TGIF

Today will make a week that we've been here, and it completes a full week of classes. The jetlag is getting better, even though I still wake up quite early. I'm glad it's Friday. I'm feeling exhausted from the heat and the full teaching days.

Teaching is good. The students are very nice and they like the things I am doing with them. I love reading their reflective journals because it helps me to see what they are getting from my classes and also I find out that they do like things even though their faces might not be expressing it during class. I think we're all tired and hot (even though they keep turning the air-con off).

Yesterday after class I volunteered to show Sue how to get downtown to meet a former student in front of Daegu Department Store. Sonja went with me. As I was in the hallway waiting for Sonja and Sue, Ethan came back and when he found out where we were going asked if he could tag along. And then as we were getting on the bus Kevin walked by and jumped on the bus to join us. So we had a little mini outing.

It was fun. We stopped in the basement of Daegu Department Store where I thought we might eat. Ethan was very restless and didn't seem to want to allow us time to browse. But still, we looked around at the food offerings and sampled some of the things they were selling. It was like being in a small, clean, air-conditioned market.

Then we went up to the street where Ethan took charge of finding us a restaurant. His Korean is pretty good because he has been living and working in Seoul for some years (I don't know how many). We (or at least I) enjoyed walking around and browsing, but Ethan was on a mission. At one point we completely lost him while Sonja was buying a bag with three little cats on it.

But, Ethan came through and found a Korean BBQ place where we first had beef (kalbi) and then some pork. It had all of the requirements we were looking for the other day. It was air-conditioned, we sat in chairs, they served beer and had pork. It was really good.

It was fun hanging out with these guys and walking around downtown teeny-bopper heaven. When we first got there some young people came up and asked us if we needed help. They were very sweet. I think the push for English education in Korea is really paying off. I am noticing that more people are speaking English to us than the last time we were here.

After dinner we walked around and found another take out cocktail bar right on the street. We all got cocktails in bags (that look like IV bags) and walked down a street Kevin called "Fashion Street". There were all kinds of trendy clothes. I enjoyed looking at the men's fasions, which are very trendy and even kind of girly looking. One of our assistants in the office yesterday, a cute young guy named Jang, was wearing this t-shirt that had kind of a low-scooping cowl neck. I had never seen anything like that, until we got to fashion street.

We caught a taxi to return to the dorm and the driver was a little confused about where to take us. But then it turned out he spoke some English. He was really sweet.

So, even though I am still tired from jetlag, teaching a lot and the heat, I am enjoying myself immensely. Now I'm off to get something for breakfast.