Sunday night soup leads to productive Monday

This is Liezle's last week in Korea (until she potentially comes back in May) and also Cindy's last week in Jinju (she's moves to Daegu which is an hour and a half bus ride away). So we're going to new/old restaurants and trying to spend a lot of time together this week.

On Sunday we tried to go to a place near GNU, but they stopped serving at 9, then a whole bunch of other places were also closed/closing so we ended up going to a soup place that none of us had been to. It was actually really good. We ordered 2 kinds of soup - kimchi jigae, which is a spicy soup with tofu and kimchi and then a chicken soup with some potatoes and carrots in it, which was also spicy. Both were very good though. One cool feature of this restaurant is the chairs. They are barrels with a pad on top, but you put your bags, coats etc. inside the barrel while you're eating. This idea is genius because my coat always ends up at least partially on the floor.

Barrel seats

My coat in the barrel. The people at the table next to ours couldn't really understand why I was taking this picture.

Kimchi jigae

 Then we went for ice cream and went home. I ended up reading until 4 am, which has been happening a lot lately. I am still doing the Bible in 180 days, so I read a few chapter every night, plus I'm reading a book for book club (23 Things you didn't know about capitalism - not my fav) and the Game of Thrones series (I'm in book 2 now). I usually don't read so many books at once, but it just sort of happened.

Guess what this is a bag for...

On Monday morning I got up early (anything before 10am is early for me) and met Liezle to go glasses shopping (see above bag photo). Cindy was going to meet us but she was really sick and couldn't make it. The glasses place feels like a cafe. They have 2 dozen nail polishes on a table if you're bored while you wait, computers, free coffee and ice cream (both a self serve where you scoop it into a cone and a freezer of packaged bars). There is 1 guy who speaks decent English so when I came in they had to go get him. He tested my eyes (I'm now a 2.0 instead of a 1.5) and showed me where to pick out frames. I tried on about 15-20 different pairs and ended up getting 2. Glasses here are super cheap. My total for both frames, mid-grade lenses and the exam was less than $80. He also took my old glasses, replaced the nose pieces, adjusted them and cleaned them. They they gave me 2 cases and cleaning clothes, which are hilarious because they also give these to adult men.

Panda cleaning cloth

Cat cleaning cloth

After glasses shopping (which took maybe 30-45 minutes from when I walked in to when I walked out with both pairs in hand), Liezle and I went to lunch. Then we went to the pharmacy because her throat is feeling sore and she doesn't want to ride home on the plane sick. She had to go into work early, so I then went to the bank and paid some bills, then went to a stationary store and got an envelope I needed, some random cards and these stickers.

Guess who's getting these??

Then I went to work early where I finished a stack of essays, graded a set of tests and wrote and copied 3 more sets of tests on top of my regular lesson plans. During my break I also told my boss about a way for kids to print something and he called me a genius - I am so going to miss working here. I also got this email from my recruiter:

BTW Mr Jung has been very happy with your work. He says you are the best teacher that W school has had. He wanted to re-sign with you, but he understands you have your life in America

After work I went grocery shopping with Caroline, made dinner and am about to do the dishes (mainly because Liezle's shower is broken and she's using mine tomorrow and I don't want her to see that I live like a frat boy). So, it's been a good day. Tomorrow is going to be another busy one - bible study in the morning, lunch with Liezle and Cindy, downtown errands/shopping then work and possibly dinner and some cleaning (although probably not if I'm being realistic).

What's that? You wanted to see my new glasses? Ignore the crazy hair please.