It's my birthday soon. I can't wait. I started writing this blog on the 28th. I was going to talk about how it's my birthday soon and I was a little nervous about being alone but really happy to go to Jeju and blah blah blah.
Instead, I will talk about how completely kick-ass my birthday was.
Anyways, my birthday really was fantastic. I could spend the time listing all the kick ass gifts I got, but I won't (although my new Hello Kitty watch, Red Riding Hood planner, Coke can camera, hair pins, kitty cosmetic case, skinny jeans, Milano cookies, steve madden gold oxfords, mix cd, rubber stamps, hello kitty pillow, and big bang stickers galore were all pretty tight^^)
Instead, I just want to say I am so thankful to my friends both back home and here in Korea. Usually, all my posts are about how wonderful Korea is and how much I love it here. It's true, I freakin' love Korea. Probably more than the United States. I love the food, I love my job, I love my students, I love the public transportation. But, even though I love it, sometimes life here is a little bit difficult. Whether it's communication issues or just the occasional bout of homesickness, sometimes I wish I were in the States.
I was very concerned about being lonely on my birthday, but I have been so well taken care of here, that I have hardly had a moment this week to think about home. All week I have been receiving cards and packages and little reminders about how loved I am back home. Then, on Wednesday/Thursday/today, my school co-workers and students have been so kind and fun and cheerful and celebratory that I can't help but be thrilled.
My students sang Happy Birthday to me maybe 15 times this week. Plus, gave me cards and letters and various little gifts. On student wrote the kindest note on her card: "Dear teacher: Because of you my English is developing. You are my best teacher. Please remember me." I almost cried.
Then yesterday, my co-teachers took me to dinner at a kamja tang restaurant (my favorite korean food) which is incidentally owned by the mother of one of my favorite grade 2 students, Minji. The kamja tang was FANTASTIC, and the conversation was good. Then, we went to a bar, where I got to open presents and eat cake and drink beer with people who are like my second family.
And now, it's a day of non-work work (although I should prepare for lessons next week), and them I'm off to Jeju for the 9s tournament. Sure, I haven't packed at all, and I work till 4:30, but it's all good.
So, yesterday, my co-teacher and I went to go see the G-Dragon Shine a Light Concert movie at the CGV Theater near Incheon City Hall. Believe it or not, this was my first movie theater experience in Korea. I know, I know, I've lived here for over 8 months and I'm only just now seeing my first movie? Yeah, well, some of you may know that I'm not really a movie person. The only reason I ever watched movies in high school/university is because of Craig. Craig was a total movie guy and I just went along. hah. I just don't really like movies. The plots and characters never really stick with me for any time at all. People always ask me if I've seen this movie or that movie, and frankly, I don't really know because I can't remember. It's a problem i have.
However, the GDragon concert movie was much easier to get behind because there is no plot to remember, and there is a very limited cast of characters. Granted, there were lots of special guests, including Teddy, CL, Dara, and ALL of BigBang (omgomgomgomgomg) but, I already know these people, almost intimately (they don't know me, but I know them... weird). GD had costume change galore, with two all-white outfits, an all red jacket and pants ensemble, a sweet jacket that was white orange and yellow (if memory serves), a ridiculous black outfit with a GIGANTIC BOW (omg, this was my favorite thing), and a black tee with a black vest with feathers. I love this man. He's so cute when he makes his little faces, but then so sexy and hard when he raps or gets really intense. Gaaaaaaah. Also, Taeyang was a special performer for Korean Dream and Look Only at Me (나만 바라봐) and it was wonderful.
Oh, and did I mention that I got a cool mini movie poster which I will be putting up in my room to continue the Big Bang shrine.
