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My School
We are on the 7th floorApparently I am a few days behind in my blogging....Of course, Lacey reminded me so here I am trying to squeeze in a blog about last weekend with 54 minutes until this weekend begins.
I will start with a few things that I have been forgetting to mention in previous blogs:
First, I got my first haircut. It was necessary because my mullet was growing in a little too quickly. I went to a place within walking distance that everyone else in my group had already been to and they all highly recommended it. It was a pretty nice place, everyone dressed in white collared shirts with black vests over them and bow ties. There are boys that wash your hair and take you to your seat where the hair dresser cuts and styles. The wash was wonderful, complete with a head massage. While you wait for your hair to dry (if you are getting dye) there are computers to use and flatscreen tv's. It's a pretty nice place. Nothing else too interesting about the haircut, it turned out well. I just wanted a trim in back because I'm trying to grow it out. Haircut=success
Second, the other
Sophia
Merry Christmas in May? day I was prepping one of my textbooks and happen to look at the first page where the book is dedicated. It was dedicated to the students and staff at Shoreline Community College in Washington. Thought that was random and cool. Maybe even crazier...I open my Albatross textbook, which is the highest level that I teach, and I'm going over the material before class...and I turn the page and see...JERRY FALWELL. The lesson was about critical thinking or problem solving or something and it showed a picture of a New York Time's article and asked the students to infer about the picture. It was a big picture of him pointing his finger at someone and the caption said, "Jerry Falwell: Dead at 73." It was shocking to see his picture and it was shocking that the news of his death would already be in a textbook. It feels like yesterday that I was on his campus and heard rumors that there was an ambulance at his office. I guess it will be exactly 3 years tomorrow since he died...
Third, spring is amazing. When we got here everything was pretty ugly, and many things still are, ha ha but
Cow!
Yes, I ran into a cow on the street in Daejon Spring has done some awesome work around here. There are bright flowers everywhere and everything is so green. It has inspired me to the point that I've been jogging this week and last. And that's a LOT of inspiration! I run past the worst smells you can imagine and worry that it will affect my health but then I'll run by huge bushes of fresh flowers that smell amazing and that in itself inspires me to run again. The other day, after a run, I was sitting at my desk in the room with the window wide open. It was bright and sunny outside and then I heard pitter pattering out the window and was so confused because it sounded like rain but it was so bright and sunny. It rained for about a minute or so and then disappeared and left the most amazing, fresh rain, pacific-northwest smell of amazingness that I have ever smelt! I think it was special just for me, ha ha. I loved it. I repeat, I loved it and it smelt like home.
Last weekend was great for a couple of reasons. 1- I think it was the first time in 2 months
Costco
Daejon (since we've been here) that Jake and I went and did something by ourselves. We went to Daejon (bigger town about 40 mins away). I had plans to meet up with two different people at two different times WITHOUT a cell phone. I did some research online with maps written in Korean and somehow decided which bus terminal we needed to go to and how to go about getting there. The goal was to meet Ashleigh (girl from Puyallup) and then meet Jin (Korean teacher). Both of them live in Daejon...and both of them have Coscto memberships that they offered to let us use. Another reason it was a great weekend! Costco was the easy part. I figured I could just get in a taxi once we made it to Daejon and say "costco." Ya...well, almost. After saying "Costco" a few times and getting a very confused response...the taxi driver said "kust-ugh-co?" I can't decide which way to write it because it almost sounded more like "gust-a-co." Take your pick. It was supposed to be three syllables and I only used two. "Ya ya, that's it....COSTUGHCO" I repeated. A few minutes later we were there. First success of the weekend:
getting to the place we said we would be, at the time we would be, in a new town, without a cell phone, by bus and taxi. So we met Ashleigh and went and got smoothies at a really great smoothie place that was blaring american rap a little too loud. Jake and I had fun talking to Ashleigh for an hour or so and then we walked back to Costughco which is where I was supposed to meet Jin. The girls got us in with their membership cards and we were immediately overwhelmed. American food...all around...in huge quantities. This situation posed a big problem: getting our stuff home by bus. After we realized we couldn't buy much because we'd have to carry it around all day and get it home...Jin offered to keep some of our stuff for the weekend and drive it to our place Monday on her way to work...which was AWESOME. Jake got plenty of gatorade, healthy cereal, and oatmeal. I got TimTams (amazing australian cookies), chocolate covered raisins, and children's gummy bear vitamins. How could I forget? TAMPONS! The most important thing. They are not easy to find around here and they QUITE expensive so
I literally JUMPED for joy in costughco when I say "playtex." I got so excited that I gave some of them to my Korean friend and told her she had to try it! ha ha...and we took a picture together.
