A Good Tuesday

Class was as expected. We finished yet another chapter. I'm surprised that they keep forging on ahead and are not spending any time reviewing--guess that is expected of us to do on our own time. I don't think tomorrow (the day before the midterms) will be spent reviewing either--maybe in the second half, but the first half one teacher said we will be starting on the grammar point and listening to the opening dialog again. We spent the last 5-10 minutes talking about how the midterms will go. Basically the question portion is multiple choice and then there are 2 types of speaking--one is one-on-one with the teacher and the other is to have a speaking dialog with a classmate. I think the speaking part of the midterm is the one I will like the least.

After class I went to........ Burger King. Womp, womp. So ashamed. They give you your whole meal (drink included) in a nice little to-go bag with handles; the drink is put inside a plastic baggie and then inside the paper to-go bag. It works surprisingly well.

I had my American lunch--probably the most American I can get--and then headed out and knocked 2 things off of my "daily goal" list. I went for a run AND did it out in the city! I took the subway to the start of Cheonggyecheon (my favorite stream) and ran the whole length of it. I believe it was 8.3 km and I finished in a little under 50 minutes. It was very cool outside, but peaceful along the stream. It wasn't very crowded today which was nice. After I got to the "end" of the stream (it's not really the end, it just joins up with another stream) I turned around and walked back to see a museum of about the paving over of the stream and then the 'rehabilitation' of Cheonggyecheon. I continued on to the nearest bridge that would get me to the subway line I needed. There is a traditional flea market near that subway station, but it was closing for the evening, so I will have to check back there another time (too bad because then I would have had THREE things on my list--or at least checked off something else I wanted to see while I'm here).

I had a strange experience in the 2 stop journey. There were 4 older gentlemen perhaps in their 70's-80's and they were talking very loud (which is quite unusual because proper subway riding etiquette is to be quiet--and they are 'elders' so typically it's my generation and younger that would not follow that rule). Then, one of them got up and started hitting another one with his umbrella and poking him with his umbrella. Another one got up and joined in, and was pulling on his jacket. They were hollering and hitting each other-it was really strange--they were acting like 20 somethings acting like they were elementary children! Then all of a sudden, the subway stopped! It kind of freaked me out-and the driver said something over the speakers (obviously I did not understand) but a few seconds later, I heard/felt/saw --in that order--a regular train go by. There is a train line that uses the same tracks as the subway, so the regular train line probably has priority over the subway line. Back to my 70-80 year old men...So at the next station 3 of them left, they kind of hugged goodbye to the one that they had been hitting, and THEN poked their heads back in the car and told him to come with them-hit him one more time and left. It was a bit amusing to me, but I think it annoyed the other people in the subway. As I was sitting, I realized the subway had been stopped for longer than normal. I looked across to the other side and saw the sign say "Hoegi" (which is the name of my station) and that subway train was arriving. So, not really knowing if the train I was in was going to Hoegi or not, I decided I would run across because the other one definitely was going to Hoegi! It was strange--I really have no idea if the car I had been traveling in would have also gone to Hoegi Station or not.

I decided I wanted kimchi bokkumbap (fried rice--not quite American-Chinese style fried rice: it is rice fried in the same sense, but instead of the egg being mixed in, you are served an egg I think it is called sunnyside up--if they just cracked the egg open on a cooking surface and then serve it--so then you get that egg on top of the rice). I went to the kimbap shop by my dorm since it is so close. I also got a brothy soup, cucumber kimchi, kimchi and spinach for a side (I can't remember if I've already mentioned this, but side dishes are common, normal, expected even, when serving a meal). I have also realized that I am probably addicted to hodduk. I decided welllll, since I'm already out, I should just go get some hodduk. So that is what I did. I went back to my little lady's stall and got one hodduk. I'm starting to think it is not very common to order only one-or only one from her because when I said "hana" (one) she looked at me funny, and said, "hana?" like she didn't believe me almost, (and I think she might have even gone so far as to shake her head at me...) but gave me my change and my hodduk. This time I had 1,000W to give her. Next time, I will give her 700W!

The rest of my evening---can you guess? Yes. Studying and homework. Ugh, the dreaded midterms!!