Working for the Weekend
As we are getting a bit more comfortable with our work and play routine we are also getting more comfortable doing less ridiculous adventures. However, I still feel like we are doing all the things. It's not necessarily bad, but now we've found babysitters and have been doing more things at night which can be tiring. Still working on that balance!
We have been getting to know our staff which is important and it's been really fun. Work is falling more into place but there are definitely still things I'm trying to figure out. We have after school clubs and each teacher has their own that they are in charge of. Because there were so many clubs focusing on the older groups, a couple people had to modify their clubs to accommodate the younger kids. So, Brett is teaching a mindfulness in nature to kindergarten and 1st graders. Needless to say the first day didn't go great but this past week it went much better. I am teaching a botany class to 2nd through 8th graders so my first week doing that was also a bit challenging in trying to figure out the student's level of English as well as where to even start and what was feasible to cover. My second class also went much better and I'm excited about it! In the next couple weeks we are going to try and go for a "nature walk". Literally it will just be walking around the neighborhood and observing plants people have growing outside their homes. Maybe later we venture out further and observe more naturally occurring plants.
Lucy is still thriving at her school and Finn is really enjoying his although some days are pretty exhausting. Lots of fun things but always something active going on. The Play-Doh we found has been a nice calm activity and we just thrifted a marble run from another mom on Facebook. We also finally made another Ikea purchase so we'll be able to have somewhere to put the rest of our clothes!
Anyway, like I said we have been working on getting to know our staff more and trying to make sure we have time with adults. I went to a Kesha concert this weekend and that was SO much fun! I danced and danced and sang and sang! And then went out with Janell and her friends, made some new friends, and tried to get a cab around 2:15 but it's slim pickins that early (or late?) so I didn't get home until... Late. Didn't sleep great so Lucy and I hung out at home while Brett and Finn had a bike riding adventure. We then tried out a new coffee shop, walked to Gangnam station because we really didn't realize how close it actually is, attempted a bit of shopping buuuut all Lucy wanted to do was run, so we headed back and stopped for Pho which was so yummy!
But let me take a second and talk about something that was NOT so yummy. We were out and about a few nights ago and decided to look for a new place to eat. Brett runs a lot in our neighborhood and had found this particular section that had a row of interesting looking restaurants. We found the area and chose the Japanese noodle place and sat outside. We ordered pork cutlet with rice for the kids and ordered what we thought was a spicy seafood stew but we were only basing it off the small blue picture. We tried translating it a couple times but the best we found was egg soup. Ok so maybe there was egg in it and it just doesn't translate well to English. The woman was a little surprised when we ordered it but she was super nice and took our order anyway. She then came back with a Korean translation that said "spent a lot". It wasn't a particularly expensive dish so we weren't quite sure what she meant--maybe too spicy? No it's ok, it's not too expensive or too spicy, it's fine, thank you! Well, the kids got their food and it was amazing so we were super excited to get ours!
Umm so our food arrived and it literally looked like brains, stomachs, and kidneys or something of the like... Ohhhh s*!$ What is this?! Welp, I'm super hungry so let's figure it out. Brett went first and then I tried it. I will say the broth was pretty good but the rest of it... No thanks. We called a friend from work to be like ok what did we just order and how do we politely ask to take it to go? So first of all, it's called al tang, a spicy fish roe soup. And not those pretty orange fish eggs you see on sushi, I'm talking like literally insides of the fish looking stuff. Like quite possibly the egg sack that holds the eggs? I don't even know... Also, I guess the Koreans and Japanese argue over who invented it first?
After a bit, Brett managed to go in, act very full, and asked for it to go. Ugh I felt so bad that I couldn't bring myself to eat this but it was not settling well with my stomach. We tried! And apparently it's kind of like a special dish; also, not all Koreans enjoy it so that was good to know. But yeah, it was rough...
