Erin in Korea!

Except that I'm not ready to go. Not even a little bit.

I mean, I am. My stuff is packed, my loose ends have all been tied up, physically everything is good to go. But in my mind, I'm just going on vacation. And I suppose, if things work out as planned, I will be. But it's the not knowing that's making this so difficult. I didn't get into teacher's college (again), so that helped clear up some of the uncertainty, but now it's just going to be a matter of getting my paperwork in order, finding a job, and getting everything cleared with Immigration (who hopefully will have forgotten about this whole messy situation in a few weeks), and I have no idea how long that will take. I've got some serious threats hanging above my head that have given me a month (or a tiny Englishwoman will be descending upon Canada and unleashing her wrath upon my head, among other things haha), and I really hope it won't be much longer than that. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do at home with no job, no money, and nothing to do because everyone I know has a job or school or something important to do. Brush up on my Korean, I guess. Haha, Young Jin was making fun of me today when I told him that's what I planned on doing while I was home. He was like, "you aren't going to learn Korean while you're home. You've lived here for almost two years and you still speak less Korean than a five year old. Good luck." Such support. T_T

Anyway, the past week here has been one of the best and worst of my lives. Last Friday I went out to dinner with all my co-workers from English Doctor for a proper farewell party. Everyone came out...all the foreign teachers, all the Korean teachers, even the secretaries, Do Young and Young Eun, made it! Jinny's son Hye Sung (Ben) was there as well, and he is one of this year's kindy students, so it was nice to get to cuddle with him a bit and say goodbye...he's SO cute. Julie's husband came, and he's so hilarious. I got to meet Jinny's husband as well because she got hammered and he had to come pick her and Ben up haha. Do Young's husband even came to join us later at No Block, which was nice because I hadn't seen him since their wedding last fall. Anyway, I was doing just fine all through dinner, but then Jinny leaned over to me and said, "Erin, I'm really sad that you're leaving, because I've seen the way your students learn and develop, and they improve so quickly. You're such a good teacher, and I'm really disappointed you have to go, because I was really glad that Ben was going to have the opportunity to learn from you." And that just set me off. I started bawling and I couldn't get stopped. Everyone was making fun of me and laughing and I was just a wreck haha. But I finally got it under control and we left dinner and went to No Block and then to Volume, where we met a bunch of my friends, and we had an awesome night (with only a few more tears haha). Then on Saturday I met up with friends in Nowon again and had another awesome night. Sunday Eric came over to our place to hang out, and then we went to meet Chris in Nowon, and we had a couple beers and played some darts. Monday Ashley and I went to Ses' place to hang out, but then she and I decided we should go to Nowon, and we met hung out at No Block and drank with Rain, one of the bartenders, and his friend Dae Sung, who was some sort of ultra-wealthy businessman who bought us all our drinks and a fancy cheese tray and was really nice. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent packing and trying to organize two years of my life into two little suitcases. Thursday Julie invited Ashley and I to her house for a party, which was held in honour of her husband getting a promotion at work. Four of his co-workers were there, and they all spoke English fairly well, and were all half in the bag by the time we showed up. They were hilarious. One guy (who was like 35) was quite enamoured with me and I think, had I wanted to, I probably could have convinced him to marry me this weekend so I could stay in Korea haha. The others were really nice and funny, and we had a great time. Julie made us some kind of delicious chicken thing, and we all just drank beer and played a drinking game and ate, and then we went to Nowon to a Noraebang and then to No Block for a bit (before Ashley and I had to bail because it was like 1am haha). Friday night everyone got together in Nowon again, and I got a chance to say goodbye to most of my friends. Then last night Ashley, Ses, Laura, Young Jin, Eric, Andy, Weston, Ken and I went to Itaewon for one last filthy night out in the Special Foreigner District. There was some major tears and at one point I was ready to just go home and cry myself to death, but I powered through and the rest of the night post-bawlfest was amazing and I had a blast.

Tonight Ashley and I met one last time with the boys (Andy, Weston, Eric and Young Jin) for dinner. It was fun but bittersweet -- Andy won't be here when I get back. His school went bankrupt and he's had enough...he's leaving next Tuesday. So that was a particularly sad goodbye. Then I saw Ses and Laura briefly and said my goodbyes to them, said bye to Na-Na on my way past the Etude House (she was working), and then later Eileen came over to give me a book and a movie she'd borrowed, so I got a chance to hang out with her one last time, since she won't be here when I get back either. Now my suitcases are packed and waiting by the door, Ashley is coming to the airport with me tomorrow, and then I'll be on my way to Tokyo and then on to Toronto.

So, Korea, it's been amazing. These past 20 months have been the best of my life. I can't wait to come back.

And to everyone at home, I will see you tomorrow, strange and unexpected as it is.

Oh, and I got the most amazing e-mail from Joon, one of my students, today: ( To Erin teacher... )

Well, I'm coming home.

Not because I want to, but because Korean immigration is muscling me out. To make a very long (and complicated) story short, my visa application was rejected and I can't re-apply from within the country. I also have to get a new criminal record check, which, as I've discovered, is damn near impossible to get from home if you aren't there to get it. So, in short, I'm homeward bound, probably within the next week or two.

I can't really describe the amount of shock and grief I'm experiencing. My students...my friends...my home...my Korea...all of it, gone in an instant. I can't stop crying, and I hate it. No one understands what's going on, and I'm having to explain the whole story to everyone I know and it's just exhausting. I can't believe this is happening.

Today was my last day at EDLS. I went in to say goodbye to my students, all the wonderful children who have made the past year and eight months so hilarious, frustrating, insanity-inducing, and more perfectly special than I ever imagined. Most of them don't understand that I'm not going to be back tomorrow, or next week, or even in a few months. Most of them were like, "Okay, you can go home to Canada, but you're coming back, right? Like...maybe next year?" and I had to tell them, no, this is it, I will probably never see any of your beautiful faces ever again. And I lost it. I bawled in every single class I taught today, and they were all so confused and sad and it was awful. I hope they remember me. They probably won't...I mean, I barely remember my kindergarten teacher, or my early elementary school teachers, and for them I'm not even the only teacher they see every day...I'm just like a glorified babysitter. I hope they do, because there isn't a single one of them I'll ever be able to forget. My darling Joon today told me, "Erin Teacher, my Korean name is Lim Seung Joon. I hope that you never forget that!" As if I ever could. He's going to do great things some day, and I hope I realise it when he does. That class all asked for my address back home and my phone number and e-mail address, so hopefully they'll actually keep in touch. I doubt they will, but maybe I'll be lucky.

As I was leaving, Joyce, my beautiful little genius, came over to me and said, "Erin Teacher, can we go talk in the bathroom or something? I want to tell you something, but it's a little bit embarrassing." So I said sure haha...so we went into the bathroom and she said to me, "Erin Teacher, I've known you for so long and I've never kissed you. Can I give you a kiss goodbye?" And she leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed me on the cheek and then just hugged me for about a minute. Then, as she pulled away, she said, "I'm really going to miss the way you smell. Do you have to leave?" Haha such a strange child, but seriously that made me bawl the hardest. Who says that? So weird...so cute.

Oh God, what am I going to do without them???

