Kittens and Kpop

I'm late today because I had to spend Sunday at Cesca's because she lives near the immigration office, so I wasn't home during my normal blogging hours. Plus side, I got my visa renewed with minimal difficulty! Yay! One more year of legal living here!!!

~~

Our studio published some photos from our dance show! I think the photographer and editor got confused about me and Cesca (despite our hair colors...) because I how up a lot, which is awkward. I mean, I'm happy cause I look good, but I feel bad :/

But here are some of my favorites!

Hair flying!

I'm never letting Grace live this serial killer face
one down

Sassy

We also had a great time at the party after haha

It was hard to go back to the real world after that, but persevere I did. I spent the week gathering documents for my visa renewal (delayed by my school, meh, we got them all anyway).

It was back to the grind of course, back to teaching and to Korean class. I'm trying to study harder again because I want to take the TOPIK, but first, a little fun.

There was another free concert Friday for foreigners, so after school, I headed out to the other side of Seoul to meet my kpop crew to see an awesome show. I was *volunteering* there, but because I have a job and am not a student, I couldn't make the other volunteering positions, so my job was social media posting. Hence, we took lots of silly pictures. 

OMG we were in front of the VIP section!

Cesca and I got asked to do an interview while the people completely ignored Grace cause she's Korean, so we wanted to represent that it pictures

Grace getting blocked out

She still gets most of the foreigner benefits
we do, so she's happy. We joke about our
white curly hair privilege here tho

dis biotch photobombing

we actually got to move up to the second row.
So close

The MC was some dude from KBS and
Hani from EXID

The lineup was awesome

CNBlue. Super talented. They're a legit band

BtoB

EXID, who shot to fame this year because
of their catchy as hell song "Up Down"

This is them singing "Ui Arae" which is
Up and Down., It's super popular here.
EVERYONE knows it. So cool to
see them live!

Chen from Exo got the most applause

he's so good I feel bad he has to deal with he
EXO drama

I think this was Block B. 

Taemin from Shinee dancing his
little stick legs off

Cesca and I were most excited for BEAST!!! Yes. Even though we just saw them last week. 

THEY WERE SO GOOD

Hyunseung's hair wasn't bleeding today haha

The last group was Girl's Generation. They are not the most popular or anticipated of the lineup, but they just had a comeback so I assume SM pulled some strings to get them back. I like some of the songs they did, and their outfits were cute, so it was a nice way to end the concert. 

I also didn't have as many stupid camera problems this time, since nobody was really in front of me. I also behaved like a normal person and took a couple of shots and then ENJOYED THE SHOW. As one should.

the computer malfunctioned and I thought it was
hilarious

performing their probably biggest hit "Gee"

On Saturday, I visited Lauren's new apartment AND HER KITTEN OLIVER. Obviously I took a bunch of adorable pictures.

On Sunday, I went to spend the day at Cesca's, and since we both weren't feeling that great, we skipped dance class (it wasn't kpop this week anyway) and hung out. Cesca is watching a drama called Let's Eat 2, so I caught an episode. I just so happened to catch the perfect episode, because two characters went to see an 'opera' in Seoul, and by golly, look what they went to see!

Due to copyright issues I'm sure, they went to see "The Ghost of
the Opera" and the posters were from the movie, but it's clearly
Phantom!!!

I got more excited than normal people would, haha. I was so happy!

We had fun hanging out and studying, and eating junk food and relaxing. It was definitely nice and chased away some Sunday blues. Back to the grind...  At least I had a good weekend before I started feeling sick. A few vitamin C drinks and an early night should nip it in the bud.

