After School

My new favorite female idol group? After School tears it up with some drums, some stepping, some crazy dancing and singing on their Music Bank comeback.

Positivity

This weekend was rough and exhausting. Not necessarily in a bad way, just in an exhausting way. On Friday night, I went to Bupyeong for dinner, then to Hongdae for clubs (Ho Bar then Cocoon). Got home Saturday at 3:15 a.m., after a taxi ride from bupyeong in which I had a legitimate conversation in Korean with the taxi driver. Then woke up at 8 a.m. and skype my sister and parents from 9 to 11 a.m. Hopped in a taxi to the train station, got to Ichon station in Seoul at 12:45. Walked to the fields, played ultimate in the cold wind for an hour and a half. Grabbed a taxi back to itaewon, where the disc hotel is. Then hung out for one hour to shower and check e-mail and chat. Then hopped a bus to gangnam where I had ddeok sam, which is AMAZING (and is thin sheets of rice cake wrapped around samgyeopsal-- slammin') Then, back to disc hotel. Then to Dillingers in Itaewon, this bar. Then to King Club-- terrible. Then to B1-- terrible. Back to disc hotel with Beth at 4 a.m. Up at 9:30, eggs&bacon a la adam/bekah, back to Ichon at 11. Practice for 2 hours. League for another hour. Train to Incheon. Now here I am.

My ankle hurts and I'm so tired.

But, I just officially paid off almost 1/3 of my total student loans, since I sent some money home with my parents and it got deposited this week. I felt like I could finally drop some real bones to work on paying down my debt. My goal at the end of two years, I think, will be to have no loans or debt at all. This is going to be difficult, but I think doable. I started out with about 11,000 USD in debt, so if I can pay all of that off in two years, I'll be relieved and happy, especially since the anticipated repayment time was 10 years.

On another note, t-minus 4 days until I am sitting mere meters from my future husband.

More good things~~ Hot list 2

1. Jisan Valley Rock Festival: Thanks to Joe at You Can't Hold Me Responsible for This for posting this link to the Korea Times. I think I might be interested in going. I love me some Belle & Sebastian and a good concert or two. The Jisan Valley Rock Festival just announced Muse and B&S as artists to play. More artists coming later. If the set list shapes up as well as it started, I'm sure I'll hit it up. Last year they had Weezer, Oasis, Muse, Starsailor, and some others. Anyways, like Joe, I will be checking the site regularly.

2. Surilla: Another L.A.-based underground rapper. Found him through Dumbfoundead's youtube channel series, "The Homies" in which DFD interviews and chats with various rappers/entrepreneurs/alternative artists (taggers/bboys/etc). He just dropped his mixtape, Simon Says Vol. 1 (DL <----) recently and I dl'd it and am quite impressed. His flow and voice are unorthodox but interesting.

3. MARCH MADNESS: nuff said. It's been a crazy tournament so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing how regionals go tomorrow. Let's go UK and Duke!!

4. Big Bang: Downloaded some new songs I didn't have. A student told me today that BigBang is performing in Gwangju at the World Photonics Expo, which is basically a light festival that looks tight and will only be made better by BigBang singing and falling in love with me.

Alright, that's all I've got here.

Things just started to look a little bit brighter

Today I received in the mail some new things I purchased from YesAsia which was really exciting. They were shipped (from Hong Kong) like 2 and a half weeks ago, and I started to get nervous that they would never turn up at my school. But today my co-teacher Oh Yoon Kyung came to my office with a big black package containing the following wonderful items:

Epik High's Album/Book, [e] It is a two disc album and also contains a book written by the members of Epik High, Tablo, Mithra, and DJ Tukutz. Most of the book is in Korean, but I'll consider it good practice for my language learning. Also, Dumbfoundead is featured on a song, and he's like my favorite person ever.

Big Bang's Goodbye 2009 photo album: over 100 pages of photos of my beloved BigBang boys. Heavy emphasis on G-Dragon, which is fine with me. Also, omg, I'm falling in love with T.O.P. a little bit. This photo album also came with a key chain/phone charm mini photo album which I've already added to my phone. *^___^*

Big Bang's 2008 Global Warning Tour AND Taeyang's first solo concert Hot DVD: I borrowed this from my co-teacher and it was so amazing that I had to purchase it myself.

