Went to my school to see what we do on Saturdays. Met a nice American teacher from a few schools over who was guest-teaching the kids (our boys and some local middle school girls) as they made birdhouses as a project. I sat in the back for a while and chatted with three of the girls, Suyeon, Minji, and Seulbee. They were darling. I wrote their names in Korean, which is my favorite trick for making friends and for remembering names.
The girls said I had a pretty voice and I complimented their choice of decorating their birdhouse in a pattern of sky, grass, and butterflies. I knew the Korean words for sky and butterfly, but had to ask about grass. The word for "grass" is also a first name I had heard on a Korean TV show, so that got us talking about television. I asked about their school and about who their English teacher is--it's a man who I haven't met. Rather hilariously, the girls told me that a boys' school was a nicer place to work because boys are clean, while girls are messy, and that one of the troublemaker girls at their school broke some huge piece of equipment (an air conditioning unit?) by throwing a ball at it. Yowza.
I really, really enjoyed talking to the girls, though I felt like I was neglecting the boys by not talking to them, beyond greetings. My favorites Daehoon and HH were there, but Saturday-Jeongmin was sadly absent. But I'm glad I went, even though I only stayed for 15 minutes, because I got so many ideas for what to do with my kids in a few weeks when I teach a Saturday.
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8:30 PM Went on a scavenger hunt with the other expats! We had three hours to roam around our town, taking pictures of ourselves at different places, like the bus station, the local schools, the post office, and at each iteration of the national coffee chains. 50 photos later, my team of people won, so now I have some prizes I can actually use--handtowels and Ziploc bags. It's the little things that make a big difference.
The hunt was a great activity because it was several hours of exercise, it was a bonding activity, and it was a chance for the older expats to show the newbies how to find everything. I found a Dominoes, a sports shop, and a gym, so I was doing a mental song and dance at having been introduced to so many good places.
We went out for dinner at Donkatsu, which seems to be Korean Olive Garden, judging by the pasta.
I got Saeu bokkeumbab, or shrimp and fried rice. It was more food than it looks like in the picture, and I finished it in under five minutes, due to the appetite from roaming town for 2 and half hours.
Speaking of my boys, I saw about 35 of them downtown today. Every time I turned around, some young voice was trilling "helloooo!" Sometimes I would see them first and say hi, and they'd always react in flabbergasted shock, because I'm not supposed to exist outside of school.
