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.