Admire This

I thought it was just hyperbolic advertising, but no - it really does consist of “admirable cake.”

맛있는 음식

This weekend I made my first successful 볶음밥 (fried rice). It was delicious!



Then tonight I tried an idea one of my coworkers had - using Italian salad dressing as a marinade for chicken. While it was cooking I suddenly decided I should throw in some onions, so I did, and it turned out great! The fried rice was really good, but the chicken was delicious! The picture doesn't make it look so great, so you'll have to take my word for it (or make some yourself to see).

Another Sudden Departure

One of my co-workers suddenly found out this week that her grandmother is dying, so she cleared it with our boss and headed home. I think she did the right thing.

In the meantime, though, we're short one teacher, so even though I have two kindergarten classes in the morning, they're being combined for a couple periods everyday so I can teach the adult class my co-worker had handled.

Everyday our boss drives us out to the industrial zone, where our school has an interesting exchange of language classes going on. My understanding is that the company is both Indian and Korean, so we're teaching the Koreans English while our Korean co-workers are teaching the Indians Korean. I think it's actually a really neat idea.

I've had the adult class twice so far, and they seem like pleasant and fun people. I'm always very intimidated by the idea of teaching adults, though, so I'm always nervous about teaching them. I'm a very silly teacher with the kids, so the older my students get, the less interested they are, typically. I can't relate well to adults so it's very hard for me to know what keeps them interested. Fortunately, though, they have more discipline than children do, so they'll still learn from me even if I'm not so interesting.

My second class went much better than the first, so I'm hoping I'll continue to improve as a teacher as long as I have them - until a new teacher comes, which my boss thinks might be about a month. We'll see!

Geum Gang

Last Monday we only had to teach kindergarten in the morning but had the afternoon off, so I went on a bike ride.

It turns out there's a really beautiful trail out behind the Emart here, and it curves along the Geum River and all the way up toward Daejeon.

I didn't know it went that far, so I just rode around and enjoyed the scenery and tranquil bike paths. Korea's great for cycling and enjoying public parks.













I even stumbled across an amusement park, Geum Gang Land, and saw with my own eyes the Viking ride, famous to me as most students' favorite park attraction.











I saw this on my way back and am super thrilled that such an awesome trail exists. Maybe it will be a goal of mine to ride this trail someday. We shall see...

Six Missiles in Three Days

I guess North Korea's been launching some missiles, but I've been too busy to have really kept up much with it.  I have yet to hear these events mentioned at all by any South Korean, and so far for me it's only come up as a topic of conversation with one foreigner.  So I don't know what the West might think about the North right now, but where I live it seems to be another hum-drum day.

Snakedor the Engrishator?!

If you love Trogdor as much as I do, you'll love the opportunies for references to the Burninator in my kindergarten curriculum.

Ladies and gentlemen...S is for spoof!

Cycling Saemangeum

I did it.

We had a three-day weekend this past week, so on Friday I took off on an adventure I'd been contemplating for a while. I dumped four PB&J sandwiches, four bottles of water, and my flannel shirt into my bike basket and set out for Saemangeum.

I rode two and a half hours from my apartment to the seawall. Then I rode three and a half hours to cross it. It's the longest manmade seawall in the world, but I crossed it!

And I took pictures.



























When I'd made it to the other side, I was so tired I just got a motel room and rested. My motel looked like a castle and my room looked out over the beach. I was too tired to go out and wade or stay up for the fireworks that night, but I had a wonderful view of the sunset.



Then, on Saturday, I woke up before six and did it all again - six more hours 'til I finally rolled back home.

My Electric Guitar

Since the acoustic-electric guitar I bought when I was here before is in America, I decided to try electric this time. Here's what I got.



Since I only know a handful* of chords, I'm super excited that a high schooler at my church offered to teach me how to play for free.

*Pun not intended...or was it?

Soccer in the Mini-Gym

I've had a hankering to get a soccer ball and try to get some folks to kick it with me for quite some time now.  Quenching the craving isn't helped by the fact that these days I play soccer, badminton, and basketball with the kids at my church after the services. 

The other day one of my coworkers remarked that a plot of land next to our school looked like it'd be a good place to play soccer.  (I actually think it'd be a better place to roll an ankle, but that's beside the point.)  I was thrilled at the idea that there might be somebody who'd play with me, so I went out and bought a ball.  Knowing nothing about soccer, I just got one that looked fairly cheap and also looked a little cool.  It has signatures from Korean soccer players on it, so I feel like it's an awesome ball for under twenty bucks.

Yesterday and today it was raining, so I didn't ride my bicycle during my breaks like usual.  One of my coworkers was kind enough to go upstairs to the little mini-gym my school has on the fourth floor and kick the ball around with me.  It wasn't really soccer, and we didn't really do much except talk and pass and stop the ball, but it was a lot of fun and it really made my day.  Hooray!

If It Looked Like Roadkill Before I Hit It, Does That Reduce My Sentence?

I hit a cat on my bike today.

I was going really fast but keeping close to cars parked on the right in case a car came up behind me (although I wasn't on a busy road and there wasn't any traffic at the time) and suddenly a flash of orange leapt out in front of me.

Kids, this is a perfect example of why you should never run out into streets from hiding places between or under cars, because that's exactly what the cat did, and it got its mangy little body scrubbed up by a tire. (Not that I'm saying you're mangy - it's just that this cat was.)

It kind of rolled away, stunned (and probably also from the impact), suddenly did a sideways crouch (during which it glanced at me with eyes that were filled with fear, rage, betrayal, and a new thirst for vengeance, I assume), then scampered off as quickly as it had sped with what could easily be confused with swift resolve into my churning, burning wheel.

Do I feel bad about smushing the dirty fur of a cat that flung itself into my oncoming tire? A little.

But not nearly as bad as I felt when I hit a person when I was here two years ago. Didn't hear about that one? Too bad. I have things to do and cats to squish.

Cookies!

Look what was waiting for me after one of my classes today!





This same mother (of one of my students) gave me dress socks when I first came to Korea in 2011, even though I'd only taught her daughter for a week. I really appreciate these gestures and hope I live up to whatever impressions she has of what a good teacher she seems to think I am.

The Weather Has Been Great Today...

...so naturally I've been outside as much as possible, enjoying such fun scenery as this:

Choco Pies are Irresistable - Even for North Koreans

Remember the Global Choco Pie?  Here's a link to a fascinating article about the North being a lot less closed than we may tend to think.

Choco Pies: The Smuggled Treats of North Korea

You Know Me and My Bike Rides

After parent-teacher meetings ended, I took off on my bike in the direction of the industrial zone.

I saw a lot of things, some new and some old, and eventually wrapped my way around the waterside edge* of the city until I was back at the Jinpo Maritime Theme Park. I had plans to meet my coworkers from dinner so after that I headed back. Here are some photos of the lovely and intriguing sights I saw.

































*Which I stumbled through for the first time while wandering around on Children's Day two years ago, almost to the day.