International Festival and Mexican Food!

Well, against all odds, I've survived another week in Korea. Go me! It's been pretty exciting. As far as teaching goes, we're getting closer and closer to week 10 where the students take the tests that determine whether or not they will advance a level at the end of the term. The kids are dreading it while I'm looking forward to not having to plan any lessons that week - I just proctor while the students take their tests! Yay! :)

I got my first paycheck this week. I'm a millionaire! Well, at least in Korean won. In American dollars, it's not even close. It's still nice to have money in the bank.

I was originally planning on having a quiet weekend of movies and lots of sleeping. However, I woke up Friday morning realizing that I needed to finish all my Christmas shopping. Ah, crap. So, Kendra and I decided to make another excursion to Itaewon so I could finish up Christmas shopping.

Maybe I should clarify why I need to finish my Christmas shopping in mid October. My dad is coming next weekend! Yay! I wanted to send all my Christmas gifts back with him so I don't have to mail packages where I spend more money on postage than I did on the gifts. He's so nice to me. He's also bringing me a bunch of stuff from home (peanut butter M&M's!!). Only four more days! :)

Anyways. We got to Itaewon and we discovered that there is some kind of parade going on. What the heck? How do we FIND these things! We heard music so we looked and saw a Korean marching band going by. Complete with traditional dress!

A Korean marching band!



We figured out after that band that it must be some kind of international festival as a group of people carrying national flags of a bunch of different countries walked on by.



These were followed by a line of women in Hanboks carrying flags and followed by what I can only assume were ambassadors from different countries. A bunch of old guys in suits with their families in the traditional dress from their country (it was cute).



After all that, there was a marching band of U.S. soldiers! Yay us! :)



This was then followed by a Chinese dragon carried by some very unenthusiastic youths.



It was all very exciting. I love how we can just randomly show up on the day of a party.

We then decided to find something to eat. After turning down a random road, we ran across a tiny taco shop!

Now, a random tiny taco shop might now seem like a big deal to people in the States, but Mexican food is all but nonexistent here (go figure). What we saw looked pretty good and so we decided to give it a try.

Kendra was very excited.



Me, too!!



The food showed up looking delicious. Kendra had fajitas.



And I had a steak quesadilla.



And before we knew it, everything was gone!



As far as Mexican food goes, it was only okay. Not amazing, but okay. However, I think that we can forgive them since, I mean, we're in freaking KOREA!

Also, on the way home, we saw a giant fire extinguisher. What the heck?



The rest of my Saturday night was spent wrapping up goodies for my fam back home for Christmas. The best part? The wrapping paper I got came with instructions. Made my day.



And that was my weekend! Next week's update might end up a little late since I'll be spending as much time as possible with my padre until he leaves Sunday evening. But we plan on doing some fun stuff so it should be worth it. :)

Love ya!