Anyway, this story is going nowhere. We got some great things at Costughco and both spent over $100 which was way too much...but we are already eager to go back again. I feel accomplished....going to costughco without a car, in a town 45 minutes away was never on my list of things to do...but it was fun and I challenge any of you in America to go to Costco without a car! ha ha 😊 Oh, and Jake got a Costughco hot dog with a sprite with a mocha for 3,000 Won. That's less than $3. We were pretty amazed.
After Costughco, Jin took us dowtown Daejon where there was tons of shopping. Jake and I pretty much fell in love with the city and decided that Cheongju sucks. ha ha...Daejon has 6 Starbucks! Way more English restaurants, and way more people that speak English. Cheongju is considered a country town in Korea, although it has about 700,000
people in it. I told my students they don't know what country is...and then I told them about Orting.
Anyway, we walked around and saw the big underground mall that goes on forever and is crowded with people. Then Jin took us to Bon bon, a super yummy Italian restaurant that Jake and I both loved. It was decorated so cute and had windows and doors that opened to the street and it was a beautiful day. I had spaghetti chicken alfredo with lemonade and Jake had a caesar salad that was apparently pretty amazing. After dinner we went to Dr. FISHY. I thought the fish thing happened during pedicures or something...but no. We went to a very nice, cute coffee shop and then over in the corner is a hole in the ground full of fish that will eat the dead skin off your feet! Jake and I thought it would be a piece of cake but we both freaked out for a good 3 or 4 minutes and couldn't put our feet in. It seemed so strange...but I'll leave the rest of the story up to the pictures.
Sunday we just went to church and relaxed
and then in the evening one of our friends went to Home Plus and bought a grill so we grilled out all night on our roof. It was fun and a couple of Koreans came and we ate and hung out for a few hours. Good times on the roof.
Exciting news that has nothing to do with travel or Korea: My first student loan has been paid off! Thank you Poppy and Nanny! I am so excited to have one entire loan paid off! Just trying to not to think about the other 10, but hey you gotta start somewhere! Jake and I are trying to think of something fun we can do every time I pay off a loan to celebrate. So far all we've come up with is to go out for coffee. Ya, we're pretty lame. Any ideas?
We thought we were getting paid today (Friday), but we were confused and we don't get paid until Monday. So now we've officially been here 2 months and have not been paid! Ha ha...We are leaving to Seoul in the morning and it would have been nice to have a paycheck in the bank but I
guess we'll just have to spend wisely instead. And I guess I lied...we were paid for the 3 days of March that we worked. Anyway, our training group is having a reunion in Seoul tomorrow night so it should be fun to see everyone. Other than that....SHOPPING and ENGLISH RESTAURANTS! Yay!!!
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Jeanne Curtis
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Hey, Bet!! So good to hear from you!! I'm sorry I missed skyping this week but maybe with Emily next week!! Sounds like you are continuing to have many great adventures and good times! Maggie and Rez are coming today and we are going to George's! Tomorrow Emily gets here and we go to the kids' recital tomorrow night. Sunday morning we are celebrating the end of Em's first year of law school!! Busy, fun weekend. She'll stay next week so it will be nice to have one of my kids around! I miss you guys so much!! Give Jake a kiss for me!! I love you both!! Have a great time in Seoul!! Jeanne