Now that I've said goodbye to the kids, I have to attempt to say goodbye to my friends. I know there are some that I will definitely see again, but there are some that I'm not sure if I will or not, and I'm definitely not ready to leave them. We were planning to go to Jinhae this weekend for the Cherry Blossom Festival, but I think now instead we're going to stay in Seoul and just say our goodbyes. I don't even really want to think about how brutal that's going to be.

So this is it. My last week (or so) in Korea. I just...can't believe this is happening.

My Korea. Oh God, I don't want to go.

Check it out, everyone, I made the KOREAN NEWS!!!

http://www.newsis.com/gallery/view.htm?cID=1&pID=1&page=1&s_skin=&s_date=&e_date=&s_k=&pict_id=NISI20090314_0000841878

Young Jin's friend Tae Woo was reading the news on that site today when he came across the story about St. Patrick's Day. He recognised me and sent the link to Young Jin. SCORE!

I'M IN THE KOREAN NEWS!!! WOOHOO!!!

I'm also way more excited about this than I really should be haha. But come on, how many of you have been in the news in Korea???

해피 성 패트릭의 날!

I don't know if you guys remember, but St. Patrick's Day 2008 in Seoul was easily one of the best days of my life. My dad had just left Korea (thank GOD haha, just kidding, I mean I was still really happy because he'd come), my friend Danny had just arrived in Korea, and Heather, D-Law, Danny and I were all dressed up in our Irish finest and were partying it up along the concrete banks of the Cheonggyecheon with about a million other waegookin and Koreans alike, all in honour of glorious St. Patrick. The parade was huge, the drinks were flowing, I saw just about every person I'd ever met in Korea, and that was the fateful day we met John Cannizzaro. There was music and dancing and drinking in front of police cars, the river was green and ajummahs were busting moves in the streets. It was incredible...*wipes away a wistful tear*

This year, however, the poor Irish Association of Korea couldn't get the funding they had last year to put on such an epic hooley. Something about a global recession? I don't know...anyway, as a result, the party this year was moved from central Seoul to the area around Hansung University known as Daehangno. It's a pretty cool area with lots of parks, art, street performers, and interesting shops and restaurants, but it's small scale compared with Jongno 3-ga. Still, we were determined to make this St. Patrick's Day a great one. Ashley and I had invited all our friends to join us for a pancake breakfast that morning before we headed out for the parade. Young Jin didn't think he'd be able to wake up in time, so he spent the night in Ashley's room while Ash and I had a slumber party in mine. Everyone else was due to arrive at 9:30 for some hotcakey goodness.

Everything was going according to plan...we'd gone out for dinner and drinks with our co-workers on Friday, and in true EDLS fashion had had a few drinks, but nothing excessive. Regardless, I woke up at 7am on Saturday morning and promptly started throwing up. Don told me Monday that he was sick all weekend as well, so I assume it was something we ate, because I'd maybe had about three beers all night, so it wasn't like I was hung to the twelves or anything. But the vomit didn't seem to want to stop, so I camped out in the bathroom for most of the morning. By around 9, Na-Na showed up ready for pancakes, and I managed to haul myself into the shower and get ready for about 9:30. Ses joined us shortly after, rounding out the party...the rest of our friends neglected to show, those jerks. Anyway, Young Jin and I managed to whip up some pancakes, which were delicious (and topped with real Canadian maple syrup, THANKS HEATHER!!). By that time I'd also ingested most of Ashley's medicine cabinet, but I still wasn't feeling great. Still, the show had to go on. It was St. Patrick's Day, damn it! So I rolled myself down the stairs and into a taxi, and we met Eileen at Sanggye Station and from there headed to Hyehwa for the parade.

By the time we arrived I was feeling quite a bit better. Still not spectacular, but I hadn't puked again, so that was a good sign. At the park, we met up with Weston, Laura, Nisha, her friend Christine, Becky, Terry, Aveen, and some of their friends from Paju. We were all just sort of standing around trying to figure out when the parade started when this guy came up to us and said, "hey, does anyone want a job?" I was like, "Sure, I do!" and he grabbed me and Aveen and was like, "All right, I need you to hold this banner." Okay...and then what. "Then follow the bagpiper." The bagpiper? "Yeah, and make sure you stay well ahead of the snake and St. Patrick." Eh??? "Go, GO! You're leading the parade, GO~~~!!!"

And just like that, I found myself leading the 2009 Seoul St. Patrick's Day Parade.

It was literally a bagpiper, me and Aveen holding a banner that said "ST. PATRICK'S DAY 2009 SEOUL SOUTH KOREA!" and then a big snake, St. Patrick, and the entire rest of the parade. As we wound through the streets of Daehangno, we couldn't help but laugh...how did this even happen?? I'd gone from being wrapped around the toilet all morning to marching in a parade, having my picture taken by a hundred million people, smiling for news cameras, waving to Korean babies with their parents, watching the parade go by...if that's not Irish spirit, I don't know what the hell is. :D

After the parade ended, there was a party in the park. Young Jin got excited at one point because there were two Korean guys playing guitars and singing for a huge crowd of Korean people...he was like, "Whoa! That guy in the white glasses is REALLY famous!" So we watched them for a little bit, but it was all in Korean so we bailed shortly after. Then we saw White Glasses Celebrity Dude buying a cup of coffee, and Young Jin was like, "GO TAKE A PICTURE WITH HIM!!!" so Weston took a picture of me with this random famous Korean TV actor or something...I think maybe he's a gag man? I dunno. Anyway, I'll have to get those pictures from Weston and try to figure out who this guy is haha. There were a couple bands playing throughout the day, and at one point a U2 cover band started their set. They were really good, but I couldn't see them (as I was near the back of the crowd), so I stood up on a bench to get a look at them, and they were KOREAN! It was pretty impressive...I wish I'd gotten a video of them. Oh well.

At around 4pm Ashley and I decided we'd had enough, so we bailed for home. I felt like crap and she hadn't slept that well on the couch, so we decided to go home, take a nap, and then head back out afterwards. So at around 9pm we woke up and headed to Itaewon to continue the party. We met up with Young Jin again at the Rocky Mountain Tavern, where he'd been with Eric, his new girlfriend Haneui, Weston and Nick, but as we were on our way those bitches decided they were tired and went home. LAME. So it was just me, Young Jin, and Ashley, who were joined shortly after by my friend Jae Kwon. We tried going to the Wolfhound (the Irish pub) for a bit but as expected it was PACKED (like, dangerously so...I almost got into a fight with some drunk guy because I accidentally bumped into him on the stairs), so we bailed on that and went to Goldfish, the best bar in Itaewon, for some soju kettles. Young Jin went home because he was tired, and Jae Kwon drove us home a little later. We went to Andy's to hang out with him and Eric when we got back to Nowon-gu, and just hung out listening to music and talking about the Zombie Apocalypse. Haha, I almost wish I was kidding. XD

All in all, it was a pretty excellent St. Patrick's Day in Seoul. Not quite as epic as last year, and I could have done without the spew, but still, a good time with great friends. <3

( PICS! )

Oh, and I changed my ringtone to Almost Paradise by T-Max. Now every time my phone rings I laugh. Seriously, such a ridiculous song.


Hope you guys all had a great St. Paddy's Day!

Oh, and apparently the really famous guy was 김철민 (Kim Chul Min). He was on the Korean news too!
http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=001&oid=098&aid=0002009379&
http://www.allthatnews.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=12478#

I had a great weekend. Seriously, just so much fun. We didn't even really do anything and it was awesome.

