Saturday, August 24, 2013

Brooklyn Burger

 I was trying to remember the story of how I first discovered Brooklyn Burger. Magaly had heard about it and we'd been craving real burgers for sometime so we made the trek out there. All the great reviews had been from military wives loving it and giving driving instructions from the base and we were like WTF, where is this place. So we went to Seocho station and cabbed it over, turns out Express Bus Terminal station is much closer, directions at the bottom.


 Want real burgers with actual cheese and bacon? You're in the right spot. I've been there more than 5 times at this point bringing a new person every time and at one point we were going every other weekend. They have many different burgers all delicious, except for the potato chips one. The chips on it were kinda weird, Mags said.









They also have MILKSHAKES!!! Oh goodness, such unhealthy goodness. Nutella Marshmallow, yes please. We were getting both the burgers and milkshakes in the beginning, but had to stop 'cause we couldn't move afterwards.

WARNING: There's always a wait, at least on the weekends. First visit an hour and a half wait I'd say. WORTH IT though. Remember to write your name on the wait list. The staff is super nice and can speak okay English. Sometimes it's nice waiting because there's an amazing coffee shop, Monmouth right beside it where the coffee is divine and the blue lemonade is mesmerizing. Also macaroons!

Just down the street is Seocho, the French Village! There isn't that FRENCH stuff happening except for some rando signage and the French school. We haven't taken any of the back streets 'cause we've always been TOO FULL. We have however taken a detour and while walking to Seocho Station (Line 2) we found this really cute park called Mont... something really French. It's perfect for chilling out and watching hot French dads!

You can also easily get to Itaewon on the bus from here. Take the 421 from the bus stop diagonal to Exit 5. In case you wanted to get some groceries while stuffed!

Directions: Express Bus Terminal (Lines 3,7,9 Exit 5). Cross the street, turn right and head for the over pass. At the Hana Bank turn left and walk til you see the resto!

Seocho Park: Walk back towards the metro and take the 1st/2nd left and walk down the street to the main road. Make a left on the main road and walk up the hill. Make a left at the top and walk until you see the park entrance. 


Also cheese fries! Clearly not real cheese, still yummers.

6 month update

Well, shoot! Turns out I haven't updated here in 6 months. Also, my mom totally noticed as per her email which stated "UPDATE YOUR BLOG!" Alright! It's been a while so let's take this point by point.

School: Little Fox and I started off a little rough as they kept comparing me to the last Joshua-teacher. No problems with pay, thank goodness. I still do my happy dance when I see my bank account. Some wounds never heal, LOL.

My hours are FANTASTIC: MW 2-8:05, TR 2-6:15, F 2-7:10 and I start teaching at 2:40. My director and I have been doing Tuesday meetings where I come in at 1:30 and chat about each and EVERY class I have. The kids don't progress that much from week to week so it was getting pretty tedious. I've only got one truly terrible class and we finally had to switch me out for only once a week instead of 2. Now in our meetings we're watching training videos! It's super fun and totally not something that I should've seen first week instead of at six months. Okay, some stuff is informative like how the point chart is actually supposed to work, but I'm concentrating on how the instructor's shirt keeps changing during the same one video. He really enjoys horizontal stripes, not a good look on anyone!


Now everything is going great. My kids have calmed down, my 8 8-year old class has stopped giving me headaches from being so loud,. They just need to work on their high five skills! Director wants everyone to start reading books so portions of my class are now reading time, so I get to read too! The library sort of sprung up and it's like my childhood in there. I just finished Are You There God? It's Me Margaret and am currently on The Secret Garden. I like showing the kids and saying one day this could be you. 


 It's the week of my birthday, 87 years young! So we're having class parties. It's also sticker party days, where the kids get trinkety things for the stickers they've earned, so classes are getting interrupted anyway. 

Friends: I have amazing friends, enough said, LOL. Since it's Korea things are in a constant state of flux and people come and go. I "lost" the brother sister team of M+J for amazing new adventures and I'm super excited for what's in store for them. 

I have a great group of girls who I can gossip/bitch/eat ice cream and travel with. 

I have my nerdy boys who I can chat about comics and have them explain the origins of stuff to me. They're getting me into nerdy card games with too many rules and I listen to them talk about Star Wars video games and they don't mind I only watch Arrow for the shirtless exposition. 


Food: I said at the start of the blog, I really only like Korean BBQ. Well it's been expanded to Mandu-gu (dumpling soup), Haechandle Ssamjang (red soybean paste that goes with anything), various soups that I don't know the name of and... I think that's it for now. My friends and I have discovered AH-MAZING burger joints and the deliciousness of S. African cuisine. Those reviews will get posted soon. I also love seafood and now that M+J are gone we can INDULGE ourselves. I am actually sorry that they have serious food allergies. See my post about food delivery. I gotta add Gringos Korea to the list. They deliver supremely delicious burritos, salsa and bean dip (to die for) to your door! I've never really enjoyed burritos before until now. You gotta order by Thursday night and delivered on Tuesday. Yummers!


Travel: I only got 3 days of vacation this summer, I'm not bitter, just telling it like it is. So, I had a staycation where I took the red buses around and saw the sights in the air conditioned comforts of a bus because it's been TOO DAMN HOT. Like face melting, it's been great! I was starting to turn into my dad, with my sweat rags.
I'm planning a couple weekends away in the near future so get ready for hearing about them. So far I've been to Seonyudo Island where we camped under a porch the first night cause the hotels were full. Oops! We still had some much fun and made forever memories, LOL. New Hoboton forever! Took days trips to Eurwangni Beach (을왕리 해수욕장) out by Incheon Airport to get rays, get cocktails in a bag (cocktailsinabag, cocktailsinabag), eat seafood and get a tan! My kids never get the joke about me needing to get darker, sigh. I also wanna visit all these islands.

Home: It's amazing. It's the biggest one for me so far and a couch can fit! It's great, no complaints except for my dorm fridge. I enjoy that I live in Dosim rather than Guri, because it's just far enough away that I'm not out every night. Next time anyone saw me, I'd be 500 pounds of beer! 

Last thoughts: Phew, can't believe its been 6 months since I've got here. I'm having a great time and I'm riding my high. I'm eagerly awaiting the maybe/possible/almost definite visit of my mom in November. It would be really great to see her after only getting a week of family time last Christmas in California. 

I swear I'm gonna be more on top of this blog and get back to reading more. Let's see if I can do it!

Currently reading: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. This is some dark s--t for a kids book, damn. People well creatures are getting straight up murdered all over the place. Also, those ruby slippers in the movie are supposed to be SILVER. What up with dat??? I also wanna be Dorothy for Halloween.

Listening to: Sara Bareilles, The Blessed Unrest