I've got Seoul, but I'm not a soldier

(That's right, props to me for having a double play on words. ...and thanks to the Killers for their inspirational lyrics)

So Friday I got up nice and early to head to Gwangju, where I had a "mandatory" conference with all the other foreign teachers in my province in the afternoon. I went early in the morning so I could get my visa for China!! (ahhh!!) It was expensive (about $100, and that's with the horrible exchange rate right now of $1=1500 won) I sat around in the consulate all morning waiting for it to get processed. Then I headed back to the bus terminal to meet up with Anne. It was swarming (literally) with foreigners coming in for the conference. The other foreigners tend to be quite creepy. No offense, but many are weirdos who are over here because they wanted to make some quick cash and/or couldn't find a job state-side. Anyway, I did meet a couple normal girls, one actually is from Suncheon!! :-D

The conference was.... pretty much horrible. It was stuff geered for the other programs here, that have little to no training or cultural workshops. Us Fulbright ETAs, on the other hand, had 6 weeks of training and cultural workshops, so it was super boring (and quite painful) to sit through. I peace'd out early at the coffee break with a few other ETAs and we hopped on a 4:00 bus to Seoul.

The bus ride was terrible -- I think because I was sitting on my butt all day long (consulate, conference, bus...). I was so antsy! But when we got to Seoul we all went to a Shabu Shabu restaurant, which I had not tried yet. Basically, it was buffet style oil fondue. You choose your veggies and meat and even noodles and take it back to your table and cook it together in a big pot of steaming flavored water/oil. It was delicious!! :-) But I definitely burnt my mouth. After pigging out, we hopped on the metro and headed to Sinchon to meet up with another big group of ETAs to find a place to stay for the weekend. We ended up in an over-priced, sketchy love motel. Note to self: Sinchon isn't a good neighborhood to stay in Seoul. Don't get me wrong, it was completely safe, but just over priced and crappy quality compared to places in other neighborhoods I saw online. Anyway, we all headed out to Hon-dae area for a live music bar (Free bird) which was nice and chill, just how I like it. Then we headed off to a "half hour" of noraebang (karaoke) but really they keep upping the time until you leave. We had it down to 3 minutes several times, and it just mysteriously popped back up to 10 minutes. We made our way back to the love motel exhausted at 2:15am. Unfortunately Anne, Matt, and I did not sleep too well as we were all 3 crammed into a bed like sardines, with me in the middle. I did some sleep talking (surprise, surprise) that they got a kick out of. Apparently I sat up really fast and said "there's someone in our room! I heard them on the floor!" haha. Oh, the crazy things I do/say in my sleep.

The next day I was up at 9 and ready for Christmas shopping! We started the day off right: blueberry bagel with cream cheese and a hot chocolate! ==pure heaven! Then we headed off to Insadong where I bought a variety of Korean goods both for me and for gifts for people. Unfortunately I did not find as cheap of pottery as some other people found this summer. I decided not to buy anything yet as I'm going shopping with Stephanie next weekend and soon I'll be back in Seoul with mom and dad. I'll find some good deals one of those times, I'm sure. Then we headed off to Myeongdong, the shopping district, for some clothes shopping. We found the new Forever 21 that was just opened by one ETA's parents! I bought a cute grey sweater. Then we were pretty exhausted from the shopping and lack of sleep. We took all of our purchases back to the love motel and freshened up before making our way to the Ambassador's residence for THANKSGIVING DINNER!!!

It was so great to see everyone. Only 2 people were missing, due to illness. Everyone looked very nice dressed up in their nice winter clothes. The Ambassador's residence is beautiful. It's a traditional Korean style home with beautiful woodwork and it's so large! But, between the ETAs, the embassy staff, and the Fulbright staff, we filled it up pretty well! After about an hour of small talk (which I really hate to do) and listening to the embassy's junior staff band, it was time to eat!! Luckily I sat at the first table to get to the food!! :-D There was turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (the best I've ever had -- they had walnuts on top!), salad, pasta, chips and salsa, cranberries, and tons of desserts! They had pumpkin, cherry, and apple pie, several kinds of cheesecake, fruits, and mini pastries. I had the pumpkin pie and oreo cheesecake, with a few fruits and bite-sized pastries also. Let me say, I was stuffed!! After we ate we had a few more songs from the band, and 2 ETAs shared their musical talent. We all thanked the new Ambassador (she just took the post a month or 2 ago -- she was a PC volunteer here about 30 years ago, and seems great for the job!) and made our way out into the night.

