Kimbap: Take Two.

Okay, I added tuna this time and I think it somewhat masked the taste of whatever it was that went wrong last time. It was far from delicious, but at least it didn't make me wanna vom. I know I can do this. It's just gonna take a few more weeks of missteps. As long as it never tastes the way the first one did, I'll be fine.

It wasn't pretty, but that's the knife's fault. If it were sharp enough, the thing never would've fallen apart the way it did. Next time I'll add vegetables and eventually I'll buy the right kind of seaweed. By the time I'm done here, it's gonna be awesome. I can tell.

I would really love to figure it out sooner rather than later since I am spending some serious money eating at the same restaurant every night for dinner. Okay, maybe not serious, but still, that's money that could be blown on world-seeing.

While trying to complete my mission of trying everything on the menu under 4000w I got to the bibimbap section. Remembering spa day's pork filled vegetable dish, I played the safe card and asked Narky if the cheapest bibimbap had meat in it. He says no. I get my shoes and he runs out from behind the counter to invade my personal space and ask if pork is meat. ...

So he was kind enough to write me a post-it that asked for bibimbap sans pork and it worked. Delicious.

Sister3 taught me how to say it should I ever need to. " Bibimbap dwedgy gogi beh juu say oh." She had me practice the 'beh' so many times I doubt I'll ever forget it. Every attempt sounded the same to me, but once she stopped laughing at my attempt I knew I got it.

Since I eat at the same place every time, I'm sure that eventually they'll just realize that I don't eat pig. They've seen my copy of the menu and read my post-its, so it's really just a matter of time now. That or I'l get this kimbap thing and stop eating there. Whichever comes first.

Girl's team is settling into things quite nicely now. Speaking of Girl's Team, Jenn heard something about a new teacher with a juvie record. Yes. I can't wait to see which side of the teacher's lounge this guy picks.

My Kids Love Pittsburgh.

They wish they were from Pittsburgh. They come into class with fun facts about the city while declaring their favorite football team to be the Steelers. It's only a matter of time before these little Steeler fans butt heads with Jenn's little Raven fans. I wonder if we can convince Ruby to let us decorate the classes during the season. The kids are already calling themselves the Pittsburgh class and what's a Pittsburgh without a 6 time superbowl champ football team?

They know that inside the classroom is Pittsburgh and outside the door is L.A. Pittsburgh is where you want to be, because Ruby's office is right outside the door. These kids are super afraid of her and there's no way to leave the classroom without her seeing you. You want to stay in Pittsburgh. The people are nice here and we have fun. Act out and your out in Loser A. They used to call it M.T. but after hearing that it stood for Monster Teacher, I had to put a stop to that. Not looking to rock the boat what with L.A. being so close to my door...




I got home and immediately began my "Teaching Myself to Make Kimbap" plan. I've seen it done so many times that I was absolutely convinced I could get it done. How hard could it be right? I bought a rolly board, the seaweed and the sticky rice. It practically makes itself.

It looked halfway decent, but something was off...oh that's right. The taste. Something definitely went wrong. It was AWFUL. I'm not sure where the plan when bad, but go bad it certainly did. Maybe I bought the wrong kind of seaweed. There were like 20 different kinds and most of them had pictures of kimbap on them. Maybe it was the fact that I didn't have any vegetables. Maybe veggies mask the taste of old seaweed. I didn't want to buy any extra ingredients until I knew what I was doing. Or maybe it's the fact that every time I enter the kitchen something burns or becomes inedible. I've always considered myself very kitchen friendly.



I just don't understand why the kitchen can't be friendly back.

Cave Day Starts at 5am.

That is not a time that I can do friendly. We had a big day ahead of us, but at 5 am I have a hard time being excited about anything. I was hardly motivated enough to shower and pack my stuff. Thankfully I wasn't expected to direct us anywhere, so I was able to turn the brain off and before I knew it there we were standing in front of the bus. We settled in and I finally started waking up for our adventure.

Wait, before we got to the bus we made a few stops. First order of business was purchasing my bag lunch. I figured two red bean buns would suffice but, really, I didn't feel like carrying a lot of stuff. Luckily we stopped at a rest stop because it did not suffice. I can't claim to have eaten healthy this week, but I have had some tasty meals.

...Maybe it was just the one stop... The morning is a bit hazy, of course, at 5am everything is.

