Epic food Sunday

So, Sunday pretty much had epic food. I was gleefully surprised at breakfast. My host mom made pancakes! What are the odds? I just made them on Sat morning with Anne, and hadn't had them since sometime when I was in America. And now I have them 2 days in a row! But I'm not complaining, just smothering them in syrup.... mmmmm. Then for lunch, we had fried mugwort (sp?)-- as in, tempura style. Koreans are out in flocks picking this plant (weed?) from the river banks and all over the country side. Some famous Korean doctor said that this plant is has the best overall medicinal effects. And then... for dinner, we went to the dakgalbi restaurant (the famous Chicken dish from Chuncheon, where I had orientation last summer). It was del-ish-ious!

I was about to leave Sunday between lunch and breakfast for a nice walk in the sunshine along the river, when my host dad told me that he planned to take everyone out to Gwangyang for an afternoon walk. So, I said ok, and decided to watch a movie instead (Edge of Love --I highly DON'T recommend it). So after lunch we hop in the car and drive to the "flower road" in Gwangyang. There was an orchard of some sort, with all the flower blooming pink and yellow. It was quite beautiful! And the golden rod is blooming (Korean word: Kenari = 개나리?), so I learned how to say that in Korean. Then after getting out for 5 minutes and taking pictures, we hopped back in the van for an hour long drive to Sandong in Gurye (a nearby town) to look at the yellow flowers on the trees. I don't know the english or korean word for these, but they were pretty. We walked leisurly (and aimlessly) around for about a half hour, then piled back in the car and had to wait like a half hour in the car because there was a traffic jam getting out of this tiny town. (Apparently this was the weekend to see these blossoming trees) Needless to say, I was disappointed in the "walking" aspect, but the flowers sure were beautiful!




My Monday classes were pretty good overall. They were being pretty ornery and talkative. There was a group of 4 that especially wouldn't shut up, even though they are students that I like. So, I told them they had to stay for 10 minutes after class into the lunch period. They weren't too happy about that, but unlike when I tried it last semester, they were actually hilarious! One kid gets up on the desks on his knees and begs me to let them go (I mean, this is 10 minutes and they aren't even the first ones to eat!). I of course say no, and start playing music. Then, he randomly starts belting out "Under the Sea" and doing this crazy hula-ish dance and shaking his hips! So then I pull up the youtube video and play it and he continues. No idea where that came from, but it made me laugh. I told them I'm going to keep them after class more often! :-P

Today was the big final game for the World Baseball Classic (yeah, I know it means nothing in the US), but Korea and Japan were playing each other, so it was pretty epic here. They had played each other 4 times in the tournament before the final match, and they were 2-2. Well, Japan ended up winning. They were up 3-2, and then Korea tied it up in the 9th inning. Then Japan scores 2 runs in the top of the 10th and Korea doesn't score any, so loses 5-3. My students were so into the game. They were all about 10 minutes late, but I didn't care because I was in watching the game with another class. :-)

In another of my classes someone had major gas apparently. Luckily for me, they were sitting in the back fo the classroom, so I never had to smell anything. But all the students sitting back there kept gagging, then running to the corners of the room to get away from it and giggling. It was pretty hysterical.

Tuesdays are the day I get to go to school late, and I really enjoy having the apartment to myself. I slept in, messed around on the internet, took a nice long walk along the river (the weather was perfect! a little chilly, but it felt good once my body temp got up), and then baked chocolate chip cookies! Tonight I had my language class after school, and besides having to wait for the bus for a half hour, it was ok. Actually, tonight it was too easy for me because we didn't cover a new unit like we are supposed to. The beginning class is too easy for me, but it wouldn't be if only we would go faster. One man in our class has had no exposure to Korean, unlike the other 2 of us, so his pace is quite a bit slower than ours, understandably. But I think I am going to stick with the beginner class and just teach myself ahead. I'd like to cover 3 units/week, instead of the 1-2 that we will be doing in the class. And I'll just use the class as review and speaking practice. We'll see if I keep up with it! I think at that pace I'd be able to cover books 1&2 of this series over the next 4 months. I brought a few cookies to class to share with everyone. My teacher after taking one immediately said "oh, i want 2!" Hahah. Good thing some other people didn't want any, so there were enough.

I learned the word for daughter today: ddal, or 딸. I find it cute and extremely logical, because the word for strawberry is: ddal-gi, or 딸기. Obviously, daughters are sweet like strawberries! ;-)

That's all I've got for now...