Makgeolli Madness

So blogger was being super stupid last night so I couldn't finish it till Monday at school. Wamp.

Anywho, it's been another week of ups and downs, mostly temperature wise. The school continues to be freezing in the hallways and hot in the classrooms, and the logic of "It's hot with the heater on, let's leave it on and open the windows" continues to astound me

sometimes I dress nice for school.
The socks make it, huh?

The weirdest m&m!

this thing labelled 'cheese cake' is deceptively
not the cheesecake I wanted.

Note: Cheese cake here is literally cheese flavored cake. Which I'm coming to find is OK. But still. It's not cheesecake. 

Christmas take out box! awww

I woke up to incredibly awesome news on Wednesday. And by incredibly awesome, I mean freaking dumb and frustrating.

the dreaded yellow light that means my
heat went out again

leaking boiler. Living in luxury over here

Thank heavens that I had already showered the night before, or I would have been hella pissed in the morning. This has happened a couple of times now, so by now I'm used to it and I don't panic. My landlady just comes in and fixes it. Whatever. I hope she replaces the boiler soon though, my handler is not happy with my heat continually going out. I'm not thrilled, but I have a lot of friends in the area, so it's not too bad. 

Can't win em all.

On Wednesday, one of the teachers was teaching everyone how to make soap and lip balm.  They invited me to come, and since I was ahead on my lessons, I decided to go. My handler said I have an "always try" attitude, so that was a nice compliment. Even though I didn't actually have to do much.

my finished soap

The instructions were all in Korean and so I kind of just followed along with the nice music teacher who asked me to come with her. Oh, and I stirred some stuff haha. 

it was fun!

I'm still working on my Korean, and in fact I just signed up to take the TOPIK exam next month. Just beginner level, but I'd like to prove to myself that I actually deserve to be called an intermediate student. 

1 month to study. Let's gooooo.

I hate directions in Korean. I hope nobody ever
asks me for them

I hope directions aren't on the test...

On Friday, we went to a free Makgeolli tasting event in Sinchon. Sarah, Cesca and I met up for dinner and then headed over to the event, where we could try many different types of factory made, home made and premium makgeolli, which is Korean rice wine.

If/when you smile, you're pretty.

kakao talk characters in the mall

We had a bit of time to kill before the event (because we didn't want to be first...), so we decided that ice cream was in order. We stopped in Baskin Robbins to get our fix. To our endless amusement, the ice cream labels never fail to disappoint. They're also a good way to practice reading Korean!

kyaaaaaaah this is still exciting

Is it lots of berries, or just suuuper strawberry flavored??

I want you to know that if you sound out the Korean,
it says "Snow Cheese Chocolate" 

This says something about Mom Alien?

After bibimbap for dinner and ice cream for dessert, it was makgeolli time!!

Christmas lights up in Sinchon!

the premium stuff. Yum.

They had a bunch of types to try

Cesca's blog has more pictures that she took, including some cute ones of us. Sarah, Cesca and I have similar hair, so people kept asking us if we were triplets, or if Sarah was our older sister (even though she's actually younger... her height must give her the older looking edge or something).

Sarah's, Cesca's and my spoils!! Sooo much makgeolli and
we didn't pay anything

Apparently people didn't drink enough, so we couldn't let it go to waste. We got some for our friends and co workers. They'll be excited!

After that excitement, we were unceremoniously creeped on on the train towards Cesca's apartment. I don't know what about our conversation says "Because I'm speaking English, you should totally take that as an invitation to interrupt our conversation and ask us intrusive questions," but it happens all the time. Because my Korean is getting better, I might have to start saying something. Or, as Cesca and I decided, on the subway at night, we might switch to Italian, since I can still speak some and Cesca still understands it.

I wish I didn't have to resort to speaking another language to avoid weird conversations... I don't know why people think their ability to speak minimal English or my ability to speak it is an invitation to just butt into a conversation. Wamp. At least I don't deal with it as often as my friends who ride the subway a lot more than I do. People on the buses tend to be less intrusive.

Because it's been a long week, Lauren, Janell, Sarah, Cesca and I decided a nice brunch was in order. 

We got French Toast, a waffle, and chocolate chip pancakes, with sides of bacon, sausage, eggs, and home fries. YUM. Everything was delicious.

life philosophy 

They gave these to us for free! Yay service!
Free stuff is called service in Korea

We got coffee and vented, while Cesca and I shared some infamous stories of us getting lost, locked out of the house or otherwise making our mom panic (like that time I was asleep behind the couch and mom couldn't fine me. Oops.) We shopped around a bit in the area and then called it a day.

