My First Christmas

  ... Away From Home.


It was pretty surreal to think that the only time I'd be seeing my family for a year was on Skype or video chat.  My birthday and the holidays amplified that feeling about ten times over, and for a few days here, I was homesick (for REAL REAL).  Extra emo after a few glasses of vino --- I maaaay or may not have cried a little bit after a wonderful Skype sesh with my family on Xmas Eve.  But anywho.


Christmas Eve I worked my usual 4-7pm class and then subbed for a 7-10pm class. No, Chungdahm does not give many holidays off. Then, it was Phil's bday (my coworker) and since he kinda rules we ended up having a long, fun night (regardless of the fact that I "was definitely going to bed early since I have to Skype the fam at 8am".... yeah, right.)


Got home at 6am, Skyped the family. Slept for 4 hours.


Christmas morning was epic. (Minus the part where I woke up a tad hungover and still had to get some last minute gifts. Happens every year I SWEAR. This meant going outside, and damn it is cold here. "But you're from Chicago, Syd" people say.  I'm tellin you, it is different here.  The temperatures are comparable, but it's unbelievably dry here, to the point where each inhale into your nostrils could possibly induce a hardcore nosebleed.)  We got together down the hall at Alex, Bryan, and Kyle's apt. Tons of Christmas music + Pancakes with strawberries, blueberries, and chocolate chips commenced. Jelly Bellys and Croissants with Nutella, too.  It was delicious and exactly what I wanted Xmas morning to be.  I was so pumped for gifts, but I tried to hide it, since we're not exactly 5 anymore.

The presents!

My presents from Nahyun. How cute right!

You might ask "Why the hell did you
get your friend industrial sized
Skippy?" Bryan. Loves.
Peanut Butter.

The Koreans never had Reese's cups. 

Kyle was happy about his Bread varieties too. Those boys are easy to  please.

 

Ski Socks, Snowboarding gloves..
and they got a Snuggie for their
favorite neighbor.  So great.

My makeshift family 

Danny in his new hat

Meat, Meat, more Meat. Coffee + Sugar

Shiesty pic... but do you see that bucket? It's a bigass Tequila Sunrise.

Following Christmas morning, I got ready for  dinner at Mercado.  This place is one of the best Brazilian steakhouses I've ever been to, and with about 25 coworkers it was the beginning of a great night.  The sangria alone made me too happy, but the prospect of going out in Seoul with everyone afterwards was icing on the cake. Or the star on top of the tree, whichever. 

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Christmas is coming!

Cookies, Candy, Christmas Tree, and Wine
(The makings of a great pregame)

Danny, Latoya, and Kenny enjoying some
Xmas cheer

Tree decorating time!

I love hosting, good company is all I need!

My cute little tree. The lights don't work, though.. wah wah.

Alex, Kyle, and Holly 

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4 MONTHS

Welp, today hit the 4 month mark.  One of my friends told me it seems like I got here way before August 21st.  Perhaps that's because we spend sooo much freaking time together.. from work, to 4am bar nights after work, to the gym, to dinner... this is college: glorified.

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Snowboarding in SoKo

It's early in the Korean skiing season, but my company planned a little 1-day ski trip to get it started.  It was ONLY 45,000Won (~$45) for a lift ticket and rentals.... I had no choice but to get back on a board and try it out again, even if the last time I snowboarded was winter '08 ---> when I was on my ass the whole way down the slopes and crying.


Vivaldi Park rents out legit equipment, and I was pleased with the "children's" board and bindings they gave me. The boots were comfortable, too, and this time around my genius friend Alex taught me that wearing only 1 pair of socks keeps your feet much toastier. He was right. Changed my entire experience.


Aside from having no gear (Illini Dance Team sweats and 2 pairs of leggings + 2 long sleeves and a North Face fleece + my NF puffy vest + nice gloves and a beanie/ear muffs .... that was about it)  I stayed extremely warm and hardly got wet from the fake snow.  This warmth and dryness ALSO meant that I was actually RIDING down the mountain - - - not just falling down it. Yes yes yes, I think I finally broke the learning curve this 5th time around, and was actually able to carve the snow and pretend I knew what I was doing alongside the Azians. 

One of the last runs of the day. The sweatpants lasted! Success. 