These three things compile the second best thing I've ever spent 100 dollars on.

The single best thing I've spent 100 dollars on is something I haven't even done yet. hahaha. But, I've spent the money. On Thursday, April 1st, I am going to see Brian McKnight (yes, that guy that sings Back at One and Anytime) perform at Jamsil Gymnasium in Seoul. Why this is so amazing (and worth 100 dollars) is because Miranda, Hyun-sun (my co-teacher), and I score front row tickets AND Taeyang (the love of my freaking life) will be there to open the concert. I am making a sign that says, "Young-Bae  I love you!!!" in Korean and English. I'm so effing excited I can hardly contain myself. I think this concert will mark the start of the best birthday month I've ever had!!!!! *^________^*

Also, I went out with some friends for dinner. Had a pecan waffle for dessert. DELISH.

Also also, been working out at the gym. It's freaking awesome. It's amazing wha a couple good workouts can do for you.

Oh, and did I mention that I had this dumb online class that I had to complete by midnight tonight and I forgot about it/couldn't access it until 11 p.m. and I still managed to complete 10 lessons and a final test in just under an hour. I literally submitted my answers at 12 midnight. JACKPOT.

So it's way late and I should be in bed.

Snow.

Today is March 22nd. It is snowing. Like, a lot. Really really really hard.

I wanted to go running today, but there is no way in hell. Guess I'll hit the gym.

I will try to post a picture soon if it's still snowing in an hour when I go home and can get my camera. This shit is crazy.

[Update] PICTURES:

So they aren't the greatest pictures but I had a workout to do, plus laundry, plus finding dinner somewhere in this shit weather, and go to sleep at some reasonable hour.

Not good enough.

I certainly didn't have the greatest weekend ever. In fact, in spite of talking excessively about how happy I am here and how I'm considering staying for a longer amount of time, taking a year off teaching and attending a Korean language program at a major University here, just an hour ago I thought to myself, "I don't know if I can really live here."

I have been tremendously stressed out, mostly over ultimate frisbee. In addition, feelings of loneliness have been pretty strong for me. Not lonely in the sense that I don't have friends, because those I certainly have, in abundance. However, I'm actually feeling lonely about not having a male in my life.

Honestly, I've spent the last 12 months really enjoying my singledom. I've had the freedom to date casually or hook-up with whomsoever I choose, both in the States and here in Korea. But for some reason, I'm beginning to feel like I'm finally looking for something different than that, or something more. And even more odd and unexpected is the strange reminiscing I've been doing over past boyfriends or flings that could have been more. And the more I think about it, the more I miss C, and the way I could tell him most anything, or the way I felt when he held me. Was our relationship healthy or good? At the end, no. But I think missing those things is normal. But, it is also a little bit stressful to be thinking, god, why can't I find someone here? Why can't those flings turn into real things?

Did I mention that having a brother who is only a year older than me and is quickly approaching his second anniversary with his wife doesn't help much? I know I'm still really really really young, but I feel a mounting pressure to settle down in some way.

And, that, my friends, is what I'd like to call a bit of TMI.

In an unrelated note, I just finished planning for my week (which starts on Wednesdays). And by finished planning I mean I came up with something to do for the first half of my classes, and then I don't really know what else I'll be doing, but the first bit is gooooood stuff. From there it should be interesting.

*Note to self: request class rosters to monitor tardiness, overall class performance, and plus/minus points.

Next week marks the start of stamp season, which is the 4 month period where students literally swamp my office in order to talk to me to earn stamps galore on their papers. One sentence = one stamp, three stamps/day maximum. And there are days when roughly 180 students would walk through my office doors to complete this three sentence chore. It is extremely stressful, but I've successfully implemented the Wednesdays off policy, which states that on Wednesdays, no students can earn stamps and Allison Teacher can actually work.

That's all here, folks. Sorry for the blah-ness of this one. I'm just not feeling the greatest these days.

xoxo,
A

Two things I like come together

So, what do hard-hitting, foul-mouthed, tatted-like-a-crazy-motherfucker hip-hop artist Lil' Wayne and annoying, nerdy, volunteer sheriff/beet farmer/paper salesman Dwight K. Schrute have in common?

