Our First Korean BBQ

So Bob and I decided to go shopping last night, at Sinchon Station. It is so amazing there. There is so much to see, and do, and so many people. It felt like walking through a never ending carnival. It was hard to focus.



It seems as though you can buy anything here. We spent a lot of time looking through a stationary store, and then we just strolled the main street (we had no idea of the street name), or rather, we were pushed along the street with the rest of the constant crowd.

I dragged Bob into 3 makeup stores, such as the Face Shop, Etude House, and the Herb something or other. Makeup is pretty cheap here, so I think I'm going to have to buy some more suitcases to move everything I buy home.

After drifting along for a while, we decided to take one of the brightly coloured neon lit ally ways, to see where we'd end up. We passed many restaurants, such as seafood houses, that advertise their wares by keeping the fish, groupers, tube works, clams and squid, etc. swimming around in giant aquariums outside. Its fun to look at, but I could never imagine ordering something to eat out of an aquarium. The tube worms looked especially disgusting.

So we ended up down a darker ally way, with no real idea where we were, when a woman persuaded us (in Korean) to come and eat at her restaurant. We sat down at a little table on the crowded patio, and then waitresses started bringing many dishes. They lit a little propane torch, and put a big metal pan on top. Next they brought raw pork, and started cooking it at our table. This was a traditional Korean BBQ. Once we cooked the pork, our waitress appeared again (with soju for us - Korean booze that tastes like vodka), and started cutting up the pork with scissors. We then ate it buy rolling it up in the lettuce leaves already on the table. We had no idea what we were doing, but its been the best meal I've had yet in Korea.

We eventually found our way home, hiked up the mountain to our house, where I soon crashed.

I taught all morning at school - 4 grade 6 classes. The kids are so cute. Very eager, and not at all shy to use their English. We have very, very basic conversations, but I think I'm getting through to them, and I'm definitely making a difference. I walked from my bus stop to school with my vice-principal who speaks no English, at all, but I think we had a broken conversation about how he was going to give me my own classroom. Getting my own room is great, because then I don't have to hike up 4 flights of stairs to get to my classes, but daunting at the same time, because I have a room all to myself that I have to decorate!

Today we had rice and kimchi (of course), spicy tofu, special soup that is always served at birthdays, and chunks of fried fish, which I keep accidentally burping up as I write this. I wonder how long my Rolaids will last me here in Korea... At least I ate it today, and I found lunch pretty enjoyable. The principal appeared, only to make fun of how I struggle with chopsticks, in Korean, of course. I figure if I can get food from my plate to my mouth, I'm making out okay. I'm actually getting used to chopsticks, and am impressed how good (I thought) I am.

Tonight, we're planning on going grocery shopping, so I don't have to eat digestive cookies from a corner store, on the bus for breakfast tomorrow. I need to catch up on my sleep, but I also said I'd have lesson plans to my teacher's tomorrow. They should be easy to write - I hope. I think I'm the only foreigner who has to write lesson plans, but I don't mind. I'm just basically copying the Teacher's Guide to their textbooks, and adding in my own games when I can.

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- Maureen