An Ocean Away

I'M GOING TO SEE SPRING AWAKENING ON THURSDAY!!!!! AHHHH!!! I'm soooooo excited!!!!! I can't believe I'm going to see Spring Awakening again! ^^ I saw it before on Broadway in New York two years ago, and this year, I'm going to see it again. Only difference is THIS time it's all gonna be sung in Korean!!!!!!!! ^^

Maryanne got the tickets today for the Thursday show for herself, Susan, and me. ^^ Gotta pay her back 83 000원 tomorrow. ^^ I guess we'll catch Legally Blonde the Musical next time. ^^ I don't care, for musicals and dance shows I'm willing to fork over hundredths!! ^^ I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^^

Show time is gonna be 8pm which is kind of late by Canadian standards (we usually start at 7:30pm). But I guess it's normal for Korean. ^^ But this mean I won't get home until late late. I hope I'll still be able to wake up early in the morning for school.....good thing we're having final exams.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! SPRING AWAKENING HOLLA!!!!! ^^

I've discovered a miniature Christmas town in 고속 터미널. ^^ I love it love it! ^^ I bought so much to decorate our school office tomorrow. ^^ I'm loving it! ^^ Check out my video! ^^


I'm happy to say I was able to put a smile on everybody's faces at the office. ^^ JyHyun and Mrs. Ko helped me decorate, and the other teachers were telling me how it was a good idea to decorate the office. ^^ The art teacher gave us a funny, what-the-heck-is-going-on look though. *lol* Oh well, get use to it. ^^ Cuz Christmas decoration MUST GO UP!!!! ^^

It has been 3 months already......can you believe it? Wah..........

I think I've pretty much settled into my life here. Hmmmm....yeah going to Myeongdong later on tonight (probably) to get some cheap garbage bins and stool from Daiso. ^^ Yeah......not much going on around here lately. *bleh*

I've been deskwarming for half of my week this week and next week, there's gonna be more desk warming awaiting me. *sigh*

So just came back from Seoul Lantern Festival in Gwanghwamun! ^^ It was friggin cold at
-2degrees but the trip out was oh so worth it! ^^ Just click on my slide show to see all the pictures!!! ^^

Bumped into Mo while coming out of exit 5 so we went out to the square and started taking pictures of the statues, etc. ^^ Then met up with Vivian by exit 5 and we started our lantern fest! ^^ I took a lot of pictures and here are some that Mo took of me. ^^ Be sure to double click on my slide show to see the rest of the pics!!! ^^

Today went to see a play with Dalki and her friends. ^^ It was awesome. ^^ My first play in Korea! ^^ Yayzers!!! ^^ I met up with Dalki and her friends in Hyehwa station. ^^ That's where the theatre dristrict in Seoul. ^^ Loved it there. ^^ I'm going to see more theatre there in the future. ^^

Our show started at 7:45pm. ^^ It was unique cuz we had to cue up across from the theatre. ^^ The venue was pretty tiny, but it is all the space the show needs. ^^ I love how the actors were interacting with the audience. ^^ "웁스" is a comedy play parodying a lot of tv shows. ^^ They did a parody of "Lost" where they had a priest, a monk, and an athiest trapped on a deserted island with an insane girl. ^^ Then they did a parody of a Korean gangster movie. ^^ Loved it! ^^ I understood some parts of it so yay me! ^^ I'm definitely going to see another show soon! ^^

So because today is final exam day for all grade 12 students in Korea, I was told yesterday to stay home and rest instead of coming to school. So yeah....free day today. *lol*

Oh man...they really take their final exam very seriously here....I heard from the teachers that just for today, the Korean government is cancelling all flights coming into Seoul because they believe the planes are too noisy and distruptive for the students. *bleh*

Hmm.....so no school for me today = too much time on my hands. Webcamed with family for 3 hours today. *lol* Later tonight, I'll finally be meeting up with Jinah and HyeonSeok in Gangnam. ^^ So yayzers!!!! ^^ Missed those girls like crazy. ^^

Hmmmmmm might go to JoongRoh 3 Ka tonight for some kind of light show. ^^ Hope I can find the place. ^^

Oki, I'll update more later when I actually have something to type about. ^^ Gotta get ready to go out again. ^^

