There's Such a Lot of World to See~

Thanks to Sports Day on Wednesday, I had a super short week! I taught Monday, but on Tuesday we just watched the Doctor Who episode Blink so that my classes wouldn't get off track. It was fun to watch with the kids, even if it is a little scary. They really enjoyed it. 

We were worried Sport's Day would be cancelled because it rained SO MUCH Tuesday, but it wasn't. It was sunny wednesday morning, so the teachers and students rallied to clear the playground of water with anything we could find. Dustpans, rakes, shovels, garbage cans, etc. It was still a little we for the events, but it was manageable. 

The first graders throw little bean bags into baskets.
The poor 6th graders had to help out and stand under the poles

After an easy week, we had an exciting long weekend planned. 

Around Monday, Cesca and I discovered that the show The Three Musketeers was having a holiday weekend sale, and through much suffering, we secured tickets for 50% off. Annoyingly, the English site usually does not receive the discounts, so I had to go through the arduous task of getting the Korean site to work. It takes forever, involves lots of steps and security settings and is overall annoying, but we got them! Huzzah! Because of the discount, we got really good seats for the price of cheap ones!!

We have seen a couple of these actors before, so we wanted to
see their new show

We were the only distinct waygookin there

NO ZOOOM SO CLOSE!!!
I usually buy the cheap seats, so this was awesome

We stayed after to meet one of the actors, and he remembered that we had seen him in Dracula as well!

hehehe he was so good! 

I only roughly understood the show, but it was kooky and fun and full of swordfights and explosions. Super fun!!

I didn't get him to sign my dracula stuff last time!

The weather was back to crappy Friday, so we hung out at home until late afternoon, when the rain had subsided a bit. 

Lauren sent us a cat snuggles pic 

The craft beer festival was happening at Coex, so we checked it out. It wasn't a great space for it, but we managed to try a few good beers and some good food, so with good company, it was nice.

On Saturday, we dragged ourselves out of bed early for a trip out of Seoul to Gapyeong, where there are a few famous attractions.

Getting there was a bit of a task, because we had to take an express train (with crappy instructions on how to get tickets, tho we managed fine) and then take a very crowded shuttle bus to get to the location. The train ride was almost an hour, and the bus was over an hour because of traffic that apparently nobody anticipates when making timetables. 

Once a few people got off and we had seats, it was better, but dang was it crowded in the beginning. I guess that's what happens when everyone has the same time off. It was a rough start, but we managed to have fun.

 We saw Petit France, which is supposed to be a "French Culture Village" but it was really just cute buildings with a few random museums and shows. I was hoping for more... Frenchness. But it was pretty to walk around and take pictures. 

Sadly, my backpack broke like 3 minutes into
the trip.

The famous drama My Love From Another Star
filmed some scenes here, hence the cutouts haha

The Little Prince was also popular there

There were a lot of menacing looking
bugs here, so I was frightened

We hopped back on the shuttle and thankfully got seats for the much longer than scheduled ride out to the Garden of the Morning Calm. It's a beautiful, relatively large garden with lots of different styles of gardens and flowers to see. 

playing Jenga with wishing rocks like hooligans

It was beautiful but I was worried cause there were quiiiiiiite a few bees that were very scary and that came at me a lot. I shrieked a few times.

It was another bus, train, subway and bus ride before we got home, exhausted. We'd gotten up early and walked so much, we were spent. I think I went to bed before 10:30. But spending the day with Cesca, Helen and Cherie was super fun, and we accomplished a lot! It was a great day!

Ces and I slept for a good 12 hours before mobilizing for dance class, where we learned Bang Bang again. We're working on something special for the end of the month, so stay tuned!!! Grace and Pau were back in class, which made it SO MUCH MORE FUN!!! We missed them!!!

Now I'm sitting with icy hot patches on trying to rally myself for school tomorrow. It was such a great weekend that I'm flying high from that, but weekends like this make me a little sad I'm leaving Korea, since they were so nice. Though, they also remind me that I've seen and done a lot here and that there's a lot more to do out there, so moving on isn't the worst thing in the world. I'm sure gonna miss it though. Not the terribly inaccurate timetables, but the fun and friends.

Too much to do before I leave to dwell on it though! Looking forward to another exciting few weeks. Good things are coming, I can feel it!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MAMMA AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEDDYYYYYY

~~

This is Cesca, Shannon and me killing Bang Bang~ Wooooo so fun but so tiring!!! Feeling it in my neck and shoulders now haha. More to come soon~

It's gonna be May

It was a slow and attractive week for me, as I finally had time to get my hair done. Mostly cause I'm lazy and cheap, I let it go for a while longer than I should have. Oops.

Sun Kyung told me I should wear my hair like this
all the time...