Friday was Ses' 28th birthday, so in true Ses fashion she had a gigantic party and filled her tiny apartment with half the population of Seoul. At the busiest point I think there were probably about 30 people there, which is ridiculous because she just moved into the Doota Vill apartments, which means she lives in the same building (and same apartment layout) as my old place. Let me assure you, it was not very comfortable, but it was still a great time. We met some new people who have just recently arrived, including Paul from Ireland, who was great. It's nice to add someone to the mix who isn't from Canada, the States or England! Then on Saturday we slept in and then made a big brunch because Nisha had spent the night at our place and who doesn't love having bacon and eggs? After that we walked with Nisha to Sanggye Station, shopped for a bit at the Daiso (dollar store), and then Ashley and I decided against going out and just rented a few movies instead. We watched I Am Sam and Ashley cried like a baby through the whole thing...it was pretty funny. XD

Today we finally made our way to Guri City to see Weston's new place. Turns out it's not as far away as we thought...the cab ride only took about 15 minutes, so it wasn't too terrible. Plus our cab driver had his TV on KBS and the most recent episode of Kkotboda Namja was on, so we got to watch like the last 15 minutes of it again and have a chat with the driver about the show. He doesn't like Gu Jun-Pyo, though, so whatever...jerk haha. Anyway, Weston's new apartment is awesome!! The storage space is all built into the walls and it's really big and spacious...we were pretty jealous! Then we met one of his new co-workers, Kyle, who's from Milton and seems really cool. We wandered around the market alleys of Guri for a while, which were really awesome, and then went to Costco to do some grocery shopping. Then Ash and I parted ways with Wes and Kyle, and headed back home. We were going to watch a movie here, but then Young Jin asked if we'd like to go to his place, so we did. He lives in Banghak-dong, not far from us, but he lives in like, a proper house! It's still technically an apartment, but since he lives with his parents it just looks so much more...homey. We got to meet his mom, who is adorable and really kind. She told us we could come visit any time, which was nice. He showed us a bunch of his old pictures, which were SO adorable, and then we watched "My Best Friend's Girl," which was...meh, all right I guess. Still, it's always fun to hang out with Young Jin, and it was cool to see where he lives.

And that's it! Not that exciting, but still really fun. I love my friends here so much. I miss my friends back home, but the people I have met here are just so great and they make me laugh so hard, it's going to be so hard to leave them.

We've got some awesome things coming up, though! This weekend, of course, is St. Patrick's Day, which was one of my favourite days of last year, and I'm sure will be amazing again this year. Young Jin has never experienced St. Patrick's Day, so it should be fun introducing him to it. We're going to have people over for a pancake breakfast on Saturday morning, and then we're heading to the parade and to the festivities going on around Daehangno, so it should be awesome. Then the following weekend Young Jin is taking Andy, Ash and I to an LG Twins baseball game! I wanted to go to a baseball game last year, but never got around to it, and the LG Twins are basically Young Jin's favourite thing in the world, so he's pretty excited that we want to go. He threatened not to take us because we don't really know anything about the Twins, but Ashley and I threatened to start cheering for the Doosan Bears (the Twins' major rival team) if he didn't take us, so we won. It's also Laura's birthday so it's going to be a pretty big weekend! The Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival is coming up at the end of March as well, so the rest of this month is basically just going to fly by! I'm so excited!!! Yay March!!!!! :D

Anyway, that's what's new and exciting in my neck of the woods. Hope you're all well! <3

Oh, and Dad? Exactly a year ago today you arrived in Korea. Can you believe it???

Seriously, I've just had so much love for this country lately I'm nearly bursting with it.

My students are amazing children, really. They're so clever sometimes I can hardly believe it. Sometimes they just say things and I have to stop and think, "Who taught you that? I know I didn't..." They're like tiny, adorable sponges. Even when I'm having a horrible day, one of them always manages to say something that completely turns it around for the better.

We're working on our graduation plays right now. Sally and Jasmin are going to be singing "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)" from Annie, Get Your Gun, which suits them so well now that there are only two of them in the class. They're both so competitive and are constantly at odds with each other, so for the two of them to be arguing over who is better is pretty adorable. Don watched it today and he couldn't stop laughing, so I think I made a pretty good choice there. They haven't quite memorized their lines, and there are times when Sally just gets way out of control, but for the most part they've done an excellent job with it. Sally, little genius that she is, has basically choreographed the whole thing herself, and has no issue with telling Jasmin exactly where she has to be and when. It's pretty funny watching her boss people around. I'm going to miss that. A Class (Jimmy, Sabina, Chloe, Sara, Penny, Ellie and Julia) are performing "The Lion and the Mouse," which is pretty adorable. I'm really proud of them...they've got their lines almost completely memorized and some of them are really good little actors (Sara and Penny, especially). We're combining A and B class for a musical number -- they're going to sing "Honey, Honey" by ABBA and it's pretty hysterical. Since Jimmy is the only boy in the class, Ashley has choreographed it so that the girls are all singing to him, and it's SO cute. They've picked up on the dancing so quickly and it's really, really adorable. I can't wait for their parents to see it.

Even my little D Class babies are doing well! They're going to be performing "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," which I admit turned out to be a bit ambitious for them, but they've really stepped up their game. I don't know if Karen and Jerry (who are the narrators) will be able to do it without their scripts, but Jerry has his nearly memorized so they might surprise me. Allyson, who I was a bit afraid was going to completely flake out on me, has also really stepped up her game (her parents must have given her a talking-to), so it should be cute. And whatever, if they screw up, they're still the six cutest kids in our school and three of them will be in adorable bear costumes, so whatever. They're going to look so precious, even if their play sucks. C Class is doing "The Gingerbread Man," and I haven't actually seen them perform yet (Don's in charge of that class), but I'm sure they'll be great too. Parker is the gingerbread man, so at least that will be super cute. Hopefully he doesn't insist on wearing his Spiderman costume on Monday haha.

So that's it! On Monday we'll be saying goodbye to another class of graduating kindergarten students. I'm not sure how many of them are staying on to do the afterschool program, but I hope the majority of them do. Even Jimmy has been growing on me lately...I can't believe I'm saying it, but I'll be sad to see him go. For some reason I'm not as sad this time around as I was when the last round of kids graduated. Maybe it's just that I'm getting used to it, but it doesn't seem as hard this time, which is good.

Kkotboda Namja fever is still in full effect here in the Kelly-Schuitema household, and Ashley's friend Annie (who is in Korea visiting on her way home from Thailand) has gotten hooked. Being a fan of this show has instantly made me the coolest teacher ever...the kids are all watching it as well (which is pretty shocking, because it's kind of like Korean Gossip Girl without all the sex, but still pretty scandalous for six year olds) and they love talking about it with me. I seriously spent almost an entire lesson the other day with Gloria, Susie, Grace, Jenny, Jinny, and Jen just talking about Geum Jan-Di and Gu Jun-Pyo and what's going to happen next in their crazy dramatic relationship. Grace was so hilarious...she was asking me to decide between the characters in a game of "Who do you like better?" I kept picking Gu Jun-Pyo (what can I say, he is one good-lookin' Korean!), so I guess it got boring for her, so she decided to up the stakes. She says, "Teacher, who do you like better: Gu Jun-Pyo or Big Bang's TOP?" I was torn...they're both kind of awesome...and she wouldn't let me say that I liked them the same! In the end I picked Gu Jun-Pyo, and Ashley was scandalized haha. She called me a traitor. Poor TOP haha.

