I have been a fan of Kpop since 2010. I haven't ever really had the opportunity to go to a Kpop concert. Even when bands come to the US I was never close enough to justify a trip to go see a Kpop artist or group. It was just too expensive, the timing wasn't right, or it was too far away.
On Wednesday, on a whim, I decided to google concerts in Seoul. I happened upon a concert for B.A.P (a band that I quite like) for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It wasn't super cheap but I thought that this would be a great opportunity to go and experience my first Kpop concert. It. Was. AMAZING!!! I had debated with myself for a bit on whether to get a standing or seated ticket. They were both the same price so I ended up buying a seated ticket. I think that for me this was the best decision but I will touch on that later. So when I got to the venue, I had read online that I should get there early so I left my apartment between 10 and 10:30 for a 3pm concert time. I ended up getting to where I needed to be WAY too early so I went and found a cafe to chill at down in the subway for a while. While I was there I saw a bunch of others who were going to the concert. Lots of foreigners too! After a while, I decided to go and find where I was supposed to pick up my ticket. I had ordered my ticket online and had to pick it up at the venue so I was a touch stressed about that! I eventually found where I was supposed to go but the booth didn't open until noon so I just ended up chilling in this little courtyard area and looking at all of the big posters and donations made in the names of the band and the band's members. While waiting I met several great girls from all over. I met one girl from the Netherlands, one from Germany, two from Belgium, one from France, and one from New York. It was really cool to see so many foreigners there! Also, while I was waiting, there were many fan club members passing out different posters and cards for fans of the band who were attending the concert. I ended up with a few signs, photocards, and stickers from these fanclub members. It was great! I also decided to buy a souvenir light stick as well. I really liked how they had the merch booth set up. You would fill out a paper that had pictures of all of the available merch and then you take it to the booth. You then pay and take the receipt to the next table and they will get you your merch! It was great and it wasn't busy at all! So, in regards to seated versus standing, I was extremely happy to have a seated ticket. I didn't have to queue for a spot in the pit and I had a great view of the stage from my seat. I was worried that I might not be able to see because I am short but with the seat it was perfect. I also didn't have to worry about being stepped on, pushed, or otherwise have my personal space invaded. It was great! I could see the band very well I just wasn't as close to the stage as some people might have wanted. It was a great seat for a casual fan! The only down side was that those of us with seated tickets were not allowed to enter for seating until after almost all of the standing ticketed people were in. It wasn't a problem because we were guaranteed seats but it was a bit stressful thinking "it's almost time for the concert and we're not even in the building yet!" The staff however were great about helping those of us who do not speak Korean to know when to go in and where to go. During the concert, the band would perform a set of songs, talk with the crowd, perform another set, and talk some more. It was really fun but I think that if I spoke Korean it would have been even more amazing. There was one point where two of the boys in the band each brought a fan up on stage and gave them a special gift. It was really cute and it was a nice break between the songs. The band performed songs from many of their albums and had great energy for the entire show. I was so happy to be there and I was a bit sad when it was over even though they had like 3 encores! I would definitely recommend going to a Kpop concert if you can. You can even go by yourself! I did and I had a great experience. I would love to go to another concert while I am here. I haven't really seen any other bands that I like post about concerts but I hope that I can find another for a good price and go! Overall, this was an amazing experience and I am so glad that I went to this concert! It was a fabulous experience that I don't think I could have really gotten anywhere but in Seoul!
0 Comments
After visiting the palace, on Saturday, my friend and I set out to find the tea shop, Moon Bird Thinks Only of the Moon. I had found it online and had read reviews saying that it was fun and quirky. It was also really small. First, this place was a bit difficult to find even with Kakao Maps (a Korean equivalent to Google maps). We had to go down a main street, branch down a side street, branch down a side street on a side street, and eventually we ended up in the right place! The shop is very small but it is very unique. It is located in a traditional Korean hanok house. There are tons of writings and drawings on the walls from past guests. There are also many napkins that have been drawn on and put up around the shop. I actually drew my own picture on a napkin. I don't know if it will be put up or not but if it did that would be cool. Overall, it was a really chill and cute cafe. I'd love to go back a time or two before I leave! Post cafe adventure, my friend and I decided that we needed a bit more of a meal than just tea and some rice cakes. I have often heard that Coco Curry or Coco Ichibanya is a really good food chain to get Japanese curry. I really wanted to try this and there happened to be a Coco Curry really close to where the tea house was so we decided to go there for a lunch/dinner. There were several options for the protein to have with the curry. There was chicken cutlet, pork cutlet, and other kinds of proteins or even potato and other vegetables. There was also the option of changing the amount of rice to get with the curry. There was a small amount a regular amount and then larger amounts. Additionally, there were different levels of spice from 0-10. I got the pork cutlet curry with the standard amount of rice and a spice of 1. It was still pretty spicy but it was not overly spicy! I'm super happy with the choices that I made and it was delicious!! I would definitely go back to Coco Curry and try a different curry!
