As Promised…
My office desk -- snazzy, n'est pas?
Behold I posteth for the masses on the appointed day of the 28th (a Monday). Wonders never cease. I would like to give special thanks to my brother for his kind and inspirational words – without him I believe all of you avid readers might have to wait another week or so. He’s not demanding, he’s my brother… (***NOTE: If you can tell me this song reference, you will win mad street cred. from me….really this should be fairly easy).
Anyway, I am tired and in need of sleep (in case you could not already tell), so I will keep this short. There has not been very much going on that is terribly interesting. I included a picture of my desk in my office, (an office I share with one of my Korean English teachers). I am pretty proud of the desk though because now it decorated with Delaware pictures. The parental units graciously sent me a map of DE and a UD football magazine — so I ripped out some football pages and along with the map slid it under the glass covering my desk. So, it is pretty fun looking at my desk now — I will try and send another picture later. Everyone now thinks I am football crazy though….but that may not be too far from the truth. Go Bluehens!!
Okay here is the important news: I am going to be gone for three days (tues- thurs) because I have an orientation meeting I have to attend for my company. My internet access may be limited/non-existant. So, if you wish to contact me, then call my cell or just be patient and wait for my return on Friday. If you cannot reach me – fret not, I most likely attending classes (and I will get back to you when I return home). Friday is a holiday (Korean equiv. of Thanksgiving…will explain more later) and then there are midterm exams Oct 6–9. So, it will be a bit of a break period for me.
That is all for now. I am going to bed. So tired~
Looking forward to hearing back from everyone. Best wishes~
You Belong with me
Outside Korea University
Okay, it has been decided. The day I am going to try and update my blog regularly on <drum roll, please…> is Monday. Please remember the time difference though (my monday morning = USA sunday evening & my monday evening = USA monday morning). Most likely I will be posting monday evening, after work.
The previous weekend was another busy but fun weekend. I went to Seoul and visited Korea University, Insa-dong (traditional, touristy area), Samseong, and Itaewon. Korea University was a very pretty campus and it was fun seeing Young’s alma mater. It made me think, “ah, the good old school days,” when I passed by students. I felt a bit old…which is a weird feeling because I only just graduated myself! Heesug also showed me Insa-dong, where I had some really wonderful tea. I am not a big fan of tea, but this tea now reigns as my all-time favorite. It is a pomegranate-based tea, served cold…..and it is very sweet. Does everyone understand now why I like it? ha ha Apparently, it is a tea primarily for women because it has certain ingredients that are better for women. Personally, I believe that the real reason is because women like it so much for its sweet taste, that they’ve made this claim – so, that men are less-inclined to drink it and thus damage their manly aura. (This is the answer I would like to believe…ha ha ha).
Visited Samseong with Jin on Sunday. The Seoul World Trade Center is located there and also the COEX mall. The COEX mall is ridiculously huge. The mall police must pack some serious muscle from patrolling this place – it is that big. Malls in Korea are huge in general but I think would have been lost if I had not had someone with me. They had this really cool mall map though that was touch screen. So, you looked at where you were and touched the screen, to make things bigger or look at different areas. I saw this thing and I instantly “ahhhed” with appreciation and felt like quite the country bumpkin. We saw an American movie while we were there – yet again, the movie screen was huge…but on an interesting note – movie seats in Korea are assigned. So, when you buy your ticket you pick your seats (like you would pick your seats for an airplane…there is a picture and everything). Although this was interesting I think it sort of takes the fun out of the mad American scramble to secure the best seats that makes things interesting on a busy movie night. Just kidding… There was also a Sanrio store (the first one I’ve spotted here) in the mall, which means I will being paying the mall another visit at some point. For all of you who are wondering, “What is Sanrio? Why does she want to go there?” please remember that Sanrio makes a certain cute, pink bunny, that shares my name and of whom I have been collecting merchandise of since I was a small child. While some women might go back for the chic clothing, and jaw-dropping jewelry – I am more interested in My Melody merchandise and the bookstore. 😀
I’ve been doing well at work this past week. Nothing especially eventful to mention. I brought in a song for the students to listen to and do a cloze questionnaire on. I tried to pick something they’d enjoy listening to and watching the music video of — so, I picked Taylor Swift’s “You Belong with me.” It really has that whole high school feel and was recently number one in the U.S. They all loved the activity, which ended up also acting out. There is nothing high schoolers love more than when two of their reluctant classmates are paired up together as pretend lovers. I played Taylor Swift. They really had a good time with it, and I hope that later I will have the chance to do more songs. The only unfortunate side-effect of this activity is that I had to listen to the Swift song like 10,000 times and I fear it might be permanently imprinted on my brain. The woes of being a teacher! ha ha
Also, I played a mean game of ping pong this week (I challenged the PE teacher….big mistake) and I may be well on my way to being a table tennis champion. You have to love an enthusiastic gym teacher because when he saw that I was holding the racquet incorrectly, it resulted in nearly an hours worth of instruction. But I loved every second of it because I could really tell that I was *slowly* improving. I only hope that I can go back and play again. It’s sad that I am so desperate to play – but man was it fun! (I haven’t done an activity/game in a while…so this may explain my desperation). That’s it for now, I will post more Monday!