Then, Grace decides to up the stakes even further with this gem: "Teacher, who do you like better: Gu Jun-Pyo or Barack Obama?" Bwahahaha! I was like, "Grace!! What kind of question is that??? Who do I like better, a fictional Korean soap opera character or the President of the United States??? You can't compare those two!" And she was like, "Well who is more handsome?" And I said, "They're both pretty handsome, Grace..." And she was like, "Well then, who do you want to kiss??" (She was getting pretty frustrated with me at this point haha) So I was like, "Well, Barack Obama is married, so I guess I'll pick Gu Jun-Pyo." And she says, "TOP will be very jealous, Erin Teacher. You want to kiss too many boys." Hahahaha oh Grace. The kids are so into this show, though. They have all these glossy 8x10 photos of the characters and trading cards with scenes from the show on them, stickers and magazines and all sorts of crap. They keep bringing them in to show me and Ashley...Jeffrey gave Ashley a Gu Jun-Pyo trading card the other day, and Billy gave me a sticker with Gu Jun-Pyo on it. Haha yes, even the boys are into it! So now my cellphone is completely blinged out with attractive Korean men warring, apparently, for my affections. I've got my TOP cellphone charm and my sticker of Gu Jun-Pyo on the back...it's almost too much to handle haha. Seriously though, this show is taking over South Korea. You can't go into a shop without seeing a poster of the characters or hearing the soundtrack playing. I love Koreans and their crazy pop-culture overkill. It's so hilarious. There's even an advertisement at the bakery in the school's building featuring Geum Jan-Di, the main female character, and when we pointed it out to our Bakery Haraboji (Grandfather) the other day (there's this really awesome old man who owns the bakery...he's the greatest), he grinned and shook his head and just laughed at us.

What else...oh yeah! I have a funny Joyce story to share. Joyce is my student who is obsessed with American teenybopper pop culture...she loves Hannah Montana and all those Disney Channel shows (how she watches them I don't know...someone must download them for her), and she loves learning new slang. She is constantly coming up with the most hilarious things. Seriously, every day she says something new that just kills me, like asking me the other day if I called her a "dirty jerk" haha. Where does she even learn these things? Anyway, the other day, this happened in class:

Joyce: Hey Erin T, do you have a lot of friends who are boys?
Me: Uhhh...sure, I guess. Why? (At this point I was already a bit scared of where this was going haha)
Joyce: Do they have holes in their underwear?
Me: Do they...WHAT? Do they have holes in their underwear?
Joyce: Yeah, do they?
Me: Well...uh...I don't really make a habit of seeing my male friends in their underwear, Joyce. I'm not really sure if they do or not.
Joyce: Oh. Well my dad has a hole in his underwear. It's in the front, like this. *she draws a pair of mens boxer shorts at the top of her page, complete with front flap thing*
Me: Ohhh, okay, I understand. (I'm hoping now that she's finished with this conversation, but no...)
Joyce: The hole is there so he can take his "gochu" (Korean word literally meaning "red or green pepper" but used as slang means, well, I'm sure you've figured it out) out to pee!
Me: *headdesk* That's great, Joyce. Can we stop talking about this now?
Joyce: See, like this? *adds to the drawing of boxers she's already done, which now becomes an anatomically correct drawing of a man taking a pee*
Me: *dying of laughter* Okay! Joyce...let's get to work now, okay? Please erase that and open your student book to page 89.

Oh jeez. This kid will be the death of me someday. I had them write fan letters to their favourite celebrities, and her letter to Hannah Montana is so friggin' funny...I'll have to remember to bring it home tomorrow so I can copy it on here. She's so insane.

Ashley and I got invited to Sally's ballet recital on Sunday, so that should be pretty amazingly adorable. Not sure yet whether it would be totally creepy for me to take pictures or not, but we'll see. Anyway, there will be pictures and video coming up soon of the graduation, so keep your eyes peeled (if anyone still reads this thing).

Until then, here's a Kkotboda Namja picspam!!!!!!

( Boys Before Flowers! )

Nothing all that exciting has happened lately, hence my total lack of updating. After the big trip and the big show, things don't seem all that amazing. I mean, they're still amazing and I still completely love Korea, but yeah...things are just back to normal. I have a cold, which is nothing new. Actually, come to think of it I've been healthy for quite a stretch now, so I guess it is. It's not a big one though, just a runny nose, nothing I can't handle (and nothing like multiple chest, sinus, and eye infections all at once, knock on wood!). Lately we've just been hanging out around the Nowon area...we haven't even ventured south of the river lately, which is strange, because before it seems like we wouldn't be caught dead spending Saturday night in Nowon. But it's way cheaper and our group of friends here is really amazing, so why not?

Last Friday we all got together at Ses' ridiculously small apartment, after Ashley vetoed having people over here (she is sick of cleaning up afterwards haha). We managed to get a pretty massive entourage together, actually! Ashley and I obviously went, and so did D-Law. Nisha, Ashley's friend from home was there as well, and so were Terry G and Becky, two girls we'd met on the scavenger hunt. Ses was there (obvs, it was her apartment), and so were Terry and Julie, Weston, Andy and Eric, Young Jin, two of our awesome Korean friends (Lee and Eric), Michelle (one of Eric and Andy's Korean co-workers), Arnim, Na-Na, and Ok-Hee (a Korean girl Weston is sort of dating). So it was a great mix of waeguks and Koreans (11 waeguks and 8 Koreans)! We were planning on just pre-gaming at Ses' place and then heading to Hyehwa, but in the end we just went to Nowon instead haha. We stopped into No Block for a bit, where we found Trystan, Danny, and Ji Young, who joined us all at Volume shortly after. At Volume we met Laura and Justin, Nick and Ily, and Kurt (new Heather), and made a few new friends (most notably Mike, a flamboyantly gay guy who lives in Ses' building). We danced like idiots until the wee hours of the morning, at one point had a dance-off with a bunch of Koreans (they would have kicked our asses, but the Koreans dancing for our side, aka Terry, were totally better!), and then left after we discovered Nisha's bag had been stolen (along with her iPod, her camera, her cellphone, and her wallet). So that kind of put a damper on the night, but she didn't want to ruin anyone else's night, so Lee, Korean Eric, American Eric, Ashley, Nisha, Ses, Mike, and I went to the Princess Highest Singing Entertainment Noraebang. Lee and K!Eric didn't stay long, because they got fed up with Mike and A!Eric, drunken idiots that they were, hogging the mic. Then Ashley and Nisha left. Then when our time was up, Eric, Ses, Mike and I went back to Mike's place for a bit to chill, but it was lame so I went home.

Saturday we all decided we needed a break from the bar scene, so Ashley, Eric, Weston, Andy and I got together for dinner at Outback and then went to Andy's place. We were going to go bowling but that never happened, so instead we just sat around Andy's place wearing stupid hats and watching videos on Youtube. Sounds lame, but it was one of the most hilarious nights I've had here...those boys are just so ridiculous, I love them. Then Sunday Ashley and I just bummed around, napped, went to Yongsan to buy some dvds, and did laundry.

Like I said, nothing too exciting.

