Wednesday, September 25, 2010
As per my journal:
Some days you just need to be a tourist. I was supposed to go to Olympic Park with some coworkers, but instead I waited around for a call that never came. So instead I'm on my way to Gyeongbokgung, "The Palace of Shining Happiness," built in 1394 by King Taejo, founder of the Joseon Dynasty. However, the original was burned down in 1592 and stayed in ruins until it was rebuilt in 1868.
And blah, blah, blah. The palace was nice, but nothing as spectacular as the Forbidden City or even the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. That said, the weather was perfect and it was really nice to just get out into the city and stroll around. The highlight of the trip was actually bimimbap for lunch.
Sunday, September 27, 2010
I was long over due for a haircut when I went into a foreign-friendly barber shop near-ish my home. I've been a little hesitant to get a haircut so far, mostly due to a particularly traumatic haircutting experience in Japan. The haircut ended up being OK, not great and not as short as I wanted, but it works.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Today began with some drama, as Sydney inadvertently startled an old Korean woman getting off of the elevator in the morning. I heard her walk straight up to the doorman and start bitching about my dog. I wasn't surprised when I was called into our Vice Director's office to have Joe tell me that he had received a call from the apartment and that "Neighbor were complaining about her being too noisy." Of course, this was total bullshit as other foreigners surround my apartment, left, right, and below. In fact, I even asked a nice South African living directly next-door to me if he could ever hear her and he told me, "She's as quiet as a mouse."
Other than that mess, our school celebrates birthdays once a month, and I don't think I've ever seen so much food. My kids inundated me with pizza, chocolate cake, fruit, rice cake, iced coffee and juice.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Today we kicked off our two-days of monthly tests for our afternoon students. This was a nice change in pace from our normal school schedule, when we usually devote all of our time to lesson planning and teaching. Interestingly enough, these tests actually created more work for us because we had to grade all the essays.
After work I met up with a couchsurfer, Mark, and his entourage of coworkers for drinks and noraebang (Korean karaoke). I'm not normally one for the mid-week throw-down, but on Thursday I had a field trip and more testing, so I was pretty sure I could work through any and all possible hangovers. I've also not had much opportunity to meet and hang out with many non-coworkers, so I felt like I owed it to myself. It was a blast, despite not being able to find "Come on Eileen" or "Carry on our Wayward Son." The five of us ended up crashing back at my apartment around 3:30.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Despite being tired and popping Advil like candy to combat a headache, I had a great time on our field trip. It was at the Korean Folk Museum, inside of Lotte World which is a giant department store/theme park. My kids spent the day taking turns climbing all over me while I tried to explain to them what was going on in the diagrams and displays. It was really nice to see these kids have a chance to...well...be kids. I feel like they are all terribly overworked, sometimes they should just be able to cut loose.
For being in a department store, it was a surprisingly good museum, but it was a bit odd exiting through cosmetics.
Friday, October 1, 2010
So the gods of noraebang have smote me once again. Last time I went, I came down with tonsillitis two days later, and this time I've come down with a cold. I would like it if my immune system started doing its job at some point.
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