Video of my mad skillzzzz on Facebook

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First Thanksgiving in Korea.... plus 4 days of Birthday

When my Birthday and Turkey Day rolled around,  I started to miss home. For once.
 (Kidding. But not really.)

So the branch emailed us the inevitable "Hey the company is taking away our annual Turkey lunch because of budget cuts, yada yada"

BUT we could pay 12,000WON to have turkey and all the fixins delivered to the school on Thanksgiving.  Of course I was in! .... just didn't know how good it would really be. 

....it was deece. This Turkey was delivered to us with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, cranberry stuff, and pumpkin pie... NOT BAAADDDD. (the pictures don't do it justice..whatsoever..I almost didn't post these cause it looks so booty)

The REAL DEAL was that following Saturday, when a few friends and I gathered in Alex, Kyle, and Bryan's room for dinner.  It was a potluck of sorts - Alex made a risotto, Jieun and Justin brought guacamole/chips & kimbap, Danny made pasta with an amazing veggie sauce, I whipped up the garlic mashed potatoes, Bryan built a huge salad, and Nahyun made little sandwiches and some Korean rice-filled things (yubu cho bap).  The rest was from Costco- rotisserie chickens, apple pie, pumpkin pie, baguette bread, sparkling cider, and wine.  EVERYTHING WAS DELECTABLE.  Honestly, everyone brought amazing dishes, and we were all so impressed with each other's cooking.  Insane food coma ensued, but not until more birthday cake was eaten - this time Hello Kitty cake!! (From Jieun, such a sweetheart. And Nahyun got an amazing blueberry bday cake from Bryan)

Can't forget all of the wonderful, adorable and thoughtful gifts from my students and friends-- everything was so unexpected and I could not have possibly felt more loved!  Seriously, in 3 months, I didn't think it was possible to build such great friendships.  I almost cried like 5 times and probably thanked everyone about a hundred... it was a fabulous birthday to say the least. :) :) :)

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November 24th, 2010

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Shit, I'm 23?

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3 month mark...

I feel like I JUST POSTED 'TWO MONTHS' abouuuutttt a week ago. And all of a sudden it's November 21st???? Shoot no, it is now the 22ND, and I turn 23 years old in TWO DAYS.

Annnnnddddd it's the last week of my first term with Chungdahm. New classes, new students, new classroom, etc. all start up again next Monday. I'm gonna miss most of these lil nuggets, I mean they're my first bunch of students EVER.... (tear)... but I'm sooo ready to say BYEBYE to a few of em!

Cheeeerrrssss!!!

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Seoul Lantern Festival

  These pics didn't come out great 

but the Seoul Lantern Festival was sick. 

                                  
More people than Disney World. Damn ridiculous.

Dragons

 String of lanterns

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Testing Week, PTOWN POST, & Pay Day #2

All of a sudden I feel like I got really busy, so I haven't really been on this thing. Now I'm trying to update and the internet at Paris Baguette is less than stellar. The owner wants me to teach him English, though... so I'll keep coming here until it pays off (in free coffee of course)
:)

My second real-life payday happened last week and HOLY MOLEY is it nice to make $$$.  I want people to understand something. If you're not pleased with your salary and/or schedule in the states, COME WORK HERE. Honestly we probably work 50% less than what is considered 'standard', and make double. Not to mention I will never have to make a 7:50 a.m. train again. Just saaaaaaaaaaaayyyyin.

Week 11 just passed and the end of my first term with Chungdahm is almost here. During week 10, all students had their level-up tests (just 3 straight hours of reading, listening, writing, speaking evaluations), and it seemed as though most of my students tried extremely hard to get to the next level of classes. What I thought was going to be stressful ended up being a piece of cake on the instructor side... honestly, teachers might say that they hate standardized testing procedures -- but that's some bs in my opinion. I can think back to the hours spent at Queen of the Universe (yeah, that's what my elementary school was called) taking state-wide tests while my teachers were just chiiiillllinnnn all day. 

