Apr 17/10
Yeouido is located along the Han River and is where Korea's National Assembly Building is located. In April for two weeks, the cherry blossom trees come into full blossom and the festival takes place. This was my first time actually getting to experience Korea and especially Seoul for reasons other than getting smashed in Hongdae. It was the first time I really got to spend time with Alex and Kelly and I'm glad I did, they turned out to be my really good friends (and I miss them a lot.)
Yeouido area along the Han River and main highway
Thank goodness we went out to Wabar the night before and ran into the April peeps. Kelly, who was also part of my training group (who I never met until the very last day when I found out shewas coming to Dongtan with me) was there and invited me to go to the festival with her. I agreed, knowing that my training group would be there too and I could just meet up with them later. When boarding the MBus to go to Seoul, we ran into Sean and Alex and decided to all go together.
Korea Tidbit #1: Chungdahm April is another division which teaches younger children the basics of English. They learn about what colour the sky is, and I have to teach my kids about China's Hukou System and its effects on its Urban and Rural Residents. They are on salary and thus get many perks such as health insurance, paid rent, holidays and vacations. We don't get chosen to be in April, although I always wish I had
Me and all the CDI April teachers along the Han River
Here are some pictures from the festival:
This ajumma yelled at us for picking off from part of the tree (we saw other people do it!). That was when I first learned what "ajumma" meant
Korea Tidbit #2: Ajumma - Old Korean woman, usually short curly haired woman sporting sun visors
Free water
My favourite tree
National Assembly Building. What a perfect place to just lie down and relax? It makes me want to live in Seoul to just chill. I also started realizing from this point how many couples there are in Korea.
After, I went to meet up with my training group people for my second last outing with them. My second last outing was for Sid's Birthday where I met up with the people at the regular Ho Bar after not chilling for a while (and meeting a huge addition of people I did not know). I ended up chilling with Sid's friends as she was ridiculously plastered, and they turned out really cool to talk to. We proceeded to Gorilla bar/club in Hongdae and I bounced after Sid had to be taxied home because she was completely gone and in a psychotic emotional state (lethal combination). Me and her friends ate street food and I ended up staying overnight at a jimjilbang - quite an experience.
Korea Tidbit #3: Jimjilbang - Korean spas that are open 24/7. The baths are segregated. Koreans just chill out in the baths, saunas, showers, or massage tables - completely naked. There are different baths, hot and cold ones. Then there is a main area where you wear an outfit where men and women both go. The main area has areas to lie around, TVs, computers, arcades, fitness rooms, play areas for kids, food areas and saunas. Many people also sleep over at the jimjilbang on mats with designated areas for sleeping. It's weird sleeping in a room with a bunch of people, but hey! When in Korea...
Anyway, this particular outing was for Omari's birthday. As per usual, we hit up Hobar in Hongdae...
Some of the girls who showed up for Sid's bday
Karla
We all headed to a Noraebang afterwards and stayed there for a long time. Surprisingly I didn't sing one song at all! Everyone was just drunkenly shouting into the mic (Breanna's not even holding a mic)
Afterwards, while sobering up at 5AM, we hit up KFC for a nice greasy meal
Joe still in the party mood, everyone heads home after a long and tiring night as the subways open up. It was a great Saturday (but life in Korea gets much better from here)
