Deskwarming, Drama Club and Dance Parties

This week was a rather slow and boring week in the beginning. My school had a vacation, but since I would have had to use vacation days to get the days off, I just went to school and spent the whole day mostly alone.

Being in school by yourself is creepy. Luckily, Seon Kyeong was there Monday, so we had lunch together and she kept me company for a bit, when she didn't have to be down in the main office.

Uh, getting some mixed signals here, Hongdae

Tuesday and Wednesday continued the same, with me being alone in the office for 90% of the day and relaxing/studying/napping/prepping. 

Then I'd go to my Korean class at night. The weather has cooled down A LOT, and it's unfortunately getting dark early. Boo.

Makes for a pretty sky, though

Sooneung watches. They countdown to D-Day,
the day of the big, life determining high school
test. It's in just a few weeks, since it's November
now. I'm sure they're terrified.

The good news it that I got to break out some
scarves. Cesca and I found these for cheap.
Cat scarves ftw!

Thursday and Friday proved to be much more stressful. I love having the office to myself, and would have rather done that for 5 days straight. But no. Tomorrow (Nov 2nd), the English Drama Festival is finally happening and so my handler wanted the kids to have extra rehearsals Thurs and Friday. It's pretty boring for me, because all I do is play the sound clips and interject intermittently. The kids are cute and like to play around, but some of them are brats or are really annoyingly inattentive. It's like herding cats sometimes. 

I had some good moments with the students, because a few of them are super sweet. One of them told me I was the most beautiful foreigner they'd ever seen, and they always like to play with my rings and ask me questions about if I like Korean food or music or things like that. One of them asked me if I had a boyfriend and was very coy when I joked, "why, do you?" She then informed me that she's had one for over a year. OKAAAAY 4th grader. Way to show me up. So it wasn't all doom and gloom. The break times are fun. It's just, you know, the play that makes the drama...

We practiced a lot and had so many mishaps. For all the weeks we've been practicing, my kids have short attention spans and are easily distracted. This means missed cues, botched entrances and other general mess ups. While it is annoying, the pressure was higher since we had limited rehearsal time, and a bunch of tension just snapped. My handler is more of a tough love teacher than I am, and ended up telling them that she regrets picking 4th grade for the drama program, because 6th graders would have worked harder and wouldn't have fought or squabbled like babies. 

She also likes to pray with them, which she always prefaces with "Christina doesn't like when we do this, but we're going to pray together" just to let them know that I am a godless heathen. Wamp. I don't mind praying, but I really just don't think we should be praying in a public school, especially when a good portion of the students are not Christian. But it does make it awkward for me when she says things like that. At least my tail is covered if the parents complain, as she always announces that I'm not involved in the decision.  Life lesson kids, if a teacher asks you 'Are you gonna tell your parents if we do this?' then the teacher maaaaybe shouldn't be doing that. Alas, I don't have a say, and because it all happens in Korean, I sometimes don't catch on until it's too late. Sigh. 

Friday resulted in tears from no less than 3 students, and a trip to the hospital for another one (nothing serious, she just had indigestion and was dramatically in pain). Dear god, I can't wait for it to be over.  

The hospital trip and relatively good practices meant rehearsal ended early, so I got to hang in the office in relative peace for the last few hours, completing some last minute modifications for some costumes for the drama club.

After school, I headed over to the dance studio to meet up with my class and help decorate for the halloween party they were having. It was a blast, and just what I needed after the disastrous day that was drama club rehearsal day.

Shannon and Grace getting their skeleton
on

We are such hard workers

We got to perform Bang Bang Bang for everyone, which was fun. There was a showcase for our teachers and a dance battle, plus games, activities and fun! It was a great night!

the Wacking teachers. I still don't know how to
explain what that is.

Our teacher Soo Yeon

Here are some more pictures!

everyone loved our waygookin (foreigner) hats

Grace's boyfriend laughed
so hard he cried when I first showed
him my hat. So he had to take a pic

Party crew pre party briefing

Shannon, Grace and I were in charge
of making drink bags, which we obviously
did a great job with cause we're so precise
and they came out uniformly.

Making ghost faces

Getting ready to perform

Cesca had Korean class till 9 so she missed all the fun (and work) of decorating, but she made it for the important stuff. We all partied the night away and had a great time. 

We got home late at night.... Or early in the morning I guess, so Saturday was spent relaxing, especially since I had started feeling ill Friday at school. I blame drama club. We caught up on some stupid reality TV, and then went shopping. Some of our friends already had Halloween plans, and since the only real Halloween plans here involve drinking at bars, which requires travelling on public transportation with a costume on, we kind of just passed on it this year. I miss house parties and living close to my friends so we can get together easily. So, Ces and I just spent it together by going gift shopping ( for our co workers) and then grocery shopping at Emart haha. We're so classy. I started feeling ill again, so we went to her apartment, since it's much warmer than mine. I already need all my blankets and a sweater to sleep, but i'm trying to resist getting my electric blanket out too early. I wanted to last till November, so I guess it's A-Ok for me to get it out tonight!

Sunday morning brought a massive headache, chills and a sore throat. Damn kids and or people who don't cover their mouths when they cough. Feeling pretty shitty, I layed around Cesca's apartment, watched TV with her and then proceeded to sleep while she went to dance class. I wasn't super interested in the dance this week, and since I have to spend all day tomorrow with the drama club, I'm trying to prevent myself from getting more ill. Might mean a nyquil kind of night tonight. 

So, all in all, it was a low key weekend, for the most part. Besides the dance party. It was weird not doing anything big for Halloween, but with the weather, stress and illness, I think it was for the best. Hopefully I can stop this cold from getting too much worse. SEND ME GOOD VIBES, I need them for drama club tomorrow. 

Stay warm, everyone!

~~



My kids are obsessed with this song and they ask me to play it during drama club breaks all the time, so it's stuck in my head. I like Apink, but I am always a little confused when they do an upbeat song that has kind of sad lyrics and a video where they're playing around and having fun while talking about, I assume, a breakup or a fight. Maybe I missed something, but my kids love this song. It's pretty catchy. This is Apink's Remember.