So yesterday after work I went on a shopping spree in MyeongDong on my own. ^^ I love the little shops there. I saw a lot of good clothes. A bit pricey, but worth it. ^^ I went to Forever21 first and got a spirally light green scarf and pink beret. ^^ Loved it! ^^ Then I went to the litle shops around MyeongDong. ^^ I went to Red Wood and there was a jacket that caught my eye. I'm still debating whether or not I should get it...oh wells, I'm gonna go back to MyeongDong on Friday and if it's still there, then I will get it. ^^ It's sooooooo soft! ^^ Anyways, so yesterday I bought two big tops. ^^ Since coming to Korea, I've gotten into layering my clothes and skinny jeans. ^^ Love it. ^^ Anyways, I'm happy with what I got. ^^ For some reason though, the sales people kept mistaking me for being a Japanese even after I spoke English with them. I don't know, am I missing something? Exactly how do I look Japanese?? After paying for my purchase, this one sales lady kept thanking me in Japanese, even when I was replying with a "Thank you" in English AND we've been speaking English while she was helping me. *sigh*

Anyways, so yesterday I spent my evening wandering MyeongDong and I didn't get back to my area until close to 10pm so I had a late dinner. *lol* Ah...gotta get my eating habits back to normal. *lol* I'm so bad. ^^

Hmmm....what else to update.....oh right!!! ^^ So I've been making a lot of trips to Costco in SangBong lately. ^^ Made another trip to there two nights ago, took the bus as usual except this time, my t-money card ran out of money. So I quickly dug for change not knowing how much it was until the bus driver told me 1000won. I couldn't find the last 100won so the bus driver told me "It's ok" in KOrean and told me to sit down. But I would have none of it because a fee is a fee and I don't feel right not paying the regular amount. Finally I found a 100won in my coat pocket. ^^ The bus driver asked me if I'm a foreigner and I said yes. Then he asked me KOrea? Japanese? And I said no "Canadian." *sigh* Do I look Japanese or something?? I know i';m short but really, I don't dress crazy like Japanese girls do....

School itself has been going very well. I haven't been teaching much again because classes kept getting cancelled or I'm aske dto desk warm because teachers need to brief the students about the upcoming performance test. Ah wells.....I've been awarding the kids Dum Dum Pops everytime they win in an activity. ^^ This week was BAMM game and only the one winning team will get some Dum Dums. So yes, I've had students saying "Trick or Treat" to me, and "I love you" *lol* They're so funny. ^^

Hmm.........well, I'm going to meet up with Shannon and Marissa in SinDang again for some good ol' ddokbokki. ^^ Yummers!!!! Can't wait!!! ^^

WOOOOOOO!!! Crazy night!!!!! So I did end up going out last night. ^^ ALL night. *lol*

So yes, that means I did come up with a costume. ^^ It was Grisel's idea that I be a golfer. Couldn't find a polo in Myeongdong though so just went with a pink t-shirt and wrapped Grisel's black sweater around my shoulders. ^^

Met up with Tiffany and Deborah in Hongdae at 630pm. Then went looking for the concert venue. It got changed numerous time so finally settled for the second concert which starts at 10pm. Went out to have supper first then went back to the venue where we met up with JOa. ^^ Yup Joa came out!!!! ^^ She was a devil. ^^ So cute! ^^

So we went to Club Spot for the rock concert. At first the girl wasn't going to give me the discount because she didn't think I was in costume. But I was like "Dude, I don't dress like this everyday." *lol* The entrance fee was 10 000 won. The bands were alright. We stayed for 3 sets. the first set was a Korean band. The lead singer was dressed up as Kim Jong-Il with a name tag that says Kim Jong-Il. *lol* Anyways, to be honest, the music just wasn't my style. I can't seem to get into it.....

