Monday, October 31, 2005

"Teacher, Halloween finish?"--James

Happy Halloween!

Today was a crazy day at school, but it was insanely cute as well. It was crazy Halloween time all day long, and the kids dressed up, and my little Lucy actually won the costume contest because she looked just like Snow White. Here, see her for yourself:


Seriously, if she was smiling in this picture, you would in fact be dead from her cuteness.

It was an easy day, no teaching really involved, so it was nice for everyone. Here are some other pics of my class, looking CUTE.


My little Gracie, dressed as an... angel? I dunno, some of the kids didn't really do the costume thing too well. Case in point, my James, below, who was a prince with a trident?

And my two little princesses, who told me "Teacher, same same!"

And of course, there's my Willy, as Buzz Lightyear. He couldn't figure out the hat part, he had it on every possible way but the right one today. So cute.

Anywho, that was my Halloween, fun and exciting. Oh! I dressed up as Athena/Helen of Troy/a person from ancient Greece/I'm too lazy to find a real costume. I looked okay, I guess, but I just now realized that I forgot to take a picture of myself. I am dumb.

Anyway, I must get back to watching My So Called Life which I am officially obsessed with. Brian Krakow frigin' LOOOOVES Angela. Teen angst is the BEST that I know of... I have all the episodes on my computer and I'm on 11 right now. Only 8 more left? Oh Lord, I'm getting depressed...

Much love, have a great Halloween.

Ciao.

Labels: ,

Saturday, October 29, 2005

"If that was my girlfriend layin' there like that I'd tell everyone to get the #@%! out, I'm gotta shag her!"--Steve

So Friday night Steve (the Brit) had a party at his crib, which just happens to be three floors and seven doors above mine. So I headed there after dance, and it was seriously a good time! I got there just as the pizza arrived (it had rasins on it, but a stuffed crust so I dealt). We just sat around and drank beer and hung out. I got to see A-Yo (yay!!) who said I lost weight (key!) and it was just cool to see people outside of school for a couple hours. Rodney was in rare form, to me at least, but apparently this is his Friday ritual. We all left right around the time Stage 2 "Angry Rodney" set in. He really is a sweet guy when's he's wasted.

During the suaree, someone decided it would be a good idea to start dancing (Rachel) so we had our little dance party to some SWEET Michael Jackson, did some Stupid Human Tricks (I whipped out the good ole tri-pod move from third grade gym which I haven't done in about 10 years...), and then the security guards came and told us to be quiet so we started wrestling. Arm wrestling that is. I was rockin' the joint, beating every girl there, until Sean's Korean girlfriend entered the fray. But in my defense, it was a good fight and my arm was tired. Security came one more time, even though we were being quiet, and the drunk kids started getting a bit beligerant. Pretty funny, though. All in all, it was a good night and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. :)

Today was busy, but in a nice way. I went Christmas shopping in Myeong-dong, and it was semi-successful, so that makes me feel good. No jeans, though, so gap.com via home is gonna have to be my hook-up. Then out to Itaewon for my 3rd Hanji class, where I finished my lamp and made a picture frame. Varnishing in two weeks--I can't go next week ( :( ) because of my Korean class trip ( :) ) and then I get to take them home!! I think after that I'll have to take a couple weeks off, just to have a break, and then head back because there are so many projects I want to make!!

After class it was dinner @ Pancho's w/ Joanna, and a quiet night back home. I'm currently doing laundry (I have zero pairs of socks at this point) and hoping for a spin cycle. Apparently, unless it washes for about two hours, it doesn't spin. NEAT. Luckily, I'm watching My So Called Life (ain't the internet grand?) so I'm entertained while waiting. Why do I still relate to teenage angst that should have been over and done with eight years or so ago?

Anyway... I should head off to dream land soon, considering I started this entry before 10 and it's now after 11. Awesome. And I didn't sleep well at all last night, as per usual lately, for some unknown reason. Blah.

Called my parents and it was nice to hear thier voices again. It'd been too long.

Much love. Ciao.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

"Every time you come over there's been an exchange of peaches or meat..."--John

So I just (yes, about 15 minutes ago...check the time... I'll wait...yeah, it's late...) got home from school. We had to stay late to decorate for Halloween. Joy of joys. I'm not really into the whole Halloween thing, I dunno, I'm just not, but I was into it today because the school not only bought PJ for us (with an entire BAG of garlic butter), but chicken and tong-su, which is DELICIOUS sweet and sour pork. And did I mention beer? Joy. Ful. By which I mean, full of joy. I have feasted like a queen, and I am drunk on meat (and two beers, whatever). Key to LIFE. I'm really excited to see the kids in thier costumes, and of course, you'll all see pics. :)

This quote was taken straight from John's mouth, in a discussion about how many times, and why, Nadine has been to his and Lindsay's apartment. Te he he, too funny.

