J-MeAllAround : Work has finally started!!

The weekend had ended and then we meet monday at the Seoul ICYE to meet our contact person for our work. The original plan was for me to work at Gangnam YMCA, but the Songpa YMCA was in desperate need of a girl volunteer because of the lack of women staff. In the beginning I was a bit skeptical about it, but it was an amazing choice. the people at Songpa YMCA is so nice and took me in from the first day. They are all so nice people. My contact person in Songpa YMCA is named Mun Philju and are also the one I will have korean lessons with. I was hoping to start work the next day, but there was a national holiday so we could stay home so I started work on Wednesday. There where no children the first days because it t was a start of a new term so there later that week (friday) we would have a opening ceremony for the children.

Since I had a day of Tuesday I decided to walk op the nearby mountain. It was a small one, but on top of the mountain there were snow.

On Wednesday I went to work and I meet up with Jiwha (our contact person ICYE) so she could take me to Songpa YMCA.

My work place is in front of Lotte World and Lotte World Mall!!! If you don't know Lotte World then it's a giant indoor Themepark near a lake (Seokchonhosu). Lotte World Mall also have the tallest tower in Seoul.

The entrance for Lotte World

Here I meet my new coworkers. They where all so nice to me and I hade brought some presents from Denmark for the boss and the coworker I would be working with the most (Jee hyunjung). I was told that we would get new children and that they where 4/5 years old, so we would have to prepare the classroom before they would come friday. We did a lot of cleaning and I was cleaning out this small room filled with things were some of them needed to be thrown out. I also made nametags for the children.

Wednesday was also the day that we started having our weekly koreanclass at ICYE so here I meet up with Joakim at a coffeeshop and I had my first kimbab... I was amazed!!

Linda joined us later and we had our lesson

On Thursday I went to Gangnam for my korean lesson at yeoksam culture village center. The lessons I had taken a test to join beginner A2 level. When I came home, my roommates, Joakim and some other Danes ha a b-day party for Luna one of my roommates. We had cake and pizza.

Friday was the day of the entrance ceremony of the children.

It was fun to participate in the ceremony since I also had to show my face to the parents... I kinda messed up.. I was so nervous that I almost presented my self (taking a step an then bowing) before my turn. But my coworker held me back. I was a bit embarrassed..

After the ceremony the day started. we have 17 children and they are all so adorable, but learning their names is hard. I have faith though that I will learn them ^^

When the day had ended I had plans with Linda and Jihwa to go to Dragonhill spa a Jjimjjilbang aka a spa. It is one of the most famous one in Seoul.

We had to pay around 12.000 or 14.000 won for the entery. We got a green set of cloths, 2 towels and a key. The key was super cool. When we entered there was a shoe looker where we placed our shoes.

Then we followed the path and after the lockers there was this mine garden and brigde.

after changing cloths we went to the area where you can relax. We were hungry since we had not eaten dinner so I got some weird looking eggs.

My favorite of them was the black one, it tasted the best ^^

We then had patbingsu (redbeanbingsu) with berries.. It was really good <3

they had all these random rooms. One of them was a coldroom.. I would call it a freezer, there was a snowman...

They also had hot rooms.

One of the rooms was being renovated since there had been a fire there around a month ago, so that area we could not enter.

We then went outside since it was not that cold... I know its marts... but outside that had a outdoor pool. There were people swimming in the pool but we only had our feet in the hot water.

We then played some games and then went upstairs to get some fried chicken.

We tried this game.. It was scary...!!!

On our way down the stairs I saw a danish tuborg beer sign on the wall ^^

Then we went to the shower area to shower. We wanted to sleep so we slept in the relax area. I ended up sleeping on the floor next to a guy who was drooling a lot and next to a really pretty guy.. I was originally sleeping in a massaging chair, but it got uncomfortable after some time. The guy drooling had apparently earlier puked on the floor (he was really dunk) but when I slept on the floor there was nothing.. Linda and Jihwa had seen it, but I had been asleep so I didn't here it.

We went home in the morning since Jihwa had to go.

Sunday me, Joakim and Linda was volunteering at a basketball game.. It was the start of the season so they had a ceremony. I was fun to be there but we did not do anything. Every time we asked to help out they politely said "no its okay".