You're from Canada, Eh?

We got a new teacher at work! Her name in Lauren and she is from Canada. Adrienne and I invited her to get food one day after work and then we went to the sauna. It was kinda funny/awkward asking her if she wanted to come to the sauna right away considering the nudity. Adrienne and I were already going, so I invited her just in case. I was surprised she was so down. She has the same mind set as I have over here. She wants to try everything while she is here. The sauna was nice. We all got exfoliated again. I guess it works because this time there was only a fraction of dead skin that came off. 


Adrienne and I figured out how to do money transfers, and we signed up for ziplining! I was so excited. However, Lauren and I drank a little at my place the Friday before ziplining. I had to be up at 5:45 am. I set my alarm... Slept right through it. Adrienne didn't end up going because she was trying to wake me up and by the time she gave up she realized she was going to miss it too. It was a real bummer. :-( I paid her back though.


So instead of ziplining I went with Lauren and Shoomee to Myeongdong. It is a shopping district. I bought my grandma these handmade honey and nut candies there. It is her birthday on Monday. 


Another new girl came this week. Her name is Melissa and she is Lauren's friend from Canada. She seems nice. We are going to go to Itaewon tonight for Halloween. I'll update later. :-)

Touch Me and the Cops will be Called

So last Saturday, my friend, Nate, that I met at Vudu and who knows Leor texted me and asked me if I wanted to go to a market. I don't remember the name. I told him I would go, so I took the subway to Gangnam Station which is only 2 stops from me. I told him I was going to the International Firework Festival later that day. It was already late so we decided we didn't have time to go to the market. He took me to Samsung's Headquarters which is in Gangnam. It was incredible. Here are some pictures of the TVs. They were as thin as lap tops. 

The place was like a museum. There was an area where Nate typed something into the computer and told me to look at the wall and "Welcome to Korea" flashed across. So cliche. :-) We then went and had a cup of coffee. I am acclimating to Korea pretty quickly. I can now drink my coffee black. Ha. It seems wherever I go people drink their coffee black and I feel like I am a nuisance if I make them wait while I add sugar and cream. Nate was really nice and let me shop around for things like shoes and nail polish in Gangnam Station. A lot of the subway stations here have a bunch of stores, even malls, in them. 

Nate said he would come to the firework festival with me, so we went back to my place (which he was extremely jealous of :-P ) and popped the bottle of Bacardi that I bought the other night. I haven't really seen anyone drink anything but beer and Soju here. It is just so cheap and convenient, so the rum was a nice change. Rob met up with us and then we went to the Firework Festival. 

The crowd was insane. We met up with two of Nate's friends, Mia and LJ, as well. This was like a 2 hour fourth of July. Usually fireworks only last about 30 minutes. 2 hours of fireworks gets pretty boring. Ha. Here are a few pictures and a video. I didn't catch the finale.

We left the firework show early in order to avoid the crowd. Next stop: Hongdae. We had dinner in Hongdae. A spicy soup with beef in it. It was good but really spicy. Nate, Mia and LJ went to 501 Dart Bar while Rob and I went to the park to try to meet up with Elena. They were having a silent disco in the park! I wanted to do it, but Rob wasn't into the music (electronic). Everyone who was a part of the silent disco had a balloon attached to his or her headphones. 

Elena was taking forever, so we went back to 501 Dart Bar. Rob didn't feel well and went home, so it was Nate, Mia, LJ and I with a bottle of Absolut in our private little Dart room. This was our set up, and it was sweet.

The vodka came with fresh fruit. That is my ghetto phone that I despise. :-X. Elena finally met up with us. We played darts and then a bunch of Mia and LJ's friends met up with us. We all played darts, and they ordered a bottle of Jose. It was intense.

Mia, Me, LJ, Elena, Nate

After way too much drinking, it was around 2am and Nate wanted to go home. This is where I should have shared a cab with him on the way home, but of course not. I decided I was going to stay with Elena and sleep at her place. I ended up staying out all night and taking the Subway home at 6 in the morning again. When it comes to 5 or 6 in the morning, I rather take the 40 min subway ride home and wake up in my bed than wake up away and have to truck home. 

I slept till 2, and I don't know how I did it, but I went to soccer at 4. After soccer, I went out with some of the people who play for chicken and beer. I did not drink though. 

Then came Monday and that means new flowers in the waiting room at Lex Kim! 

The week zoomed by. Adrienne and I still went early everyday. I received packages from my mom in the mail which was nice. :-) Thanks mom! For some reason I don't like to blog about school, so I won't. Sorry if you want to know! :-P One thing that did happen during the week though is Shoomee brought Adrienne, Sarah and I down stairs to the KB bank and got us bank accounts. Oh and I was paid! $$$$ :-) I didn't have my Alien Registration Card at the time, so I couldn't get a bank/atm card, so they gave us this other booklet thing. It is crazy. You insert it into the atm and you can take money out with it, but it looks like a larger check book. After you take money out with it, it stamps the booklet with how much you took out and where, and it gives you a balance. Super cool. 

