Cherry blossoms and beer

Two weekends ago, some of my coworkers and I went to an LG Twins game.  That is, we went to the stadium an hour early to buy tickets and they sold out right before we got to the front of the line.  I guess games usually don't sell out, but it was such a nice day out that everyone wanted to go to the game.  All of the baseball teams are named after American baseball teams, but are each owned by a different company over here.  So the game we tried to go to was the LG Twins against the KIA Tigers.  I was going to root for  both teams, since I don't really care and my students told me the LG Twins kinda suck.  Anyways, we walked around looking for scalpers but didn't have any luck.  It would probably also be difficult to find a scalper with 7 extra tickets.  So we sat on the pavement in front of the stadium and pretended to be inside.

Watching all the fans going inside while eating caramel popcorn

A guy selling dried squid.  No big deal.

Here's the same guy with butterfly nets.  I have no idea why.

 

The noisemakers that were still a lot of fun outside of the stadium

After the game started, we ventured to a nearby park to drink the beer we had bought for the game.  It ended up to be a really nice park with lots of cherry blossoms all around.  

Cherry blossoms!

We are at the game!

Chillin in the park, drinking beer

After we finished our beer, we went out for some Shabu shabu, which is very thin slices of meat that you cook at your table in a bubbling soup broth.  It was my first time having Shabu shabu and I definitely want to go again!  

Delicious!

Last weekend, I went to go see Titanic in 4D.  It was my first 4D experience, and it was a lot of fun.  I don't think I'll spend that much on a movie again, but it was worth it to get sprayed in the face with water, shot in the face with air from holes we didn't even notice in our seats, and move around with the boat.  I think it made the movie seem much more real!  There was also a beer festival in Seoul last weekend which included free cups of many different home brews. Since good beer is hard to find here, I jumped right on that (plus the word "free" was included, so I'm there).  There were about 10 different bars participating, with a different home brew at each one where you could fill a small cup for free.  We made it to about 5 places before the beer ran out.  It was a fun time, and we met a lot of really nice, fun people.  I think that beer tends to put everyone in a friendly, good mood.

As for more cherry blossoms, Suji is full of them.  I wanted to take pictures before all the petals fall off so I walked around Suji on my lunch hour one day.  While I was taking pictures, an older man came up to me and asked me where I was from.  When I said Minnesota, he replied, Minneapolis??  Then he went on to list off all the 50 states and some capitals with obvious pride in his knowledge.  I slowly stepped away from him, smiling, nodding my head, telling him to have a good day.  I was on my lunch break after all, and had to get back.  

My walk to school

A blossom

I can't believe I only have four months left here in Korea!  It feels like time has gone by so fast, like I've only been here a couple of months.  It's crazy how a place grows on you, with all the good things and the bad!

 

Jeju and other random events

I have realized that I am missing a lot of blog posts that I meant to write.  And then I just forgot to write them.  So here's a short update on different things I haven't had a chance to write about in the last couple of months.

During the first weekend of March, we ended up getting a four-day weekend.  Meghan, Christine and I took advantage of it and went to Jeju Island, which is an island to the south of Korea which is supposed to be like the Hawaii of Korea, except it's not tropical or warm.  The day we left for Jeju was really warm (in the 60's) so we all decided not to bring winter coats.  Big mistake.  It was pretty cold the whole time and rained a bit, which made our outdoor adventuring less than pleasant.  We still had a good time exploring the island.  We decided to couch surf to have a free place to stay, and it worked out really well.  We had a really nice host who let us eat breakfast and served us tea.  If you don't know what couch surfing is, I recommend it--check out the website: http://www.couchsurfing.org/   

Waterfall in Jeju

Christine admiring the waterfall

Inside the biggest temple in Asia (supposedly)

The lava tubes

Besides exploring around the island, we also went to a noraebang (Korean private karaoke room) with a group of English teachers.  It was my first noraebang experience in Korea, and it was a lot of fun.  But, I think the best part of the trip was couch surfing for the first time and realizing that there are genuinely kind, generous people out there that are willing to let you into their home. 

As for my kindergarten class, they are doing so well and have improved in their English and their classroom behavior soooo much.  Now kindergarten is my favorite part of the day and I'm really enjoying being around them.  I got two new students at the beginning of March, and they are both very smart and friendly.  Also, Eileen didn't come back in March, so it's been nice to not have to constantly say, "No hitting!" the entire day.  I've also had four birthdays in my class recently (3 in March and one last week).  I'm not going to post pictures from all of them here, but they will be up on my Facebook soon so check them out there.  I love having birthday parties in class!  Except for the after effects of sugar on kindergartners of course.  

We also got to have our first actual kindergarten field trip (besides the half an hour hike earlier in the year) in March.  We are supposed to have one every month, so I'm hoping that this field trip trend will continue.  We went to a Korean play for kids that ended up to be pretty scary.  There were groups of kids from other schools who were probably two or three years old, and many of them were crying during the play.  I won't try to summarize the play (mostly because I can't remember and it was in Korean), but the moral of the story was if you don't help your mom with the field work, you will be turned into a cow and forced to work for a mean man who will whip you.  Most of the play was the boy-turned-cow whining, "OMA!!" which means mom in Korean.  This caused many of my students to miss their own moms.  Amy's mom wrote to me and told me that Amy told her all about the play, and then the next morning didn't want to come to school.  Amy's mom told her that if she misses class, Amy will turn into a cow.  So Amy went right into the bathroom to brush her teeth and get ready haha.  

