FYI: I've linked the names of the Korean things I talk about to explanations of what those things are on various websites. I still try to explain, but this is more comprehensive...so check the links if you want to learn more...
A breakdown of the last couple of days:
Friday after school, I rode with another teacher and the two exchange students from the Philippines to see my school's award winning play. Walking into the play, all of the students and teachers were so surprised to see me and all greeted me quite happily. I love the excitement they have! They always make me feel so special! The play was put on at City Hall (a beautiful modern new building that, curiously, has a small theater in it...) and several city officials were in attendance. Each them was introduced, followed by our principal, vice principal and school chaplain. I wasn't really listening to what the emcee was saying because it was all in Korean. I just laughed and clapped when everyone else did. At one point, he said something and then there was silence. Then, the girls sitting behind me whispered, "Noelle, Noelle, Noelle." Then I realized I had just been introduced and should stand up. I stood up and waved like an idiot while all of the girls whooped and hollered. My white skin and "blond" hair (they all say I have blond hair, though I usually characterize myself as being a brown-haired gal) have made me feel like a D-List celebrity: recognizable, though not as notable at Kathy Griffin. The play was real cute and the girls are obviously quite talented, and those not involved are ridiculously proud of their classmates! What an awesome atmosphere! I had no idea what was being said, and most of the time I wasn't sure what was going on in the story, but there were some really funny things. All in all, I'm really glad I went!
Next, one of the teachers dropped me off at the restaurant to meet all of the other foreigners for a dual birthday dinner for Daniella (another foreigner whose birthday was the same day as mine...only one year older..) and me. We ate at a restaurant that specializes in growing their own mushrooms and serving shabu shabu. We sat on the floor on either side of a really long, low table. In the middle of the table, there were three metal pans that looked like a hybrid wok and skillet. The server poured beef broth into the pans and it was heated until it boiled. They brought out several side dishes (kimchi, an egg souffle that was flavored with fish paste, acorn jelly (one of the two things in Korea that I will not eat) and pickled radish. Each of us was also given a bowl of shredded cabbage with a horseradish flavored paste on it. Then, they brought out huge platters of really thinly sliced beef, several types of mushroom, onions and other vegetables. At our leisure, we put the contents of the platter into the broth to cook and then fished out the bits we wanted to eat. There was a soy/sesame sauce in which to dip our pieces. It was sooo tasty! It's a good thing I started eating meat because otherwise my birthday dinner would have consisted of me watching everyone else around me have a foodgasm while I watched them eat. Plus, it tasted sooo amazing! After we had cooked all of the food on our platters, the server brought out sticky noodles that looked like thick spaghetti. We cooked them in the broth and ate them. Also tasty! Next, they drained most of the broth from the pan and brought out the makings for fried rice. We let it get nice and crispy and scraped all of the burnt bits from the bottom. I've always maintained that the best part of any casserole is the burnt crispy edges and this fried rice was no exception to that rule. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. YUM. After this culinary delight, we enjoyed cake. Again. Two couple brought cakes for us to enjoy, bringing the total cake count to six. Yes. Six birthday cakes in two days. Nice.
After cake, we ventured to a noraebang. Noraebangs are HUGE in Korea. Basically, it's karaoke, but in private group rooms. Instead of just the words being shown on the screen, they show random pictures with the lyrics running over the top. The pictures have nothing to do with the songs, though they looked, to the untrained eye, as if they could be music videos. There is a huge book from which to choose the music (they have both Korean and English songs), and there are microphones and tambourines. What more could you ask for on a Friday night, I wonder? Don't worry...I totally represented by singing Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield and Wanna Be by the Spice Girls. Such a fun time, but admittedly a little awkward because by this time, the people that I knew the best from the group had parted ways for various reasons. Still fun, though! I came home and cut my hair. Delightful.
Saturday, I woke up to a phone call from Hyunjoo Kim, who is the foreign liaison at my school. which means she helps me with all of my living accommodations and such. She told me that a man was coming to hook up my internet, but she didn't know what time. So, I had to call off my plans to go to Seoul to meet Liz and Barry because I didn't know what time Mr. Internet would arrive. Bummer. But, now I have my own internet and don't have to feel like a dunce mooching off of someone's wireless connection... Otherwise, Saturday was a lazy day. I finished a book about the school shooting at Columbine High School near Denver in 1999. It was really good!
