dialogue madness...

Howdy~ ^___^

Wow, this past week was a bit hectic. The weather got a lot colder... ugh. It's cold in MN, but I have a car there and don't need to walk everywhere.

I met up with one of my co-workers and we studied Korea together, which was nice!  She is from Denmark and is here teaching English on the same program as me. After studying, we met up with Nik for dinner and went to the Italian Plate.  I love that place because the waiter is so hilarious! He loves meeting foreigners and can say thank you in a bunch of different languages.  Here is a picture of Mette, Nik, the waiter, and I~

Mom sent me a mini menorah for Chanukkah. I didn't get it until the 6th night, but it was nice to have. Thanks mom!  Here are pics of Nik and I lighting it on the 8th and final night.

 lighting a match on Nik's stove

Plus, our Korean teacher assigned our class to memorize 6 dialogues and then film them with our partners.
On Friday, I went to a Fulbright forum on modern architecture in Seoul.  Afterwards, Nik and I went to Seoul Station to accompany a friend to the train station.  On the way back, we were studying my dialogues and we completely lost track of where we were.  We missed our transfer stop and ended up way off from where we were heading... So, we got off and turned around. AND missed our transfer stop again... This is what happens when we are together. All the time. It never fails. We do this wherever we are; MN or Korea... ^^
So, we ended up spending about an hour riding the subway back and forth. On the plus side, by the time we parted ways, I had 5 out of 6 dialogues memorized!  

On Saturday, I went to Joo's English class. Her class was an English class for deaf and hard of hearing Koreans. It was pretty cool.  Afterwards, I went to lunch with her and two of her classmates.  We ate budaechigae, which originated from the food the US soldiers used to give out. So, lots of random things end up in the soup, like spam and hotdogs.  I found pepperoni in this version, which just weirded me out because pepperonis are supposed to be on pizza... haha.

Later, I met up with my friend Sarah from SupHo.  She is here teaching English at a university down south.  We hungout and then went to the G.O.A.L Christmas party, where I met up with Nik.  I also ran into Lea and Rae and a few other people I knew. The party was okay, but they ran out of food. I was starving! So, Sarah, Nik, and I ended up leaving the party for a bit and we went to Kraze Burger for burgers and fries. haha. Eating burgers and fries in formal wear.
After the party, Nik and I went to a cafe and ended up watching an entire movie on his computer before heading home at around 3 am...

 Sarah and I at the GOAL party

 Kraze burger

 chili fries

this restaurant has the best hamburgers ever

On Sunday Nik graciously allowed my classmates and I to videotape our dialogues at his apt. So, we met up at noon. It was actually very fun! We have a lot a lot of bloopers... hehe.  I think our teacher might post them on youtube. If he does, I'll post a link.

Nik and my two classmates Hitomi (Japan) and Mika (Germany) eating Chinese delivery

At 4, I met up with this unni I met at the KoRoot Thanksgiving dinner. She is Korean, but her husband is an adoptee and serving in the US military, so they live on the military base. She invited me over. Man, the military base is crazy! It's just like America!!!  I couldn't believe it!
As soon as you enter the gates (only authorized people are allowed in. I had to bring my foreigners reg. card and get my entrance approved) it is no longer Korea, but America. The buildings/structures look American. Even the fastfood joints and strip malls look American! I mean, the burger king looked just like the ones in MN. The BKs in Korea are much nicer and fancier, but this one just looked blah and ordinary. Weird.
Then, I headed back over to Nik's for dinner because his neighbor was having Dr. King over (the Dean of SupHo) and Nik and I got invited as well.

The next evening, I went back to Niks for dinner. We were going to do something simple and study Korean. Nik decided to make homemade fried chicken! I've never had homemade friend chicken and I was so impressed!!! But the chicken was done before some of the other stuff, so we stuck it in the oven to keep it warm. However, some of the oil dripped to the bottom of the oven and started to smoke like mad... We opened up all the windows, got out the fan, and wrapped the fire alarm with a cloth. whew. that was close.  Even so, dinner was awesome. Although Nik's apartment reeked of fried chicken for a few days after the fact~ ^^