That's right, I'm a Korean TV star!

A couple weeks ago Kristina, Abby, and I were filmed for a tv program about ddeokbokki and how healthy it is and how it can help you lose weight (not true at all). It was mainly for Kristina. Her uncle was the one who set it up. They went to her school and followed her around all day, but Abby and I went to her house after work. After being stuck in her bedroom forever, we finally got to help make ddeokbokki (sorta) and then eat it on tv. It was a very interesting experience. I wasn't sure if Abby and I would actually make it on tv or not considering they filmed Kristina for like 10 hours for a 5-minute segment. I wasn't sure how many people would actually see it either. I tried telling some of my classes. Most of them didn't seem to understand. The ones who did were told the wrong channel. I thought it was KBS2, but it was on KBS1. Anyway, we were actually on tv a lot longer than I expected. It aired Friday night. During the show, our friend Doug called Kristina. He was watching it on tv in a taxi. We were having lunch in a little Korean restaurant the next day and it was on tv again. Everybody was clapping for us. hahaha:) As soon as I got to school today, kids were coming up to me saying, "Jennifer Teacher! I saw you on tv!" One girl said, "Teacher, ddeokbokki is spicy to me too." My partner teacher printed out a picture of me on tv and posted it on the door to the teacher's room.
So this past weekend was a 3-day weekend for Buddha's birthday. We wanted to go to Seoraksan, one of the most popular mountains in Korea, but we couldn't leave until saturday morning because of the tv thing. Abby and I bought the tickets friday. It was going to be a 4hr bus ride leaving at 6:30 in the morning...or so we thought. We were on the bus for about an hour and a half when it stopped and everyone got off. We thought, ok, maybe it's a bathroom break. No, the driver started yelling at us to get off. We get off the bus to find we are in Seosan, not Sokcho (where Seoraksan is). My guess is Seosan is not one of the top tourist destinations of Korea. We went inside the bus terminal to see about getting a ticket for Seoraksan. There is no bus going straight there. We would have to transfer, and we had already gone out of the way. Soooo, we went to Dunkin Donuts across the street to do some research on Seosan. We found another mountain (Palbongsan) and took another bus. After a 30 min bus ride, we were dropped off by a bunch of tractors and cows in the middle of NOWHERE. Getting lost in Korea has never scared me much just because there are always taxis around, but I wasn't seeing any taxis where we were...

We saw some mountains in the distance and decided to walk toward them. We talked to the man with the cows and he pointed us in the right direction, telling us something about 1 o'clock 30. Hoping the mountain wasn't an hour and 30 min away, we started walking again, and eventually found the mountain. Now I know it wasn't Seoraksan, but this was an intense mountain with huge boulders and ropes. It wasn't just hiking, it was mountain climbing. We made lots of friends. Like I said, this area didn't seem to be all that popular for tourists. We were the only foreigners around. Everyone was staring (more than normal) and wanting to take pictures with us. They liked us. haha:)

It started to rain when we got to the bottom of the mountain. We were hungry, but didnt have much luck finding food, so we made our journey back to the bus that only comes like every one and a half hours. For some reason, the bus ride that took 30 min to get there, took us over an hour getting back. When we finally got back to the bus terminal, we got tickets for bucheon and had a quick lunch (where we saw ourselves on tv). The bus left at 4:30. I remember saying, at least we dont have the 4 hour bus ride that we would have from seoraksan. Well, somehow, that hour and a half bus ride turned into 4 hours! When I looked out the window after 2 hours and still saw rice patties, i knew it wasn't good. When we finally got home, I was exhausted. Didn't do much of anything Sunday. I finally left my house to meet the chingus for shabu shabu for dinner, but the rest of the day I just recovered. The seoraksan mission might have to be postponed for a while!

Dear Korea, In case of fire please do NOT go to the roof.

Fire drills are not a common thing in Korea. We had one at my school last year. It was kind of a joke, but my new school way outdid ILS with they're fire drill this week. They actually sent half the kids to the roof! I mean, as cool as a helicopter rescue might be, I just feel like the roof would not be the safest place to go... And of course as we're trying to get the kids out, the teachers are all taking pictures. Hopefully we never have to deal with any real fires.

