November thus far- hiking, Chuncheon & corn dogs

Wow, I've barely updated for all of November.   It is weird that it's already almost thanksgiving because Halloween feels like it was yesterday.  This month has really flown by and I can't believe I've been here for more than two months.  I think I'm starting to get the hang out of things.. I ordered a futon online, so everyone must come visit!  It'll be nice to have a place for people to sit other than the floor when they come over.  Also, I Just figured out how to download movies from a torrent, so that's going to change my life for the better.  Before this, the only shows that streamed well online were the daily show and south park.  Not a bad selection, just very limited.

November went in like a lamb and is going out like a lion.  The beginning of the month was beautiful and the sun was still warm.  Everyday that passes, it gets colder and colder.  If this is only November weather, I am NOT looking forward to January and February.  The first weekend of this month, I went hiking up Bukhansan Mountain in Seoul with my co-worker.  The mountain is actually in my district (Eunpyeong) and was 3 subway stops away, so it was easy to get to.  Since it was one of the last nice weekends, the trail was very crowded, and middle-aged Koreans don't have much patience for others when they get into hiking mode.  They push you out of the way if you're going to slow, so you never need to worry about holding anyone up.

Andrew looking off into the distance

The hike was really fun but I wasn't prepared for how intense it would be.  It was very steep, and towards the top, you literally needed to use a rope to pull yourself up the smooth rock.  Let's just say, I was sore until about Thursday.  What sucked the most is that once we got to the top, it was so cloudy that we had absolutely no view.  Normally, you can see all of Seoul from the top of the mountain... but all we could see was clouds.  Kind of a bummer!  But it was definitely worth it, since now it will be way too cold to do anything like that. 

The following weekend, I got out of Seoul and went to another city called Chuncheon to visit some friends.  It's about an hour bus ride from Eastern Seoul and it is the capital of Gangwan-do (the state to the East of Seoul that is generally more rural).  I got there on Saturday night and basically just went out to a bar that night.. nothing too interesting.  The next day, we went for a long walk around Chuncheon, from my friend's apartment to the downtown area.  I saw his school- a huge, public, all-boys middle school.  Can you imagine the hormones in that place?  We also went to "ttakgalbi street" which was pretty cool- it was just filled with everything that had to do with ttakgalbi, from restaurants to huge plastic chicken statues.  I had a lot of fun in Chuncheon and it was nice to get a break from the big city.  They're famous for their ttakgalbi, which is an amazing Korean dish made up of spicy chicken, rice cakes, and some other shit.  Definitely had it for both dinner on saturday night aaand lunch on Sunday.   I really enjoyed myself.  It was a nice, relaxing weekend.


This weekend, I had really hyped up.  We got tickets to see the Flaming Lips and I had been excited forever.  I met MJ in Hongdae at 1:30 for a haircut.  She looked great when we left.  Me, not so much.  I got highlights and am wayy too blonde.  I sort of look like a playboy bunny.  Or Pam Anderson.  Not a good look, really.  Anyway, the Flaming Lips tickets said that the concert started at 7.  But would you ever go to a concert at 7? Most concerts that say they start at 7 or 8 have at least 2 opening bands, set up time, etc.. so the main act doesn't wind up going on until 10 or 11.  9 at the earliest.  So, we planned on getting there at 8 (which we still thought was pretty early).  It turned out the concert literally started at 7.  On the dot.  We arrived shortly after 8 and missed almost the entire concert.  We saw 4 songs.  FOUR.  I'm still so pissed about it.  Who doesn't have an opening band?? Who ends their concert at NINE O CLOCK?? Ugh.  On the brightside, the 4 songs we saw were amaaaazing.  They ended with Do you realize?? which was beautiful... there was confetti eeeverywhere.  It was awesome.  I'll post pictures once I upload them.

We decided to go out after the concert, since it was literally 9 PM and the night was still young.  I was with MJ, Johanna, and my friend from college, Megan.  MJ and I had met these 3 guys when we were frantically running around looking for the concert venue, since we couldn't find it and were already so late.  These guys also missed the concert, so since we had a shared resentment for the band/our lives, and they came out with us after the show.  We had a really good time.. we went out in Hongdae to one of the various Ho Bars then to a place called "Garage" that was literally a garage.. so that was kind of cool.  I left with my girlfriends to go home at around 2 and stopped to eat at a stand on the street selling various Korean fried things and corn dogs.  Only then did it occur to us that we spend every weekend talking endlessly about how we wish we could meet a group of hot, awesome guys that want to hang out with us.  After all that talk, our dream was finally coming true-we met 3 hot, awesome guys.... and then ditched them to go eat corn dogs on the street.  WHAT is wrong with us??



That pretty much sums it up.  My school is under construction and is a TOTAL mess right now.  We merged with another school (I work at CDI April Institute, which is elementary school.  We merged with CDI, which is the same school but for the older kids).   They're moving into our building so they're pretty much gutting the inside of the building.  They're moving walls, making new classrooms, putting up new wallpaper, etc etc.  The end of November should be interesting, with 13 new foreign teachers and 500 extra kids running around.  I'm teaching a new class for Pre-K, so my students will be like... 4 and 5 year olds.  Do they even have motor skills at that age? I really don't know how I'm going to keep their attention for an hour.  Or how we're going to do ANYTHING because they don't speak any english and have the attention span of fruit flies.  It's going to be teaching the ABC's and phonics using a lot of songs and games and stuff  The school prepares us really well- they provide all the materials and I went to a training session about it.  I DO get to use puppets, which I'm excited about.  There's Kenny the Cat.. and some others, but I can't remember their names.  I have to use the puppet to show "the cat is thirsty" and "the cat is sleepy."  I think it'll be easier to act like a total goofball when I have a sockpuppet on my hand.

I'm exhausted.  Another lazy Sunday.  Already excited for next weekend.

Ta-ta !