Things I've Seen and Done

This last week has been quite busy. Midterms are approaching at school, and the number of student visits and faculty meetings increase proportionally to the number of days left until the exam. The international Korean TESOL conference was this weekend, and it was two full days of sessions, lectures and workshops. Some of it was really good, some of it was really bad. And of course, because I'm me, there has been lots of cooking, entertaining, and even a bit of crafting in the interim.

I've been thinking that I really should do more to show some of the random stuff that I see all the time around Seoul. I've decided to try a weekly feature called "Things I've Seen and Done". I'll take pictures of various things throughout the week to try to capture a bit more of the daily flavor of life in Korea and I'll do my best to post each Sunday night, Korean time. so without further ado, here are a few representative pictures from my week. 

These trucks that sell roasted chickens are quite common. I've never actually bought a chicken from one of them, but they're usually pretty cheap. I think this particular truck was two chickens for $10. There seems to be one for every neighborhood.

However, I was surprised to walk down the street a few nights ago and see this truck. I've never seen a truck selling anything other than chicken or produce. 

A close up for all of you seafood fans out there. The design was quite good. There were jets of hot steam blowing up from those metal shelves. I don't know if they were cooking, or just warming the crabs. But there we have it. It just goes to prove you never know what you'll find in the back of a truck around here. 

On the way to the conference, we found a really amazing hole in the wall Mexican restaurant that actually had decent prices! I was so excited that I forgot to take a picture. However, this soup place was just a few buildings down. If you can't read the caption, it says "Only the pure in heart can make a good soup". There are cute-ish English sentences that go with just about every restaurant here. This is one of the better examples, because it is actually grammatically correct!

I finally found the toothpaste I've been looking for all my life. If you notice on the left side of the box, this toothpaste is proudly Anti-Calculus! 

We had a lesson on writing process paragraphs in one of my writing classes. I showed them some clips from the movie, "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" and then we made our own list of things to do to lose a guy. 

This is an essay from one of my students. They were supposed to do some freewriting. Two of my students who sit next to each other decided to write about New York City. This student writes:

The New York City is dream for many people all over the world. 

There are many things. But among those things, most impressive aspect is people.

They are called New Yorker. And they walk New York streets, eat hot dog, take a taxi,

run to their office. That is real, not a movie. 

Her friend had a much longer paragraph, but my favorite section of it was:

New York is symbol of fashion, freedom and young, I think. So New York city is charming city. Maybe if I'm in New York, I wear trench coat, high hills (I think she means heels), and left hand bring newspapers or right hand hold Starbucks coffee. It's all woman's romance. Oh! and I will eat brunch in cafe - like sex and the city. 

Later on, I put them in groups or work on brainstorming topics and outlines for their homework assignment. One group of students decided to write about "How To Survive As A Foreigner In Korea". I asked them if they wanted any help, because I was a foreigner, but they said they had it covered. When I looked at their outline, I discovered that there were three simple steps to surviving as a foreigner here. 

1. Respect my elders.

2. Learn Korean drinking culture.

3. Make some friends in Itaewon.

As a side note, Itaewon is the foreigners district. Apparently the only part of Korean culture we are supposed to engage is drinking culture, but we should do it with other foreigners. ::sigh:: If only I would have know this a year ago :p

Finally, on a more domestic front, some girls came over and we made some cinnamon rolls. They turned out quite nicely!

And as a result of my trip to the Craft Market, I've taken up crocheting again. Yes, it's a little bit early, but it takes time to make snowflakes for Christmas. At least I don't (usually) listen to Christmas music while I make them!