Semester Winding Down/Spending Time with Great People

As I'm writing this, a group of cats are YOWLING and HOWLING outside of my window. It sounds like something is dying. It must be mating season or something, but MY GOD are they LOUD. It's especially annoying when they do this at 3 am... Ah the struggles of city life, eh?

The end of the semester is always an interesting time here, because it's both easy and difficult at the same time. It's easy because classes are winding down, which means review lessons, role plays and speaking tests. It's difficult because speaking tests are the devil. I have five or six classes of each grade with about 25 students a class. I have to test them individually on their speaking abilities, which means I print out a bunch of pictures and ask them questions about the key phases we've learned. 

Imagine doing it for a week. I have to ask the same 10 or so questions each class to each student, and then give a grade. I'm pretty lenient with my grades, since they're kids, but man is it mind numbing. It also means I have little to prep for the week, besides test questions and filler lessons, which is kind of boring. 

Now, I'm not complaining, but I'm just saying, speaking test wear me out. But, I've already done 4th grade and part of 3rd, so I've got 5th, sixth and half of 3rd to go this week. Then it's a few filler lessons till a 10 day summer camp, and then FREEDOOOOOOM. 

Ronnie is coming to visit us here in Seoul and I'M SO EXCITED!!!

So that's the school stuff this week. Here are some pictures of my lovely life here. 

We had some 4th grade role plays to do this week, and some of my students got SUPER into the costumes. It was awesome.

His story was, you guessed it, Little Red Riding Hood

so cute

scary faces haha

On Tuesday, we didn't have Korean class because there was an extra Tuesday in the month, so instead, our class got together for a class dinner, because we have such fun together.

We have a nice mix in our class. Renny is from the UK, Thomas is
from Switzerland, Lauren is from FL and I'm from NY, which
are pretty different, USA wise.

Attempting Korean aegyo (cute gestures)

Our teacher and our two Japanese friends, Takashi and Tagaki

It was a fun night and we practiced lots of Korean. Really,
I promse!

Apparently making wishes is a Japanese thing, so we did it

I really love my class, so it was nice to spend lots of time with them!

Wednesday returned to normal, with one of my favorite lunches. My lunch lady is KILLING it this year. I'm surprised I haven't gained weight.

Quail eggs soaked in soy sauce and mandu soup. HEAVEN.
And delicious blueberries~~

On Thursday, I signed my life away for another year.
Looking forward to it, and also the future beyond!

On Friday, we met up with Sarah and another friend, Priscilla, to catch up, since it was Priscilla's birthday this week and we haven't seen each other in a while. We feasted on ddeokbokki and fried deliciousness, topped with boiled eggs. 

We were stuffed, but saved room for dessert at SulBing, a Korean dessert cafe that serves Bingsu, a traditional Korean dessert that usually consists of ice flakes, rickecakes and red bean, but has evolved to now feature whipped cream, fro yo and exotic flavors of deliciousness.

We limited ourselves to 2, but this place is so popular and widespread I may be tempted to stop in more often. I know Cesca is down for it.

Mango with whipped cream and cheesecake

Real Chocolate (not sure why they
specify the real part...?)

Both were deliciouuuus. 

Happy I got to spend time with Priscilla before she leaves in August

On Saturday, I didn't have plans for the morning, so I spent a lot of it reorganizing my apartment. I clean it almost every week, but the closet and my tables had kind of fallen into disarray. I was up early on Thursday morning (I had to be at school early for drama club practice... wamp) and I was surfing gmarket when I came across some home living organizer items, and kind of impulse bought a bunch. Korean delivery service is awesome, so by Friday evening they were at my door. 

So I spent Saturday reorganizing some drawers and cabinets and trying to make my living space less cluttered, which means a bunch of things are now just in baskets instead of piles, but it feels better, so I'm happy. But I'm also tempted to buy a bunch more organizer things... Hey, I'm gonna be here for another year, I should keep it better organized, right??

In the evening, we got all dolled up to go out to Gangnam for Janell's birthday. One lost reservation later, we were happily seated in the restaurant with minimal issues. It was fun to see some friends I haven't seen in a while, and to meet some more of Janell's friends, who were nice and fun. I even met her trainer, who I'm super impressed by. I'm also impressed Janell actually goes to a trainer, she's that dedicated haha. 

we had an awesome time!

Part of Janell's birthday included clubbing in Gangnam, which I've never done. We even secured a VIP table, so that was a nice experience. 

I'm not really one for clubbing, since the real party doesn't get started till well past my bedtime (give me a break, I wake up at six am and teach small children), and I don't really like aimlessly walking around getting bumped by drunk people looking for places to kind of dance and get bumped by more drunk people, or having to shout to be heard, but this club turned out pretty cool, because it had lots of different zones. It even had a pool! 

The main room was packed

So, since EDM isn't really my style (Mom and Dad, that means electronic dance music and they usually play it at clubs and you kind of just bounce to it), we ended up dancing in the hip hop room, which had more recognizable music. It was fun to dance with my friends and I actually ended up having a really good time, despite my general disposition of not liking rooms packed full of people. Maybe riding crazy crowded buses is helping that haha.

In true How I Met Your Mother fashion, Ces and I left shortly after 2am (nothing good happens after 2 am) because the smoke was starting to bother our eyes (there aren't any smoking rules in clubs, so you can light up whenever and wherever). Seriously, if felt like someone was chopping onions in the room. Regardless, we had an awesome time, and I wouldn't mind going every so often. I can't believe people make it an all the time thing, but to each their own! Happy Birthday Janell!

We headed to my place and slept like rocks. We got up and were in pretty good shape, so we bummed around a bit in lazy Sunday fashion and then headed out to get food, where we were stopped by a little old Korean grandma at the crosswalk. She asked us if we could understand Korean, and we said a little. I thought she was gonna ask for directions or something, but she just turned to us and said "You two are just so pretty. I wanted to tell you." to which we responded with bashful giggles and thank yous. It was soooo cute!!! Totally made my day.

After some lunch and hanging out, we headed to dance class, where we were not very good at but had fun with Taeyang's Ringa Linga, a song I really like. 

I'm just not that good at this style of dancing haha. I doubt I'll fare much better with next week's, but I just keep telling myself it's good exercise, and I CAN actually do some other dances pretty well, like Miss A and BigBang's Bang Bang Bang. 

I got home and ate some dinner, caught up on my drama and then sat down to write this blog for you lovely readers. I've got a week of normal Korean classes and speaking tests ahead of me, with another good weekend to follow! Can't wait~~

Also quick shoutout to my Daddy-o! His birthday is tomorrow!! Love you daddy!!!

~~~

BigBang had another part of their comeback released, and I like every song better than the last. I'm 99.7 % sure Cesca is gonna post Sober, so I'll post this one, cause I've been listening to it nonstop. 

If You is a slow and mournful song, but it's so peaceful and calming too, even though it's so sad. 

I don't know how they do it every time...