As far as movie theaters go, the CGV is by far the nicest I've been in. In addition to your standard movie theater fare, you could also eat at A Twosome Place or the foodcourt one floor below which has McDonalds, KFC, Baskin Robins, CanMore(<-- English!), or a number of Korean places with Mandu, Ramyeon (that's k-spelling of Ramen), Sundae (not ice cream), and a number of other things. Also, you can go to the arcade, which is about 5xs the size of a typical American Movie Theater arcade, and much better lit. Also, you can do a little shopping in the Movie Theater's gift shop (that's right, the movie theater has a a gift shop), which features toys, stuffed animals, trinkets and other chotchskies (thanks Ali!) that are typical from Japan, but occasionally from SK itself. We're talking Dragonball-Z figurines, stuffed Totoro dolls, phone charms galore, post-it notes shaped like dog bones, toast, fried eggs, or pineapples, and other various goodies. Plus, a Samsung Store, in case you want to indulge in a new Corby F that our beautiful 2ne1 girls promote during the movie previews, a video camera (because you were so inspired by the cinematography in the movie Kick Ass), or a new laptop to edit your future oscar-winner. Seriously, it's like a mini shopping center.
I almost purchased a stuffed version of this guy. He's so effing cute!!
Today is my birthday and mid-term exams for my students. They are stressing and I am relaxing. My co-teacher gave me a kick-ass Hello Kitty pillow thing for my chair for my birthday. This is the same co-teacher who loves BigBang and took me to go see GD's concert AND went to see Brian McKnight with me and Miranda. She is the best ever!
So I just added a live traffic feed to my blog so that way I could look and see about how many hits my blog is getting on any one day in particular. I think I'm becoming more and more like Joe at www.joseph-gutierrez.com in that I am becoming more and more interested in becoming an internet superstar. Unfortunately I'm pretty certain that no one reads my blog. Bummer. But maybe one day I'll become popular, after extensive k-pop blogging and other meaningless drivel that the larger population usually deems interesting.
Also, this week I've been getting Birthday things! Last Friday I got my first card. Then, yesterday, stuffed in my little mailbox which, by the way, is perhaps the least secure way of sorting and providing mail that I have ever seen, was a package from Paigey! I haven't opened it yet, and I haven't even cheated and read the customs form yet so I can be surprised by the package on my birthday. I did notice however that there was some strange tape job on the envelope that seemed pretty uncharacteristic of my meticulous, if not somewhat obsessive-compulsive friend, Paige, so I looked and that and discovered that this package had the honor of being the first package sent to me that was opened and searched by customs agents. Paige assures me that there is nothing in that package search-worthy, but I suspect it was probably the crack pipe she sent me along with the hash she packed into a stuffed teddy bear. I told her it wasn't worth it, but people just don't seem to listen to me...
Then today at lunch, a lady who works in our main office came up to one of the Korean English teachers and whispered somethings and my co-teacher told me that I had a package in the office. In fact, I had TWO packages: one from Sar-bear and the other from the 'rents. The package from Mom & Dad was big, but not too heavy, which is a relief because when they shipped Christmas stuff, it was so heavy. I cheated and opened a couple of things, but I won't say what because my parents read this (I think) so I don't want them too know too much.
Anyways, my apartment is a wasteland right now. So much laundry to do before I jet off to Jeju this weekend.
Yep that's right, I'm headed off to Jeju this weekend, suckers! The Hawai'i of Korea, as it's so famously called, where I will get to kick back and relax and enjoy my time... oh, no, wait, that's right, I'm going to play in a savage nines tournament and get my ass kicked by the weather and the exercise and the work and the drinking. Perfect.
This month not only has the birthdays of myself, three of my best friends back home, three other people who teach English in Incheon, three other people who play frisbee with me in Seoul, and four other people who I played frisbee with back in Gainesville, but also contains the birthdays of one of my favorite 교포, singer Jay Park, or in Korean, 박재범 (yesterday, April 25), and the funniest jokester of them all and member of my all-time favorite k-pop idol group, BigBang, Daesung, or more formally, 강대성 (today, April 26).
And to celebrate, I figured I would include some pictures of my two birthday boys, plus the newest release from my boy Dumbfoundead, collabo with Clara Chung (winner of Kollaboration 10) and Jay Park himself. Called Clouds, the song is absolutely beautiful and dfd kills it, as usual. Clara's voice is also impeccable. Enjoy!
p.s. Daesung is the first three pictures, and Jaebeom is the smokin hot bod in the last two. *melts*
Seriously, I love Big Bang so much I can hardly control myself. This was posted on allkpop.com in February, but I just now found it while reading about a half dozen Big Bang articles online. It's so effing funny. Some fan made family trees for Big Bang members with pictures from various stages in their careers, and it's so awesome. If you are even remotely interested, here they are:
Personal favorites include Kwon Ji Young's (G-Dragon) first younger brother who disappeared after being diagnosed with heart disease, Lee Seung-Hyun's (Seung-ri) mother who smells of cinnamon and loves cappuchino, Dong Young Bae's (Taeyang <3<3<3) 23 month-old sibling who still can't open his eyes, Kang Daesung's older brother who still thinks he's a cat.
