Highlight Reel

Some highlights from the past month or two...

1) SEEING BRETT
A few weekends ago I went to Seoul to see Brett, one of my orientation coordinators, who made a last minute trip to Korea. It was really great to see him and go to some new places. We ate pizza and had beers at Magpie and Cocky Pub (what a name, right?), then went to NB1 (a club in Hongdae) to dance the night away.

Magpie has some really good pizza.
And I've eaten a lot of pizza in my life.

Cocky Pub: I am 0.500 for beer pong.

It was really great to see Brett, and other ETAs who I don't get to see very often because even though Korea is really easy to travel within I tend to spend most of my weekends in Gwangju/Jeollanamdo/Jeollabukdo.

3) BLACK HISTORY FESTIVAL
Some Fulbright ETAs organized an event centered on Black culture and history in Myeongdong and I volunteered to help out. There was a discussion, short intermission, and performances. It was a smaller turn out than we'd hoped for, the location wasn't ideal, but I would still call the event a success.

Check out those t-shirts we got as volunteers!

After volunteering, we went to a favorite bar of ours, Bar Da, and then dancing at Mike's Cabin. Come to Korea and I'll buy you a drink at Bar Da then take you dancing at Mike's Cabin!

Annaliese and I then went to this great cafe (Cafe 304) in Gwangju... yummm.

3) JEONGGWANG VARSITY SPORTS
Since I started teaching at Jeonggwang I've been playing soccer with my boys during their club time (periods 6 and 7 on most Wednesdays). In between games of soccer, I'd run over and shoot baskets (poorly) with the basketball team. One day one of my boys casually dropped that they had a soccer game coming up. I was much more excited then they were. I practically begged them to let me come watch. Based on their surprised reactions when I actually showed up at their game, they truly did not believe I would come.

After their first game (which they won), I took a taxi to a different school to see my boys play basketball. The basketball team lost. (But they got pizza. So did they really lose?)

4) ADVENTURES IN GWANGJU, SUWON, JEONJU
I've done just a lot of fun things lately.

We <3 salads!

I went to Suwon with Zerin, Alex, and Kevin to visit a friend!

Here we are about to embark on our "train" ride together!

Chicken yum!

Jeonju Hanok Village!

5) GWANGJU FC
I finally went to a Gwangju FC soccer game! Unfortunately we played Jeonbuk FC and they're at the top of the table right now. I'm still trying to figure out how I can buy a soccer jersey for my dad, but I hope I can buy a Korean National Jersey once we're closer to the Olympics.

As you can see, soccer games have a much smaller draw than baseball games.

6) FINAL DINNER

At the beginning of July, we had our Final Fulbright Dinner. So my friends and I got dressed up and went to the Dragon Hill Lodge (a hotel on the Army base) to reminisce about the past year.

I'm really really grateful to have these wonderful humans this past year.
I'm looking forward to a second year in Korea with Annaliese and Bryan.
And looking forward to hearing about all the things Alex will accomplish in the next year.

Zerin <3 <3 <3 <3

UP NEXT: Year 1 is finished, So Now?