Sunrise in Eden (May 11)

• One of my 6th grade girls actually got angry with me today when we didn’t have time for a game at the end of the lesson. Although I offered to let them play with 5 minutes left in class, she was still really mad and even told me she wasn’t going to come back to class (Me to the class: “See you Monday!” Ah Young: “Teacher! Me no class Monday!”). Whatever. If I’m not making one middle schooler mad at me, I suppose I’m not doing my job right. The cute thing was that Dae Han stayed after class to make sure I was okay (“Teacher, you okay?” x 10). And he worked really hard – using his phone to translate big words – to help me understand that Ah Young is kind of rude to everyone (“Ah Young personality bad”) and that she uses TaLK class to “kill time”. It was adorable. I have entertained a lot of doubts about my teaching abilities while in Korea but, if nothing else, I feel a little more confident about teaching middle grade students.
• After school, I met up with Jeanette for a mini-adventure. There are no Dunkin’ Donuts OR Starbucks in Gyeongju and she needed her fix. Plus, we hadn’t seen each other in like a week. So we got her some dinner and donuts and then tried to find the Posco Steelers soccer/football stadium. This may not seem like a big adventure, but seeing as I thought they were a baseball team up until this week, it kind of was. I have passed a stadium in a cab several times so we used that knowledge and our limited Korean to find the right bus. And we found that stadium! But it was dark. So it was the wrong place (I later found out that it is a public stadium for anyone to use...darn). After that, we wandered around. We were close to Posco, so we got to see it in all of its glory at night. The colors (all of the buildings and smokestacks are lit with multi-colored lights in huge proportion) were actually quite beautiful. We enjoyed our “romantic” walk together...including the very scary tower we stumbled upon! It was really fun :)

• After a ride with a very enthusiastic taxi driver, Jeanette and I parted at the bus station and I headed downtown to check out Pohang English Club. I knew it was a group for Koreans to practice their English with foreigners but other than that, I had no idea what to expect. That much turned out to be true. It was mostly Koreans from all different backgrounds working to improve their English, but there were also other non-native speakers. In the café setting, the larger group was split into smaller groups at tables – and it was basically what I'd imagine speed dating to be like! First round = intros and coffee. Second round = more talking and meeting people and alcohol. It was fun though – just slightly surprising and a little overwhelming. I met a Korean girl who has the same taste in American TV as I do. I met a British guy who had a fabulous accent. I met the Korean men who organize the Club and they were so nice and hospitable. I met J, a really interesting Korean guy who fluently speaks German, English and Korean, attended Seoul National University (basically, like Harvard in Korea) and wants to be a lawyer. After the café closed, we all even went for a third round, at a bar downtown.
• The bar ended up being really crowded with foreigners who went to the soccer game, so Abby, J, another guy and I went to a different bar that was not crowded at all. Yay! (I’ve never been to a bar on a Friday night that was not crowded.) We entered a little dart tournament – I've never played before but it was fun and we even got 2nd place! Afterwards, we hung out a little longer, until about 4 am, when the bar closed (bars basically close whenever they want to here). At this point Abby needed money for a cab ride home, so we walked to the NH bank. On our way, we passed Jukdo Market - and people were already getting ready for customers! Everything was out and it smelled so fresh. And the dialogue between Rachel, Ross and Monica in season 3 ran through my head:

Monica: Hey, look at me. I'm making jam, been at it since 4 o'clock this morning.
Ross: Where'd you get fruit at four in the morning?
Monica: Went down to the docks. Bet ya didn't know you could get it wholesale.Rachel: I didn't know there were docks.

After getting to the bank and realizing it was starting to get light out, we decided to go to the beach to watch the sunrise! (I had my first female taxi driver on the way there!) It was mostly cloudy but there was a sliver of clear sky for us, and it was just beautiful.

After the sun disappeared in the 2nd layer of clouds, we wanted coffee but no one was open! :( So we all headed home. I slept for a little while, woke up and went to the doctor, went back home and slept a little more and then left for Gyeongju to meet Rachel, Ann and Jordan.