Well, besides their mutual love for weaponry (glock 9s and .45s are the weapons of choice for Weezy F Baby [not to mention his sharp, violent lyrics] and the equally lethal, but significantly more seasoned, crossbow for Mr. Schrute), they are also featured in Clockwork's latest mash-up of Mr. Carter's song Hustler Musik and the theme song from the Office.

Before you pass this off as some ridiculous/heinous/appalling pop culture trash, give it a listen.

In my humble opinion, I think it is fucking awesome. But then, I sometimes perceive myself as the dorky, foul-mouthed, sometimes annoying, hip-hop loving, crossbow-shooting, beat dropping cross between these two fine gentlemen.

For your listening pleasure:

Winter part 2

It's snowing. In the middle of freaking March.

Also, today I promised 7 of my best grade three students that I would go with them to RedMango in Seoul over Summer Vacation. Can I get in trouble for that? I am not buying their yogurt, and they are not buying mine. They had never heard of it, and I was shocked BECAUSE IT'S KOREAN. And, it's in the U.S. Buuuuut, there are no locations in Incheon (we checked) so I said I'd take them to the closest Seoul location.

That's it.

Hooray snow!

Car and Driver

On my way to work every morning, I must walk on a sidewalk beside a small road that leads to my school. My school is tucked back behind some apartments and government buildings and there is a small street leading to it from the main road. This street is just one lane each direction, with speed bumps intended to encourage drivers to proceed with caution. Between the hours of 7:45 and 8:30, this street is teeming with students. Between my school, the boys middle school next door and the elementary school just a bit further down the road, there are easily 1000+ students (I'm guessing here... my school and the boys school each have 700 students, plus the elementary school, with most walking) walking this street to their respective schools. Only one side of the street has a sidewalk, and so students must cross the street (from the apartment building entrances) to walk safely. Generally the students walk on the sidewalks but when there are too many students (or piled-up snow on the sidewalk), some may walk on the shoulder of the street.

It is thoroughly disconcerting the speed at which most of these cars drive. some of the apartment entrances that the students walk out of are blind turns, making it extremely difficult for them to see oncoming traffic. Cars speed by, hardly slowing at all for the speed humps, and blaring their horn as if to warn the 7 year-olds, "if you don't get out of my way, you're roadkill"

It totally freaks me out. Today, I saw some girls peaking around their blind corner at the entrance to their apartment complex as an SUV came barreling down the street. They lept back as the horn let off a lengthy screeching "outta my way" warning to the students.

There are 6 year olds walking to school on this street. Have some care, you imbeciles. That could be your kid you nearly miss as you rush to beat the traffic to your shitty desk job.

Video

hahahahaha. Maybe you won't find this as funny as I did, but jesus, everything about this meal was hysterical. I was in stitches the entire time we ate (which was a long time given the expansive nature of our four-course feast).

The rest of my week.

My week went fairly well with my family, minus the little hiccups of getting a stomach virus, my sister getting said stomach virus, and my dad getting on my nerves. Perhaps my being sensitive about my dad, but he sure does know how to drive me crazy.

Anyhow, while I was at work, the family explore various places including Chinatown, Gwanghwamun plaza, the Seoul Museum of Art and Deoksugung Palace. A little jealous because I still haven't seen the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Seoul Museum of Art and it's been on my to-do list for like six years. Ok, so 3 months, but still.

On Thursday night we headed to Sinchon in Seoul for a little Gogi Buffet, which is basically all you can eat Korean bbq. You can have just about anything, from pork to kalbi to steak to bulgogi to fish to octopus to chicken to samgyeopsal, plus rice, plus all you can drink soda, plus some sides (kimchi, sundae, ddeok, etc) for the very fair and reasonable price of just 8,900 won. I ate to my heart's content and then decided I will never eat that much again so long as I live. Except for the other 5 or 6 times I return to that same exact restaurant.

Friday night, met up with the family in Seoul and walked along Chonggyecheon stream a ways and then headed to Myeong-dong for a bit of shopping and people seeing. Got a new skirt at Forever 21. Then went to the NEW H&M that they just opened up two weeks ago. OH. MY. GOD. It's amazing. The outside of the building is all white with lights and a characteristically tiny red H&M sign. The inside was pure genius, with beautiful groupings of clothing, hung artistically and whimsically. Really, the design of the store was genius. Unfortunately, because the store was so new, it was INSANELY crowded. We are talking at least 800 people were in that store at one time, probably more than that. The line for the fitting rooms (which are on every floor) was 12 people long, in spite of the presence of over 25 stalls for changing. At H&M Mel got a plaid button down shirt and I got the cutest coat on the face of the planet. Pictures to come soon. The we went to TGIFridays for dinner. hahahahaha.