1. I am going to kill my grade 2 class 6 students. They are pure evil. Last week I assigned classwork and then collected it to check and grade and such. This morning as I was grading my last batch of work (I graded over 600 papers for student because I see them all in a week), I checked grade 2-6, and discovered that they did literally nothing. I assigned them work to do, basically just pair work where they ask their partner questions about a calendar schedule they received. Then, they had to write their sentences down to get credit. Of the 36 students, 8 did work. The other 28, NOTHING. This, in spite of me going from student to student and specifically, individually, explaining the activity and forcing them to speak. They wrote literally nothing. 28 students. As a result, today in class, I am going to make them miserable. I don't even effing care, I'm so pissed. This class is consistently bad, ignoring instructions, talking over me, sleeping, distracting each other and making mean jokes. At least 20 papers had only doodles. Gaaaah. So mad.
On a lighter note...
2. Just now at lunch time, my grade 3 students were preparing for their class picture for the yearbook, which I guess is a big deal or something. They were all huddled in the girls bathroom (I always brush my teeth after lunch and saw them there) hiding and using a hair straightener. I thought it was completely ridiculous that they were all crammed into one tiny bathroom stall, so I told them to move to my office to prepare. They were so shocked that I didn't mind them using hair straighteners in school, and they all rushed over like kisd in a candy store. Also, some girls were putting on make-up (eye liner, concealer, the works) and such. They are 15 years-old for goodness sakes. They should be wearing that much make-up. Then I saw the kicker. One student pulled out a glue stick (literally a classroom glue stick) and applied GLUE TO HER EYELID, in order to create the coveted double eyelid. Completely effing ridiculous. I about lost it just then. I was like, are you crazy? Glue is not for your eyes! But my co-teacher in my office said, "oh, lots of korean people put glue on their eyes."
I think my eyeballs about fell out of their sockets and my jaw basically unhinged and bounced to the floor. Effing Korea.
For those of you that don't know (all you Euro-trashers out there reading my blog), the before is regular asian eye, and the after is the double eyelid, which many many many women undeergo cosmetic surgery to create.
This is not make-up. It should not be near your eyes.
Last night after work I got home at about 5:45, had a Chilsung Cider and two chocolate chip cookies and took a nap. I had planned on waking up an hour later to go to emart and buy some lightbulbs because the two in my bathroom blew out and I had spent the last two days without any light in my bathroom. Makes showering/make-applying/hair fixing a bit of an experience.
Unfortunately, I work up at 9:30. I checked my e-mail and facebook, texted and phone-called bekah, and then promptly went back to sleep.
You see, I've been pretty sick lately. Not deathly ill, just a fairly bad cold. Also, I bit the inside of my left cheek, and it's not healing very quickly and it hurts a lot. So I figured I would take sleep when I could. As such, when I woke up, I still had no light in my bathroom, but I was feeling quite refreshed.
Found out that my Family Mart restocked their Strawberry milk, and then got to work to discover that Ali wanted to gchat. And so we got to do video at my school and she saw some of my students and it really was pretty great. I was very happy, and all in all, it was a very good morning. Let's just hope my afternoon and evening will continue being equally great. *^^*
Yesterday I went to the Family Mart at the bottom of my building and discovered they were were out of my beloved strawberry milk. I think my sudden obsession caught them off guard and unprepared, and as a result, they didn't have enough supply to support my habit. Instead I got banana milk.
On another note, things in my life are really crazy. I won't bore you with the details, but things are sort of going pear-shaped these days and I don't know where my head it at.
1. Strawberry Milk(딸기우유)~ Seriously, this shit is addictive. From what I've heard from people back home is that strawberry milk exists in the United States, but in my head, it is pure Korean. Especially in the perfectly shaped bottles that are so freakin' cute. Also, I've never noticed strawberry milk in the dairy aisle, although that maybe because I'd found any kind of milk to be perfectly revolting up until the last 7 months. Now, I drink strawberry milk almost daily.