Korea has been great lately, though. Today on our walk Ashley decided she wanted a snack, so we stopped at a street stall that sells these little pancake things that are filled with cinnamon sugar, and the guy gave us two for free! He's done it once before, too...haha, he loves us. The crazy old lady we pass every day was out in full force today, exclaiming (as usual) that "KOREA IS BERY GOOOOD! KOREA NUMBA ONE!!!" to which we can only reply "YES!" with big smiles and thumbs up. That seems to make her happy. D-Law came over tonight and we had galbi for dinner, which was delicious as usual. She's getting ready to leave for her Great Southeast Asian adventure, which I am incredibly jealous of. She's only got a few more weeks here and then she's done! I can't believe she's been here for a year already...seems like she just arrived yesterday. I'm going to miss her so much!! *sob*

Anyway, here are some pictures of the last couple weeks. I promise there's not as much Big Bang this time (since that went over like a lead balloon.) Here's hoping people still read this thing!

( Let's start a band! We'll call it Snacks for Ashley. I call lead tambourine! )

That's all I have for you this time. This weekend we're planning on keeping it low-key, so don't expect any updates soon haha.

Haha I don't know which one I'm more excited about, my trip to Hong Kong or the Big Bang concert last Saturday. Both were incredible, both were experienced with great friends, but only one had criminally attractive Koreans singing and dancing for my entertainment...then again, only one had the largest outdoor seated buddha statue in the world. So yeah, let's just call it a draw haha. How can I compare a k-pop concert with a one in a lifetime trip to Hong Kong? Well...it was an awesome concert? Haha I dunno, I've been on a bit of a Big Bang high all week. They're really that awesome. XD

Anyway, finally, here is my blog about both.

( Hong Kong Phooey! )

And now, BIG BANG! ( B to the I to the G, B to the A N G! )

I'm back from Hong Kong! We had an amazing time...details to follow, but now it's time for work! *cries* I'm so tired!!!

Hey there everyone,

I've just finished packing and getting all ready for my trip to Hong Kong! We are leaving from Seoul at 10:15am, and because it's Seollal (Korean/Lunar New Year) we are expecting the traffic to be atrocious, so we're aiming to leave on the 5am bus from Hagye station to the airport. BAH. I need to sleep, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to. I don't usually sleep well before I travel, especially when my flight leaves early in the morning.

I don't know Rob's address in HK yet, but as soon as I know I'll send it to you (Mom) and let you know how you can get in touch with me there if need be. Otherwise, I'll be back in Seoul on Tuesday night! Gah, I'm so excited!!!!

See you on the other side! It's back to China for me (round 3)!

Now, Hollywood celebrities and rock stars rarely touch down in poor little Korea. They almost always go to Japan on tour (or to promote movies), and occasionally visit places like Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Taiwan, but very, very rarely do they ever make the trip to the Land of the Morning Calm. In the year and four months that I've lived here, the only celebrities and bands that I can think of who have been here are Celine Dion, Billy Joel, the Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, Paris Hilton, and Maroon 5. Pretty sad, considering Koreans are huge into Western pop culture. Maybe not on the epic scale that the Japanese are, but American tv shows, movies and musicians are still pretty big over here.

So imagine our surprise when Ashley read in the Korean Herald today that Mr. Scientology himself, Tom Cruise, would be gracing out great city with his ultra-loopy presence! He's scheduled to arrive tomorrow with director Bryan Singer to promote their (apparent crap-fest of a) film "Valkyrie." He's going to be at the CGV theatre in Yongsan tomorrow evening for a "hand-printing event" (IDK, maybe they're starting up some sort of walk of fame thing there?) and then at the Seoul Grand Hyatt for a press conference. Ashley and I are quite intrigued...however, tomorrow happens to be D-Law's birthday and we're supposed to be heading to Hongdae (the complete opposite direction from Yongsan) at around 9. So yeah, we haven't quite decided what to do yet, but seeing Tom Cruise in person in Seoul would be pretty hilarious.

And if that wasn't weird enough for you, check out this video of some Korean band called "Norazo" performing their song "Superman." Pay particular attention to the subtitles...I was pretty much crying with laughter when Wes showed me this the other night. SO hilariously random.



Enjoy! And if I meet Tom Cruise this weekend, I'll be sure to post pics haha.

Last week Ses, Ash and I paid for our flight to Hong Kong. We got a pretty good deal, considering we're going for Lunar New Year (aka Chinese/Korean New Year) and it's peak season. We're going to be staying with Ses' friend Rob, a Welshman she went to university with. From the few messages we've exchanged on facebook, he sounds like a pretty fun and hilarious guy. He lives with two other British guys, so it's going to be like "packing a Big Mac into a matchbox" (as Rob said haha), but it should be fun. Plus hey, if it saves us money I'm all for it!

Now, if you're anything like Heather, you're probably thinking, "Man, Erin, you just can't get enough of China, can you?" And apparently I can't. Now, Hong Kong isn't technically China, but it does kinda belong to China and everyone there speaks Chinese and eats Chinese food and basically is Chinese. Greaaaaat. Haha, I'm just kidding, I'm excited. I would like to some day see part of Asia that isn't Chinese, but I'm happy to have been there at all (let alone two going on kinda three times). Maybe I'll go to Macau while I'm there, and then Taiwan some other time and then I'll be finished with China and I'll never have to go back again haha. Then, maybe, I can finally move on and see something else, like Japan. XD

We were going to go to Japan, but in the end it was just going to be to bloody expensive. We've just had some friends come back from spending Christmas in Tokyo and it basically bled them dry. Stupid awesome Japan...I will see you, some day....*wistful sigh*

Anyway, that's pretty much all that's new here in the Land of Kimchi and Soju. We had a very low-key weekend full of sleeping and movie-watching (and Ashley and I completely gutted our apartment and cleaned it top to bottom) and hanging out with friends. It was nice. This weekend coming up is the birthday of Madame Law, so we are planning on spending Saturday night in Hongdae to celebrate that momentous occasion. Then, after that, there's just one more week of work and we're off to HK for 4 days! Woohoo!! :D

A new teacher started at our school today. She's Korean and her English name is Julie, and she's been hired on to finally replace Tee (who, by the way, left in MARCH 2008) and act as the Kindergarten Director. YAY! It'll be nice to finally have someone again to help plan things with. Anyway, she seems really nice and she's very pretty, which has caused Jasmin and Sally to decide that they want nothing to do with me and that they "love Julie Teacher more!" Traitors. They made her a Welcome To EDLS card today on their lunch break, and I came into the classroom to check on them, and I was like, "What are you two up to?" And they were like, "NOTHING NOTHING GO AWAY NOTHING!!!!" But I wasn't taking no for an answer (just because they were getting so worked up about it haha), so then Jasmin was like, "Okay...but you have to promise you won't become angry." LOL So I promised, and they showed me and I was like, "Oh, girls, that's really kind of you, I'm sure Julie Teacher will be very happy to get these cards." And Jasmin goes, "WHEW!" Haha what a kid.

But yeah, the arrival of a new teacher makes me a lot less worried about the financial state of our hagwon...I don't think they'd be so foolish as to hire someone if they thought the school was going to be closing. And so, in the words of Jasmin Kim, "WHEW."

Well, I got a phone call from home today, which generally means it's been too long since my last post.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my last, incredibly emo post. I'm still pretty upset about it, but your encouragement helped a lot. Also, Jasmin may or may not have decided to stay. She was there on Friday, but it's still sort of iffy because we assumed that if her mom was pulling her out she'd do it on the last day of the month, rather than send her for one day of a new month (since they pay by the month for tuition). However, as the first day of the month was a Friday after a holiday, we're not really sure if her mom just sent her to finish out the week or what. Anyway, I hope she's there to stay, because after Jacob, she was the one I was the most gutted about.

