Of Hikes and Costcos

It's been a welcomingly uneventful week. Monday to Thursday was a whole-lot of ordinary, aside from Thursday night; my second set of Adults, the ones more-advanced ones that I usually teach from 6:30-8:00, wanted to go out for a few drinks instead of having the class in the usual classroom-setting. It was pretty great; instead of the curriculum-controlled discussion subjects, I got to hear the Korean perspective on many issues, including their view on North Korea, Foreigners within Korea, and International Politics.

Friday went by quickly, although I was hit with a lightning-sickness. In the morning, I started seeing blurs, and couldn't see anything further than 5 feet; this fixed itself within an hour, but then came a gigantic headache, followed by stomach-sickness - but about 6 hours later, I felt just as fine as usual. Pretty strange... i'm just hoping it was a one-time thing, i'd hate to have to go see a Korean Neurologist. A few teachers and myself then went to a Shabu-Shabu joint, a very-spicy (and delicious) Korean stew, followed by some light drinking at the Chicken Hof, and finally, a couple of hours of Noraebang.

Saturday was the day-of-rest i'd been waiting for for a few weeks, and it lived up to its bill with my sleeping-in until 12 (ohhh yea). The rest of the day was relaxing, with me doing some laundry, watching a movie, and starting to catch up on Heroes. On Sunday, I went on a hike with two teachers, Ryan and Julia, on a mountain behind GEC. The top of it was a good 45 minutes away, but the trip was well-worth it. I miss doing hiking, and I haven't done any since I stopped doing Scouts two years ago. It felt great to hit up the mountains again.

We decided to head out to the Korean Costco afterwards. Ryan had gotten a membership last week (they run for 35,000 Won here, which is about 35$ Canadian - my plan is to get one when i'm closer to returning home, since it's valid internationally). Costco in Korea utilizes the same basic layout, but since the real-estate in the country is so high, it's built on levels. The first floor is general goods, the second floor is food, and anything from the third floor up is parking.

Costco is the closest i've come yet to finding products that resembled anything from back home. Cheap cheese, US-Sized clothing, it pretty much had it all. I only picked up a few things I needed, but at least I now know where to come for any familiar brands.

The coming week should be another ordinary one, but i'll keep you posted. Take care, and have a good one!