Giraffes, Tricks, and Cake

I'm sorry! 죄송합니다! I've left this blog til later than usual, but I really need to catch you up on some fun adventures the past few days. Let's begin with last Thursday, which we had off for Memorial Day! After sleeping in a bit, Katrina, Seol, Kaitie, and I headed off to Seoul Grand Park to meet up with some other friends and venture through the Seoul Zoo! I hadn't been to the park nor the zoo so I was excited! And we all know that where there is a zoo there are most likely going to be some giraffes around. Obviously this was the main reason I joined on this trek (sorry guys...) Walking up to the park the sun was beating down on all who decided to spend the day around the area. Never ones to let something small ruin our fun, we embraced the heat and made our way up to the top of the zoo via a trollycar and chairlift.

I really wanted the trunk to blow bubbles or something.

Reaching the zoo entrance we join the queue (Koreans love to queue, it's their favorite) to hop onto the chair lift that brings us to the top of the zoo. that way we can wander down through the exhibits until we get back to the entrance once again. The chairlift was neat in that it offered an overhead view of what we would be seeing throughout the day. We even got to see the lions get fed from a safe and comfortable aerial distance!

Let's be real...I was thinking about giraffes the entire time we walked through the park but there were lots of other cute animals to take my mind off the inevitability of the most exciting part of the trip!

This guy and I have the same diet!

Thought of you mum <3

 

They taught him how to smile for pictures!

 We made it in time to see the seal show as well as the bear feeding! The seal was incredible. It is just so interesting how an animal like that can move around and perform so many tricks that seem physically impossible! One of my favorite parts was hearing the trainer say something about 'exercise' in Korean and then seeing the seal work out on stage. According to Seol she told the crowd that he wont get a girlfriend if he is so chubby. Oh Korea and your constant fixation on weight.  Anyways, the bear feeding was great too! Instead of a trainer lazily tossing hunks of raw meat to waiting bears they hide food around the natural habitat area for the bears to find on their own. The physical abilities of the bears were pretty amazing too; some reaching up on tiptoe to knock a piece of meat out of a tree. It was eerily human-like.

Bear feeding time

 

 Then we stopped in the nursery. Here the baby animals were kept in a sweltering box for people to fawn over and take a million photos. I just hope it was cooler in their rooms than it was in the hallway. This cute little monkey had his own crib to play in!

Selfie with a llama

 Soon, the time had arrived for my favorite animals! I basically ran over like a 5 year old child (guess I'm hanging out with my kindergarteners too much) and bounded up the steps to the elevated observation area. I can't really say why I love giraffes so much...I think they are just so graceful and like nothing else on earth. They move so precisely like they think about every step they take. We should all be like a giraffe! We did learn that they only sleep for 20 minutes every day and not in succession. Let's not follow them in that regard. I like sleep too much.

They are just so gorgeous! One day I will have one as a pet...or at least touch one? Who knows. After that I was a happy camper and was ready to do anything. As the giraffes were one of the last exhibits of the park (of course) it was time to head back to the entrance and go home to prep for a full day at school on Friday! 

In the morning we had a field trip with the little ones to a Trick Eye Museum. This would not be the same as the museum Shanna and I went to a while back, but I have a feeling all of these kinds of museums here are very similar. This field trip was basically Korean Teacher heaven. These museums are meant to be just one huge photo shoot. Therefore we spend the next hour or so shuffling our kids around and saying "1....2...no wait move over a bit...1....2....come back!!...1...2....3 Smiilleeee!".

 

 Standard...

Oh no! Hang on ladies!

So strong

The next star

This musuem was much smaller and a bit run down. It needs a good revamping. Most of the pictures were faded and chipped from the excessive handling by the masses. Some of them just didn't make any sense. I'd have to explain to the girls how to pose in the pictures, get them all set up, then find the best place to take the photo without them moving from the spot I just put them in. While they enjoyed it for a while, after too long kindergarteners just aren't interested anymore. Overall it was a fun trip, but these days always tire me out. After a picnic lunch outside the museum (where we were acquainted with one of the biggest spiders I've ever seen in my entire life) we rode back to Little America to prep for our Elementary classes. I had several absent students whose families had taken off for a four day weekend, which made things a bit easier, or harder depending on how you look at it. I didn't want to move on in the book if we were missing 5 out of 8 of the students in the class, but the ones there still had to learn something. Educational games are the best.

