New Year, Old Friend

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Hey everyone,

Hope you’ve all had a wonderful holiday season!

Since it’s been a while since I’ve posted, I suppose I should start with the weekend before Christmas (the 16th of December), when I woke up hellishly early to travel to Seoul for a CIEE holiday party, and to hang out with Julia (the friend who lives in Busan). The journey itself was pretty uneventful, although somehow Julia managed to get lost between the train station and the hotel where we were staying, so she ended up arriving two hours after we had originally planned to meet. We weren’t able to check in to the hotel immediately upon arrival, so we went out in search of lunch and stumbled upon a burrito place that was only a few blocks from our hotel. Although they were served more like a cone-shaped wrap, we were pleasantly surprised by the taste of the burritos, especially since Mexican food of any kind is so rare here.

Once we were actually able to check in to our room, we discovered that for some reason, the hotel thought 90 degrees Fahrenheit was a comfortable temperature to keep all of the rooms at. We weren’t able to control the temperature ourselves, so we had to open the window just so we wouldn’t die of heatstroke. The shock factor of the room temperature was raised by the fact that it has gotten very cold in Korea, so outside we were cold in our large winter jackets, while inside we were sweltering.

Although we stopped by the holiday party, we found it to be kind of an awkward gathering, so after eating some of their food, we left to go explore Seoul a bit on our own. We ended up in Hongdae, which I know I’ve mentioned is one of my favorite districts in Seoul. On one of the major streets near the entrance to Hongdae is a length of road that seems to be reserved for street performers. It is almost guaranteed that there will be a couple of dance groups, some singers, maybe a band or two. As you walk down the road, it is easy to get sidetracked by a group, and if you find that group lacking (or you joined too late and can’t see anything over the heads of all the other spectators), you just need to turn around and you can watch a different group of young performers. After watching dancers for a while, we meandered on to find the shopping area of Hongdae—and subsequently spent way too much money on things we probably didn’t absolutely need.

On Sunday, we went back to Hongdae to visit a meerkat cafe, which was awesome. I know I’ve also mentioned being wary of animal cafes before, but the animals there seemed to be very well-cared for, and had places they could go when they wanted a break from people. The cafe was also kept very clean, and workers were very good about keeping everything clear, and making sure the customers followed the rules and didn’t get to loud/handsy with the animals.

Aside from meerkats, the cafe also had two wallabies, two cats, two raccoons, two arctic foxes—who were kept outside on the balcony away from people, and a genet, which kind of looks like a cat with a very long nose, and originates in Africa. We had a great time hanging out out with the various animals, and managed to outlast some of the couples who came in after us. The wallabies were my personal favorite, as they were surprisingly soft and adorable to watch as they hopped around the cafe.

Unfortunately I came down with a pretty bad cold after getting back from Seoul, so the week leading up to Christmas was a struggle. Headache and fever plus screaming children for seven hours is not a good time. As a result, I spent Christmas weekend sick in bed, only getting up to make myself food, or when my bed started feeling unbearably hot. I did manage to make myself leave my apartment to get some takeout on Christmas day, so that I at least wasn’t eating ramen on my first Christmas alone. I ate some real food, and watched a Christmas movie one Netflix, which was sort of lonely, but definitely not as bad as it could have been.

The following weekend was New Years, and with the new year came Tanya! I met her at the airport on New Years Day, and we were able to successfully get her to Gwangju! The taxi driver who brought us from the bus terminal to our apartment building seemed surprised that her luggage tag didn’t say we were from China, which surprised me since Tanya looks more Korean than I do, and apparently people here assume I am Korean as it is. I guess two Koreans make a Chinese person? I’m really not sure how he came to the conclusion that we were Chinese, with how often I am confused for Korean.

Tuesday was a shopping day, as we ran around Gwangju trying to get all of the things Tanya would need for her apartment. We managed to be very productive, and actually got her most of the necessities all in one day, including bedding, cleaning supplies, a rice cooker, some shelving, insulation for her doors—basically bubblewrap to cover the glass doors that separate the kitchen from the main room, and some other odds and ends that make an apartment livable.

On Wednesday, we had to go to the hospital for Tanya’s health exam, per our boss’s 9:30 pm text message request. She was still in vacation mode, and had not yet returned to Gwangju herself, so we got to fumble through trying to explain to the nurses (who spoke very minimal English) what it was we needed, before I finally gave up and called the boss so she could talk to them in Korean. Tanya hadn’t brought any spare passport photos, so after the checkup, we found a photo studio to get passport photos taken (about $15 for 8 photos—MUCH cheaper than in the US) so we could bring them back when we went back to pick the exam results up later that afternoon. Following picture taking, we went back to the apartments and proceeded to spend most of the day cleaning our apartments, mine of mold and hers of leftover food and hair. Made for a pretty exciting day, if I do say so myself.

Tanya shadowed me at work yesterday, so that she could learn the ropes and get a feel for what she will be doing on Monday. Only finding out what classes and books I am teaching this term minutes before the first class started made it a pretty exciting day for me, as well. Much better than today, where we have basically been sitting at work doing nothing (well, nothing work related; I’ve been working on this blog post and watching YouTube videos while Tanya caught up on her journal entries and is now playing games on her phone) since today is a phone call day, but we have no students to call this week. The real work starts on Monday, which will be Tanya’s first day of work. Wish her luck!

Until next time!

PS. I wrote this last week, but haven't been able to upload it because I kept forgetting to get photos of Tanya as proof of her arrival. In any case, Tanya's first week is going well, and there have yet to be any crises (although I almost had a mutiny today when I asked one of my 6th grade classes to pair up boy-girl). ^_^

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Photos

Walking to work in the snow
It's Tanya!

Sledding?
The boss okayed her son's class to go sledding instead of studying during class time. I was demoted to babysitter for half an hour.... (I did make Tanya come out with me, since she was on break)

Cold and snowy. Winter has arrived.
One upside to me being so late on this is that there's actually snow to prove that it's cold here. Students got out early this evening, since the roads were starting to ice up.