Drama club is over!!!

I don't know if it's the cold, rainy weather this weekend, or exhaustion from my cough keeping me up late at night and waking me up early, or what, but this week was pretty crazy overall. 

Despite sleeping most of last sunday and skipping dance class, I still woke up feeling pretty gross and crappy Monday, which was pretty unfortunate, because I had a looooong day ahead of me.

we started with a walk to the district office and
theater

woooo festival

Between rehearsal in the morning, walking to the place, tech rehearsal, lunch time, practice, stage makeup time and then the show (which started at 2 and ended past 5) I was exhausted. 

getting ready to go on

I know I used to flinch when people did stage makeup on me, but damn is it hard to do it on little kids. It was their first time getting makeup put on them, for most, so it was a little difficult. My handler informed me that many of them were super excited about it and gave great feedback about the makeup, though, so I must have done an ok job.

We didn't have may mishaps (especially since after our group, the sound stopped working. yikes). I'm proud because my kids were 4th graders, and most schools used 6th grade. There were also a lot of repeat songs my school avoided, like High School Musical's We're all in this together and Bruno Mars' Marry You. 

Receiving our participation award. We were in the 2nd tier,
meaning we weren't the worst!! Yess!!

After we gathered the kids up and cleaned up our area (some of the moms brought me coffee, bless their hearts), we headed out. Of course, even though I was exhausted and feeling crappy, we also happened to have a staff dinner that night. 

So,while may handler went back to school with the kids who had no guests come to the show, I headed out to dinner. We ate gamjatang. Gamja means potato but in this case it means some part of the pig that we are eating. like the spine and ribs or something. It's delicious, but a lot of work, haha, since you have to work all the meat off the bones.

I, sadly, couldn't sit with the subject teachers, since I came late to dinner, but Young Ah came over and made sure I got a fresh portion, and she helped me cook it. I was feeling crappy about not getting to sit with people I know, but then some of the subject teachers announced they were going to a noraebang and Seon Kyeong made sure to invite me. Young Ah told me I could get out of it if I wanted, but I decided to go with them and had a great time. I sang a few English songs, and then impressed them with my knowledge of some Korean songs as well. It was awesome and they were so enthusiastic and energetic that I couldn't help but enjoy myself.

Young Ah had had to leave early for a drum class, but she made sure to call me and make sure I got home ok and was feeling alright. She's so sweet!

She went to Japan over last week's vacation, so she also brought me a gift!

So cute!!

The rest of the week flew by. One of my coworkers is moving to America next year, so I gave her a book that talks about some cultural differences between the US and Korea. She was so touched and we all had a good laugh talking about some difference. Seon Kyeong was aghast when I told them that when you handshake in the US, you should make eye contact. "But... very very rude!!!" she exclaimed. It was fun to finally be the knowledgeable party and to be like 'yeah well, now you see why things don't always make sense to me!'

The teacher was so touched that she told me she hopes I find a man as nice as myself to marry someday, because I deserve it. Aaaaw. 

Other than that, I don't know what was in the water, but my 3rd graders were crazy Friday, and even my best class was just not attentive. I haven't been sleeping well because of my cough, and I was just exhausted. I met up with Cesca for dinner Friday and, like the rest of the week, basically came home and went to bed early, knowing my cough would keep me awake longer than I wanted 

On Saturday, I spent the rainy day with Cesca. I usually like rainy days, when I am not sick, because i like to cuddle in bed. But, when you've been trying to sleep off a cough and cold, another day in bed is boring. Not only are rainy days sometimes boring because you can't do anything outside, but in Seoul they're a little dangerous. Umbrellas, more traffic and of course, polluted rain make for a not fun experience, so we stayed mostly inside. 

We stopped by Mcdonald's for lunch, and I had a pleasant surprise. They have caramel macchiatos! They're less than $3, which is waaaay cheaper than most coffee shops here. And the taste was decent. SO happy.

it was goood

Sadly, they're no available via mcdelivery. Sigh... first world problems!

We went through Cesca's closet to sort out spring/summer and fall/winter clothes and I discovered something crazy!

HOW DO WE HAVE THE SAME SWEATER?!!?

Haha just kidding, we both were online shopping together and liked it, so we both bought it. Usually, only one of us buys it, but we both really liked this one. It's so cute and cozy!

We were feeling cooped up, and we decided to try the Italian place outside of Cesca's apartment, which we have been intending to try for aaaages. The prices were surprisingly not crazy, which is what we were expecting from a mokdong area restaurant. We ordered pane and pomodoro, and they surprised us by telling us we also got a free gorgonzola pizza. 

mmm

Then they surprised us with tea and tiny tiramisu! I was impressed with their service! We're probably lucky we didn't try this sooner, cause we might be here all the time.

Tiny fork!

It's so cute

these are so cute!

SO YUMMY AHAHA

me too me too!

yuuuuum

It was a great night, even though I couldn't stop hacking it up on the bus. I felt fine for most of the day, but the second I got on he bus it was like I could not keep it in. Ugh. So annoying. Cough drops only go so far. Sigh. I hope it goes away soon.

I was pretty annoyed about dance class this week. Usually, we know what dance we're doing because she tells us during the week or they announce it on Facebook. We've been requesting some dances for a bit, but even Sunday morning, we had no idea what we were doing. 

We showed up and found out we were doing Teen Top. I was pretty mad, actually. It wasn't even a new song. It's a song from 2013 that wasn't suuuper famous (they're not the most popular group). It was ANOTHER boy song. We've been doing boy songs for weeeeeks, and old ones at that, so I was kind of hoping for a girl group. If it had to be a boy group, why something so old and not popular or current? Teen Top is also quirky and crazy, so their dances are hard. I was just so over the whole thing that I tried, but not too hard. It just felt like at the end, we hadn't accomplished anything for how hard it was. The moves were too awkward and unfamiliar. I don't mind doing hard dances, but I like to feel like I accomplished learning something, and I'm not proud or happy at all with what we did. 

I know our teacher is probably busy with things, but I still felt a little frustrated that we weren't doing anything we asked for, and we hadn't been told what we were doing, just for getting ready. I like to at least hear the song before we do it, so I can place the moves with a beat.... So overall, it was quite frustrating and more than a bit disappointing, because dance class is usually a highlight for me. I hope next week can pick it up. 

Heading home in the drizzle, I stopped at the convenience store for a candy bar, when I came across this:

An adorable, mini size ramyun (this one is
jajangmyeon flavor- black bean noodles)
I like this size better, I usually can't eat a full
size one.

Here's to hoping the rain cleared away some of the pollution and that next week is less exhausting than this week. Drama club is over, so I'm guessing that might be the case. 

Here's to hoping this cough finally goes away this week! Stay warm, stay dry!

~~

At first, I didn't like the new Lovelyz song, Ah Choo, but I heard it around a couple of times and I definitely fell for it. What has Korea turned me into??? I like a song about sneezing!! The song is about how your first love is like a sneeze. You just can't hold it in. The dancing is super cute and in sync, and I think the song is adorable and catchy.

This is a ballad from Taeyeon (from girls generation) called "If" and it's beautiful. I knew the song when one of the teachers sang it at the noraebang, and they were so impressed that I knew it (the song is slow so I can actually read the lyrics as they come up, which helps). 

It's a beautiful, sad song about being an idiot and not approaching someone you like because you're afraid of what would happen. If I approached you, what would you say? If you were to leave, what would I do?  So, like a fool I couldn't say I love you...