A snack

On my way home from school today I had to stop and buy more stickers for my elementary students. They have a sticker board on which to place stickers which are like points. When the board is full, they get a prize.   So complete an assignment and you get a sticker. I ran out of stickers today, so it was a near crisis. Not to worry - Daiso was only so many blocks out of my way home.

On the way back I stopped at my C'n'U convenience store for a coffee and some kind of snack. I have a farewell dinner to attend tonight (for someone i've not met yet) so I have to tide myself over until 8:30. So hungry! Anyway. It occurred to me I have not acquainted you all with the Korean coffee situation.

I don't know about most households, but it seems not everyone owns a coffee maker. It seems whole roasted coffee beans are not sold in most grocery stores. Instead they have instant. Instant like glass jar spoon it in your cup kind, and instant like in a tube that you rip open and pour into your cup kind. Both kinds require boiling hot water.
It's just not the same as a good drip brew coffee.

They do have copious amounts of coffee shops and cafes. They're trendy. However, a standard small Americano will run you about 3,500 won on average. (1000won is a little less than a dollar (90 cents to be exact)) I don't know about you, but $3.16 for a cup of coffee is a bit much. I'm not a cheap person when it comes to coffee, but I can't afford $3 a day per cup... since I love my coffee. Besides, the coffee shops are all in shinae (downtown) and I live like 10 blocks from downtown. It's too far.

That's where canned coffee comes in. This little beauty cost me exactly 1,000 won. It's pretty good, but not the best. And it's cold, but hey, it's coffee and it cost a dollar!
I don't know if it's Georgia the state or Georgia that country in the mountains of Eastern Europe.

Along with my coffee I wanted something snacky. Usually I get a pre-made sandwich, but this thing caught my eye.

No, your eyes do not deceive you. It says "Strawberry Cream Sand" and below that "New Ttalgi (strawberry, i assume) Sandeu (sand - sandwich)." The 900 you see down in the corner is the price. 900 won. I only paid 900 won for two crustless strawberry cream sandwiches!
What is it you may ask. It is exactly what you'd think - a little kid's dream sandwich. It is crustless white bread with a strawberry cream icing in the middle. Icing! YES! I'm sure it's completely unhealthy.

That's okay though because today one of my coworkers (the kindergarten teacher) gave me this orange (or is it a tangelo? it has a lumpy stem spot.. i'm not good at citrus identification, however, it smells divinely orangey).

Oh yes. My boyfriend left his Angry Birds gum here. Kids here LOVE angry birds. Everyday I see my 4th graders, they say "Teacher, it's Angry Birds" to me and show me their Angry Birds swag. (yes i said swag, deal). Sometimes you'll hear "I'm angry birds." I'm sure they understand they're not the game, but they mean more like "I'm an angry bird" - but finer grammar points like "a/an/the" (they're called articles, did you know that?) and plurals/depluralizing are things they can't do just yet.

So there you have it. I have a strawberry cream sandwich and a cold canned coffee - for all of 1,900 won, a free tangelo, and some funny kids.

Hello Kitty Cafe

Here's our first story of misadventures in Seoul.

Jongsoo and I went to Hongdae last Saturday to find Coffee Prince. Coffee Prince is this cafe that a popular Korean drama was centered around. I really love the drama, so I really wanted to go to Coffee Prince and sit inside and revel in fangirlish glee. 

Only when we finally found it (it's up this random street with a whole bunch of other cafes and it doesn't stand out), it was closed. There was a sign on the gate that said in English that it was closed for repairs. Not sure what that is supposed to mean. I hope it does reopen sometime so I can go back!

So for now all I can say is I stood outside and saw it. 

We had spent the better part of an hour in our quest, but we weren't going to let a set back stop us from enjoying some kind of cafe. We decided next to try to locate the Hello Kitty Cafe. It is also up a random alley. I kid you not. You have to walk down a really popular road, and turn left after a random Ho Bar (it's a name. no it does not have hoes as far as i'm aware) and that's pretty much how you find it... We had directions from the internet and asked at least 3 people. It was harder to find than Coffee Prince, I daresay. 

But we made it and got a seat. The whole place glows pink. And I'm proud to say there were even male customers here. That's right. 

We got coffees and snacks. 

I got the Hello Kitty waffle. Mmm. It was good. Sadly maple syrup is rather lacking in Korea, so this had caramel syrup on it. Good, but nothing can quite replace maple to me. 