I decided to hit up a jimjilbang -- public bath house -- with Beth, Shelby, and Danielle. I haven't officially done this here in Korea, although it's quite similar to my situation when I go swimming. You walk into the women's side and strip down in the locker room. Then we headed down the stairs where there were showers, a large hot tub, a decent sized tub with cold water, 2 saunas (both were too hot for us to stay in longer than 2 minutes), and some massage tables. We started off with a shower, then I got in the hot tub to let everything soak (you are all completely naked, mind you). Then it was over to the little washing area where you can sit on a stool. Here I scrubbed all the dead skin off my body and turned myself into a lobster! Then back in the hot tub, the cool tub (yes, I was brave! it was painfully cold at first), and then back into the hot tub. I was tempted to get an oil massage/scrub, but passed. Then we went back upstairs and got dressed again. For 3000 won more, you can spend the night there! There is a small room with little floor mats, and you are all crammed in like sardines. However, this was a Saturday night and only 2 high school aged girls were spending the night (at least when we were there). I think I actually might stay there the night before I meet my parents at the airport (only 2 weeks from today!! AHHH!! So excited!) Between the turkey and the hot bath, we were all feeling pretty tired by this time. We bought a ripped off copy of "Once" (a movie) and headed back to our love motel to watch it together. Unfortunately, our cracked movie didn't work at all. Luckily, the computer in Shelby's room had movies on it, and it was already hooked to the widescreen TV. We ended up watching the Sex in the City movie, and laughing the whole way through. (I hope the writers intended to have the bad dialogues and punch lines) It was pretty entertaining. Then we went to our separate rooms and crashed.

Sunday morning I got up in time to make it to the English mass at the Myeongdong Cathedral. It wasn't the same priest as before, and this one was severely lacking in the enthusiasm department. But regardless, it was wonderful to attend church, and have it be somewhat normal and in English! It's been a few months for me, so I really enjoyed it. After church I met up with Anne in Myeongdong and we sat in a Dunkin Donuts people watching and reading until it was lunch time. We found a little Mexican restaurant called "Dos Tacos" and decided to eat there (both of us have been craving some Mexican). While it was by far not the best Mexican I've ever had (actually, not even close), it still satisfied the cravings. I got a "chimichanga" which was nothing like a chimichanga, but was pretty good, and a strawberry margarita (which was delicious and strong!) Then it was time to say goodbye to Seoul!

We took the subway to the bus station and unfortunately the next bus to Suncheon was already full, so I had to wait an hour for the next one. And unfortunately it was full and I had to sit by a not-all-there old Korean man. Whatever, I put on my ipod and immediately crashed. I did some reading on the way home (I'm now reading Dan Brown's Deception Point) and was home by 7pm. Did the dinner thing, unpacked, did some grad school work, and watched the newest Grey's anatomy, and called it a night!

Today I started my speaking tests, which will be lasting for 2 weeks. There are some that are great and some that are horrible -- the boys walk in and I say "go ahead and start" and they just sit there. And then I write a big whopping "0/25" for their score. There's some kids that just don't do English. And that's fine, but the teachers better not expect me to give them a passing score for my class when they have put in no effort all semester. (Students don't fail grades here, they just get pushed along with the rest of the students) The students that do exceptionally well (21+/25) I am recommending that they sign up for the 2-week winter English class I am teaching in January. I'd like to have my higher-leveled students there so we can do more fun/challenging/interesting stuff.

After work I stopped by HomeEver to buy some butter and then walked home and made a loaf of banana bread and a batch of chocolate chip/walnut cookies. I hope the bread turns out well, we'll see tonight! :-) I'm going to share the cookies with the girls in my dance class, as this is the last week I'll be doing it until next spring. It was cold and rainy all day, but the rain stopped this afternoon. Hopefully it won't rain on me on my walk to dance tonight!!!

Happy Monday everyone! <3

Added later:
So the girls at dance LOVED the cookies and they want the recipe. Too bad it's in English... I hope they can figure it out. I'm going to have to simplify the language and metric-ify it though. I walked in and said "come here" and they were like "why?" and I said "I have cookies!!!" and then "AHHHH!!! EEEEEE!!!!!!" <--- much squealing followed. I also gave some to my (anorexic?) dance teachers and they loved them. I also told my dance teachers this is my last week of dance since Winter Break is coming up, they were very sad.

So a few days ago I taught my younger host brother the "Up high, down low, in the middle, TOO SLOW!" high-five game. He now does it to me CONSTANTLY! And I mean CONSTANTLY! I'll be working on my grad school apps, folding my clothes, making cookies even, and he'll come tap me violently on the shoulder and do the "Up high, down loat, in middre, TOO SROW!" thing to me. So cute with the Korean accent, but also getting a little annoying. Oh, younger brothers.... <3