We're still working at school, but we did get a day off for Christmas on Tuesday. It was freezing cold! We mostly just stayed in and opened the presents that Santa brought us. Yes, Santa. Corey remembered to leave cookies out for that jolly old guy so he brought us some presents all the way over here in Korea. Corey got some weights and whiteboard crayons to play with at school. I got a rainbow coloured slinky. I guess Santa knows us well. We had KD for dinner with lots of butter and milk! Yay for a delicious dairy fix!
On Friday, I got invited to go on a staff trip to Seoul. The principal, vice-principal, and about 30 teachers took a chartered bus to the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art. We had the audio tour guide explaining about the ancient artifacts kept in museum part 1 and then we stared at modern art pieces, trying to comprehend what they meant and how we felt about them in museum part 2. I ran into another foreign teacher from Canada who I originally met at orientation. She was at the museum on a staff trip too, so I guess it's a popular destination for that. My co-teachers were surprised that I ran into someone I actually knew in Seoul. Honestly, I only know about 100 people in the entire country (which has a population of about 50, 000, 000) so I was surprised too.
a ballsy artistic statement
After the museum, there was more planned. Much more. We got back on the chartered bus and rode to the 63 Building. It is so named for it's 63 stories. On the first floor, we toured the Sea World aquarium. There were some really interesting fish and even some otters, sea lions, seals, and penguins! I took a few pictures, but without flash so I wouldn't startle the creatures, which resulted in mostly blurry photos. Anyway, it was so cool! There was a section with those fish that are popular right now for spas to use as part of mani/pedis because they like to eat the dead skin right off of people. You could stick your fingers in and feel the fish pushing each other out of the way to get at the most delicious dead skin cells. Yum. One of the teachers dared me to put my hand in, so I did. Afterward I washed my hands thoroughly with a lot of soap, but no regrets.
penguins
Jay Leno Fish
Dead-skin-eating-fish
After Sea World, we went to the 63rd floor to see the Sky Art Museum. They have some Chagall and Salvador Dali paintings, but it's hard for the art to compete with the view. You can see out over the Hangang river and most of the buildings in Seoul.
view from the gallery on a foggy day
Finally, it was dinner. On the first floor, once again, we went to the 63 Buffet. It had the most variety of food I have EVER seen anywhere in my entire life. There was a Chinese food section, Japanese, Western, Korean, and more. Each section had its own chefs working non-stop to turn out fancy dumplings, delicate sushi, fresh pasta and pizza, and an entire "make your own" pasta bar with an unlimited selection of vegetables, seafood, and sauces to add to your personalized creation. There were some foods I'd only ever heard of but never seen before laid out too. Escargot, frogs legs, cow tongue, and ox tail soup to name a few. I decided I should try escargot, but the frog legs were just too froggy looking for me to will myself past that. By the way, escargot tastes exactly how you'd imagine a snail tastes. It's slimy, chewy, and still tastes like dirt, but what do I know. I won't even go into details about the dessert. I'll just post the picture and save 1000 words.
I probably should have reserved "Finally" for this paragraph, but it really felt like "Finally, it was dinner" because I was quite hungry. Actually, finally was the show that we went to in the theatre (in the same building) called B-Boy Marionettes. It was a hip-hop dance musical about marionettes with a bonus performance of beat boxing and dancing tacked on as the epilogue. The choreography and dancing was amazing, but I didn't quite understand why there were so many gimmicks and why the story line expressed so well through dance had to be written (in 4 languages) on the screen behind the dancers. Yes, I'm a food and theatre critic now.
In conclusion, it was a very fun evening and a nice chance to talk with a lot of my co-workers. If you ever get invited on a staff trip, by a Korean school principal I would recommend that you go.
Now, Corey and I are off to do some more adventuring. Maybe even get some lunch. Have a happy New Year and there'll be more updates in 2013!
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