"Sushi Chef"

The other day a bunch of us went out to celebrate the birthday of our new friend, Meredith. She has been in Korea for less than a week, and luckily found a group of crazy American's to help make her feel a little bit older!

We treated her to a place referred to us as "The Sushi Train". Apparently there are at least 3 of these places around Sanbon - all which I must try being a huge fan of most sushi. The restaurant is all-you-can-eat for about 15,000w Not too shabby if you ask me, as I could spend a good 2 hours polishing off plate after plate.

Speaking of which - here is a picture of our accomplishment (about halfway through)

We finished off the night at Pirate Bar and had a wonderful cake as well. All in all, it was a good night with good people. 

Happy Birthday Meredith!

"This Train Don't Stop There Anymore"

Well folks it has been a pretty eventful week. I still haven't started teaching (I start Monday), but I'm glad I wasn't in a classroom this week. Why? Well, for one, the students were participating in parents day on Tuesday and the school was hosting "open class" Wednesday. Open class is when other English teachers from other schools in the district come and observe you teach and give you feedback. I met some nice teachers who live locally and are from parts of Canada, Florida, and New Mexico. They had some decent suggestions for me as a newer teacher and what to expect, avoid doing, and provided some interesting recommendations. Another reason I'm glad I wasn't in the classroom is that it has been super hot and humid this week (and the AC being broken isn't helping the situation). I don't think I have sweat more than this in my life. I literally feel like I am slicing through a fog of hot moisture when I walk to and from school. Just sitting at my desk has been unbearable at times. The Koreans might say it is hot as well, but they don't sweat at all (must be a genetic thing).

I know I had mentioned teaching at the Education Office on Fridays and possibly doing web-based broadcasted lessons. Turns out I don't have to go to this anymore (who knows if this will change, because my schedule seems to get randomized every other day at this point). Instead I am teaching 3-4 classes a week before and after school. Mondays and Tuesdays I have to be at school by 7:30 (ugh!). I don't know if this is the same kids every day, or once a week like the normal classes, but I'm not fretting about it right now. My first day is going to be playing games like Simon Says and Hangman. The rest of my normal day classes are getting some powerpoint presentations that I have been preparing for the past few weeks. (Hopefully I can use those with the am/pm classes too.

Friday Jordan and I met up with another friend of ours Chuck. We were going to go into Seoul at first and then the plan changed about 3 more times until we eventually went back to Pirate Bar. We got some drinks and there was a nice foreign turn out. I met some more people which was nice. Later we hit up Cass Bar. Cass is a name of a beer here. We hung out and I played darts with some Koreans (who were really bad at it). We met a couple Korean girls and they taught me some Korean words. I learned how to count to 10 which will come in handy in class when I need the kids attention.

Saturday night was my first trip on the subway and my first trip to Seoul! The subways are very clean, but very crowded (especially on a Saturday night). I found it a little confusing, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. It is dirt cheap though, and only costs about $3 round trip.

A bunch of us met up in Hongdae (Seoul's party central) for dinner and drinks. A guy named Brent was going back to Canada and had been in Korea for about 4 years I think. So we met up and had some sort of Bulgoki (grilled beef, which is always good). Afterward we walked (in the rain - as it had been raining all day) to a cozy bar/lounge called BricxX. It's a hooka bar where the drinks were only so-so. Not the greatest, but the atmosphere was cool. It was in a dark basement with a Jungle theme (I think they were having a Jungle Party theme that week and it's not normally like that). The waiters wore tarzan outfits (which the ladies liked). about 20 foreign teachers converged on this bar and they only have us 2 tables at first that we crammed around. Eventually we got them to give us a 3rd though. A bunch of people were heading out to a club afterwards, but I was already falling asleep. I can't stay up drinking unti 3am too often. A couple of us took the subway home - but it turned out we missed the last train and had to end up getting a cab to stop in Anyang to drop of Ivan's girlfriend and then the two of us took it back to Sanbon. Cabs aren't that expensive though which is great, as it was at least a 30 minute ride and only cost about 25000won ($20) for 3 people.

I'm still trying to go to the Palace near Anguk station, and might go next weekend. Maybe I can meet some cute girl at Hana International Club (a language exchange bar where you can meet people who want to talk with you) and maybe she'll be willing to bring me around parts of Seoul.
We shall see!

Happy Father's Day to my Dad! (you've always been like a father to me) hahaha.

"Yo Ho Yo Ho, a Pirate's Life For Me"

Work was pretty much uneventful. I worked on some lesson plans, or at least what I could. According to Kimberly I don't start teaching until June 22nd. I will only be teaching 2nd and 3rd grade (8th-9th). Basically I'm going to only do 3 lessons though for both grades - one a week until they have final exams and then vacation in July. I've made a lesson about who I am, and another about American Independence Day. My 3rd will probably be about Summer. It kind of is pointless to teach out of the book yet since they are winding down. I've already put together some introductory material for the next semester which starts late August. It also turns out that we have 'test' days. According to Jordan we don't even teach on those days and sometimes we don't even teach the week of test days because the teachers want to get all the standardized info in the kids heads and not our Western mumbo-jumbo.

Last night Jordan and I met for dinner in a place that is attached to my building. It serves hot porridge. The varieties that were offered were mostly seafood based; octopus, squid, oyster, tuna, etc. I chose chicken. It wasn't the greatest stuff - mainly a bland rice stew with little chicken chunks, some vegetables, a prune, some sort of root, and ground seaweed. It filled me up - that's all I needed anyways.

Afterward we met up with Ivan and his girlfriend Emily and a guy named Chuck. (Emily is Korean and an English teacher, also a really fun girl. Chuck is a hagwon teacher originally from Las Vegas.) We met at Pirate Bar (I think it's really called The Ice Pirate Bar - but no one refers to it that way). It used to be the big hangout for foreigners, but since a ownership change it isn't as popular anymore.

We got a couple pitchers of flavored soju cocktails. Soju is a rice based vodka. Everything was similar to Smirnoff Ice, so I was happy. My favorite was a yogurt one which I highly recommend. We also had some cheap Korean beer that comes in a mug made of ice. You can take the ice mug and throw it at a target and if you hit the center, the machine does the whole "no whammy, no whammy, no whammy - stop!" thing with lights and sound. Whatever picture it winds up at you win. Prizes range from orange juice, free beer, or a bottle of whiskey.

I took a picture of the target.

Afterward, we took a couple taxi's to another bar that is co-owned by a foreigner people know. I forget the name of the town, but its not far away, it supposedly has a large foreign population as well. We met up with some more people - Nick from Nebraska (he's fun), and Steve who I met my 2nd day in Korea. We drank some more and chatted it up.

Ivan and I were pretty tired and decided just to head back to Sanbon while the other guys went to a place called MC Bar. I was exhausted, and had spent too much money (I'm supposed to get my arrival settlement on Monday or Tuesday of 300,000 won).

Today a bunch of us might go to Sinchon in Seoul - about an hour away on the subway. We're going to try and watch a rerun of the Stanley Cup Finals, and maybe hit up Hongje (party central of Seoul) on the way home. I'll let you know how it goes.