Desk Warming

Today is an unfortunate day. It's New Year's Eve and my plans with my boyfriend got scraped because he has to go to church with his parents and I can't even come to help him endure the torture (it's a long, messy story... under normal circumstances, he'd have invited me). At least I've made alternate plans with a couple girlfriends here. Otherwise I'd be totally devastated and alone tonight.

Then, after I got to work this morning, an English teacher comes into my office asking for another English teacher with whom I share my office. Unfortunately, she's not in yet. Teacher leaves, then returns to inform me that the vice principal wants me in the main office with the other teachers so as to avoid using the heater unnecessarily. This means I'm now stuck on a computer running only internet explore version 5 or something and so I can't comment on youtube videos or watch hulu (no vpn), I can't really do any serious work because it's weird sitting at some other teacher's desk, nor can I sleep without feeling really guilty or leave early (which I had planned on doing almost every day... only about 15-30 minutes early, which I make up for by always arriving some 15-20 minutes early every single other day of the year). Plus, I can't use facebook chat due to the old verion of ie. And I can't download the new version of ie (I think I can't download anything) and I'm super depressed.

The only good thing that happened today is that my principal and a bunch of other administrators and teachers all agreed that they really love me and that they want me to work at my school forever. Unfortunately, I'm planning on going to Seoul to study Korean for somewhere between four and eight months next year. Also, I may or may not be going home for a few months at the end of 2011.

Oh, Happy New Year. I hope your NYE sucks at least a little less than mine... :-/

Diet

So I've lost 5 kilos!! Well, more like 4.5, but I'm gonna round up because I'm darn excited about it. I'm almost back to my freshman year of university weight. Now if I can just go back a teeeeeeny bit further into high school weight, I'd be practically euphoric.

Anyways, this weekend, I finally get to see my boyfriend, who, due to final exams, has been sadly absent for the last week and a half or so. And this weekend I'm going to be making some Christmas Cards. By some cards, I might mean a card.

I also got some students to participate in my video project. Yay!

Christmas is in a weeeeeeeeek! And it snowed a whole bunch yesterday/today. It was awesome! But it won't snow again for a long while... :-(((((

YAY!

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

Christmas Time

It snowed on Sunday. One of my students texted me about it (this is a long story... my students know my phone number) and that was the only way I'd have known about it. I was in bed pretty much all day, trying to nurse a hangover. I got up around 5 p.m. to shower and finally get some food (I hadn't eaten all day). Hit up McDonalds where, to my chagrin, there were to families of Westerners with loud kids. You know you've been in Korea too long when you go somewhere and see Westerners and think, "God those westerners and their foreign ways, why can't they just try a little harder" I snarled at them a bit (and their kids who were going crazy in the play area climbing where they shouldn't have and then screaming wildly) and ate my chicken mcnuggets and bounced. Then had ramen for dinner at 10 p.m. Today my appetite is off. I wasn't very hungry at lunch, but now I am famished.

Anyways, this week I am showing A Charlie Brown Chistmas to my classes, and playing a word game (how many words can you make from the words Christmas Tree) and giving candy canes that my parents sent as rewards for the most words. It's gone over well. Students here don't know what candy canes are.

Anyhow, I'm trying to think of cool things to do next semester, and I am hoping to start pen pals with my grade 3s, but I need to find someone in the states who is teaching middle schoolers. I'm thinking maybe 6th graders or something. I will have about 100-150 grade 3 students and I would like to do a monthly penpal letter. My students would write their letters in class as part of their practice (homework is nonexistent here because students are so busy with school and then hagwons or private study) for one class period/month. Then, I would mail all the letters in a bundle back to the states and they students back at home in the states could respond. I am thinking that monthly would work okay. My students write a letter in class, I mail it the Friday at the end of the week, It gets to the States in about a week (so we are at 2 weeks time). Students in the states have a week to read and respond (homework?) and then US teacher sends bundle back to me (2 more weeks). Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. My students start in March. The only problem is that students would only be able to be penpals for 3 months. March, April, May, before school ends for summer vacation. That's the only downside.

It could still be fun for American students, and really really good practice for my students. If any of you know of some middle school teachers who would be interested in doing something like this, holla atcha girl.

So, Christmas is on Friday. It hardly feels like Christmas, even with the snow (of which there are still lots of remnants around my place). For a little while, weather.com indicated snow on Christmas, which would have been LOVELY, but it looks like they have since retracted that prediction. Bummer.

Ho Ho Ho bitches.

xoxo
A

Cold Cold Night

Today is freaking freezing. This week shows highs in the 20s. Huzzah, winter is here! However, Christmas predictions show now snow. In fact, prediction looks like highs in the balmy 40s!

Thomas is coming here soooooon! I cannot wait! He gets in on the evening of December 30th, which is my last day of classes. Then we shall explore Incheon (blah) for a day. By that I mean, we will go to Chinatown and eat jjajjangmyeon and sweet and sour pork and maybe see the peru, and then we'll go to Seoul for New Year's. Shooting for an all-night, which is very plausible, if not likely. Then Dongdaemun, cheongyecheon, maybe that one palace that I haven't been to yet near city hall. Maybe Myeongdong. 63 building. Busan? Who really knows?

I'm making Christmas cards for my coworkers right now. Making a snowman card, a snowflake card, a santa card, and one more. Maybe a Christmas present? I need a good idea. I have glitter glue to use, which is quite exciting. Back into craft mode, which is a relief. Things have been really crazy lately, so it's nice to be able to take a break. I gotta find wrapping paper and then a white elephant gift before Saturday so I can go to the Christmas party on Saturday AND so I can mail my Christmas gifts next week sometime. God. Working full time (at a place that isn't the mall) really impedes my ability to get Christmas gifts.

I didn't teach any classes for the last two days, which is good because I've finally had a break. I got some planning done for a teacher class I'm doing over winter break (which is good because LPs are due on the 17th) and I came up with some ideas for the camp at the boys school. Still no idea what I'll do for the girls, but that's easy enough I only have 4 hours to plan. And two hours are supposed to pretty much just be games, so that'll be easy enough, I suppose. For the boys camp, it'll be about 20 hours, which is a lot more demanding. Unfortunately I've received no guidance or information regarding the boys camp, so idk what the hell is going on with that.

Do you believe in Jesus?

This is what a friendly young woman asked me today as I was leaving school. Today was an unusual day because students had all sorts of weird activities in lieu of classes this afternoon including job fairs and handwriting things (it looked like arts&crafts) and stuff, and there were lots of visitors. When I was leaving, I saw a group of three women packing up a van with some Korean writing on the side. I assumed they were related to the job fair or other activities. I bowed to one of the women slightly as a greeting, and continued on. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the woman I acknowledged hurried over to talk to another, younger, woman. The younger woman ran after me and asked me, "Are you a teacher?" And I said yes. "An English Teacher?" And I said yes. "Do you believe in Jesus?" And I said yes, if for no other reason than in a desperate attempt to avoid the evangelizing she was preparing to do. Her response? "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!" and ltos of hand clapping. I'm not sure if I've ever seen someone be so happy about hearing that someone believes in Jesus. It was cute.

Need to buy:
Picture frames for all the pictures of my friends from HOME that mommy sent me
HATS (omg, Korea has the best winter hats in all the land)
more and more and more and more leggings. I just got tealish green ones that I am SO excited to wear.

That's it here.

xoxo,
A