...but wait there's more!

The +'s of Home Plus:

-Freebies: After I realized the only things I had in my refrigerator were a large jar of pickles and some butter, I decided it was time for a much needed trip to HP. As I was browsing the aisles, an employee came up and offered me a sample of fried tofu. I'm such a sucker for good sales people so I bought the tofu she was promoting. Not only did I get one package of tofu, but attached to it was another one and a bag of bean sprouts! What a deal. I've noticed that it's common for brands to attach promotional items to their products. I'm always receiving free drinks with my random purchases at the convenient store. It's like getting a good prize from cereal box, but ten times better.

-Spotted: On my walk home from HP I saw a husband, wife and their baby driving in their SUV. Sounds pretty normal right? Well, the baby was wedged in between the man driving and the steering wheel. Not normal nor is it safe.

-Uniforms: Grocery store outfits usually aren't runway material, but HP is different. The girls wear these white pleated skits with these furry leg warmers that go over their shoes. I want a pair.

-Entertainment: I've only seen it happen once, but on occasion the HP employees sing and dance in the aisles! Have you ever seen the YouTube video of a typical day at the grocery store, but then everyone breaks out in a musical? If you haven't, search it. My dream world is to live in a pink, sparkly, musical world and HP (almost) makes it come true. And plus you're bound to be in a better mood after hearing a little song and seeing a little dance at the grocery store.

-Samples: No need to explain the perks of samples.

-Employees: The employee to customer ratio is probably 1:1. Ok, that's an exaggeration, but there are probably at least two assigned to every aisle. It would be nice if I could ask them where :::insert most random food item here:::, especially since HP is so big, but I don't speak Korean.

TGIF

Even though Friday is my shortest work day of the week (1:30 p.m.-8 p.m.) it always feels like the longest.

Summary of my day:

-Crying Situation #1: Today I took points away from a girl who didn't do her homework. She was sobbing/gasping for breathe the whole 45 minute class period. I obviously felt bad, but it's standard procedure. I can't take points away from some students and not others when they don't do their homework. I pulled her aside after class to make sure she was ok and told her I'd give her the points back on Monday if she completed it. I also snuck her a little treat- a meat stick. It reminds me of string cheese and looks disgusting. Students are very generous when it comes to snack time. They are always giving me bits and pieces of their snacks... sometimes it's good, other times it's not so good (ie: red, bean paste filled buns). I have yet to try this mystery "meat stick." They freak me out. The past two days students have gifted me with them. I always say thank you with a big smile on my face, politely put it in my desk and tell them I'll save it for later. I know it's not very courteous of me, but I confess I re-gifted a meat stick today.

-Crying Situation #2: A lot can happen during the five minute break time between classes. I'm always warning my students not to slam the door because someone will get hurt. I even show them by pretending to shut the door on my fingers. I bet you see where this story is going. I didn't actually see anything because I was in the lobby, but rumor has it Harry slammed the door on SM7's (side note: SM7 is the name of a car and insists on me calling me that) arm. Tragedy. I wouldn't be surprised if SM7 comes in with a cast up to his elbow on Monday.

-Story time: Today we had a discussion about chores. I was surprised to find out that most students helped do the dishes, laundry, clean the floors, etc. As a joke (joke #1) I drew a picture of a toilet and asked them if they ever cleaned it. After the "ewww's" and "my dad does that!" one boy confessed that one time he did indeed clean the toilet. He also told the class that the one time he cleaned it, his toothbrush fell in the bowl and... he continued using it. SICK. He said that it started to smell funny so he finally got a new one. I mean who knows if he was telling the truth or not, but I went on and on saying that when you drop a toothbrush in the toilet, you THROW IT OUT! I hope my overreaction taught him a lesson. I was on a roll in this class because (joke #2) I told them that they should come to my apartment and clean it for me. They said they'd do it if A.) I'd buy them food B.) Give them money C.) Give them an A+ D.) Any combination of A, B, or C and E.) All of the above. Then the conversation turned into... "Teacher, where do you live?" and "Teacher, what's your cell phone number?". I quickly changed the subject and moved on.

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

One of my favorite lines from a student last term was, "Teachuhh, I'm Pinocchio!" At the beginning of every class I check their homework. I expect their "chunk books" to be out on their desks so when I come around I don't have to ask every student for their book. One student, Luke, never had his book out. Sometimes it was because he didn't do his homework and other times he would pretend like he didn't have it and then right as I would walk away he would say, "Teacchuhh, I'm Pinocchio!" and would whip his book out for me to check. It made me laugh every time.

Well, earlier this week I found out that one of my students was telling major lies. His name should be Pinocchio and his nose would be as long as the bridge to Key West. He hadn't been doing his homework all week because "his grandfather passed away and he was busy with family stuff." Ok, I let it slide because that's a pretty good excuse for not completing your homework.