Now pictures of Chonggyecheon.

this is the start of Chonggyecheon Stream. Preeeeeetty.

blurry.

Melly!

This little guy is Haechi, the mascot of Seoul. I LOVE HIM.

xoxo,
A

To tide you over during my "lack" of posts

Since I started blogging so much, now I feel guilty if I don't keep posting often. This is ironic because most of you people only post maybe once every 2-3 weeks, if that (ahem, Nicki, Paige).

As a general update, Monday night-Tuesday morning I had food poisoning, which pretty much laid me on my ass for about 20 hours. I didn't go to work until about 11:45, and then taught one class and came back home, and passed out. Went to dinner at a donkkasu place (friend pork cutlet) and got udon noodles and ate roughly 6 noodles and drank the miso broth that the 'rents got with their meals.

And this is the newest Epik High music video. It's pretty inspirational, at the end.  Epik High is basically my newest obsession:

My Family is here y'allllllll!

So my family is here, and it is AWESOME. They got in Saturday evening, around 6 o'clock. After hugs and a bit of dunkin donuts at the airport (peanut crunch donut anyone?), we headed back to my apartment. Because each visiting member of my family brought gigantic bags (my dear old mom topping off the list with a goliath box on wheels of a suitcase), we had to take a deluxe taxi, which might have just been the best deal of my life, because it had t.v.s lots of space, and they METER the drive. Jackpot.

 So happy my sissy is here! At the airport

Anyways, we went to White Castle Motel to get Mom & Dad a room. If you remember from a previous post, in which I locked myself out, the White Castle Motel is where I laid my  head to rest after my first traumatizing korean experience. Of course, me saying that I wanted the room for 7 days blew their minds because, well, who stays in a love motel for 7 days? Why, my parents of course. They didn't have a room ready yet, so we went to get dinner and left mom & dad's luggage there.

So we headed to dongincheon station to try to find some kalbi. Finally found a kalbi place (after one mis-step where I took them to a restaurant that did NOT have what I wanted). Dinner was quite tasty, wang kalbi, kimchi, the whole nine yards, plus melly and I shared some mul nangmyeon to finish it off. Moms and Pops found the kimchi and the subdubu jjigae too hot to handle, and they did NOT like the nangmyeon. It was also at this first dinner that I realized just how non-adept my family is at using chopsticks.

So yesterday, my family and I headed into Seoul to see Gyeongbokgung (the largest of the five palaces in Seoul) and Insa-dong. We took the subway, which rocked mommy to sleep, helping her to fit right in amongst the other sleeping ajummas on the train. After getting off the subway, clearly I looked like enough of a local (??!!) that some Korean person visiting from elsewhere decided to ask me how to use the general one-way tickets. Score one for waegooks korea-wide as I patiently explained the process and the woman thanked me profusely.

Family loved the palace, in spite of the cold, windy weather. I had been there once before, but discovered whole previous unseen areas of the palace grounds. Went inside to the national folk museum, which was more fun the second time around. Pictures from the palace and the museum:

 

There are all these little statuettes of various animals. I liked this one, of a rooster/eagle. Right, Melly doing her thing with the fancy camera while I create grainy pictures with my point-and-shoot.

Left, someone's house, not the kings. Right, Melissa in front of what I continuously referred to as the dance hall.

Left, view from the garden area behind the Queen Dowager's house. Right, pretty painting and details of a home, I think the Queen's.

Towards the very back of the palace, this was built with heavy chinese architectural influence. It was built after a fire severely damaged much of the main palace area.

Melly giving kissies!

The left, and walked along that lovely area just ouside the folk museum with all the little boutiques and coffee houses. Moms and Pops were hungry and I told them we were looking for food, but I didn't really know where I was going, so I just kept following the road in hopes of eventually finding insa-dong. Luckily, I managed to get up to the traditional korean homes area in Jongno-gu. Really pretty look outs from traditional houses out to cityscapes. Then walked down to insadong area. Managed to follow random signs and a crappy map to find insadong.

