cherry blossoms

Lately I’ve been super busy so I haven’t blogged at all, sorry Dad. Last week I was planning on going to visit my best friend Kalie from home. She called me at 6am in the morning on Saturday while I was getting ready and she told me she’d been throwing up since 9pm Friday night… needless to say, I didn’t go see her. I instead went down to the bus station cancelled my ticket to Daegu and got a ticket to Seoul instead. I then woke up my friend Hadley at 7am telling her I was coming to Seoul and hoped she’d want to hang out with me!! Haha. Saturday was fun, we went to a park where the cherry blossoms trees were. These trees only bloom for a very short period of time, I think maybe 2 weeks they’re out in bloom. So I was very excited to see them because I’m going to miss lilac’s at home… We had a little picnic in the park and sat around eating and playing with a soccer ball Hadley bought. 

Where we had our picnic in the park

Bugs... 

 Hadley eating a bug! (and yes, I tried one too. It tasted like the earth)

A little park area by the river

Later that afternoon we headed to a FC Seoul soccer game! It was awesome. I love that Korean’s are obsessed with soccer here. 

 Free face painting

 They love taking pictures with Americans here...

After the game my friend I met on the plane ride over here Jinwoo, wanted to meet up with Hadley and I for dinner. It was really fun and good to talk to a Korean who actually speaks English. Jinwoo was just in San Diego going to school for international business. He says he misses the US and wants to go back. His parents are now living in LA with a family business and he’s here living with his grandparents here now and has a curfew of 11pm! 

The next day Hads took me to Itaewon where we met her friend Addie from Chicago and Jinwoo. We walked around a bit. Ate some food and ice cream then hopped in a cab that took us to a park to walk around. The park we ended up going to was amazing. It was called the family park which had a huge museum in the middle of it. When we walked up to the park there was live music playing on the stage by the museum. I really enjoyed the park, it reminded me a lot of the sculpture garden at home with more open areas to play and sit around. I’m definitely going back there for a picnic with a soccer ball or Frisbee as soon as I get a chance. We went in the museum also, it was huge and the best part is that it was free! A lot of museums here are free which is spectacular. The weekends here are the best part of my week. 

 Behind this gazebo thing is the museum (tan building)

 Huge bench!

Inside the museum

More to come soon,

Julie

volunteering

This weekend I went to Seoul once again. I got to see Hadley and my Korean friend Claire that worked at Disney with me. She is awesome. When I got to Seoul Hadley and I went to a restaurant called butterfinger pancakes. We were both starving and it was so delicious. The servings were huge… it was like eating a tremendous twelve at perkins! Hadley and I both ordered our own meals then we looked over at a table of 7 Koreans and noticed they were splitting 3 meals between all of them. Woops! That meal was the most filling meal I’ve had in a long time. I had to start doing some of my breathing exercises after because I ate too much. Haha. 

After our meal we decided it was a good idea to walk a bit so we went to some markets in town. Koreans love their markets, and so do I! It was really fun just to walk around and look at all the things people were selling. We watched how the Koreans make their special cookie… it consists of honey and flour wrapped around nuts. It’s actually really good. I clearly had to buy some of those. 

I also ended up buying a couple things at the H&M of all places. Hadley wanted to go look at Tom’s shoes and guess who ended up buying yet another pair of shoes… yep that was me. My Toms are so comfy and easy to slip on. They also go to a good cause so I felt a lot better about my purchase. We found soft serve on the street where we were too! So delicious! 

Hadley couldn't wait to put on her Tom's!

After the shopping we headed over to see a play, the vagina monologues. Hadley, her friend Elizabeth, Claire, and I went to see it. Half of the play was in Korean and half in English. It was interesting but really good. I enjoyed it. We had Korean BBQ for dinner after. It was my first time and I loved it. It’s one of my favorite meals here now. You get lettuce and rice and some other side dishes with meat cooking in the center. Then you just enjoy the meal family style and make little lettuce wraps; well at least that’s what I did… 

The next day we went to the three o’clock showing of the vagina monologues where Claire, Hadley and I volunteered in order to go free the night before. It was fun just to hang out together and be at the play. The volunteer coordinator made the mistake of telling me to help myself to the snack table, I ended up going back there at least 5 times, Woops! There was a cute little girl hanging out with us at the play in this picture below. 

