Lotte World

This past week, we had Tuesday and Wednesday off of work for Chuseok, the Korean holiday that's comparable to Thanksgiving in a way.

Tuesday it monsooned like a bitch---

Thanks Mother Nature, you're awesome.

 but we tried to make the most of our day. We went to the Changdeok Palace and took some pics.........

Alex

These are steps we passed on the way to the palace.
It's not a waterfall, that's literally how much it was raining.

And now for the best part of our Chuseok Holiday.

LOTTE WORLD

This is going to look highly like something.. well you'll see.

Gabriela and I

Indoor Ice Skating!

It's impeccable, really. 

Lotte and Lorry. Hmm. 

Check out more pictures from Chuseok on my Facebook page

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Koreans Touch Each Other

I suppose one could call South Korean people... affectionate.

Take for example, 'Nate' and Jin - two guys I met one night in Gangnam while waiting for the bus to bring me home. I'd just enjoyed an awesomely meaty Korean BBQ dinner and didn't expect anyone at the stop to start speaking to me. In English.


Well Nate and Jin were a bit sauced up from a few drinks (probably 2), and they sparked up a convo right away. It was delightful to actually be able to communicate with these dudes. But as we chatted... "I'm from Chee-Caa-Go. Yes, U.S.A." ...Jin had his arm lovingly around Nate's shoulders, and Nate linked his free hand to Jin's, too. After about 10 minutes, I thought they were quite a cute couple, and they thought I was a cute little American girl.


And then Nate asked if I had a boyfriend, to which I responded, "Ohhhh no. No, no, no. ...Are you two boyfriends?"

Their reaction was the LAST thing I expected.

Nate just about had a panic attack. He flung Jin's arm off of him so quickly that I thought he might fall over, and was all,
  "NO NO! AHHH NO, that is TERRIBLE! I like GIRL! GIRL!"

"Sorry, sorry...I just thought...my mistake..." I'm saying to them while thinking to myself, wtf do you expect me to infer when you're fondling each other's hands in front of me the entire conversation.


In the end, I got their digits in case I ever decide to man up and get a cell phone. (seriously, it's liberating not having one. who woulda thunk.)


But wow, I guess it's all completely normal when my students pet each other's hair, hold hands in the hallways, and sit on one another's laps.


Go hug someone today, see what happens.
Love,
Syd

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ONE MONTH

Got here August 21st.  It is now September 21st.

How is this happening? 


When we were kids, months lasted years, years were an eternity.  And it's already the 9th month of 2010??

Hope everyone at home is having a great back-to-school time, love and miss ya!

-Syd

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Black Market of American Products

Last weekend a few instructors and I ventured into Namdaemun to check out the huge outdoor market and 16 floor mall. It was all amazing, but perhaps the most exciting part of my day (aside from my first Konglish purchase) was finding my favorite face cream EVER at a crazy underground "black market of American shit."

BINGO.

I ran out of this stuff before I came here and stupidly didn't buy any to pack (I was a bit behind on my suitcase progress..). So I thought I'd have to find a crappy substitute to effectively remove my makeup at night, as I was completely sick of using handsoap to do the job. (doesn't even WORK, wtf.)
This black market was INSANE. Everything you can imagine...peanut butter, parmesan cheese, vitamins, gum, toiletries, nuts, meat, alcohol, etcetcetcetc... Of course the prices were a bit off (Sorry Skippy, I won't pay 10,000 Won for you) but this cold cream of mine was just right at 8,000 Won (~$7) for a bigass container. This will last me over a year, easily.

Here's some other stuff we found

Bagged almonds and other nuts were reasonable

Hella expensive

DING DING DING. The Alc. 

Amazing home made noodles.. and broth so
good I think they put meth in it.

Now I just have to get to the digital city to see what kinds of goodies they have there!

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Papa Gorilla

Oh My.

So Hongdae is quite a campustown around these parts, and I had my first go at it this past Saturday night.
The venue- Papa Gorilla
The event- Angie's going home celebration


Just a preview:

 

"All Horny People Welcome"???? Yes, really. This place was sure to attract quite the crowd. And it was all I expected and more. It was like Kam's, Station, and C.O.'s all rolled into one........but 5x dirtier with bar juice and passed out customers. (seriously, it's like there's no liability here. you wanna pass out drunk at the bar? Puke on the floor and then pass back out? Feel free!)

I also thought it was brilliant that 6 shots (the sign above is false) was only 10,000 Won.**

So naturally, I got 3 of each. 3 tequila and 3 vodka is the best bet for sure... idiotic decision..but it did the job as one would imagine.