Another thing that I've become a part of here is our branch's student newspaper, the PTown Post. They needed a new editor-in-chief of sorts, so Vasuda (another newbie coworker) and I have been working every week to get it together. This term we had a lot of student input, and some of their articles are unreal. Our cover story was written by a Masters student (the highest level of courses at Chungdahm) and it discusses the ever-so-controversial and timely debate over the necessity of Hagwons, or academies. **Hagwons are the 'after-school schools' that so many Korean students attend, oftentimes more than 1 each evening. Some of my students finish school, hop from one academy to the next, and then come to their 3-hour English class with me. (And they still work their butts off. Rare breed of kids, I'm tellin ya.) 
The PTown Post also has some great poetry written by Masters students, a comic strip drawn by Ann, one of my elementary students, and the Shout Outs section is pretty hilarious. Once we send it to print I'll try to get it on here somehow. 


Welp, I gotta get to sleep extra early since our co-worker camping trip turned out to be an absolute success. TOooOOOooo much fun. - - - I could not possibly be happier that I was placed at Pyeongchon, these people RULE. 

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Bloody Halloween

Halloween is not widely celebrated in Korea. 

Actually, it's just another day when they can look around and say, "What the f**k are these stupid foreigners doing now?"

When I asked my students what they were doing for Halloween... *blank stares*. "Just studying.."

When I asked them for suggestions on what to wear for my costume... "Witch. Pumpkin. Ghost!" 

When I mentioned the words "Trick or Treating"... all they wanted was for me to do tricks. 

Not surprising that these kids just study all weekend, even when there's an American excuse for a holiday happening. Hopefully they at least got some candy and sugar to stay awake. 

Anywho, we "dressed up" Saturday night, and I say that very lightly because there was ZERO effort put into any costume. Danny was "Harry Potter" (aka Danny.. plus my eyeliner on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt scar), and I was "Tina Fey" (aka "Sarah Palin" with my new red peacoat, a pencil skirt, heels, my glasses, and a ponytail. Only thing missing was an American flag pin and devil horns).

FAST FORWARD TO CLUB GO GOs IN HONGDAE.

All is just dandy, music's great, buzz is increasing, and I'm gettin my juke on with some Army dudes. Suddenly, there's some glass shattering around us - likely from someone dropping it off the platform while grinding with some fat girl on the poles. 

Shit that hurt. (look down.) HOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYY SHIIIIIIIIIII*************TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

"OH MY GOD, that's coming from my foot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" 

('That' refers to the puddle of blood forming around our dancin' feet.)

So Army boy and I dart to the bathroom, where my high heeled shoes are pooling with blood, the big vein on top of my foot is squirting EVERYWHERE, and I'm holding on to the sink trying not to faint. 

Just to give you an idea of what this projectile bloodshed looked like, watch this stupid vid: 

SquirtSquirtBloodyBlood

All I have to say is THANK GOD I was with Army boys at that moment in time, otherwise it woulda been: Ambulance - in Korea - without insurance. 

They squeeeeeezzzzedddd the glass out of my foot (nearly fainted), stopped the blood from pooling all over the women's bathroom (bitches were no longer in line for the potty), and eventually wrapped my shit up with a piece of someone's caveman costume (from the bar floor). Awesome.

Of course my night wasn't over after this dramatic display of Halloween-ness... would you really expect me to head home? Obv I sauntered on over to the next club with them, looking kinda sweet with my blood splatter. Then, as fckin usual, my feet get stepped on, and the wound opens up AGAIN. 

Yadayadayada, 

I finally make it home at noon the next day (Yes, American breakfast WAS necessary..even if I went 2 hours north to get it)

Can't get my shoes off due to pooled up dried blood all up in there,

Turn my bathroom into a murder scene,

Wash that shit and wrap a sock around the cut,

Go to sleep. All day. 

LIFE.

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Hollas to some Bloggas

BLACKOUT KOREA is EASILY one of my favorite blogs. You don't even have to LIVE here for it to be one of your faves, too. The content on this site is just purely priceless.... and the best part is, I get to witness it every. single. day. 

Yep, I spanked him. Nope, he didn't even stir. 

Leanin'

11pm. Blacked OUT at the subway station. Surely on his way
to the floor until this kind man brought him a juice.


DJ Milk n Cookies
roooools in my book. I bump their
shit on my way to work, in my
apt. (doing ballet believe it or not),
on the train, etcetc. They've got the
drive, the talent, and potential to
make a big name as Milk N' Cooks-
not to mention they got the look(s).
(*rhyming was a bonus)

I thought of my fave twinnies, naturally.

