I don't really know what I was thinking last time when I said "It's been about a week"... because really, it hadn't been about a week. Now it's been just over a week that I've been in Korea. And I am definitely enjoying myself. And what's great right now? I have 10 days off! It's summer vacation! Which I thought was a pretty crappy idea when I first got here, but now I'm definitely excited to have it!

I'm finished with training, and on Thursday, I taught my first real class all by myself (with no one observing or anything). It's a phonics class for kids that just need a bit of extra help. And because they don't know me or each other... and because they're used to just sitting and not participating in class, they just sat there. No matter how much energy or enthusiasm (and I can definitely have a lot when it comes to teaching...) I put into it, they just sat there. Like rocks. I'm still optimistic.

For the rest of the days of Thursday and Friday, I was "trial teaching"; the teacher I'm replacing was still in the room, but I was the one actually teaching. These days seemed to go quite well. I think the students are going to be fun. The classes are 40 minutes on MWF and 60 minutes on TR... so I don't actually get to spend too much time with the students, but I hope I can kinda get to know them. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

On Friday night, I went out for Galbi with Chris and Miranda. Across from Krista's place is this really nice "Korean Barbeque" restaurant. They bring you the meat and you grill it yourself. (And yes, I've just decided to eat meat here... because, frankly, it's hard to avoid. And generally it's pretty good.) We had a big plate of pork with different marinades. Mmmmm. It was delicious. Along with it, you can get rice if you want and some really good jalepeno (almost southwestern-style) soup deliciousness. It was a real treat!

After that, we went to Wa Bar. Haha. That's the name of the bar (pronounced waba in Korean). It still makes me laugh every time. It was a going-away sort of shindig for Chris and Alex who were leaving the next morning. It was a really fun time. We all turned out around 22h30. Nearly all of the foreign teachers (as far as I know) from my town (the district/neighborhood) turned out, so I got to meet a lot of them. It seems like a great bunch. There are teachers from all over, too! There are lots from America, a handful from Canada, a few from England, a couple from Australia, and even two from New Zealand! Met a guy from Milwaukee, too. Wisconsin represent! Haha. Lots of fun and lots of laughter. It was also the first night of our 10-day vacation. Good times, good times.

Today, Eddie, Miranda, Renee, and I ventured into Seoul. It's a beautifully huge, extremely developed metropolis. It's about a 40-minute bus ride from our town, but it's an easy shot. We started at the museum of history of Seoul. I died a little inside because it was so boring... And while we stayed longer than I would've stayed, it was free, and we didn't stay all that long.

(On a side note, I also learned that we aren't supposed to drink the water here, something that no one told me, so I've been drinking it all week with no problem. We asked Eddie if he drank it... and apparently he doesn't, but some people do. The government says it's okay to drink, but a lot of Koreans don't trust it. I figure I haven't been sick yet, so I'm gonna continue drinking it. It's such a developed country that I can't really believe it's that bad! It's not like I'm gonna buy it each time I want to have a drink of water!! Crazy.)

Seoul is soooo Westernized. You can't walk on a single block without finding a Western store or restaurant. Starbucks, ColdStone, Bennigan's, McDonald's, BurgerKing, Pizza Hut, Dominos, and the list goes on and on. The girls were in the mood for Western food, so we ate lunch at Kraze Burger (pronounced "crazy beoga"). Delicious food. We stopped by a bookstore and then proceeded down the Cheonggye Stream, a stream that runs directly through the middle of Seoul for about 3 miles (see hyperlink for more photos). It was beautiful! Lots of people.

Cheonggye Stream

After a quick coffee break, we entered the district of Insadong, the ... artisanal area? I don't know if we can say that in English. :D It was almost like a mini... formalized market? Gee, I'm really good at explaining this. It was kind of a mix between a market and a shopping mall. There were lots of people and lots of really cheap things. We'll head back over there one of these days when we don't have to drag Eddie around. :D Lots of cute stuff for really pretty cheap. Along the road we were following, there was this huge band of people doing traditional dance and drumming. I've uploaded a video of it, but please don't watch the whole thing. It's waaaay too long... haha.



After watching that for a bit, we went into a more organized shopping mall market. I started pouring rain (surprise, surprise), but we were prepared! They have so many beautiful things there... we're definitely going back sometime this week! I've included a picture of that, too.

Shopping Mall Market in Insadong

We walked back to the bus stop and waited for a ridiculously long time, but we were chatting, learning some Korean... Eddie bought us all Korean-English dictionaries. So sweet. :D I'm totally committed to this Korean thing. I really want to be able to go to the market and speak to people in Korean. That more than anything! So hopefully that's not too lofty a goal. 12 months, hopefully that can happen. I'm getting good at asking for things (like ordering or buying). I can order food, beer (maekju), water (mul), ice water (there is a difference!) (chan mul), an umbrella (usan), ... and what else... I don't know. I'm getting pretty good. :D

Tomorrow we might head into Bundang, a different little city with lots of fun stuff to do. I still have 9 days of exploring left to do! But I guess we might go to Caribbean Bay (a huge waterpark) on Wednesday and then maybe down to Busan for the weekend! How exciting! All in all, I'm really excited to be here. And hopefully I'll get to move into my own place tomorrow! Inchallah!

ALSO I finally got my Korean phone. If you're calling from Skype, tell Skype that you want to call South Korea, and then dial 010 5681 4560. Otherwise, +8210 5681 4560. (Yes, this is the correct number of numbers.) I can't get international text messages (bummer!), so you'll have to call. Or else email me and we can set up a Skype date. :D Hope to hear from you soon!