Unexpected 4 day weekend

The beginning of the week started out quite normal.

we hung up some 4th grade artwork

inspiration

Indian lunch theme, spinach curry, naan, chicken

It was around lunch time that something was amiss. My friends across town had mentioned MERS school closings, and even Cesca's area was considering the threat. But my area didn't have a peep. Until lunch time, when an announcement surprised us all. The students would be staying home Thursday and Friday. The kids processed this faster, apparently, because the mighty roar of joy that overtook the school was deafening. 

Later, it was decided that the teachers also didn't have to report. This entire decision was due not to the actual threat of MERS, however. The school had met and decided that we should stay open, but the parents also had a meeting and voted we close. And thus, my 4 day weekend was born. With that in mind, the office was blah about working, so my office mates found a new app to play with. You type in your name and it told you how god made you. 

Mine says a spoonful of intelligence,
2 spoons of beautiful and because I was too
perfect, he had to make it all in a small
package. ACCURATE

Cesca's involved him thinking of what to put.
He was gonna add a little of what the office told
me was something like nerdiness or potential
to be maniacally obsessed with stuff, and it spilled
out.

I bought this before Korean class Thursday
because I didn't do much else that day

SO CUTE

Cesca loooves her banana milk

We got defended on a TV show I was watching,
called "Hello Counselor"

Cesca got released from her school with no students duties on Friday, so we met up to go shopping for a bit in Edae. 

Then we saw Jurassic World, which was good. It was a terrible, silly plot, but the lines were witty, it made fun of itself and poked fun at the problems (unrealistic dinosaurs, her running in heels, etc) that people would have with the movie. Plus, it was suspenseful enough for me and I was freaking out in the theater. Some of it was really scary!!!

Plus, what do you expect from a movie about dinosaurs and a park that would NEVER be allowed to open!?

On Saturday, Cesca and I ventured out to the Olympic Park Rose Garden. 

There were so many roses!!! It was hot and we were like, the only foreigners there (no surprise...), but it was great to spend time looking at all of them. 

And there weren't too many bees, since there had been a storm the night before (hence some of the worse for wear roses), which was honestly my main concern. No bees means happy me!

So pretty! it was exciting

This one is called Racy Lady. 

Knock out

Selfie ception

It was hazy but bright. We hid it well, right?

heaaaart!

Turns out these are wind chimes!

A poem about roses in the roses

This poem talks about red roses, but was
seriously misplaced

Tried to catch her heel click. I missed.

On Sunday, we went to see Giselle. 

We had to skip our dance class to go see it, but we've had these tickets since around March, and were excited to see it. 

Speaking of dance class, our music video of Miss A's Only You (다른 남자 말고 너) is up on Youtube! It turned out pretty well, for us being English teachers and having only a few practices together, haha. You can watch it here:

Back to the ballet

Now, we thought it was just a newer, re choreographed version, because the Australian choreographer was famous for re interpreting classics. He decided to make this the premiere of his new Giselle, which utilized traditional Korean instruments in the music. 

We got more than we were expecting haha.

Turns out reinterpretation means changing just about everything about the story, choreography, and score. It was Giselle in the basic sense only. Some of the changes (like most of act 2) made a lot of sense, but some changes, like having Giselle be strong and self aware, only to still die of a broken heart, didn't so much. There was also a mystical element that was unnecessary, because ghosts of girls who were betrayed or died before their wedding days that dance men to death is mystical enough. 

The changes to the Willis and act 2 were really great. Act 1 didn't need so much tampering. And I still wish the music was the same. 

Costumes from Sleeping Beauty

Sarah and I saw Giselle 1 year ago too! But that
was the classic version

Cesca showing you how we felt about the changes
in the first act

Again, it was interesting, but I prefer the classic version, score, choreography and design wise. The story of this new one worked well enough and was basic enough (lies, betrayal, heartbreak, revenge) that it could have been named something else, or been an interpretation of a different story, and it would have worked fine. I think using the classic's name kinda of made it easier to get attention, though I understand the need to update and change for ballet to remain current. 

Anyway, after the ballet, we headed over to Gangnam for dinner and cupcakes, since we were out that way anyway.

I had a busy night sunday. Once I got back from cupcakes and the ballet, Young Ah had invited me to meet a friend of hers at his bar in Hongdae. He was pretty cool and we had fun, plus I got to practice my Korean. Young Ah was really impressed, since she didn't know that I could keep up any type of conversation in Korean for like, over an hour. I know she was this impressed because she told me at the end haha. It was super exciting to be praised like that, and it was nice to meet one of her Korean friends that's not a teacher.

That's why my blog is a little late this week! Sorry!


School is back in session and MERS is still really only spreading in hospitals (which I'm avoiding) and through family/friends of the infected. So far, still not a concern, but if it becomes one, I have hand santizer and masks at the ready.

Stay cool, monsoon season is almost here!

~~

On my repeat playlist this week is BigBang's other song of the month, a more boyband-y, fun, adorable song called We Like 2 Party



The video is just fun and them having a good time together. I love it so much.