Surviving Week 2 With The Parents!

Last week was a normal school week. I had the grade 6's twice and the grade 3's once. Monday I sent my parents to China town and Wolmi-do where they could enjoy the sights of the new bridge being built and walk along the warf enjoying the sights and sounds. Monday night I took my parents out for shabu shabu. I wanted them to try a Korean dish that I'm a fan of, so we met up with Tracy, Holly and Nick around 5:30 p.m. and enjoyed the delicious dish. Afterward, my parents and I headed over to beer story for a quick beer before we headed home for the night. Tuesday after school we had a dinner date with Nicole in our area of Incheon. We ate some delicious kamjatang, another dish I'm a huge fan of. We hung out and talked for a bit and then headed over to a local bar to have some beers and chat some more. We didn't stay out too late because Nicole and I had to be up early to teach and my parents, being old and all, were just tired. Wednesday was a good day at school because I only taught the grade 3's and only had four classes, so I was teaching by 1:00 p.m. My parents came to see my school and meet my principal, vice-principal and co-teacher, Jiny on Wednesday. They didn't see me teach any classes, which I was kind of relieved about, but it would have been a good experience for them. Meeting the principal was funny because Jiny had to translate everything he said to us and then she would have to translate everything we said back to him. The poor girl was getting bombarded with translations. They didn't get to meet the vice-prinicipal because he left early to go to another school. My parents had brought gifts for all the teachers, so after meeting with the principal I took them on a tour of my school and introduced them to all my English co-teachers who were very nervous meeting my parents because they think their English isn't very good. Jiny told me that the principal was letting me leave early because my parents had come to the shcool, so we headed home and got changed for the evening festivities. Wednesday night I took my parents to the Arts Center/Bus Terminal area and showed them around. We ate delicious Chinese food for dinner and then headed to meet up with two of my friends, Joanne and Christa, to go to Dr. Fish together.

This is mom washing her feet preparing for her first Dr. Fish experience.

In order to experience the Dr. Fish experience you have to buy a beverage, which is bit expensive, but totally worth it and then you have to pay an additional 2,000 won. Basically, Dr. Fish is a foot treatment that involves small fish biting the dead skin off your feet. It really creeps me out and took me a good 10 minutes (we are only given 15 minutes) to put my feet in the water and let the fish eat me. My parents wasted no time and just stuck their feet in the water right off the bat. My mom got swarmed by the fish.

Mom, dad and I enjoying our Dr. Fish experience. The fish eating at way at my feet, however, I moisturized that day, so much dead skin was too be found. The three of us with our feet submerged in the water in the last minutes of our Dr. Fish experience.

Both of them really enjoyed the experience. We finished with Dr. Fish we parted ways with my friends and headed home on the bus. We took it easy when we got home and enjoyed a drink together before heading to bed. Thursday was an average day at school for me. BUT, I sent my parents to the DMZ for the day because I think they really need to experience it while in Korea. I know it's experience they won't forget. Thursday night we had planned a dinner with Jiny around 5:30, but my parents ended up getting a bit confused taking the subway home after the DMZ, so the dinner started a bit later than planned. Jiny took us to a delicious French/Korean fusion restaurant. The food was impeccable and my parents got to get better acquainted with the person has been my mom away from home my entire time I've been in Korea. After dinner, which Jiny paid for and made mom mad, she drove us home and the three of us ended up being in bed asleep before 10:00 p.m. Friday was my busiest day of the week with 5 grade 6 classes and it was also yearbook picture day. I assumed that this meant I would get my picture taken and out in the yearbook, so I dressed really nice and even did my hair and wore make-up to school (a rarity with me Mon-Fri). Turns out it was just a giant group photo of all the teacher's at my school. I was kind of relieved about that, but not disappointed I dressed up. I told my mom to come to my school and see me teach my last class of the day, but with a sudden schedule change the class got moved to an earlier time, so by the time she got to my school she missed seeing me teach. It was disappointing, but I can't help the randomness of Koreans. Friday night I introduced my parents to the Bupyeong underground shopping center, which is ridiculously hot and crowded. We did a bit of shopping and I bought a few things for myself and my mom bought a few things for herself. When we had had enough of the underground I took my parents for my favorite meal in Korea, dukgalbi. We ate at the one place in Bupyeong I know is good and always popular.

This is dukgalbi, it is BBQ'd chicken with cabbage, rice cakes and chili pepper paste all mixed together. It's mouth watering. Mom and dad sporting the aprons provided at dinner. Check out my mom with her bottle of soju...alchie!

When we finished dinner we met up with Tiffany and Carolina and did some looking around the shops side of Bupyeong before we headed to N's pub where we bumped into some of our friends. My parents got to meet even more of the friends I've made here and my dad enjoyed a game of darts with my friend Christa.

My dad with hs perfect dart throwing positioning ability. My mom and I at N's pub. I literally...no joke...took 4-5 pictures before we took a good enough one for me too post :)

We ended our night at N's pub and managed to catch a bus home, so we didn't have to take the train at all and the bus stopped right across the street from my house. We went straight to bed when we got home because we had an early start to Saturday to look forward to.