Cinderella and Seoraksan

What an eventful week. 

I had an easy teaching week, because my 6th graders and 5th graders were on various trips, so I basically had 7 classes for the whole week, since we also had Friday off to celebrate Hangul Day. That's the Korean alphabet. King Sejong and all that. Cool stuff. 

Highlights from school include:

Young Ah and I don't know why
we are crawling towards poop haha. Look
at how much bigger my eyes are!

I cannot for the life of me eat this soup. Crab
is hard to eat with chopsticks.

On Tuesday, I skipped Korean class in favor of, what else, a musical. We wanted to see Yang Yoseob from Beast perform as the prince in Cinderella, and so we had to time the day well. Thanks to some discount scouring on the Korean site, I found an amazing deal- S tickets 1+1 for 50,000 won. That may mean nothing to you. Let me explain. That's 2 S seats for 50,000, where normally 1 S seat costs 80,000. We got 4 tickets for 100,000. That's crazy.  Ces and I met up with Janell and Grace to see the show.

The area around the theater inexplicably does not have a ton of food, but we mannaged to find some delicious bossam.

Bossam is boiled, thinly sliced pork belly that you wrap
with other things

YUMMY. Enjoying the food!

wow there, this is a family establishment

We headed over to the theater. It wasn't crowded at all, and of course we got the usual "omg foreigners" stares. Grace is constantly surprised by the attention Cesca and I get. 

Our lovely cast 

I think the fact that the cast was mostly idols or pop singers did not entice many people to come, which is sad, cause the show was gorgeous and amazing and wonderful.

Excited to see Yoseob

He was adorable!! 

the set was awesome

Loved it

yay

We got home late but I was too excited about the show to sleep. The costumes, sets and score were amazing, and the actors had great energy. I was not disappointed at all and I wish I could go again! I looooove this version of Cinderella. When I got my wisdom teeth out, I rewatched the 90s Brandi version and listened to "10 minutes ago" on repeat for ages. 

Thankfully, I only had drama club and my afternoon classes Wednesday, so I could take it easy. I did my hair up and my kids thought I cut my hair. So silly. 

You should have seen the look on my kids faces,
even though I do my hair like this relatively often

It's simple and looks elegant, like a princess,
as my co workers said. d'aaaw

I had no classes Thursday, so after lesson planning and studying Italian and Korean, I took a break. During my break, it was snack time! I love snacks. What would I find?

Oh look, it's a hot... dog... bun...

With cream inside...?
It was pretty good.

Thanks to Hangul Day, Cesca and I decided to try for the top of Seoraksan again, since it was raining on our last trip and we could not get to the top. 

The day started out super early, and went from bad to worse really fast. Our 2 hour bus ride went on and on. 

3 hours in and we stopped at a rest stop. Only halfway there,
Cesca and I worried about even getting to Seoraksan

Finally some mountains in view

After 5 hours on the bus, we had to take a taxi ride to Seoraksan, where we got caught in traffic again. Our taxi driver told us it would be a half an hour to walk, but the weather was nice so we decided to not waste that time or money in the taxi. 

We got to the park...

gorgeous!

But we saw a disheartening message... the cable car was closed because of high winds. Operations suspended. IE, we spent 5 hour on a bus, 30 min in a taxi and 30 min walking, only to find out that we could not accomplish the thing we had set out to do. 

We didn't break down and cry, even though we wanted to. Deciding we should rest for a bit, grab some food and shake off the disappointment, we looked around for food, taking some pictures along the way, before deciding to just get food at the cable car building, because it was cheaper. We also wanted to charge our dying phones. 

we decided to just enjoy the nice, non Seoul air,
and the beautiful fall weather, instead of being upset

at the old cable car model, we took "disappointment pictures" 

Then we made jokes about how we came all the way to Seoraksan to try the food.

mm so different from Seoul ddeokbokki

While we were eating, we heard some of the staff discussing the wind, the cable car, and heard some people saying "get ready" and "you're going up" before some staff members frantically gathered their things and ran upstairs.

I went to one of the managers and asked if the cable car was going up, and he said yes and told me to hurry and buy tickets. We got to go up immediately.

we couldn't believe it

disbelief

not gonna question it, thanks universe!

My god the weather was gorgeous.

The views were magical.

The photos were epic.

Time to finish our mission

it was a harrowing and windy journey

we did it!

It was cold being up that high, and we were honestly a bit terrified by the windiness, so we headed back down after taking in the view and relishing in how strangely awesome our seemingly horrible trip turned out.

