Starfish and Coffee (May 7)

• My students were a little crazy today (should I expect anything less at this point?) but I think I managed to teach grades 1-4 about family members. As for the 6th graders, sometimes you just have to let the crazy happen:

(Favorite)

• After my doctor’s appointment today, I had about 2 hours to kill before Dinner Club in Heunghae. So after staring at a (not-to-scale) bus route map for about 10 minutes, I decided to have a Bus Adventure. My goal-ish was Sunrise Park, but that was a long shot, since I only vaguely knew where it was. Turns out the bus I got on wasn’t going there. But I got off where I knew it connected to another bus that does go to Bukbu Beach, which is a perfectly fine alternative. So I went 102 --> 105 (got on going the wrong way) so --> 200. Luckily, the ocean is a great landmark, so when I saw it, I kind of knew where I was. I also passed by the Pohang Women’s Culture Center while on 102 – I have no idea what that is but it might be cool to check out some time. When I got near the beach, I got a snack at a convenience store and a lemon tea from Angel-In-Us Coffee. I think I might have convinced the barista that I spoke Korean, because he said everything back to me in Korean (usually, at coffee shops, they have a specific set of “lines” that they know in English, and use those with those of us that look particularly foreign). Then I walked down to the beach :) Considering this was all I wanted to do when I woke up this morning, I was completely satisfied at this point. I ate my snack and then took my shoes off and walked in the sand/through the waves while I finished my tea. I also found some really amazing shells:

And I found a starfish!

After taking a picture of him, I realized he was still moving, so I threw him back into the ocean :) I walked a little further and then wandered back to the bus stop. I completed my Bus Adventure by taking 105 back downtown to catch 500 to Heunghae. The cool thing about this Bus Adventure was that I wasn’t nervous, even though I had no idea where I was headed for much of the time. I didn’t have anywhere to be, I had money, I had my ipod...things were okay (though my phone was dying). It was fun. (The Bus Adventure was made further awesome by the transfer system that Pohang uses: if you use your bus card to pay and change to a different numbered bus within 1 hour of getting off, you don’t have to re-pay!)

• In Heunghae, I made my way to Abby’s apartment for dinner. (Along the way, I saw an ajumma with a mullet and a pink-ish dog with painted nails buy soju...the storeowner and I smiled at each other as we both pondered this woman.) She made Cornell barbequed chicken, homemade stove top stuffing, sauteed veggies, and caramelized pineapple for ice cream. In her tiny Korean kitchen. It was so yummy. And I got to hang out with her, Edward, Nicole and Nicole (they are EPIK teachers), whom I really like but don’t see very often. It turned out to be a really nice Monday :)