November 23, 2013
Outside of school, many things have happened. I finally took my first Korean taxi ride, on November 8th, because I had to bring my extra large package home from the post office. I quickly learned how important it is to be able to say my own address in Korean. It was definitely a struggle trying to direct the taxi driver with random maps I found in my purse, the address written on the back of my ARC card and by shouting out random landmarks near my house (in english). Finally, though, I made it home! The taxi driver was a bit of a rough driver but nothing compared to the craziness of the bus drivers. I almost fell off the bus one day when I was standing to get off at the next stop and the bus came to a screeching halt. The little dangling ropes they have are of no help either. The are not sturdy and serve no real purpose.
One day I wanted to go bowling around my house and invited Anakaren to come. Once she got here, I was so busy showing her around Art Center because she had never been. We didn't even end up bowling. We did try to eat a samgyeopsal restaurant but we were scared because we had no idea what we were ordering. Then we went to a trendy bar/lounge called White Angel where you can write on the walls. Of course, I had to doodle a little something.
Another weekend, we went to Hongdae for some delicious mexican food (oh how I miss Chipotle). Then, we walked around and explored an art market. We went to Gyeongbuk palace too but, unfortunately, we got there too late to walk on the inside of the palace. We walked around the museum instead where I learned a little something about placenta jars. After that, we went back to Incheon to eat at a sushi buffet. It was sooo good! Then, we stopped by the bar, Shelter, for a birthday get together for one of the other English teachers from orientation. That was a long fun day!
Finally, I decided to take action and look up used phones for sale on Craigslist. I found a white Samsung Galaxy SII that looked like it was in great condition for a good price. I decided to buy it, so me and Anakaren went all the way to Itaewon to get it. Before paying the seller, I made sure it could call and use data properly. When I got home, I started really looking through it and noticed there were hundreds of pictures of a Korean family on it. The seller was not Korean or in any of the photos so I started to panic because I thought I had bought a stolen phone! When I got to school the next day, I told my co-teachers that I was nervous that the police were going to track me down and come to the school to demand the phone back. They just laughed at me and said that it would not happen. One of my co-teachers' husband is a cop and told her that the phone would not operate at all with my SIM if it were stolen. So, for now, I am relieved.
This is the first week it has really snowed! It's funny to see how excited the kids get when even a little bit of snow falls. They even make snow men with small patches of dirty snow from the street. ewww....lol. I am glad that last weekend I went on a bus tour around Seoul before the weather got bad. It was really cool to learn about the different neighborhoods within Seoul. I feel like now I know my way around. One spot in particular seemed really interesting, Dongdaemun.
This weekend I have pretty much stayed inside because of the drop in temperature. It's times like these that remind me of going to college in New Rochelle and wishing I knew someone with a warm car to drive me around!
