Comics and Grub

Amongst the many changes that occur in Seoul, often times a subway station can transform itself. Attached to Line 2's Hongik Station is a transfer route to the AREX (Airport) line. I know this because I was making my way to Exit 5, and had to go through this very clean and polished tunnel.

Even the turnstiles have become things of diversity. The "beep" is more of a pleasant chime than the usually high pitched one heard at regular stations. Also when passing through, a plexiglass gate with pictures of Kpop stars opens for you. It certainly had a futuristic feel to it.

Exit 5, from Hongik station, takes you out into a quiet neighborhood. Once outside you will notice a cafe across the street called, "Cafe Sand Park".

For those folks who cringe at hearing "Sand" in a restaurant name, well this one was not disappointing. The interior was low-lit and light piano music was playing overhead. It had a real home-town feel to its interior.

Although I am not a coffee drinker, the ground beans smelled fresh. Instead of a coffee drink I had the "fruit tea", which was all right although a bit overpriced. Even though tea drinks at cafes in Korea are mostly a tea-bag in hot water, they tend to be pricey. Usually in the 6,000 to 8,000 range. But, one makes due and pushes on.

I wasn't overly hungry and so just had a light snack of a cream-cheese bagel. Surprisingly, this came out very scrumptious. The bagel wasn't too hard, like they are at Starbucks, and the cream cheese was fluffy and smooth.

The place even had some baked goods on sale near the register, which looked homemade and delicious.

I would highly recommend coming over to this place and getting away from the Hongdae crowds. Definitely a good place to bring a book or some work.

After my tea-and-bagel I headed to a comic book store to see what it was all about. On the way I spotted this wall-drawing, which from closer inspection was either made with charcoal or ink and brush.

The comic book store is located nearby Exit 8 of Hongdae station and is at the basement level. Inside are wall to wall bookshelves stocked with comics, mostly Japanese ones. All of which were in Korean, though. But it was fun to see a place like this in Seoul.

They even had one section dedicated to art-books and "how-to" books on digital drawing.

After the comic book store I went to Homi Art Supplies and looked around, then headed for dinner at a beef-galbi type place. Sorry, I meant to pick up their business card but it didn't work out. I got distracted on the phone. Anyways, it is a place that you have to climb a set of stairs to get to, and is outside exit 9... going up the street with the Dunkin Donuts.

Very delicious and not as heavy as regular galbi, which I think is a lot better. Altogether, another fun time spent in Hongdae exploring what is out there.

On This Here 11/11/11 I Decree:

That it is a lot more special in Korea, since people here celebrate chocolate sticks known as "Pepero" and they are shaped like ones.

I also recognize that this kind of date will never happen again, but life seems to just swift on by like a breeze. Yesterday, I saw the movie, "The Help." If you think it is a chick-flick well it has more deepness to it. I enjoyed the scenery and food being presented here and there. I didn't enjoy how some parts were too gushy between the protagonist and her prospective lover. I loved how they touched on civil rights issues in a personal way, but thought they could have dug deeper. However, compared to what else is out here (in Korea) it is a good choice to make. I would also recommend checking out, "The Tree of Life", which is also playing. Both can be seen at the theater outside of Chungmuro station exit 1.

No News Yet

Still waiting to hear about my contract. But randomly one of the homeroom teachers (the one I have been talking to) enlightened me of something good. She said she asked the other homeroom teachers about my staying here, and told me that they are all okay with me staying.
:)

So unless the Principal or some oddball person doesn't want me to be here, then it is a "No." So everything sounds good I guess...just hoping so.

What Happens When Public School isn't the Dream Job

I have been reading the blogger, "What Would Eve Do?" and noticing that she has been having a hard time at her Public School. It reminded me how when I was working at a hagwon (my first job here) I thought that Public Schools were a lot better. I quit that school after 5 months and moved to a Public School. Indeed, many improvements were felt and life was somewhat less stressful. But the fact that I was working in a Korean work environment never transformed.

Today I am addressing the allusion some people might have that Public School jobs are somewhat more magically better than hagwons. However, at PS jobs you definitely get paid on time and have solid vacation.

But the real difference, I feel, is that you are very close to a close-knit part of Korean society. What I mean is that PS's have a lot of bureaucracy within them, and they function in a way that is practically different from how one would imagine a school should be run. More often than not the Principals reign as Kings (sometimes Queens) and the people working below them do everything they can to please. Because of this your experience at a Public School highly depends on the quality and generosity of your Principals.

Take Eve's experience, for example. Her Principal apparently disapproved of her and would spend at length yelling at her in Korean. Now this was not helped by a coteacher who didn't like her as well and so would boast this to make her image look bad. (Same thing happened to me last year.)

Now not everyone's experience at a PS are bad, and for the most part are very good. A school that is good would be one that nurtures the foreign teacher, accepts differences and shows a lot of concern for their well being. Sometimes there are Principals who speak good enough English to have conversations with, and some who care extensively about the English program.

So in the end, I want to say is that no matter what job you take in Korea be sure you know that it's not going to be perfect. It will depend on the people you work with and most importantly your attitude towards strong cultural differences. Unfortunately for Eve she is making her way out of the job and country. But her struggles show us how not all PS jobs are perfect and there are still a lot of obstacles from both the Korean and Native Teacher side that need to be overcome.

Yoplait Original Yogurt: Yuja Flavor

The most shopping I do in life seems to be at the grocery store. In college I only had about 25 dollars a week to live off of for groceries. Gosh! Can you imagine! I remember going to the cheap-o supermarket and getting a loaf of bread for 2.50, and thinking "Sheesh so expensive!"

In those days, a new flavor of jam was my excitement for the week. Actually, that fact is still true to this day. However, most yummy jams in Korea are really expensive.

I suppose my exciting flavor change of the week is finding Yuja flavored yogurt on sale at Lotte Mart.

Yuja or 유자 is a tangy form of a lemon. Out here they like to turn it into tea and other things. I especially like Yuja Cha, but wonder about the sugar content.

Anyways, this Yuja yogurt tasted quite good. It had the punch of the lemony flavor but also a nice sweetness too. There were even bits of Yuja fruit inside, which I enjoyed discovering.

Tom didn't have much interest in this yogurt, I guess he prefers the plain flavors. So no "paws up" for this one, haha.

Have you discovered a yogurt you like in Korea? Do share...

Noksapyeong

For some reason, I never bothered to ask, I have Monday off tomorrow. Yesterday,  I went to Noksapyeong with the goal of going to an art and music event. When I got there I was very hungry and took the photo above.

I thought I would eat at the place called, Fat Panda, but couldn't find it. I ran into someone familiar and they told me it had closed down. So instead I ate at Buddha's Belly Take Out. A smaller version of the real thing over in Itaewon. It was good, but a bit too salty.

My goal was to go to the Laughing Tree Lab's musical and art event. I got to the door and was told I should give 10,000 won to get in. I didn't have any cash on me, and said I gotta go to the bank. But I wasn't really feeling it. I'm a shy gal and going to a gig with loud music, lots of people and drinks makes me really feel like a geek. Who knows, maybe if I were having a super confident day I would have gone in. My goal was to blog about it, so sorry folks!

Instead I went into Itaewon and got the new Haruki Murakami book, "IQ84." Which, by the way, is very heavy!

I headed home and cracked open my new book.

Recently I made a painting reflecting upon the wonder of Fall. I gave it away to a friend so all that remains is this photo...

 Maybe I'll make another one.... I kind of enjoyed using that color palette.