My class waiting to go inside to the play

The sad cow-boy

Wendy (in front) and my two new girls, Sally (left) and Kate (right)

My ecstatic class after the play

Other than work, recently I have stayed up later than middle school sleepovers on more than one occasion.  The reason is usually to save on cab fare back, since if you wait until the buses start running it is much cheaper.  I have also experienced racial discrimination first-hand, which really doesn't feel very good.  Most of the time, we are treated pretty well as foreigners here in my opinion.  But, one night out in Gangnam we were just trying to find a bar to go into to get out of the cold.  We tried about 5 different Korean bars/clubs, and no one would let us in.  We watched as numerous Koreans walked right by us and got in.  There was one bouncer who was shoving me out while I asked, "Is it because I'm not Korean??"  I know I only got a small taste of what minorities have to deal with, but it still made me mad.  We finally found a place that let us in so it all turned out fine.

That is some of what has happened recently.  I know I am missing a lot, but hopefully from now on I will stay up on my blog posts!

My new apartment!

I don't think I ever took pictures of my old apartment, but it was not great.  It was like living in a small dark box or hole, and maybe I never took pictures because I didn't want to remember it.  I definitely had the worst place out of all the teachers at LCI.  My new place is at least twice as big and sooooo much nicer.  I even have a couch now!  Before, I barely had enough floor space to put down a yoga mat, but not enough space to actually do yoga.  Now, I could have yoga classes in my place!  (not really, but maybe two people could fit haha)  Here's some pics of my amazing, spacious (at least for Korea) apartment:

I also don't think I ever took a picture of the Korean showers here.  As you can see from the picture below, the shower head is connected to the sink in the bathroom and you just turn a knob on the faucet to have the water come out of the shower head.  Then there's just a drain in the middle of the bathroom floor, and everything in your bathroom gets wet.  They do have a cover for your toilet paper which is nice.  Also, Koreans use shower shoes, which are just plastic sandals that you wear anytime you go into the bathroom since the floor gets completely soaked for a while after your shower.  

I never really realized how big of a difference it makes to live in a decent place.  I am really enjoying this extra space I was missing out on during my first 6 months in Korea!

Peggy and Rick in South Korea

My parents came to visit me in March!  They came on March 8th, and stayed for almost two weeks.  It was so great to see them and have them share a part of this experience with me.  They stayed with me in my sweet new apartment.  They got to experience galbi the second night they were here...yum yum!!  The first weekend we went into Seoul and saw the famous palace, Gyeongbokgung palace.

A ceremony at the palace

My dad and Gyeongbokgung

Me and my mom

The next day we went to Suwon (a neighboring city to me) to see the fortress.  It's the largest fortress in Korea, and we walked around almost all of it.  It was a nice change from the craziness that is Seoul.  

Ringing the good luck bell

Almost at the highest point of the fortress

After the hike, we wandered around the streets and came across a little food alley off of the main road.  We tried different things, but the mandu(korean dumplings) were definitely my favorite.  After eating a bunch of spicy food, we really wanted a beer.  So I took my parents to a Canadian bar called The Big Chill that I like to go to, but it was closed!  Turns out it doesn't open till 6pm, and it was only 4:30.  So we decided to go around the corner to Family Mart and get a beer there.  Right when we sat down in Family Mart to enjoy our cans of beer we had purchased, the cashier came over and told us no drinking alcohol in the store.  I was appalled!  This was something I have done so many times without an issue, and now we were being kicked out into the cold.  Being kicked out of Family Mart probably doesn't happen too often, but it sure happened to us!

During the week, my parents went to Jeju Island for a few days since I was working all day every day anyways.  They had a lot of fun and some memorable experiences there.  The next weekend my parents took all my English coworkers out to spicy chicken galbi (my favorite galbi of all) and it was amazingly delicious as always.  Then they actually came with us to ladies night at The Big Chill (it was open this time).  My mom got some free drinks and my parents both played beer pong for the first time ever.  It was fun to see them out with everyone.  They also came out in downtown Suji afterwards for a bit.  It was fun to show them where I hang out on the weekends.  

That weekend we went into Seoul one more time.  We went to Insadong to buy some souvenirs and then went on a boat cruise down the Han River.  It would have been a much more enjoyable boat cruise if it wasn't freezing cold and windy.  I also think it made it harder to handle the cold knowing that back home in Minnesota it was 80 degrees and sunny that day.  I know I am missing one of the warmest winters in MN, and experiencing one of the coldest winters in Seoul in over 50 years but oh well.  We still had a fun weekend in Seoul.

A random delicious mandu restaurant in a side alley of Insadong

Statue in a park

On the Han River

My parents also came in to my school to meet my kids and hang out for a bit two different times while they were here.  My class thought it was so funny and really liked having them there.  The girls kept drawing pictures for "Rachel Mom" a week after my parents left.  I don't think they understood that my parents were gone.  The last night they were here we went out for beef galbi.  It's supposedly the best beef galbi place in Suji, and I think it's pretty good.  I didn't know how to order, since I never do the ordering there and it's all in Korean, but I just said two in Korean and we got some tasty galbi.  I'm so glad my parents ended up coming to visit me!  The time while they were here went so fast, and now it seems like so long ago.  Thank you for coming to see me mom and dad!  I hope you enjoyed your time here!