The Weekend

Back with another new post, albeit much shorter than the last few. Friday night was spent in Ilsan with Dave and Alex, a very typical guys night out. On Saturday, Alex and I met up with Mika in Seoul and we went to check out the Seoul Museum of Art, which was interesting, but also quite small. The current feature exhibit is modern art from Beijing, Seoul, Istanbul, and Tokyo. Some of it was interesting, some of it went way over my head. I definitely don't have the most refined knowledge of what is good art and there are some things like the mannequin in a bodybag that I don't think I will ever understand or interpret as art, that's more along the lines of Yoko art. Anyways, the gift shop at the museum was awesome! They had everything from a extensive Korean cuisine cookbook to Thomas the Tank Engine models (very exciting to see!). In the end, Robyn ended up with a nice trinket, which I hope she'll enjoy when I see her in a month. After the art museum we headed to Insa-dong, a very artsy, Uptown-ish area with lots of small coffeeshops and smaller galleries. By this point in the day I was famished and after grabbing a drink and warming up we made our way to Kraze Burger, the best burger in Korea. It's not something we have all the time so when we do go there, it makes it that much better, which probably elevates its place on my food pedestal. Regardless, the K.O. burger was excellent. From Insa-dong we made our way to Dongdaemum, one of many areas in Seoul filled with endless shopping markets. I figured I could do some scouting for Mom and Robyn and the other guys were in the market for peacoats. All of us accomplished our goals (except Dave, but he still ended up with a jacket). Saturday night was spent in Hongdae with the usual crowd and Sunday was the usual low-key, relaxed affair. I'd love to write more but that's all I can think of from the past weekend, but stay tuned, I'm willing to bet there will be some good material from Thanksgiving weekend.

iPod A-Z update: "Maybe Baby" by Buddy Holly

Brand Spanking New, brought to you by the letter L.

Hi everyone,

I apologize for the long delay between blog posts lately, and no, I wasn't honoring the Vikings bye week by not writing, I've been very busy lately. I've been charged with the task of making a workbook for next year's students and it is a long, arduous process (thank you Mr. Priemesberger for the 10th grade AP English vocab words). So far the project is going slowly, mostly because I don't have a copier/printer/scanner in my apartment, but I still have a month to finish it so hopefully I'll be able to finish it in time. And yes, there is a cash incentive for me to finish this project. Anyways, I suppose you'd like to know what I've been doing the last two weeks.

Over my birthday weekend, Alex, Dave, and Mika came into Suwon on Saturday to do some exploring. We spent Saturday afternoon at Hwaseong Fortress, the most famous attraction in Suwon (aside from the world renown public toilets, but we'll save that for another post). The weather was surprisingly warm during the weekend after a week of colder weather and we all worked up a nice sweat climbing to the top after taking in the fortress grounds. At the top we took in some nice views of Suwon-si (Korean for city) right before the rain came. Fun fact #1 about Suwon: It remains the only entirely walled in city in Korea. When we got back to downtown Suwon we enjoyed some cake, ice cream, and coffee at one of the numerous ridiculously over-the-top cafes in my neighborhood. On a side note, South Korea is fascinated with these ridiculous cafes and coffee shops. Many of them have private booths with a door and outrageously ornate decorations like chandeliers hanging from the celings. I don't understand why all of this is necessary, but I guess if you are going for coffee and dessert you like to indulge so these places cater to that? To cut a long rant short, we indulged ourselves in one of these private booths. Saturday night we headed to Hongdae for the Madison quadruple birthday celebration. Sunday the weekend traditions continued with the usual bagel and coffee from Dunkin Donuts and an afternoon of relaxation.

This past weekend was a little more low-key than the last few have been. On Saturday, Alex, Mika, Jessie, and I went to Hongdae during the day to check out the university art fair, which was very interesting. We went to a small gallery, which had some interesting paintings. It also had a Beatles-ABBA-Queen exhibit that was showing last weekend but unfortunately not on Saturday (I can't believed I missed it!). We grabbed some snacks and drinks at an awesome cafe that had a very cool chair exhibit in the basement. After Hongdae, the gang headed to Itaewon to check out the War Museum of Korea, which was very powerful and interesting, I regret not bringing my camera. On the grounds there are planes, tanks, and naval guns used during the Korean War on display. The exhibits on the inside cover all the wars in Korea's history. We had Mexican food for dinner on Sat. night at a pretty good restaurant. Itaewon is a pretty Westernized area of Korea, mostly due to the U.S. military base that's located there. Sunday was the usual again: bagel and hot chocolate from DD's, afternoon full of relaxation.