Not much else to report. Rachel's all in love, and it's totally awesome but sickening. Whatever.

Oh! So this guy that I met in Japan from Seoul totally texted me the other day and invited me to his housewarming. Um... wha'? Whatever. I can't go (Korean class trip) but he's doing the birthday thing in a couple weeks, so maybe we can hang then. He seemed like a nice guy, and he lives in one of my favorite parts of town, so it'll be cool to have someone to hang out with over there.

Jade, my language exchange lady, says she's going to introduce me to some Korean boys. Key! But, and this I can't figure out, she dropped the bomb on me yesterday that she and her fiancee met through a matchmaker. Um... Jade is GOREGEOUS and she couldn't find a decent man? OMG... I'm cashing it all in now. It's over. I'm dying old and alone and it's FINE. :)

Hmmm... I banged my knee on the way up the stairs and it really hurts. I've got a frozen chicken breast on it... that'll leave a mark for SURE. Oooowwwwwww!

*Sidenote: the Korean word for the verb "to vomit" is, basically, over eat. Um... neat.

I'm so tired... I didn't drink enough to be fun, and just enough to be sleeeeeeeeeeeepy.

Ciao.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

"You can run a red light..."--Jonny Lang

I've realized something about Korea: red lights are simply a suggestion. You don't feel like stopping? Fine, go right on through, please. Disregard any people walking across if you wish, it's FINE. And the weird part is, I see ambulances (or should I say "ecnalubmas?") sitting patiently at red lights, sirens on, just waiting. Um... aren't you on your way to AN EMERGENCY?! Just wondering... And the running of red lights is BLATANT. I was in a cab once, granted it was probably 1:00 AM or so but still, and dude slowed down, gave a glance, and kept on driving. Um... neat. And I wonder why that same night I passed an accident where there was a MAN LAYING ON THE ROAD with cars all backed up behind him. I wouldn't drive here if you paid me, I'm pretty sure.

Performance theater was today. I wanted my kids to do "Ghostbusters" sort of as an homage to some pals back home (miss you Girl!!) but found out 4 school days before that another teacher was doing the same thing. So balls. But anyway, we ended up doing a good job at this semi-crappy five-line poem. At least my kids have the Cute Factor going for them. And SPEAKING of the Cute Factor, here are some pics of other classes performances.

Rachel's class, my Miffers as I call them, doing "Old Mac Donald Had a Farm" with animal hats on. Aaron, the kid in the duck hat, actually knows my name and says hi to me every day. SO CUTE!

James' class, Elmer, singing "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC. AHHHH! Baby headbangers!!!! Check out the boys' hair... one kid had a sweet mohawk!

Ugh, had a busy day today. Meeting, then school, then Language Exchange with Jade, then dance and finally home. I should get off to bed soon, but let's be honest, I'll be up for another two hours. Whatever. And tomorrow we all have to stay after school to decorate for Halloween. I'm secretly excited about it because I love doing crappy team-building community stuff like that. I=NERD.

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Love, y'all.

Ciao.

Labels:

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

"You've got a friend in me"--Randy Newman

Some stuff is happening with some people I dearly, dearly love back home and I want them to know, again, that I am thinking about them and praying for them as well. I love you all.

In other news, I have the BEST supervisor ever at school. Today I come back from one of my breaks, and she leaves and comes back a minute later with this huge syringe in her hand with a huge needle on top of it. And she goes, "This is for stomach aches. Who has a stomach ache?" It was AWESOME! See, my kids tend to have stomach aches approximately 25 times a day. It was GREAT. I love being evil to small children. Also along the same lines, I've realized my little Jinni

falls down about three or 4 times a day and everytime she does it I just laugh. Is that wrong? I mean, she never gets hurt, she just falls and then gets right back up again. It's SO dang cute I can't even deal with it. He he hee.

Here's one more funny school story, this time about my ESL kid Mark. He's kind of a weird kid, I think he's in love with me, but he's in a pretty high-level class and the kid can't string together a sentance OR read properly, mostly because he's lazy. So we're reading this paragraph in the grammar book, which is usually quite un-stimulating. Today however, Mark read, "I worked out for five hours" as "I worked out for five whores." I pretty much died of laughter then and there. "Five WHORES?" I asked him. And he starts laughing, and reads it again the same way. He didn't really get it, I think, but still. I peed a little bit. He is so damn lazy I can't even take it.

I had PJ for dinner and it was GLORIOUS. I'm so joyful in my SOUL that Papa John's pizza is a mere 20 min. walk away, and everyone knows if you walk there, it's like you never ate the pizza at all. Keyest of key.