Gotta keep up with the face masks. This
was a lotus one~

On Wednesday, we went on a teacher bonding trip. Now, these are okay, but this was a schoolwide one and involved taking a bus to an island to explore. Not sure why we had to do this Wednesday, as it messes up the schedule and is also inconvenient because we got back to school well past 9:30... I have 5 classes Thursday, so energy is really needed. I cannot get energy if I am out all day and get home after 10...

But it was nice to spend some time with the teachers, and they get to learn a lot about me. I found out one of the teachers in my office has been to Siena! So we bonded about how beautiful that is.

We went to an island that has a big tower and some bridge that uses tidal power to produce energy, then hiked around a bit. At least it wasn't the difficult hiking that I have come to expect in Korea.

The other teachers were scared of the glass walkway,
but I've been over the Grand Canyon, so I know
what's what. It was fun~

The hiking trail had this at the start to check how
healthy your  body is. If you're in your 20s you should be
able to fit through a 21 cm gap or something.
I could fit through 20s but not 10s, which means
I'm the right size. 

The hike wasn't bad, but it was a little gloomy.

Because it's an island, we had seafood for dinner. I'm not a huge fan of raw things, but especially raw oysters and clams and sea cucumbers. I can, however, manage raw fish. Everyone was really worried about me being able to eat, which was sweet. I ended up eating a lot of the fish but let the others eat the raw shelled stuff. 

not my fave but not bad.

I don't really think the teachers thought this trip through tho, because my principal likes to drink a lot and some of the other teachers, uh, enjoyed the alcohol way too much, which meant a lot of people were suffering on the ride home. Like, come on, we're adults and you didn't think about not getting wasted before riding on a bus for 2 hours back to Seoul? Sigh. It's not every Korean or every school, but it's part of the culture I sometimes can't get used to. It's fun to have a drink or two, but binging isn't really my thing. 

This actor is super popular in Korea right now and
one of my students gave this to me after she saw
me laughing at it on her desk. I didn't love the drama
but he's cute

Then we made the best discovery:

REESE'S MCFLURRIES ARE AT
MCDONALDS!! This is shocking since
they don't usually have reese's stuff here?

Cesca and I went to a make your own ddeokbokki buffet on Friday before seeing Captain America, but we were pretty sure the guy misinterpreted our request for slightly spicy but not too spicy ddeokbokki. We ended up with a mixed spicy black bean sauce? It was good but not what we wanted. We basically messed up 100% of that process haha.

Cesca's "this doesn't seem right' face

But then we got to see Captain America before everyone so
that was awesome, even tho it felt more like an ironman
movie.

On Saturday, Ces and I hung out and met Lauren for dinner. We lamented about our jobs like usual, but had a lot of fun girl talking and such. 

On Sunday, we had a fun but tough Beast dance session for class, then ran out to get across town and go to Olympic Park for an Andrea Bocelli concert. He was only in Seoul for one night, and after debating the ticket cost, we decided it was totally worth it to go, since he's one of my favorite singers. 

Our tickets were on the side, but it seems like either a lot of people cancelled or the ticket site was being dumb and blocking off the center, cause most of the seats at the top center were empty. We and like every other Korean decided to move over and got great seats. 

Arg it was so good. He even sang Music of the Night!! I loooooved it. Not much to say besides awesome, amazing, fantastic, wonderful, etc. He's incredible live. SO happy we went.

So that's why I'm late this week... We got home well past 11 and, on a school night, that's super late. I went to bed with Nessun Dorma ringing in my head and my heart happy. 

Plus, I have an easy 3 day week this week. Huzzah! 

Sports day tomorrow followed by a 4 day weekend~ Got some great stuff planned for it, too. 

May already? My May schedule is packed, so I have a feeling it will fly by. Yikes! 

~~

I hope we get to learn this dance, because Twice's Cheer Up is my current kpop obsession~

So Shake It, Let's Dance!

It was another week at school. Haha, not much to say, as the routines have settled and life is in it's groove here again. Just a few small surprises, like Hyun Jung being sick Monday and having to teach alone, but I'm a pro by now, so it's all good. 

On Mondays, Young Ah has started to teach me jangu, the traditional hourglass shaped drum. I think the sports teacher originally wanted to learn, and then they asked me if I wanted to join. I'm pretty caught up with lesson planning these days, so I said why not and joined them. There are a lot of things to remember while playing the drum, like finger placement, posture, rhythm and more. It's difficult but fun, and Young Ah says that, compared to her students, we are much better at remembering how to play things!

I finally got these two fancy cats
to visit me on neko atsume, a highlight of my week

ordered lip stuff, got free samples. Yay!

trying out new lip tints because they were on sale

Trying to add some spring in to my step

Since I don't have Korean class anymore, I've either been spending more time during the week at home, trying to reorganize my closet since winter is kiiinda over, and spending time with friends. I went out with Young Ah Friday for thai noodles because she's been feeling down this week, and I think school is stressing her out. She teaches 3 different subjects this year, so she's a little frazzled. Plus, there's an awkward teacher in the office who makes calls on speakerphone and is kind of spacey, causing lots of disgruntlement in the office. So I treated her to cheer her up, since she's always there for me. 