Cheesin' just brings me back to the days that were college. U of I is probbbbably one of my favorite places on U.S. soil, and since I've gone and graduated myself -- I occasionally overload on the Cheese. (*and I'm lactose intolerant, bitch.)
Good shit. Good good shit. GET SOME.

I not only get to enjoy numerous frat
star anecdotes, ratdog call outs,
Monday Merks, and hilar videos...
Cheesin' also got some photo skillz.
[This is Peter's photo of the Union] 

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More Korean Nightlife

Entrance Sign for MC Club. Seriously?

 MC Club was Friday night. Hadn't been there yet, was giving Clubby Bar Slang too much of my time, and wanted to see for myself just how Koreans get down to hiphop music. Well, they get down. And it was awesome. I loved how MC was not overtaken by foreigners (like us.) 

Freebird & Papa Gorilla

Freebird was a new stop in Hongdae, and it's right next to Papa Gorilla (my first Hongdae love fest.) My new girlie Becca has the ultimate hook up at Freebird and we were able to chill and drink after the live band was done performing. 

Papa Gorilla was cleaner this time! Not as much bar juice, not as many sweaty/passed out/puking people. Love it, love raging, love dancing, love the DJ.

HOWEVER.

I lost my wallet. Dammit, Hongdae. 

Still lovin life,

Syd

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Korean Hospital Experience

Woke up this morning feeling great. I slept enough Saturday and Sunday to heal myself of my typical sinus infection at each turn of the season. I blew my nose and it was clear! (TMI?) Who knew sleep was so brilliant.

But then I walked to the bathroom. And was DAF. Dizzy. As. F*ck.

This unnatural dizziness confused me and I thought maybe there was some sinus infection backlash in my ears, causing crazy imbalance. But after having toast and some tea, I was still spinning like crazy.

I tried to get out of bed again to get ready for work, and the next moment was one where I wish I could have hidden cameras taping hilarious shit in my life all the time. I stumbled to the bathroom, looking utterly WASTED, gripping every surface on the way there so as to not fall over. At this point I was seriously out of a movie. 

Three inches from the bathroom, I got my footing ready for a small step down while simultaneously turning the light on. Apparently this was too much for my drunk mentality to handle. The second I swung myself around the doorframe, I fainted flat on my side, almost smacking my head on the door and definitely experiencing some blackout in there somewhere.

I knelt by the porcelain bowl, surely feeling intense nausea waves and spins the size of the Ring of Fire (yes the carny ride).

After this episode, I was freakin' out hardcore, so I went down the hall to Alex's room to have him call our boss. Thank GOD I have friends nearby. The boss said to go to the hospital ("But I don't have health insurance") and that someone could cover my class ("But I need the hours!") waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh.


So all the while, I'm talking to my new Korean friend James online. He's like, Ok, I'll come take you to the hospital. (What a gem.)


Well, thank goodness he came with me, because not a soul in there spoke English. The only thing the doctor said to me was "Do you think you're pregnant?" hahahahahaha. What a laugh. 

James translated the entire check-up for me, and it turns out I was just severely dehydrated. The doc prescribed me some meds, including something for the sinus infection. Picked up the prescription on the 3rd floor of the building, very convenient set up they have here. And the pills come in packs like vitamins from GNC:

My Drugs

All in all, I have come to the conclusion that health insurance is not really necessary here. My doctor checkup was 10,000 WON (about $10) and the medicine was 5,300 WON (about $5). James said that I could get money back with health insurance, and I just laughed. 

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Korean Foods Rule

Tteokbokki: stir fried rice cake (like a noodle texture)

 

Gimbap (like sushi)

Soondubuchigae: (soup) Rice, Tofu, Clams, Spices, Amazing broth

Korean BBQ... UNREAL. 

Omurice with Banana & Sweet Potato Croquettes
(Delicious rice wrapped in Egg and covered with a gravy sauce...Croquettes filled with heaven.)

Bibimbap (Rice with meat/veggies/tofu/seafood and other goodness)

Some of the best home made Udon noodles I've ever had

Amazing Sushi-- like art. Only $6! Crazy!

Full Shrimpage going on in my pasta.

Korean Pancake, or Pajeon. Ours had kimchi, octopus, vegetables, etc in it. SO GOOD.

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