That night, I went out to dinner with Emily, Richard and their hair dresser friends that Emily and I visit periodically throughout the week. We went to a restaurant that serves galbi, though, I was told, this restaurant's take on galbi was not traditional. At this restaurant, there is a grill at each table. They bring out plates of meat (at this particular restaurant, pork and American style ribs that have already been seasoned and boiled) that you throw on the grill with garlic and kimchi. Then, once the meat was grilled, we piled it, along with kimchi, rice, marinated onion and pepper or mustard sauce, on a leaf of what looked life romaine lettuce or sesame leaf, rolled it up and ate it. Also amazing!!! (If you visit me, we will go there!) We shared some great conversation over our dinner and sips of soju. Next, we ventured back to the same noraebang as the night before. This night was so much more comfortable and fun. We all got really into all of the songs and enjoyed ourselves by dancing, singing and enjoying a few beers. We sang Baby Got Back (my personal karaoke must), Ironic by Alanis Morissette, Pretty Fly (for a white guy) by The Offspring, 2 Become 1 by the Spice Girls, Barbie Girl by Aqua and several others. This was one of the most fun nights I've had so far!
Yesterday, I helped Richard and Emily move some of Emily's belongings to their new apartment in Seoul. It was raining, so we decided to take a taxi rather than walk for 10 minutes lugging her belongings in the rain. Also, this way, we could take more items because we wouldn't have to transport them on the bus, to the subway, etc. Then, Emily, Richard, Penny (Richard's (and soon Emily's) roommate from Australia) and I went to brunch at a place called Butterfingers, which serves HUGE American style breakfasts. I had a waffle, scrambled eggs, seasoned potatoes, bacon, sausage and grape juice. MMMMMMM! I love breakfast! It was refreshing to have Western food, especially breakfast, because in Korean cuisine, there isn't really breakfast food. For breakfast, they eat kimchi, rice, meat, etc., which is the same type of food they eat at every other meal... Then, all of us, plus Penny's friend Linda went to a coffee shop and hung out talking for awhile. By this time, I was wiped, so I hopped the subway to go home. I got on the correct subway line, but after eight or nine stops of no familiar looking names (and knowing that my ride should have been exactly eight stops), I realized I had been headed in the wrong direction. Oh Brother. I got off and walked across the platform to the train traveling in the correct direction and 17 stops later hopped on the 1113 bus back to Gwangju.
Today I took it WAY easy...slept in and read most of another book, Riding in Cars with Boys. Remember the movie of the same title with Drew Barrymore? It was a true story! And, soooo funny! Then, I ventured to E-Mart and did a good amount of grocery shopping. That place was a zoo! On the way to E-Mart, I was going to get rid of my trash. I carried it out of my building and started to walk up the hill to where everyone in my 'hood drops off their garbage. An old toothless woman that hangs out at the tables in front of the MiniStop (the mart below my apartment) started yelling at me. I turned around and she took my box of trash bags and gestured for me to just drop them in the lobby of my building and (I'm assuming...) she would take care of them. There are tons of old ladies in the area that dig through the trash looking for treasure so I'm assuming she wanted to stake claim on my exotic foreign trash. She was still sitting there when I got back from E-Mart, as was my trash. I smiled at her and bowed my head slightly to say hello and she gave me a big toothless grin. I think we're friends now.
I just finished devouring mandu (dumplings) as my first home cooked meal (or as home cooked as taking a bag from the freezer and put them in my rice cooker with some water, oil and salt gets...) containing meat. Such a new world! They were soooo good!
With the rest of the week off for Chuseok (I realized I've been spelling it wrong all along...), I hope I'll get a lot done for my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) class that I've been taking online and I'm planning on hiking a little tomorrow or Wednesday. Hopefully, the weather will be clear and I can take some pictures that are worth posting of my surroundings. Here are some that I took of my school buildings on Thursday. They are arranged in the order you would see things as you walk up the hill and look starting from your left and moving to your right:
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| The limestone covered space where they have P.E. |
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| The Middle School |
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| The Academic High School...or part of it... |
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| The Auditorium where we have chapel every Friday morning |
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| EB High School (this is where I teach) |
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| The view of Gwangju from my classroom window |
ummm so we need to have our own noraebang when you get back, k?
ReplyDeletei actually did korean karaoke when i was down in nashville at antwon's this summer....one of his friends had it... the pictures they put up on the screen are SO SO funny!! love it!