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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