sorry it's been forever

The week after Thanksgiving my mom came to Korea for a visit. It was really cool to have someone from home come and see how I live. It's very hard to explain what life is actually like here without actually experiencing it and so now to have my mom understand my daily life is nice. My mom and I did most of the typical touristy things in Seoul, like the palaces and markets and she got to meet all of my friends. I, unfortunately, had to work all week so she spent some time cleaning my apartment for me (thanks mom) and exploring my little city. On one of the days she actually came to school with me and watched me teach. The kids went crazy when they saw her and mobbed her in the hallway, which was funny... just a little taste for her on what it can be like here. I introduced her to dokbokki, galbi, bibimbap, and other yummy korean foods. She was a trooper and tried them all.

Other than that life here is pretty standard. This week is finals at school so I don't have to teach... just sit here. It also got REALLY freaking cold in Korea this past week, the highs are like 16 degrees. But I'm getting through it just remembering that in 26 days I get to go to Thailand and lay on the beach for 2 weeks! It feels really good knowing I can pay for a vacation like that on my own... and still have money to survive haha. The real world isn't so bad after all.

Christmas is this week and I get the day off... not sure what exactly I'm doing yet but it's kinda fun to celebrate with friends just this once. Korea is mainly Christian so the cities are all decked out in lights and decorations, something I am happy about. Hope everyone has a safe and happy holidays!

best "i am thankful for..." responses i got during thanksgiving lessons

1. I am thankful for my pretty face
2. I am thankful for living in a peaceful country
3. I am thankful for born
4. I am thankful for meet my family
5. I am thankful for my charming face
6. I am thankful for Steven Jobs
7. I am thankful for Bill Gates
8. I am thanful for Microsoft
9. I am thankful for my parents meet and make me
10. I am thankful for Lambourghini
11. I am thankful for many food
12. I am thankful for eat
13. I am thankful for my body
14. I am thankful for my height, because short people are losers
15. I am thankful for my 6-pack
16. I am thankful for my smart head
17. I am thankful for having arms
18. I am thankful for having legs
19. I am thankful for pigs, cows, and chickens
20. I am thankful for breathe

another lesson in kpop

if you don't care or want to know about korean boy bands, stop reading now.

here are some of the best kpop songs out right now!

my favorite right now is Ring Ding Dong by Shinee (boy band all 19 and under). if you listen closely they say that something is "fantastic" and then "elastic" which makes no sense, but is hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roughtzsCDI&feature=fvst


another group that everyone here loves is called 2PM and they are playing at a club on christmas eve... so yea we are def going to be there. haha. their most popular song is called "again and again" and the middle schoolers go crazy for it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUgReo37ECw&feature=fvst

this is another song called "sorry sorry" by super junoir. i used this song in class to teach my kids what "shorty" meant. hahaha yeah i know... but they say it in the songs here and the kids have no idea what it means. so here is the super group (13 members) called super junior. oh and i have the chorus dance memorized.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAWqnA8PdcY&feature=fvst

k-pop is actually so fun and addicting. i wish that pop music/boy bands were still popular in america because its so fun to listen to and dance to at the clubs. it's also helpful to me for learning korean because the kids tell me what they are saying, and i hear the phrases and words over and over everywhere i go. haha. but yea check out shinee - the song is addicting.

a korean thanksgiving

first just wanna say i hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! (oh and happy 50th wedding anniversary to my grandparents!!)



thanksgiving is my favorite holiday so i was anticipating a hard day/week last week. ultimately, however, i actually had a really good thanksgiving. me and my friends from gwangju cooked ourselves a thanksgiving feast, rivaling any of yours back home. we had roasted chicken instead of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, carrots, broccoli, rolls, dak galbi, yorkshire pudding, and pecan pie with vanilla ice cream. also, lots of wine obviously. we all got together after work and cooked the meal and then sat around all night playing games and drinking wine. it was very nice.