2. New Reflection Eternal songs~ This music is pure fire. Talib Kweli has got to be in my top three MCs of all time list, and the last Reflection Eternal album has always been a go-to when I just can't find the right music. The newest song that they've released (the album doesn't drop til May 18th), "Midnight Hour" featuring Estelle has been on constant repeat on my work computer for the last three days since I heard it. Everyone back stateside who has even the mildest appreciation for hip hop of any form should seriously cop this album and support two of hip hop's best.
3. MacBook~ Seriously, doing everything on this computer is so much more intuitive and wonderful than my old pc. I can upload pictures to facebook without ever logging into facebook's stupid uploader. I can upload videos to my youtube account off imovie without doing any work. It's fucking genius. Also, iMovie is so so easy. I've made two videos already and will be making probably a hundred more. God, it's freaking awesome.
4. My grade three students~ Oh man, these girls are amazing. They spend so much time with me, it feels like they are so much more than just my students. Certainly, some grade 3s are a bit annoying, but by and large they are incredibly sincere and wonderful and sweet and hard-working. Even the bad ones (read: 김사라) are actually interested and working hard and trying to use English. Also, they really want me to learn Korean, and they work with me with more patience than I have with my inept at English students. On Wednesday, I brought my laptop to school and some of my students were hanging out with me and I showed them photo booth. They loved it.
5. Spring flowers!!!!~ I went to Yeouido (여의도) today, and it was really pretty. Being from a place where flowering trees pretty much don't exist (for those of you who didn't know this, palm trees don't really flower), I'm totally not accustomed to see trees and bushes that are virtually all flowers. It's really cool and pretty and spring-y. It's still a little chilly here, but really the trees are gorgeous, and when it's sunny, I feel like dancing because the weather is so perfect in the sun. Here are some pictures from my jaunt into Seoul and the beautiful flowers. As an aside, at the park, there are lots of basketball courts and I balled on some Korean dudes.
I wanted to share this video. I really like this G-Dragon song, but had somehow managed to not see this video until JUST NOW. As a result of my lackluster following of the YG family, I'm officially a youtube subscriber to YG entertainment's channel.
This video just went up on Jay Park's youtube account, and it's AMAZING. He is singing a cover of Frankie Valli's classic, "Can't Take my Eyes Off of You" which naturally sends me back to that time I visited Amy in Chicago and saw the Jersey Boys musical and fell head over heels (again, considering I was brought up on that music) for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Seriously, this made me miss Amy and the LOEF a whole hella lot.
This past week has been exceptionally warm prompting me to wear only a light cardigan and my peacoat in lieu of my down coat. This is very exciting because I haven't been able to consistently not wear my down coat for so long before. Anyhow, it got to about 60 degrees today which was amazing. I mean, it's not Florida April weather, but you know what? I think I might like this better. Now if we can just work on getting some consistent sun. Oh, and a pool or two near me to lay out at. *^^*
Anyways, my ipod still won't sync up to my itunes but next week I don't have frisbee practice, so I will be doing three things:
1. going to myeongdong to have the genius bar look at my ipod/laptop and try to figure out what's going on
2. going to yeouido (여의도) to see the Cherry Blossoms and maybe bike ride. I saw some of my friends rode bikes, and I want to ride a bike again really bad. *^^*
3. going to Sinchon (신촌) to celebrate the April birthdays in Incheon by eating a fuckton of nachos and cheeseburger.
Hopefully, I'll also get to work on some moooooooovies on imovie. teehee. That would be awesome! *^^*
So I wouldn't say this has been my best week ever, but I'm hoping it will get better. I think my new lesson which starts tomorrow and runs through next Wednesday is pretty tight and well-made, and I'm hoping it really enforces the lesson that I taught last week and increases their ability as they continue to use the how often construction and its appropriate responses.
Aside from my general optimism regarding the upcoming lesson, my week has certainly been less than stellar so far. To start on Sunday, I simply didn't get anywhere near all the things that I had wanted to accomplish done. My to-do list is about a kilometer long (hey, you like that i've switched to metric these days?) especially since buying my computer has induced a flurry of file transfers, important application downloads and general orientation to the new operating system.
