Good Morning

It is presently 5:40 a.m. and I am awake. This is a pretty big miracle given the fact that I went to sleep at 1 a.m. drunk. Also, something I ate last night didn't sit right in my stomach, so i've  been cramping/nauseous all night/morning. I have to leave to get to the bus station in about 10 minutes. I will stop at McDonalds for breakfast and then I'll be on my way TO THAILAND!

Koh Yao and Bangkok, here I come!!!

My Students

I think I am in heaven. The last week and a half I have been working with ten students at a winter camp. I themed the Winter Camp "The English Camp Olympics" (because the winter olympics are coming up), and I taught them about the olympics, and each day we cover a different English speaking country that participates in the Olympics. Also, we play at least one game/day and I award gold/silver/bronze medals to the first/second/third place teams. Each team works together for the whole two weeks as a "country." On the first day, each team had to create a country, and a flag that represented their country. My four countries are: Yu Island, JaeSoHye, Kite (both of the girls in this team have "yeon" in their name, and yeon is korean for the word kite), and Big Bang & the Chocolate Factory. The girls had to create governments and a capital city, a motto, and tell how many people lived there.

My 10 winter camp students are easily the most wonderful and easy to work with students in the WHOLE WORLD. Today, instead of playing the games I had planned, or doing the lesson on New Zealand that I had planned, one student, Yujin said to me, "Allison, today, can we just talk. I like talking with you. It's very fun."

So we talked. For two hours. Me and 10 of my students spent the whole morning just talking. It was amazing. If only all my days could be like this I think I'd never leave this country ever. These girls actually want to learn English. They really really want to learn. It blows my mind.

Then, at the end of class, Yujin said to me, "Teacher, when you go home, we walk together. Come get me at library." So when I was ready to go home, I walked downstairs to the library and got Yujin and Hee-Jin, and we walked together down the street, and they told me about the people that are on the won bills.

I love these ten girls more than I think most of you can understand. They make me so incredibly happy, and all I can ever hope for them is the most success in the world. I will take pictures of my class tomorrow or Friday and I will post them. I think I will cry when I leave or when they graduate, whichever comes first.

I love being a teacher. I love it so so very much.

As an aside

All 7 of my prescriptions came to a grand total of 14 USD.

Thank god, because my doctor vists weren't all the cheap (cheaper than the states, but with blood tests and xrays and everything, still a bit pricey... maybe 50USD)

I'm already starting to feel better, and my eyes aren't hardly pink at all. I wonder if I can start wearing my contacts again. So sick of glasses already.

Sick

I went to a hospital today because I have been sick for the past three weeks. After three hours of waiting, an eye examination (in which the korean woman who helped translate was thoroughly appalled by my unassisted vision test performance. I couldn't see the biggest line and had to step forward twice in order to read the largest line), a general doctor exam, a chest x-ray, and blood tests, the doctor determined that I do not have H1N1, but instead am merely infected with allergic conjunctivitis as well as chronic bronchitis. Here, the doctor was in total disbelief that I don't smoke, but still have chronic bronchitis. However, he explained, there is no other reasonable diagnosis, plus the pollution in my area has been known to cause bronchitis.

This is my pink eye. It is/was itchy, but the eyedrops help:


I got prescribed a whole slew of antibiotics and extra strength painkillers:


I must take 4 pills three times/day, plus 10 mL of this horrrrrrrible cough syrup 3x/day, PLUS eyedrops SIX times/day, plus I have an inhaler for the tournament in Thailand, in case my bronchitis causes my asthma to flair up. On the up side, I get to go home at 11:30 every day for the rest of the week due to my sickness. This means I can sleep more. And maybe plan better for the rest of winter camp?

I am playing hot potato tomorrow. We are learning about Ireland. See the connection?

xoxo
A

Cake. Alcohol. Korea.

In a less than shocking turn of events, I got drunk last night. What is shocking, though, is that it was on soju, my most loathed alcohol, AND I didn't even get too hungover.