On Friday, Nate texted me and asked if I wanted to go to Vudu with him, so I went. It was a very good time. Some American Pilot guy was super wasted and obnoxious. He put his arm around me, and was talking to me. He said something about how everyone thinks pilots are players. I was thinking to myself "oooookkkkk." I didn't know where he was going with it. He then moved his arm down near my butt, and I was out of there. I just avoided him. Later someone slapped my butt, and it was definitely him. I got mad and told him DON'T TOUCH ME. He kept denying that he did it, and the Korean American girls sitting right behind me were watching and saying he did. I told him I didn't care if he did or didn't but not to touch me again. He said something like "You think your'e all that huh." I said no but I didn't want him to touch me... so weird. I turned around and he was gone. No complaining there. The Korean American girls told me that the Korean guys at the next able called the cops on him. Then later LJ (the bartender/owner) came up to me and was apologizing and telling me they called the cops on him and if he came back she would punch him in the face. Haha. I kept telling her it was ok and that sort of thing happens all the time in America. It was super nice of them to do all that. 

Saturday I went with Adrienne to meet Kelly for lunch. We went to Jamsil Station which has a Lotte Mall attached to it. It was insane! Here are some pictures: 

Dried seafood stand... not my jam.

I much rather have dried meat!

 In Korea, the workers wear these little mouth guard thingys, so their spit doesn't get in your food. Awesome.

 Fresh lemonade!

 We ate at a Chinese place. I didn't take the picture until after we were done ha. Anyway, we had sweet and sour beef, crab fried rice and this seafood sesame pasta/soup dish. So delicious. 

 I had a Korean version of a McFlurry after. They put a fraction of the amount of ice cream as McDonalds. 

We then went to this festival. It was pretty sick. So much live entertainment. Here are some pictures and videos.

 What?

We walked through the mall again on the way back to the Subway. Earlier Adrienne and Kelly had told me about the Lotte Amusement Park that is inside the mall. We ran into it on the way out. We are definitely going to go to this soon.

Another crazian thing in Korea. In the subways there are pictures of produce and other things you can find at a store. Below there are bar codes. You add an app to your phone and scan the code. It charges your bank account, and they deliver it to your house. So cool.

I decided not to go out Saturday night. I just didn't have it in me. Sunday I went with Adrienne to Itaewon in the hopes of finding a pay as you go cell phone with a keyboard. I hate texting without one! I failed. :( We had Thai food in Itaewon. I also bought Maya and Lily Hanboks (Traditional Korean Dresses). They are going to look so cute/ridiculous in them. Oh and I can't believe I almost forgot! There is a Taco Bell in Itaewon and you better believe this girl got a crunch wrap supreme. It tasted the same!

I decided not to go to soccer Sunday night. Lame I know. Instead I graded a bunch of papers and watched the second half of Kim Kardashian's wedding... I couldn't find the first half. Haha. I <3 my trash TV, but I also love my good TV. Anyway, with any luck, Adrienne and I will be going to work later and leaving earlier this week. We also want to go zip-lining next weekend. I hope it happens. Well it is bed time over here in Crazian land. Good night!

Warning: This Blog Post Contains MANY Pictures

Saturday was amazing. Adrienne, Grace and I got a taxi to Lex Kim where we met Joomee and Mr. Wee. Joomee is Shoomee's sister. She works at the school. I am not sure of the exact job description, but she is a receptionist + some. Mr. Wee is our driver. On our list of things to do: Changgyeong Palace, Changdeok Palace, Seoul/Namsan Tower, walk around Insadong, have a traditional Bulgogi (Korean BBQ) dinner and see the Korean musical, Miso. Here is a picture of us in our sweet ride. :-) It is a huge van and there were about 100 identical vans lined up outside the palaces. Sun Roof!

So I knew nothing about these Korean Palaces (which are located right in the middle of Seoul) before I visited them, and I would be lying if I said I was an expert now. However, here is some information about the first Palace we visited and yes I have the brochure in front of me... King Seongjong (r. 1469-1494) had Changgeyeong Palace built to serve three queen dowagers, or widows. 

