Cooking class

So today I woke up very early to go to a Korean cooking class! It was totally worth it because the food we "cooked" (aka tried to cook and then got promptly corrected by the students) was pretty good. The class was held at a the Seoul Korean Tourism High School, which is another prestigious (public, I think) high school in Seoul. We arrived and were given a short presentation by the principal, as well as were given chef hats and aprons so we could feel like professionals haha. We all put then on early, of course.

Then we went into the kitchen rooms after being split into groups. We cooked two dishes- japchae, which is like a fried noodles dish, and then a caramelized rice cake dish with little garnishes on top. They kept trying to make us make the food look fancy but we just weren't cut out for that haha. It was fun cooking it, but me and my partner got very little advice while cooking so ours apparently didn't turn out that well. It tasted alright to me, but one of the student came up to us after we kind of burnt our rice cakes and apologized for our food not being good hahaha. 

Then we went into a room where we got to eat our creations as well as snack on some bread and cookies that the students had made! It was all so good~ When we got back to the subway station our university is on we had extra time so we went into a department store food court and it was amazing (actually it was the Hyundai department store... Yes that exists here). They had everything, and I'll definitely be returning. For now I bought some mandu aka dumplings aka heaven. They were really good and I ate them during class breaks haha. Four hours is a long time! We also ran and got ice cream during class breaks as well... As I said. Korea. Food. Must eat everything. But after class we went to a used book store and I bought a cheap album as well as Harry Potter in Korean! I can now add that book to my foreign language novel collection haha. Also, I bought some cheap clothing in the subway. Subway shopping is the best here! Definitely do not pass up the stores just because they are in the subway station, they sometimes have the best deals. Do be weary though- oftentimes Korean stores are "one size fits all" with no fitting rooms. The clothes are usually no more than ten to fifteen dollars though so it's no big deal, but I would still just stick to buying tshirts/clothing shapes that you know look good on you to avoid wasting money. Most of the clothes are baggy right now since that's in style, so it's not a big deal anyways. 

After I got home my host mom took us out for dinner and we had a clam soup with udon noodles dish, which I have no idea what it's called even though I asked her. Even if I do know what it is I try to at least make some conversation in my limited Korean, so I just ask for the names if dishes and their ingredients lol. Lamest conversation ever, but at least I try.