Like Ooh Ahh Ooh Ahh Things are Getting Better~

FIRST THINGS FIRST. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMMAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

I'm so busy lately the days just fly by and suddenly the weekend has come and gone. I got home around 11 last night thanks to dance practice and our subsequent ice cream session, hence another delayed blog. I'm sure this will be the pattern for the next few weeks.

I'm pretty beat, so this is going to be an abridged blog today. It's warm outside, my kids are getting end of the year stir crazy but are still being pretty good, and I'm studying hard in my korean classes. 

My kids made me a dream catcher!!

school pics came in

Cute card from Liz

Thanks buddy!

oops I dressed the same as my students.
Sweater and skirt leggings haha

Young Ah had a bad practice for her traditional instrument playing last week, and since she has eyes  of a hawk, she noticed my eyes were puffy on Monday and asked what was wrong. She patiently listened as I explained the problems from last Sunday, and since she knew I felt bad, wanted to take me for some 'soul food' at this chinese food place near our school. 

fried shrimp sandwich

After a delicious dinner, I headed over to the studio for practice. After our disaster Sunday and vaguely wanting to still quit Monday, we decided to try and get really good, so that meant working on the dance a lot this week.

 In my opinion, we didn't do THAT bad Sunday, so we worked hard and looked pretty good.After cleaning up the dance, we talked to our teacher for a while about everything from our anger about Sunday to our costumes. The studio owner is now kind of covering her tracks by making up arbitrary rules about not repeating songs (which is why we couldn't learn our dance twice and could learn a 6 year old song the boys conveniently needed to work on...) and other annoyances, but that's life.

Grace, our resident translator (since her parents are Korean and she knows it well) also explained that we can't help but misunderstand sometimes because of the language and cultural barrier. Our teacher tried to help us out and comfort us, telling us she felt super bad about Sunday's incidents too. I'm still not thrilled with a lot of things that happened, but I'm into "gotta impress everyone and prove them wrong" mode.

After figuring out some things, we headed home, but I texted my teacher to tell her thank you for kindly listening to our concerns, because we know she is on our side, even though there's not a ton she can do because of Korean hierarchy. 

That's me texting in Korean like a beast. 

It was already Thursday- the weeks fly by when you're running off to some class or practice every night. 

Some days, lunch sucks

Cute candy from Seon Kyeong.

On Friday, I met up with Cesca's co workers and some friends for a delicious dinner...

... then we all went and met Young Ah to see Les Mis!!! I booked tickets so long ago that it snuck up on me that we were going.

It was soooo good, but Les Mis is one of those musicals that reaaally feels it's length, especially when you know it well and are waiting for your favorite songs. Lion King is also a smidge too long for me. Phantom is perfect. Anyway. 

Now that I know some Korean, the poetry is a little bit lost. Two Four Six Oh Oooooone sounds much more powerful than Ee Sa Yook Kong Ill... Don't you fret, Monsieur Marius more pathetic and sad than It's/I'm Okay, Monsieur Marius.

Overall, it was a great show, but it always reminds me why I like Phantom a lot. It was fun to see it with some Koreans, especially since most of them had only seen the movie version. 

On Saturday, Ces and I met Lauren for lunch to catch up and then we headed back over to our side of town for a concert. One of the guys we know hooked us up with some awesome tickets (the concert was free but you had to wait in line for tickets in the morning if you got them normally).

Nobody understands what the hell this new
slogan is

We saw some rookie groups 

Romeo was the only one I really liked

And some groups I like that don't perform often

Melody Day often does OSTs

The highlights were BTS, a super, EXO-level popular group lately...

OUR SEATS WERE SOOOO GOOD

The best was Beast, of course. Ces was super excited to see them. 

My favorite dude is a weirdo

We didn't want to part ways yet, so we went for snacks and hot chocolate after the concert. 

Shannon and Cesca enjoying Honey Bread and
their drinks

We literally spent ALL DAY at the studio, which is why I am soooo tired. We got there around 12:40 to get ready before practice, and were there till about 9 or so, with only a short break for some food. We're doing better, but I'm already exhausted. Only 2 weeks till the show, and I'm super excited that it'll be over haha. 

After rehearsal ended (we didn't get reamed this time, bonus!) Ces and I went with Grace and her boyfriend to try this new "Mozzarella in the Burger" burger at Lotteria. It's a hash brown patty, a meat patty then a mozzarella cheese patty all stacked up on the bun.

We really enjoyed it, but we also had to split it. I can't imagine eating one by myself.

Enjoying it... too much? Look at that cheese stretch!

I like the name haha

I had to wait for the bus on my way home, so I go to see Sinchon's "Brilliant Christmas" decorations. 

so pretty!

It looks to be another exhausting and dance practice filled week. My sore body doesn't want to think about it, but at least we are back to having a little bit of fun. It's hard to deal with cultural differences, but that is what I signed on for, I guess. Just gonna try and enjoy it more and not take it to heart, since we are working hard and look pretty good! Can't wait to show it later!

~~

My hagwon teacher recommended this song to me a while ago, and it took me a few listens to get into it, but new girl group TWICE kills it with "Ooh Ahh" 

It's so good it makes zombies dance!