A Week of Firsts

Before I get into the nitty gritty, I want to take a moment and reflect on how I have already been in Korea for a month and a half. It feels as if I have been here for years at this point! Fall has officially started here, and I can't help the bittersweet feeling I have. I am a sucker for fall in the states. Pumpkin spice everything, vibrant orange and red trees, and especially the crisp, nostalgic scent that is in the air, reminding me that my Trick-or-Treat days are officially over. I have no doubt fall in Korea will be exciting, especially since the humidity might finally dissipate, but I am feeling a little homesick.

Anyways, back to the topic on hand.

My first of firsts for the week starts at an arcade. Before anyone asks, yes, I have been to an arcade before. Never in Korea though. This arcade was amazing, however, it does lose points since there was no Skee-Ball game. Honestly, how can you have an arcade without Skee-Ball? I bowled a little (as close as I could get to Skee-Ball; I have to take what I can get), played an intense game of Air Hockey where I managed to hit the puck off the table at least 6 times, and rode a motorcycle while I pretended I was making food deliveries in Seoul (the delivery drivers are INTENSE here). My favorite game was by far the zombie shooter game I played with one of my fellow teachers. There was an incorrect assumption made that because I grew up in Texas I would be amazing at shooting guns. Plot twist, I hate guns and was more of an archery gal. Shout out to Girl Scout camp. The game itself was your run of the mill shooter game where the character has to make it out of a building inundated with the living dead. The real kicker was that neither myself nor my partner knew how to reload, so she was shooting blanks for the first part of the game while I was desperately trying to stay alive. Needless to say, we lasted about a minute and a half....didn't even make it out of the first corridor. The second try, however, yielded slightly better results. Knowing how to reload and throw grenades definitely worked in our favor. Maddie, my co-worker, lasted about two minutes, but was unfortunately killed in action. I was left to fend for myself (while dragging her slain body because who was I to leave my fallen comrade?) and managed to survive for about another two minutes. I almost made it to salvation, but alas, my body was simply too broken to continue on. In case you could not tell, I quite enjoyed myself. After fueling my inner child, we took a break to watch the Dance Dance Revolution section of the arcade. There is one dance game that is a cross over between Guitar Hero (in the sense that you are stepping to beats that light up on the screen) and DDR. There was a man who was free style dancing like his life depended on it at this particular game, and I have never been more impressed in my life. My jaw was hitting my chest for a solid five minutes; I was simply too enraptured to care. He also did this in skinny jeans; a true idol!

After the arcade, a few of us split off to get a drink at a bar. We passed a man dressed in a decrepit, dirty liquor bottle costume advertising for some restaurant, and I was promptly offered $10 by one of my friends to dance with him in the middle of the street. So I did the only logical thing and walked up to the beer bottle to ask for his hand in a dance of my choice. We mainly just held hands and shuffled in a circle, but it still counted. I was $10 richer, and at least 10% dirtier than when I first started the night. At the bar, everyone was watching the AFC Asian Cup final between Korea and Japan. A real nail biter to be sure. There's something comforting about watching a soccer game on a laptop screen a bartender has graciously perched on the bar top while the surrounding bars were a solid 15 seconds ahead of our screen, meaning we knew to expect something exciting or disappointing depending on their groans/cheers filtering in through the windows. Spoiler, Korea won in a close 2-1 game.

Because of the game result, it only made sense for our little trio to hit the town in order to properly celebrate. Nothing says "yay, clubbing!" like wearing your teacher clothes to the actual night club. I know to be better prepared for next time. The club itself was very reminiscent of a frat party; sticky floors, blaring rap music (English, surprisingly), and enough strobe lights to fill an entire rock concert. The real cherry on top was the amount of times I was elbowed and/or hit in the face. I mean, I'm not that short, but I felt like Thumbelina in there. Note to self, attach balloons to myself so people could maybe see me and not accidentally bump into me. At the end of the day, I had fun, so I can't really be that mad about the club scene.

Another first for me was cooking a Korean dish on my own. I made japchae (stir-fried glass noodles) and they were absolutely delicious. I did manage to cut my finger, but don't worry I only bled through one bandaid. It was nice being able to cook, but my 0.5 square foot kitchen leaves much to be desired when it comes to prep space. The food turned out delicious and that's all that mattered to me. The crunchy cabbage mixed with caramelized onions and the bite of fresh garlic more than made up for the trials and tribulations I faced. Here is the recipe in case anyone is interested. I did not include any meat since it is exorbitantly expensive here, but I am sure it would be quite tasty.

Another first I experienced was spending about 45 minutes playing Just Dance videos on Youtube and dancing along to them with three of my fellow teachers during work. Before any of you go off on a tangent about how we're supposed to be working etc., etc., we were working...on our cardio. We simply took a much needed break after the very long day we had of teaching. When we thoroughly tired ourselves out, we went back to lesson planning. Needless to say, this will not be the last time we have an impromptu dance party break.

As always, feel free to reach out with any questions you may have about my never-ending adventure!