Pour One Out for the Costco Salad~

My classes finally started and I'm starting to get back in the routine. It seems a little harder this year, now that I've decided to leave in August... Have I mentioned that? I'm about 95% decided, and it's making things both easier and harder this new school year. I like all 3 of my co teachers, but I just don't think teaching elementary school English is for me for much longer. But man, leaving will be so hard... Just going to avoid thinking about it.

I was laughing at my 5th grade book for very specifically labeling
the East Sea as such, since it's a big deal that some places
call it the Sea of Japan

Cesca and I needed to make a Costco run this week, and for some reason, it was especially fun and enjoyable. We both have recently and inexplicably gotten obsessed with bagels and cream cheese, something that, as an expat, I'm used to. Since moving abroad, my cravings for random American things can pop out of nowhere. I didn't eat cream cheese much at home, but for some reason, I've been wanting it lately, and it tasted SUPER good when I finally got some. Weird, right?

Anyway, we found our bagels, bananas, peanut butter and other necessities, and then were wandering around, when I ran into one of my students. Thankfully, my wine was not yet in hand, but it was nice to awkwardly greet her mother, who said "Oooh that's your teacher. I didn't know who you were talking to! Hello!" AWK. 

We went to get cheap, delicious food court food and laughed about the immense amounts of onions, ketchup and mustard the Koreans were gathering. This concotion is affectionately known as the Costco Salad by expats here. 

Many people pile heaps onto their plates for relatively unknown reasons. 

is it a replacement side dish? Do Koreans just really like free
stuff? the world will never know.

For some reason, we found it immensely funny that day. We could not get a picture of the table just down the row from us, but the amount of onions that they grabbed, and subsequently wasted, was ridiculous.

Cesca mourns the wasted
costco salad that you can see in the background.

The rest of the week passed as it normally does, with Korean class, English class and lots of coffee. 

I had to introduce myself to my new 3rd graders, who are all curious about my age, which I told them was a secret. They seemed to like my cats, and a few of them were even surprised that I was not Korean hahaha. So cute. One of them even loudly proclaimed "I LOVE CHRISTINA TEACHER" after class. I know I will be exhausted teaching 6 classes of them, but they're adorable and I'm sure it will have it's cute moments. 

Because Cesca is studying for the TOPIK, we each spent a quiet Friday evening at home. I'm trying to prep for my own test in April (I'm shooting for level 4 before I leave, so I'll try in April and July if I don't pass), so I studied a bit and tidied up, I wish I could be more dedicated at school, but lately I've been worn out by new classes, new co workers and office politics and hecticness. Hopefully, it will calm down soon.

On saturday, we met up with Grace and her bro + bf for Sicilian food at the restaurant we know in town, where the owner remembered us even though it's been ages. That was cool, and delicious! The weather was finally nice enough that we could meander through hongdae, stopping at shops and booths as we pleased. We stopped for churros, cupcakes, and just to watch the dancers and performers. 

Then we went to a multi-bang. Bang means room, like noraebang means singing room. So at the multi bang, they have lots of options. You can watch movies, sing or play games. We opted to play Wii games for about 2 hours. It was a blast from the past and super fun!

Just dance 2

Concentrating hard on Mario Cart

It was a fun night. On Sunday, Cesca and I skipped dance class to go see Zootopia with Lauren and Ga Hyeon. The song wasn't that interesting this week, and a few of our friends couldn't go. Plus Ga Hyeon doesn't get a ton of days off that he can spend with us, so when he actually has free time that matches up with us, we want to make an effort to actually do something, since he works really hard at the hospital. Plus, I love seeing Lauren, so it seemed worthwhile. 

The movie was great, highly recommended!!!

Then we grabbed some Mexican food

Ga Hyeon's mango margarita looked great.
Mine was a bit meh but that's okay.
The food was good.

It was great to have spent the weekend with lovely friends, having fun and finally not freezing. Another week of school awaits, but spring is on its way and it's not pitch black when I leave for school in the morning, so things are looking up!

