Whoa! Looks like I am way overdue for a new update!
So much has happened in the last month, the idea of a new post has been a little overwhelming. I know I will forget something, but here goes....
Next, we walked through the streets of Insadong (I have mentioned this area in a previous post). We had the most amazing pancakes yet! Pancakes are very common street food, but these were a little different. They typically are little doughy balls just filled with cinnamon and smashed flat as they fry, but these had little pieces of nut in them, sooo yummy! Pancakes are my favorite street food!!
I have been here for a little over 4 months! Its crazy how fast time is flying by. We recently started a new term at school. I was definitely looking forward to a fresh start with new students. I had this grand plan of starting this term out as a strict, scary teacher. Hah! What a joke that was, I lasted a day, maybe. But so far, so good! I love my new classes!!
Being the only female teacher at my school I get all of the young classes. Fine by me, that just means I have the cutest little monsters! One of my youngest students (and eventually the rest of the class) started calling me "Ramen Head Teacher" because my hair reminded him of ramen noodles. Then after my spur of the moment hair chopping decision (see Korean Fringe, aka 4th grade bangs haha), my students now call me "Kimchi in the Front, Ramen in the Back." They make my hairstyle sound like some kind of Korean mullet!
Also my new schedule is pretty sweet. Usually we teach 5 days a week, three full days and two half days. But this term instead of two half days I get a full day off. So I work Monday, Tuesday, Day Off, Thursday, Friday, Weeeekend! Its perfect! And to make things better my friend Lucy, who works for the same company but a different branch, has the exact same schedule! We have been taking full advantage of our free Wednesdays!
So far on our Wednesday adventures we have managed to pack in quite a bit of exploring:
Our first wednesday we roamed around an area called Apujeong. We spent a hour or so wandering around and trying to find "Rodeo Drive," or "the street with all the shopping." Nothing too exciting there, just a bunch of cute little shops, fun to walk around and window shop though. And as usual the temperature dropped quickly and we spent the rest of the afternoon in a coffee shop, chatting and reading.
Second wednesday of freedom went to Insadong and some neighboring areas. We started our day at Jogyesa Temple. This is the largest active buddhist temple in central Seoul. It's the headquarters of the Jogye sect, a uniquely Korean buddhist sect. It was beautiful. It was really an amazing feeling to be sitting in a gorgeous temple in the middle of a huge metropolitan city, monks chanting, playing drums, and people taking a break from their day to stop in and pray. I really could have sat there all day.
Next, we walked through the streets of Insadong (I have mentioned this area in a previous post). We had the most amazing pancakes yet! Pancakes are very common street food, but these were a little different. They typically are little doughy balls just filled with cinnamon and smashed flat as they fry, but these had little pieces of nut in them, sooo yummy! Pancakes are my favorite street food!!After our wonderful pancake snack we meandered into a neighborhood bordering Insadong. Koreans are some of themost generous and helpful people I have ever met, and If I could choose one moment to show this it would be what happened next.
I had recently read an article about a Mandu shop that was suppose to be a-mazing. The article said it was near-ish to Insadong, but a little out of the way and hard to find. Also on the same block was a highly recommended coffee shop and roastery. Because directions that seem simple in Korea are actually crazy complicated, we decided to ask the two women, who worked in the shop where Lucy had just bought a dress, for directions.
As I have found out in many occasions Koreans don't just send you off wondering in some general direction, they will make sure you get to your destination! I showed the lady the article and asked her if we could walk (using my best attempt at Konglish.) She wasn't sure, so she called the restaurant, where I overheard a few Korean words, including foreigners, haha. She then informed me that it was too far to walk and we would need to taxi.
Heres the surprising part, she didn't just send us out to catch our own taxi! She grabbed us by the hand and ran, yes ran, us to the corner where she flagged down taxis for us. But for some reason no taxi would take us, but she was determined to get us a taxi. Then it began it snow, no I am not exaggerating, and she didn't bring her coat. Lucy and I were caught between feeling bad and wanting to burst out laughing. We didn't know how to tell her it was ok, she didn't have to do this.
Finally we were able to express that it was ok, and we appreciated her help. She grabbed us and ran us back to the shop, again, running and dragging us and dodging people on the crowded sidewalk. Back in the shop she wrote down directions in Korean to help us when we did get a taxi.
Lucy and I walked down the street and finally caught a taxi, and good thing we didn't try to walk! It was a 15 min taxi drive up a hill. It was more than worth the trouble/experience getting there.
The mandu restaurant was opened by two sisters in thier fathers house and even though it has gained a lot of popularity they still operate out of the original house. It was located on the top of a hill that looked away from the city and out to the hills. We really felt removed from the normal craziness of city life. And the mandu was great! We got mandu that is a North Korean staple, dumplings filled with cucumber and shittake mushrooms, and a colorful mandu soup, followed by delicous cinnamon dessert tea.
And after our wonderful lunch we walked down the street to Club Espresso where we saw how
they roast their coffee and got free coffee samples. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon reading and chatting and drink yummy coffee, very typical.
Wednesday #3:
A Korean lady that is friends with Lucy invited us on a tour of KBS, Korea's largest broadcasting company. Think touring CBS or NBC back in the states. The tour was inKorean, but Sue, Lucy's friend, was able to translating most of what was happening. I was expecting a large tour group, but it was just Luc, me and Sue's family. It was super cool.
We we able to see a few different sets where game shows, talk shows and the news are shot. We toured the costume and prop room, the two young girls with us were so excited because they recognized many things from their favorite Korean dramas. We got to sit in on a rehearsal of a popular comedy show, Gag Concert. After that our tour guide led us down a hallway and told us if we were lucky we would run into some celebrities. Honestly she could have told me that anyone in that hallway was a celebrity, I'm not too sharp on my Korean pop culture. But apparently we did meet a few very famous comedians. I definitely gained some serious cool points with my students when I showed them the pictures! YAY ramen head teacher!
And today was another wonderful Wednesday!
Today we went to Noryangjin Fish Market. It is a giant fish market selling primarily live fish, sea creatures, and some very unusual little creatures.
Luckily we had two Korean friends to help us find our lunch. We went there with one goal: EAT LIVE OCTOPUS! And we had one rule, it had to be wiggling fresh!
We wandered around a bit, talked to a few fish sellers, let Jin bargain. Before we knew it we had one wiggling bag of octopus and a woman was flopping the rest of our lunch on to the scale and whacking it in the head. It all was a little overwhelming for a moment.
Each fish seller gives you instructions about which restaurant to take your fish to to be prepared. We went up the the second floor of the market, found our restaurant and mentally prepared for what lay ahead of us, well Lucy and I did at least.
Within a few minutes two plates were brought out, one with a full live octopus that was literally crawling off the plate and another plate of tentacle pieces with a lot of wiggle left in them. Our Korean friend wasted no time at all, and shoved the whole octopus into his mouth! It wiggled and stuck out and grabbed onto the side of his face. We weren't quiet as brave, but hey baby steps right? I picked out my piece of squirming tentacle, dipped it into so sauce, and ate it. It was so strange, it wiggled, and suctioned to my teeth. The strangest part was when I went to swallow and it was stuck to my teeth! They definetly weren't joking when they said to "chew vigorously" haha! Besides our lovely little octo friend, we also ate some sashimi fish, a shellfish that looked like an overgrown mussel and some spicy fish stew. It was all a very fun experience.
Ohhhh man I have so much more to write about, but I will leave this blog post to my wednesday adventures. Stay tuned for more Korean Life updates!
xoxoxo!