Anyway, on to less depressing topics. Happy New Year, everyone! My start to 2009 was rather uneventful. It was fun, but the clock struck 12 and none of us really noticed. We went out in Itaewon, and we were having some fun dancing and whatnot, waiting for the countdown, and then suddenly this little sort of half-hearted cheer went up and that was it. I didn't even realise what had happened! There was no "3-2-1 Happy New Year!", no champagne or noisemakers or Auld Lang Syne or anything! How lame!! Last year we went to the exact same bar and I can swear I remember it being more of a big deal. I hope that's not indicative of how the entirety of 2009 is going to play out. So we spent some time at Helios in Itaewon, but then Ashley and Weston had had enough of that nonsense and we decided to move on to another bar called Cancun, which none of us had been to. We stayed for a bit but then things got kind of weird, and Laura wanted to go back to Helios to find Tae Woo, who had left to go back there earlier. So off we went back to Helios, but not before we said goodbye to Ashley and Weston, who had had enough and were ready for bed. After a bit Eric and I decided we were sick of Helios as well, so we headed to the Rocky Mountain Tavern for a little while. We ended up staying until the bar closed, and then decided it was high time to stagger back home. We got a cab and both of us fell asleep the whole way home. The cab driver woke us up when we got to Eunhaeng Sageori, where we dropped off Eric, who stumbled out of the cab with nary a goodbye. Then the cabbie took me to my apartment and I went upstairs to bed.

The next day I was talking to Eric online, and it turns out that after he got out of the cab he wandered around for a bit instead of heading home, and ended up waking up somewhere he didn't recognise, about a 30-minute taxi ride away, with a massive bruise on his face, a can of Budweiser in his pocket, and a carton of strawberry milk in his hand. Oh, and he lost his glasses. What an idiot haha. So today we had to go pick out new glasses for him...good thing they're cheap here! Plus they are a definite upgrade. Oh man, I love Eric. He's just so sloppy.

This weekend was pretty low-key. We stayed in on Friday night and just chilled, then Saturday we went to Seoul Tower. I'd already been there before, but no one else had so I decided to tag along anyway. After the tower we went to grab some dinner in Myeong-dong (where we went for dinner with Simon, Dad) and then headed back home and went bowling! Turns out Andy used to bowl, like, competitively, so he was super serious about it, which was really hilarious. Eric was too, which made it even funnier because Ashley and I were just so terrible...we each dropped the ball once and I totally wiped out. I think my highest score was like 56. SO pathetic. Then we met up with Ses, Laura, and Young Jin in Nowon for a bit, but I bailed early because I was tired. It was a pretty great weekend, all things considered. Hopefully this week won't be too painful.

I need a holiday. Korean New Year cannot come soon enough. Ughhhh.

Oh, my last bit of exciting info: I'm going to see BIG BANG! on January 31st with Ashley, Ses and Laura!!! OMG I'M SO EXCITED!!!!! I'll post some Big Bang videos so you can watch and be excited for me. :D

Sunset Glow (붉은노을) -- I've been on that piano street! :D


Lies (거짓말)


Last Farewell (마지막 인사)


Day by Day (하루 하루)


And because I love it and Heather hates it, Dirty Cash (bwahahaha)


OMG IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME. And all in Korean haha.

And here are some pics: ( Happy New Year! )

My babies.

All of them.

Gone.

Jacob is moving away, John's dad has decided he's not learning enough and has pulled him out, Gordon's mom thinks he needs to concentrate on his Korean rather than his English, and Jasmin apparently has refused to come if it's just her and Sally.

So that's it. In the span of one morning I went from having five children in my class to one. I don't really know what I'm supposed to do now. I can't stop crying and it's embarrassing and Don had to come in and give me a pep talk...apparently none of it is my fault but it's just hard to think otherwise at this point. This month alone I've lost those four, Robert and Gloria, Jasmine Lee, Jenny, and Max. A lot of that has to do with the new Avalon opening, and obviously I couldn't keep Jacob from moving, but still. Can't help but take it as a massive blow to my self-esteem. Maybe I suck at this. Maybe this isn't what I should be doing with my life.

I just feel so...lost.

My babies.

What am I going to do now?

Christmas in Korea went off without a hitch.

Ses came over on Christmas Eve to spend the night with Ashley and I. We watched Love Actually and vegged around until we all just passed out. We woke up on Christmas Day at around 9am and set about making ourselves a pretty massive breakfast -- eggs, bacon, toast (delicious!), and then spent much of the morning and early afternoon talking to our respective families on the phone and internet. Actually, it was only Ashley and I who were talking to people from home -- because of the time difference Ses had to wait until around 6pm to talk to her family, but she had fun getting in on the conversations with ours. It was SO awesome to be able to talk to you guys on the webcam...seriously, my face hurt for about an hour afterwards from smiling so hard. After that we opened our gifts. I got some books (The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin and The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling) and a beautiful new shirt and sweater (with matching jewelry) from my parents, and then as Ashley, Ses and I had exchanged names for gifts, Ashley had got me a bunch of little things, including some lotions, cool Korean pens, some stickers, a photo album, and hilariously, a Babysitter's Club book, which she found in a used book store in Sanggye (I think it was like the only English book they had that wasn't a reference book of some sort). I'm going to pass that on to Joyce, one of my students, to read...I think she'll get a kick of out it, as she's around the same age I was when I started reading them. Then we finished getting ready and started preparing for the arrival of our friends Andy, Weston, Eric, Nisha, Na-Na, Young-Jin, and Arianne.

Ashley and I hosted Christmas dinner for a bunch of our friends, and the food turned out great. I went to my friend/co-worker Eileen's place to make the chickens, which I stuffed with garlic and roasted...they were delicious! Ses and Ashley stayed behind to make the stuffing (on the stove-top). I wish I'd been there because apparently they had quite the hilarious adventure making stuffing for the first time, which included trying to cook it in the toaster oven and frying it in a saucepan on the stove haha. I don't like stuffing, but according to everyone who does it turned out quite well! Even Na-Na, who is Korean and had never tasted stuffing before in her life, went back for seconds, so it must have been decent. They also made mashed potatoes, which were great, and steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots (which were not so great as they turned out to be barely cooked and mostly hard haha). We had corn as well, and some buns, followed by a really nice fruity wine that Eric brought and an adorable Reindeer cake that Andy brought with him. After dinner we made an attempt at playing a board game called "Hear Me Out" that Ash and I filched from school, but no one felt like paying attention long enough to learn the rules, so we just sang along to Christmas carols at the top of our lungs and played a few drinking games. Then we went to the Noraebang, where we discovered that Wes does a mean falsetto and subsequently treated us to a duet to Stayin' Alive by the BeeGees with Adam, which was actually really fantastic -- they managed the harmony and everything! We finally bailed on them at about 2am, since Ash and I had to work the next morning (thanks for that, EDLS), but we woke up the next morning to find that Ses and Adam had come back to our place for Ses' stuff at around 7am and instead of going home just decided to sleep on our kitchen floor. Bit of a shock to wake up to what a thought was a dead guy on our floor, but instead just turned out to be Adam covered in our coats haha.

