4th of July weekend

As you know, this weekend was 4th of July weekend. As much fun as we had last year with our bbq in the park, we had no desire to be yelled at again, so we decided to have our bbq on the roof this year. We were a little discouraged by the weather forecast (rain), but we went on with our plans deciding we could always move inside if we had to. We missioned it to Costco friday night to pick up needed supplies for our party, then we had a cupcake baking party at kristina's. not an easy thing in korea. who would think it would be so hard to find icing or the stuff to make icing in this country? after searching all over homeplus, we asked a guy who worked there, pointing to the icing on a cake on a box of cake mix. he dragged us all over the store before finally leading us to an empty shelf in the bakery section. no icing. we found tiny bags of powdered sugar, so we bought like 6 of those. finally we began our cupcake baking party. i dont know if kristina doesn't know how to use her oven, or if its just completely useless, but after waiting like an hour for the cupcakes to bake, we finally moved them to the toaster oven. they cooked much faster in there. we made red, white, and blue icing that strongly resembled candle wax, and we made a cupcake flag.

all during our cupcake marathon, we were constantly checking the hour by hour weather updates. it wasn't looking good, but saturday morning there was no rain, saturday afternoon no rain. we went to abby's to get ready for our bbq. kristina and i shaped the meat into hearts, stars, and hello kitty.

abby, her coworker rebecca, and i blew up the kiddie swimming pool (not an easy task).

finally, people started showing up and we headed to the roof. it sprinkled a little when we first went up there, but it stopped not long after that, and that was the last we saw of the rain! it was still cloudy, but it was hot. perfect weather for swimming. at least abby and i thought so.. haha we had a lot of fun. we even got out the water guns and water balloons:)

we went home to change before heading to the park for the magazine party.

we hung out there for a while, went for korean bbq, then back to the park, then FIREWORKS! thank goodness for homeplus. with all our planning, we had forgotten to get fireworks, but abby went to homeplus and got some. i didn't even try to hit anybody with one this year. haha

after fireworks, we went to noraebang. thats always fun. we ended the night with a slumber party at my house. what slumber party is complete without mcdonalds delivery in the morning? the sun was out, and being the real 4th of July, how could we not get the pool back out? so we blew it up one more time and we managed to fit 4 of us into the pool (a little cozy, but still fun). we were up there a while before the little security guard came to yell at us. i dont know how we managed to not get yelled at the day before...anyway, we had to say goodbye to our pool:( we stayed up there a while in the sun (my sunburn is lovely). abby and kristina went to bucheon station to go shopping, but i decided to just stay home to relax and recover from another fun, but exhausting weekend! On the agenda for weekends to come: next weekend=shopping, 2 weeks=mudfest!, 3 weeks=the PHILIPPINES!!! We just got our hotel booked! It looks really nice! I can't wait to be on the beach!

NEH Magazine

Check out the article Abby, Kristina, and I did for Bucheon's foreigner magazine!
http://issuu.com/nehzine/docs/issue_4

BuSaN!

I keep saying I feel like we're doing so much fun stuff this summer, it makes it go so fast! This past weekend was a trip to Busan. There were 8 of us going. We were supposed to take the train 10:30 Friday night from Seoul station to busan. Our plan was to leave bucheon around 9, but we were just taking our time and it ended up being about 9:30. On top of that, we decided to take the bus instead of the subway. Bad idea considering Korea's traffic. We realized that our chances of catching our train were not looking good so we got off the bus and took the subway the rest of the way. I'm sure it was quite amusing to watch a group of foreigners run across subway stations. Anyway, we made it to the track at 10:31. Just in time to watch our train pull away.

Luckily, our friend Doug was able to get us new tickets. We had to transfer once, but everything worked out. The train ride was actually a lot of fun. The second train had little noraebang (karaoke) booths. We managed to fit 4 people in the tiny room meant for 2 people.

I think it was like 3am when we made it to Busan. It was raining, and it pretty much rained the whole time we were there. So much for tanning on the beach! hahaha Anyway, as tired as we were, we dropped our stuff off at the minbak where we were staying, then went to the casino after some overpriced kimchi jjigae. The guys went off to play blackjack, while the girls played the slot machines. I think my luck was the worst. I lost 20 bucks and then i decided casinos weren't as fun as they looked. hahaha We finally headed back to our minbak around 6:30am to get some sleep. We had 3 tiny rooms. One for the guys and 2 for the girls. It was a sleep on the floor kind of place, which I have no problem with. The bathroom was pretty gross though. We woke up noonish to find it was still raining. Oh well, we put our bathing suits on anyway and had yummy mexican food for lunch. After a while, we decided to just go to the beach. It was kinda cold, but swimming in the rain was a lot of fun!

That night, we put our devil horns on and headed out for a sam gyup sal dinner before going to watch the world cup game on the beach (yes, still raining). I can't believe how many people were there. It was crazy.

By half-time, I was freezing, so Abby and I went back to the minbak. Korea ended up losing, but everyone said they put up a really good fight. The sun decided to come out a little sunday morning. Abby, Carissa, and I went and got sandwiches and had lunch on the beach. We went back and threw our sopping wet clothes into plastic bags and made our journey back to bucheon. Fun times!