Left early and went to Con Bar. Tiffany didn't want to go to a bar so Dan helped her flag down a taxi home. ^^ So Joa and i went with Dan to Con bar to meet up with the others -- Dan, Owen, JiHyun, Nick, Nick's friend Vinh. They drank, but I just had water. I have more fun when I'm sober. ^^ Later Jessica, Jessica's friend Eric, and Diana came and we all went out looking for a club. Freakin weather didn't let up on the rain. It was pouring like crazy and there were long line ups going into the clubs. We walked for so long and it got cold. Everybody was getting a bit frustrated because it was rainy and cold and there were long line ups. We lost Jess in front of one of the clubs and so her friend Eric stayed behind to wait for her. Dan and JiHyun
decided to take a taxi back home and the 5 of us (Me, Joa, Nick, Diana, and Vinh) went in search of a club. We later settled for Club NB2 and it was PACKED!!! And it was mostly Koreans going there so it was pretty cool to see how Korean party it up. Club NB2 is a hip hop club so my kinda music. Entrance fee was 15 000won but you get a ticket for discounted drinks. I didn't get any cuz drinking is not my thing. I kept the coupon as a souvenir. ^^ After a lot of shoving and squeezing through people, we finally found a spot on the stair platform (the club has 3 levels) to dance. ^^ Sometime during the night, I felt some guy grinding up against me from behind while I was dancing with Joa so I moved away. *lol* Ah, not shocked, just a little bit turned off cuz he must be one desperate dude who came alone looking to hook up with girls. *bleh* *lol* Nick was giving me this "uhh what are you gonna do about that guy behind you" look so I was like "whatever" and moved away. *haha* The night was fun though and I didn't feel tired at all cuz I slept until 3pm that day before going out. ^^ So I had a lot of energy to take me through the night. ^^ Joa got tired towards 3am but we had to go find Diana somewhere first. ^^ So the guys went looking for Diana. We ended up dancing until 4:15am and leaving around 4:30am. ^^ Joa, Diana, and I decided to wait for the train to open up again so we went to a street vendor and had ddokbokki until 5am. ^^ The we took the train home. ^^ I slept a little on the train and didn't get home until 6:30am. ^^

Through out the entire night, I saw 3 seperate fights break out. First fight was when we were walking out from Con Bar, we saw 2 Korean guys shoving and punching eachother. Their friends were holding them back. The second fight happened while we were waiting for Jessica in front of a bar. Two Korean guys were grabbing and punching eachother while their friends were trying to seperate them. The guys' girlfriends were having a cat fight of their own pulling at eachother's hair and clothes. The 3rd fight was while we were leaving Club NB2 and I saw this drunk Korean guy with bloody scrapes on his face shoving his friend away, stumbling, and falling on the street while his friend was trying to help him. He later turned on his friend and they had a flailing wrestling match out on the road. His friend managed to subdue him later, thank god. *bleh* So much drama.......

But I don't regret going out and staying out late last night. Because that was one thing I was looking for by coming here to Korea. New experiences.........And every step of the way last night was a new experience. ^^

So yesterday after school, I ran into a bit of a problem with the stupid key pad lock on my apt door. It ran out of batteries (I still can't believe the apt don't change the batteries every now and then....). So I was locked out for 2 hours because the lock refused to take the password I entered. SO I called my co-teacher and she called the management of the building, and two ajussi came up and they tried to get the door working again to no avail. To keep a long story short, I later had to pay someone $20 to open my door. Then I had to go downstairs to buy 8 AA batteries in order for the ajussi to change the batteries on my door. Finally it's working now, but if they told me I have to pay to change the lock on the door because some bimbo punched a button in, I WILL refuse to pay for it because I did not break the key on the lock. The tenant before me broke it. So yeah, I'm no gonna pay for something I didn't do!

Enough of that, so after this whole fiasco, I met up with Grisel and we went downstairs for some din din at this Korean porridge shop. So good! ^^ So that was a bit of a highlight in the midst of a bad evening. ^^

Oh! I went to Costco three days ago with San, Maryann, and Grisel in Yangjae and I bought a lot of fruits, candies for my kids, and a pumpkin pie. We took the taxi back to the apt because we bought too much stuff. ^^ Oh yeah! We also had dinner at Costco except they didn't have the fries that I wanted. So sad.... *sigh* So I had a hotdog plus icecream. ^^ And I also went to Costco again (this time took the bus to the one in SangBong) with one of my co-teachers two days ago and I bought 2 more pumpkin pies. One for myself and one for the teachers at the office. I bought it in to the office yesterday and it was all gone instantly! ^^ They loved it. ^^ I'm happy because I like to share food and see happy faces enjoying it. ^^

So tonight after school, I'm going to Myeongdong with Grisel to try to come up with a halloween costume for tomorrow. If I do manage to put together a Halloween costume, then I will go out tomorrow, but if I can't come up with one, then I think I will pass. But I'm definitely meeting up with Tiffany to go see a free concert tomorrow night in Hongdae. ^^ Should be interesting. ^^

Sorry for my negligence keeping up with this blog. I guess I've surpassed my "honeymoon stage" with Seoul and now everything just seems normal to me. Honeymooning Seoul's been fun while it lasted..........I've still kept up with my picture taking though as interesting things begin to creep up so don't worry. ^^ I can't remember where I left off in my updates, and I can't remember what I did after that.......so instead of giving an inaccurate update here, I'm just going to wait until I upload the pictures (soon) and update everybody with the captions below. ^^

