Abstracts, Cake and Singin' in the Rain

 Another hot hot hot week in Seoul. I don't know how I dealt with the heat when I first got here, because man is it HOT.

Again, it was a pretty normal week. Work, Korean class, sweat profusely, repeat, repeat, repeat.

In big news, I officially signed my contract for next year, meaning I have a job until August of 2015! It was a great feeling, even though I had to sign 3 copies of my 12 page contract. You have to sign each page, and with other signatures necessary, it ended up being over 40 times. Mom and Dad, WHY DID YOU GIVE ME SUCH A LONG NAME!?!? Well, it's not that long. But after 40 times, it sure feels like it! Regardless, I'm super excited because it finally means my renewal is official! I submitted my medical check, my handler is handling my background check, and all I have to do is renew my visa (which will be a fun process, I'm sure. Yay immigration...)

So it's been pretty normal but exciting week :).

Cesca entertains  me by sending
pics of my babies at home. I miss them!

I use my family in my powerpoints a lot. I told
my 5th graders how old my grandpa was, and
they made their "waaaaah!!!" sound of
disbelief and applauded. It was cute.

If you remember, my father is often mistaken for my grandfather. And Einstein...?

And they think Ted is my uncle. Or father. Kids, man...

Pretty flowers at my school remind me of
my mamma and her garden. Miss you!!

Fat little corgy walking around my neighborhood!

I saw this guy with a Cornell shirt while I was
waiting for the bus. OMG!

This week, the head teacher in the office asked me to edit his abstract for his thesis, because it had to be in English. For what reason, I haven't the slightest idea. The whole paper is in Korean. It's about educating gifted Korean students. And for some reason, they want an English abstract.



So Young Ah forewarned me on Thursday that the head teacher was going to ask me to do it. As such, I wasn't surprised when he walked over at around 4 o'clock and said "please correct grammar errors." I don't love having things dumped on my desk and being told to do something like this rather than him asking, but I know he was probably nervous and his English isn't amazing so I let it go, especially since Young Ah had told me. Actually, she told me he asked her how to ask me using "would you...", but he probably forgot how to say it. You know how when you're using another language, you plan and practice in your head, and then you go to speak and lose it all?

Regardless, he wasn't demanding, so I told him I'd give it to him Friday, because it takes a while to edit things. He actually sent it to a Korean company to translate it, and I was editing their translation.

This doesn't necessarily fall under the parameters of my job as a Native English Teacher, but because I like to help people out and do favors, and because my job description does vaguely say "any other duties as designated by my employer," it wasn't really an issue. Plus, any of my close friends/family can attest to the fact that I hate saying 'no' to requests, even if I have a legitimate reason for doing so. That's pretty much how I ended up with 4 jobs my senior year of college.

I roped Lauren into helping me during the break in our Korean class, cause she's written a thesis and has a better idea about the language than I do. Plus, it helps to actually talk it out and hear the sentences from someone else, to decide what sounds right or better.

Young Ah also helped me with some of it, because I needed a better idea of what the original Korean was to interpret the translation. Korean is specific in some ways, and very vague in others, so translating things like pronouns is sometimes quite difficult. But we made it through, and the head teacher was so grateful that he bought me a whole cake to say thank you. Which is so super nice, but I have no idea what to do with a whole cake haha, especially when I've been trying to eat healthier. Oh well. I really do appreciate the gesture.

I feel slightly bad because after I gave it back (I changed and re edited a lot of stuff, so I retyped the abstract for him), I noticed another place that could have used a comma to make it flow better. But I figure that the people reading it (I'm assuming they're Korean...?) probably won't notice a missing comma in the English abstract of this paper. If he fails on that, that's preettty lame haha.

All of the sudden, he handed me a bag and said
"Thank you for correct the errors!" It was sweet.

it was pretty much just a plain, kinda sweet
white cake. Still good, and still nice of him!

On Friday, Sarah and I were almost patriotic. We got tickets to go see a Korean production of Singin in the Rain. The show was essentially created by SM Entertainment, so that people from their various groups could star in the show.  So, after school on Friday, I headed over to the area. 

