Hostel from Hell - Friday Nov. 16, 2007

I did the class thing. Flexibility! Flexibility! The teachers continue to silently test me on this concept. Today, my first class walked in with 15 minutes left of class. It went pretty well despite the rushed lesson. The second class I think was only 5 minutes late. Next week I need a Thanksgiving lesson plan, but haven't the slightest clue of what to do. I really want to do construction paper turkeys with cutouts of their hands, BUT there is an incredible lack of resources, especially for 560 students to all do the same craft. I will work my creative magic and come up with something Turkey Day worthy.

After school, I headed home to grab my stuff and then found a taxi. You know you've been in Korea too long when you think a $7 taxi ride is outrageous! I got to the station and they gave me a ticket for a bus that was to leave in a minute; luckily it is an uber small bus station.

I woke up randomly on the way to Seoul about 5 times, each time noticing a heck of a lot of traffic. Somehow, after semi-freaking out about being late to the Fulbright forum, we made it in only 2 hours.

I navigated my way through the Seoul subway lines and to our hostel. The hostel was off a side street kind of hidden back in no man's land. The gate has iron doors. I walked in and was greeted by a man from Germany (I assumed he ran the place); he had me fill out a survey, and he needed my passport. The rooms were cheap; they were only 11,000 Won (~$11). I read this on a sign handwritten behind the desk. I was shown to "our room." (Alison, Lindsey, Meghan, and I were to stay together). We walk in, and there are two men staying in the outer room with four beds. There were two separate rooms with only two beds as well. The German man didn't know that those men were staying there, nor did he think that there were four of us coming. I put my stuff in the incredibly tiny bedroom with two beds, locked it, handed the key back over, and headed to the Fulbright Forum.

I was right on time for the forum; it took longer at the hostel than I had initially expected. The forum was about a Fulbright scholar presenting on the research she has been doing over the past few years. Her name is Maureen Flemming; you may have heard her name. She has created a series of movements called the Flemming technique; they work on regenerative movement. She was in an accident when she was younger, so she had horrible pain. She created a series of movements to work through the pain without the help of medicine. We watched a painfully slow video of her movements, and she showed us some with an elastic band she created. It was interesting to learn the motivation behind her research. She is 53 and INCREDIBLY flexible; it's impressive.

After the forum, I headed to Itaewon by myself; not always the smartest thing to do, but I wanted to go to a fundraiser and none of the other ETAs wanted to go. So I went. It was a fundraiser for VDay. I also put my name on a list to find out more information about auditions. I hope my schedule can line up for auditions and practices, if by any chance, I get a part.

I headed out after about an hour. I bought a shirt, donated some money, and hung out for a bit, but I was pretty overwhelmed with all of the foreigners. Itaewon is the foreigner district. I have this tendency now to feel uncomfortable around large groups of English speaking foreigners; I'm sure it's because I have spent so much time directly surrounded by Koreans only.

I met up with Jen, Ray, Ellie, and Leah in Myeongdong (shopping district) just to grab something to drink and talk for a while. Jen and I headed back to the hostel around 11:30. The subway stops at midnight, and taxis aren't cheap after midnight. Alison, Lindsey, and Meghan had checked into the hotel; they checked in with someone different than me. Alison was in the room with me, Meghan was out with the two guys and some random girl, and Lindsey was in a completely different room with three other ETAs. They barely had room for all of us. Jen slept in a bed with me; she was crashing there for the night. They were super tiny beds and the place was a little less than clean, but those not so clean comforters were super comfortable.