Ok so, why don't we cook more at home? Great question! I'm so glad you asked. 1.) Our stove is really sensitive and will burn the crap out of the meat while the inside is still raw 2.) "Regular" stuff that I would buy at home is more expensive here, oddly enough, rice was more expensive than I imagined but I also could have only been finding the "special" rice. So for example, a meal I would make at home would be chicken prepared a variety of ways depending on our moods, rice, and broccoli. A head of broccoli is like $4 compared to WinCo where I'd get like 3-4 heads for like 2 bucks. Chicken is more expensive here and comes in much smaller quantities:
I mean, I only bought them because they were on sale and they are also pretty small. Whereas seafood is really reasonable but the kids WON'T EAT FISH!
They also have fun stuff like quail eggs for not too expensive haha (₩2,490 is like $2)
So, we end up eating out more because honestly it's just easier in the long run. They go day to day as far as what Korean food they'll decide to like or not like but we're working on it!
Here's Finn watching a nice man make kimbap for us:
Finally found this coffee shop. I've been wanting to go and try this half and half and it was really good! Two separate coffees: latte and Americano
Looking forward to this week in part because next week is Chuseok so we have a week off but also because I've gotten a couple wild nights out of my system. I am looking forward to some more normalcy so we aren't so tired all the time! That balance is tough though because we are all super active but we all have different levels of energy at any given time. Like, the kids were not great today and Lucy is teething so she was particularly difficult but now they are in great moods and playing together loudly in the apartment... But like literally, we went to church and then Costco and it was EXHAUSTING! Not to mention as we were trying to maneuver the food cart with our cart and the kids, a woman was physically bumping into my butt with her cart. Lady, you are SO lucky that I was too busy trying to get Finn to move out of the way to deal with you. SO. LUCKY.
We did meet a nice lady in the food court though and got her number! She is Korean-American and has lived between Korea and LA. She doesn't live too far from us so we got her number and hopefully we will get together at some point in the future!
I am also going to try taking Korean lessons on Tuesdays! Supposedly it's a lesson for an hour or so and then a language exchange--so just chatting with whoever--for ₩10,000 ($9) and two drinks are included! I'm really excited and really hope it is what I am looking for!
We have been getting to know our staff which is important and it's been really fun. Work is falling more into place but there are definitely still things I'm trying to figure out. We have after school clubs and each teacher has their own that they are in charge of. Because there were so many clubs focusing on the older groups, a couple people had to modify their clubs to accommodate the younger kids. So, Brett is teaching a mindfulness in nature to kindergarten and 1st graders. Needless to say the first day didn't go great but this past week it went much better. I am teaching a botany class to 2nd through 8th graders so my first week doing that was also a bit challenging in trying to figure out the student's level of English as well as where to even start and what was feasible to cover. My second class also went much better and I'm excited about it! In the next couple weeks we are going to try and go for a "nature walk". Literally it will just be walking around the neighborhood and observing plants people have growing outside their homes. Maybe later we venture out further and observe more naturally occurring plants.
Lucy is still thriving at her school and Finn is really enjoying his although some days are pretty exhausting. Lots of fun things but always something active going on. The Play-Doh we found has been a nice calm activity and we just thrifted a marble run from another mom on Facebook. We also finally made another Ikea purchase so we'll be able to have somewhere to put the rest of our clothes!
 |
| Not even nervous. The bus arrives and mom is old news! |
Anyway, like I said we have been working on getting to know our staff more and trying to make sure we have time with adults. I went to a Kesha concert this weekend and that was SO much fun! I danced and danced and sang and sang! And then went out with Janell and her friends, made some new friends, and tried to get a cab around 2:15 but it's slim pickins that early (or late?) so I didn't get home until... Late. Didn't sleep great so Lucy and I hung out at home while Brett and Finn had a bike riding adventure. We then tried out a new coffee shop, walked to Gangnam station because we really didn't realize how close it actually is, attempted a bit of shopping buuuut all Lucy wanted to do was run, so we headed back and stopped for Pho which was so yummy!