On Saturday, my friend and I went to Gyeongbokgung Palace near Insadong in Seoul. This was my second time to see this palace in Seoul. I came the last time that I was in Korea. It was awesome to see this beautiful palace again and take way more pictures than I did the first time. This time however, it was not ridiculously hot! It was a pleasant and mild temperature.
There were many people out and about at the palace. There were many foreign tourists and native Koreans as well. Many of these people were dressed up in hanbok or the traditional Korean dress/outfit. They were decked out in gorgeous spring colors with beautiful accessories in their hair! Many of these people were renting their hanbok so that they could take pretty pictures in the palace with the flowers and the historical scenery. I would love to go back and take pictures when all of the flowers are in bloom! My friend and I spent about two hours roaming around the palace grounds and admiring the beautiful architecture and scenery. It cost us about 3,000 won or about $2.70 to go into the palace to explore for as long as we wanted. There were also free tours in English that were offered a few times throughout the day but my friend and I decided to just do our own exploring which was fine by us! I would definitely recommend going to the palace and exploring. It is a great place to learn a little about Korean history and culture as well as a beautiful place to explore and take pictures. It's almost cherry blossom season and I would love to go back to the palace in a few weeks to see all of the flowers in bloom and to experience the palace when Spring is in full swing!! I decided to try a more hole in the wall place to get food yesterday. I decided that I wanted spicy rice cakes (ddukbokki), fried vegetables, squid, shrimp, and dumplings (twigim), and blood sausage (sundae pronounced "soon day"). I went to this place and could have ordered each of these things separately but I saw that they had sets of food that I could buy or a bunch of things together for a cheaper price. I decided to get the first set that had all of these things and I got a TON of food! I ended up having leftovers for the night so we'll see how good the sundae and ddukbokki are as leftovers but I ate up all of the twigim last night! It was all really delicious! What is pretty interesting and cool about the food that I got is that when they were putting it together, the sundae and ddukbokki were kind of vacuum sealed into their packages which was really nice and convenient for traveling back to my apartment. Once I got back, I just had to slit it open with a knife and I was able to just eat my food! It was so great! In all, I spent about $7.00 to be stuffed and have plenty leftover! I also dealt with a little of "I have no idea what you are asking me so I will just say 'ok' and hope that it turns out ok!" One of the employees was asking me a question about my food and I had no idea what they were saying so I just said OK and nothing bad happened so I guess I did ok! Here's a slideshow of all of the food and how much there was!A few days ago, I went to a bread/pastry shop recommended by one of the teachers at my school who lives in my neighborhood. It's called Jean Boulangerie. They have very large and supposedly very delicious pastries. You can see just how large some of these pastries are in the picture above! I decided that I wanted to try a few things. I got what I thought was Japanese Melonpan. It was almost the same but it had a funky melon and cream cheese filling. I ate the whole thing but I would not get it again. It wasn't bad but it wasn't really my cup of tea. I also got a giant croissant that is a pretty good croissant but it's nothing too special. Then there is the red bean/whipped cream bun. This bun is AMAZING!! It is a simple bread on the outside but the inside is filled with sweet red bean with nuts and a lot of slightly sweet whipped cream. It was so delicious! I would definitely get it again. It cost me 2,000 Won or about $1.78 and I would definitely go buy more!! Here are some more pictures of my bread from Jean Boulangerie. Not pictured: giant croissant the size of my face!I am realizing that there is a lot of stuff that I have in America that I take for granted particularly when it comes to entertainment and the internet. In coming to Korea, I had assumed that I would be able to use all of the same entertainment services that I used at home like online television, Pandora music streaming, and my family's digital collection of movies that are online. Come to find out, I can't access really any of that here. It was interesting. Some of my apps on my devices wouldn't open because they weren't supported. It was kind of a frustrating adventure to figure out what I could use and what I couldn't. I could still use Netflix and YouTube but the content was slightly different. I don't mind too much because particularly with Netflix, there are things that Korean Netflix has that American Netflix doesn't like all three Lord of the Rings movies in their extended forms and Ru Paul's Drag Race so, I'm not complaining there but I don't have my favorite TV show Parks and Recreation which makes me just a touch sad. Leslie Knope can no longer brighten my day through Netflix but that's okay!
