Korea Burn Mostly

Keeping this blog post short may be the greatest challenge I’ve yet faced in Korea. So much has been happening.

First, lets confront my teaching. It is going surprisingly well. I’m starting to really get the hang of things. I have some classes that I absolutely love and have so much fun with. My 4pms on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday are all a riot and I’m worn out by the end but always happy about it. And my 7pm upper level listening class on Fridays is really fun to teach and I love talking to the kids. Last week I asked them who they thought the strongest woman in history was and a bunch of the boys in their class said “my mother”. Gut instinct too, they didn’t even think about it. I loved that.

Today in my 4pm class I was helping the kids brainstorm for their essay topic, “if you were moving to the U.S. what 3 things would you bring and why” and one kid shouted out “my parent’s credit card”.

There are also classes that I really do not like teaching. Classes where the kids are quiet, reticent, never want to talk, never participate. But the high energy fun classes more than make up for that.

Okay moving on to my general life.

I’m really into cooking these days. I already was into the cooking when I lived in California, but it is so much more of an adventure here because I have access to totally different ingredients. It makes it a lot more fun, and a lot more interesting. I also do not have an oven, only a stove. I’ve taken to taking pictures of everything that I cook.

That is a dish I made a few weeks back, I think it was cauliflower, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, possibly an egg, curry flavoring most likely, with seaweed, bean sprouts, and sesame seeds. Most likely.

I’m still loving my new apartment. My neighborhood is adorable and has a street lined with restaurants nearby. I got utterly delicious lamb skewers last Friday night.

Phew. Seoul continues to be awesome. I continue to love it with brief periods of missing California and America in general mixed in.

Moving on. Korea Burn.

Two weeks ago I traveled southwest to a place called Gijipo Beach to go to the Korea Burn festival. The beach was outrageously beautiful. In fact I’m discovering when I travel out of Seoul that all of Korea is utterly gorgeous.

I went to the burn with one of my co-workers and a friend of hers. It was a really, really good time, just a wild and crazy party on the beach. I partied too hard right upon getting there and (though I had a fantastic time) I did not do anything I had intended to do, didn’t take pictures, didn’t get contact info for anyone that I met, didn’t teach poi, or even really spin poi… I guess the lesson here was don’t be attached to outcome. I had an incredible time nonetheless.

After my period of extreme drunkenness I found myself hanging out with a guy from the airforce. I definitely did not expect to go to Korea Burn and spend the whole night with a military guy. That being said, I had some of the most interesting conversations of my entire life with this guy. We talked about Afghanistan, Korea, PTSD, what it is like to kill someone, our different views on life and our different philosophies. It was really a very stimulating night for me and not one I will soon forget.

The best part? We never got each other’s contact info and I packed up and left before he ever woke up. I have a picture of him, but in his world I’m just a girl he met briefly at Korea Burn who disappeared at dawn. I find that so wonderfully poetic.

I did manage to fit in some fire spinning. I met a great guy from South Africa named KB who let me borrow his poi. We had a great conversation afterwards about different people’s personal styles in spinning. I love meeting other spinners and he was a particularly commucative one.

Did I mention I didn’t sleep at all that night? The sun rose as I was watching the ashes of the men burn. And shortly thereafter I was gone. Back to Seoul where I had a new type of Korean food, something called 찜닭Jjim-Dalk. It is a DELICIOUS chicken dish with a soy sauce base and glass noodles and yum yum yummmmminess.

I continue to love every type of Korean food that I encounter.

Okay I need to stop here because I've exhausted myself writing this. I still need to talk about the absolutely phenomenal weekend I just had in Busan so stay tuned, hopefully I'll get that post up before this week is over and I've got another week's worth of amazing experiences that I cannot possibly fit into one blog post.

I love you all.