I got sick a few days ago. Caught a cold, but I'm slowly recovering thanks to medicine mom packed for me from back home, plus sleeping this weekend away and staying hydrated with water and orange juice. ^^ *sigh* But you know, it takes just getting a simple cold to make a person begin to feel homesick. I've been having a mad case of homesickness since getting sick. I know that this is just a phase and that it is alright to feel homesick, it doesn't make you a weaker person. And I know if you ask me on a normal, healthy day about how I feel about coming here to South Korea, my reply will still be "I wouldn't change this for the world." But right now I'm homesick and I admit it.

I'm having mad cravings for a bowl of MacNCheese right now............

But enough of homesickness. It's beginning to sound depressing. *lol* Anyways, classes are going alright. Some of the kids are starting to warm up to me which is cool. If I can influence and encourage at least one kid to continue to pursue English studies after high school, I can say that I have fulfilled my purpose...and even better if it's the whole class. I've come to have a favourite class. Class 2-11 is the most advance class among all the grade 11ers classes. Their only weakness is their shyness at openly speaking English. They have all the vocab tools to carry on a decent conversation with you, but some of them don't want to stand out and appear like they're show offs and others are too insecure about their pronunciation to even try. But I'm sure with a little more encouraging, I'll get it out of them. ^^ The other classes are ok with a mixture of kids who really want to be there and kids who don't give a crap about English. Oh well, I guess things never come in neat little packages. Here's to, hopefully, an endurable term.....I have only 5 more weeks with my kids before their Korean teachers whisk them away again for final exam reviews. *sigh*

Speaking about the end of term, I must reconfirm the dates for my winter camp again with CJ because I'm feeling a vacation to Hong Kong in February is in order. Even if it is only for a week, I'll still take it if my relatives in HK oks my staying at their place for the week. ^^ I'm definitely not going to spend thousands on a plane ticket back to Canada just for Chinese New Year, so HK is a short distance alternative. Plus it would be cool to spend it with relatives for a change. ^^

This past Friday marks my 2 month anniversary here in Seoul, South Korea. I can't believe it's been 2 months already........Life is short because time just flies. This just confirms it. Cherish each day like it's your last.......

So over the past weekend, it was 추석 holiday here in Seoul. ^^ So we didn't have to work on Friday last week and Monday this week. ^^ Sweet, eh? I heart Korean holidays!!! ^^ We spent last week monitoring the kids' midterm exam, so now midterms are all finished. ^^ Back to teaching this week. ^^


As mentioned in the video, I met up with a few friends on Friday and we went around taking pictures in 명동, downtown by the stream, and later 건국. ^^ I met up with San, Ashley and Jessica in 명동 for lunch before we went off taking pictures. While walking through 명동, we discovered a very nice Chinese elementary school. ^^ So random. *lol* We walked to the stream and took some pictures, then we walked to the fountain area and took a lot of jumping pictures. From there we walked to Insadong and then to Konkuk to meet up with Nick and his buddies. Went for Kalbi in Konkuk then to a bar called "Beer Girl." *lol* Yeah, it is a guys' bar so Jess, Ash, and I felt a little out of place there. *lol* I drank only a little (maybe 3 sips), didn't like it and left my beer-soju-mixed there. It just reaffirms my dislike for alcohol. Hated the taste.

All in all, it was a good day. ^^

Saturday I went to the temple again. ^^ Spent the whole day there plus had supper there too. ^^ Because it was also Mid-Autumn and Chuseok, I had mooncake and Korean rice cakes at the temple. ^^ There was calligraphy sutra transcription so I stayed for that in the afternoon. ^^

Sunday, I went to a Global Festival in Incheon with Nick and Ashley and some of Nick's friends. It was an alright festival. ^^ But nothing special because it felt like Heritage Festival back in Edmonton for me. ^^ Not much to talk about there except things were pricey and portions were too small. Incheon is almost 2 hours away from my apartment so I didn't get home until close to 11pm.

Hmmmm......where did I leave off???? I guess this happens when I don't keep up with my blog. *lol* Sorry.....

