Multibang!

This week at school has been Spongebob overload. I used a template of a ppt game from waygook.org and edited in practice questions for the students' midterm next week. Although the game does keep the students interested, it's still a bit hard to hear the Spongebob theme song 13 times in one week.

Thank goodness for the weekend! This Saturday, we went out for our friend Chris's birthday. We walked through the park on the way to Bupyeong. We saw some spring blooms and stopped for a photo op. We also obeyed the signs.

photo op

blooms

No to butterfly nets. No to cooking. Yes to puppies. 

Since I talk about this place all the time, I figured I should add some photos of Bupyeong. This is what it looks like from the outside. Inside and underground it is a network of tunnels that connect shops, restaurants, movie theatres, offices, two subway lines and more. 

Entranceway at Bupyeong

Traditional performers in the centre of Bupyeong

Once we met up with Chris, Laura, and Mitchell, we went to a Nepalese restaurant to eat some delicious food (which I forgot to take pictures of because I was really hungry and excited to eat everything. sorry.)

Then we went to a multibang nearby. The multibang is sort of like norebang (singing room), but with more options. We booked a room for 2 hrs to play video games and karaoke our hearts out. The place also has a snack bar with free ice cream, popcorn, and drinks to enhance your multibang experience. Basically this place is heaven for preteens (and pretty much everyone else when taken in small doses)

settling into the multibang

snacks

We got really into Mario Kart racing for a while. Like, really really into  it. It's so easy to get sucked into racing games. There's just one focus--get to the finish line first. You can see the concentration on our faces.

zombie racers. photo taken by Laura

Then we switched to a dance game. We took it very seriously. You can tell by the ponytails, that we weren't messing around :p

dance off!

Finally, we did some karaoke. It was great to sing in English since usually we hear a lot a lot a lot of K-pop in school and around town. Our room time ran out in the middle of a very passionate chorus of Lady Gaga's "I'm still in love with Judas" and we had to leave the multibang and go back to reality.

Rockstars. 

Quick Update

This weekend has been a bit of a catch up on work/cleaning/rest etc. so not super exciting. Anyway, Corey and I took some pictures from a walk we went on a while ago and I'll share them here. They're taken at our local Subong Park. The park is so well designed for everyone to be able to enjoy it. There's always a lot of people around, but it never feels crowded since there are so many areas on different levels.

Corey on the artificial rocks, by the artificial falls

mid-level of the park and expanse of Incheon

Looks so real, but the rocks feels like plastic!

Tennis court is in use again

Kids' park. Yes, that is a covered trampoline on the left. 

School Science Festival and Looking for Cherry Blossoms

The last post was lacking photos, so this time I'll make it up to you with a lot of pictures from our recent adventures. In case you're behind on the times and still think the biggest news about Korea is surrounding Psy's Gangnam style video, I will just say that you do not watch enough Saturday Night Live. The new topic of interest is the war between the North and the South, that thankfully has remained a war of words thus far.

On Friday, I found out at lunch time that afternoon classes were cancelled due to a school-wide science festival. The students were really excited to test out the model airplanes and rockets they'd built as part of the science of flight. I just hoped that the North would not consider my students' actions a provocation. 

rocket launcher

the rare model plane that didn't just nosedive

The rockets were made from pop bottles and bits of cardboard, while the airplanes were built from metal and paper kits. Most aircraft did not survive their initial flight.  

students waiting to test launch their rockets

students waiting to fly airplanes

Sometimes, the walk home from school is almost as much fun as actually being at school. Now that the weather is nice I can go on the adult-sized monkey bars with no mittens. I only made it 2/3 of the way across, but by the end of spring I'm going to be so pro!

monkey bars!

Saturday morning, we got on the subway and headed to Yeoiudo to see the Cherry Blossom Festival. One of my co-teachers recommended that we not miss it. Unfortunately, I think due to the cold weather, there were very few trees showing off their pretty pink blossoms. We could see that there were many bare trees that lined the walkways which surrounded the main festival area, where food of all kinds was being served, and games being played, despite the lack of actual blossoms. 

 eggs for sale

or octopus

 or gummies!

balloon darts. Play on roller blades for added difficulty

hot dogs and bottles of rice tea

the green and yellow are all stalls from the festival. Endless!

We still enjoyed walking around the park area. We also ate a hurricane potato and several gummies (a very rare find here) that we bought from the stalls at the festival. 

Happy Emily with hurricane potato and rare blossoming trees

Corey and water

These are not cherry blossoms, but they're pink and blossomy. They'll do.

A huge statue of Emperor Sejong

When we got to the edge of the park, we saw... another park! This park was right on the edge of the Hangang river. There were people riding bikes, flying kites, and listening to live music. We stopped to watch all the fun and then sat and got some sun by the water. 

Park on the river, with Seoul skyline

Corey in front of the water again :)

After a while, Corey and I decided to begin to walk toward Itaewon in search of the delicious falafel we had last time we were in Seoul. It took us about an hour with a few stops along the way, but we did eventually reach our destination. Plus we got to see a lot of areas that we usually miss when we take the subway. We had an early dinner and then headed back to Incheon. 

The bridge toward Itaewon

That's what's going on here. Not quite the images you're seeing on CNN, eh?

p.s. people keep asking me "What is kimbap?" Here is a picture of it. It looks like sushi, but it doesn't have fish (necessarily). This one has egg, carrot, pickled radish, and green vegetable stuff.