Week Six.

This week seemed to have flown by.

After work on Monday I went to Sookmyung Women's University in Yongsan-gu to sign up for their Korean Class program. http://e.sookmyung.ac.kr/ The campus is really nice and modern. And it appears as this is where all the cute Korean girls are hiding. They do look a bit high maintenance, which can be intimidating. The Korean Language program will cost W450,000 and it's a total of 60 hours (M/W/F 7-9pm). I will be honest, it's very possible that I will miss a couple Friday classes.

This was also my first day riding the city bus in Seoul. The buses have more standing room than seats. What sucks is that they are manual, so they jerk a lot when switching gears. This causes everyone to bounce around. I don't know if I can really see myself taking that bus that often. It's much harder to know where your stop is at. The subway seems to be a better system.

Tuesday was our monthly "Theme Day" at school. For the first half of the day, we played restaurant. The playroom was set up with tables and chairs and we were the waiters. They had memorized a script that I came up with. It included greetings, small talk, ordering food, sending stuff back, ordering dessert, asking for more, complaints, etc. I think the kids had a lot of fun. I was annoyed after a while cus they started taking advantage of us playing waiter. Every second they asked for something else. They had a big menu to choose from, including green salad or chicken salad for appetizer. The main course consisted of either chicken, pizza, or steak. They also had a lot to pick from for drinks and dessert. There was a ton of food and I was happy because I kept on eating steak for free!

I don't know if I mentioned this previously, but all our classrooms are set up with webcams that way parents can enter our school's site and see what their kids are doing. I don't really like this because I always have to remember to smile, even if I'm yelling at the kids. Today we had a number of parents calling in to complain that they weren't able to see their kid's face at the "restaurant" because they were sitting with their backs to the camera. Other parents complained that their kid was not getting enough attention. It got really annoying. But I guess we have to do what they ask for. The webcam is a big selling point with the hagwons.

I left school early to pick up my Alien Registration Card. I'm finally a legal resident of South Korea. Now I can open a bank account!

Thursday after work Joel [the other foreign teacher], Lauren [teacher who I replaced], and I went out for some Korean BBQ. I wish I could go to Korean BBQ alone... but I've never seen anyone go alone. I fucken love that stuff! Laurent and I shared 5 1.5L beers. It was a good way to finish the evening. After dinner we decided to do it Korean style, which meant the night was not over. We looked for a makgeolli bar. First time I had some Dongtongju. It was pretty tasty. I liked it a lot better than soju. It's served in a clay pot and you drink it out of small clay bowls. Tastes very milky and no chaser needed! This definitely topped the night.


Jomel and Sam both came to Seoul on Saturday. They each came with a friend. Not gonna lie, but it was good to see familiar faces once again. Jomes, Evan, and I decided to check out Itaewon and get some Mexican food for dinner. We went to Los Amigos. The place had good reviews online, and it apparently has been open since 1979. The atmosphere in the restaurant was very inviting and lively. The staff seemed happy to help and the place was pretty packed on that Saturday evening. We took a look at the menu and sure enough were appalled by the high prices. I was not going to let that get in the way. I saw a picture of a jumbo burrito with tons of melted cheddar cheese on top [choice of chicken or ground beef] accompanied by rice and beans on the side and adorned with fresh pico de gallo. Maybe $17 was very steep for that meal since in the states it would only run for about $10. But screw it, I'm in Korea and Mexican food is a hot commodity. My mouth began to water just by the thought that I was about to grub on some delicious food! I even ordered a nice cold beer to complement my soon to arrive meal. As the waitress placed the food on the table, I could not have been more disappointed. What I was mainly looking forward to, melted cheddar cheese, turned out to be nothing more than a cream cheese sauce with a semi spicy flavor and a faint yellow color. The huge burrito I saw depicted on the menu was actually two small flour tortillas stuffed with seasoned shredded chicken, then rolled. The beans were definitely not Latino style. They tasted like canned beans you would bring on a camping trip. If there is something I don't like, aside from cooked carrots, it's eating cold, sweet beans.

After a meal far from satisfying, we decided to head over to Hongdae where we met up with Sam and his friend. Hongdae is is an entertainment area and clubbing district in northwest Seoul. We began our night of bar hopping. We went to a few bars before we found one that we liked. We played numerous table drinking games that were all new to me. I wish I could remember even a couple because they were very entertaining. After the bars we decided to go clubbing. We met up with Amanda and her group of friends. From here on, the night got hazy. I just remember looking at my watch and seeing that it was nearly 6am so we decided to call it a night. On the way home, we got kebabs from a street vendor... very delicious when you are drunk that late/early in the day. Riding the subway home while drunk is always somewhat of an awkward situation.