Can I Get Some Blood With My Soup?

As usual, Meg and I decided to go on a sightseeing adventure last Sunday. The weather was fairly nice (sunny and about 55 degrees) so we decided an outdoor venue would be a fun thing. As you may recall, we live very close to the 1988 main Olympic stadium and some of the other arenas they used. However, a couple of subway stops in the other direction is Olympic Park. This area holds things like the swimming pool, tennis courts, three Olympic gymnasiums, and so forth. We thought it would be a fun place to wander for a hour or two before dinner. Little did we know the park is HUGE! We spent a good 5 hours walking around and didn't even make a complete loop! Some highlights included seeing the World Peace Gate and the Seoul Olympic Museum. We also had our first taste of street food (similar to a corn dog), took a walk on the acupressure walk, and did some weightlifting. Yes, weightlifting. All throughout the park are different machines that use your body weight for the amount you lift. So the good news is, an outdoor workout center is only about 15 minutes away!

After leaving the park we decided to go to Coex Mall to grab dinner (since there is a large selection). After wandering the mall for a hour or two (honestly, this mall has the most confusing floor layout I have ever seen) we couldn't find anything that grabbed our interest (or was within our quickly dwindling budgets!) We ended up at our local "hole-in-the-wall" Korean place (I say that term with affection, this place is awesome!) at about 8 pm for a 7,500 won dinner (yes, that amount is the total bill for both our meals). On the way home, we hit a furniture jackpot. Our street has been pretty poor for furniture hunting lately, but apparently someone has been listening in on our prays because we were rewarded handsomely! We found a desk for Meg (she has been wishing since day 1), a metal rolling rack which works great for drying clothes, and a closet for me. Yes, a closet. In the middle of the street. I. Love. This. City. However, our best find of the night actually came when we opened the closet. Inside was a Chinese checkers game, a calligraphy set and a ratty purse. Nothing to thrilling. However, there was also a bucket of magnetic letters and another bucket of plastic dinosaurs. We now have plastic toy dinosaurs randomly placed around the apartment to add some color (i.e. windowsill, toilet tank, top of cupboards) and have an array of colorful letters and words on our fridge! Honestly, this could have been the best furniture find yet. We also meet our new neighbors as they helped us haul the closet up the three flights of stairs!

Thursday night I had a hello/goodbye staff party at work. We had 4 new staff members (including myself) start in March and we are losing a staff member next week who has been at the school for 2 years. So, the whole staff (about 11 Western teachers and about 10 Korean teachers) were going out to dinner. The whole thing was a big occasion because the school director (Mr. Kim) was going to make it out for dinner as well (this is a big deal since he actually lives in China). Turns out, he was really only down in Seoul to meet with some parents who were a bit irate because their student got left on the bus alone for a hour one morning and no one, including the school, knew where he was, but that is neither here nor there. Anyway, because of this meeting, we didn't have dinner reservations until 7:30pm. Unfortunately, Thursday is one of my early days (I get off at 4:20) but there was no point to take the subway home and then come back to school. So a co-worker and I headed over to Dr. Fish for awhile. It is a really nice little coffee shop where you can drink your beverage and then dip your feet in a tank of fish for 15 minutes and have them nibble away at your dead skin. It was a really odd feeling...not really a tickle but just weird nibbling. It is pretty indescribable. I am really excited to bring Meg there as I am sure she will giggle happily the entire time :)

So, we finally make it to dinner and let me tell you, the Koreans went all out. We went to a pretty typical place where you grill your own meat and can wrap it in lettuce or eat it plain. But we didn't stop there, we also got 3 kinds of soup, rice, pears, and lots of soju and beer. As we have mentioned before, drinking in Korea, especially at meals, is very common. Seeing multiple soju bottles on tables at 7 pm on a Tuesday night is nothing to take a second glance at. We actually recently learned that South Korea has the highest drinking level per capita, and I can see why. Also, unlike America it is not inappropriate to drink at company functions. While the night was not out of control (we did all have to work on Friday after all) Mr. Kim himself probably drank the most of all of us and was always making sure no one had empty glasses. He also made sure to make all the westerners a special "treat" to try. It was meat wrapped in lettuce with spicy bean sprouts, kimchi, garlic, onion and about half of a hot pepper. Not one for very hot food, but unable to turn him down, I shoved one in my mouth (as you are supposed to cram the whole thing in there at once) and thanked him. I was doing pretty good until about 30 seconds later when my eyes began to water slightly. Luckily, he had moved on to his next victim so I was able to wash it down with some beer, wipe my eyes, and eat some soup to cool my mouth. Speaking of, I was the only westerner to try the soup because it was ox blood soup. Yes, real congealed blood. It looked almost like chucks of meat, had the texture of tofu and didn't really taste like much of anything. I was pretty proud of myself, especially because I tried something weird before Meg for once!

It has been a pretty stressful week at school for me, but those weeks are bound to come up now and then. I have fallen completely in love with my babies, and thoroughly enjoy every moment with them! I can already see the huge improvements they have made in one month and although they still speak in Korean most of the time and don't understand a lot of what I am saying, it is rewarding to know that everything they do say in English I have taught them! One of my cutest students, Shine, came up today and held her shoes up to me (black shinny patent leather things with a buckle). She pointed to the shoes and said "Shinny". Then she pointed to herself and said "Shine". As I laughed she told me "Shinny for Shine." It was probably the cutest thing ever! I also have been reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" to my students everyday and they each made their own copy of the book. Today we "read" the story (they all have it memorized with the picture cues) and it just melted my heart. These are the moments that remind me why I spent all that money on becoming a teacher! Next Thursday I have my first birthday party (CIS has monthly birthday parties) and I have 4 kids (a third of my kindergartners!) with April birthdays. Birthday parties are quite the big deal here, so I will be sure to fill you in more next week!

Meg and I are planning on going to a cherry blossom festival this weekend if the weather stays nice so we will be sure to share more with you about that next week! Also in the upcoming weeks you can look forward to hearing about Korean baseball games, weddings, and what it is like to be a millionaire!