And that was Christmas! The next day we were back at school, which was painful on account of us being exhausted and mildly hungover, but luckily it was just one day and then the weekend arrived.

Today, however, Don greeted us with the horrible news that tomorrow is Jacob's last day at EDLS. His family is moving to Jamsil, which in terms of the size of Seoul, would be the equivalent of moving from North York to Newmarket...still technically in the Greater Seoul Area, but too far away for him to still attend school up here in Nowon. I'm so sad...Jacob is so sweet and I just adore him and his bizarre obsession with numbers. He's by far my favourite kindergarten student right now...it's always the ones I love that have to leave! AGH. Anyway, tomorrow is going to be such a bummer, so I'm not really looking all that forward to it.

However, we have plans to ring in the new year in Itaewon, so that should be fun. Eric, Weston and Andy will be joining Ses, Ashley, Young-Jin, possibly Josh, and I for some good times, which I am looking pretty forward to.

Oh! And finally thanks to Aunt Mary and Aunt Eileen for the cards, and to Aunt Karen for the slippers -- they're so comfy!!

See you in the new year! I wish you all a happy and healthy start to 2009! <3

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

It's technically Christmas Day here now -- it's 1:46am and we've just finished watching Love Actually and being big crybabies about the fact that we aren't home for Christmas. Actually, only Ses and Ashley have been blubbering...I'm okay so far. It's beginning to feel a little bit more like Christmas now. We did our shopping for dinner tomorrow and I got the rest of Ses' present together, and we had a glass of Bailey's and watched the best Christmas movie ever (the aforementioned Love Actually), so that's helped. We also had the EDLS Christmas party today, which was a blast. Ashley was bullied into dressing up as Santa, which the kids found hysterical. Actually, they got a little confused because we kept insisting Ashley wasn't Santa, and they kept trying to rationalize with us. Some of my favourites included:

- "But Santa was wearing girl shoes!"
- "If that was Santa, how come he couldn't speak Korean?"
- "Santa has the same eyes as Ashley Teacher!"
- "Why did Santa sound the same as Ashley?"
- "I can see the striiiings~~~!!!"
- After Ashley tried to pretend like she'd been at home and had "missed" Santa, "What do you mean you missed Santa? How do you miss you???"

Ahh, kids. Too clever for their own good. :D

So after "Santa Haraboji" (as he's known in Korean, which translates to "Grandfather Santa") handed out all the gifts (the kids' mothers were asked to send a gift for their children in advance), we had a birthday party for the kids whose birthdays were in December. Then we had pizza, chicken balls and kimbap, the standard party lunch fare -- so good! And so much better than the usual kindy lunch fare, which generally consists of plain white rice, some kind of bland soup, a mystery meat of some sort, and kimchi...bleurgh. Then we basically just let the kids play haha...party days rock!

Tomorrow morning Ses (who is spending the night at ours), Ashley and I are going to get up and have a big breakfast (we got bacon at Costco!) and then open our gifts. Then at around 6 Andy, Weston, Eric, Young-Jin, Nisha, her friend from Holland whose name I can't recall, and Na-Na are going to come over for dinner. We couldn't get our hands on a turkey but we got a chicken so I'm going to roast that instead. Ashley's going to make stuffing and we'll have mashed potatoes and broccoli and cauliflower and corn...Wes is bringing a cake and Eric says he's going to bring Champagne so that should be good! Plus I get to talk to some of you lovely people tomorrow, which is really the most exciting bit. I'm going to borrow Ashley's computer and go on Skype if we can figure out how to fire it up so that I can see all of you.

( And now, the photos. )

Hey dudes. Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately. I've been busy, lazy, sick, and just plain bummed out. Things are not going so great at the school -- a brand new, ultra-slick, fancy chain school called Avalon Academy has opened up right next door to our tiny little hagwon, and as a result we've been losing kids like wildfire. Since Avalon opened their doors two weeks ago, I've lost Gloria and Robert from my KGC afternoon homeroom class and Jasmine, Max, and Jenny from my 2J4 afternoon homeroom class. It's not just me, everyone has lost at least one kid from one of their classes, but I've had the good (bad?) fortune of teaching some of the most advanced students our school has to offer, and so they've been able to pass the entrance exam to get into Avalon in the first place. The boss assures me that it's not my fault, but I have a really hard time not taking it personally when my students leave. I know the kids themselves rarely have anything to do with it, and as far as I know it's totally not me that the parents are unhappy with, but still...when you lose five of your favourite students in a week and a half, it burns a little. I just thank God that Avalon is only a school for kids grade 3 and up...there'd be no way in hell they'd be prying my kindergarten students away from me. I'm not giving them up without a fight haha. I got a sweet goodbye card from Jasmine today, which read: "Dear Erin Teacher. Hello, It's Jasmine. Thanks for teaching me. Today is my last day. I'm going to Avalon. Maybe, we could meet in the future somewhere else. Bye~ Sincerely, Jasmine." Aww. Hopefully I will see her again. Her younger brother goes to our kindergarten, so at the very least I should see her on the kindergarten graduation day. She's such an amazingly bright kid...I wish there were some way we could ask to keep in touch with these kids without it seeming creepy. I mean, there are a few of my students here who I feel are just so clever and talented and amazing that they are surely destined to go on to do great things, and I wish there was a way for me to keep in touch with them so that in twenty years I can look at the Korean news and see their names and think, "Oh yeah...I taught that kid how to speak English. You're welcome, Korea." (haha) I'm sure all teachers think that about their students, but it's one thing to teach back home and know that there is always going to be the opportunity to hear things like that about your kids. Me, I will really never know what happens to these children that I spent two years of my life nurturing and loving. Hell, in twenty years I'll just be a distant speck in their memories...maybe they'll remember my name, maybe they won't even remember that. Hell, I don't remember a damn thing about kindergarten, and I highly doubt that my kindergarten teacher sits around going, "I wonder what ever happened to that Erin Kelly..." I guess that just as students grow up and forget their teachers, teachers see so many students over the course of 25 years of teaching that there must only be a few kids that stand out from the crowd in their memories. But still, when I'm old and retired, I hope I'll still remember the beautiful little Korean children who made me fall so passionately in love with this profession.

Good lord, now I'm all weepy. Man, I'm such a tool.

Anyway, if you can't already tell I'm not quite feeling the happiest at the moment. Christmas is in three days and even as I type it I can barely believe that it's true. I have zero Christmas spirit and about -5 Christmas cheer, which is making it very difficult to plan things with Ashley and Ses. A few of our friends are left stranded in Seoul for Christmas as the rest of them go off to fabulous vacation destinations like Thailand, Japan, China, and the Philippines. But we're planning to have everyone over for Christmas Day (the only day we get off). I'm going to make a turkey again, Ashley's in charge of all the fixings, and I think Ses is in charge of General Merriment. I feel weird, because they are both just bursting at the seams with excitement for Christmas, and it's their first Christmas in Korea and they've really only both just arrived. Shouldn't they be the homesick ones? Oh well, hopefully some of their enthusiasm will rub off eventually. We're having a Christmas party at the school on Wednesday, which should be fun, then Thursday is the holiday, and it's back to work on Friday (which is SO dumb).

There are Christmas cards in the mail, but I doubt at this point they'll make them for Christmas. Hopefully they'll arrive by New Years...if not, well, it's the thought that counts, right?

