This week I came to school to find a large flat screen TV had been installed in the front entranceway at school.
Now there’s a live stream of Dokdo Island to greet the students every day.
Dokdo is an island that Korea and Japan have a famous feud over.
Monday night was my birthday dinner with the girls. The first restaurant we went to didn’t have room for 7 of us so we ended up going to a restaurant that I’ve been meaning to try. We all really loved it. It’s called 찜닭 (jjimdalk), which means steamed chicken in English. It’s really really good! It’s really tender chicken served in a platter of spicy sauce and vegetables like onion, potatoes and carrots.
After dinner, we went to Baskin Robins and had an ice cream cake.
It was a great night.
On Sunday in Seoul, we came across a park full of 아저씨 (ajoshi – older Korean men) playing a came called 바둑 (baduk). The English translation is Go. It was so fascinating to see so many men playing the same game in one place.
I spent the weekend in Seoul with Dave and his parents. We all had a really good time.
In Insadong, I saw a food stand selling these and they made me laugh. They are called 똥빵 which translates to poop (ddong) bread (bbang). They are basically just sweet bread full of red bean paste in the shape of… poo.
It’s just another quirky thing about Korea…
Almost every day I see a baby so cute I want to put it in my pocket and take it home.
My co-teacher was out sick today so I had to teach 4th grade all alone. This was my first time in the 14 months I’ve been here that I’ve had to teach alone for a full day. It actually went really well, considering 4th grade has the most ADHD students of any grade and they are the worst behaved.
After my last class, one of the 4th grade girls walked up to me with this picture she had drawn of me.
Grand Openings in Korea are really interesting. A lot of times there will be these large flower arrangements out front (that look like funeral flowers to me), the air powered blow up guys that flail around or girls in short skirts dancing. This BBQ restaurant in Seomyeon (Busan) had all 3! It also had a very disapproving ajumma monk that had decided to sit down next to the scantily clad girls.
May 8th is Parents Day in Korea. I asked my 6th graders what you should give your parents on Parents Day. Most of them said a letter, carnations and money. Though some students said, “No! It’s my money!”
These little flower shops popped up all over town to sell carnations.
I have mentioned food delivery a few times in the past. This is a food delivery scooter. I took this photo as it was sitting outside the local Kimbap Heaven restaurant. If you look closely, you can see that the handle bars have gloves built in. This is really common because it gets pretty cold here in the winter. I have no idea if they are removable.
It was an absolutely beautiful weekend! On Sunday we went to Busan. We made stops at Gwangalli and Haeundae Beaches. I took this picture of Diamond Bridge from Gwangalli Beach.
Life Outside of Texas 