Here's to hoping my kids aren't super crazy this week, cause I have things to do and stuff to look forward to!

Happy almost spring!!!

~~

For some reason, I've been back in a Phantom of the Opera swing, so I've spent my week listening to the soundtrack, in various languages and various versions, while I've been working on stuff. Me. Listening to PotO. No surprises, right??

I love this song in Italian. So pretty~ It's been a while since I listened to anything other than Korean or English, but I remember most of the words~

Splende un sole in te che non tramonta :)

Gee Gee Gee Gee Baby Baby Baby

It'll be a short post this week as I only had 3 days of school. The beginning of the school year is always a bit hectic and stressful, but I am working with Young Ah and Sun Kyung again, and my new co teacher, Hyun Jung, really wanted to be the English teacher and she seems very nice. 

The first day on Wednesday was a bit of a blur...

we had to decorate for the first grader welcoming
ceremony

A lot of the day was spent getting my schedule ready. Thankfully, it seems to have worked out well. I have 22 class hours this semester, which means I don't have to do drama club!!!

Thankfully, my grades are all grouped.
It's boring but easier to teach the same thing
5 times in a row.

On Thursday, my cos and I went to the English room to clean it up, because they were building an elevator over break and it was a mess. Dust everywhere. Sigh. They hired a cleaner for the classrooms, but apparently the English room doesn't get the same treatment. Or it gets it way later, possibly. But we have classes tomorrow so we couldn't wait till then.

They also bought these horrencously red chairs
for the bi weekly staff meetings. Okaaaay

On Friday, we had a staff dinner to welcome the new teachers and celebrate the new school year. It was at a galbi restaurant, which is my favorite, so I was happy. Everyone was really nice to me and I got a lot of "I didn't know you were studying Korean" comments and such that usually come this time of the year. The new head teacher in the office even made a point to tell me that I'm the 5th native english teacher he's known, and I'm the prettiest. I would feel better if this wasn't coming from a man twice my age, but you know. I think he meant well. 

I won a cute umbrella in a raffle at dinner!

After dinner, Young Ah got roped into going to round 2 (noraebang) with the head teachers and a few others, so I went with her because the principal was like "I WILL SEE YOU TWO LATER" when she came around for soju shots at dinner. I sang a Korean song, Love Battery, which went well and so the principal (a few drinks deep, of course), came up to me and was hugging me and Young Ah and saying "I didn't know we'd be this cloooooooose" and such. Another head teacher told us that our friendship was nice to see, so that was fun.

I ended the evening by going out to tea with teacher's from my office. I can pretty much listen without feeling too lost in their conversations, but even so, 5+ hours of straight Korean was exhausting, but satisfying. I'm sad that my chances to have fun with my coworkers are winding down.

Thankfully, I could relax Saturday. We had plans in the evening, but from morning to late afternoon, it was raining so hard that going outside was not enticing at all. So I cleaned up some stuff in my apartment and lounged around till it was time to meet my friends. 

got to use my new umbrella~ hehe

Grace is finally back in Korea and her bro was visiting, and Ga Hyeon had the day off, so we all decided to grab some American BBQ at place that opened up in Mokdong.  

Round 2 Bingsu

It was fun to laugh and chat and eat delicious smoked pork. MMMM. 

Afterwards, the boys wanted to play pool.. so we went to a pool place (they're pretty common in Korea) and first watched the boys play the Korean version of the game. 

Then, when a classic table opened up, we tried our hands at the original pocketball. 

Ces and I ended up being on a team vs Grace, her BF and brother. 

I ended up getting a couple in, and after I made a particularly difficult shot, I got so excited I accidentally punched a hole in the ceiling with the pool cue. Oops. 

Post hole in ceiling. Trying to compose
myself. 