Hey! Every black cloud has a silver lining, and so does this post. Time for some happy stories. This weekend Deon, D-Law's boyfriend, arrived in Korea for a two-week visit. Most of his time in Asia will be spent in the Philippines, as they are going for a week starting Christmas Day, but he got to experience Seoul for a few days. But instead of showing him around the city, we decided instead to hop on the bus and travel down to the tiny city of Masan for our friend Dan's birthday! So the three of us met up at the crack of 10am at Junggye Station and made our way to Express Bus Terminal. Upon arrival, we were told that our bus didn't leave from Express Bus Terminal, but instead from Dong-Seoul Terminal. So we hopped in a cab and booked it across the city, hoping we'd make it to Dong-Seoul Terminal in time. We did, and it was off to Masan for a weekend of fun. The trip was a blast! It was great to see our friends from down south again (Masan is a four hour drive straight south to the other side of Korea), since we hadn't seen them since they made the trip up to visit us in Seoul a few months ago. We originally met Dan, Brad and Renee when John, D-Law, Laura, Heather and I went to Busan for Buddha's Birthday back in May -- they're friends of Terry's. But we've kept in touch, and when they came to visit us in Seoul they brought Ginny and Ruauri with them, who are just lovely. I wish they all lived in Seoul! They're awesome. We got to meet a bunch of their Masan friends, we stayed in a sweet Love Motel (my bed was ROUND! AND IT HAD A MIRRORED HEADBOARD. SICK. AND AWESOME.), we belted out some badass tunes at the Noraebang, and all in all had a great time. Plus it was awesome to finally meet Deon, since he and D-Law started dating after I'd already left for Korea and I'd already heard so much about him. He's really sweet and I can tell he really loves D-Law, so I approve haha. There wasn't much to see in Masan so I didn't really take any pictures (except for of my amazing love motel bed haha), but Deon took a lot at night (I didn't want to bring my big camera out) so I'll get those pictures from D-Law eventually.

What else...oh! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRETT! I hope you had fun at your party! You're not answering my messages on msn right now (jerk), but hopefully things were awesome.

Anyway, I think that's me pretty much caught up on what's been going on. Sorry to be MIA like this again...my New Years' Resolution is going to have to be to friggin' blog more.

Three weekends ago now (sorry, I really need to get caught up on my blogging!) Ashley, Ses and I participated in the "Friggin' Fun Scavenger Hunt," an event organised by Chris Googo and Tabi Tse, two fellow English teachers living here in Seoul. The game was just ridiculous -- 40 people came out and we were split into 7 teams of 6 (Chris and Tabi participated as well), and ran all over Seoul trying to complete as many tasks that we could from a list of 130 possible challenges. We had to have photo and/or video evidence of everything, and then at the end of the day we met back at the Rocky Mountain Tavern (a Canadian bar) in Itaewon to declare a winner and see everyone's funny videos and pictures. It was AMAZING. Seriously, one of the best days I've had in Seoul...a bunch of my friends came out to play (John, Bad Matt, Erik, Kristin, Carlene, New Heather, Steven) and we made a bunch of new friends, including the awesome girls on our team (Terry, Becky and Clare) from Paju (a small city on the border of North and South Korea). Terry is from Calgary and Becky and Clare are both from England, so our team was half-Canuck (Me, Ash and Terry) and half-Brit (Becky, Clare and Ses). We aptly called ourselves "Bevvies and Brews" (to reflect our Anglo-Canadian heritage) and headed off to compete against such excellent rivals like "The Mustache Mafia" (John's team), "Will Strip for Soju" (Bad Matt and Carlene's team), and "The Ajumma All-Stars".

The tasks on the list were seriously so hilarious. They ranged from relatively tame to totally illegal...we didn't do any of the illegal ones (as we quite like it here and didn't want to risk deportation), but many of the other teams did, such as swimming in the Han River and streaking down Hooker Hill in Itaewon (a girl on one of the teams actually did it! A guy on "Will Strip for Soju" did it, but I honestly didn't expect any of the girls to do it!!!). We basically spent all day running around Seoul looking like total maniacs, trying to convince random Koreans to help us with the most ridiculous tasks and being stared at like we were complete loons. It was AWESOME. Everyone was so into it, and everyone just had the best time ever. They're organising another one for the spring, and I'll definitely be doing it again!

Here are just a few of the pictures from my team...there were definitely funnier pictures from the teams that did the more outrageous stunts, so I'll post them when I get them. There are also some really funny videos but they've only been posted on facebook so far and I don't know how to import them from there to here, so they'll have to wait until we meet up with Terry to get them. But yeah, here they are! Enjoy!

( Task #1: Get a stranger to buy you a bottle of soju )

All right, Korean winter...you can stop now.

Winter in Korea is so lame. It gets cold, but it doesn't snow. Then, when it does snow, the snow doesn't stick and instead immediately turns into icy slush that penetrates your shoes and soaks your socks for the rest of the day. Tomorrow's high is only -4 and I do not approve. Saturday is going to be spent mostly outside and so far the high is only going to be -2, so that's lame. Definitely not going to be streaking in that weather! :P

Seriously though, I am already longing for spring. I miss sitting outside the GS with friends, chatting and playing cards. I miss actually wanting to just go out for a walk around the neighbourhood. I miss leaves and flowers and cherry blossoms and sunshine. Spring here is so lovely, and I want it, right now. But then with spring will come the oppressive, disgusting heat of summer in Seoul, and, well, maybe -4 isn't so bad after all.

Ashley has come down with the Korean Flu AKA kindergarten-teacheritis, so we went to see the good Dr. Oh to make sure she didn't have a sinus or ear infection, which she was pretty certain of. Turns out she just has a cold haha. Poor Ashley...I hope she's feeling better by Saturday!

We lost another kindy kid from D-Class today, Lucy. I don't really mind because I never really liked her in the first place, but according to Don her mom is just nuts and has been going around smack-talking EDLS (apparently she was really pissed off with the way the open class went, but Don and Scarlett did those ones so at least I know it wasn't me she was disappointed with). Luckily the other moms recognise that she's a total loon, but still, that's a bit worrying, especially since we have the new school year coming up and need new kids to enroll. Again, no one bothered to tell me that this was happening, so when Lucy showed up today with her mom to pick her older sister Grace (who is in my afternoon Tuesday/Thursday homeroom class), I said hi and asked her if she'd been sick or something, and basically looked like a tool as a result. Don's not sure if we're going to lose Grace as well, but again, not overly fond of her so it wouldn't really bother me. The mom is sort of like my Joon and Sally's moms -- completely deluded when it comes to their kids' levels of English proficiency. Lucy and Grace's mom wanted Grace to be put into the class with the old D-Class kindy kids (Joon, Olivia, Joyce and Lian), but there is just no way in hell she'd be able to keep up with those kids. But woe befall you for telling a Korean mom the truth about their children! It's just so frustrating, because with Grace, she is really clever and probably could be at that level soon, but now they might pull her and then what? Oh well...it's completely out of my hands, so I'll just sit back and pray that the Mom's crazy ranting doesn't reach the ears of Gloria, Judy, and Susie's moms, because if they dropped out it would actually break my heart. Hopefully I can be confident in the fact that those girls adore me enough to believe that they'd never actually leave...

I feel bad for Don. Stupid crazy moms...no wonder he's so stressed out.