Mom in Korea: Part II

Back by popular demand, the highly anticipated sequel to Mom in Korea: Part I. 

Monday July 1st:
I had to teach on Monday and Tuesday, so I invited mom to go with me because I knew my kids would love to meet her. They were so amazed that we looked alike and they all said, "Same, same!" or "Same face!" Let's back track a little though. Remember my old lady friends that are outside and talk to me sometimes? Well on the walk to school I was telling mom how sad I was that she wasn't going to get to meet them because they're only outside on Thursday and Fridays. Just about the time I point to where they normally sit, I see them sitting there!!! So we walk over to them and I use my limited Korean to say Oma, and point to my mom. They all just start talking like we know what they're saying (but I can assume they were saying we look just alike by the hand gestures and laughing they were doing), so that carried on for a second, then off we went. They laughed and clapped their hands and all talked at once, which is similar to how my students acted, except these little ladies were WAY more excited than my students. haha They're too funny! Mom brought candy for my students, so we did a little lesson on fruits and taste and then let them eat the candy. After school was over, we met some of the Oklahoma girls for dinner for our favorite Korean meal, dak kalbi! It's so good and probably going to be the food I miss the most when I go home. It was also mom's favorite! I also took her to our huge Walmart type store that day, Lotte Mart. This sounds like a lame activity but it's cool to see in person.

Korean Walmart...Lotte Mart

Mom was trying to give the little boy in the gray an English name. Yes, that says Batman and Superman and he still wasn't happy! This is why I've have him for 5.5 months and he still doesn't have an English name! They got a kick out of it though! 

Mom quizzing my 5th grade girls about my family members  My mom and her sisters look identical so that got tricky for the girls! haha

Tuesday July 2nd: 
Similar to the previous day, school and dinner with the girls, but this time we tried to take her to our favorite Chinese food place. After we made it all the way there, it was closed! We were so sad, but I had a good back up plan. I had intended on taking her to my favorite pizza place on Wednesday for spicy bulgogi pizza, so we just moved that to Tuesday since Chinese fell through. Well, silly me just assumed bulgogi pizza came spicy, so when I ordered bulgogi pizza, she just made us regular bulgogi instead of spicy. I was so sad again! That day was just a let down for food. Spicy bulgogi pizza is so good, and I ruined it for everyone!

Wednesday July 3rd:
I never teach on Wednesdays, so we hung out in Gunsan all day while the other girls had to work. I took mom to the oldest bakery in Korea, Lee Sung Dang Bakery! We had a delicious breakfast pastry there, then headed over to the old town center, Young Dong, for some browsing. I wanted to show mom all the funny English shirts that Korea makes. They're so ridiculous and random, and rarely make any sense at all. After our morning there, we had bapburgers for lunch! Bap is the Korean word for rice, so this is a rice burger. Sounds totally weird, but they're so good. You substitute the buns for rice, and the patty for a delicious filling of spicy chicken and sauce or bulgogi and there you have it! Bapburgers! I also took her to a park behind my house called Wolmyeong Park. I was so disappointed at the amount of change that took place from merely a month ago. The first time I visited Womlyeong Park was on my birthday, exactly one month and one day before! The lake was full of water, beautiful lily pads and lilies, beautiful, bright coy fish and there were flowers everywhere. When mom and I got there, the lake was SO low, there were no coy fish, most of the lilies were dead, and there were no more flowers. I was sad she didn't get to see how beautiful this park was a few short weeks before. After all of those things, we came home and showered and got ready for dinner with the girls again before going to our favorite Wednesday night hangout, TLC! This is our favorite bar because the bartenders are so nice and have become our friends over the last couple of months. I've been telling them about my mom coming basically since I found out, so our friend Billy said he would do a free fire shot for her, and our friend Don, the magician, said he was going to practice new tricks for her!! Such sweet boys! They followed through with all of those things and made my mom have a really good time at TLC. They're just so funny and had us laughing the whole time! I'm so glad mom got to meet some of the Korean friends I have made since being here!

Mom at the oldest bakery in Korea, right here in my own city! 

The lily pads and lilies that were so much prettier a month before this picture! :(

Mom's Korean Won on the ceiling of TLC! 

Mom, me and Laura at TLC!

My 2nd graders LOVED my mom! If Korea had class clowns, one of my cute little 2nd grade girls, Dana, would be the ultimate. Unfortunately for her, talents involving being loud and funny aren't looked upon highly here in Korea. She wants to be the center of attention at all times and isn't afraid of anything. She's definitely one of the ones I want to bring back to America with me, and in America she can be recognized for her class clown attributes and get her photo in the yearbook in High School.
Really, all the funny things that happened in class were had-to-be-there moments I think, so I'll just post a couple of pictures. And as I said before, mom has the majority of the school pictures on her cell phone, so when she uploads them I'll add them to this post!
One of the first things the kids asked was what my mom's name was and how to spell it, so one little girl runs to the board and wrote JANA, and you could just see little Dana's face light up! She ran over there and wrote her name right under it and was telling us that it's almost the same. She was SO excited! So then she would write Jana and then erase the J and replace it with a D, over and over. There were several that were very impressed by this little letter trick. They also started this little thing where they chanted "JANA, JANA, JANA" for a minute, so that was adorable. If you ever want to feel like a celebrity, come to a Korean classroom or lunch room and you'll get your 15 minutes of fame!

 This picture was actually taken the first Monday back after my mom left. Dana ran straight into class and wrote this on the board and said, "KYLA TEACHER!!!" So I looked, and what do you know...Jana and Dana! haha

Mom's biggest fan and sort of name twin, Dana! 

Mom's other group of biggest fans, Dana included! She's the little yellow sun dress one! 

Playing with alphabet stickers! Little cutie Jake! :) 

Cutie 2nd graders. Notice Dana in the front and center (of course) in the yellow Angry Birds outfit, so cute! 

5th grade girls! Such smart little girls!

That's all for now. Believe it or not, there is a part 3 coming shortly, so stay tuned! haha It has a lot more sight seeing pictures of Busan! T-minus 16 days until America!!!!! 

-Kyla