We got ice cream to celebrate

After waiting foreverrr for a taxi (long story short, we gave up one to a family with a grandma and had to wait another half hour. Then someone tried to steal ours and this awesome KOrean family was like NO IT'S THEIRS and the taxi driver was like FOREIGNERS I'M HERE FOR YOU. We got back down to Sokcho, the city near Seoraksan, and headed to a cafe to recharge while we waited for our bus. The drinks were cheaper than Seoul, and much cuter!

In true roller coaster emotion fashion, our bus back to Seoul was late, and the arrival time was expected to be like 11pm. So we had another 4 hours to look forward to on the bus, which prompted us to make these faces.

We tried to amuse ourselves on the admittedly super comfortable bus

haha STD.

Despite some back to Seoul traffic, our driver managed to take just over 3 hours to get back to Seoul, much to our overwhelming joy. 

Exhausted and hungry, we stopped at McDonald's on the way home to discover this devilry. 

automated ordering screens, which were kind of
cool but also awk and annoying. And terribly placed.

 After our whirlwind day, we finally got home, thanked our lucky stars for the strange coincidental luck we had today, and went to bed. 

I normally could sleep in on Saturday, but I volunteered to do some overtime this weekend. I had to help supervise a group at a mini C-40 environmental conference at the Seoul Energy Dream Center near my school.

We just had to help the kids do a project about how the area here called Nambit city, is a model for turning a landfill into an energy producing area. The area features great energy conservation and things, so the kids had to study one of 40 cities (c-40) and compare the cities and talk about what the cities could learn from this area. It wasn't the most interesting day, but it was nice to talk to students who can understand me better.

The result of my group working hard.  Chaos
on the desk.  They got 3rd place!

I was again exhausted, so I got dinner with Lauren (who also had volunteered to work) and Cesca. We hung out for a bit before turning in. It had been a long day and long weekend, and it wasn't over yet. 

On Sunday, Cesca and I slept in a bit and then worked on cleaning up my apartment, which had become quite messy after the early mornings and late nights the weekend had produced. Hiking clothes, backpacks, etc had been haphazardly cast around the room, but we managed to make it livable again. 

We headed out to dance class, where we tackled the insanely difficult refrain of "I Need U" by BTS. We knew it would be crazy hard, but it was fun and I felt like we kiiiind of got it, even though I don't think I'm suited to this style much haha.

On the way home, I saw the remnants of a rainbow!

Quite the week I've had here. Fall weather is finally here, I've got another musical under my belt, and Ces and I accomplished something we've been itching to do for ages. Talk about a good time. 

~~

In a Cinderella mood, I also found some audio from the show, if you want to hear how Rodgers and Hammerstein sounds in Korean!

Singer Younha singing In My Own Little Corner



Yoseob and Younha singing Ten Minutes Ago, though in Korean they sing something more like "The first moment I saw you" ( 처음 그대를 본 순간)



Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?

Kids These Days...

It was a short, semi boring week for me. I spent the first 2 days of the week lounging around because of Chuseok, 

Monday's focus

Tuesday's focus siiigh

saw a car accident while I was at the coffee shop.
Not sure how, but that bus tried to move lanes
WAY too early, since the taxi was just chilling
at the taxi stand... 

With Chuseok over,I headed bad to school, and it was nice to get back to the swing of things. I only had mild post vacation blues (mostly because I had to get up early again), so that is a plus side of not doing anything particularly special.

I returned to my teaching. At my desk, if I have spare time, I sometimes study Korean or watch TV. I also review my Italian using Duolingo, just so I don't lose everything I used to know.

For some reason, duolingo thought I needed
to practice the phrase, "My enemy was drinking
my orange juice."

BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. THE IMPOSSIBLE
PATH

Not thrilled with the trees but I liked my hair .

On Saturday, we went to COEX to meet up with some of our fellow dancers. A connection we know promised us tickets to a concert if we helped him out and filled an entertainment slot, so we broke out our dancing shoes again for another performance. 

This is a big fancy mall in Seoul and we performed outside of it

We all had a great time performing! The weather was great

It was on a legit stage haha so that was fun

We hung out with our dance crew since we hadn't seen them for a while, and then Cesca and I headed home and relaxed, since she wasn't feeling well. 

On Sunday, we went to dance class and learned a crazy fun and awesome dance, GD and TOP's Zutter (which is just the semi romanization of 쩔어, which means 'Dope' or 'awesome' in Korean). 