I also discovered that if you use a free Spotify account, you are only allowed to use it abroad for 14 days before they shut you out of the account. After that, you have to pay to use Spotify. I was slightly dismayed by this but due to the short length of my stay and the student discount I could get, I decided that paying for it was worth it. Particularly since I can't get Pandora here. Overall, it's been a bit of an experience in figuring out what I can and cannot use but it's been pretty nice to not feel like I have to watch a certain show to clear out a DVR or to keep up with the constant new episodes of so many shows. I wonder if this lack of engaging in so many shows will affect me when I come back home? It'll be interesting to find out! Ok, so after going to the cat cafe, we decided to wander around Hongdae for a bit. We went along a very busy street and saw a lot of different performers out on the streets. There was a group of boys dancing and several pairs of people singing and playing instruments around the same area. It was really cool! I would love to go back and spend some time just chilling in that area. Eventually, we made our way to this really small ice cream shop that is famous for the fish shaped cones that the ice cream is in. We each got our own and it was magical! The cone is shaped like a fish and the ice cream really reminds me of frozen greek yogurt. It was really good! When you walk up to the shop, there are a bunch of premade fish cones sitting there waiting to be filled. The ice cream is dispensed from a soft serve machine and then a piece of pineapple on a stick is drenched in chocolate from a chocolate fountain and used to drizzle chocolate on top of the ice cream. There's also a surprise at the bottom of the cone, Custard! It was so delicious and I would definitely go back to it and get more as well as take others there!
After getting our ice cream, my friend and I started making our way towards a dog cafe called Bauhouse. I had just heard of this cafe when looking up cat cafes online and my friend thought that it sounded really fun so we decided to go take a look. It was located VERY close to the subway station that is just before the Hongdae station on line 2. So it's really close. The cafe itself has no admission fee but it is basically expected that patrons will buy a drink. There are a lot of different drinks from sodas and coffees to smoothies and teas. These drinks range from 7,000 Won (about $6.00) to about 8,500 Won (about $7.50). As with the cat cafe, you could also pay a little bit more to get some treats to give to the dogs. Once we got into the cafe, there were two areas to sit and play with dogs. There was an area with some smaller dogs and puppies and a room with larger and older dogs. The dogs have free reign over the area and can do basically whatever they like. All of the dogs were also very well behaved. My friend and I went into the area of the cafe with the larger and older dogs. The cafe was really nice and the staff was really good at quickly and efficiently cleaning up after the dogs. There was also a couple in the cafe who my friend and I thought were the owners of the cafe becuase they were playing with all of the dogs and knew all of the dogs' names as well as were very friendly with the staff. Overall, this was a really laid back place to hang out and basically chill with dogs. All of the dogs were wonderful and I would love to go back here as well as the cat cafe! Here are a bunch of pictures of the dog cafe!!! Today was a really nice day! I met up with a friend who I have not seen for a few months. It was really great to see her! It was nice to be able to explore a new area with a friend! It was really a good day! My goals for today were twofold plus an added goal that I wasn't even planning on. The first two things were to go to a cat cafe and then to go to a special ice cream place that sells ice cream in a cone that is shaped like a fish and it has chocolate as well. After meeting up with my friend, we took the subway all the way to Hongdae and started searching for the cat cafe. I had looked up online some good cat cafes in Hongdae and found two different cafes that we could go to together. We ended up going to the one that was closest to the subway stop where we got off at. It was a Godabang Cat Cafe. Godabang is like a chain of cat cafes in Seoul so we went to the one in Hongdae. Here's a pic of the cafe's front. The cafe was on the third floor of this small building but the cafe itself was a pretty okay size. When we got up to the cafe, we went through the door and into a small area in front of a small gate. We needed to change our shoes and put on some indoor shoes/slippers that were just on a shelf waiting for customer use. We then had to use a bit of hand sanitizer to clean our hands and keep the kitties safe. We then went past the gate, paid our admission, were given some instructions by one of the shop attendants, and took a seat at a table. Admission was 8,000 Won or about $7.00 for admission to the cafe for as much time as you like and one drink of your choosing. They have a small but nice menu of coffees, juice, and smoothies to choose from. You can also purchase for about $2.00 some cat food and/or treats to feed the cats if you want. After taking a table, we stowed our bags in the little cupboards that were under the seats. Here are the instructions that we were given and the little bios of all of the cats that live in the cafe. We then sat around watching the cats for a while and went around and pet the cats. Here's some of the pictures of the cats and the cat cafe. Take a look at my next post to see about the dog cafe and the special ice cream that we got in Hongdae!