We were only here for a short time because we needed to get to Changdeok Palace in time for the English tour. I found Changdeok Palace to be more impressive. This palace was destroyed during the Japanese invasion in 1592-1598. It was rebuilt after fighting ceased. What I found the most interesting about this palace is it only opened to the public in 1996 because a princess (Princes Deokhye of Korea) still lived here until she died in 1989! While on the tour here, I was informed as to why Koreans take their shoes off in their houses and some restaurants. The heating system in these Palaces is through the floors. You will see how they are on a platform of stone. There were coals under the houses and they would light the coals at fire places inside. The fire would catch the other coals and spread throughout. The heat comes through the floor. The heating system in Korea is the same to this day except they pump hot water. People sit on the floor to get warm faster. They don't wear shoes inside because they don't want to sit (or lie) on a dirty floor. Makes sense.

I like this picture because you can see Seoul Tower in the background. Also, these canals used to have water in them.

 The King's Thrown.

The Queen's Bed.

After the second palace, we drove to the bottom of Namsan Mountain in the center of Seoul. Seoul Tower is at the top of this mountain. We took a cable car up. 

Here are some pictures from the base of the tower. 

 Crazy artwork. 

 Guards

 Had to do it.

I was told that there is a scene in a famous Korean movie where love birds came up to Seoul Tower and locked a lock on the wall or a tree and threw the key off. It was always a tradition, but not many people paid much attention to it. The popular movie has couples coming from all over to take part in this tradition. Here is JUST one of the trees (well one and a half). They also write love letters on key chains.

The elevator ride up to the top of the tower was priceless. Leave it to Korea to have a full screen on the ceiling. When they close the elevator doors the movie starts and its as if you are blasting through space. Awesome. We had lunch at the top of Seoul tower. It was so nice. I had ribs and there was a full buffet of the most delicious foods. I tried two new things. Snails and Jellyfish! The Jellyfish was actually Jellyfish salad and it had a weird spice on it.

I had to pull the snail out of its shell.

After lunch we took a bunch of pictures.

This panoramic view is pretty awesome.

 Seoul is massive.

We then went to this place that is translated to: Octagon Shaped Building to Hangout (haha). Apparently the royalty used to hangout here. 

In Insadong, we went to a bunch of art galleries. There were a lot of really neat pieces. Here is a picture of the square we were in for a while. It was soooo busy. You can't really see from the picture, but the walk ways are actually inclined so you are walking up in a circle (or rectangle).

After more shopping than I ever wanted to do, we went to dinner at a traditional house. It wasn't a normal restaurant. There is only one room and you have to make reservations. We sat on the floor (finally I got to do this)! The food was amazing as usual. We then went to see Miso.

 Oh yea!

 Awesome.

That night Adrienne and I decided to go out for some drinks. My friend Leor used to live just a couple subway stations away from where I live. He told me to go to his stop and look for a bar called VUDU and ask for L.J. the bartender/owner and tell her I knew him. I figured why not try to find this place knowing it would be nearly impossible. We had no idea where it was. We started asking random Korean people on the street where it was. The second group we asked didn't seem to know, so I just asked them what they were doing for the rest of the night and Adrienne and I followed them. One of the guys found it on his phone and took us there! I found L.J. and she gave Adrienne and I a free drink. She seemed to really like Leor and his girlfriend, Jamie. Not only that, but the kid at the bar was Leor's old neighbor. We spent the rest of the night there before going home and barely remembering eating at garlic chicken... 

Sunday I was hungover and ordered Papa Johns. It took me 10 minutes to order on the phone. I was so frustrated and tried to remind myself that I was the problem, not the lady on the other end of the phone. It may have taken me 10 minutes to order, but my food arrived in 15 minutes. The delivery guys here ride little scooter (or motorcycles) and barely escape death on the daily. The pizza was 17,500 won and SO small. You live and you learn.

That night I played soccer again. It was a lot of fun, and I think I played a lot better than the first week. Monday was a holiday, so we didn't have work. Joomee took Adrienne and I to Costco. :-) I got a bunch of food and a blanket and a pillow. My bosses are sooo nice. When we were in the car on the way there Joomee gave Adrienne and I an envelope full of cash. Costco here only takes cash, so they thought ahead and brought us some. It is going to be deducted from our paychecks, but still very thoughtful. While we were there she also bought us blankets. They are so nice.

I have made it a personal goal to take a picture of the flowers at school every week.

This week went well. I went to work early and stayed late everyday, but I think it is going to pay off. I just might be getting into the swing of things. Today was one of my coworkers birthdays so the school took us all out to lunch. We went to this amazing seafood buffet in COEX. It was HUGE. They had sushi chefs making every kind of sushi, they had fried squid, shrimp, octopus, ect, mussels, crab salad, soups, stir frys, pizza... yea pizza? It was amazing. They also had the tastiest dessert section.

 All the desserts were bite size.

The cake they got for my coworker.

So I leave you again with what I did this past week. I think I am going to go to a fireworks festival tomorrow. Goodnight!