one of the teachers at my school even bought us some dak galbi (basically chicken stirfry) to cook for thanksgiving because she knew it was a big deal. also at school all week i've been teaching about thanksgiving and asking the kids to tell me what they are thankful for... best answers so far have been: for being pretty, for my smart head, for cigarettes, and for my english teacher. hahah love it.
other than that i've settled in a very "normal" life here with not much exciting to report. my typical week is spent working, and then i go out on the weekends with my friends... very much a typical 20 somethings life except i live in korea. so sorry i have nothing exciting to report! my mom is coming to visit on friday though, so we will be doing lots of touristy things.

pepero day

So here is one of those Korean holidays that I have never heard about. Today is Pepero day in Korea. Basically it is a version of Valentine's Day (which they celebrate also) in which you give your boyfriend/girlfriend/friends/whomever pepero. Pepero is a long stick cookie dipped in chocolate. Since November 11 is 11/11 it has been dubbed Pepero Day because 11's look like Pepero sticks. Many people think the candy company made up this holiday as a ploy to make money, which could definitely be true since every store is making a KILLING on pepero. But I, or course, am a sucker for stupid holiday's like this so I bought some boxes of regular Pepero (only 550 won, around 50 cents each) for my students, and they gave me some of the almond kind in return. Here is a note I got from my student Kelly with a box of Pepero since I know you guys love hearing these:

"To Sera~
Sera teacher! Hello^^

I'm Kelly. This is pepero!!

delicous cookie!~!

This is for you!

You are very cute girl!

and nice girl! HA HA ^^

From, Kelly"

loves it.

happy pepero day!

my korean birthday

This past friday was my birthday... I didn't really expect much at school, in fact I didn't even expect people to remember, but I got such nice things all day! A lot of the kids sang happy birthday to me in class and yelled it at me in the hallways all day. One girl, one of my favorite students, brought me a whole big box full of snacks. My teachers also got me presents, like apples, chocolates, etc. One of my coteachers actually put together a pizza party during some of my down periods for me, which was very sweet. It was a really good school day.

So Friday night was my birthday, Saturday night was Anna's, and Sunday was Rebecca's. Naturally we had to do the weekend right.

On Friday night me, Amy, and Rebecca went out to dinner for some Korean food and went home/to bed pretty early. On Saturday we had rented a hotel room at the Grand Hilton in Seoul so we checked in promptly at 2 to take full advantage. We hung around the room all day, took bubble baths, and ordered room service. We also made jello shots with the jello my mom sent me from America. Around 9 a lot of our friends showed up and we had a little hotel party. We went out that night and it was really fun. The weekend was a really good one and made me very grateful to have the friends I do in Korea, this experience would definitely not be anywhere near as fun without them. Also, thanks to everyone from home who wished me a happy birthday!! miss you and love you.

halloween

Last week i taught my kids about Halloween. My coteacher told me it was the best halloween lesson she has ever seen, which just shows how much i love the holiday - that i would put that much time into a lesson. I made all the kids say trick-or-treat once they were done with their work for candy and wore a witch hat my mom sent me. It was actually pretty fun.

They don't celebrate halloween in Korea, which definitely made for some awkward moments and stares when you're on the subway in full costume, but it was halloween! so i didn't care. For the weekend we all stuck around Seoul. On friday I went to a party that felt like I was back in america/college - beer pong and all and saturday I went to seoul. Rebecca and I dressed up as hippies. We went to a place called Itaewon, which is the area that grew because of a nearby American army base. This is why we thought it would be a fun place to go for halloween. It was definitely full of costumes and halloween spirit, which was fun, but most of the people were military and the air around the bars was much different. We headed back to our usual, more Korean, stomping grounds called Hongdae for the rest of the night.

Sunday morning wasn't so pleasant for me, as I woke up to realize i had left my wallet in the back seat of a cab. Therefore, all my money, cards, and the keys to my apartment were gone. I had to spend the night at Luke's house (thanks Luke!) and go explain myself the next morning at school. Not very much fun. So now I am currently in the process of getting all my cards back, etc. very annoying.

Other than that, Korea got really cold this week (like 30) which is super lame... and i turn 22 on friday, which i am not looking forward to. Although I am looking forward to the party/cake/activities. Thats all for now, anyeong!