On Thursday, I went out to eat and decided to go to the same place that I have been going to for a while now. It's called Teacher Kim or Kim Sungsaeng. I got bulgogi dumplings and bulgogi kimbap. It was so good! After that, I happened to be walking past a street vendor who was selling these adorable red bean filled fish breads. It's basically fried batter with sweet red bean paste inside. It was only 1,000 Won for three of these. Such a good deal! Overall, I was stuffed and had a really pleasant night.
On Friday, the subject teachers and I went out for dinner in Itaewon (a region of Seoul). Itaewon is basically the area of Seoul where there are the most expats so we saw a lot of foreigners. We were there mainly to go to Jacoby Burger and try this enormous burger! It was amazing. We also had a beautiful view of Namsan Tower both when it was light and when it was dark and lit up! When then took a bit of a walk over to the more populated area of Itaewon and had more food and drinks! It was a fantastic night and a wonderful welcome party for the three of us who are new to the school. I would love to go back to Itaewon again and try even more of the delicious food that was there! I am so happy!! I was out walking the other day and I saw a restaurant that served naengmyeon. Naengmyeon is one of my most favorite Korean foods! It's a cold noodle soup type thing. This particular kind of naengmyeon is called mul naengmyeon or water naengmyeon. It has a broth that it comes in while bibim naengmyeon or mixed naengmyeon has no broth and has a spicy sauce with it. To eat the naengmyeon you are supposed to add some mustard and some vinegar. those are in the little bottles on that little tray. You also need to cut your noodles with the scissors because the noodles are REALLY long and chewy so you can't really bite them off. My meal also came with some bulgogi (seasoned beef) and some pickled radish. The naengmyeon also has some pickled radish, cucumber, sesame seeds, and a hard boiled egg! It's so good! Naengmyeon may sound weird but it is so delicious and it's one of my most favorite Korean dishes!! I'm so glad that I found a place that serves it nearby! There are a few more places that I've passed by that also serve naengmyeon in my neighborhood so I'll have to try them eventually but this was a good start! Also the amount of Korean that I know was able to serve me well in this place!
The restaurant was super casual! I went in and was basically told to seat myself and I just had to tell the shop employee shortly after coming in what I wanted to eat. There were only three options plus an option for dumplings. It's a very specialized restaurant which I would hope means that it's really good that those few things (it was from what I tasted)! The water and silverware were also self serve as per usual. It was so nice! Overall it was a great experience. This whole meal cost me a total of 6,500 won or about $5.68. It's a great deal for a good amount of food that filled me up! I also could have gotten some pork dumplings for about $2.70. I might just get some the next time I go! I wholeheartedly recommend Mul Naengmyeon! It's delicious and wonderful and fantastic particularly if it's kind of hot out but it's still really good when it's a little chilly. I almost had a near disaster this afternoon. I was making comments on student work in a pretty dark blue marker. I happened to be wearing a pure white shirt. I think you can guess what happened. I dropped the marker while it still had the cap off and it took a nice tumble down my white shirt. Thankfully, it was a Mr. Sketch marker and they are extremely washable! I took a quick trip to the bathroom and sponged off the ink with some paper towels and my shirt looks brand new! I must say: Thank goodness for washable and water soluble markers!!! I know it's a risk to wear white but it's a risk that I'm willing to take!