-Back to the bus-

There were tons of stops on the way to the cave adventure and every time we stopped I was sure that this was going to be the stop that led us into the Cave of Wonders. First there was the ferry ride, followed by the three rock thing, the stone gate and THEN the cave. It was a day for nature and it was wonderful. Minimal mud, too, so all went smooth. There was a bit of hiking involved and mega tons of stairs. Taking the stairs twice a day was good practice, but by the end my legs were all kinds of wobbly.

The cave was tight. Awesome, but seriously narrow. There was some crazy ninja contortion stuff necessary to get by sometimes. If I was any fatter it definitely would not have worked. It was cramped and slimy, but still totally worth it. I'm a big fan of cave adventures.

On the way out, this man who was selling souvenirs convinced me to buy his don't-get-sick tea. Tasted like honey and dirt. It definitely had dirt on the bottom. He also convinced me to buy more postcards. Heh, "convinced." I saw them and threw the money at him like it was on fire. I'm leaving Seoul with 30 postcards. I'll probably be back in a couple weeks to stock up for real, but 30 should be alright for now.

When we got back it was time for me to navigate the metro and bus system on my own and find my way home to Gwangju. Okay, maybe just the end of the metro and only because Renee told me exactly which stop to get off at. But definitely the bus on my own. Going solo is the only way I'll figure out how to do it at all, though, so I jumped in and got it done.

I arrived around midnight and I must say that my first weekend of travel has been most excellent. It just hardens my resolve to travel every weekend. Let the adventures continue, I'm ready for more.

Finally Leaving Gwangju.

So I slept through my alarm this morning and had to hustle to get to the bus station in order to catch a bus out to Seoul before 11am. The original plan was to meet up at 1pm at the Nambu station in Seoul, but after last night's festivities, I'm not surprised that the adventuring this morning was so slow to start up. I learned a very valuable lesson here. Thinking I could get by on 3 hours of sleep was stupid. I need to be less stupid in the future. Talk about good lessons to learn...

I arrived at the DongSeoul station at 2:30pm. No. That is not the right station. That station isn't even on the right side of the city. Then I had to figure out how to work the pay phone and wasn't sure how that was going to happen. Every single one required a card to operate. I didn't even have the slightest idea how I was going to figure out how to get this card. So I walk out of the bus station thinking about how helpful a cellphone would be right now when suddenly I remember that in all the Korean Dramas people are feeding coins into the pay phones. I go back and investigate those phones one more time with a 500w coin in my hand; ready to pop it into the first coin slot I find.

Nope. Definitely no coin slots. Whatever. I did not ride my butt here on a 4 hour bus to let a row of pay phones stop me from having a weekend of most excellent adventures. I head on down the street in search of another pay phone. Just two blocks further, there it is: a coin slot. I give Renee a call and explain the situation. She accepts my stupidity and doesn't hold it against me. She says she'll be by to find me. Just sit tight. Sitting I can do.

About a half hour later I'm sitting in the bus station right across from the Lotteria when I look up and see another foreigner. She's obviously the only American in the place and I suspected she was the other half of Renee's welcoming party. She was probably the other girl that she and Teresa work with. Any normal person would've gotten up to check, but I decided I'd just sit there and see what this girl was going to do.

Around the corner comes Renee confirming my suspicions. She took me to go get a Seoul Metro Pass and a couple of maps. She walked me through the process of getting both so that if I ever need to do it again solo, I can. I can't, of course, my memory is not worth the space my brain allows. It's alright, though, I just have to make sure I never lose these things and I'm set. Now it's time to find some food.

They lead me to a burger place where I eat my first cheeseburger in 2 months and it's delicious. And Monstrous. This thing was way to big to feed two people, but I gave it my best shot. Didn't quite get it done, but I enjoyed every bite.

Seoul is super packed with people. It was hard to change direction and nearly impossible to do it quickly and without cutting 10 people off. When you look down on the streets it almost looks like the street is alive. It's more people than I've seen in one place in a good long while. Gwangju isn't quite so population heavy.

In need of a new hoodie, we hit up a couple shops and I buy one. Black with lego smurfs. I'm pretty pleased with it. It's super soft and warm and I'm really hoping that this caving adventure tomorrow is ridiculously cold so I can wear it all day.