On Saturday, the dust levels were crazy bad, so I stayed in all day and caught up on a mediocre kdrama, and writing notes to my neighbors to stop being so vocal when they... uh, get intimate. Fun times.

I will not super miss this about Korea...
Seoul was 221 yesterday, but it got to
350+ at its worst. Buffalo's level was
20...

By evening, the levels of pollution weren't quite so toxic, so I met up with Lauren, Cesca and Gahyeon in Hyehwa to go to mix and malt again, since Gahyeon was finally free. He loved it and we of course loved it, so it was a great night. 

On Sunday, Cesca got to hear my lovely neighbors being... intimate... loudly... so obviously my note did not work. Sigh. 

We caught up on The 100 and Hell's Kitchen before heading to dance class to Shake It with Sistar.

Ready to learn Sistar's Shake it!

Here's me killing the dance. So fun!

We went out for tacos at a different taco place after, where I had one of my first real, out and about, authentic celeb sightings in Korea. 

He's not from a group I pay attention to, but Katie was excited. We tried to subtely get him in the background of our pictures and this is the one Cesca got... sigh... 

We also wanted a picture of my awesome
margarita that I ordered not realizing there'd
be a Corona in there... because i didn't
know what Margarita Diving meant...

Katie asked him for an actual picture but he said no because he didn't have makeup on. Oh well. Katie was bummed.

We drowned our sorrows in cupcakes. This is becoming a habit. In our defense, we shook our butts off during class. So. Well deserved. 

I spent some of my free time this week marathoning a drama to give myself a break from studying after my test. It's called Descendants of the Sun and, despite sky high ratings in Korea, I thought it was just ok. After Signal, none of the typical dramas have been impressing me lately. Have I finally hit my limits of predictable plots and implausible situations? Maybe. 

I'm glad the weather is getting warmer, but I also found a mosquito in my apartment, so I'd like that to not be happening. The pollution was a big bummer this weekend, so I'm hoping that it doesn't stick around. Apparently this has only been getting worse recently, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up. I just haaaate wearing those masks... 

All in all, it was a pretty good week. It went fast, payday was on Friday and I ended up eating good food with great people most nights of the week, so it definitely could have been worse. Hoping for another fast week, as I'm looking forward to next weekend already!

Time to avoid social media for the next day, since the new season of Game of Thrones starts tomorrow and I'll be teaching when it's on. Gonna have to watch after school and it will be a big task avoiding the spoilers... Can't wait to see what season 6 has in store! 

Slightly Eventful but Pretty Boring Week

KITTY CHOO CHOO TRAIN

Sorry everyone, I had, honestly, a super boring week, and I'm feeling lazy right now so I'm gonna just run through the highlights:

We had Wednesday off, which was amazing. I spent most of the day in bed or studying, which is also what I did all week (except Tuesday, when I met Lauren and Cesca for wing night). Ces and Lauren were sick so we didn't do much besides eat and chat.

I was studying all week (and for the past couple) because I took the TOPIK again today (sunday) to see if and how much I've improved since January. I think it's cool that I got level 3 in less than 3 years here, but wouldn't 4 be SO MUCH COOLER? The test today felt easier than last time, so even if I don't pass 4 now, I know I've improved, so I'm happy with that. 

Last fun thing, I had to call the police on my neighbors because they fight all the time and the BF decided that 3 am was a great time to POUND ON THE DOOR AND YELL AND RING THE DOORBELL.  Thank god Cesca happened to be staying over when this happened, or it would have been 7 times more terrifying.

Seriously, I thought they broke like 2 or 3 weeks ago, the last time the police were called. Nope. I hope it's for real this time, because I'm sick of hearing them fighting. Not healthy. 

In school news, classes are going well, but the bathroom has become the bane of my existence because SOMEONE decided that this was the best way to fix the stupid lock on the western stall door near my office. 

WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO MEEEEE

Sigh. Therefore, I cannot close it. Now, I am ok with using a squat toilet, to an extent. But some days, I just don't feel like it, you know??? Well now I have to wander around school to find a bathroom that has the combo of 1.) TP, 2.) A western stall that works and 3.) Minimal students cause I hate running into them in the bathroom.

This is what rain and humidity does to my hair

After my test Sunday, I met up with Cesca after dance class. Helen had been in the area for a wedding, so she joined too! We got tacos and then cupcakes because why not.

Yum 

Thanks to my Korean class also getting cancelled (they needed my teacher for another class, so my options were to spend $200 a month slowly reviewing,or just save the money and review myself. So, after 2 years, I had to stop going. Felt weird, but had to be done.) and the test being done, I have some free time now, at work and at home. My plan is to marathon a few dramas and tv shows I skipped out on for a week or two, and then try and get back into studying so that I can pass level 4 later if I don't pass it this time.

Off to enjoying some free time after my classes are finished for the day~