I've been unusually exhausted lately, so we just went EMART to grab some groceries (this is always a semi dangerous and difficult expedition, but this time was mostly painless), and then headed home. We made a deeeeelicious dinner and watched a lot of bad reality tv. We even got some Korean study time in like the good little students that we still strive to be.

Master Chef cesca

making stuff to put in pasta sauce

finished sauce yuuuum

Another lazy day on Sunday resulted in more TV, more Korean studying, some cat naps and ddeokbokki, which, I'm proud to say, Cesca ordered herself! Wooohooo!!! 

It was the kind of relaxing weekend I needed, since winter camp prep and my TOPIK prep will eat up a lot of my time for the next month. oof. 

I returned home to find a package I'd ordered waiting for me. The mailman must think I'm a shopaholic (not totally untrue) because I order lots of cheap stuff from Gmarket all the time. Sometimes it's stuff I need (like new USB cords for my electronics), but most of the time it's shoes or clothes haha.

I really wanted this specific sweater last year, but by the time I had decided that I wanted it, sweater season was over and it was gone... So, after fruitless searching this year, as the style moved from hearts to stars, I almost gave up. Buuuut I happened to find one on gmarket (of course!) and ordered it. Normally this wouldn't be that exciting, but believe me, it totally is.

been looking all over for a sweater like this, finally found it
on Gmarket

Shocked to see the original price. I ordered it for like 22,000 won!
What a steal

This week, Korea's weather continues to be bipolar (last week I heard 'heavy snowfall' was expected, which amounted to approximately NO accumulation... these Korean winters...), today it's warm and rainy, tomorrow it's gonna drop 20 degrees. Wooohooo. 

At least my heat is fixed. Again. Hopefully it doesn't go out. Again. Keeping my fingers crossed! 

On to the last full week of my semester! Well, full week of classes. I have camp till mid January. Oh well. I have lots to look forward to, since we bought tickets to see The Nutcracker next Sunday aaaaand I just got tickets for Jekyll and Hyde!! I'm soooo excited!!

Happy Birthday Mamma! Hope you had a wonderful day making cookies!!! Love you!

To everyone else, stay warm, stay safe and have a great week! Fighting!

This week on my kpop playlist, I've been listening to A PINK's LUV, from their newest album. Normally kind of a bubblepop group, this song is still peppy but sad. 

And cause I'm super excited to see Jekyll & Hyde in Korean, here's a preview!

We're going to see this guy in January!

Here's the song, "This is the Moment" from the show. I'm so stoked. I love this musical so much. And maybe I'll understand more than 2% of it! 

Cold, Cats and Christmas Markets

I was having kind of an off week at school. I think it's because classes are winding down and I have less work to do, plus it's the Christmas season, but it feels a little lonely being in Korea and not at home. 

Classes went well though. For sixth grade I edited a pass the ball game with new Kpop music that they went nuts over, because Kpop. I basically picked some recent songs I liked so that they would get excited about something. Reading lessons are hard to get the kids excited about, but with some help from the music, they actually had energy for the lesson (and I made sure to throw my favorites in there too). 

But I don't have a lot to do since I'm ahead on lesson planning, and this week is speaking tests, which are annoying but easy to plan. That means I have a lot of time to kind of play around with at work. I'm worried about winter camp being sprung on me, as my handler likes to make changes at the last minute, but whatever. Camp is a joke. The kids don't care about being there, so I'll just try and make it fun and vaguely use English. 

It's gotten pretty cold in Seoul, which has contributed to my slight downer mood. 

But I've been stocking up on things to be prepared

Not thrilled to have to go outside, but these
earmuffs have speakers in them so
I can listen to music

IT WAS SO WINDY AND COOOOLD

My mom is the best and sent us advent calendars
like we used to have when we were little!

Ah yes, it snowed already

it didn't stay long, but it makes the walk to work
annoying

In case you wanted to see my Korean hand
writing. My notes are really messy though

Intermediate Korean is slower but way harder, and I walk out feeling like I know nothing most of the time. In the notes you see above, we are learning about quoting people. But unlike English, where we just use "he said, I said, they said," Korean uses different forms based on WHAT someone actually said, whether it's a question, suggestion, request, or request to help another person, so it's SO COMPLICATED.

We cover more grammar in each class, and it has gotten a lot more complicated. I'm trying to study after school, but it's hard. Most days, I'm super frustrated and I feel like I'm making no progress. 

For instance, I met up this week with a guy I met in Hongdae. I took a chance and asked him for his number, and found out, through our interactions, that homeslice speaks like NO English. Like, none beyond super basic stuff. So we just got dinner and coffee, which was nice. We spoke and texted mostly in Korean, which was cool but after a while we pretty much hit my limit of the Korean I know. 

