Where the Wild Things Are

The roller coaster ride that is my job took a huge dip last week.  I don't want to go into too much detail, but suffice it to say, if you come to teach in Korea, do NOT break your year-long contract.  You will quite possibly be left 100% broke and homeless.

I'm just glad it wasn't me who had to learn this the hard way.  But for the time being, I'm down one coworker.  And everyone at work is feeling it, as we are picking up the slack left quite unnecessarily by my employers.

Friday morning, 5 minutes before kindergarten was to start, one of the supervisors came in and told me I'd be taking over for that teacher's class.  I, of course, had already assumed as much.  So I'll have my own kindergarten class for the next week until the new teacher is due to arrive!  Thankfully, it's one of the best classes!

I somehow ended the stressful week in the greatest mood ever.  On Saturday, my friends and I went to the zoo!

Our tickets included a single ride on the ski lift chair ride.  It was, of course, delectably treacherous.  It didn't even stop when we got on.  They ushered us over to 3 sets of footprints where we were to stand until the chair hit us in the back of the legs and literally scooped us up into the air!  Our feet dangling, we floated over the entire length of the zoo.  I hadn't seen so many trees and mountains in a good long time!  Nor that many lions!

Floating over treetops at the Seoul Zoo

There were at least 8-10 lions in this enclosure

Before we began our descent to the ground, Kim realized something.  We were going to have to actually get off this thing.  Getting on was one thing...it just bumped up behind us and scooped us up.  How were we going to get off?  We knew it wouldn't stop.  The end was just barely in sight. What were people doing?  There were three of us...would we all make it?  Should we just stay on and ride around and around forever?

Oh no!  The end of the line is soon!

Soon, we could see what people were doing--they were jumping off and running out of the way as fast as they could.  We were about to have to do the same thing!  Kim was on the left...she had it worse than Nicole and I.  Our floating chair crept closer towards the finish line.  It seemed to be going faster and faster by the second!  As we approached the ground, we saw that men were there to help.  "Lift up handle!" they shouted.  There were three; one for each of us.  We lifted the handle just in time and they grabbed us by the hands and pulled us away from that chair before we even knew what had happened!  Phew!

The zoo here was pretty normal as far as zoos go.  We saw some cute bears getting fed, and monkeys and alligators and stuff...beavers and meerkats, lions and tigers and zebras and hippos and pink flamingos.  For being within the city limits, that zoo was pretty big!

Tiger!

A bear standing up looking at the man who is about to toss him some food

Kids feeding animals some leaves they picked

Beaver!

Tortoises!

Giraffe!

Groundhogs!

Bearded Monkey!

Baby Orangutan in a Crib!

Pink Flamingos!

We even got to see a dolphin show!  It was, of course, as cartoonified as humanly possible.  The trainers came out dressed like policemen and jailbirds and there were lots of cartoony sound effects.  The dolphin tricks I understood...they would wave their arms a certain way and the dolphins would jump.  But I have no idea how they got the seals to do the tricks they did!

Dolphin Show Stage

Seals doing tricks with "policemen"

Dolphins swirling the trainer in the middle

Dolphin Tricks

The next day, Nicole and I went to Itaewon, where they speak lots of English, to get her new cell phone set up.  While we were there eating the most delicious Bulgarian food ever, I studied the Seoul Subway Map on my iPod.  I realized we could take the brown line to the "exotic pet market district" I had found online after Nicole mentioned to me she'd like a pet.  We decided to check it out before heading home.

It was IN-SANE.  Are you surprised?  I wasn't.

I've never seen so many birds in cages.  And I don't think I've seen a chipmunk in a cage ever!  Nor groundhogs!  There were hedgehogs, hamsters, mice, little map turtles, tortoises, freshwater fish, tropical fish, pond supplies...where on Earth do people put a pond in their tiny apartments???  We saw baby chickens and ducks...parrots, iguanas, bunnies, guinea pigs...weird looking chicken-related animals...frogs dyed neon colors...baby beagles in bunny cages...dirty kittens...HUGE prehistoric turtles in 25 gallon tanks...blue crawfish...swimming water beetles...and then I saw it. My perfect pet.

SNAILS!!!

They carry their homes on their backs!

When I saw the snail container and it actually contained two live land snails--I was sold.  I've wanted a pet snail since I was a toddler and used to catch them under our lemon tree in California.  And basically all I have to do is spray them with water and feed them lettuce, which I usually have on hand anyways.  What I didn't realize before I bought them was that they are supposedly going to grow up to 12 cm each within the first 6 months of life.  They had looked fully grown to me--but Tennessee snails are tiny apparently!  

The French Canadians I work with have offered to eat them for me when they get too big.  "With a little garlic and butter," they said.  I don't know though.  I might just have to find a bigger enclosure for little Slippy and Slidey.

Slippy and Slidey are apparently just little babies!

On a completely random side note--with my birthday coming up, Kim asked me recently what I'd like to do for it.  

"Lotte World," I replied.  

Because, let's face it--roller coasters are fun.

Tiny water turtles without water

Dyed frogs

Pond supplies

"The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown, but longed for still..."

A huge iguana, a chicken, some bunnies, and a groundhog

A better picture of the groundhog

Chipmunks are exotic to Koreans...not so much to Tennesseans!

Strange fowl of some sort

Baby beagles in a bunny cage

Tiny fuzzy bunnies

Baby hedgehogs

Parrot

A colorful...chicken?

Swimming water beetles

More groundhogs

Tropical fish tank

More tropical fish

Blue and red crabs

They have BLUE crawfish???

Baby tortoises

Fish tank supplies

Kittens and puppies snuggling

Baby chickens

Baby ducks

"We don't really belong in here."

"LET ME OUTTA HERE!!!"