Teacher, I Have a Baby?

Last week I visited my old co-teacher, Heeson's first grade class. The kids were all so interested in me and would not stop staring at me, so she allowed them to ask me some questions. One little girl raised her hand and said "teacher, I have a baby?" I just had to giggle and so did the rest of the class and my co-teacher. Then Heeson said "You mean, do you have a baby?" and the little girl looked at her like 'yah, that's what I just said'. It was adorable.

One of my new co-teachers, Mrs. Han, invited me to dinner on Friday night. Her good friend, Jeanie, is also an English teacher at another public school in Seongnam and works with a foreign teacher, Jennifer, so we all made plans to have dinner together. Before Jeanie and Jennifer arrived, Mrs. Han told me about how her and Jeanie met and could not say enough good things about her. Hearing her kind words about and love for her best friend suddenly made me really miss my best friends. It was actually really touching because she was talking about how they both worked really hard to learn English in order to become English teachers. Both of their 'dreams' came true this year when they were each selected for English positions in their schools. It's amazing to me that some people sacrifice so much and work so hard to learn English when I was lucky enough to be born in an English speaking country. It is definitely something I take for granted and hearing peoples' stories and experiences with learning English really make me appreciate my good fortune in being a native English speaker, as cheesy as it may sound.

Dinner was great. Mrs. Han and Jeanie picked a 'fusion' Korean restaurant for our meal. It's funny when they say 'fusion' because it is not fusion at all, but really just traditional Korean foods. I tried some new tastes and even ate jelly fish! It was chewy and had a kick to it because it was covered with wasabi. We had really good conversation that ranged from Korean culture to American politics and even farts. I never thought I would have a conversation with a Korean woman about farting, but it happened and I was dying of laughter. Jeanie is hilarious and was making a lot of jokes. I had a really enjoyable time with them at dinner and we made plans to get facial massages together sometime soon.

Later on that night I met up with my friends and we all went out to Hongdae for 'club night'. Let's just say I won't be doing that again. The clubs were crazy busy and the lines outside went on forever because about 10 clubs offer a wrist band deal where you can pay around $20 and go to any of your choice all night. Minus all the crowds and pushing it was a fun night.

the girls before our night out

Saturday night Sean took me out to dinner and drinks to celebrate my 6th month anniversary in Korea. We ate the best steak I have had in over 6 months and we even got cooked veggies like green beans and asparagus, which are rare here. We also had some of the tastiest mushroom soup ever served in a bread bowl (Panera style). Yum. After dinner we went to Wara Wara bar for drinks. It is Sean's favorite drink spot in Bundang because they mix fresh fruit cocktails at your seats. You can choose from a variety of fruits such as strawberry, pineapple, etc. They bring it to your table with a little blender and a pitcher and mix it right there for you. We tried the strawberry and fresh honey this time. Double Yum.

yummy drinks at Wara Wara

Sunday Sean and I did a little shopping at COEX in the afternoon and some Korean BBQ for dinner rounded out my weekend.

posing with Korea's golden girl, Kim Yu-Na

Nike's ads featuring Kim Yu-Na

I hope you all had a great weekend as well. It seems that spring is juuuuuust around the corner! ^ ^

Namaste