impatient people...

This was a very interesting weekend for me...it definitely had its ups and downs, but overall, it was quite a success. On Saturday afternoon, I met Shannon and Mi-yeon in Gangnam. We went to an area nearby, that's mainly French-speaking. We went to a bakery for lunch called Paris Croissant. We ordered our sandwiches and drinks, and had our lunch on the terrace. Fancy, I know. :) It was so wonderful. We had great conversation and great food. This particular bakery imported all their flour directly from France, so this was definitely the real deal. It was perfect.

When we finished, we headed back to Gangnam to meet up with our other friends. Our church, New Harvest, was hosting a proper Thanksgiving dinner for all of us U.S.A. foreigners...it was great!! I invited one of my Korean co-workers, Jessica, to join us. Our group was Shannon, Jessica, Reuel, Mi-yeon, Michelle, and I. The church had ordered 27 turkeys...and had them flown in from California! The sides were mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, stuffing, cranberry sauce, bread, and two kinds of pie: apple and pumpkin. It made our hearts so happy. As difficult as it is to be away from family on big holidays like Thanksgiving, being surrounded by our church family definitely helped! After we finished eating, there was a talent show, put on by people from our congregation. There was singing, piano-playing, and even...a rap-off! Yes. It was perfect.

After our Thanksgiving dinner, our group wasn't quite ready to go home yet, so we decided to go to a cafe and have some coffee and gelato. It was a great way to end our night! Jessica had a wonderful time, too, so I was really happy about that! She said it was her first Thanksgiving experience, and she was so happy she was invited. :)

We all parted ways and headed home. I had to take two buses home...I rode on the first bus, and was waiting to get off the bus to transfer to the second one. This is when my weekend went downhill. There was a teenager standing in front of me, then there was me, and then a young Korean man about my age behind me. We all swiped our cards and were waiting for the bus to stop. The second the doors started opening, the man behind me started pushing me. I didn't want to run into the girl in front of me, so I planted my feet. She was able to get off, and the guy kept pushing. I ended up falling down the stairs, out of the bus, and landed on my face on the concrete. The man didn't say anything to me! He just kept walking to the bus stop as if nothing happened!!

Here's the thing: people in Korea are very impatient and pushy. I was told when I got here that Korean people bump into one another all the time, and don't say sorry. It's just part of the culture. They're always in a rush to get somewhere, and they're only looking out for themselves. I've noticed this in Korea, and still don't appreciate it. It's one thing that I don't particularly care for about living here. Anyway, a taxi driver sitting at the bus stop happened to see the whole thing, so he got out of his taxi and ran over and started yelling at the man who pushed me. The man didn't even make eye contact with him...he just didn't care. He just needed to catch his own bus. The taxi driver was kind enough to drive me home, so I didn't have to wait for the next bus. He spoke really good English, so I knew that Someone was looking out for me!! He drove me all the way home, and then wouldn't accept any money from me. What an angel. I'm so blessed that he was there to help, and couldn't have been more relieved for the free ride home.

So, my Saturday night ended with me having some scrapes and bruises, and a pretty cut under my right eye. Not the way I wanted to end the day, but oh well...Luckily, my Sunday made up for it :)

This morning, Shannon, Reuel, Michelle, Mi-yeon, Johnny, and I all met in Gangnam for Dos Tacos. We went to church, and then hung out in the coffee shop...as usual. When Shannon got out of her small group, we headed to Insa-dong for some dinner. I had really yummy soup!! It was perfect, since it's absolutely FREEZING outside now!! I had heard of the soup, but had never been able to try it. It was delicious. After we finished dinner, we went to a coffee shop to stay warm while we waited for Reuel to meet us. When she got there, we walked down the street to the annual Lantern Festival. There's a stream that runs down the middle of one of the roads, and in the river, they put a bunch of hand-made lanterns and light them up. It was so fun!! They had some traditional lanterns, and then more modern ones like superheroes and the Statue of Liberty?? ... :) Most of the lanterns are life-sized, so it was pretty cool. When we finished walking down the bank of the river, we decided to go to Seoul Station. The night was still young, and we still wanted to hang out. Shannon headed home, so Reuel, Mi-yeon, Johnny, and I all went to Seoul Station together. We hung out a bit longer and then headed home ourselves.

