So many things!

I have so many things to tell you!

1) Cost(uh)Co.

I think two blog posts ago I mentioned I was venturing to CostCo with Melinda and Don (Melinda teaches music and is married to Don who is absolutely hilarious and does learning support (special ed)). We took the greenish line just 3 or 4 stops south of Hagye (where I live), walked up some steps, down one block and BOOM! CostCo!

Side story: Language
in Korea, CostCo (pronounced "cosscoh") is pronounced costuh co. Double consonants and ending words with consonants aren't really done here. If you wanted to go to Target, you would get into a taxi and say "targetuh". Thusly, costuh co. Now back to the main story.

We went in, using their membership, and were one of two floors. The ground floor, where you enter and exit is the clothing, office supplies, vitamins, pet supplies ... pretty much anything but food. We weaved through the aisles, not really finding anything we couldn't live without. We mainly went to explore, rather than purchase. We came prepared with bags, just in case, but wanted more to do price comparisons and see if things existed within costuhco that weren't distributed elsewhere in korea. It was crazy packed in costco. So many people. What surprised me is the scarcity of white people - I thought that because it's an American institution that all the american people within Seoul would be flocking to it. Not true. Saw two white dudes... kinda bros, buying wine. Anyway, it was PACKED. so hard to get anywhere, and I wasn't even driving the cart. We found some great stuff like TRUFFLES! Chocolate here is not so excellent. I bought a 2 pound, 9 dollar brick of colby jack. Worth it. Melinda found plain yogurt from denmark. So fancy! There were a bunch of things from home, but also a lot of things I'd never seen, like pickled pollack guts. yum! I saw Einstein bros. bagels and seriously considered purchasing them, but cream cheese here is SO expensive, I decided it really wasn't worth it. Things I saw for the first time since leaving america: bacon, frozen pizza, whipping cream (which I later found in my local grocery store), avocados, so many kinds of cheese, kettle chips, and so many other things. It took a lot of energy, finding a new place, waging war on other carts, toting all the stuff home on the subway - but it was a great adventure. I don't think I could've done it without Don and Melinda though.

2) First day of school
 Friday was our first day of school. I went outside to welcome the students in and had a great time. My first class wasn't until 1:10, which gave me time to edit my syllabus again and get stuff in order. Normally my schedule isn't that light, but it was pretty nice to start with a lighter day. I learned that most public school students wear uniforms but that private and international schools don't usually wear uniforms. That's the opposite of home, which intrigued me. I had one of my middle school ensembles (6-8 is a mixed grade ensemble, divided by skill level), and the highschool ensemble. In the 30 students I taught on Friday, none played viola.
What I had us do was first get lockers for instruments, then go through the syllabus. After that we had some time, so I had a couple maps and photos up on the Smart board to tell them about myself. I asked them to tell me about themselves - particularly what made them an international student, along with their favorite flavor of ice cream. These students have such international and interesting lives. I had students who were born in minnesota (YEAH MINNESOTA!) or lived all over the states, and some who'd lived for years in thailand, australia, england... incredible. The admissions requirements for international schools that are set by the Korean government are that the student either has an international passport (born in another country) or has lived in another country for 2 (or 3, I've heard different facts) years. I had a couple issues in my high school course with students speaking Korean, but that's a pretty consistent challenge through out my school. The woman who held my position before me is rumored to have taught in Korean, which really doesn't help me, but I'm sure we'll get that sorted out soon :). At first I was really uncomfortable, sure that the students were speaking about me. What I've realized through conversation is that this most likely is very untrue - the students I teach are bilingual. Their brain sometimes cannot distinguish between what language they're speaking because they're so comfortable with both. Impulse may be deciding what's happening - it may not be a conscious choice. So moving forward, I'll try to be understanding and friendly, but consistent in insisting that they use the language of inclusion.

After school a bunch of teachers walked to a neighborhood convenience store (Family Mart) to hang out. That seems like a weird concept when I think about it happening in Minnesota... but its pretty normal here. The convenience store has tables and chairs outside like a coffee shop or restaurant would. We enjoyed some beer and snacks. The first thing I went for when I got in the store admittedly was a snickers ice cream bar and cheesy popcorn. I later bought myself a hard cider, justifying the higher price by it being a celebration of the first day of school. I've been fine with beer here, but back home.. I definitely went for cider more often. Here there's a huge price difference.
More and more people showed up, an adjumma kind of stalked us... it was a good time. I was really glad to have a lot of people around who were buying the snacks, because I got to learn about them. I now know that cheesy pretzles are the bomb, and not to buy popcorn if there's a picture of corn on it. It tastes like creamed corn. I'm all about snacks, and now have the knowledge to make good snack choices. awesome. We eventually made our way home, and I bought a pizza (with corn...) to eat with two other great teacher ladies. We stayed up for a while talking and eating. It was great to have some smaller scale social interaction and great conversation, even if my cheese pizza did have corn on it.


3)Mountains and Cheeseburgers
Saturday morning, I got up early and met a bunch of other teachers to go hiking. We rode the subway 3 or 4 stops north to Surakson, and hiked up Surakson (conveniently the name of the subway stop AND the mountain!). Historically, I'm not really hiker. I was nervous I wouldn't be able to keep up, but it went really well. I found it pretty challenging, but man did it feel great to be surrounded by trees rather than buildings. It was a great group of people - we hiked for 4 or 5 hours, up the mountain and back down. There were sections that they had put up ropes for you to use in order to climb up some tough stuff. I chickened out at the end, after I had tried to get to the tippy top and had to come back down. Going up was in many ways easier than coming down. Just skooching down a steep little thing scared the crap out of me, so I didn't try the other route up to the top. Marcell (another new hire, from Romania) and I stayed near the top and chatted for a while. It was a beautiful little perch, and it was great to get to know him a little better. We stopped for a popsicle about half way down - there was a man who had packed and carried up a ton of popsciles and was selling them. Mine was a creamy melon? Made it all the way back down and got on the subway back to Nowon. We were so hungry, we went for burgers across the street from our apartment. Kraze (krah-ze) Burger sells pretty good burgers, or so I had heard. Mine came with strawberry jam, mayo, and some red goop that wasn't ketchup or red pepper paste (and pickles, even though I requested they not be included) - and that was just the basic burger. I scraped off all the sauces, as I am not a fan of sauces, and enjoyed my cheese burger. So yeah. jam. on a burger. it happened.

4) Itaewon
We journeyed to Itaewon (the international district near the us army base) for a pop up barbeque by a friend of the art teacher's. This man, Linus, made incredibly delicious alabama style barbeque. It was unbelievable. I enjoyed coleslaw for the first time ever. We popped around, checking out a couple different bars, learning which place was what scene, and decided to stay at Hollywood where the focus was the football (soccer) game. Becky, Meg, and I cabbed home after we bought some Taco Bell. Yes, Taco Bell. good choices all around. I guess I ate all the food from home that I could yesterday - burgers, barbeque, a red velvet cupcake, and taco bell. Woops!