Spring in the air! Along with some dust...

Today's semi short update is brought to you by Neko Atsume and a massive headache. Had quite an active weekend so I'm pretty worn out, and apparently my head knows it. 

The plus side of this week was that my cat collecting really started picking up!

eeeewww... I mean... woooo my
first memento...

I'm an adult but good job stamps still make me
super happy!

The fine dust was bad at the beginning of the week, warranting the use of a dust mask on my walk to school,

It got worse on Wednesday, so on went the mask again. I hate wearing it, but if I don't, the dust makes me feel massively ill. My co workers were surprised when I wore it again, since, to them, the air didn't look that bad and it wasn't bothering them. I guess the idea of 'fine dust' being invisible is a little lost. Granted, some days you can tell by the sky. Anyway, they joked they should just check with me for the levels, since I know them well. I explained that in good ol' Lockport, NY, we don't have this fine dust pollution problem, so my body just can't adjust to it. I haven't been living in it my  whole life. Though, really, everyone should be careful about it...

cherry blossom season is starting

haha we are the representative foreigners at the studio!

 On Wednesday after school, I went to the Han River for a bit~

this snack is shaped like crabs

That night, Tubbs visited me in Neko Atsume and wouldn't leave, even though I wanted to go to bed early... I'm obsessed. 

I also got this sphinx cat, Ramses the Great,
to visit

It's election season in Seoul, so these little campaign cars are noisily going around with candidates blaring music and speeches from them as early as 7:30 am -__-

 On Saturday, we had an early start as we headed out to pick strawberries with a group trip from Seoul. We were supposed to go to a strawberry festival, but it was cancelled because of some animal flu gong around. We still got to pick strawberries though!

seductive strawberry eater

MUTANT STRAWBERRY

There was an adorable puppy on the farm

Then we went to Daedunsan to see the famous cloud bridge. Unfortunately, Cesca and my bad luck struck again, and the god damn cable car was broken. The itinerary had clearly only accounted for the cable car time, not actual hiking time, so we started the hike, but ultimately turned back because it was basically rock climbing and not hiking. For our first post winter hike, it was too much. We'd eaten lunch too close to the hike as well, making us feel quite blah during it. When we saw how precarious the remaining half looked, we just gave up and hung out at the bottom.

only a few parts had stairs, the rest was crazy steep.

most of the hike looked like this

at least the scenery was nice and we got a bit of 
exercise outside of seoul

this was our endgoal, we just couldn't make it up there
with limited time and mediocre korean hiking abilities

would have been cool but oh well

We got back in one piece and on time, so we felt pretty good. And we weren't too sore from the hike, so that was nice. We were still tired though, so we went to bed early.

 Unfortunately, Ces and I were woken up early by the POLICE arriving to check on the couple in the apartment across the way from me, who were fighting quite loudly at around 7 am this morning. Since it was inside and a private matter, all the police could really do was say "don't fight anymore. no fighting.." before leaving. The couple then continued to make noise for the morning and I think one of them was packing their things to leave or completely move out. They fight a lot so I'm hoping they just finally decided to break up. I'm not sure whose the instigator or anything. All I know is they fight vocally and often. 

We headed to dance class, where we learned SNSD's I Got a Boy again. Cesca and I even helped with a short tutorial video after class! I think I sound awkward on camera, but I'm glad they asked us! It was exciting!

Unfortunately, the dust this week and my hiking yesterday caught up with me today, and I have a pretty bad headache. I'm hoping the air is better this week and that I can take it easy in school and get through with minimal issues. 

 Spring has sprung here! Looking forward to more skirts, less sweaters!

Bang Bang There Goes Your Heart

The weather is slightly warmer and spring is kind of in the air. I felt pretty good about the week up through Thursday, but for some reason Friday took a toll. Thankfully, an awesome weekend saved it all!

Young Ah gave me these life saving soothing
patches for my bday. They're like
herb rubbed hot packs and they really help sore
muscles

I still have a substitute for my classes since Hyun Jung is still sick, but the sub is nice and complimented my materials, so I felt pretty good.

Seon Kyung surprised me with a Starbucks
coffee in the morning. Definitely made the
day less painful

Wednesday marked 13 years of Phantom love!

Cats on the way to school!!!

I had even had a relatively good Thursday, which is a kind of rare because I have 5 classes, and 6th and 3rd grade. Plus Korean class. All things went well, but 3rd grade tires me out, as we have some problems students and special ed ones as well. I felt good about Korean class, because I actually understood the grammar and felt like I was making progress again, finally.

I don't know why, but Friday just wore me out. 3rd grade all day, whining students and one that was wailing in the back of the room for a good 5-10 minutes... Wamp. All because his partner won the game twice and he only won once, resulting in hysterics. 

That plus a teacher that constantly makes phone calls loudly on speakerphone in the afternoon. Common courtesy is a big deal for me, and the relatively constant disregard for others (by my Western definition, I know, not bad just different la la cultural difference) in Korea sometimes grates on my nerves more than it should. But this week, I'd had enough of the bus pushing and bumping and whining from my students and speakerphone calls that I just felt tired and blah by Friday afternoon. 

