Wandering Through: Meet Up

The other weekend, I miraculously found this amazing website meetup.com. It's a site where people organize groups via interest, location, etc. I joined a few groups relating to South Korea, and there just so happened to be a meet up that Sunday to see the Lantern Festival in Seoul. It was the last day, so I was even luckier because the festival was definitely on my to do list.

I left for the meet up extremely early, because with my previous track record - odds were that I was going to get lost and end up missing out. Not so, my friends! I actually arrived extremely early, so I went out of the subway station to walk around in the crisp autumn air and grabbed an obviously world famous Dunkin Donuts coffee. (I know you're jealous, Mom!) Then back to the subway to meet the people. Amazing people they were. There were Koreans and foreigners alike. Mostly teachers, but a few military personnel sprinkled in there. I met a guy, Ju Bong Lee, who moved from Korea to the US at age 16 and spent 11 years there with a BA in biology and a MA in biomechanics. Unfortunately, he had to come back to Korea to do his obligatory 2 years in the military. He left for basic training Monday. I gave him my address so maybe we can be pen pals. I also met Rebecca, a second year ESL teacher from Chicago. She's pretty cool and I think we'll be going snowboarding together, and perhaps a trip to Singapore for Christmas holiday. The last person I met whom I still keep in contact is Amanda. She's from Arizona and has been here only 3 weeks. She's a "full figured" woman, so I offered to help her with some shopping since she was in great need for a coat. Then we had dinner the other night at her place in Guri. She found some highly coveted avocados, so we (and by we, I mean she) made some guacamole, chicken, and made from scratch tortillas. The tortillas turned out more like flat bread, but the goal was semi-achieved - a Mexican-inspired, Korean-influenced, American-made meal. Amanda has a black lab named Sirius (or Serioius?) who lives in the teeny tiny apartment. He's a sweetheart though. The lantern festival was pretty cool. I'll post some pictures. The Chinese display greatly overshadowed the Korean display. Who knew?

I'll also post some pictures of my too cute kindergarden students I taught for 2 weeks. I miss them so much!!