Phantom, Naked, and Lunch

Since my time in Korea is quickly coming to a close, my weekends have been packed with as many activities as possible. A few weeks ago I went with Charise, one of my fellow foreign ESL teachers who is from South Africa, to see Phantom of the Opera. I hadn't ever had a strong desire to see the show, but when she mentioned going I figured why not. What an amazing performance! What made it even better is that it was in English, they had monitors for the Hangul translation. The music was fantastic!

Chai,  me, Charise at Naked.

Chai (another teacher from New Zealand), Charise and myself had our last night together dancing the night away. The girls, Chai especially love a club called Naked, and no... people there are not naked, not really sure why the name. lol   We spent many a Saturday night dancing until the wee hours of Sunday morning and then going to Gecko's, a Western restaurant in Itaewon, for our brunch before heading back to Pocheon (about 2 hours north). As we took our last shot together we all got a bit teary eyed as Charise is leaving in only a couple of days. I will say that many good times were had in Hongdae and these 2 girls will be missed.!

Through the amazing wisdom of the GEPIK organization (gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education), the organization that us foreign teachers in the Gyeonggi Province technically work for, I was sent to a new teacher orientation last week. The fact I've been here a mere 11 months and will be going home in 1 month don't seem to be any concern. So, off to Anseong, South of Seoul, for a 3 day orientation. On the one hand it was a really good orientation, learning about banking in Korea, how to work with co-teachers, design lesson plans, basic Korean phrases.... you know all the stuff I've been doing for ELEVEN MONTHS... No, I'm not bitter, just a tad irritated that I didn't have the opportunity to do this when I got here. Meeting tons of new people that I will get to say goodbye to in a month. I am so good at goodbyes anyway.. ARG! Oh well, it was fun and I did meet some great new people. The Korean way of doing things just don't always make much sense, at least to me.

Lilly, Alyssa, Kyra, and May. Future Top Chefs!

In Korea the public schools get to take the day off on the day of their anniversary. Not only did I not go to work at my school for 3 days, I also had the Monday after the weekend off which made for a nice 5 days off. My lunch time students, May, Lilly, Alyssa, and Kyra had planned on coming to my house to make lunch for me. They wanted to share with me some traditional Korean foods. We had: ramyeon ddang, ha sun heon, gong galibbang, gob chang, gam- ja, Translated: raman. toasted (not boiled) then sprinkled with sugar, Korean pizza with a tortilla, cheese, garlic and dipped in honey, traditional Chinese bread, and pig intestine with vegetables and mashed potatoes with mayo then made into patties and fried. When we were finished eating they even cleaned the dishes and vacuumed the floor, it was great! I have to say all of it with the exception of the intestine were very good. I felt bad too because one of the girls' parents owns the restaurant where that dish came from. It is very Korean but I just couldn't stomach it.

I've been very blessed with meeting such amazing people that I will never forget and sharing some experiences that otherwise should maybe be forgotten! haha :) Peace!