I realize I haven't posted a new blog in over a week and I have nothing to say for myself other than I've been sort of busy, but mostly lazy.  For that, I apologize.  I have much to share.  So much, in fact, that I made a list of things to cover in this post.  Buckle your seat belt.  Much of this post is written stream of consciousness style...

On Saturday, I woke up real early to catch a ride into Seoul with my neighbor Toni, who was going to Itaewon (an area of Seoul that is home to many foreign foods and shops).  Maria and I had plans to go shopping because Maria was severely lacking winter clothes and I never turn down a chance to go shopping :)  We attempted to beat the crazy traffic by leaving at 8 am which gave us about an hour to kill before any shops opened.  We found a coffee shop and bought some breakfast.  Upon sitting down, we ran into another teacher from our city.  The four of us had a great chat as we waited for the shops to open.  After a successful stop to Forever 21, and meeting up with Diane, the three of us set out to find some lunch.  We happened upon a shop whose displayed pictures looked appetizing.  We climbed the stairs to the second floor and entered the restaurant.  The girl at the counter told us to place our order.  We asked to see a menu.  She pointed to a picture of two bowls of noodles.  Then she said, "Spicy or not.  Those are choices."  So, the only thing the restaurant served was cold noodles with a side of pork in a spicy (or not) fashion.  I'd never tried cold noodles before so when our food showed up and the bowl literally had slushy ice in it, I was a bit surprised.  It was really good though!  And, the pork that accompanied the noodles tasted just like a smoked Iowa chop!  Delightful.  We continued shopping.  We continued shopping until we had to leave for the next activity on our agenda.  The three of us journeyed back to Gwangju (DIane stayed with me Saturday night) to see a concert featuring the Gwangju women's choir.  They sang three sets and between each of the sets, there was a vignette performance.  One of the vignettes was an accordion player whose music had been featured on a very popular Korean drama.  The other vignette was the select choir from my school!  They were amazing! 

It was so fun to watch them perform!  We caught a ride from Ji Hye, who is Hyunjoo's assistant, a co-teacher in a couple English classes and a Japanese teacher.  She is such a sweetheart and always gives me rides to these performances.  On the way back, she asked me if I like movies.  Oh Ji Hye.  You have no idea.  We bonded over our love for Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks and vowed to meet up soon for a movie marathon.  Then, Maria, Diane and I went to a shabu shabu restaurant (the same one as my birthday dinner) to eat a late dinner.  When we arrived, there was a table of about eight 19 or 20 year old guys.  They were not speaking to each other at all.  Instead, each of them was glued to some sort of media whether it was their cell phone, mp3 player or some sort of video game outlet.  We kept an eye on them to see if their dining experience would get less awkward, and sure enough, once the food and soju arrived, they were chatty cathies.  We all enjoyed our dinner and when it came time to cook the noodles, the woman told us if we wanted more, we could just help ourselves to the noodle cart.  WHAA?  Once we ate our fair share of noodles, we journeyed to Baskin Robbins for a little dessert.  We had such a ruckus-filled night that we closed down Baskin Robbins at 11 pm.  It's a crazy life I lead.

The next day, Diane and I visited E-Mart so she could experience the duk boki I have come to love.  As soon as we approached the counter, we were warmly greeted by the ladies who run the stand.  They even spoke to us using the little English they know.  We're pals.  Then, we headed to a neighborhood in Seoul that hosts a Filipino market every Sunday.  Since Diane is Filipino, she wanted to check it out and I'm so glad we did!  After a bit of a roundabout journey in search of the market (we found belly dancers, fortune tellers and a building called the Beer Castle), we found the Filipino market and purchased some delicious food from a woman whose spot in the market seemed to be the prime spot for Filipino fare.  We had an empanada, an egg roll and some barbequed chicken on a stick.  We also had a special citrus juice that was delicious whose name escapes me.  We WILL return to this market and neighborhood again.  Then, we went to Dongdaemun, an area of Seoul that houses many wholesale retailers and a huge market.  Diane and I were pretty overwhelmed by everything and all of the people, so we opted to head back to the previous neighborhood to a quiet cafe before we parted ways.  In order to get to my bus for Gwangju, I had to transfer trains.  As I was getting off the first train to transfer to the next one, a middle aged Korean man waved at me and asked if I was English, American or Canadian.  I told him American and he lead me over to a group of more middle aged men.  They chattered in Korean when told them I was American.  I'm 99% sure they had placed bets on my nationality.  Then, they started walking in the opposite direction of my train transfer and acted like they wanted me to follow.  I didn't follow them and they asked me where I was headed.  I told them Gwangju and they said that was pretty far away and wondered if I knew where I was going.  I told them that I'm a teacher there so I know my way around.  I proceeded to walk/run away.  Soooo weird.  