 |
| So sad to see them all cooped up, they were so cute though! I wanted to take all of them home!! |
 |
| Goofy girl |
 |
| Always something interesting to see at Gangnam Station |
But let me take a second and talk about something that was NOT so yummy. We were out and about a few nights ago and decided to look for a new place to eat. Brett runs a lot in our neighborhood and had found this particular section that had a row of interesting looking restaurants. We found the area and chose the Japanese noodle place and sat outside. We ordered pork cutlet with rice for the kids and ordered what we thought was a spicy seafood stew but we were only basing it off the small blue picture. We tried translating it a couple times but the best we found was egg soup. Ok so maybe there was egg in it and it just doesn't translate well to English. The woman was a little surprised when we ordered it but she was super nice and took our order anyway. She then came back with a Korean translation that said "spent a lot". It wasn't a particularly expensive dish so we weren't quite sure what she meant--maybe too spicy? No it's ok, it's not too expensive or too spicy, it's fine, thank you! Well, the kids got their food and it was amazing so we were super excited to get ours!
Umm so our food arrived and it literally looked like brains, stomachs, and kidneys or something of the like... Ohhhh s*!$ What is this?! Welp, I'm super hungry so let's figure it out. Brett went first and then I tried it. I will say the broth was pretty good but the rest of it... No thanks. We called a friend from work to be like ok what did we just order and how do we politely ask to take it to go? So first of all, it's called al tang, a spicy fish roe soup. And not those pretty orange fish eggs you see on sushi, I'm talking like literally insides of the fish looking stuff. Like quite possibly the egg sack that holds the eggs? I don't even know... Also, I guess the Koreans and Japanese argue over who invented it first?
After a bit, Brett managed to go in, act very full, and asked for it to go. Ugh I felt so bad that I couldn't bring myself to eat this but it was not settling well with my stomach. We tried! And apparently it's kind of like a special dish; also, not all Koreans enjoy it so that was good to know. But yeah, it was rough...
Ok so, why don't we cook more at home? Great question! I'm so glad you asked. 1.) Our stove is really sensitive and will burn the crap out of the meat while the inside is still raw 2.) "Regular" stuff that I would buy at home is more expensive here, oddly enough, rice was more expensive than I imagined but I also could have only been finding the "special" rice. So for example, a meal I would make at home would be chicken prepared a variety of ways depending on our moods, rice, and broccoli. A head of broccoli is like $4 compared to WinCo where I'd get like 3-4 heads for like 2 bucks. Chicken is more expensive here and comes in much smaller quantities:
I mean, I only bought them because they were on sale and they are also pretty small. Whereas seafood is really reasonable but the kids WON'T EAT FISH!
They also have fun stuff like quail eggs for not too expensive haha (₩2,490 is like $2)
So, we end up eating out more because honestly it's just easier in the long run. They go day to day as far as what Korean food they'll decide to like or not like but we're working on it!
Here's Finn watching a nice man make kimbap for us:
Finally found this coffee shop. I've been wanting to go and try this half and half and it was really good! Two separate coffees: latte and Americano
Looking forward to this week in part because next week is Chuseok so we have a week off but also because I've gotten a couple wild nights out of my system. I am looking forward to some more normalcy so we aren't so tired all the time! That balance is tough though because we are all super active but we all have different levels of energy at any given time. Like, the kids were not great today and Lucy is teething so she was particularly difficult but now they are in great moods and playing together loudly in the apartment... But like literally, we went to church and then Costco and it was EXHAUSTING! Not to mention as we were trying to maneuver the food cart with our cart and the kids, a woman was physically bumping into my butt with her cart. Lady, you are SO lucky that I was too busy trying to get Finn to move out of the way to deal with you. SO. LUCKY.
We did meet a nice lady in the food court though and got her number! She is Korean-American and has lived between Korea and LA. She doesn't live too far from us so we got her number and hopefully we will get together at some point in the future!
I am also going to try taking Korean lessons on Tuesdays! Supposedly it's a lesson for an hour or so and then a language exchange--so just chatting with whoever--for ₩10,000 ($9) and two drinks are included! I'm really excited and really hope it is what I am looking for!
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