Instead of being impressed with myself, all I have realized is that I know nothing interesting to say in Korean and that after a year I can't do much more than basics. I don't think I'm all that in English, but I can't even pretend to be anything in Korean. I'm not witty in Korean yet. I'm not funny. I can't joke or be charming. I can barely string long sentences together. I know I've come far, but after that, it feels like not much at all... arg. 

To motivate myself, I'm signing up for the TOPIK test to at least see if I'm able to pass beginner level Korean. Maybe that will make me feel better, but it also means I've got a lot of prepping to do. Aaaack.

Anyway.

Oh look. Koreans are just as mature as
Americans...

At work during our deskwarming time, my friends and I passed around an article about animals that saw snow for the first time, and of course played around with them.

We all decided that the cat was the best, and every one of us changed our phones to have this either as the lock screen or background. I chose the panda for my background cause aaaaaaaaw.

I'm horrified that it's only 2 as well, poor cat

another 14 degree walk to work means
it's time to pull out the cat mask. It seriously
helps 1000% in keeping your face warm
in the morning

 Cesca and I met up on Friday to shop around Hongdae for some things like new warm slippers for school, and makeup and things. We returned to my apartment to sort out and share my mom's pre-Christmas care package. 

Which included me catching up on the advent calendar. 

This seemed easier when I was younger

Trying to open the door

Dang it's stuck in there good

Got it!!!

Cesca's pre Christmas package

Excited!

Too excited

Mom kept up her awesome tradition of the coolest gift tags ever.

love it

My mom knows exactly what we need, so she sent us some fleece lined leggings and heat tech like shirts, thankfully. Mine are running ragged from using them EVERY DAY cause the school is cold. THANKS MAMMA!!!

On Saturday, we met up with Lauren to check out the European Christmas Market, which, like most things in Korea, was super crowded and not in the right space. We waited in long lines, but the food was really good! It was super cold tho, so after stuffing our faces, we went to a nearby coffee shop to warm up and chat.

Italy!!!

crowded

Super crowded

Lots of good food though!

These poor 'german dancers' were so cold!!!

The coffee shop even counted your calories
burned by walking up the stairs. 

It wasn't as exciting as we had hoped, but it was still nice to try some new foods, though they weren't super Christmas-y.

After that, Cesca and I headed down to Gangam because a teacher at her school invited her to see a traditional Korean dance performance. They did some basic dances and spirit cleansing dances. It was cool!

We found the New Zealand Embassy

I didn't want to be rude and take lots of photos while they were dancing... It was very pretty, even if I couldn't understand the MC, I know the dances are usually about cleansing or spirits haha. I even looked up the name and it just says "Spirit Cleansing Dance" and they did about 3 or 4 versions of it. All very beautiful and delicate. It has very deliberate, slow movements, plus I love pretty hanboks!! 

On Sunday, Cesca and I bummed around, watched some of our shows, cleanup up my apartment, and then packed up her stuff to head home. Sundays suck haha. They're always filled with the dread of Monday... I spent the rest of the day studying,trying to help Cesca figure our her Ondol, and now blogging and trying to relax before school. Only about 2.5 weeks of school left till 'vacation' which means camp, and THEN vacation. Ugh, we all really need one. It doesn't feel like the end of the school year, since the year here is almost continuous and it's still weird the end in Feburary (with most of January as vacation...). But I can tell the teachers and the kids are getting burned out. It will be nice to have a relaxing ish break, though the TOPIK is in the middle of January, so I only have around a month to study. 

Gotta get cracking. 

Missing home a lot these days, Christmas just isn't the same here...  Hoping my light workload this week helps chase away some winter blues... 

This week I've been listening to some old and new things, like Zhoumi from Super Junior M's Rewind. I dig this song and his new solo album. Go Zhoumi!

I'm also ridiculously obsessed with the drama I'm watching (and therefore also the OST). It's called Pinocchio, and it's awesome. It stars Park Shin Hye and Lee Jong Suk, two actors I've seen in plenty of roles. They have excellent chemistry. The story centers around PSH, a girl born with the fictional Pinocchio Syndrome, a syndrome which causes her to hiccup whenever she lies. She grows up with LJS's character, who was adopted into their family after a secret family tragedy that nobody in his life currently knows about. But boy is the secret a whammy. 

This song is beautiful, the story has great pacing and emotion, the chemistry is great, the humor is spot on, the story compelling and gripping, the acting is superb. I cannot express how much I already love this drama, and it's not even halfway through. Hopefully it maintains this level of awesome!!!