He didn't want to ruin the kitty, but drank it anyway... 

Here I am taking a selca. (self-captured photo) Selcas are a popular thing in Korea. Lol. 

I should mention it was about a 20 minute wait for our coffee. Sounds crazy, but after all the running around we did to find the place, just sitting down and unwinding was lovely. 

Seoul outside the bus window on the ride home. It's very pretty at night with all the lights. The last leg of our misadventure was the bus. We made it to the terminal in time before the last bus to Jeungpyeong. But wouldn't you know it? The bus was sold out! What are the odds? Who goes to Jeungpyeong?! Our town is tiny... So we had to get a bus to Eumsong, about 30minutes past our town and hope we'd be able to catch a bus to Jeungpyeong from there. We did. It just made the ride almost an hour longer, and made us all the more tired. Next weekend we're staying nearby. No more of this crazy bus-missing!

My house

Hello everyone!
Yesterday was an adventure to Hello Kitty Cafe in Hongdae, but today I'd rather put up some pictures of my house. ^^;'

I live in this building. That building bottom left is a shabu shabu restaurant (very delicious food).

This is the view from the front door. Why yes that is a random field of tall dead grass over there.

The stairs. Everywhere in Korea, it seems, stairs or halls are this granite-like material. It's kind of like they like the look of affluence.

This is just inside my front door. It's the kitchen area. I keep my computer here. (lol random singing in the hallway just now!)

This is the other half of the above picture. This is the kitchenette. Sink, range with 2 burners. That's it really. To the right you can kind of see into the bathroom.

If you step up into the house, and turn directly around this is where you'd have been standing - the hyunkwan. That cabinet is for shoes. :D

The functional hall like space.

My bedroom. At the right hand side, but not in view, is a tv. And that white door with a towel over it is my wardrobe. The sliding glass door is the door to my.... laundry closet.

The washing machine. It's... interesting. You can pick the amount of water and a few other things. I don't understand it very well since it's all in Korean. But I can wash clothes and that's what matters. 

This is the laundry/closet/storage whatever you want to call it. It has this great rack hanging from the ceiling and it can go up or down. Behind the towels is a big window. Technically I keep the towels up as a "curtain" of sorts. The glass door has that "no see through" stuff on it, but it's still not all that private feeling. So I keep my towels up unless the sun is shining and beautiful. :D This picture is opposite the washing machine picture above.

Since it's wintery here, I haven't seen many bugs yet. This moth was hanging out on my screen.
That's a view out of my kitchen window.

This is outside of my kitchen window. It's a field? Then the back of a restaurant. I guess it's a neng myeon (cold noodle) shop. Way across where that yellow pillar is is the convenience store I go to most. It's a block or 2 from my house.

Kitchen window again. The interesting thing is - it's not altered in any way. Through the glass the sky looks clear and blue, but out the open side of the window you can see it's actually a hazy gray. It rained shortly after this. I have no clue why the window makes the sky look blue, but it does.
I've got lessons to plan and a nap and dishes and cleaning to do. So see you all later!

The hospital

Yesterday I had a fever and chills, and felt pretty ugh. 

Today I was somewhere in between. My coworkers all said "Go to the hospital". So I obeyed. Actually Jongsoo offered to take me, so I went without much worry. 

In Korea, I guess "hospital" can also be like "clinic"? I'm not sure.. but basically doctors have offices in hospitals or somesuch. We walked into the building with a green cross on it, handed the receptionist my papers, and there was no wait (lucky, i guess) and I met this doctor was very funny and personable albeit mostly in Korean. He did understand all the big important words I needed him to understand such as "allergy" and "penicillin" and etc. I have a list of allergies a mile long, and after handing him the paper, I realized I need to add a few more. Jongsoo translated what I needed to know, and pretty much told the doctor to avoid giving me antibiotics. 

Apparently the doctor said my throat is very swollen and to any normal Korean person, he'd give antibiotics. Haha. Yeah. That's life. Instead I'm on.... tylenol er, and 4 other pills.. I'm not sure what they are, but I'm told they're not antibiotics. None of them are large enough to be, nor do they resemble antibiotics. I assume it's stuff like decongestant or cough suppressant. One dose and I do feel a bit better. 

Oh yes. I also got a shot. A butt shot (it's the hip, really). No, it didn't hurt. 

Right now I'm drinking this traditional herbal medicine one of my coworkers gave me. It's not half bad and tastes of spices... ginger, ginseng? things like that. 