 The side of a building in Jongno-gu. So many crazy artsy things here. This is all metal, from cars.

 Left, view from Jong-no traditional area. Right, doors on a house in this area.

I will chronicle our lunch/dinner experience in my next post, after I get to upload my video to youtube. It's going to be an instant classic, I think. Really, it's pretty awesome.

Went shopping. Mom & Pop got a spoon for their collection. Mel & I got coffee. We headed home.

Today I am at work, and the family will be heading out to Seoul to see Gwanghwamun plaza and Chonggyecheon stream. Then I will meet them and maybe we will go to dinner somewhere in Seoul and come back home. Who knows what the evening will have in store. Hopefully not a ridiculously expensive dinner (yes, that is foreshadowing for my next post).

xoxo,
A

My Hello Kitty obsession hits a new apex

So last monday, Christi, Miranda, SY and I went to Hello Kitty Cafe in Hongdae, Seoul. It was quite possibly one of the greatest things I have ever experienced in my life. Seriously, I don't know what is wrong with me, but in the last 3 weeks, my hello kitty obsession has hit new heights, leading me to buy all kinds of ridiculous kitty paraphernalia. The weird thing is, I freaking HATE really cats (although my love of hello kitty has tempered this hatred mildly), but can't get enough of kitttttty!

Anyhow, this will just be a picture dump because it is really difficult to express in words the sheer joy that came with going to the hello kitty cafe. Seriously, it was one of the best things I've done in Korea thus far (and I've done/seen some pretty neat things). I think the only thing that easily tops the Hello Kitty Cafe is the Dream Concert, because, until next year's Dream Concert, nothing will top it.

So without any further ado, the Hello Kitty Cafe:

 

The outside of the cafe. It is super tiny and they said we could expect a wait of an hour (but it only took 20 minutes) And me being silly in front of the cafe!

 

I kept this one kind of big because it's a really really good picture of me and Miranda, AND hello kitty in the background is so perfect.

 
 

The walls have cut out silhouettes of hello kitty, and the chairs are hello kitty tooooo!

 

 I got a waffle and iced americano for about 5,000 won, which is pretty good for a specialty cafe like this. Also, the kitty in the corner of my plate is chocolate dust. omg. love it.

 

Caramel waffle, hot chocolate, ice americano, strawberry yogurt, fully decked out in hello kitty style. More chocolate dust kitty on hot choco

 
 

So effing happy!

 
 

Even the bathroom was decked out with hello kitty. Also, this is the chocolate cream cake I bought to eat at home. *^__^*

So, that was my trip to hello kitty cafe.

xoxo,

A

p.s. OMG MY FAMILY WILL BE HERE IN 2.5 HOURS! pinch me, I must be dreaming! *^^* 

 

Lately...

Things have been going great! I had a wonderful weekend, my family will be here in 4.5 days, my whole month is mostly planned, meaning all I have to do is make my powerpoints and prep class materials, school is back in session which means I get to see my stuuuuudents, I'm getting a new phone, Korean class is generally going well, and I'm happy.

Here are some pictures from the last few days. My next post will be dedicated to my Monday, which was glorious, but for now, everything else:

Fog seems to be so common here. In Florida, it's mostly an early morning thing, but this was taken at 6 p.m.

 

Monday was a national holiday (according to my Google Calendar, it's Independence Movement Day) and there were flags EVERYWHERE. I liked it.

On Friday night, I met a new friend, SY, who is amazingly cool and friendly. This Friday I will be learning how to make chopchae (there isn't a good way to write it in english... grrr) at her house from her mom. Seriously. I love this girl. We had coffee at Holly's Coffee and then met my friends for dinner.

It was SY's birthday on Saturday so we got her an ice cream cake. SO DELICIOUS!

We loooooove cake, birthdays and SY!

We also love kamikazes!

Hopefully everyone else is enjoying themselves as much as I am. I still sometimes can't believe I'm in Korea. Gosh, I sure am a lucky person, being able to travel as much as I have been, and meet as many new exciting people as I have, work at such a wonderful place like I do.

Also, I booked my plane ticket to Jeju Island, for the savage nines tournament going on there in May. I'm really really excited! Also, that link above is to an English language site, so check it out! I know many of my links are to Korean sites, so I'm throwing a bone to you foreigners. *^^*

xoxo
A