Young Ah noticed that some stuff was bugging me but even I couldn't really place WHY I felt that way, and so she suggested I get some rest this weekend. Welp, that wasn't in the plan, and I had to stick to that. 

We'd made plans to go out with Shannon and Bri from dance class, along with a few other friends. They'd found this app that gets you free entrance into some clubs, and since I just turned 25, I figured I should go clubbing like once or so for the experience. Fill my quota for the next, oh, 6 months.

We stopped for dinner first and got delicious ramen

We got into the club for free with our passes, which is super awesome cause one of my biggest annoyances about clubbing is that it costs so much! But with the entrance fee out of the way and free drink coupons given to boot, that annoyance was gone. 

Shannon somehow found glow sticks haha

at one point there was confetti

People also inexplicably throw napkins from the
balcony??

Overall, it was a fun night, since I went with people who know what they're doing and also didn't spend a fortune, or much more than I would have on dinner and drinks with friends on a typical Friday.  I'm not big on EDM so dancing to that for 3+ hours finally got me kinda bored, plus you can smoke freely in clubs here which is gross and seems dangerous. 

I will never make this a habit, but it was a fun girls night out.

They were also having a special event at the club where you could try this new lip tint and they gave you one for free, so that was pretty awesome. A quick internet search once we got home revealed that it is like $18, so not only did we get in for free, but we got free makeup too! Nice!

I went for classic red and really like the look

Ces showing off her pink

Ces and I had slept in quite late Saturday (another downside of clubbing is the late night and late start the next day), but thankfully our plans weren't till mid afternoon. We traversed across town to the theater so we could go and see Swan Lake, my favorite ballet. I'd seen it before with Sarah and Lauren, but I'm always down to see it again, especially if there's a discount for foreigners. 

Ces has never seen it live so it was exciting!

The cast was awesome! I don't know who they
are, but the show was fabulous

noesbleed seats haha. thankfully the theater
is small so there really aren't bad seats

We rented opera glasses to be cool and
so we could see the footwork and poses close up

Odette and Siegfried did a fansign after but
we didn't stay

They were so good!

The show was lovely, even though some of the audience members couldn't resist checking their phones multiple times. Seriously, it's like, a 1.5 hour stretch before intermission. If your message is that important, don't come to a show... Ugh. 

The staging was great and they kept a happy ending, which I always like. Odette even helped fight Rothbart and defeat him, then she and the prince lived happily. I loved it. Costumes were great too. Odile's tutu is normally black, but this one had this awesome red underskirt that gave a really nice, sinister sexy vibe to her. 10/10 would recommend. 

We headed out to Hyehwa to meet Lauren after. We originally wanted to bring Ga Hyeon to Mix & Malt because Lauren knew he'd like the drinks, but he suddenly had to cover for someone at work :(

Oh well, that left us with time for girl talk and time to try new drinks. They have so many here that we promised we each would get a different one, so we could work our way through the menu.

We got chicken wings, chili mac & cheese and bangers and mash with beans, cause why not. All of it was delicious, and I haven't had a drink there that wasn't beautiful and delicious.

We spent 3 hours eating and talking, and, after a great night Friday and a beautiful ballet, spending time with Lauren really sealed the deal and I felt really refreshed and revitalized about my time here. It's easy to let myself get frustrated and forget that, like most things, life here is cyclical and I won't be thrilled 100% of the time. But I have great co workers and great friends to keep my going when things get tough.

 Now that I've 90% decided to leave, I've found it's definitely easier to get frustrated with things and to wish I could be home right now, but I have to take time to enjoy what time I have left here. Trying to live it up and remember that I've got a good thing going here, and I'll miss it when I leave. I am impatient to see and hug my family and cats again, but I need to really enjoy what I love about Korea before I go. One step at a time. 

I also was told I should download this Cat Collector (Neko Atsume) app, and it is most enjoyable. Basically, it is what it says. You put toys and food out and see what cats come to your yard. It's awesome. 

They all have names and personalities 

Um, adorable right???

Cesca and I had another chance to sleep in today (so I guess I got to rest a little bit, right??) and then we headed out to dance class. We learned a dance this popular TV show, Produce 101, a reality competition show about 101 girl trainees that get whittled down to 11 to make a new kpop group. 

I honestly hate the show (having only watched 1 ep and followed along via the news or what Ces tells me), but the dancing on it is great and the girls are awesome, the setup just sucks. Anyway, one challenge was for one group to choreograph to Jessi J's Bang Bang. The dance was fast, fun and fierce. We were soooo tired after (I have my special warming patches on cause I'm already sore), but it was SO fun and I loved it. 

It was quite a workout but I actually felt good that we learned the whole thing. If we worked on it more we could totally be pros, right??

So I'm feeling happier and more optimistic about my time here, thanks to a weekend filled with friends and fun. Reminded me of what I'm working for, trying to explore the world and have fun with great people.

Hopefully I can carry this into this week. Happy Easter and happy spring! Happy Birthday Ronnie~~

~~

Here's my other newest jam from Mamamoo. Looove it.