. We had a good time talking at dinner and decided to get something to drink after dinner. We walked to Hongdae and went to Xylophone, the place we went for my birthday. Both of us talked about where our travels have taken us and what places we really enjoyed. He talked about his experience learning English and that his first foreign teacher in college sparked his interest and desire. He commended me for teaching elementary students and said that I was inspiring young kids in ways that I might not even know. That was really nice. We also joked that I should be Dong Gun's tour guide since he's new to Seoul and doesn't know it well and made plans to meet again on the weekend so I can tour him around.

My Christmas package!

Dong Gun and me in the subway