Have I ever told you how much I love this country? Sometimes, I feel like I'm at home here. Right about now is one of those times. My students are absolute dolls. Everyone here is LOVELY.

Tonight, I'm meeting a couple people for dinner and then we are going to go make a cake!! Or attempt to make a cake. Given the imminent language barrier, we will see how it goes. If successful, I will post pictures soooooon!

I'm pretty sure I'm not leaving this country for a while. *^_____________^*

My Korean classes start up again next week. On my list of things to learn how to say: without, I have _________, You are handsome, what time is it, how old are you, I am ___- years old.

xoxo
A

Pictures, or, the things I have been doing

So here is my official recap of Thomas' visit. Unfortunately, I took no pictures of New Years, but the rest of his visit is fairly well-documented. So here goes.

The 63 Building: This is one of the tallest buildings in Seoul, although not the tallest. Built in 1985, it was the tallest building in Seoul, located on Yeouido Island on the Han River, until the Hyperion Towers surpassed it in 2003. The building, honestly isn't that tall, but it has a few interesting things to do in it. There is an aquarium, a wax museum, an art gallery, an imax theater, and a small observation floor. It has 63 floors, 60 above ground, and 3 below ground. We only went to the aquarium, which was pretty sweet, with a really cool otter area and lots of penguins.

The 63 Building

The headless penguin. Actually, it's just bent over to pick at its back, but it does look creepily like a headless penguin.

Go Gators!!

On Saturday, we went to the Coex mall, the largest shopping mall in Seoul, and the largest underground shopping center in Asia. We only went to Coex to go to On the Border, the deliciously American Mexican restaurant, for my friend Woody's birthday. Then went to a Canadian bar in Itaewon for drink which resulted in the single worst public transportation experience of my life. Basically, we missed the last train back to Incheon, so we took the train to Guro (but thought it was going to Incheon), and then had to take a taxi. The taxis were wildly expensive. They wanted to charge 10 dollars more than what a taxi costs from Hongdae, a full 6 subway stops in the exact opposite direction of Incheon. I bargained with the taxi driver to get 30 dollars (what it usually costs from Hongdae which is still a bit of a ripoff), and then when we finally got to my apartment, the skeezy driver said he never told me 30, but 40 dollars. I called him a liar, in Korean, and wanted to just get out, but Thomas paid him the extra 10 dollars, which was dumb, in retrospect. We should have just gotten out and left. But yeah. It was awful.

Happy Birthday Woody!

Sunday, went to ICE SKATING! They have an outdoor rink right in the middle of the city, and it was really really crowded but really really fun. I want to go again really sooooon. The famous statue of King Sejong (the most famous of all the Korean Kings) was right next to the rink, as was a really pretty Christmas tree. We also went to the King Sejong museum.

King Sejong, on a beautiful day

Me and the Christmas Tree!

Monday marked the heaviest day of snowfall in Korean history. Incheon received just over a foot of snow, nearly shutting down bus and above ground train services. Luckily, everything was just really delayed, not cancelled. Thomas and I tried to go see an Andy Warhol exhibit, but the museum was closed. Instead, we threw snow in each other's faces, and then went to Namdaemun, a huge traditional market area, where people ripped us off because we were foreign. We also went to the world's largest department store, a Shinsegae store located near Namdaemun market. It really was quite enormous. We went up to the 9th floor, but didn't go much farther. I got a Coach wristlet (Madison op art sateen wristlet, but in a different color than what they have online) on sale for 50% off, and almost a kickass pair of Nike Airs, but decided not to.

So much snow!!!

That night we went to Gangnam to meet up with Ara and Seonghwa, which was nice. We went to get dinner at this really good samgyeopsal restaurant in some backstreets that I could never get to on my own. This is when I fell in the snow. It was really embarassing because Gangnam is really busy and kind of ritzy and I ate it. Then we went to a Korean style bar which was also quite good. I finally tried dongdong-ju (rice liquor that is way way more delicious that soju), and a type of bamboo liquor that was served in a real piece of bamboo. It was cool. We had queran jjim (an egg dish that is quite tasty) and paejeon (Korean pancakes). I love Ara. She is positively wonderful and I am so thankful to her here.

