Baek Soondae and My First Night OUT

Yesterday was another busy, fun Saturday. I met an old friend I hadn't seen in over 2 years. Jihye and I were originally conversation partners at VCU and then we became friends. We both thought the same thing: it's unbelievable that we are able to meet each other in both of our native countries...a true cultural exchange. I'm very lucky. Plus, she lives only one stop away on the subway! I hope we get to spend more time together while I'm here.

Jihye suggested going to Soondae Town next to the Sillim subway station because she knows I like 'soondae' (a Korean blood sausage with rice and other ingredients mixed in). I happily agreed. I didn't know there were so many ways to experience 'soondae' until I came to Korea. I usually eat just the sausage with a dip. Yesterday we ate 'baek soondae,' which is noodles, veggies, and 'soondae' fried together on a large pan. A special sauce and perilla leaves to wrap the mixture are on the side. It was the bomb.com!

Before the 'baek soondae' was fried. Note the lovely apron they gave us to wear. I was so happy to see Jihye.

Here's the food after it had cooked for awhile, the aroma was savory and yummy.

Later on Saturday I made my first real visit to Hongdae, a popular night spot for young people in Seoul both Korean and foreigners. I went out to celebrate my coworker, Channey's, last weekend in Korea with her friends. I'm not sure what this group in the photo were doing, but it was interesting. They reminded me of Asian mimes because they weren't saying anything, just moving around and making gestures. Asian performance art is coool. 

Channey and I at the Hawaiian restaurant...after dinner we did some hookah, then checked out a couple of clubs. It was a long, fun-filled evening and I'm glad I went.

My first field trip with the kiddies

Every month we are supposed to take the kindergarten classes on a field trip. This month we went to a big park 10 minutes away from the school. The park has fun, child-friendly water fountains and an inflatable pool set up in the middle of the fountain area. The weather was gorgeous! I've been feeling sick so I wasn't able to play with the kiddies because I didn't want to get wet. I was super disappointed, you all know how much I love water.

The head foreign teacher, Chris, and I with my homeroom class. I love these kids already. <3

This is Estel, she's a sassy one and cute. Look at her styling those shades! She's definitely one of my favorites.

I wanted to play with them so bad!

Almost everyone brought a watergun, including the teachers. 

Another one of my favorites, Lucia. I had to tickle her to make her smile. She was sporting the wet, sad puppy face because she left her extra set of clothes at school...and I wasn't having it. Smile darling!!

My homeroom class again. Their Korean homeroom teacher got them to lay down and pose. I'm impressed at how skilled Koreans are at making cute photos lol.

Meet my new students

On Monday, I was surprised to learn that our kindergarten students were going to watch a puppet show during second period. 

That's Clara, she's a sweet, adorable, chatty kindergarten student.

I don't remember watching puppet shows when I was younger, but these little ones were enraptured.

The students learned about strangers, bad touching, and the real names instead of the kiddie slang words for the different parts of the body that shouldn't be touched. It was intense for 5 or 6 year olds. Although Korean is not allowed at school as a general rule (so they're constantly practicing their English), the puppet theater was in Korean. I understood about 60% of the Korean the puppets were speaking.

Here's a short video of the puppet show. It starts off with bathroom humor, which I loved and so did the students :). 

So cute. Really. Makes me want to pinch their cheeks.

63 Building, Big 3 Deal

Made 2 new friends and enjoyed 3 attractions in the famous 63 Building in Seoul (yes, it has 63 floors) on Saturday. I took many photos, here are most of them. Sorry if it takes awhile to load.

Rogelio, myself, Daniesha, Ademir

63 Building, Seoul

That's the Han River and the park that parallels the river.

A view of Seoul and the Han River from the top of the 63 Building.

Sky Art Gallery, the highest art gallery in the world, located on the 60th floor of 63 Building.

This exhibit is called Faces or 'ulgool' in Korean.

They had faces of all types, from different artists, and using different media. This one is a HUGE print, I was very impressed by the largeness and variety of prints.

Interesting.

No face, but I like the simple lines.

Loved this one, there was a whole series of this chica and her cigarette.

This artist used all kinds of color and media on these robotic, cyborg girls that had no character, color, or defining features.

But they are smiling...something about disguises, camouflage, public versus private images, self-image, ego.

The cyborg girls in costume.

This was one of my favorites. The colors!!!!

Fantastical.

I liked the color combination in this one, it's another of my favorites. I'm feeling even more inspired to find an art supply store soon.

I know the girl is Asian but she reminds me of Nicki Minaj in her presentation of herself.

There was an elevated room full of mirrors and reflective surfaces. It was a little overwhelming but cool.

My color science: Mango Lhassi yellow always makes me smile. Plus the drawing is lovely.

We watched an excellent 3-D IMAX movie about Tahiti. I'm generally not impressed by 3-D movies (except for Avatar), but this one was so good I now feel the need to go to Tahiti. 

After IMAX, we went to Seaworld (an aquarium on the first basement floor of the building). Here is an x-ray image of seahorses.

Not the best picture, but it's a bat fish!

Real seahorses; this aquarium had adorable-themed tanks.

Rock fish, don't see them? Look below.

Yup, that thing in the corner is the fish. Amazing camouflage!

My camera doesn't work well in dark settings, so this is the clearest photo I got in the aquarium. Isn't it amazing?? Haha

Love birds.

I don't remember the name of this fish, but they were transparent. We were all impressed.

Happy at the aquarium.

Usually frogs at the aquarium or zoo are brightly colored (and poisonous), these frogs looked dead. Maybe they're  a species of albino frogs.

You could put your fingers in a small tank full of Doctor Fish! They nibble at your fingers and it tickles. At first it freaked me out, but then I enjoyed it. Doctor fish eat dead skin (they're herbivores in their natural setting) and are used for people with certain skin conditions and in some specialty spas. I love hands on exhibits!

I always enjoy looking at octopi; they're one of the most visually interesting sea creatures.

Underwater ballet show...with the fish swimming right by unconcerned. Entertaining.

The dancer was doing moves that vaguely resembled ballet (I'm no ballet expert), but I was more dazzled that she didn't have a breathing apparatus!

Public art on the pillars holding up a large bridge over the Han River. It looked like tiles of African-inspired masks and designs. I love all the public art in Korea. The colors on these tiles are nice.

We saw a lot of people setting off small fireworks next to the river. Looked like fun.

For my next visit to the 63 Building, the plan is to see the B-Boy performance (what Koreans call break dancing) and set off fireworks. I can't wait, I had such a good time on Saturday. I also took some video I will try to make a small clip of soon. Later gators!