Last week school was back on and the kids were as perky as ever. I can't believe it's only been 3 months since I've been here, I feel like I've adjusted pretty well and it seems like I've been here much longer. That being said I am definitely looking forward to winter vacation and traveling Japan with Mom, Dad, and Robyn and then giving them the grand tour of South Korea. The weather has finally turned to winter and the heat is finally on in my apartment. I can't tell you how awesome heated floors are, but the contrast with ice-cold tiles is a little much at times. At school I have to wear a jacket when I teach because the heat is rarely on, to save energy costs.

For all the Americans or duals reading the blog, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving next week. I know Bubba, Auntie Holly, and Na will have a good time in Minneapolis and Robyn and Mom will enjoy the shopping companions. As far as celebrations planned here, a group of us are going to get together next weekend and celebrate, since Thursday night would be a little too hectic for all of us. Most of the ingredients for the usual delicacies can be found at Costco, so we should have turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce (Thanks, John), pumpkin pie, and maybe even cornbread. That's all for now.

iPod A-Z update: "Lover Man" by Jimi Hendrix

Jeonju/My Birthday

Hi everyone,

First off I'd like to thank everyone for the birthday wishes. I really appreciate all of them and it has been great to hear from you all. Secondly, I'd like to wish Bubba and Auntie Sherri belated Happy Birthdays, it sounds like it was a wonderful Sunday! Third, I'd like to wish cousin Karen a very happy birthday, I hope you have a great day! The first week in November is always a busy one for birthdays!

As far as other news goes, not too much from my end, except that classes were cancelled last Thursday for a week due to a small outbreak of swine flu at my school. Last week was a bad week for Korean schools and swine flu in general. Thankfully only a few kids at my school contracted the virus and I've stayed healthy, I know other teachers here (not at my school) that weren't so lucky. No classes has meant plenty of free time to plan ahead and I've been very successful, finishing lesson plans as far ahead as May for some classes. But, it can get pretty boring as well and I'm hoping classes aren't delayed any further.

This past weekend, Dave, Alex and I went down to Jeonju in Jeollabuk-do to visit one of Dave's good friends from Boston who is teaching at a hagwon (private school). We did our usual routine, leaving from the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul a little after 9:30 pm and we got in a little after midnight on Friday. We stayed at the most luxurious jjingjibang I've ever seen. It had everything, a coffee/wine bar, a pool table, a DVD room, a small library, board games, a ball pit, arcade games, a good cafeteria, a "healing house," a hot sauna, a cold sauna, a really hot sauna, an open air stream, Thai massage, foot treatment, massage chairs, an open air bath, a gym where little Korean kids work out, and the typical hot baths. It was by far the best jjingjibang we've enjoyed the pleasure of staying at so far. The uniforms fit and the sleeping mats were actually comfortable! On Saturday we met up with Danny (Dave's friend) and Dana and ate some bibimbap (a rice dish with mixed vegetables, a little hot sauce, and trace amounts of beef or seafood). Jeonju is known throughout South Korea for its bibimbap and lunch was delicious. After lunch we went to the Jeonju Hanok Village (basically a traditional Korean village). But, the Hanok village wasn't just a traditional Korean village, it was basically a little art colony as well, with street art and coffee shops a plenty. After looking at some art we mosied on down to a nice, relaxed coffee shop for some caffeine and Euchre. Before leaving the village we went on a little mini hike and saw some excellent views of the city. For dinner on Sat. night, we met up with a few of Danny and Dana's Korean friends from Jeonju and partook in a "Maekoli meal." Maekoli is a Korean rice wine and at the restaurant we went to, each time you order they bring out plates of food. Over the course of dinner we had omelettes, seafood pancakes, kimchi and hamburger meat, a very good chicken broth, squid, and live octopus. Needless to say dinner was excellent. Sunday we decided to take it easy and went to the gym for some badminton followed by an excellent meal of shabu shabu before the Three Amigos headed back to Gyeonggi-do.

Today was great; although my co-teacher has been sick, some of the other teachers from my school took me out for a birthday lunch of sundubu chigae (spicy soft tofu soup) and I brought in some cakes for everyone. Once again, thank you to everyone for your birthday wishes, more to come in the blog over the weekend.