Charm Gruel and other Enchantments

This evening it started raining, and we didn't want to go far from home to get dinner. Shane was still full from our lunch at Kimbab Nara of bibimbap, chamchi kimbap, and donkasa (rice and veggies with sauce, tuna with veggies rolled in rice and seaweed, and fried pork cutlet) so he thought it the perfect time to visit our local juk (traditional rice porridge) restaurant. He is not a fan of the bland taste, but I really like it. We'd been there once before and enjoyed the samgye juk (chicken with ginseng porridge) and dduk galbi (basically Korean Salisbury steak.) Since we've been battling allergies/colds, I thought hobak juk (pumpkin porridge) would load us with vitamin C, and we ordered that with the dduk galbi. We were amused to notice the napkins were labeled "Charm Gruel," but pleased when they provided us a menu with all items translated to English. Who knew you could enjoy abductor muscle, kimchi/oyster, or knee bone of cow porridge? And all under the guise of fairy-tale, Middle-Ages-sounding "Charm Gruel?" On a side note, a recent hilarious conversation/demonstration with our co-teachers revealed that Shane and I seem unable to squat flat-footed, the way the Koreans do. I am happy to say after watching an absurd YouTube instructional video today, I mastered the "Asian Squat" on the first try! Perhaps I'll post the photo we took to commemorate the event. . . School has been going fine. Our curriculum has been under development, and so we elected to go back to basics and focus on phonics with the younger students. This meant we spent a great deal of time with our co-teachers each evening after school, brainstorming about how to plan the next several months. It also meant great conversations over great food, a lot of laughs and cultural exchanges on a variety of topics. Posted here are some photos from our shabu shabu dinner (hot pot) with them in Cheonan. Unfortunately, one evening after a delivery dinner at home, we offered them our full-strength fresh-brewed American coffee (Koreans typically drink fairly weak instant coffee) and the caffeine jolt kept them awake nearly all night! Oops. We've been using a stamp system to reward students for test scores or correct responses in class--at the end of each month, the student from each class who earned the most stamps receives a small gift. On Thursday, we announced the winners and the kids were happy to get stationery sets. This week I got a kick out of kids exclaiming, "Oh, my gas range!" (They think it sounds a lot like "Oh, my God!") I've been saying it every chance I get. ;)