Weekend and Holiday Plans

This weekend was pretty awesome. I met up with a few people from the Spanish group from the previous weekend and we checked out a Latin American art exhibit at Deoksugung Palace. The exhibit was awesome. Pretty small collection, but it showcased some of Frida Kahlo's early works and a few Diego Rivera's. Some of my favorite works were from Fernando Botero and Wifredo Lam. After seeing this collection I wanted to hop on a plane to Argentina (where most of the collection hailed from). I will be going back there at least once more before it leaves in November.
The palace itself was small and relatively untouched. The colors were faded, but I liked that. It showed the palace as it should be after thousands of years. The area surrounding the palace is City Hall and the location of the beef protests right before I arrived in Seoul. It also where I happened upon the Chili Festival two weekends ago. It is quite beautiful and a 15 minute walk down the street lands you at Gyeonbokgung Palace and the area surrounding Cheonggye Stream.

We found a place for lunch and I had the best bibimbap ever! It was a cheese, vegetable and meat deal that tasted very similar to Mexican food. It was fantastic. The place was aptly named Bibimbap and I wish I remembered how to get there from the subway, but I know I could get there if I walk around again.

On the way home, on the subway, a group of school girls got on. After they talked to the most adorable baby they said hello to me and asked if they could talk with me. Of course I said yes and they asked me bunch of questions and I them and we had a short little conversation in English. The girl who did the most talking (while her friends giggled) even thanked me for letting her talk to me. Just another day in Korea.

After I got back from the exhibit, I chilled for a bit and then I went to COEX to meet up with another friend from Spanish group. We ate dinner at On the Border so I got yet another Spanish food fix. This time I had a chicken taco, rice, black beans and 2 cheese and chicken empanadas, and a margarita of course. No pictures of that, but it was pretty tasty, a bit more expensive than Korean food, but I suppose its ok to eat Western once every 2 months (not including McDonald's, I consider that global food...haha). Anyway, I didn't do much on Sunday besides go to the gym for the first time and it was awesome! I went again tonight after work and I am going to make this part of my daily routine. Tonight after working out I went to the restaurant in the bottom of my building for madu rameyon (ramen noodles with madu dumplings) it was pretty tasty. I mean I know I love mandu and rameyon is delicious as well so put the two together and you've got a winning combination.

In other news, I think I have my Christmas holiday plans all figured out. I just need to check on a few things and buy tickets/make a lodging reservation. Otherwise its looking like Indonesia, a few days with Molly who is teaching in Bandung and then a few days on my own on the beaches of Bali. I had thought about Beijing, but the tourist visa stuff is more of a hassle than I want to deal with right now and it's cheaper to do one country. I will make it to Beijing (and other parts of China) before I leave Korea, but the more I thought about a Christmas/New Year's vacation the more I wanted to be warm and it'll be about the same temperature in Beijing as Seoul. Right now I would be happy with cold, but come December, I'll probably want a break and a tan.

Olympics, Payday and English

As everyone is well aware, the Olympics are currently being held in Beijing. To my advantage, I can watch them as they air and not have to be up at odd hours or TiVo them for later. This is a thrilling experience as I was able to watch the Opening Ceremonies live and without commercial interruption. The downfall is that I can't always watch Americans. I didn't see the famed 4x100m relay (and NBC won't let me watch online because I'm not in the US). However, what truly makes me happy is the way Koreans watch and cheer on their athletes, their country. The night Minho Choi won the gold in Judo my entire floor erupted in cheers. All of my students know exactly how many medals South Korea has won, 8 to date, the third highest. Last night as I was headed home, I saw the fruit vendor that sits outside of my building with his TV. He and about 15 others were huddled around the TV, in very hot and humid weather, watching the archers take on Italy. The chicken wing place in the bottom of my building has a big screen and I kid you not, at least 50 people were watching there. It paid off, Korea took the gold.

I got my very first teaching paycheck yesterday! It will be my smallest of all teaching checks, but the largest check I have ever received. It's kind of nice going to the bank to make a withdrawal and seeing 1,267,020 on your account slip. However this roughly translates to $1,270. I had $270 taken out for my hospital visit, $88 for taxes (yes, only $88), $56 for medical insurance (thank goodness or the hospital visit would have been about 3x what it was) and $99 for pension (which I get back when I leave Korea, it'll be about $1,000). All in all, its perfect. I can pay my bills (more like start paying off my bills) and still have money for living expenses. I have Friday off and I am thinking of going to Busan for the weekend, but I still need to get a train ticket and a place to stay, nothing like the last minute I suppose. I did go back to COEX yesterday so I could buy the Korea Lonely Planet travel guide. It was suggested I buy this before coming to Korea, but after looking at the online reviews from Amazon I chose a Frommer's guide instead. However, everyone I have talked to loves their Lonely Planet so I thought I'd jump on that wagon. The bookstore at COEX has a ton of Lonely Planets, my next purchase? Southeast Asia on a Shoestring.

For the last few weeks I have been meaning to post about the random things that happen while I'm walking to work or headed for the subway. Most of them (all of them) are encounters with English. A few weeks ago, as I was headed for the subway, a man came up to me and said, "hello, lovely day." I just siled at him because I didn't realize what he had said until a few seconds later. For the last week, on my way to school, I have seen a man walking the opposite direction of me. The first morning he said, "good morning." The second morning we had a conversation. He said, "good morning again." I replied, "good morning." "My name is Simon, what's yours?" "I'm Molly, nice to meet you." "You too," he replied. I saw him yesterday and we exchanged a simple "hello."