Then, starting Tuesday and lasting through Friday are parent visitation days in which any parent can come to classes to observe at any time. It's a little nerve-wracking, and I've felt obliged to dress nicely, although I'm throwing that one to the dogs tomorrow, when I will wear jeans, and i don't care what minji's mom says about it. This is just stressful knowing that parents are watching you and evaluating you and then reporting to the school their impressions.
Then, on Tuesday night, after finally transferring all my music files to itunes on the macbook, I attempted to sync my ipod. Naturally, it totally didn't work and got all effed up and cause itunes to freeze and subsequently cause finder to freeze thereby making it impossible to eject my ipod either via itunes or manually through the desktop/finder/disk eject. So I tried about a million more times and my ipod is currently sitting on my coffee table restored to factory settings, with a full battery charge and absolutely no music on it whatsoever. Evidently my computer can not read my ipod. FML. So on Saturday morning before frisbee I suppose I may be headed to the apple store to inquire about what the hell is wrong. Unless it miraculously starts working again suddenly. Not likely.
After finally following asleep in the dress I wore to work on Tuesday, I managed to have easily the most terrifying dream series. I would wake up nauseous and terrified and fall back asleep and my dream would restart essentially wherever I left off. What was my dream about, exactly? Oh, you know, my father was killing everyone in my family and circle of close friends in gruesome and horrifying murders. For example, severing legs off, crushing with rocks, and attempting to suffocate me by spraying hairspray in my face for like hours. God. It was terrifying. In my dream, I tried to call 911, but they didn't believe me so they didn't come.
Lately I have been so so tired, and it's bizarre because last week I slept so well, and now it's just disappeared, and I can't sleep through the night to save my life. On Monday night, I woke up about a dozen times to run to the bathroom, sick and nauseous. On Tuesday night, night terrors. What'll be tonight, fate?
Seriously though. Park Jaebum (박재범) was the leader of Korean super group 2PM until information leaked that he had written negative things about Korea on his personal myspace (he was born and raised near Seattle, Washington, and moved to Korea after auditioning for JYP entertainment). He is famous in Korea for being quite possibly the sexiest man alive, as well as his impressive singing and dancing abilities. Anyways, now everyone hates 2PM (myself included) because JYP recently announced that Jay will never rejoin 2PM and members of 2PM (especially my once beloved Taecyeon) said some shitty things about Jay that simply can't be forgiven.
Anyways, he's back in the states and living in Washington again. He was recently at Rutgers for a major KSA thing, and he has been working the dance crew Art of Movement, and he is supposedly starting university in Washington (at some small school) in the fall. He recently started a youtube channel, which I am already a subscriber, and I just found some videos from his time at Rutgers performing, and OMG AMAZING.
Can I just effing marry him now? Seriously.
So that's all for now y'all.
Oh, and p.s. I got a macbook and it is tiiiiiiiight. Now I'm up for some seriously skyping because, you know, my macbook is amazing
So, I'm certainly biased in my sheer unadulterated passion for Taeyang, so my concert review will inevitably be biased. Unfortunately, the concert venue had a no camera rule for the concert. Naturally, I broke it for a couple stealth pictures, but they aren't very good. Because we were in the front row, virtually right in front of a bunch of security people's watchful eyes, I couldn't even take my camera out for a quick shot. All pictures (and a pair of really really short videos) were taking from behind my purse because I was terrified someone would see me and take my camera away. Anyways, I saw on allkpop.com that some people who were in rows like 6-10 got some great pictures/videos, because there were more people around them to cover up their illegal picture taking antics.
So this is how the concert went:
1. Before the show, we went to Burger King because there is no other food anywhere near that area. So, while at burger king, some people with yellow staff vests came into the BK and me and Miranda and my co-teacher joked about how we should talk to them and get in with the venue workers. But I was like, nah, homeboys just set up chairs and shit, they can't get us backstage. Remember this statement for a little bit later, because it bites me in the ass later.
2. We get to the gym and we go inside and we freak out a little because our seats are so incredible awesome. We just left of center, and oh my god, we were totally freaking out.
