"Stairway to Heaven"

**Last Night**

Anyeong-haseyo! (after hearing this so much, it's a good thing I mumble anyways because everyone says "anna-sayo" and they hold out the 'o' longer, which makes it sound cool I guess.

I think I should try doing a word of the day thing on here. It would help both you and I learn.

Ok class, today's word (phrase) is "Thank You" - kam-sah--nee-da (kamssah-needa) which really sounds or "Thank you very much" (chong-mal kamssam-needa)

Last night I met up with Jordan, the other English teacher at my school, and his friend Ivan. They are both from Canada (Vancouver area) and very nice guys. We went to a traditional restaurant where they serve a spicy tomato based soup with wild mushrooms and some green scallions. Then when it boils, you add in some thinly sliced beef (basically uncooked roast beef - but better tasting), and it cooks in the soup. It's a community bowl and you take what you want. After the meat is gone, you add in pre-cooked potatoes, and after you finish THAT, they add in fresh noodles.

After dinner, we decided to play some cut-throat pool. A version I've never played, but basically with 3 people you decide who goes first and 2nd through rock-paper-scissors. The first person breaks, and if he gets a ball in he keeps shooting whatever numbers he wants. After he misses a shot, he chooses whether he wants to be 'low' (1-5), 'middle' (6-10) or 'high' 11-15. The object is to be the last person with a ball on the table and knock out everyone numbers besides yours. There are more rules but I won't go into them now.

I told them I was meeting up with Brittany (another English teacher, who is from Barrington, RI and went to Roger Williams). We had been chatting online before I left for Gunpo, so it was nice to finally meet her and be nostalgic about Bristol. (shout out to Adians, Gillary's, JRBeans, and India for Diane, Pat and Anne, and Patience!)

We met up at another teacher's apartment (Joe from NY) and a bunch of others from all over (mainly from California though I feel). They seem like a fun group, but I don't know how much I can keep up with them, as everyone is very outgoing and knows the area and what to do more than I. Also a lot of them are more into going out to the bars and clubs in other cities (something I'm not prone to do that often). I'm more into the cultural aspects right now - I'd like to see some touristy things first rather than seeing the room spin after a night of heavy drinking.

***Today***

I re-signed up this morning on meetup.com, and joined some local groups based in Seoul. There is a expat group, dining club, etc. But the ones I'm most interested in is a new photography workshop group that wants to go to the Olympic Stadium in Seoul to do some sight seeing and take some photos. I might go, but it is this Sunday and I have no idea where I'm going here yet! I also joined a group called the "The Seoul Creative Musicians Circle" its newer and small, but seems like a interesting group of people who just want to jam. I wish I could play guitar - maybe someone will be willing to teach me?

I changed my facebook info/location as well and got this lovely message.



Makes me kind of sad to know I only have 1 friend in Korea...

I also decided to take on E-Mart once again today. The first time I went it was really confusing because there are elevators and escalators that allow you to go between floors, but cashiers on every floor as well, so if you purchase something on one floor and then want to go to another floor the girls guarding the exits freak out on you. I found out that the 3rd floor of E-Mart has housewares, 2nd is clothing, and 1st is groceries. I already attacked the 1st floor yesterday as you saw but I can only carry so much with me back to the apartment at one time. Today I decided to get basic cookware (bowl, chopsticks/spoons (combo pack), fork, knife, hangers and some more groceries such as paper towels, cleaning solution, and some Ramen.

Here are some photos of the downtown area of Gunpo called Sanbon: (you can rotate the pics by clicking on them and rotating using the buttons on the botoom - sorry about that I was having issues)

I'm still a little jet-lagged, so I came home and napped for a few hours (a few heavenly hours). But I received an e-mail from one of my co-teachers (Kimberly) about her wanting to drop off some books. She said she had a grade 2 and 3 book she wanted me to look at over the weekend. When I first heard about grade 2 (even Jordan mentioned it) I was confused. Wasn't I here to teach middle school? How did I get roped into the young kids before I even stepped into the school? It turns out that the grade system goes like this (1-6th grade is really 1-6th grade. Then in 7th grade you are refered to as 1st grade again because it is a different school, 2nd is 8th, and 3rd is 9th.) *Whew*

She went over some of the chapters they were on - which seems to be super easy. She then asked what I was doing on Sunday, and I mentioned I'd like to walk around downtown some more and get to know the area still. She asked me if I wanted to go to church (uh, no). And kept persisting about it, almost to a missionary state. I kept my ground though. She's Presbyterian I believe. Maybe I'll go once to see what it is like, but I don't want her to think I'm going to get into the habit of it.

Later she wanted to show me Sanbon market. It is an semi-outdoor market place where they sell tons of fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, fishy things, and more fishy things that scare the bejezzus out of me. Kimberly asked me to try some cooked meat-looking item, which I sampled. I said "chicken?" she said, "No - fish!" (I really still think it was chicken regardless). If you don't have a strong stomach for the fish smell - don't go there! Also if you don't like cabbage. It seems everywhere that there is fresh produce, there is some sort of cabbage and it reeks, even in E-Mart (not a fan of that).

Upon leaving the market and getting into Kimberly's tiny tiny Daewoo from 1930, an old lady who was sitting on the corner grabbed my arm as I was closing the door and began yapping and gave me a big bag of yellow melons. I thought they were Kim's and she left them or something, but she was trying to sell them. I didn't understand and Kim was kind of confused as well. The old woman kept grabbing my arm and kissing my hand. (it was kind of sad) and yammering away in Korean. Kim (she's too nice) gave her 10,000 won for the bag of melons. Meanwhile the lady is still yapping away and lifts her shirt to and rubs her stomach. I thought she was trying to say that either (a. the melons are yummy. or b. "this white boy needs to eat these melons, because he's too fat). Turns out it was a trick question and the answer was (c. she had a stomach problem and needed surgery and was selling the melons to help pay for it -- according to Kim). Kim apologized saying that the lady's behavior was not normal. I'll believe her so far because I haven't seen that before today. Koreans are supposedly really polite (especially when they know you, but not so much in walking around in crowded streets or shops as they don't give you personal space or notice you trying to walk around them when they are in the way). It's kind of a weird thing.

I have noticed that there are a lot of people trying to sell you things in a forceful manner. They hand out flyers and coupons like in NYC (but don't bother me because they know better than to ask the big white dude who looks totally lost anyways). There are girls on the street who talk through microphones explaining the products like Billy Mays or the annoying Vince from the Sham-Wow commercials (who I can't stand).

Right now, I've been waiting for a comforter to be delivered around (8-8:30pm) it is now 10:45, but "it's Korea" so you never know. I'm also talking with a long-lost friend on G-Mail Chat (Alan) who I used to work with in Bristol through Johns Hopkins CTY program over a couple summers. He's living in Shanghai, China - maybe we'll get a chance to visit one another or something.

Ok, goodnight for now. Hope everyone is doing well