Anyways, Yesterday I met up with Marissa, her boyfriend, and Shannon in Isu. ^^ Took me close to 45mins to get down there because it was south of the river and I live in the far North side. It was awesome fun seeing them again though. We ate at this fast food place (which wasn't bad) because we couldn't decide on a real restaurant. *lol* But then we had awesome yogurt at Red Mango which makes up for everything. ^^ I ordered in Korean again and again I was self-conscious about my acent and pronunciation (we're not even going to speak about grammer). The lady asked me if I was Korean, and I said no. Then she asked me if I was Japanese, and again I said no I'm Canadian. *sigh* Why do people ask me about other ethnicities when, seeing that Iam speaking English with Shannon and everybody that I'm not from this part of the world???? This stereotype just because I look Asian is getting old........I told her that my Korean is bad and sorry, and she told me that I should practise more and it's going to get better.

We couldn't visit this cool coffee place with swings for seats though because we lost track of time at Red Mango. Darn....oh well, next time. ^^ Ok so this was last night. ^^ I didn't get home until around 11pm. But I went to sleep right away. I also forgot to take pictures yesterday (darn it)....Oh well, I remember for the next time. ^^

Hmmm......Oh I met up with Dalki again on Tuesday after work and we went to Insadong. ^^ It was awesome in Insadong and I was really digging the whole folkart atmosphere. ^^ Everything in Insadong is homemade and since it's one of the tourist hotspots, the prices were a bit expensive. I didn't get anything (next time), but we did eat at this cool, nicely decorated restaurant plus drank ginger tea at this cozy tea house. ^^ I took pictures so I'l post it up soon in my slideshow. ^^ Remember to double click on the slide show to see even more pictures!!! ^^ The slideshow only shows a minimum of 50 pictures. ^^ I took over 300 already. ^^

Ok, that's the recap of this week so far. ^^ I'm meeting up with Dan and Jessica later to shoot some photos around Seoul. ^^ Should be fun. ^^ We're meeting in MyeongDong at around noon-ish. ^^ Will update more later. ^^

Yeah it's Friday today. ^^ No school for me for 4 days because of Chuseok holiday!!!!!! ^^ Gota love Korean holidays. ^^ *lol*

So yesterday I met up with Deborah and Tiffany in 명동 after work. ^^ Because of midterm exams, I don't have classes to teach at all this week and everyday, they told me to go home at 12:30pm. ^^ So today after work, I met up with Deborah at 3:30pm in Myeong Dong for some shopping. ^^ Deborah wanted to get a long t-shirt for hiking, but all the stores are starting to sell long sleeved shirts for the winter. However, both Deborah and I bought headbands. ^^ I got a feather headband which is so cool! ^^ I'll post pictures later. ^^


Oh! And I was reunited with this shirt again. ^^ Saw it the first time in COEX mall, and yesterday saw it again in 명동.....could this be a sign that I should get it? Is it calling my name? *lol* What do you think? Should I get it? ^^:




We met up with Tiffany later at around 6:30pm and we went for Japanese food for dinner. ^^ It was soooo good! ^^ And it was around this time that I found out I should stop eating so much spicy food or else risk messing up my stomach. Yikes! Thanks Tiff the info! I don't want to get stomach ulcers or heart burn or anything like that. I'm going to decrease the amount of spicy food I ingest. ^^

After dinner, we stumbled on this awesome store called Kosney. ^^ They have the BEST random things ever!!! ^^ So cute and unique! ^^ It's the best place to find souvenirs for people back home. ^^ Just for the hell of it, I bought fake bread that's also a card and cellphone holder. ^^ It even smells and feels like bread too!!!! Check it out!

Cute, eh? ^^ It even got fake molds on the back! ^^ Don't worry, I tested it. ^^ It is fake. ^^

Oh yeah! I also got a mouse pad and this cute puppy cellphone cleaner. ^^

I forgot the exact day that I met up with friends this past week. So I'll just tell about it in no particular order. ^^

Met up with Joa and her guy friend some time this month. *lol* ^^ Met them in Sinchon and went out for Korean style bbq. ^^ It was delicious but the meet was a bit fatty. ^^ Afterwards, we went to Red Mango for some good yogurt. ^^ Had an awesome time hanging out with Joa and her friend though. ^^

















Later on this week, I met up with Dalki twice. ^^ First time we wen to COEX mall and did some hopping and eating at the fusion restaurant called Omuto Tomato or something. ^^ Pretty good stuff. ^^ Then the second time, it was in Myeongdong yesterday where we shopped and ate at this Shabu Shabu place. ^^ Yummy!! ^^



