But I'm procrastinating on this lesson plan. So back to work!

Greetings!

It seems like that's all I type anymore. "Greetings". I have been typing out the year long program plan for the afterschool English program that I run by myself. The first unit of all programs is "Greetings".
Supposedly they bought me textbooks? But I haven't seen them, and I was asked to hand in the year plan, so I'm BSing it. (shh! don't tell!)
I can competently make a plan. At least I have that confidence. I have made my own language plans for years in Japanese, Russian, Chinese and Swahili. XD It pays to be a linguist, linguaphile, and self-motivated learner. But if I get those books anytime - I might have to change my plans. LOL. I guess that is how it goes.

A lot has gone on since I last wrote. I have finished 2 weeks of work. Today started week 3.

I started dating my neighbor Jongsoo. It's a surprise to everyone, including us ourselves. Just kind of.. you know. We hung out all the time, we have similar interests and tastes, and just clicked. It's not an uber serious dating thing, sorry all my fundie raised friends. He and I just decided to see where it goes.

Since then we've celebrated White Day together (my current fb picture). White Day is an Asian holiday like Valentine's. They celebrate Valentine's by females giving chocolate and gifts to males. One month later, March 15th, males return that favor (or not, or pick other female(s)). And I guess there is even Black Day? On April 15th, singles wear black and go out and eat jjajjangmyeon (black bean noodles) and may potentially meet other singles and find someone to date. I don't know since I've never heard of it before. Jongsoo was telling me about it.

Jongsoo and I also went to Itaewon (district of Seoul) to have dinner with his cousin Chaesoo. We went to a Brazillian BBQ place called Copacabana. OMO. So delicious. It's all you can eat BBQ - you get a steak, and they come by with all kinds of bbq'ed meats like bacon wrapped chicken, sirloin, samgyeopsal (three layered pork belly.. so so so so so good.. and i hate fat so yeah.. it's worth eating), and more I can't think of. I had some red beans and rice too. So delicious. I should get some pictures up. In the meantime I put up some on FB from Jeonju.

Work

Hello everyone!

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth yet. I'm living in Jeungpyeong (증 뼝) and working in Koesan (괴산) said kind of like kweh-sahn (oh yeah the K is a G too, but well, it's not. It's ㄱ - an unaspirated (voiceless) velar stop)). I don't have a cell phone or internet yet, so I can't get online very often. I can't remember what I wrote in here last. I think it was pictures of me and Jongsoo eating pizza.

This is the end of the first work week for me. I teach 3rd through 6th grades, and in the afterschool program I teach 1st through 6th grades. This week was relatively easy, but there were rough spots. Classroom management is hard enough without a language barrier. The amusing and eyebrow raising part is that I know they understand what they are to do and not do, and still they do it. They are limit/rule testers. Here's how I know. First, all grades except 1 & 2 received "the rules" from my co-teacher. The older the kids, the more rule testing I received. Second reason I know they know - I can say "no good" and "sit down" and "be quiet!" in Korean. These did not work very well on the older, more rambunctious kids. Time to practice my scary angry face.

Anyway. Things to do. Pictures to come later!

So sleepy. I've been internetless since I moved. What day was that? February 27th. Right now I'm online because I have the kindest neighbor. Mygosh. I would say I'm blessed. Yup.

I've had a lot of mini-adventures. I went to my school on the first day here to meet the vice principal. He seems like a nice man. The school is nice, and rather new. It's in a rural area, and when I say rural - I mean it reminds me a bit of home (west virginia). The mountains are steeper though just as plentiful.

 The apartment I live in used to belong to the teacher who was at the school before me. He left me a lot of dishes and some general stuff. Very nice guy from what I can gather. I have a neighbor upstairs from me who is Korean-American. He speaks fluently and knows how stuff works. He's also very giving - like he's letting me use his computer to write this. :D

Anyway. I'll leave you with some pictures of what he and I did today.

Today Jongsoo and I went to Mr. Pizza. We got a large cheese pizza with pepperoni, bacon, potatoes and pineapple. Mygosh! It was delicious! You wouldn't think potatoes on pizza would be good, but you would be wrong in assuming it. lol.

In between stuff I learn Korean from Jongsoo. (which reminds me, i signed up for korean lessons in chungju this morning. a weekly class. :D )

So there you have it. That's what I've been upto in a nutshell. Eating food. Cleaning. Missing the interwebz. Lesson planning.