3. We waited a long long time.
4. Taeyang came out and OH MY GOD I WANT TO MAKE LOVE TO HIM. Sexy as can be.
5. Taeyang sings where U at, dances a lot and makes me want to cry.
6. Taeyang talks briefly to say he will only do one other song, Wedding Dress.
7. Wedding dress starts, i take stealth video (to be posted soon), and he walks over to the side of the stage we were near. While dancing, he accidentally knocks his glasses off. After knocking off his glasses, I lose any shred of sanity I had as Taeyang LOOKS RIGHT AT ME and smiles. For real. For real for real for real. Miranda AND my co-teacher will verify this. god. At that moment I just died.
8. Taeyang leaves and I am devastated.
9. Shortly thereafter some people in yellow staff vests come onto the darkened stage and I was like, oh look, the burger king boys are part of the sound tech or something. Note also this idiotic statement.
10. Then, the music starts, Brian McKnight comes out. I'd like to add that for age 40 (he was born in 1969) he looks damn good. I'd hit it.
11. Out walks Burger King/"sound tech" boys into the spotlight. One has a guitar and they other dances out. They stand immediately next to Brian McKnight and do back-up vocals. OH MY GOD I AM A FUCKING IDIOT. That was my shot at meeting Taeyang/Brian McKnight
12. I cry a little bit inside.
13. Brian McKnight is unbelievable. His performance was off the charts amazing. Honestly, his voice live is studio album good. Like, there were maybe 5 notes all night that could have been better. 5 notes. In a 2 hours performance. Seriously, his voice and his range and the smoothness are impeccable. The best live singer I've ever seen, hands down.
14. Also, Brian McKnight was very very funny during the show. He did/said lots of funny things.
15. Brian McKnight did a brief tribute to Michael Jackson.
16. Brian McKnight and I had eye sex like 5 times. I SWEAR TO GOD he looked right at me. Everyone around me was like oh my god, girl gettin' all the attention. He pointed to me and winked and smiled and licked his lips once or twice right at me.
17. Then, Brian McKnight, in his only real slip-up of the night introduced Taeyang for a duet, horribly butchering my beloved's name, but then realizing it and apologizing. They sing My Kind of Girl together, and Taeyang looked sexy as hell in his plaid shirt and faux-hawked hair. He danced a bit, and Brian McKnight played the acoustic guitar (he also played electric guitar, piano and bass guitar in the course of the night). It was beautiful.
18. Taeyang leaves. I am devastated again.
19. Brian McKnight sings Anytime and I melt. I literally thought I was going to die of joy.
20. Brian McKnight then says he wants to introduce his sons and I was like oh yeah, I read on allkpop that his sons would perform and then who walks out? BURGER KING/SOUND TECH BOYS. fml. I could have talked to/met/hung out with Brian McKnights SONS. Jesus Christ. I am a hugely stupid person. Also, if only I had flirted at BK, then I could be just stumbling home from a wild and raucous night with Taeyang, Brian McKnight jr and sr, and Nic McKnight.
21. The sons took center stage and got their singing on. Their voices are also amazingly good, and the younger one tore it UP on the electric. They are both really skinny, but the older one was mad tall and super sexy (unfortunately he's only 19 hehehe). He also had brief eye connection with me, during which he smiled and pointed to me and gave me a little finger curl like come here baby. ahhhhhhh.
21. Brian McKnight sang Back at One. I lost control and started weeping. Okay, so that didn't happen.
22. After the show, the sons were on stage and I got to shake their hands. I wanted to say something really awesome to the tall hot one (brian mcknight jr) but I was like uh, that was great, thanks. Fail. He did shake my hand and kind of hold on longer than most other people.
23. All in all it would rank as one of my top 3 concert going experiences of all time.
Now for your viewing please, a video from not me at the concert of taeyang performing where u at (he had some sound issues during his performance where his earpiece monitor thing fell and broke or something. I felt really bad for him)
Tonight is the night that I meet my future husband. I'm headed to Seoul right after school with my coteacher and my friend Miranda in order to see this man:
In case anyone is interested, here are some more pictures of my future husband, and a video of my favorite Taeyang song, which I'm learning all the words to slowly but surely.