Yesterday at school, a girl and I had the following exchange:
Girl: You have small face.
Noelle: ... Thanks. Is that a good thing?
Girl: You have small head.
Noelle: ...Thanks.
Girl: You have small brain?
Noelle:  hahaha NO.

Last night, three of us (Toni, June (another teacher's assistant) and me) went out for dinner for June's birthday.  The meal was exquisite.  We had duck and two kinds of pork.  The meat got wrapped in one of four different types of greens along with mustard, garlic, the best kimchi I have had here to date, a pumpkin salad and a salad with the most amazing vinaigrette dressing.  I could have eaten a bushel of that salad!  We ended the meal with what the menu translated as hangover soup.  Lots of sesame powder and bean sprouts.  I also made a sweet discovery about Korean driving culture.  I've mentioned before that parking here is bonkers.  Basically, people park anywhere that is not blocking traffic whether it's a designated parking spot or not.  If someone is in the way, their cell phone number is posted visibly in the car so that you can call them and ask them to move their car.  This happened to Toni while we were in the restaurant.  We ended our marathon dinner at Baskin Robbins...again.  I love that place!  It was a great night of amazing food and great company / conversation! 


I'm teaching a Halloween lesson this week....mainly about culture.  It's been really fun to see their enthusiasm for Halloween.  I also show them this really scary video and watching them freak out when the scary part happens at the end is priceless every time.  They literally jump out of their seats.  I want to take a video of it, but I'm afraid that would spoil the scariness.  I think word has spread that I'm giving out good candy this week since it's Halloween because several girls who are not in my class have come up to me and said, "Trick or Treat, Teacher!" in hopes of receiving candy.

Today at lunch we had Korean mac and cheese!  It was sooo good!  They put corn and grated carrots in it with rotini noodles and it was obviously baked so the cheese was nice and crusty.  I forgot how much better baked macaroni and cheese is than the kind from a box!  Leave it to Korea to one up an American classic.

Several things have appeared on my desk lately.  Yesterday, a block of homemade rice cake wrapped in cellophane and last week, a cloth to wipe computer or cell phone screens that was made as a promotional tool for our school.  It features the same picture of me (!) as the cover of the brochure that was printed a month ago.  Today, Hyunjoo sneakily slipped me four or five extra cloths, so I'll send some home for you to see.  


I finally got a clear answer on where the post office is located, so now I am (hopefully)  equipped to send snail mail.  I'm sooo sorry to those of you who have sent me things that haven't received anything in return!  On that note, I received two more letters yesterday and laughed out loud reading them.  I think the teachers here must think I'm a weirdo because of the excitement I show over mail, but I can't help myself.


Last week, two students came to my desk to talk.  They told me that they stayed up until 2 am the night before, studying for their college entrance exams.  I wished them good luck on their exams and they said I should pray for them.  I thought, okay, no problem.  I'll send up a general prayer for my students to do well with their studying.  They had something different in mind.  They put their name tags pretty close to my face (which are written in Korean script, which I cannot yet read) and told me to remember their names.  I didn't want them to know that I couldn't read their names (much less remember them from the sea of names I see each day) so I just smiled and nodded and told them I would pray for them.  Fast forward to today.  Same exact scenario, same exact situation, only this time, when I told them I would pray for them, they told me they loved me.

I started tutoring a girl for an hour after school three days a week.  I get paid extra to do it and it amounts to us talking for an hour because she wants to practice English conversation.  For the exam she has to take to show her proficiency in English, she has to listen to something and then summarize what she heard.  To practice that, we'll also watch videos and listen to podcasts and then she will summarize what they were about.  These tutor sessions will be more fun than they're supposed to be.  Also, she's really nervous about attending college in the US (she's going to school at a small Christian school in Missouri), so I feel myself slipping back into Ambassador mode when we talk about college life!


The weather has suddenly changed.  Sunday, it was really nice and almost hot.  Then, Monday and today, it was really cold.  I finally wore a jacket to school!  It was one degree Celsius this morning as I was walking to school!  During Morning English, Chan Yang Teacher asked me if I was surprised by the weather.  I told him that it gets much colder in Iowa and said (on air) that last year it got to negative five (or something like that).  He asked what that was in Celsius and before I took the time to think through what I was about to say, I did a quick (and very erroneous!) conversion in my head, telling them that was -37 in Celsius.  He was very surprised and asked, "Really??"  I said, "Yes!  It gets really cold in Iowa!"  It wasn't until I got back to my desk after Morning English that I realized the conversion is much more complicated than adding or subtracting 32.  It's been a long time since high school chemistry when I learned that conversion!  I think it's a good thing I teach English and not science! On a similar note, the leaves have started to change, making for a beautiful fall landscape!  Enjoy!

Toward my apartment...