Well, there's a chill in the air in the morning and night, so I hope that means fall is on it's way (even though the 80 degree weather still persists in the afternoons -__-). Hopefully I can recover well and get on with another great week here in Seoul!

~~~

This is one of Girl's Generation's (Sonyeoshidae's) new releases, Lion Heart.

I'm not always a huge fan of SNSD's new releases, but this one caught me and I looooove the style and the sound. It's so cute and fun!

Start of the Semester and a Whirlwind of a Weekend

YEY YEY YEY YEY it was a good week~~

I bet Cesca wanted to or is gonna start her post with this song hahaha. 

Anyway. 

a gift from my coworker. She went to Guam!

Well, on Monday school started for me, but it turned out to be a super short day. Over the August break, the government suddenly declared the 14th a red day, because the Liberation Day holiday fell on a Saturday but they thought people should get time to celebrate it. I was already on vacation when this was officially decided, so I said "meh, I lose that vacation time. No big deal."

But when I went to work Monday, my co teacher started making phone calls and told me that, because I had extra vacation time because of the holiday, I could leave early! I was home by 11 o'clock! It was awesome and everyone was jealous. It gave me some much needed alone time to clean up my apartment, do my Korean homework, nap, and go to the bank to fix a problem with my bank account (THANK GOD). I also got to chill by myself, which, for an introvert like me, was wonderful.  I love my office but I was not ready for the chattiness of post vacation Monday.

on the bus and home by 11 am. The best
Monday ever

This same co teacher also forgot to inform me we had drama club practice Tuesday morning, but I thankfully was already at school (I'm an early bird) and I was already prepped for my lessons, so I just had to roll with it... Can't win them all! It's a busy week for her, too, and this club is stressing her out big time, so I can see how she forgot to mention it to me. I'm caught up on our schedule changes now hehe.

So.

It was the start of the semester, but since it's the middle of the year, it's less hectic than March and so we got back in to classes right away Tuesday. Not wanting to start the textbook, I played MASH with my 6th graders and I ended up married to G Dragon, Brad Pitt, Captain America and a good number of my students. A lot of my boys ended up married to Park Geun Hye, the president of Korea, so that was pretty hilarious. It was a fun day!

The rest of the week passed in a blur of Korean class (where my British classmate and I explained many difference between our English to my teacher), regular class with my students, and rehearsal for our dance performance on Saturday!

Lauren adopted a kitten and he's adorable. We are going to
visit him (and her new apartment) soon

I did a nice thing on Friday as well. Koreans tend to treat coworkers and friends to things when good stuff happens in their lives, so on Friday, with Young Ah's help, I ordered coffee and smoothies for everyone because my new contract started Tuesday. I'm living happily in Korea and having a great time at work, thanks in large part to my awesome office mates and especially my co teachers, so even though it was a small gesture, I'm glad I could do it and participate in the culture a little bit more.

Got my hairs did Friday, too

Why am I not home to compete on this show??

The highlight this week was the weekend (isn't that just the way?). We've been prepping for a little while, and we practiced together Wednesday and on our own all week. By Saturday, we were excited and nervous. 

We got to the club early and did our makeup in the coffee shop next door. Then we hung around before the show and got nervous but excited.

Our friend Helen came to see us!

We performed twice, once in the club for our friends, and once in the playground in Hongdae, which was super scary because it's a big gathering place for people before they hit the town, so it was very crowded. It was super fun though, and we got a lot of attention, as foreigners and as girls wearing matching short skirts haha.

Our group is jokingly called "Hankook Saram" which means Koreans
because we're so obviously not.

our studio after our park performance. SO SCARY BUT FUN

Look at the crowd!

Young Ah and Hae In even came out and saw us dance!
So nice!!!

Getting ready for our dance in the club. We killed it.

I'm so glad I could finally invite her to a performance!
Usually I have nothing to show her!

They even bought me flowers. Aaaaaw

We got chimaek with our studio after. At first, everyone was
scared to talk to us, but then we got joined by
lots of people who thought we were awesome and such haha

I'm sad the performance is already over, because we practiced a lot, but it was so fun and I'm so glad we did it. I have little to no confidence in talking to people usually, but for some reason dancing and performing is totally different and I can finally show some confidence in an area. It was stressful to prep for it, but it was sooooo worth it.



We had some trouble with the club floor, but overall I think we did great! haha It was fun. Enjoy~~

As if that wasn't awesome enough for one weekend, we had another highly anticipated event on Sunday. Cesca's been itching for this for a while, because we FINALLY got to see her favorite Kpop group, Beast/B2ST, live. I think they're one of the last groups I'd really wanted to see live as well, so I was also super stoked about seeing them. We met up with Grace (from our dance group) and her bf  and headed out to the concert across town. 

Fans of groups often send flowers and
set up photos outside the venue

Beast has the coolest light stick and their
fandom name is "beauties" which is also
the best

with Grace, our dance class
and k pop loving partner in crime

ready for the show with our lightsticks!

our seats were pretty rad 

This is Hyunseung, my favorite

The funniest part of the concert was that Hyunseung had obviously only recently dyed his hair, so while he was sweating it kept running down his face and getting all over. Later, when the members were expressing their gratitude, most of them were full of emotion. Hyunseung said "I'm so touched and grateful that my heart hurts and is bleeding! Do you see the blood!" to make fun of the streaks of red running down his face. It's definitely more fun when I can kind of understand some of the things they say during the talk breaks.

They did most of my favorite song and had a good mix of ballads and fun stuff. It was a great concert, but they got really emotional at the end and we were worried cause we didn't know what was happening. I ended up asking some girls on the subway and they said they were moved by the fans tears and dedication even though the members have been working apart lately and their comeback took a while. We were worried someone got called for their military service or something! Nope, just happy tears and appreciation.

This one is Cesca's favorite but he
kept the mike in front of his face sigh

it was a great time

Now I'm home and wound up from a great weekend, but I'm not sour about Monday. This is my 3rd fall semester in Korea, and I know that, with some of the breaks, it's hectic but also much less of an annoying stretch than spring, so I'm looking forward to it. 

I can't believe it's pretty much September! I can't wait for some fall weather, but thankfully the humidity has fallen and it's not as hellish here, at least in the mornings, so I can finally walk to work again. In other good news, I'm finally getting my keyboard repaired in the next few weeks by a friendly expat recommended by Sarah, so that's another happy thing. Lots of good things happening over here just as I start my new contract. I'm looking forward to seeing this one through~~

~~~

I was still in a Jesus Christ Superstar mood this week, so I was listening to this nonstop. Idk why this song breaks my heart so much, but it totally does every time. Even in Korean (but it's slow so I can actually understand most of it. HUZZAH)

In other heartbreaking song news, Beast's On Rainy Days has been in my head since the concert. It's so pretty and sad~~ They're sooooo good live, and it was great at the concert. This is a vid from earlier in the year because the concert vids aren't up yet.

On rainy days you come and find me

Torturing me through the night
When the rain starts to stop, you follow
Slowly, little by little, you will stop as well