Sunday 13 March 2016

Work and Catcafe in Myeongdong

다람쥐반 (daramjwiban - squirrel class) is the name of the class that I was a teacher in. The other 2 classes is called 판다반 (panda class) and 사자반 (tiger class). It was a hard week. I tried to play a lot with the children and it was really fun.

First week was a mess because everything was so new both for me and the children. Some of the children spends most of the days crying because of the absence of there partents. I tried to take care of them, but lets just say I did not know what to do.

One of the days during this week, there was an art class where the children had to play with wet clay.



It was such a mess but they looked like they had fun.

I had been told that I had to help out with swimclass but since I did not have a bathingsuit I had to wait until it would arrive. Songpa YMCA would give me one. So until it will arrive I will have to wait on the sideline and help out there.

One of the cute girls drew a drawing of me for me. She have the drawing in front of her.



During the weekend me and Linda met up to go to a Catcafe in Myeongdong



There where so many cute cate.
Before you enter the cafe you have to place your shoes in a shoelocker and up on some slippers.
To enter the cafe you also have to pay an entrance fee but in that fee you also get a free drink.



They even had a display of all of there cats and there names



And here are a lot of cute pictures of the cats!!











One of the cats had fun on top af the counter ^^




After our small trip to the Cate Cafe, Linda and I became hungry so we looked around Myeongdong to finde something delicious to eat. We fell across a restaurant where that sell donggaseu 돈까스 (cheesy porkcutlet) and ddeokbokki  떡볶이(spicy ricecakes).

Delicious~~~




We then ended our day/week and went home after we had looked around in the shops around Myeongdong.


To be earnest some weird things happend to me this week... and it was all the same day...
It was Wednsday the 9. March:

Since I'm a volunteer in Songpa YMCA, they told me that they wanted to make a promotion about me. So they said that I should writhe down an introduction about myself in korean and then give then a picture of me so they could make a giant poster with my face on, so that everyone that comes in and out of the building could see that I'm a volunteer there... I don't know what I feel about that but in the same time it's pretty cool. So I gave them a picture that I had taken while I had walked on the snowy mountain a week ago.

later that day when I was in the subway on my way home, there was this drunk man sitting down, just staring at me and smiling. He started talking to me in korean, and I was trying to ignore him but at some point he takes out his phone and starts pointing the camera at me. Then the camera goes off.. HE took a picture, but luckily my arm was in the was so he did not get a picture of my face. He started talking to me again saying that I should remove my arm so he could take a picture.. I did not know what to do so a started to panic a little bit and before I could think I had said, stop it! (in korean in a rude way). I felt so bad.. so I just walked away since it was almost my stop... If I could go back I would have said please stop that in more polite korean.

The weird day did not stop there..
I came to the apartment building where I live, and outside was some men and a big camera. They stood in front of the door, and when they saw me they walked away. I came closer to the door and when I had nearly arrived at the door, they came walking towards me with the camera and mics. I was so shocked. They started asking me questions about the apartment, and if I liked it's location, and about how many people we were living there and so on. I said that the location was fine, it was not to far away from the subway st, around 10-15 mins walk og that we lived 4 people there. They told me that they were from YMCA and that they came to look at the apartment (from the outside). After around 5 min with talking, I began to feel uncomfortable and they could see it on me, so they told me that I could leave. I then went inside.

I dont know who they were or what they wanted, but no harm was done so I'm okay. That does not mean that I wasn't shocked... I was just in the wrong spot at the wrong time... 

Sunday 6 March 2016

Work has finally started!!

The weekend had ended and then we meet monday at the Seoul ICYE to meet our contact person for our work. The original plan was for me to work at Gangnam YMCA, but the Songpa YMCA was in desperate need of a girl volunteer because of the lack of women staff. In the beginning I was a bit skeptical about it, but it was an amazing choice. the people at Songpa YMCA is so nice and took me in from the first day. They are all so nice people. My contact person in Songpa YMCA is named Mun Philju and are also the one I will have korean lessons with. I was hoping to start work the next day, but there was a national holiday so we could stay home so I started work on Wednesday. There where no children the first days because it t was a start of a new term so there later that week (friday) we would have a opening ceremony for the children. 
Since I had a day of Tuesday I decided to walk op the nearby mountain. It was a small one, but on top of the mountain there were snow.




