30 second TV Star

This past weekend was uneventful.

I found a great stationary store right near my house. I walked in and realized it was just like Senseio and called Steph. She answered and I said "It's just like Senseio". She replied with "Julia, that is the craziest voice, it's like Gollum." I was amazing. It had everything from notebooks to hammers to folders to trashcans. The only thing I didn't find was white out. I just can't seem to find it anywhere.

I had to judge a speech contest on Saturday morning so I needed to get to bed at a decent hour on Friday which did not happen (so excited about my stationary store run). I was told to be at the school at 10am, so of course I got there at 10:05 thinking I was so late, but no. The true time was 10:30am and I was the first to arrive. I spent the time alone trying to figure out if the co-teachers had wised up and realized my tendency to be late and told me an earlier time or they were just confused about the initial time. As other foreign teachers arrived I found out they were just confused. Every teacher was given a different time.

I was expecting an actual speech contest, but what I got was a dialogue contest. If they could talk to me for 3 minutes on topic then they got a good score. If not, then they got a bad score. Seems easy right? Not when the topic is "On the airplane". There is only so much a flight attendant can get you. My favorite one was when a girl responded to my need for a hotel room with a balconey (all students told me that I could not have a balconey) facing the ocean. She told me that the hotel wasn't near the ocean. I then said I would like to face the lake or river. Whatever water you got. She told me to sleep with the ducks. haha. The only other dialogue that stuck out in my mind was from a boy student. The dialogue was about my birthday party. He had to tell me his plans for the party. It got a little uncomfortable for me and I changed topic.

The only other thing about the contest that warrants mentioning is the fact that it was colder inside the classroom then outside. I think they might have had the air conditioning on. I had to put my jacket and scarf back on while I was judging.

CoCo, but not the one in Seoul.
The best part of Saturday happened when Steph called me and said she found CoCo. ITs a Japanese Curry House that we adored and were addicted to in Taipei. We heard that it was somewhere in Seoul, but had no luck finding it. So I screamed when she told me she had spotted it while shopping. Yes, I was walking in the street where several Korean people stopped and gave me weird looks. I then did a happy dance and told her I would be heading there soon, like a day trip, lol. Our birthday weekend will be spent eating there continiously. Good times ahead.

I then arrived home and went to bed until the next day. I was supposed to go out Saturday night, but I instead slept of the cold I had last week. I now feel much better. Sunday I went to one of my happy places here in Ulsan: E-mart. E-mart
Its like Walmart only Korean. I bought some color pencils and a fork. You can get your hair cut, glasses, nails done, things tailored, and buy just about anything you want. The party supplies area was fabulous. I can't wait to decorate my house and Steph's house (haha, you can't stop me).

As I reported last week, KBS came to my Korean class to tape a special on foreign teachers and class sizes (not ours, but the students). They followed Natalie, my table partner in Korean class, around all day at school and then to Korean class. Because I sit next to her, you get to see the back of my head, my arm, and the side of my head in class. I taped it with my camera, but the camera could see lines on my TV that I couldn't, so if you are wondering how I watch TV with all that static, I don't. It's not visible to my eye, just the camera's.

Good times.