So before we get to Saturday, let me debrief about this week. Not much happened except that I didn't have to teach night classes yet. So Danny and I were able to go out to eat with his coworkers most nights this week. On Monday I tried a new Korean food. I had chamchi kimchi jiggae (which translates as tuna and spicy fermented cabbage stew). I'll admit that I was a bit hesitant to try it at first, and I was disappointed that they didn't serve a tofu stew instead (sundubu jiggae). But it was actually delicious! And it came with many side dishes and rice (and for under $5 it's an amazing deal). Danny and I also successfully mailed a package on Monday. We were clueless when we walked into the post office, but the security guard spoke a few words of English and he helped us wrap our package and everything. We mailed home some Christmas gifts, which was costly to ship by air (but it got home in under 4 days!) I also received a huge package from my mom with some Christmas gifts, but hers took 10 days to get here (I guess the US Postal Service is not nearly as efficient as KPost).
Saturday morning Danny had to wake up early and go to his school. Not for work, but for "Market Day." For 4 hours the students came in to his school to trade in their "dollars" for prizes and play games with their teachers. The students are rewarded during the term with dollars for good grades and excellent group projects. My school has the same reward system, but we don't have a market day. Instead, the students at my school just turn in the points to the Korean desk staff for prizes anytime they want. I decided to pass by Danny's school for market day because I heard there was face painting, and I had to show off my painting skills. Actually I was pretty bad, but I was doing a lot better than Danny. So the students flocked around me, and they all avoided "bad Danny teacher." The favorite design was a swan, which Danny modeled on his hand. At the market day, there was also a game room, a movie room, and a snack bar. It was cool because I got to meet some of Danny's students.
After market day, we went to Gwanghawmun Plaza in Seoul. It's a huge square that was just remodeled this year, and a 100 foot high fake snow ramp was constructed in the area for the Big Air Snowboard World Cup. At night there would be a competition on the snowboard ramp, so we got there early and walked around the square. There were thousands of people in the square for the event. A huge ice skating rink was also placed in the square for the winter. The grand opening of the rink was this weekend, so I wanted to ice skate but the wait line was ridiculously long. The weather was pretty comfortable out until the snowboard exhibition started, and by that time my toes were beyond frozen. So I could only watch 3 jumps and then I escaped to the warmth under the Sejong Art Center. It's a museum and art center, but in the basement there was an exhibition on King Sejong (one of Korea's most notable historical figures, from the 14th century). So I walked around that for awhile and met up with Danny after. Danny's roommate from college, Lee, teaches in a CDI April school south of Seoul, but he came into Seoul for the night. So we took the subway with him and his girlfriend to Itaewon. Itaewon is the "foreigner-friendly" area of Seoul, so we found a good Mexican restaurant for dinner. It felt so good to eat a veggie fajita and some black beans and nachos. Afterwards we met up with some of Danny's coworkers at a hip-hop club that was hosting a bellydancing show. Unfortunately, we showed up towards the end so we didn't get to see much. What we did see was really awesome though. After that we walked into a handful of different bars to find a place to hang out, but most were way too crowded and didn't suit our taste. I guess Hongdae is better for a night out. Just as we were about to leave Itaewon, we ran into Danny's head instructor. We wanted to take her out for a drink and the only place we could find was a posh club with thumping techno beats. It was fun though, and we ended up dancing a bit.
By 1am Danny and his coworker persuaded me to accompany them at the casino. Gambling is illegal in Korea, so Danny's head instructor couldn't join us. Casinos in Korea are purely for tourists, and are usually attached to hotels. We went to Seven Luck Casino in Gangnam, near COEX mall. Most of the people in the casino are Japanese, Chinese, and American tourists. I don't know how to play any card games, but I watched the guys play blackjack for a few hours, and I caught on. I also watched roulette, but I didn't find it that interesting. Danny actually did pretty well in his casino debut. But don't worry, we aren't becoming serious gamblers. I am super frugal, so I was extremely strict about his budget. We are so cheap that we waited to catch the first subway train home at 5:30am instead of paying the expensive cab ride home.
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