British boy (okay, well, man) at work (the one who said I look like Cindy Crawford) is having a party on Friday and I'm half tempted to forget midnight shopping again, get sloshed before dance, dance, then come back and get sloshed again. I'd only have to walk 3 flights and 7 doors down to get home. KEY!

Now off to do something... not at all productive.

Ciao.

Labels: ,

Sunday, October 23, 2005

"When the lights go down in the city..."--Journey

Cute story about my supervisor, Elly. So I come home yesterday and I'd been gone pretty much all day. My light won't turn on. Balls. So I go get a new bulb, and still, no illumination. So I text Elly thinking maybe she can call the maintenance guy and he could come fix it or something. Anyway, long story short, I'm talking to Elly telling her everything's fine now (my light came on after three or four minutes of waiting, NEAT), and she's like, "I was on a blind date with this guy and I didn't like him and I didn't want to spend any more time with him so I was glad that you called me." But it was totally cuter because she said it in her English, and it was really adorable. I totally saved her and I didn't even know it! That rules.

Okay... So the reason I was gone all day was my Korean class in the morning, and then Hanji in the afternoon. Hanji is a Korean art where you cover things with paper. I'm just saying, for everyone at home, that it's the new pottery place. I made a tray for my first item, which I'm sending to someone special who got a new office and might just have some papers to put in it or something. :) Right now I'm working on a lamp, and although it's not as "funky" as I wanted it to be (apparently, I'm too funky for Hanji sometimes), it'll be really cool. Yay! Seriously, this is my new favorite thing. I love crafting!! It's a shame that I found the place so early in my stay here, because I'll pretty much be there every Saturday from now until I leave. Joy of joys. I'm in love with it.

Oh, and lemme post some pictures from the trip Joanna and I took the mountains, because I never got to post them before. So take a trip back in time with me, to about three weeks ago.

... or not because my pics are refusing adamantly to upload. How nice. Why can't I just get a blog that works for once?

Peace, y'all.

Labels:

"I think a change gon' come..."--India.Arie

Well, I've had to make the change. This is a sad day for me, saying goodbye to my LJ and hello to blogger. No one even knows this bad boy exists, but, well, here it is.

A lot of other changes have happened in my life recently, besides this blog thing. I got a tattoo and a perm, all in the same week. Something in me changed and I needed to fix something that I'm not even sure was broken. I wrote something about it...elsewhere, and it basically boiles down to this: I left Michigan to see the world, and have new experiences and run away from a life I didn't particularily like, and I came here and found that there are just some things you can't outrun, and you eventually have to either deal with them or... not. And I guess my way of dealing was just to make some changes in my life that were a long time in coming. So here's what my tat looks like:


It says "pul-sa-jo" which means phoenix in Korean. It's on my right hip-al area-ish. And here's my new hair:


Shorter and curlier but it's all good. I've decided I like it and it was time for my Rapunzel style to go away. One hair was equivalent to a whole hairball, and that was just unacceptable. Plus, the British guy at work that I secretly have a crush on said I looked like Cindy Crawford. It's FINE. :) So that's it, the me with a tattoo and a wave perm. How exciting.

In other news... Let's see, went to a rigged soccer game but it was still pretty fun. Pretty sure I documented that in the LJ. RIP, LJ, R. I. P.

My Korean class ended today. I'm definitely going back for the next session, and we've got a trip to my mountains in two weekends. I think it's the same mountains Joanna and I went to a couple weeks ago, so I'm really excited. It's just nice to hang out with some different people for a bit, people who aren't one half of a couple, of which there are none at my school except me.

I don't wanna talk about it.

But furthering me on my quest to learn Korean, one of the supervisors at school, Liz, hooked me up with a friend of hers who is going to teach me Korean in exchange for her getting to practice conversation with me. We're going to get a book tomorrow morning. Kind of exciting. I=NERD.

Joanna and I went midnight shopping last night, and I discovered that it is GLORIOIUS. They sell everything, and when I bought my SWEET David Beckham shirt the dude gave me a discount for being pretty. I. Rule. :) I almost bought a puppy, but somehow mustered the piece of mind to walk away without one. I'm just not ready...yet. But I really need something to come home to, because I talk to my roaches. This, I'm sure, is not a healthy practice.

Geez, I feel like so much time has gone by since I last wrote, and it has, but for some reason, I just can't remember what I've been doing or what's been going on in my life. I go to work, I go to dance, I come home, life goes on. We had a fieldtrip last week to dig sweet potatos, and my kids were really cute. Case in point:


Two of my lipstick girls, with my gloss on. Every day, "Teacher, lipstick!" How could you say no?


There are all of them, all 12 little stinkers. Notice how Willy's not paying attention, as per usual. I can't STAND how cute they are.

Well, friends, thanks for tuning in. Please, please, please comment and send me love. This is for all of us.

Much love--