We stopped at Starbucks for some food. This
sandwich was labeled ham, but we SWEAR it
tasted like turkey. Perhaps that was just wishfull thinking.
OR MAYBE IT REALLY WAS TURKEY.

 Then we went to the show. They often don't translate the names for things like this. If they do, they just write it in Korean. So, Singin' in the Rain in hanguel is "싱잉인더레인" which is pronounced "Seeng-eeng-een-deo-reh-een"

We wanted to see the 2 in the middle, Kyuhyun from Super Juior
and Sunny from SNSD 

he's my favorite from Super Junior

Sarah LOVES Super Junior and SNSD (Also known as Girl's Generation), especially Kyuhyun and Sunny, so of course we had to go and see the show. There were other foreigners there, thankfully, but we still definitely got some weird looks. Probably cause the show was in Korean. BUT IT'S AN AMERICAN MUSICAL COME ON. One of my co workers asked me if I knew it, and I was kind of like o.O. I don't think you can grow up in America without SOMEONE singing "Singin' in the Rain" when it rains. 

Young Ah was super excited, cause she said she's seen the movie a few times and thinks it's great. I'll have to tell her it was a great show!

We got the cheap seats haha. Our section
also wasn't crowded, so we got to fangirl
louder than we normally would have

I'm a dork and bought Kyuhyun postcards and
the program, because it was an excellent show.

Kyuhyun was AMAZING. His voice is very classical and awesome. He's also notoriously bad at dancing. Well, not bad, but he's usually late or off on the moves. Sarah tells me that, for a good amount of music videos, Kyuhyun was relegated to the back, because he kept messing up the dances haha. 

But man, he did SO WELL with the tap dancing! Singin in the Rain is just a great, fun show. I don't know how anyone can listen to/watch "Good Morning" without having a big grin on their face. The whole cast was impressive (Sunny was adorable, and the actress who played Lina was HILARIOUS), and of course, Kyuhyun was dapper and a pretty darn good tap dancer. Apparently, he really loves this show, and I thought he did a great job!

I was totally impressed. If I was richer and more obsessed, I might have sprung for the really expensive seats, where you can sit in the front and get water splashed on you. Buuuut that's a lot to pay for a show where I know what's happening, but don't understand the words. Regardless, it was a really great way to spend the 4th. Super fun and entertaining. Even if it was super Korean with all the awkward, 'romantic' hugs... AMP UP THE ROMANCE PLEASE!

We had to try like 7 times to get a good selfie.
We are not yet selca masters like the Koreans.

On saturday, I met up with Lauren, Janell and Sarah, and we headed to brunch at a place Lauren has been raving about. It did not disappoint. 

It's right across from the SBS building,
which is a TV broadcaster that generally has
excellent kdramas  like The Master's Sun  and
My Love From Another Star.

French toast platter and apple cinnamon pancakes
with bananas. 

Oreo waffle

4 of us shared 3 good sized dishes
and it was SCRUMPTIOUS. 

I will definitely be going back

We devoured the food and grabbed some coffee. Janell had to leave because she had 2 papers to write, and Sarah had a date with her BF, so Lauren and I headed back to Hongdae to shop for a few necessities. Afterwords, I headed home in what can only be described as the most incredible bus ride of my life. Why?

Because I got on the bus to see this:

An empty bus in Seoul is like finding
a unicorn. It can only be described as
a magical experience. 

My Sunday was spent as it usually is, relaxing, cleaning, working out, and watching TV. I got to chat with Cesca for a bit (she will be here in approximately 1 month YAYAY!!!) and so I'm super excited for that. There are so many places to see and things to do. Can't wait!!!

In other news, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!! Love you and miss you! Sometime when I'm back in the states, we will go to Denny's at midnight for some cheese fries, just like old times. 

Love love love you!

For your viewing, here's a video someone took of Kyuhyun in Singin' in the Rain a few weeks ago. Just in case you're curious about what it sounds like in Korean. Plus you can see Kyuhyun being adorable.

This is "You were meant for me" and I'm excited cause it's slow, so I can catch a few words, like the end where he sings "my angel"