ESL Service Learning Project - Coffee

So last week after the failed cookie attempt I was determined to show Myungseon that I wasn’t a complete failure at making cookies. The weekend before we met again I bought the rest of the ingredients and went for round two of the cookie making attempt. The cookies actually turned out better than I had ever made them before! I guess keeping the dough in the refrigerator for a couple days helps make the dough puff up while they are baking (no more thin crackers!). I had plenty to give away to other students in my dorm while still having enough for our next meeting. 

Myungseon had wanted to take me out for coffee last week since she thought it would go good with the cookies but we ended up not having enough time after the baking fiasco. This time ended up being much better since now we had much better cookies to go with our coffee. She treated me to a caramel latte and she got a regular cappuccino. We sat in the bookstore and enjoyed out treats.

             
This last weekend Myungseon had gone with her husband to New Orleans so she told me about her trip. They had gone and seen her sister-in-law who was there for a conference and had gone on several tours. One tour was of the part of the city that had been severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. She said that it looked like not much work had been done yet except that they had built a dam that she didn’t think was tall enough to protect the area. One thing she said that I thought that was interesting was that some people were actually moving into the area and buying houses there (most likely because they are so cheap). Since it’s getting close to Halloween there were several Halloween Tours going on and Myungseon and her husband ended up signing up for one. She said that it was not as fun as she thought it would because the tour was two hours long and you had to stand the whole time and the tour guide just told stories (nothing scary happened). They also toured the Garden District which she thought was very beautiful. Overall I think she had a great trip.

            
 Myungseon I so interested in traveling and she especially likes travelling in the U.S. She likes to see everything so she prefers to drive to all the places they visit. One time she drove with her husband to Sedona, New Mexico. They went to see the vortexes there which are supposed to have a “healing” affect on people who live by them. She thought Sedona was very beautiful but we joked about how the “healing” part was just a big scam.

             
This week in her class she has a presentation to give about Korean food which we both agreed was a pretty awesome topic. It only has to be five minutes and last time she accidently talked for ten minutes so this time she will focus on staying within the time limit. Her English is good though so she should have no trouble at all giving her presentation. Overall in her class Myungseon is just focusing mostly on her reading and writing. To practice she has decided to start reading the Twilight Series! I have read the series before so it will be interesting what conversations we will have about the books once she starts reading them. She told me that vampires were more of a “Western ghost”. A common Korean ghost is a woman wearing a long white funeral gown (Koreans wear white at weddings) with long dark hair hanging in her face and blood coming from her mouth. I think I’ll stick with vampires…

Next week we’re going to get sushi at Piranha’s for lunch! (Fact from Myungseon: even though sushi is traditionally Japanese food, almost 90% of sushi owners in the area are Korean!)

More to come…