Grace scratched on her 8 ball shot, so Cesca and I won!!!

we got home to discover that we coincidentally wore the same
socks

We got home late, so we slept in Sunday, caught up on TV, had a rare food delivery mishap (ugh... don't even wanna talk about it) and then headed to dance class, where we learned part of Girl's Generation's Gee, which is arguably their most famous song. It was fast, fun and adorable!!!

A few friends were back that we hadn't seen in a bit, so it was so much fun!

We're not the best but we're cute and I love it. 

I'm ready for classes to start and to get into a routine at school. I'm happy I can see my students again! Bring it on first week of classes!!

~~

In Kpop news, I've been obsessed with Rainbow lately, especially their new song Whoo. They don't get the recognition they deserve. 

Xi'an

Cesca and I were eagerly awaiting this part of the trip. Our dad had wanted us to see the Great Wall in particular, and our mom, those guys hanging out up there, the Terracotta warriors!

After our overnight train, we met our tour guide, Jenny. She took us to our hotel and gave us time for breakfast and to freshen up. The hotel was super nice.

Then we started out for the warriors. Jenny said she used to love seeing them, but she's been over 70 times so now she's a little sick of them. She likes seeing the groups faces though, and she knew a lot about them, so that was really great. 

This part was by far the most amazing, interesting and awesome part of our trip to China.

Jenny leading us to the site of the warriors 

In 1974, farmers were digging a well near Xi'an, when they came across a pottery head. Discovering pottery wasn't exactly rare in Xi'an, given it had been the capital of many Chinese dynasties, but this one was pretty interesting. It was terrifying to discover that the head changed colors when they came back to it, and this piece from the well led to the discovery of one of the greatest archaeological finds in history.

I didn't really know much about the warriors besides that there were a bunch of them. They are part of a huge tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. The area stretches for 20+ miles and includes hundreds of pits. He ordered a massive army to be constructed to protect his tomb and his power, perhaps hoping he could carry the power beyond the grave. He ruled over a time of prosperity in China, but was also super brutal and ordered a lot of people killed. Many were also killed when he died and entombed with him, like his concubines and such.

The first pit contains a few thousand warriors
horses and the remains of chariots. People really didn't know
these were there. In the back, you can see a hole
where someone was buried. A tomb within a tomb,
they barely missed discovering the site!

They used to have real weapons, but the tomb was
raided and most of them were stolen

Every soldier has a unique face and is dressed and styled
according to his rank

the gap is where a chariot would go but it was
made of wood and therefore decayed in the
2000 years before the tomb was discovered

some of the heads were stolen, not re assembled or are in museums

Now, here's what I didn't know. The soldiers weren't found intact, like I had previously thought. After the fall of the Qin dynasty, this tomb was discovered and raided for weapons and the solders were destroyed, the tomb burned. Archaeologists are painstakingly reassembling the warriors and placing them back in their original positions. 

this is how they were found

this is only the first pit. You can see where the roof was burned
if you look for the black ashes

dubbed "the hospital," this is where soldiers being reconstructed go

apparently the one lying down has been there for like 10 years.
They won't put them back with fake pieces or partially constructed.

This is a separate pit, pit 3, the smallest, is seen as the command center of the other two pits, since there are less warriors and it seems like the headquarters.

because of the relative lack of damage to this pit (no scorch marks,
only partially destroyed), it was easier to excavate

the missing heads and an empty pit (#4) indicate that the full
scale of this tomb was not realized at the time of the
emperor's death,  and that many items were stolen and lost

In Pit 2, one can see the state they found the tomb in. They are not yet excavating most of this part because they haven't completed pit 1, and they also want to wait for better preservation techniques.

They dug out small sections to see what kind of warriors were in this one.  More complicated formations and detailed, more nuanced soldiers were found, like generals, archers and horses with saddles, which would have been rare at the time in China.

