happenings

Hey! So, its been almost a week since I posted, so just a quick update.

Thursday evening I went with Suise, her friend Celine, her boyfriend Mark, and Kyungmoon to the NCKTPA to see a gugak music performance (traditional music).  Celine had free tickets from her host mom!  Awesome performance.  Although it was work to get there. To make a very long story short, Kyungmoon was supposed to meet us but her taxi driver dropped her off somewhere else. But, I was convinced she was just in another area of the complex, as its really huge, so we both spent about 30 min. wandering around in 0 degree weather (Celsius) looking for each other... real productive.  But the performance made it worth it!  We went out afterwards and ended up eating boonshik, korean style fastfood. The restaurants serve ramen, dukbokki, donkasu, and kimbap. 

Last Friday I met up with Younghwa unni, this woman I met on the plane over.  I think I wrote about how her husband and I had a lot of things in common.  Anyhow, we went to myeongdong and ate lunch together.  She is super nice and I had a lot of fun.  Meeting her really gave me a boost of confidence because I felt like I understood about 90% of what she was saying in Korea, which NEVER happens. I think it was a freak incident.  Also, I think she knows how to talk clearly.  She lived in the States for two years (Madison, WI) and took ESL classes, so she knows how it feels when people talk too fast etc.

I left around 4 to get back for tutoring which started at 5:30, but of course I messed up on the subway and was late... I tutor from 5:30-7:30 so 1.5 hrs was plenty of time to get back.  It really should take me about 30 minutes.  Anyhow, the train I was taking stopped at Changnyangni station as its final destination, so everyone who wanted to continue on had to get off and wait there for the next train.  But somehow, and seriously, I don't know how, I ended up going the wrong direction.  (In english I'm directionally challenged.  In Korean its 길치 gilchi).  I swear I didn't walk over to the other side and get on the train going the other way, but I guess I must have...  In anycase, I kind of zoned out figuring I'd hear my station, but when I heard Seoul Station looked up and realized I was going the wrong way and was now far from my destination. Arg. I ended up being 10 min. late but luckily when I got there, my tutee's parents were out. Whew.  I stayed an extra 15 min. to make up for it.

Nik came to Seoul and came over to my apt. He actually arrived while I was tutoring... since I went a bit over, and called, but I didn't answer my phone. So, I found him outside sitting on a bench.  He played with my host brother and sister, we ate dinner, and had fruit and tea for dessert.  Then we headed out to KoRoot (I decided it was easier to spend the night at KoRoot) to meet Emily! who had also come in for the weekend (both Emily and Nik are Fullbright ETAs and teach English outside of Seoul).  We talked for a while and then crashed.  

Em and I eating ice cream fish - our favorite ice cream treat.  I actually beat her, which is a first!

Saturday, Nik and I coffee-shopped-it.  We attempted to do so the weekend before and ended up wandering around for about an hour looking for one near dongdaemun. oddly, there weren't any open.  This weekend, we went into Paris Baguette and studied Korean etc.
The weather was crazy. It rained a bit, but the sky was this sick green color because of the yellow dust (황사) that blew in from China. Gross!!!
Then around 2 we headed to hongdae to meet up with Mark, Susie's boyfriend, who was going to go to the Dulsori performance with me (drumming perf.).

I got to see the whole thing this time! yay! (the weekend before Nik, Kyungmoon and I tried to go but were lost for a while and ended up catching only the last 5-10 min).  Seriously amazing.  Afterwards, the manager, whom I had met last week came up and talked with Mark and I and introduced us to everyone.  It was kind of Tte style, so after the performance, which was tech. an open rehearsal, their teachers and famous composers etc. who were there to watch criticed them and then the manager, yuri went around and introduced the other people in the audience. When he got to me, he said I wanted to learn taepyungso and my face turned so red! I need to learn to control my embarrassment better... Anyhow, they invited us to dinner with them! But, I had plans to go to Kyungmoon's apt. for dinner. She decided to try cooking Korean food for the camp unnis and me.

It turned out really well! She made chapchae and there were lots of banchan (side dishes).  I brought along some fruit, which we ate after the meal.  While Yunjeong unni and I did the dishes, Eunji unni and Kyungmoon went out and bought soju and makoli (korean rice wine), which by the way is only 6% alcohol.  They gave me the clear glass so they could see how much I was drinking. lol! I had about 3 glasses and my face was bright red; my ears too. Kyungmoon actually put powder on my face to try and make it look less red.  Then we left to go to hongdae to meet up with some other counselors from camp.  I ended up drinking 2-3 more glasses of makoli (one of the unnis thinks its really funny when I drink and kept urging me to finish up so she could refill my cup. hehe.)  I was rather dizzy. 

Sunday I did homework until the afternoon and then I met Emily and Kaonou in Myeongdong. I haven't seen Kaonou (we were on the same study abroad prog. and now she's here teaching English just outside of Seoul) in about a year! So, it was fun to catch up.  Myeongdong has the best street food! 

Kaonou and I with out potato sticks

Emily, Kaonou and I at dinner

 The End.