After work on Friday Katrina and made a brave decision to try out the new-ish hair salon in our building. She had usually been going to Hongdae where the stylists spoke pretty good English, but if this one was good and just 5 floors below us, why not check it out? While their English was about as good as my Korean, they did a great job with both of our hair! Now I know I can just go downstairs instead of 45 minutes away. Sometimes you just gotta take risks and try new things.

Saturday, Katrina, Kaitie and I went to Hongdae to our boss, Patti's sister's bakery (sorry that sentence was a mess). She owns Darling's Cakes off the main shopping street. We had been there before but did not get to decorate a cake! This weekend we had planned a picnic with a few friends to celebrate the summer/our friendship/South Korea/other mushy things. We were given a cake, then options for an icing tip, as well as an ipad with several pictures of previous cakes decorated there to get inspiration for our cake. Along a wall of the bakery is a counter covered in little sugar shapes and letters to cover our cake with. After practicing a bit with the piping bag we got to work!

Before picture

Action shot

Almost doneee

So proud of our hard work

Overall this place is so cute! The owner gave us coffees while we decorated as well as some cookies for the road. I will somehow make an excuse to decorate a cake for every event from not on...just a warning...birthdays, weddings, dentist appointments, etc.

The picnic was a huge success. Good company, food, drinks, and weather! The cake had melted a bit on the trip back, but hey it all tastes the same. Amanda made some gorgeous sunglasses for us to don as we spent the afternoon sitting in the hopefully-snakeless-grass near Lake Park.

We ended the night walking to a norebang singing excerpts from Moulin Rouge a bit too loudly for the Koreans passing by us. I have to say, I can't go to a norebang every weekend but once in a while it is such a fun experience. Sang some Grease, more Moulin Rouge, and several other greats before (time to confess) I fell asleep on the couch there. Woken by Seol not long later we made our way back home to bed. A great end to a wonderful day!

Sunday I was able to experience something for the first time here in Korea. In Itaewon there is a swimming pool in the Hamilton Hotel, that is open to the public. I've heard that it was a very popular place to go to soak in the sun and spend time with friends. I was not prepared for just how crazy it would be. Walking out the door to the pool deck I was greeted by a group of very large (muscle-wise) Korean men wearing teeny-tiny speedos...Just past these men stood several teeny-tiny Korean girls wearing very tall heels. It was at this point I wondered exactly where I was. Tentatively walking up the stairs to the pool, I kept my eyes out for a couple friends I was meeting there. Thankfully I found them with little trouble and spent the next few hours getting some sun and people watching. There was definitely not a shortage of people to watch there. Not sure how many times I will feel like being back there, but it is definitely an experience to have while you're here! After the pool we subwayed (yes it's now a verb) back home and experienced a very scary moment! We had stopped at a station and at the last second a little old 할머니 (grandmother) shuffled towards the doors, because I suppose she didn't realize this was her stop. She was halfway through the doors when they closed upon her waste trapping her there! Everyone around simultaneously gasped as we weren't sure how to help her. She managed to squeeze through but her leg became trapped! Laying on the platform with her foot caught in the door I had frightening images of what would happen if the train had begun to move! My friend stood to pull the doors open and free her foot. The next few seconds we were uncertain of how to help her, not knowing when the train would move again. Several people on the platform approached her to help, so we sat and contemplated what we had just seen. I wondered how many times that happens with the amount of subway travel there is here. It was definitely a shock. I just hope she made it home without any major injuries!

Barring that last incident, this last week was a great one yet again. Time is flying as the countdown to the Philippines trip gets lower and lower! Getting very excited! This week is a regular week at Little America. No field trips or cooking class, so I will have to plan something fun to update you on over the weekend! For now it's bedtime here. I'll end with a HUGE HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my little brother Edward who is turning 13 on Wednesday!!! When did that happen? *cue grandma quote* "It feels like yesterday I was changing your diapers and watching you line up your cars across the living room floor". Now you are a star basketball player and overall coolest guy ever. Miss you a lot and can't wait to see you again! My students all send their happy birthday wishes. I hope you spend it exactly how you'd like! Couldn't ask for a better little brother.

xoxo

 Korean:  
생일축하해 (saeng-il chuk ha-hae) Happy Birthday!