I got home around 12:30am, which is surprisingly early, considering it was the weekend. My weekend was packed once again, but it was awesome as usual!! While my weekend was crazy...this is what I have to say:

I don't appreciate impatient people who push people off of buses...but in light of Thanksgiving, I'd like to say this:

I'm thankful for taxi drivers who go out of their way to help someone in need, especially a foreigner. I'm so thankful for him. :)

International Pen Pals.

I've been staying in contact with the 3rd grade teacher I interned with in Orlando. I had a great experience working with her, and I learned so much. Now that I've moved to Korea, I've had my own stories and experiences to share. Anyway, over the past few months, we've been emailing back and forth, and keeping up with each other's blogs. Back in the Spring, we came up with a brilliant idea! Our kids could be pen pals! We were both really excited about it, but once I got here, I couldn't really make it work. We kept emailing and talking about it....and FINALLY we got the ball rolling!!

I talked to Darren about our idea, and he was really pumped! Today we officially started our grand plan. Darren dedicated all of today to writing to our new American friends! Each class wrote rough drafts of their letter. After we checked them, they completed their final copy and drew pictures. It was great! Our kids are really excited about it! (Obviously, some weren't excited, but it was just pure laziness...Once the rest of the kids started writing and talking about it, they couldn't help but jump right in!)

I would love to give more details as to what exactly we're doing....but my "contact" reads my blog. :) So...I don't want to ruin any surprises that may be coming her way!!

Overall, we're all excited about this! Our kids are going to have international pen pals! For most of them, this is their first experience becoming friends with a foreigner, especially one their age. :) I can't wait to see what kind of friendships blossom from this. Very cool. :)

Can I touch your hair?

Yesterday and today were interview days for our older elementary students. They came to class with two questions to ask me. I told the students that the only question I won't answer is, "Who is your favorite/least favorite student in this class?" I asked them to come up with really creative questions, nothing boring. I got some really good ones. These are a few of my favorites:

-What is your IQ?
-What is your favorite hairstyle?
-What pose do you want to have in a photo? (what? ... ) :)
-How much do you weigh?
-Do you like money?
-Which is better: mother or father?
-If you could change your name, what would you choose?
-What is your address?
-What is your phone number?
-How old are your parents?
-Is Apple better than Samsung? (We had really interesting conversations about this one...) :)
-Can I touch your hair? (I left my hair down yesterday, and my students are absolutely fascinated with it since it's curly. One of the girls used one of her questions to ask if she could touch my hair. It was pretty funny. Then, a few students after her asked me the same thing...) :)

All in all, interview day was a success. I think this is a great opportunity for my students to get to know me better, so I always look forward to this day in the semester. :)

Nooribang.

After work on Friday night, Amanda and I went to Suwon Station to see a movie. We saw "In Time." I actually hadn't even heard of the movie, so I didn't know anything about it. Amanda and I needed to relax and de-stress after a pretty long week, so she suggested a movie. If you haven't heard of it or seen it, it's the new Justin Timberlake movie. It was decent, but nothing outstanding. It did give us something to think about when we left though.

Because I didn't get home from the movie until 2am, I slept in until 11am on Saturday morning. I didn't have any official plans lined up yet, so I just took it easy. When I woke up, I stayed in my pjs, and just caught up on TV shows and did a bunch of nothing. Between 11am when I got up, and 6pm when I left my house, I took two naps. I know. SO LAZY. :) So, around 5:15pm, I left my house and headed for the subway station. I was meeting up with Johnny to go to Songtan, near one of the military bases. We met at Suwon Station, and then took a few subways to get to our final destination. We went to a Mexican place nearby and had some dinner, which was quite good. (I hadn't eaten all day, because I had been too busy napping, so this meal was especially delightful.) :)

After dinner, we met up with Shannon, Reuel, Michelle, and Jen. We walked around a bit, and looked in some of the stores. There wasn't much going on since it was fairly late, but we had a nice walk. After that, Shannon, Reuel, Johnny, and I went to a bar and hung out for a bit. They have darts and a pool table, so we just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. At around 11pm, we headed back to the station. Shannon and Reuel headed home, and Johnny and I headed to Suwon Station. We met up with Tommy and two of their coworkers, who were at a restaurant near the station. By the time we got there, it was midnight...which meant it was officially Johnny's birthday. Woohoo! To celebrate, we went next door to a nooribang. This was my first experience, and it was really fun!