Ummmm.. AND... the all-male bartending staff was UNREAL with their synchronized dance moves to different songs... plus they were hot. 

wait. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiittt...

Did I just say that?

Yeah, they were hella attractive. Hongdae is where it's AT! haha 

Here's some more pictures from the weekend:

..We also went to HO Bar

..And Korean BBQ at 5am

Michelle and Julie enjoying some BBQ

Danny the Champ got a 3L Bong Beer. 

**10,000 Won is ~$10


PEACE!
-Syd

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My First Konglish Purchase

Sometimes the "English" phrases written on tshirts/hoodies/bags/walls/decorations/etc. feature such poor grammar and spelling that it's just simply amazing. You can't help but take a picture of it. Or in my case this past weekend, BUY it.

A few of my favorites so far:

"Life isn't always what one like. 

Love means never having to say you're sorryIt's awful not to be loved, it's the worst thing in the world..when the Lore closes a door.

Somewhere he opens a window. Have you 

got fed up with freedom?

Freedom to enjoy things and have fun and live like every day is the last day... Parting is such sweet sorrow...

What I'm afraid of is wasting the rest of my life without you. You always did look pretty. Just pretty nigh good e nough to eat... Here's looking at you, kid...

The only way you're gonna survive is to do what you

think is right. If you do not love me.

I love you enough for both..." - Best Bean Cafe

And now for my amazing purchase.

"Have One's Day" 

-LeShop Brand Clothing-

(I mean really, this is a high end store, and they had this on sale...you know I had to do it. It's so comfy, too. Yeahhh I know you're jealous!)

Love yas,

I'd like for you all to go Have One's Day ^_^   (<--That's my Asian Smileyface)

-Syd

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Little Punk

The weekend is finally HERE. But of course it couldn't come graciously with the completion of week #2 classes. A little story for you all- thought you might like an insight to my job over here.

Hyeon Wook, one of my brightest students, wins the "First Kid to Test Ms. Sydney's Student Management Skills" Award. While Hyeon Wook (pronounced Hy-oon Ook) is cute and intelligent with his accent (I think he lived in London for some time), his attitude is a bit too 'uppity' for the 5th grader that he is. The other students seem to agree -- during their Critical Thinking Project, they could not get Hyeon Wook to cooperate. Try as they might to compromise with his ideas for the presentation, he wouldn't give in until they did what HE wanted. Points deducted from his participation grade & 2 warnings to work together with his classmates were clearly not enough to get him out of his "My WAY or the HIGHWAY" state of mind. 

All of a sudden, as I'm working with the other group on some brainstorming, Hyeon Wook FREAKS OUT on his group members and starts crying. 

............................

I'm thinking...What do kids feel like when they cry in class?..shit I gotta get him out of here.

So I ask him to follow me to the front desk, tell the Korean staff that he was having issues with his classmates, and go back to the rest of my students. He talked to them for a while, and when he came back to the classroom he SLAMMED the door during his group's presentation, followed by a loud and disturbing SCREECH across the floor with his chair. 

Needless to say, the rest of the class was a bit disrupted and their CTP experience was hampered. But his parentals will be getting an email or a call from his staff advisor, so hopefully next week all will be fine..

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I thought that was just a theme park ride.

There was a typhoon. 


AND I MISSED IT.

Trees were uprooted. For reals.

The trees in front of Chungdahm were a bit blown...

Damage  control the next day-  holding the poor trees up with wooden braces.

How I slept thru this insanity... I have no idea. I was that kid running into my mom and dad's room the second thunder struck - when I was like 11. 

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Was that a pick up line?

There's a place down the block from Chungdahm that has free WiFi. It's called Coffine Gurunaru (perhaps they had a few spelling errors when naming their shop..). I came here a few days ago to skype after work, and they let me use the internet without needing to buy anything. So I came back tonight after my last class of the week to actually purchase a coffee beverage.

As I sat and sipped my café latté [pictured- the right cup], skyping/facebooking/blogging simultaneously (taught the kiddies this word today), I was approached by the owner of this fine establishment. 

"I want you to have this."

 [pictured- the delicious vanilla treat]

The rest of the 'conversation' went like this:

Me- "This? Why?"

Owner- "This is for you. For free."

Me- "Really? That is nice of you... How come?"

Owner- "Next time, I talk to you."

(oh dear. old man hitting on American girl.)

Me- "Talk to me? When?"

Owner- "I want to speak English."

(aww)

Me- "Ohhh! Ok! Thank you!"

...............

So. I guess I should follow thru with these side English lessons... I mean, the coffee here is more expensive than the food!

<3 you all :)

Syd

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