Diane and I met in Hyehwa in an attempt to find a craft store I had read about in the neighborhood. I want to teach my students to make the friendship bracelets that I was constantly making as a kid, so I've been on the hunt for embroidery floss. The directions to the store seemed simple enough. Get out of the subway and walk toward Baskin Robbins. The store should have been about 10 stores past my beloved ice cream shop. As Diane and I followed these straightforward directions, we came upon a shoe store instead. The shop was nowhere to be found. When I got home that night, I returned to the blog I had read about the store and realized it had been written in 2008. Oops. The store turnover here is crazy sometimes. My embroidery floss mission remains un-accomplished.
Then, we had a tasty lunch at an awesome restaurant near the would-be location of the craft shop. We were attracted to the restaurant because of the caricature of a man giving a thumbs-up sign (always a good sign in my book :) ) and when we entered the second floor restaurant, we knew we had made a good choice. It was packed with Koreans and we managed to snag the last free table. I was told by someone that if a restaurant is completely empty and no Koreans are eating there, it's probably jank. On the flip side, if there are a ton of Koreans in the restaurant, you know it will be an enjoyable meal. Diane flagged down a server and ordered a meal even though we had no idea what we would be receiving. There were about five items on a board mounted on the wall and the first item on the menu was also posted on flags and banners ALL over the restaurant. That's the dish we ordered, along with some mandu and rice. Literally five minutes later, we received our food. It was a spicy soup with cabbage, onions, octopus, mussels and pork with a bunch of noodles in the bottom. It was AMAZING. Here's a picture Diane took of our meal:
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| Yum. This is making me hungry. right. now. |
After our culinary adventures, we headed to Gangnam to embark on round two of fish pedicures. I convinced Diane to try the big guys this time. Oh. Man. Those guys are bonkers! I stole these pictures from Diane as her camera is more fish friendly.
So, the little fish kind of tickle a little, but it mostly feels like they're swimming around you. Not the case with the big guys. You can actually feel their teeth eating your skin. It doesn't hurt but it does feel like mild pinching. I had forgotten just how ticklish the bottoms of my feet can be. Feeling these fish on the bottom of my feet was too much for me to handle, so I firmly planted my feet at the bottom of the fish pool. I could handle them on my ankles and legs, but the bottoms of my feet were too much. As a result, I didn't reap the benefits of smooth feet since I refused access to those little dudes. Oh well. Diane had similar feelings, but since she's shorter than me, it was harder for her to evade the tickles. She did her fair share of grimacing and squealing during our 20 minutes experience. It was certainly an experience to remember!
The rest of the night was spent eating and talking. We had a craving for Western food, so when we stumbled upon a restaurant called Burger Hunter, it seemed like a natural choice. I had my first Philly Steak in years (literally) and it was delicious. Then, we went to Favorite D* for dessert. This is a dessert cafe brought to us by our pals at Baskin Robbins. The first floor is like a regular Baskin Robbins and caters to the take out crowd. The next floor (on the third floor of a building overlooking the bustling boulevard below) is a proper cafe. Diane and I were quickly seated by a nice man and ordered a piece of chocolate pistachio ice cream cake and two scoops of gelato (cream cheese and chocolate hazelnut). Both were delightful. I love dessert.
I can't remember if I've written about this yet, but I keep seeing Koreans that remind me of people at home. I saw a man that looked like the Korean version of my 4th Ave. neighbor Wayne on the subway. I've seen people that look like friends from college and Hyunjoo reminds me of Vicky Anderson in about five different ways, including but not limited to, her looks, personality, and proficiency in music (she's a very talented Soprano, teaches the music classes at our school and is the director of Rejoice Singers, which is our school's select choir). Our server at Favorite D* looked so familiar to me and I couldn't figure out why. Then, about half an hour into our stay at this cafe, I realized our server was a perfect Korean doppelganger of Neil Patrick Harris of Doogie Hauser, M.D. and How I Met Your Mother fame. So weird. Diane and I spent a couple of hours in this cafe talking about everything. It was a great, great night with a great friend!
Monday was a half day and I only taught (and by taught, I mean played a sweet word game) one class. So easy. Then, in the afternoon, we interviewed incoming students. The whole process reminded me a lot of Formal Recruitment. I was in a room with another Korean teacher. One by one, girls came into the room. First, they talked to the Korean teacher, then they crossed the faux barrier that had been created by potted plants and came to speak to me. I asked them a series of questions to try to determine their English level. I had about two minute conversations with them for almost two hours. I was only supposed to make a notation if their English was exceptional, which was the case for about 10 students. It was pretty fun and I enjoyed it. The school also provided me with a plate of goodies and the girls came around twice offering me cups of tea. I hadn't eaten much from my goody plate since the interviews took place almost immediately after lunch. As soon as I was told my time was done, three girls rushed into the room to clean up after me. Their eyes lit up as they saw my goody plate almost fully intact. They began grabbing the few candy bars and stuffing them in their pockets. I chuckled at their actions and they smiled back at me, putting their fingers to their mouths asking me not to say anything to anyone. Don't worry, girls. That will be our little secret :)
I went to E-Mart Monday night for dok buki. I hadn't been to the stand in over a week, so when I approached the stand, they all smiled and waved to me. The woman who speaks English really well greeted me warmly saying that it had been a long time since they'd seen me. Maybe I go a little too often, but it's so tasty and their reception of me is so enjoyable! I took it home with me rather than eating it at a table in E-Mart since I had forgotten my book. The man who seems to be in charge of the stand threw in the most freshly fried vegetables and he gave me an extra dumpling for free. "Service," he said with a huge smile as he held up the dumpling before tossing it into my bag. What a guy.
Wednesday was also a half day, but this time, I got to leave at noon. I only taught one class this day too and then did about a 20 minute lesson with the teachers. I usually teach a third year class right before lunch, but because this was the day before their big college entrance exams, they spent that period with their homeroom teachers for a bit of a pep talk before they left for their exams. With about ten minutes left in the day, the student council and many of the teachers lined the front hallway of the school and sent off the third year students with hoots, hollers and raucous clapping. The girls were so funny. They ran down the stairs, acting embarrassed and covering their faces. I know many of the students were crazy nervous about this test. I was not surprised at the idea of the girls being nervous for the exam, but their level of anxiety did surprise me. Some girls were crying the day before and I have seen some girls crying at school today. Some have told me they are sad because of their performance, but I think they are just so exhausted from all of the studying and preparing that they are mentally drained. I certainly do not miss that part of going to school!
Wednesday night, I ventured to Seoul to meet Emily and Richard for dinner. It was so nice to see them again after almost a month! We got chicken wings (I can't get enough chicken wings...they were one of the only meat dished I missed during my stint as a vegetarian) and enjoyed a couple of beers over great conversation. 'Twas a great night!
Yesterday, there was no school because of the SATs so Diane and I met in Seoul to take advantage of our day off. I'll write a separate post about our day. For now, I'll just say it was amazing, powerful and enlightening. Stay tuned.
Today is a full day of teaching, but Dionne and I feel sorry for the third years and their stress levels, so we're showing them a movie (Princess Diaries) in lieu of making them speak English. They all go crazy when Mandy Moore and her dirty little boyfriend kiss in the hallway and especially when she blows a bubbles with her gum and he bites the bubble. You'd think something seriously juicy was happening on screen. Yowza. Showing the movie means that I only really teach two classes today, plus I get to watch the first 45 minutes of a great movie twice. Pretty sweet deal.
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