The boys

DongDong-ju & Paejeon

Tuesday, Thomas' last day, we kind of just hung out in Incheon. We went to Chinatown and had overpriced Korean-Chinese food. Then we tried walking up a hill, but there was this car that looked like it was going to slip in all the snow/ice and come barreling down at us, so we avoided that, and in so doing, Thomas fell. It was awesome. Then we finally trekked up the hill to the numerous beautiful monuments located in the area. First, a statue of Confucius, then a look out over much of Incheon, then the monument to 100 years of allied work with the US, then the General MacArthur statue, then a statue commemorating the student soldiers from Incheon that fought in the Korean war. It was a beautiful, but frigid day. Also, an old man told Thomas he was very handsome, but that I, on the other hand, was nothing to write home about. *sad*

Statue of Confucius

100 years of Partnership with the US

Me at the monument!

I know it's long, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed it was still moderately interesting.

xoxo
A

Bonus Picture: This is what I look like these days. I am this Korean. Also, I'm inside and I'm wearing: tank top, long sleeve shirt, sweater, cardigan, scarf, earmuffs, jeans, tights, sock. It's not that cold inside, but it's what K-girls do. Also, GIRAFFE EARRINGS

A lot has been going on. But I'm sick and so I don't really wanna write about it.

Thomas came and left.

I had two days of winter camp. Next week, new winter camp with my favorite students at my school. I hope it doesn't suck. I haven't planned anywhere near enough. I just want everything to come together with no work.

Listening to a fuckton of hip hop.

I fell in the snow the other day in Gangnam. I think I hurt my knee, but not that bad.

I found out things that I probably shouldn't have. Said things today I shouldn't have.

I took a 40 minute nap at work after eating. It was awesome.

New Years Resolutions:
1. Lose 10-15 pounds. This is less an aesthetic goal than a well-being goal. I don't really care about being thinner (which isn't to say I wouldn't mind being thinner) but I really wanna get toned again. I want to drop some of the weight I've picked up since graduating. Part of this goal is going to the gym and forcing myself to run. Even in cold and snow. Seriously, I need to grow a pair and just do it.
2. Find someone to throw with at least once or twice/week.
3. Quit thinking that the only way I can be happy is via intimacy with men.
4. Cook at home at least two or three meals per week. Really cook. No more grilled cheese, and less eating out. As it stands, I eat out at least 5 times per week, usually more.
5. Lesson plan more in advance.

These are vague and most of them have no planned means for following through, but seriously. I have got to get my shit together. I'm in Korea and I'm spending an offensive amount of money every week, and I'm saving virtually nothing.

xoxo bitches,
A

Happy New Year

As the title indicates, here's to hoping everyone rings in the new year joyfully and safely! Went to Seoul to see the bell-ringing ceremony near city hall. It was interesting. There were a ton of people packed around this little area with a big huge bell. There was a lot of talking, but it was all in Korean, which made it a touch anticlimactic for me, but we counted down (IN KOREAN!!!) and rang in the happy new year, literally, with 33 tolls of the bell. As soon as we said il (one), everyone started setting off fireworks (roman candles mostly) into the sky, and shouting happy new year! Then, it was a mass exodus. It was interesting to see how quickly everyone cleared out. I've never been in times square at NYE, but I can't imagine such efficiency happens in the departure of people there. Anyways, after the bell rang, and people were clearing out, dozens of Korean people wanted to take pictures with me and my friends, who are all relatively good looking foreigners.

Went to Norae-bang in Hongdae.

Thomas had Japanese food on the first night he was here. Hooray.

Today: 63 building, idk what else.

I got a rose from a guy!