On Wednesday I went to work and I meet up with Jiwha (our contact person ICYE) so she could take me to Songpa YMCA. 


My work place is in front of Lotte World and Lotte World Mall!!! If you don't know Lotte World then it's a giant indoor Themepark near a lake (Seokchonhosu). Lotte World Mall also have the tallest tower in Seoul.


The entrance for Lotte World

Here I meet my new coworkers. They where all so nice to me and I hade brought some presents from Denmark for the boss and the coworker I would be working with the most (Jee hyunjung). I was told that we would get new children and that they where 4/5 years old, so we would have to prepare the classroom before they would come friday. We did a lot of cleaning and I was cleaning out this small room filled with things were some of them needed to be thrown out. I also made nametags for the children.



Wednesday was also the day that we started having our weekly koreanclass at ICYE so here I meet up with Joakim at a coffeeshop and I had my first kimbab... I was amazed!! 




Linda joined us later and we had our lesson

On Thursday I went to Gangnam for my korean lesson at yeoksam culture village center. The lessons I had taken a test to join beginner A2 level. When I came home, my roommates, Joakim and some other Danes ha a b-day party for Luna one of my roommates. We had cake and pizza. 

Friday was the day of the entrance ceremony of the children. 



It was fun to participate in the ceremony since I also had to show my face to the parents... I kinda messed up.. I was so nervous that I almost presented my self (taking a step an then bowing) before my turn. But my coworker held me back. I was a bit embarrassed..
After the ceremony the day started. we have 17 children and they are all so adorable, but learning their names is hard. I have faith though that I will learn them ^^

When the day had ended I had plans with Linda and Jihwa to go to Dragonhill spa a Jjimjjilbang aka a spa. It is one of the most famous one in Seoul. 



We had to pay around 12.000 or 14.000 won for the entery. We got a green set of cloths, 2 towels and a key. The key was super cool. When we entered there was a shoe looker where we placed our shoes. 



Then we followed the path and after the lockers there was this mine garden and brigde.




after changing cloths we went to the area where you can relax. We were hungry since we had not eaten dinner so I got some weird looking eggs. 



My favorite of them was the black one, it tasted the best ^^

We then had patbingsu (redbeanbingsu) with berries.. It was really good <3



they had all these random rooms. One of them was a coldroom.. I would call it a freezer, there was a snowman...



They also had hot rooms.



One of the rooms was being renovated since there had been a fire there around a month ago, so that area we could not enter.



We then went outside since it was not that cold... I know its marts... but outside that had a outdoor pool. There were people swimming in the pool but we only had our feet in the hot water. 



We then played some games and then went upstairs to get some fried chicken.

We tried this game.. It was scary...!!!




On our way down the stairs I saw a danish tuborg beer sign on the wall  ^^



Then we went to the shower area to shower. We wanted to sleep so we slept in the relax area. I ended up sleeping on the floor next to a guy who was drooling a lot and next to a really pretty guy.. I was originally sleeping in a massaging chair, but it got uncomfortable after some time. The guy drooling had apparently earlier puked on the floor (he was really dunk) but when I slept on the floor there was nothing.. Linda and Jihwa had seen it, but I had been asleep so I didn't here it. 

We went home in the morning since Jihwa had to go.

Sunday me, Joakim and Linda was volunteering at a basketball game.. It was the start of the season so they had a ceremony. I was fun to be there but we did not do anything. Every time we asked to help out they politely said "no its okay". 





After the ceremony we went to have lunch with korean volunteers around our age. 

Me and Linda had not had enough of today so we went to Hongdae to visit a selfie latte cafe; CaFace.





we shared since it was expensive. I got my face on the coffee, and the coffee was also really good. 



The face on the coffee is made of cream. 

After the coffee shop we went around Hongdae and saw some street performances