So I've now been here almost two months and I still haven't washed my floor. I think it's starting to look a litle dirty...heh heh. This isn't to say that I don't sweep...I just haven't gotten around to buying a mop yet. Maybe this week...or maybe, I can go the whole year without doing it.
I found out this week that we don't have to grade the student's daily quizzes anymore. I guess other teachers were complaining that they were spending too much time grading. I don't mind the daily quizzes it's the writing that's painful and time consuming.
I threw up some pictures for my web site. Nothing great, just some pictures of my school and some random shots of Seoul. I'm trying to get some personal ones up so I've been taking a lot of pictures lately. I'm trying to take decent ones but they're 36 pictures on my roll and I don't think I'm even half way through yet. As well, I'm not in any of the pictures...and what's a picture if my beautiful face isn't in it?
I joined a gym this week...right by my place but it cost me almost $100 for one month, cheaper if you sign up for longer but I want to make sure that I actually make it worthwhile before I pay for 6 months. My arms were so sore Saturday that I could barely lift em. I guess it's been awhile...hope this week is better.
Friday night, I went out for Dak-gal-bi with one of the couples from work. It's chicken mixed with a lot of other stuff and it cooks right in front of you...it's really good, but it's incredibly spicy. The neat thing about Korean food is that all of your side dishes are free and they keep re-filling them as long as you keep eating em. I'm officially addicted to Kimchi. Kimchi is spicy vegetables(usually cabbage) and they serve it with every meal in Korea...including breakfast.
Last week I met a girl at a bar who knew about a place that gives free Korean lessons on Saturdays. Well basically free...there's a suggested donation of \2000 ($2.40). So Saturday I met her in Seoul and went to the beginner class. I didn't get much out of it though. The teacher spent about an hour on the letters, which I already knew. Then I had to listen to people argue with the teacher about how the letters "should" sound, like they knew better. Just frustration I guess since many of them have been going for weeks and still can't figure out the letters, but I wanted to go over and smack one of them who wouldn't shut up.
I'm not sure if I'll go back next week cause as long as new people come every week they'll spend an hour on the letters. I think maybe I'll try to learn a little more on my own and then go to the more advanced class. Also it was pretty far. I took a bus and then 3 subways to get there. Although, I didn't have to go that way but I'm sick of riding underground on the subway so I took a bus most of the way there but then had to weave my way through downtown on the subways. All together it took about 75 minutes.
After class, I couldn't decide if I'd head back home or not, so I went to Itaewon and wandered around there for awhile. I phoned some people that I've met and got ahold of Susie(girl from Winnipeg). She'd been to a soccer game and was hanging out with friends and a big group of Korean students in Northern Seoul. They were only about 20 minutes away so I hopped back on the subway and caught up with them. There were about 20 of them and they had been at the Soju for awhile and were all pretty red-faced by the time I got there. At least two of them were from Winnipeg and two more were from Brandon...
I downed some beers (well actually quite a few) and then we headed over to Hongdae. We went to a few clubs including this one that was really cool (can't remember the name of it though)$10 cover charge although that's pretty standard for that area. Not to go into to many details but I woke up to a dog licking my face this morning, at least I hope it was a dog ;), which was my first indication that I wasn't at home. Not that I didn't know where I was though, one of the girls invited anyone who wanted to, to crash at her place and it saved me cab fare.
I got up, and when I collected myself, made my way to Chong-ro with the intention of buying a guitar. It seems like for anything you want to buy in Seoul, there's an area that has a whole bunch of stores all grouped together where you can find the best deal. For musical instruments, I'm told, it's Chongro. I went to a couple music stores and battled my way through the language barrier but couldn't find anything decent that was in my price range...ah well maybe next time I'll get Soo to translate for me. I would have looked some more but my head wasn't into shopping so I headed home. Spent the rest of the day on the couch...
I'm going home...need some sleep.