Animal Adventures

This past week was a really easy week because Wednesday was Children's Day (no school) and tuesday and friday were children's day activities. Since we had the day off wednesday, we celebrated cinco de mayo with taco night at my house tuesday night...a day early, but we continued the party until the next morning at noraebang.
Wednesday we made the trek all the way across seoul to coex mall to go to the aquarium. It was a long journey, but definitely worth it. It was super-crowded being children's day PLUS they were letting everyone in for free that day, but it was definitely the coolest aquarium I've ever been too. It had all the normal fish, sharks, sting rays, etc. plus penguins, a beaver, 2-headed turtle, monkeys, and worms you could dig in the dirt to find. They had fish in a washing machine, refrigerator, computer, drink machine, etc. Even Kristina, my fishaphobic friend, really enjoyed the aquarium;)

Anyway, after we finished looking around there, we decided to celebrate the real cinco de mayo at On the Boarder. We told them it was my birthday so we could wear the sombreros.
We had so much fun at the aquarium, we decided to have another animal adventure at Seoul Land Zoo this weekend. Seoul Land has an amusement park, which we went to last year, and a zoo, but you can't really do both in one day. We probably got there a little later than we should have. We missed the animal nursery because they closed that at 4:30, and they closed the whole zoo at 7:00. We didn't get to see all the animals we wanted to see, but it was still really cool. We saw giraffes, rhinos, ostriches, seals, sea lions, lions, hippos, peacocks, kangaroos, etc.

We headed back to Bucheon to have dinner at our galbi buffet place. yum! It was a fun day.
Today we just had a relaxing afternoon in the park playing with puppies:) Warmer weather makes me happy:)

Hello Kitty Cafe

Hello Kitty Cafe mission=success!
I was going to try to really pay attention to how to get there so I could post directions on here, cause I mean who wouldn't want to go to a Hello Kitty Cafe?? For anyone who can read Korean, here's a map:

I'm pretty sure the starting point is the subway station. Anyway, it's in Hongdae. Take exit 5 from Hongik University. As you can see, it's near Ho Bar (i know there's like 10 of them) on a little side street.

It's really cute inside. Everything is hello kitty. You can even get a hello kitty shaped cake or her face on top of your coffee. You might have to wait for a table, but it's definitely worth it!

Anyway, the weather was GORGEOUS. The first day I think it's hit 70 this year. We had lunch outside at a cute little Italian place and did some shopping as well. I love that it's finally SPRING!

Pencil Cases and Birthdays

One of the many cool pencil cases available in Korea. On one side a piano (you have to blow into the pipe thing while playing), the other side holds your pencils.
I guess I'm behind a couple weeks on posting. Since posting last time, I got another cell phone. I ended up going to Itaewon to get it because my coworker Mario knew a place there. They spoke English and I was able to get a used phone for a good price. We (Mario, Abby, Rachel, my other coworker Stephanie, and I) went to a Greek place for lunch, had coffee, and visited our friend the dvd man. We picked up Quiznos before heading home to bring to Kristina's house. Her cousin, Wonji, who we hadn't seen in a long time was there visiting, so we hung out there for a while.
Sunday, Kristina, Abby, and I went to Yeouido to see the cherry blossoms. It was kinda cloudy, but at least it wasn't cold. We even rented bikes and rode around for a while. That was a little scary with so many other people on bikes, but we managed to avoid any accidents.
Last weekend was Kristina's mom's birthday weekend. Saturday we went shopping in Namdaemun and Myeongdong. Sunday we went to an all you can eat bbq place in Yeokgok with her family. It was a lot of fun. I love Kristina's family, plus the food was really good.
Abby and I brought an ice cream cake.
Digging in Korean-style. Who needs a knife? Everybody grab a spoon!

This week at school has been pretty laid back. We had monthly tests plus a speech contest thing, so not so much teaching. Other than having to do report cards, next week should be pretty calm too. Wednesday is Children's Day, so activities Tuesday and no class Wednesday. Abby, Kristina, and I plan to go to the aquarium at Coex that day. This weekend, not a whole lot going on. Going to make another attempt at the Hello Kitty Cafe in Hongdae tomorrow! <3