Oh Korea how I love you

As my time in Korea continues to unfold, I am finding myself feeling a lot more comfortable with the way things work here.  I am getting used to the smells, the missioning around from place to place with absolutely no personal space, being surrounded by children all day every day and finally, living on my own.  I'm finding myself becoming more and more aware of customs and instead of everything surprising me, I am trying to incorporate myself in the culture. I am asking Korean people to teach me different sayings and trying to memorize certain things that I use in my day to day activities such as "how much is this" or "Can I have a plastic bag".  The Koreans tell me my pronunciation is good but I think they are just being nice, if I were to say hello to someone here in Korean they act as if I just accomplished the greatest thing known to man.

It is amazing that I have been here over 7 weeks now, there are still a lot of things I am still getting used to such as my lesson planning which I keep finding ways to mess up (crying shame).  I think travelling abroad is a great step for almost anyone, it really does help a person mature and become more independent (at least for a moment in time :P). 

The "plum" candy is a lie..it looks and tastes like a peach...fail on the plum front (One of the many glorious goodies we munched on while studying)

This week went by very quickly and I was very excited to start my weekend as I would be sleeping over at my friends place on Friday night and working on our online TESOL course for the evening while eating Korean snacks and chatting.  Friday after work I got on a bus to Gangnam station and then caught the subway to my friends stop however on the subway this very obnoxiously drunk man approached me.  My instinct was to be prepared for an attack but since he was pretty small I just looked down at the floor as he came up to me and started staring as he circled me (he was very much in my bubble).  He began to talk to me and put his hand in a bag he was carrying and handed me a red pepper (which is pretty expensive here).  I tried to tell him no but he insisted and put it in a bag for me.  Everyone on the subway was watching us and I wasn't sure what he was saying to me.  He held the pepper and kept saying "tomato" to which I told him it was a pepper but that was a fail, he just escalated yelling tomato even louder. Luckily the next stop was mine so I hastily got off the subway with the pepper in hand, I was pretty pumped to have gotten a vegetable since they are expensive and it was a beautiful pepper. :)

I headed to my friends place and although it is humid outside, this past weekend has been pretty nice compared to last week.  We stayed up till 3am and worked on our online course while eating some interesting candies and snacks.  The next day we woke up and headed to meet up with some people where we had a bible study and headed to a Dongdehmoon which is an ALL NIGHT market.  The negative with having a all night market is that it is cheaper as it gets later but the subways stop at around midnight which is a no go.

We got to the market and walked around only to find a few book stores open and a man approached us saying that the market was on holidays for the next 10 days (fail).  We were pretty bummed but then one of my friends who had been her a while mentioned another market that was really nice and sold traditional Korean things if we wanted to buy souvenirs.  We headed over to the cutest little market village type of area I have seen in Korea thus far.  There were many tiny little shops and people on the streets singing, it had a community feel to it and I will defiantly be returning.   I bought a few small things but enjoyed the atmosphere more than anything and the street vendors :P.

Us eating deep fried hot dogs in french fry batter and ketchup on a stick...mmm haha  (no idea how these Asians stay so skinny with this kind of food around)

After walking around for a few hours we headed to a little restaurant that was known for its pork cutlets.  Most of us got different kinds of pork cutlet: jumbo, cheese, pizza, fish...etc.  The restaurant was SOOO cold that I had to put on a scarf however it was a lovely change of pace from the constant sweating that has been going on.  We headed home after dinner and one of my friends and I stayed up till 4am working on our TESOL course and chit chatting about life.  It has been such a joy to have a friend from home that is going through the same "newness"  and culture shock at the same time as myself.  It is comforting to be able to talk to someone who understands the exact feelings at the exact time I am feeling them.  Yay for my fellow Canadian buddy :P

We headed to church in the morning and met with some people before going shopping in the subway system.  It is pretty funny how memorable we are just because we are not Korean.  I find that if we ever return to a store or cafe, the people there greet us as if we are old friends (hugging us and saying hello while proceeding to follow us around and offer help constantly).  It can be both a good and bad thing however I do enjoy the kindness I have been shown many times throughout my Korea experience thus far.

I GOT MY FIRST PAYCHECK AND IT FEELS SOOO GOOD!!! :) I also have Wednesday off this week, its a holiday!! PLUS on Thursday we have a field trip to see the play Peter Pan with the Kindergarteners which means no class in the morning :).  This week will be a glorious experience, I feel it!!!

Not sure who this man is but I felt he seemed like someone who could be leaned on...? 

All in all I am feeling more and more at home as time continues to unfold and my Korea life is turning from a learning experience to something I am beginning to love.  I have a lot to process but I am feeling much more confident and I KNOW that having a great support system really helps with that.