I'm used to the usual glaring "beep, beep, beep" or "whah, whah, whah" of American school bells. They are loud, annoying, and frankly very unpleasant. In my school here in Korea, the bells are really interesting. The bells for classes play songs! There is a lovely bell rendition of Fur Elise and at least one other tune. I'm not sure what the other tune is but it's nice. Much better than an annoyingly loud "beep, beep, beep." It's still loud and can be a little startling but it's not as annoying and is actually kind of fun!
It's Tuesday, so that means that there's badminton club today! Last week the vice principal was there and today the principal was there! I actually played on the same team as the principal and we won! It was really fun, although the principal did accidentally hit me with his racket! He felt bad but It wasn't bad at all. Everyone is quite intense about badminton in our little club but It's nice because we really are just there to have fun and get some exercise so it's been really nice. Also, there's usually some food! I had a lovely time at badminton club today so I'm looking forward to playing again next week!
You know you're in a first grade classroom when a student whips out a fried chicken strip thing from nowhere in the first five minutes of class and then proceeds to ask the teacher what to do with it. They then proceed to pull out a second chicken strip and ask what to do with it! All of the other students were so interested in this! I had to really keep myself from laughing out loud when this happened. It felt so much like my classroom back home! Oh the joys of first grade!
So on Sunday, I decided to go out to eat (again)! I went to the same place where I got the takeout Kimbap last weekend. This time, instead of Kimbap, I got bulgogi mandu (seasoned beef dumpling). It was quite good! It was also one of the few things on the menu that when I read it, I knew what it was! With the dumplings came some soup and some lightly pickled radishes. It was really good and I hope to go back to this place to try something new next time! This whole meal also only cost me 4,000 Won or about $3.50. It was a good size for just me! If I had wanted, I could have gone just outside of this shop and down the street a bit to get some ice cream from Baskin Robinns!
One thing that I've found really interesting about Korean restaurants is that the silverware is self-serve. A lot of the water is also self serve. The spoons, chopsticks, and napkins are all usually in a little slide out drawer attached to the table. All of utensils are inside so it's easy to get what you need and be on your way. There is often a water filter/cooler system and cups located in a container or shelf and you can just get water when you need it! It's really nice. I'm excited to maybe go back to this place at some point and try even more food! It has been two weeks since I arrived in Seoul. Now that I’m here, I’m really enjoying a lot of things about Seoul! Everything is really close and convenient. I have two convenience stores within 1-5 minutes of walking distance. These convenience stores have EVERYTHING! There is packaged and processed food and there is fresh food like eggs, meat, vegetables, and fruit. There are also household items and cleaning supplies among many other things. I’m also very close to the subway station. This means that I can go basically anywhere quickly for quite cheap. I’m also really close to the school where I’m student teaching. It makes my mornings really easy! There are so many things that I really like about Seoul, it's hard to name them all!
There are a few things that are challenging. Culturally, Korea stays up very late. Though I like staying up late, I think it's a bit tough for me to stay up late on a school night. I'm also having to learn a lot about speaking Korean. I wish that I would have studied a bit more Korean but I'm getting by. I can say a few things and get my point across as well as understand the point of the person with whom I'm speaking but it's still a challenge. There's also a difference in personal space! Overall, Seoul is living up to my expectations and very often exceeding my expectations which is great! So, I'm learning a bit about personal space in Korean public spaces.
I had read online before I came to Korea that because Korea is such a small country and there are so many people, it is common for people to bump into other people and not really worry about it. People wouldn't say sorry or excuse me because it was so common and normal. I'm really seeing this now. It's really weird for me! When I was walking around and shopping in Myeongdong, I was often in a tight spot with a lot of people around me. I was bumped into several times and I even bumped into other people a few times. It really wasn't a big deal and even when I said "excuse me" to pardon myself, people didn't really care. It was an interesting feeling. The same thing happened on my subway ride home. On the last leg of my subway journey, there were so many of us in the car that I couldn't move. People weren't being rude or pushing and shoving. It was very civilized and everyone was very chill about it. Again, it was weird for me but I think I could get used to it. So today, I was going to go to Myeongdong with the other English teacher from my school to go see a Korean movie with English subtitles at a Korean culture center but the other English teacher was sick so I decided to go to Myeongdong and just explore. I went with the initial goal of finding the flagship Etude House and I did find it! I forgot to take a picture of the outside but I intend to go back to Myeongdong so I'll take a picture then!