A nooribang is basically a singing/karaoke room. You pay a fee to "rent out" a room for a certain amount of time. Inside your room is a TV, microphones, some tambourines, and a few couches. You just sing karaoke and hang out with your friends in your room...without anyone else seeing you make a complete fool of yourself :) It was great fun! They had a pretty decent collection of songs to choose from, so that was great. After we finished our hour, we weren't quite finished yet. So, Tommy added on more time, which ended up being AN HOUR!! At 3:30am, when our time had expired, we left the nooribang and headed home. It was going to be a short night of sleep for me because I had church in the morning...

After 4 1/2 hours of wonderful sleep, I woke up and caught the bus to Gangnam. Johnny was supposed to meet me at Suwon Station, but after calling him multiple times, he finally answered with a sleepy voice. He had slept through his alarm!! Wonderful. I headed to Gangnam and met up with Shannon, Reuel, and Mi-yeon for some Dos Tacos. We went to church, and then hung out at the coffee shop for a few hours. :) It's our usual Sunday routine, but we love it.

After Shannon got out of her small group, Johnny met us in Gangnam. We wanted to take him out to dinner to celebrate his birthday...after a little bit of resistance, he finally let us spoil him a little bit. :) We went to Butcher's Cut for some cheeseburgers. Delicious as usual. Then, we went to Baskin Robbins, where we all got different flavors of ice cream! Even though it was freezing cold out, it totally hit the spot. After we finished, we went across the street to CGV, the movie theater. We were going to see "Real Steel." Since we were at the movie theater, we OBVIOUSLY had to get popcorn. Duh. And Korea is famous for their caramel flavored movie theater popcorn, so there was no question about it! We were getting popcorn! :)

After the movie, everyone parted ways and headed home. Johnny and I took the subway back to Suwon together since we live really close, and the other three caught buses home. I think I did fairly well, considering I was running on 4 1/2 hours of sleep today! I had a great weekend, so the lack of sleep was definitely worth it! And...because my job is so wonderful, I don't have to be at work until 2pm, so I can sleep in as late as I want. Perfect. :)

It's getting SO COLD!! This week, the temperatures are going to be in the 30's!! :( Send happy WARM thoughts my way!

Paranormal Activity 3.

On Saturday, Arri and I met at Suwon Station and took a bus to Tommy and Johnny's area of town. They had invited us over for a movie night!! We stopped at a fried chicken place to grab some dinner...and Arri and I had french fries for our VERY FIRST TIME since being in Korea! They were just heavenly. :) After dinner, we stopped by a GS25 to get some ice cream...obviously. Then, we headed to Johnny's place to start our scary movie marathon.

We watched "Midnight Meat Train" first and then ended with "Paranormal Activity 3." Of all the scary movies I've seen in my life, I've never been more terrified by PA3. Wow. It was SO SCARY!! I was on edge the whole time and screamed a few times, too. So GOOD! :) I love scary movies. By the time the movies were finished, the four of us were officially freaked out. We hung out at Johnny's for a few more hours and just chatted. That made the ride home a little better for Arri and me. We had happy conversations before having to make our trek home in the dark...where we might run into zombies and invisible monsters and demons...You know, the usual. :)

On Sunday morning, Arri and I met Johnny at Suwon Station, and we headed to Gangnam. We had a bit of difficulty figuring out which buses to take and where the bus stops were, so we were late getting there. We went to Dos Tacos at noon for some lunch, and then went to the 2pm church service. After church, we went to a bookstore and just bummed around Gangnam for awhile. For dinner, Reuel met us at The Butcher's Cut, the really yummy cheeseburger place! We ate dinner and chatted for awhile, before parting ways and heading home.

Johnny and I were both heading back to Suwon, so we took the bus together. After wandering around Gangnam for another 40 minutes looking for the right bus to take, we FINALLY managed to find one that would go back to Johnny's area of town. From there, we could take a bus to where we needed to go. We transferred buses and Johnny ended up hopping off a few stops before me. I took the bus to Suwon Station, where I waited for 22 minutes for my bus to show up!! This normally wouldn't be a big deal, but it has gotten really cold here, so I was completely numb and didn't have a jacket. Poor planning, I know. Just after midnight, I finally got home.

I had a wonderful weekend, and felt very relaxed. Sometimes I like having days like Saturday, where I can just hang out with a small group and watch movies, and not feel like I have to be doing something. It was nice. And on Monday morning, when I woke up, I felt really rested and ready to go. It was the perfect end to a perfect weekend. :)