week 1

This week I started teaching first thing Monday morning. Koreans do not hesitate to throw you into things right away. I talked to Don this week (the recruiter I went through, he’s Korean but lives in Maplegrove MN now) and he told me that one of Korean’s biggest downfall is training… Anyways, my first day ended up ok. It definitely helps that I have done a lot of coaching and know how to handle the kids and make them behave. The Korean teachers here are all super nice and are very willing to help with planning and help me out with my schedule – which is super confusing. There are many different adjustments that I have to make living in Korea. For example, at home growing up on a lake I’m used to raking seaweed. Here in Korea, they LOVE eating seaweed with their food. Having a sink/shower in the same faucet is new to me as well… it sucks when you get up to use the sink in the morning and have forgotten to turn the faucet back so the begins to come down on you fully dressed. I have definitely done that a few times already…  What I can’t understand is how Koreans are so advanced with things like technology but yet it’s not standard to have dryers, just washing machines that drain out the back into the floor. It’s also not typical to have an oven or microwave in your apartment. And when you go walk outside in the morning you will find old ladies sweeping the street crouched over with a broom made for a two year old! No wonder they have back problems…

 Elizabeth (the other foreign teacher at my school – she’s from LA) was telling me tonight that Korean culture is one of the hardest cultures to adapt to… now I know why! On a different note, I got my new cell phone this week. Amy (my director) gave one to me on Wednesday. It is a smart phone with a touch screen. It is super confusing and I don’t understand it. Now I know how my mom feels like with her non-smart phone! HAHA. I went shopping for a few things this week and was so happy to find my favorite toy I left behind in MN… the good old Rubik’s Cube! Of course that was the first thing to go in my cart! I have plans this weekend to go to Seoul again to hang out with Hadley and also see my Korean friend Hyemin Kim (Claire). I met Claire during my semester at Disney – the disney college program. Claire and I were lifeguards together. I’m super excited to see her again. She has come to MN to visit me at school and now I get to see her Korea! Hope you enjoy reading...

Julie  

My first weekend

This weekend was really fun. I went with Elizabeth to Seoul on Saturday morning. We left at 9:30 in the morning and got there 10:30. The bus costs a little over 6 dollars and it’s an express bus that goes directly to Seoul. So, it’s pretty easy for me to get to Seoul. Elizabeth goes just about every weekend so I will have someone to go with all the time. When we arrived in Seoul Hadley (my friend from high school) met me at the bus station. Her and Elizabeth helped me get a subway card. Hadley and I then took off and went to Olympic park. It was cool to walk around there and see the area. I saw my first Starbucks there!! I got really excited; Hadley bought me a vanilla latte there! 

We then walked around a bit more and eventually went to Costco! There is a Costco two stops away from where Hadley lives which is so convenient. I’m so jealous of her… I bought some Lysol wipes, Febreze spray, Babybel cheese I love, Carr’s crackers, some bagels, and olive oil so I can actually cook some things! 

Saturday night Hadley took me into Seoul to meet some of her friends. It ended up being one girl that she knew there and like 15 other foreign teachers from all over. It was definitely an experience eating with that big of a group, we got fried chicken. Something that I don’t like about Korea is you can smoke anywhere... and everyone smokes! Hadley and I were going to go to a concert with them that night but we were both so tired we couldn’t even keep our eyes open until 11. Lame, I know. Hadley’s apartment is SO HUGE! I’m extremely jealous of her for it. She has two rooms and the guy before her left a ton of stuff. I had two choices of where to sleep; an air mattress or the couch. I chose the couch. I don’t have either in my apt though and my apt is half the size of hers… oh well. I like my apartment. Sunday, I got up at 6am and hung out on the computer. My sleep pattern is getting a little better but I’m still not totally on Korean time yet. When Hadley got up we went to her favorite restaurant and ate breakfast and headed off to the market. The market was fun to walk around in. I miss the farmers market at home. In the market they have a lot of kimchi and full fish staring at you… GROSS! We bought some clementines! 

We explored Guri (the town Hadley lives in… just outside of Seoul) for a while after heading in different stores and going down to the river to see the active life. I made a purchase that I love, I bought some converse shoes that Hadley really wanted but didn’t fit into! Haha. She’s totally jealous of me. I needed to buy shoes to walk around in anyways. Koreans love their converse so I fit in now! I was actually telling my mom a couple months ago how much I wanted converse shoes and miss mine from elementary school. 

When we got back to Hadley’s apartment that afternoon we both passed out and took a nap. Walking around really tires you out. We woke up just in time to get back to the bus station where I had to catch my bus ride back to Hongcheon. Hadley dropped me off with Elizabeth just in time to make the bus. It was such a fun weekend. I’m really happy that Hadley lives relatively close to me. I was lucky to have her guide me around town all weekend and teach me all about the subway and living in Korea, she’s been here for 6 months now. When I got back to my apartment I was so tired I went straight to bed. I was hoping to clean my apartment because Korean’s clean their apartments when they first move in not when they move out so mine is currently dirty. I guess I’ll have to clean my apartment tonight now… oh well. Today is going to be my first day teaching. I’m a little nervous but more excited!

Julie 

I took this at the airport... This is the sign from Mr. Kang and my luggage!