After about 40 minutes on public transportation (subway), I made it to Myeongdong. Myeongdong is a very touristy shopping district. I ended up getting off of the subway and just deciding to explore and see where it took me. I found a first Etude House and went in and found a few fun things to buy. I then went out and found a few more stores to look in. I was interested to see that there was a Lush (it was WAY more expensive here than in the US). I then found a Forever 21 and explored there a bit. I then went to a coffee shop and had a bit of a snack (a chocolate muffin!). I then just went around the shopping area of Myeongdong and found a cat cafe! I also found a store called Artbox where there were a bunch of fun characters in the store! It was kind of like Daiso but cuter! I then proceeded to get lost. I did have a map on my phone and access to the internet so I wasn't worried! It was more of an adventure! Through this adventure, I found a great view of Namsan Tower and a Gong Cha! It was great! Overall I had a wonderful day! I'm glad I spent my time today just exploring! Down below, take a look at my gallery of captioned pictures for where I went and what I did today! I can now confirm that a Whopper in Korea is the same as a Whopper in the US. Burger King has a lot of the same things as home :) One of the big differences though was the Coke. It was a little different. Not bad, it just had a little bit of a different taste. Overall, it was a little bit of America near my apartment. I also found a local street market! I saw a lot of different stalls with food and other things to buy. I also found a really local grocery store but I didn't go in. I might go explore there this weekend. I also want to build up some of my language skills to order from the different food stalls because a lot of the food smelled AMAZING!
Here's my drawing of the US (the picture cut off Texas and Florida) and a glimpse at some of my picture cards for my lesson! I'm supposed to start teaching my American culture lessons tomorrow and I'm kind of nervous. I think that I've really worked to scaffold and make these lessons accessible to many of the grade levels. I have even worked with my cooperating teacher to ensure that the lessons are appropriate for each grade that I will be teaching but it's the first lesson(s) so I don't really know how it will all go. I'm using some elements of GLAD and trying to make the material really accessible for all of the students but we'll see how it goes tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Things here at my school are going really well! I've co-taught one English lesson so far and I have taught a lesson about my hometown(s). Because I am in a public Korean elementary school, a lot of the instruction during the day is in Korean. This means that it is really hard for me to be a regular classroom teacher. Instead, I am what the teachers call a "subject teacher" my job is essentially to provide English instruction as a native speaker of English as well as to share lessons about my home culture. I am planning on teaching a 10 week (one lesson per week) unit on America and American culture. The scary thing is I will be teaching these lessons to all of the grades in the school. First grade through sixth grade. That is kind of scary but I'm really excited to take on this role of being a bit of an EFL (English as a foreign language) specialist which is extremely similar to my endorsement that would allow for me to teach ELLs (English langauge learners) back home. I will essentially be teaching the same lesson to every class but it will be tailored to meet the language and developmental abilities of each grade. I'm supposed to start with some fourth and fifth grade classes on Thursday so I hope it goes well!
Last night, we as a school went out to dinner! It was really great! We ate a lot of traditional Korean foods and we also went out for coffee afterwards. I posted pictures of this in the pictures page here. (Click it, it will take you to the picture page :) ). I had a lovely night and tried several new foods like stingray/skate. It had a good taste but the texture was very different from how it looked. I had a lovely time after school today with several of the teachers. Every Tuesday, the teachers get together to play badminton and have a good time. I really enjoyed badminton all throughout school but I never really had the opportunity to play it recreationally so it was really nice to be able to go play a fun sport with several of the teachers from the school (even the vice principal!). It was a great time! I really enjoyed how we could all play a sport together and not really need to use our language. We were all simply having fun! I am now glad that I was forced to take some of those PE classes in school :) knowing some of the rules to badminton came in handy! I know this post was a lot of different things smashed together but a lot has happened in just a few days! Please go look at the pictures page if you want to see some of the pictures that I have taken while I've been here! It's a bit more interesting than just reading all of this :). This was my dinner tonight. I decided to be brave and go out to this place called hansot doshirak or hansot lunch box. I had found it on my map and thought that it would be interesting to try. I had also looked at their menu online and it looked like they had food that I wouldn't mind eating. I went to the shop and it was really small. Like REALLY small and all of the menu was in Korean. Luckily there were some signs with pictures so I was able to find a picture that looked good and read its Korean name. I decided to go with something that said "chicken" in the name. I figured that might be good! I went into the shop and successfully ordered my food! In Korean! By no means was my Korean great but I got food and the lady that took my order understood me (I'm assuming since I got food) so I'm happy. The food was a bit spicy but it was good!