It's been a while since I've posted. Have you missed me? haha I suppose its past time for an update.
It's World Cup season, and while I've never really cared about it before, its a huge deal in Korea. Korea's team is the Red Devils. All the little kids show up at school in their red t-shirts, devil horns, and face tattoos. They have tvs set up outside all the restaurants, and when there's a game on, people of all ages show up to cheer. 2 Saturdays ago was Korea's first game. Although none of us are big into sports, Abby, Kristina, and I weren't about to miss out on all the excitement. After a day of shopping in Seoul, we put on our red t-shirts, devil horns, and face tattoos and headed to the Park to watch the game.

There were so many people there, both foreigners and koreans. All night we were cheering DAEHAN MINGUK! (Republic of Korea) We didn't quite last to see the US play. I think that game started at 3am. It was a fun night, and Korea beat Greece 2-0! The next game was thurs against Argentina. I had open class that day (when the parents come and sit in on the class). It went well, but I was exhausted when I got home, so I decided against going to watch that game. We lost anyway.
So, Abby, Kristina, and I were asked to write a top 10 only in korea article for the new bucheon magazine for foreigners. Of course we weren't going to turn down the chance to be in a magazine! haha so Friday night we had our photo shoot. We were supposed to be men in suits on the exercise equipment....cause they do that. I haven't seen the pictures, but supposedly they turned out really cute. The magazine will be published next week.
Our friend Ashley's sister is here visiting. We were supposed to take her to hongdae after the photo shoot, but she was still jet-lagged, so we stayed in bucheon and took her to noraebang. Then we ended up having a sleepover at Ashley's house complete with mcdonalds delivery the next morning (thanks to abby). Saturday evening, we went to a baseball game. We had been wanting to go to one for a while. like i said, i'm not a big sports person, but it was a lot of fun.

The whole game they were singing, dancing, and cheering. A lot of the songs were to the same tunes as english songs so we got to sing along:) (B-I-N-G-O!) I took some videos, but all my baseball pictures, along with a lot from friday night got deleted:(
Sunday, we had another adventure. We woke up early to meet at the subway at 7:30. we took the subway across seoul, followed by a 1.5 hour bus ride to go river rafting! Sooooo much fun. The guides didn't speak a lot of english. we asked to go on a course that was fun and easy. we were assured that the course would be funny (often used interchangeably with fun in korea) and easy. After a picnic, we got our life jackets, helmets, and paddles and were given a quick training session. Then we were informed that we would have to know the commands in korean...that made me a little nervous. The course had some slightly scary points, but it was pretty easy. Abby did fall out 3 times, but only once was at a scary part with rocks. we got to take a break and go swimming and jump off a little cliff thing. That was a lot of fun.
After a weekend of almost no rest, Korea had another soccer game last night/this morning at 3am. we decided to go to sleep early and then wake up for the game. There weren't nearly as many people there as before, but for being a weeknight, there were still quite a few. When we went to the Park, it was dark outside. When we left, the sun was up. It was weird. Korea and Nigeria tied, allowing Korea to move on to the next level or round or whatever. Go Korea! Fighting!!
I'm glad i watched the game, but i've felt like i was going to fall asleep teaching several times today. i can't believe i'm actually doing this blog! haha
the plan for this weekend: busan! so excited to be at the beach! yay!

Happy June everyone! I seriously cannot believe its June already! Crajeeeee. I had today off because it was election day. I was pretty much ready for all the campaigning to stop. Its very loud and obnoxious. They all have big talking TV trucks blaring loud music. People stand in rows dancing, waving, and bowing to everyone walking by (not to foreigners, we can't vote). Seriously, there was a line of people bowing outside the mall and when Abby and I walked by they stopped:( Its nothing like campaigning in America. They have numbers, which one of my korean coworkers told me sort of represents their party. Number 3 gave me his card at dinner the other night (he thought i was korean) so i'm rooting for him.
So like I said, I had the day off. It was a really nice day outside, so after straightening my apt a little, I took a book up to the roof. I love my roof! Abby had to work, so Kristina and I met up with her after she got off for dinner and shopping by Bucheon station. We went for ice cream before heading home, where a REALLY drunk girl gave us her roses. I was sure she was going to drop her ice cream on me, but she didn't.
Back to my roof, last weekend we spent all Saturday up there. Abby's boyscout friend Stephen even set up his hammock, which he had worn as a toga the night before. Toga night=so much fun! Anyway, we barbecued on the roof that night. Abby and Kristina brought their dogs to run around and play and Abby and Stephen, cooked for us. We started out on Abby's roof, but the security guard wanted to lock the door and he made us leave, so we crossed the little bridge connecting our roofs and went to my building. The little security guard came out over there too, but im pretty sure he was just telling us to clean up our mess.
Sunday was Costco mission day. I don't think I've ever seen it that crowded. The experience of Costco in Korea is similar to being stuck in traffic. There was a line and traffic control to get down the escalator. We got a table in the food court right away though.
I guess it's about bedtime, I have work tomorrow. I think they should give us the day off every Wednesday. Maybe, if elected, number 3 will make that a rule. 2 more days til the weekend:)

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.