I didn't love the song at first, since the MV is kind of strange, but now that I've been listening to it more (and working on the super fun dance), I like it a lot. 

After rocking it out, we headed out to the concert.

The concert in question was actually a free one they do every year, but out connection gave us the hookup with these bracelets that allowed us to get into a super close section. Since I like the artists that were performing, it was great! Well, most of it. 

Sadly, it was standing, which is something I'm slowly beginning to not appreciate. 

The lineup was great, complete with MC Leeteuk
from Super Junior

First up was Zhoumi from Super Junior M. He's so handsome!

Next was Super Junior M's Henry, who is amaaaazing at the violin.

Next was Red Velvet, SM's newest girl group

The next performance was the one I had wanted to see the most. Donghae and Eunhyuk from Super Junior are starting their mandatory military service this month, so this was their last scheduled concert before their enlistment. Which is special and sad, cause it's the reality that all men in South Korea have to face. I was glad to see them before they left, since I probably won't be in Korea when they get out and start doing things again. 

STUPID PEOPLE WHO HOLD THEIR CAMERAS AND
SELFIE STICKS UP THE WHOLE TIME ARE ANNOYING

Their performance was fun, energetic and a little sad. They both asked their fans to be healthy and take care of themselves while they were gone, and they promised they'd work hard in the military. Sad face. 

Then, of course, the bane of my existence came on. EXO fans are notoriously the worst kpop fandom right now, because of their incredibly immature and dangerous fanaticism.

They announced at the beginning not to run around and move because it's dangerous. They also asked people to please be considerate of those around them and to enjoy the show. There was literally not one problem before EXO came on, except for tall dudes and the occasional fan holding a camera up on a selfie stick, but nothing I couldn't see around.

And yet, when EXO's music came on, it brought out the worst of the worst in the audience. 

These dumb ass self important fans BROUGHT FUCKING STOOLS
TO STAND ON SO THEY COULD GET PICTURES.
I AM LIVID

This is apparently how one should view EXO. I'm beyond frustrated
with immature fans

I documented some of the annoyances because of my frustration with not being able to see because people are selfish and rude. We mostly gave up watching and ended up dancing around, as there was lots of space behind us. Most of the crazy fans were pushing each other and fighting to be closer to wherever the guys were, so we took the opportunity to dance around (we know some of the dances from dance class), much to the amusement of the security guards and other non EXO fans who were probably just as annoyed by the boorish behavior of the selfish girls desperately taking hundreds of pictures. 

Those pink suits hahaha

At one point, they walked out to the middle of the stage and all hell broke loose with the crazies so we stood back and proceeded to take stupid selfies and pictures just to emphasize how silly it was. 

I'm the type of person who takes like 5 pics in the beginning of the set so I have some for my blog or memories, and then I put my camera away. I guess these girls don't adhere to that method...

We had so much room around us, so we decided to take a group
shot "with EXO" 

We also had to get our "I can't believe this shit" shot. 

Like, not only is this fucking rude, it's SUPER
dangerous. 

As a person of short stature, I have NEVER in my LIFE considered bringing a freaking stool or step ladder to a concert so *I* could see better at the expense of others. Not only that, but they refused to get down even when security told them too. 

Realistically, security should have been like HELL NO when girls tried to enter carrying stools. Like, no, you do not get to make yourself super tall so you can get effing pictures of your idol Especially since EXO fans are notoriously AWFUL. Unless you're in the back and need press shots, if you bring a stool to a concert I automatically assume you're a terrible person with no soul. 

And that's how I know I'm just not on that level of devotion to kpop that these crazies are. Standing and enjoying is one thing. Being a jerk is another.

OK. Rant over.

Thankfully, my friends and I got to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it, and we had a great (late) subway ride home. 

There was a seat open next to me, but this
dude would rather be chill and do this haha

I got home late, but thankfully because of my aching limbs (thanks to dance class and the concert), I fell asleep quickly and deeply, happy about the week that passed and super excited for the week ahead!!

The fall weather officially arrived, sort of. Korea's weather is a little finicky, so it still gets warm in the afternoon some days. Sigh. I just want sweater weather!!!

~~

This week is a musical week, so I've been listening to Cinderella in preparation for seeing it!! I'm so excited, especially because, thanks to checking the Korean site and asking my nice co teacher Seon Kyeong to help me, we scored super cheap tickets. SO STOKED. 

I seriously hope the costume change is amazing. CAN'T WAIT. Read about it next week!