They found archers

This one is famous because he has a bit of the color preserved on him. Actually, all the warriors were painted, but once the paint comes in contact with the oxygen after being underground for so long, it rapidly disappears.

originally colored, the  paint fades quickly. 

and generals were found. Pit 1 contained mostly lower ranked soldiers.

one of the few horses with saddles in the army. Most were
used for chariots 

an archer

the original state of the pits upon discovery.
Reconstruction on these has only started recently

The warriors were by far the most impressive and coolest thing we saw. It's amazing because it's still only like 1% of what is in the tomb, including the actual tomb of the emperor. Supposedly they've found it, but there are concerns for the body and relics inside (preservation wise) as well as the safety of the workers, since there is the possibility of mercury being in the tomb. Soil tests near the actual tomb indicate levels of mercury there, which may have been put there to simulate rivers, according to a translation of the texts found documenting the region. Near the tomb, other non military terracotta figures have been discovered, like acrobats and musicians, suggesting that the emperor basically attempted to recreate not only an army, but a more extensive representation of China at the time for his tomb.

It was awesome and I could have spent all day listening to facts about the site. We stopped at another part to see another prize of the area.

Nearby, smashed bronze chariots were also found and reconstructed over a period of about 80 years.

After spending a few hours at the tomb, we rested at the hotel a bit and went out to dinner, a fabulous fancy dumpling dinner and dance show with music and dances from the Tang Dynasty.

all the flavors and shapes. it was awesome

gotta document everything!!!

A few more pictures from my phone

In pit 1 with approx 6,000 soldiers

fun times. 

back to dinner

We saw a dance show too, and it was GORGEOUS. The costumes and music were fabulous, and the dances graceful and lovely.

The long ribbon sleeve dance

Young girls in spring dance

Mask dance to get rid of bad spirits and welcome in good fortune

One watching a bird, one a cicada and one thinking of her family.

The emperor's "fairy kindgom" dream, where he dream. He woke up from the dream and composed music based on it and asked his favorite concubine to make a dance to it.

A final, celebrating all the splendor dance.

It was a lot of dumplings and a lot of excitement, so we headed off to bed. 

Day 2

We thankfully had a late start, which allowed us to sleep in, shower, eat breakfast and pack at a leisurely pace. We didn't have a ton to do on our last day, so we met Jenny and headed off.

Our first stop was the Grand Mosque, as there's a relatively large Muslim population in Xi'an.

And then we looked around the streets. Jenny protected us from weirdos trying to get creeper pics by scolding them for not asking us if we wanted to be in pictures. I loved her.

On our way around the city, I took pics of the cool buildings.

We ate at a restaurant that serves food monks would eat, but they make it deliciously I guess. It was decent.

Next we headed to the Wild Goose Pagoda and temple.

a bell tower rung to start the day

the pagoda

the drum signals the end of the day I think

He had questions about Buddhism so he traveled back to India
to ask questions, study and learn.

He brought back scrolls in Sanskrit and translated them into Chinese

They also  had the story of Buddha carved in Jade
in the temple

Our last stop was the Shaanzi museum (Shaanzi is the province where Xi'an is located). They almost wouldn't let me in cause I had a selfie stick and they've had problems with stupid people using them in the cramped space of the museum. Who would do that?!?!?! 

This is the emperor responsible for the
Terracotta warriors

He's a high ranking official I think

mirrors

money

a tomb guardian

definitely had different beauty standards

The foreigners all looked funny

apparently large ceramic armies were in vogue in china

We spent a little more than an hour in the museum, mostly because I don't care to look at years upon years' worth of pottery for ages. You've seen one neolithic exhibit, you've seen them all. We were also just tired and the manners and lack of personal space was finally getting to us. 

We headed to the airport early for our flight, said goodbye to Jenny, the coolest, best tour guide ever, then chilled there till our long journey home (involving an overnight layover). 

China was interesting, overwhelming, fun, exciting, amazing and more. There were rough parts for sure, but I'm so glad I could go and do things that some people have never even dreamed of getting the chance to see. I'm glad that, through us, a part of our family has been there, so that my parents could also see something amazing. Love you guys, thanks for helping us make this trip happen.

Now it's back to the grind, but I'll always remember that one time I got to spend a few days in CHINA~