Right, time for another of my sporadic and random blog updates. I’ve been busy, having settled into a somewhat insane routine of a quiet, somewhat boring, and mostly relaxed and comfortable life during the week in Cheorwon, and insane mayhem crazy business on the weekends. It sort of balances out in an insane sort of way.
Weekend before last I went to Seoul. I went to Nakwon Music Arcade and spent about an hour being overwhelmed by the vast array of instruments. Eventually I decided I needed a break and so spent the following three-ish hours wandering in Insadong and picking out presents for the October Birthdays in my family (as well as a few presents for myself). Then I finally made up my mind regarding the instruments, and went back to buy a lovely violin. After successfully navigating two subway lines carrying backpack, violin and shopping bags, I checking into my hostel and then took myself out for dinner. Later I met up with some friends and we went out on the town. On Sunday I dragged myself out of my hostel and, still carrying violin, backpack, and shopping bags, I made my way through two subway lines (again) and arrived only somewhat late to the English service at Grace Community Church. After church and chatting with friends, I got back on the subway and made my way back towards Dongseoul bus terminal to catch a bus back to Sincheorwon. I made a quick stop (still carrying violin, backpack, and shopping bags) at a Lotte Mart that I had learned is under the subway station there, and finally found the long sought after jar of nutella. Then with the added shopping bags in tow, I finally made it on the bus back to Sincheorwon, triumphant in the fact that I hadn't left my violin on the subway at any point.
Last week was fairly quiet (as my week days tend to be). I went out with some other teachers from my school on Monday and some other EPIK teachers on Tuesday and then Wednesday was Hangeul day, so we had the whole day off. On Thursday after school, my main co-teacher and I headed to Chuncheon where we went out to dinner with a friend of hers. After dinner we did a bit of shopping, and then Ji-Hye dropped me off at a motel. At an insanely early hour (ok, it was a little before 7), Ji-Hye picked me up and we drove to Yangyang on the Eastern coast for a Gangwon-do EPIK training conference. The conference was pretty uneventful, but for me it was a great excuse to hang out in one of my favorite parts of Korea for a weekend. After the conference I met up with a bunch of other friends and we went out for chicken, spent hours at a Noraebang (Korean Singing Room AKA karaoke) and then crashed on the floor at a friend's apartment.
Saturday was mostly spent sleeping in, which, in retrospect, seems a dreadful waste since it was an absolutely gorgeous day (can you tell I’m still regretting that I didn’t take advantage of the beach while I there?). In the afternoon we caught a bus to the small town of Inje, where we had a Braai (South African Barbeque. But I’m going to take this moment to point out that “braai” is a much cooler word) for the people in our group with October birthdays.
We once again crashed on the floor (actually I snagged the couch) at a friend’s place and then, having promised to meet my entire family on google hangouts, I woke up insanely early, hopped on the first bus to Seoul (bus trips for me usually mean two hours naps. And that was luckily the most comfortable bus I’ve been on; I slept better on the bus than I had all weekend!) after two hours, I groggily stumbled off the bus in Seoul and onto the bus headed for Sincheorwon (Life would be a lot easier if Chuncheon had a decent number of buses to Sincheorwon, but it doesn’t so I end up going the long way round to avoid getting stuck waiting for hours in Chuncheon). Another two hour nap later, and I was back in my sleepy little town, trudging home with my heavy backpack and easily making my google-hangout appointment. Of course, we spent the majority of the time using the effects to put funny hats and glasses on ourselves and laughing ourselves silly when Josh and Jessi Strong made a walrus mustache very confused about what face it should be on. And for the record siblings and parents, chatting (or laughing about the “sad trombone” sound effect) with you is totally more than worth leaving a party early, waking up at 6:30am and spending four hours on buses. I miss you guys and it was great to chat with you (and to see mom wearing a cartoon pirate hat).
School this morning was a bit tough as I had my somewhat difficult 2nd graders. Luckily for me, tomorrow is activity day and the day after is the school festival so all my 3rd grade classes are cancelled. Of course, the fact that they don’t have classes tomorrow may also have contributed to the fact that they couldn’t sit still today. The 2nd graders' topic for the last week has been "Inventions" so today they were divided into groups and each group had to think of an invention and present it to the class. The class then voted for the best invention and the winners were given chocolate. I loved seeing what they cam up with! There was quite a wide variety of ideas. Here's some of my favorite:
The most ambitious invention of the day, the Sam Sung (very different from Samsung, they assured me) Universe Maker can make your own planet, so that if earth is destroyed we can all live happy.
Moving on to a less complicated invention, an umbrella with wheels. I guess carrying the umbrella does get a bit annoying.
Three-ball: you get effect three balls in one! air small=volley ball, air enough=soccer ball, air many=basket ball
My favorite drawing. Who wouldn't want a flying chair?
This one is... so Korean. Not sure if you can read it, and they drew the picture sideways, but it says "Chili Honey Ice cream"
And under "Why is it good?" they wrote "You can feel the special and traditional Korean taste."
I'm only surprised they didn't want invent Kimchi Ice Cream.
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