Birthday Parties and Myeongdong

This will be a post that has happened a while ago now, since it's already been 6 weeks and counting since we moved to Seoul!  I cannot believe that the time has flown by so fast.  It is amazing how in many ways we feel settled and comfortable with our lives here, but in SO MANY other ways still feel like we just got off the plane.  There have been many milestones since, but those will have to wait until the posts to come!

Apparently, birthday parties are the majority of what you pay for when you send your child to a Korean hagwon, because they are an enormous production.  We, as the teachers, are expected to bring gifts for the child - all of the students bring gifts for them as well, and their parents send them to school with gifts, and they give presents back to the kids who brought them stuff... It's just gift-giving hullabaloo all around.  The hilarity was doubled because my class celebrated 2 birthdays in the same month for Donna and Toby.

Notice how bored all of the kids look?  The picture taking in Korea is endless.  The party had 3 cakes and was fully dished out with pizza, fruit, snacks, etc.  The following is the best series of photos we were able to capture, complete with screaming, a yawn, and general lackluster... hahahaha. From left to right: Justin, Alice, Jean, Donna, Toby, Yours Truly, Jeremy, Helen.

Immediately after the party the kids went downstairs and had lunch... What?!  This time was also especially awesome, because Toby's mom hired a magician, so the whole school got to watch a magic show, including us.  We were able to stand witness to the fact that kid magicians are the same pretty much anywhere.  The bubbles were cool, though!

We also went this week to the (one of many here in Seoul) shopping hubs called Myeongdong.  I think Taggart's pretty DONE with shopping, though the markets do offer a lot.  We went with our friend Nate (remember Nate, from the airplane?) and his girlfriend, Danbi.  They introduced us to the Korean version of Monopoly, which is the first game I've ever tried to tackle in Korean.  I think we have it pretty much down, and the theme song is catchy too.  We went for lunch and ice cream in Myeongdong - there's a stand where you can get 32 cm. ice creams for like $3.  It was really fun.

Here's a really cool clock tower facade for some indoor shops, and the view from the maze of the streets.  One thing that is pretty cool, and weird, about Korea is that on hot days, the shops have people outside that stand in the middle of giant circles of dry ice and yell at you all of the cool things they have inside (we don't understand the yelling, but that's what Danbi told us they do).  The dry ice melts(?) in the sun, and so they look like they are standing on fog.  Its weird, but the cold does touch you legs as you walk by and it feels great.  Danbi says it's advertising for the shop having good air conditioning inside, which is a big selling point here.

 Here's us with yet ANOTHER ice cream excursion picture, and below a shot of our fabulous selves.