All together! – January 2, 2020

Hi, Lulu here! On this wonderful day, the YS crew united for the first time in Korea! After Lexi, Sarah, and I spent New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in Seoul, Sheila, still recovering from having her wisdom teeth pulled (apparently pretty affordable in Korea), finally joined us. We three were finishing up our breakfast at popular cafe chain “A Twosome Place” when we spotted Sheila passing by, lugging her suitcases–an unexpected but very happy meeting!

We welcomed Sheila to our lovely abode, which had just one unfortunate issue–Gerald… Now, our friend Gerald came to life on this day before we ventured to A Twosome Place. Waking up to a beautiful (cold) morning, we were soon confronted by the sight of a rising water line and abnormal flushing noise of our one and only toilet. No matter what we tried, this valuable asset would not function correctly. For the toilet’s persistence against our fervent efforts, we rewarded “him” with the name Gerald (some names just naturally fall into place). We are as sorry to inform you all of this unpleasant fact as we were to bring Sheila into this situation.

On a much happier note, after getting Sheila settled in and giving up on Gerald, we soon hustled our way uphill to Yeomyung School (luckily nearby), dragging our large suitcases filled with supplies. It was great to get in the exercise and to finally see the school we will be working at. Like many of the buildings in Seoul, the school is vertically arranged and different from many high schools in America. Upon entering, we were greeted warmly by teachers, and later, even ran into some students who recognized Sheila from last year! We learned the exciting news that graduation, which happens in the winter in Korea, was the next day for the graduating class! One of the graduating students came to greet and inform us that he was excited to participate in our workshop again this year, which was a heartwarming preview of the wonderful students we will have.

We each brought at least one large check-in suitcase full of chemicals, supplies, tools, etc., and it was a big relief to finally get that all out of our Airbnb and into the school. While we were organizing everything, the teachers came and brought us lunch! We love eating and were pleasantly surprised to have food–Korean KFC! I honestly don’t remember what American KFC tastes like, but the chicken sandwich and fries were great. Lexi and Sarah had Coca Cola, which they interestingly found tastes different from American Coca Cola…maybe with a different aftertaste? This finding highlights the trend of us discovering American snacks that have a different taste in Korea, with one example being Doritos.

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Since we had finally emptied our large suitcases, naturally, our next move was to fill them up again! With our amazingly convenient location in Myeongdong, we were able to roll some of our now empty suitcases onto the next challenge of DAISO! Daiso is an amazingly equipped and affordable all-purpose store that held the answers for the many supplies that we still needed. The one we went to was a whopping 11 stories tall! Not only did we get all our supplies, but we continued to add to the many steps and stairs that we had been traversing throughout Seoul. There were many cheap and interesting finds, including these American colorful marshmallows that we will use for chemistry day!

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After our huge haul, we headed back to our Myeongdong home. There, we organized our new supplies and continued to prepare our slides and content for the workshops. Taking inventory so many times in one day definitely helped us gauge our modules better.

The grind session was productive, so much so that we were very hungry by the end. By then, it was evening and time to eat! We travelled to the nearby Myeongdong and wandered the street food and vendor-filled paths, where we also got to exchange some of our USD. According to Sarah, our cash-changing expert, the Myeongdong area near the Chinese embassy has the best exchange rates, so we made the most of what we had.

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We continued to stroll around until we happened upon a porridge restaurant that we wanted to try! We have been trying out many different Korean foods, and porridge was a yummy and nutritious way to warm us up from the outside cold.

Since we were so warm, we decided to instantly negate that with a visit to Sulbing, a well-known bingsoo (shaved ice) chain! I had been craving bingsoo (always am), and our order of beautifully presented strawberry and green tea bingsoo really hit the spot!! It was Lexi’s first time trying bingsoo, which she found to be different from American “water ice” and even more delicious! The bingsoo had ddeok (rice cakes) and frivolously arranged yummy toppings.

With full and happy stomachs, we returned to our home. We used the energy from our food to fuel a work session, where we continued to prepare our lessons. It was great to have everyone there so we could bounce ideas around and all work together! We were off to a great start! A team that eats and has fun together is also one that works well together 🙂