New Post!
Interesting art in Samcheon...
Finally….Seoul
Standing next to my zodiac animal - the tiger. Grrreat!! 😛
*News flash* I made it to Seoul this past Saturday. After hearing so much about the city it was a big relief to finally go there. The only problem being the size of Seoul (it is much bigger than I had originally understood), so I only saw a small part of what is considered Seoul. Still, it was nice seeing it and yes, it is a big city. While I was in Seoul I visited Deoksugung Palace. It was very beautiful and I had a good time. It is very different from our idea of a palace (European style). Heesug kindly showed me around and practically gave me a personal tour of the palace. I think they should hire him as a tour guide.
Next we went to the biggest bookstore in Seoul. Twas joyous, but I could not linger. We ate lunch there. There was even a burger named after me (the Melody Burger!!!) at the place. Although I was sorely tempted to try it because we shared a name, it did not look appetizing enough for me to risk it. I think it might have been made out of beans…
Next, we visited Yonsei University and the surrounding town. Ah, the sweet days of college. I remember thee well!
Thinking back on it, I ate so much food that day – I marvel at my own abilities. I might have gained 5lbs. *shudders at thought* The best was this desert of sweet beans, shaved ice, ice cream, and fruit (it was amazingly good) I forget the name. It needs to be brought to America – I liked it that much. Maybe I should start up a business selling this Korean desert/ or combine it with my crepe shop? I’ll make it happen… 😀 ha ha
Met up with two co-workers tonight for dinner. It was a lot of fun and it made me really happy that they invited me. I ate jajangmyeon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jajangmyeon A dish I had heard of before and wanted to try. It was really good and I would eat it again if given the opportunity. I don’t think I am too picky when it comes to food and I have been quite happy with the daily meals at school (usually lunch – dinner is optional. How come most of my posts turn into conversations about food? Hmmm, I will have to try harder to avoid that. I guess my heart lies in my stomach?! Okay that is all for now. Must sleep, 5:45 wakeup alarm kills me every morning. 😛
Mt. Bukhansan
This weekend has proved to be quite busy. I got the opportunity to visit a fellow UD alum in Jeongbalsan, which was nice. When I went, it turned out to be a huge group of foreigners (instead of just her) and that made it even more interesting. Having not associated with many native English speakers since leaving home, it was a lot of fun being surrounded by the sound of English. 😛 Jeongbalsan is much bigger than the area that I am living and there seems to be many more foreigners.
On Saturday I went hiking with my fellow school teachers at Mt. Bukhansan. It was quite the trek. I hate to say it but Mt. Bukhansan kicked my ass. ha ha 😀 I have done my fair share of hiking but this mtn was a bit much at times – even for me. But, I also think that the weather (it was very sunny and humid) also contributed to my general fatigue. The sites were beautiful though and it was nice hanging out in a more casual setting with my co-workers. During the week everyone is so busy, running around that it has been hard to get to know them. So, this was a wonderful chance to spend more time with them. We ate lunch and dinner together and then some of us went and played pool later in the evening. It was a lot of fun and I am glad I got invited to go.
On Sunday I will be going to Seoul weith Heesug. *yay!* Hopefully, I will get an opportunity to get my school work together before Monday. But it sure will be tight!
*Okay, now I am going to get some sleep — it is late and after climbing a mtn, sleep sounds pretty good!
Mellow in South Korea 