Well, later I found out that his mom called the Korean staff and was upset that we (the teachers) hadn't said anything about JW not doing his homework. My co-teacher explained to the mother that she didn't want to bother her because of "what happened." The mother obviously had no idea what she was talking about and so my co-teacher told her what JW said. The mother blew up and said that he died 13 years ago... keep in mind that the little boy is probably eight years old. Another teacher made a joke that the boy didn't really lie because his grandfather did die... only a long time ago. The end result, JW came to class today with the past eight lessons of homework done and I'm sure he hasn't heard the end of it at home.

The Holy Grail

No, I did not pose for a picture in front of Caribou at Maple and Telegraph. I'm in Seoul! There's actually a CARIBOU COFFEE in SEOUL. Pure amazingness. The same day I ate at On the Boarder and had the greatest Mexican food ever (not true, but it will do). Yum.

AK Continued

After I was on flat ground again, bought some dry socks and realized I hadn't broken any bones (or nails), the group headed to our hotel. One of the best things about Korea are the heated floors which was perfect to lay out our clothes to dry. Before dinner, I went to my first jjimjilbang which is Korean for bathhouse. It's basically a large room with showers, hot tubs, and saunas so it was nice to relax after a tough day.

For dinner we had traditional Korean BBQ and I had my first taste of "mountain wine." It was delicious and reminded me of communion grape juice. We ended the night singing our hearts out at noraebang (karaoke). Usually, you get a private room, but this time we had a huge banquet hall to ourselves. There was a big projector screen, stage, and dance floor. I literally felt like I was on a cruise ship, but overall it was a good time.

Surprisingly, I wasn't too sore the next day. Another hike was planned so we were up and ready to go pretty early. On the second day the sun was out and there were blue skies and thankfully my clothes had dried from the day before. Hiking the second day was a whole lot easier than the first. The trail curved around a natural spring water stream and I even got to taste it. The water tasted like Perrier with a hint of iron in it. The views were beautiful and it was refreshing to be outside away from the city.

Not Photoshopped... I Swear

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

Adventure Korea definitely lived up to their name. It's a company that organizes mini excursions throughout Korea such as DMZ visits, white water rafting trips, temple stays and bungee jumping. Believe it or not, I used to go on hardcore camping trips when I went to Camp Miniwanca. When I say hardcore, I mean packing two weeks worth of gear in one backpack, not showering for days at a time, and even making food over a fire. I figured if I could bike up the coast of Michigan, I could for sure handle a two day hiking trip. So a few friends and I took a chance and went hiking in the Seoraksan National Park.

My journey began at 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning. I'm pretty spoiled with my work schedule so waking up anytime before 11 a.m. is considered torture. We met the bus and drove about 3.5 hours to Sokcho, a city in the northeastern part of Korea. Unfortunately, the weather that day wasn't very nice. It was overcast with a high percentage of rain and there was a ton of snow on the ground. I was not prepared for the weather, to say the least. I packed a few pairs of leggings, my tennis shoes, and luckily I threw in a pair of sweatpants right at the last minute. Before we got off the bus to start hiking, our guide warned us (take note of what he said) that if the weather got bad, we would have to turn around and head back down the mountain because the rocks would be slippery and dangerous. He also said (another mental note) that it would be a difficult hike, but we wouldn't have to propel down the mountain or anything (ha).

The first part of the hike was very enjoyable. We were mainly on flat ground that wasn't covered in snow. We passed a huge Buddha statue, heard Monks chanting, saw some temples, and took a group picture in front of the Heundeulbawi- rumor has it you can move it.

Well, that enjoyment didn't last very long. First of all, it started raining, second of all, the hike became 100 times harder. The trail (or lack there of) was covered in snow, it was a lot steeper, the pace the guide set was really fast (last time they were really late, so I guess he wanted to make sure we made it to the top in record time), and there were a ton of steep, slippery, stairs.

Whenever there were stairs I wanted to kick myself because before the trip I attempted to "train." I told myself that I would climb the stairs, all 17 flights of them, to my apartment instead of taking the elevator. Well, that clearly never happened, but in the end I don't think that would've helped much with what I was faced with. Also, whenever there weren't stairs, there was a rope, yes, a rope, to pull yourself up. I am a very determined person so I kept sending positive vibes to my limbs telling them to keep moving. Every step I made I knew I was one inch closer to the top.

Once I hit the peak of the mountain, I felt very accomplished. It was so windy and wet that we had a brief photo opportunity and then headed back down. The decent was the fun part. While most people propelled down the mountain, I didn't want to risk slipping on the rocks, so I took the easy way out. I sat on the wet, snow covered ground and slid down. Snow pants would've made my trip down a whole lot better, but it was still pretty entertaining.

Summary:

-800+ stairs

-5,603 ft. high

-conquered the 3rd highest mountain in Korea

-a backpack full of wet clothes

-no broken nails

Mission accomplished.