If you want to read what all of the food was, click on the picture with the food and I will have a description there. :) I went on a bit of a short adventure today! I had a mission to go buy some indoor shoes because in the school we are supposed to change our shoes so that we keep the inside of the school clean. I went to the Japanese chain store Daiso and after a bit of trouble finding the actual store and needing to use Google Translate a couple of times, I found it! I accomplished my mission in buying indoor shoes and I found a cute pair of socks! To give myself a bit of a reward, I went to a bubble tea shop called Gong Cha. I had heard really good things online about Gong Cha and they were not wrong!
Gong Cha is available in Asia and only a few parts of the United States. I think it originated in Taiwan and it is supposed to be one of the best chain stores for bubble tea. The internet was not wrong! It was a bit scary going into the shop where there was no one else except the two people working behind the counter. Luckily the menu had a bit of English and I could read a bit of the Korean on the menu. I had also looked up kind of how Gong Cha works when ordering. I picked my size, tea/drink base, pearls, sugar level, and ice level. The workers behind the counter were very helpful and very understanding when it came to my inability to speak Korean very well. I can kind of say, "excuse me," "sorry," "yes," and "no" but that did not help me much in ordering a drink! I had seen on the internet that the iced black tea drink with 30% sugar and the tapioca pearls was good so I decided that I would get that! It was delicious! I really enjoyed it and it was a wonderful treat! I also felt really accomplished in having ordered something in a Korean shop all by myself! I hope to go back and maybe try a different kind of tea or drink base. I think it is strawberry season here as I keep seeing lots of pictures of strawberry themed drinks and pastries so I might try something strawberry soon! Overall, this was a successful adventure and I found several other places that I want to go to and shop and a few places where I want to go get food! We'll see how that goes! Today I taught my first "lesson." It wasn't much of a lesson. It was more of me just talking about my hometown and where I went to school. Luckily I had a book and some playing cards with pictures of my home state on them and I had the students working to look through these pictures and sort them from what I had shown them and what other pictures they saw. It ended up being a pretty short lesson but I think I have already learned a lot about teaching English in an EFL setting versus an ESL setting.
In my lesson, I also shared about some of the things that I like like K-pop (BigBang) and Hamilton (which none of the students really knew anything about which was not surprising as I figured it was a bit of a shot in the dark). I also shared that I really liked to read. I then asked the students to share a bit about what they like so that I could get to know a little about them. Some students were more eager to share than others but whenever I would go up to a student and ask them, "What do you like?" they all had an answer that was pretty good! Although the management strategies differ a bit from 2nd grade, I think that working with these 6th graders is going to be a great experience in teaching and learning for both me and the students. Hi everyone! I know it's been a while since I've posted. After about 24 hours of travelling I made it to Seoul, South Korea and my apartment at about 8pm Korean time on Monday the 27th and at about 4am Oregon time. It was a really long trip but I am really happy to be here! I spent yesterday (the 28th) at my school meeting staff and faculty members and getting to know the building. The school is really close to my apartment!
My apartment is a very nice size and it is quite close to at least one convenience store, the subway, and a lot of different shops and cafes! I'm hoping to post some pictures soon of both my apartment and some of the surrounding area! Today (March 1st) was a holiday and yesterday the 28th was the students' last day of break. Tomorrow I begin with the students in the classroom. I'm really excited to start teaching and working with and learning from everyone in the school! |
AllisonThese are the chronicles of my time before, during, and after student teaching in South Korea! Archives
March 2020
Categories
All
|