From there we check out a few stores full of Korean idol merchandise. Any guy who's been in a KDrama can be found in these stores on calendars, stickers, keychains, posters, postcards, and post-its. I, of course, picked up some postcards. The first ones I've seen since I arrived. My city just doesn't stock them.

We headed over to the book store and I bought a photo book of my favorite jpop group, Arashi. While I'm here, I am going to completely immerse myself in the popculture. So that's the last jpop purchase I'm allowing myself during my stay here.

We called it a night early and made our way to the hostel. This was my first hostel experience and, I must say, I'm thoroughly impressed with it. It's clean and relatively quiet and we got our own bathroom. Man, this is one classy hostel. The beds were pretty decent, even.

Except Renee's, of course. Poor girl lost Rock, Paper, Scissor and had to sleep on the concrete mattress. I'm sure that really sucked.

We're Starting to Fill Out the Teacher's Lounge.

Ruby was at school first this time, which was a huge surprise. I don't know if I was late or what, but she looked none too friendly when I walked in. She didn't bring it up, though, and she's not usually one to leave you guessing what she's unhappy about. My guess? Narky. That guy has been showing up here during the day and he's enough to put anyone on a bad mood.

The plus side to having Ruby there first is that I didn't have to play Cold Counter Teacher this morning. When I was the only teacher here, I never had the opportunity to hang out in the teacher's lounge. Why would I? I'd be the only person in a mad cold room. But now that there's another teacher here and computers in the lounge, I moved all my stuff to my new desk. It's in the corner opposite of Jenn's. We each have a computer next to our desks and we never have to share. We each have our own side of the room.

Until a new teacher shows up, that is. I wonder which side of the room he'll be on... I hope it's Jenn's side.

We haven't heard anything new on the teacher situation. They haven't said anything about hiring anyone specific except for that guy that could speak korean almost fluently. Apparently he had a few issues with immigration, so he's a no go. Quelle dommage... It would've been nice to have someone on Girl's Team who could understand when the Korean Teachers are talking about us Foreign Teachers.

We're getting ready for our first friday celebration this month which will also be the first time I get to see Boy's Team in two whole weeks. I'm really looking forward to our reunion.

Tomorrow, I will have been at New School for a whole month. It still feels so new, though. Then again, so does Korea. I wonder if this country will always feel as new and exciting as it does here in Month 3. I think I'll probably leave once it stops being new and fun, but not before I've learned the language. You don't spend serious time in a country and not pick something up.

It's probably time to look into taking some Korean classes.

OH! And Jenn's luggage finally made an appearance. Well, some of it. The two matching bags have joined us here in Korea, but her third bag has yet to show. Must be nice to get a Christmas in March. March is gonna be a good month, I can tell.

That's What I've Been Telling You.

So Jenn got up bright and early today to prepare for her First Day of School Redo and I... did not. After opening the school for the past three weeks, I didn't feel that it would be at all necessary to get her there any time before 1pm. I was right.

"We're the first teachers here?" That's what I've been telling you. They gave me the code and key so that I can open the school and answer the phone until they get here. I am counter teacher. And now? So are you. We are counter teacher.

"It's freezing in here! There's no floor heating?!" That's what I've been telling you. This school is so cold you can see your breath. Just wait until your nails and lips turn blue. We've got another 6 hours of this. Don't worry, after a couple of hours someone will show up and we can go warm up in a classroom with the heater on. Or you'll just start to get a little numb and it won't seem so bad.

"We've been here for 2 hours and they still haven't shown up? Is this normal?" That's what I've been telling you. I am New School. I open it and watch it for hours at a time. There's no need to have any other teachers in this place, because I'm just that awesome.

"The bathroom's out in the hall? It's disgusting out there!" That's what I've been telling you. Out there on the other side of the glass walls of the school, the building is super grody. You do not want to be anywhere near that. Just come inside here. Sure, it's cold, but at least it's mostly clean.

Jenn got her first class today and after the whole "come in on your day off to prep" thing it was kind of a let down. For me, at least. I kind of thought it would be a big class, but it was just a private lesson with one of the kids I had to evaluate last week. He's got some attention issues and Jenn said something about being familiar with a.d.d. our first week living with the director. She probably could've just stayed at the other school.

