Ulsan

This weekend I headed to Ulsan with two of my friends to stay with our other friend who teaches there. We had a great time getting lost the first night...but seriously, we turned around a bad situation and got to see a lot of a new city, so that was pretty cool. It would have been cooler without all of my stuff and if our friend hadn't been waiting for us for an hour...but it all worked out in the end.

Our friend has an amazing apt. compared to ours. He actually has two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. We have two rooms in our apts: a bedroom/kitchen and a small bathroom. Suffice it to say, we were pretty envious of his pad. Since we arrived later than anticipated, we couldn't head out to the beach or the temple, which we'd thought about doing, but we ended up having a very chill evening with some wine, tv, and good conversation, in addition to popping over to check out one of the foreigner bars in Ulsan - and finding that we enjoyed staying at home over staying out with the crowd that was there.

Today we were hoping to go to the beach, but it started to rain so we decided it was a good day to go see a movie. After a beautiful brunch spread made by our fabulous host, we headed out to the movie theatre. The Time Traveler's Wife is finally subtitled and in theatres here, and all of us had either kind of/sort of wanted to see it or really wanted to see it, and it turned out it was set to start at the exact time we were looking to buy tickets. One of the best parts of the day was when we figure out how to use the automated ticket machine that was only in Korean with occasional pictures. I saw it as quite a victory, and it made for a great prelude to the movie. The movie was good. My friends all liked it more than me, but I'd definitely read the book - I think there were just things that irked me that I was guessing were more clear in the novel and didn't translate as well into a screenplay, but I love Rachel McAdams, and the movie was nearly a tearjerker for me - but not quite.

After the movie we headed out in search of a restaurant. We were craving Thai or Indian food, so we went through a few cab drivers across the city in our search. We found a Thai place, finally, but, alas, it was closed. Still, a block away we saw a cute Ristorante Italiano, and we headed there for what turned out to be a fabulous meal with mediocre wine and sparkling conversation. It was great to just sit and chat with people about real life things. We spend so much time talking to children, using limited English and discussing elementary and middle-school topics, so having a free-flowing adult conversation is a real treat, and it was a really great group of people. I'm so glad to have found people I can connect with here, across all of our differences, which are many, and in a country not our own.

Now it's back to the work week. Last week's tests are over, so our regular classes begin again tomorrow, and the last three weeks of term are going to be the most challenging, I'm sure, because after their tests the students lose focus and check out. The tests are what determine whether they move up to the next class level in the next term, so these three weeks are just the purgatory where they wait. It's my job to keep them engaged and working despite that, so I'm going to have to amp up my energy. My first full payday is Tuesday, which is very exciting, so I'll be able to get a gym membership, pay my bills, and start saving up, so I think that in itself will help boost my energy for the students : )