Nothing seems to have really changed. I think eventually I'm going to get new classes, but for now, it's same old same old. At least I have more classes than Jenn. Odds are they'll give any new classes to her first.

Speaking of sharing the work, Ruby came in to ask about the pronunciation book that I was expected to finish this weekend. I fessed up and told her I didn't have any time to work on it on the weekends. I thought she'd be ticked that I wasn't willing to sacrifice a weekend for the good of the school, but all she did was tell Jenn to work on it, too. Ruby figured that since Jenn had fewer classes, she'd have way more time to waste on the book. Go Team.


Jenn's finally seeing what I've had to go through this whole time.

"Uh, Dude? They just left... should we leave too? Do they leave you here by yourself a lot? That's kinda creepy..." That's what I've been telling you. They don't wait for me to finish the work they hand out just so they can go home. I lock up before I leave. They have handed me the reins of the school and I do the best I can. They're not worried about me being here solo, so why should I be? Apparently whatever I'm doing, I'm doing it right.

I'm so awesome, I can do that. Now you have to do it, too. This is your life.

Welcome to New School.

Better Than Having a Snow Day on My Birthday.

I don't think I've had to go to school on my birthday since my sophomore year in highschool. Three snow days and great scheduling had given me the day off 6 years in a row. So I was not looking forward to having to work on monday, March 1.


I shouldn't have worried about it. South Korea sure knows how to celebrate a girl's birthday. March One in Korea is a National Holiday. So if I had grown up in Korea, I would never have had to spend my Februarys praying for a March 1 snow day. I wouldn't have been expected to go to school or work on my birthday ever. Birthday celebrations would never cut into my sick days and I'd never have to try to fake a sore throat. Maybe I'll stay here a few more years.

It was a pretty low-key day. I'm not really one for big birthday celebrations and this was exactly the kind of birthday I was hoping for. It was definitely one of the better ones.

Christina came over to hang out since we hadn't seen her in a while and she decided that we should have pizza for dinner. After having pizza everyday that weekend, starting with Friday, it would be totally understandable if I wasn't feeling it. I was, though, I freaking love pizza. I really could eat it every day and it will never get old. Christina paid for it after she found out it was my big day.

It was weird pizza, though. It had sweet potato paste drawn across the top and ham all over one side. Christina was pretty miffed to find the pig on the pizza since she had specifically asked for it pig free. So what happened? What else. Christina sat and picked all the pork off my dinner. That girl was not satisfied until she got every last pig bit off of that slice. Just wouldn't be a Girl's Team celebration without Christina fixing my food.

Christina is a new true member of Girl's Team. 'Bout time we started evening out these teams. Any new teachers at New School will be Girl's Team as well- regardless of gender.

An excellent birthday weekend; a cake and small gathering yesterday and a pizza and pair of socks today. That's what those socks in the picture are about. They are Shin Ramen socks. I eat ramen everyday and Shin is my favorite. "It's not a birthday present, just your Seoul Souvenir."- Jenn.

I forgot to mention that we were sitting in the dark when Christina showed up tonight. After Ruby said something to Jenn about coming into school this morning we decided that lights were waaay too risky. Yes, today was a holiday, but Jenn is starting at the New School on Tuesday so she will need to come in and prepare for classes. Jenn gave her polite HELL NO, but we were still not sure if they'd do another ambush visit or not, so we were sitting around in the dark all day. These people are too shady for lights.

And poor Christina thought she got the wrong floor and went down to 6 to try that door. It might be time for me to invest in a cell phone. There have been way too many cell phone appropriate situations this weekend.

Well, here we are safely entering Month 3. Thoughts on the past 2 months? Awesome. Korea is my kind of adventure and I haven't even left Gwangju yet. The New Car Smell hasn't worn off either and I imagine that it'll be a while before it even starts to fade. Now that I'm resolved to travel for the next 44 weekends, the adventures never have to end.

It's a good thing I haven't been wasting my money on frivolous expenses like shopping, cab fare or food. I never want to be too strapped for cash to adventure.

Predictions on the coming months?

-My food costs will go down even more until the fridge is full of water and air.
-I will see at least one new city a week until I reach burn out and take a travel break sometime around mid-june.
-I get tan by mid summer and black light sensitive again by mid september
-I make new friends and meet new people without fear.
-The apartment somehow ends up with more giant furniture.

Happy Month Three!