Oh! Right! This past Wednesday, I met up with a bunch of SMOE people again at 신당동 for some good good 떡볶이. ^^ It was fab to see everyone again. ^^ I shared a pot of 떡볶이 with Jenny, Samantha, and Grisel and we were still hungry afterwards that we called for seconds! *lol* Yes we can sure eat! ^^















After 떡볶이, we went to Red Mango for some good ol' yogurt. ^^ Yummy! I ordered a medium size thinking it would be just like medium in Canada, but hell no! It was soooo big!!! No wondered the guy behind the counter chuckled after I said no, it's for me only. But still, it was ooo good. And I don't care if I'm a glutton. I'm a proud glutton. *lol* ^^


















































I also met up with Yohan, my friend from L.A this Thursday. ^^ It was so spontaneous because I didn't expect to meet up with anyone that day, but we met up at Starbucks for coffee. ^^
















On Friday night, I met up with Tiffany, Jason, and DJ in Sa Dang for some good ol' Korean BBQ and ice cream afterwards. ^^ It was so good and the company was so good. ^^ So much fun with them. ^^

Sorry, again I've neglected this blog!

Anyways, so just to recap about last weekend, I went to the Fo Guang Shan temple bright and early on Saturday. ^^ Yayz!!! ^^ *lol* I got there an hour early and helped around. ^^ There is really nothing much to talk about the Seoul Fo Guang Shan temple except that:

1) They have fa hui at 11am on Saturdays.

2) Majority of the time, there are only 7 devotees who come to the dharma service.

3) There are 3 shi fus running the temple.

4) The main chef in the kitchen is a Korean lady.

5) BLIA YAD Seoul is non-existant.

That day, I basically stayed at the temple from morning until around 7pm in the evening helping around, etc. I learned that in Korea, Koreans like to make rice offerings. Interesting, eh? ^^ Anyways, nothing much going on at the temple. ^^ *lol*

During my subway ride home, I got a text from Samantha about meeting up in NoWon for dinner. ^^ So I went up there to meet up with her and some other SMOE people. ^^ NoWon turns out to be VERY big! Omg! The subway feels like its neverending! So many flights of stairs! But I finally made it and Sam took meet to where everybody was eating. ^^ Because I already had supper at the temple, I didn't eat anything. ^^ While we were eating, this random Korean guy with a guitar came over to our table and start playing. Dialogue between John and Random Guitar Guy:

Random Guitar Guy: I can play any English song to you.
John: How much do you charge?
Random Guitar Guy; *silence*
John: Alright, Can you play some Coldplay? Let's hear some Coldplay.
Random Guitar Guy: *silence* I'm sorry, I only know one English song "Land of the Rising Sun" and the rest are Korean song.
John: Oh.........ok, let's hear that then.
Random Guitar Guy: *Begins song and started bellowing at the top of his lungs*

I swear, it was very amusing. *lol* I just loved it!! Here in Seoul, there are so many different characters walking the streets that it just adds color to everything. ^^ AHHHHH I love it here!! ^^ So Saturday night was indeed a great night! ^^







So that was Saturday. ^^ On Sunday, I met up with Jessica at COEX mall. ^^ It was my first time going to COEX mall so it was awesome seeing everything for the first time. ^^ They were having a free concert outside but when I got there, they've already wrapped up. I don't even know what group was up there. *lol* Oh wells. So I met up with Jessica at COEX and we went for lunch first. ^^ We couldn't decide on a restaurant so we went to the food court and I had cheese kimbap and Jessica had some kind of rice. *lol* Then we went to Uniglo and I bought a sweater and top and two pairs of jean leggings. ^^ I also bought another top at this little boutique in the mall. ^^ Yeah, I love shopping. ^^ I also saw the boys from 웃찾사 초코보이 performing by the music store in the mall. ^^ They are indeed so funny. ^^ A lot of people were gathered around to watch them. ^^ I took a video of them. ^^ Check it out! ^^



After COEX, I took the train to 길동 because one of the girls I met at the temple was having a hot pot get-together. ^^ i've never been to 길동 before so I was surprised to see how different it is from the rest of Seoul. 길동 is a much older neighborhood with very few apartment buildings.
I had an awesome time at Sandy's house though. ^^ They are really cool people, but I had to practise speaking mandarin to them. I suck so bad at mandarin. *sigh* We had a lot of lamb and veggie for the hot pot and after hot pot, Sandy and the others demonstrated tea ceremony. ^^ It was so cool and the tea tasted so rich and good!!! ^^ I wish I can learn. ^^ So we ended up talking and drinking tea and we completely lost track of time. I ended up missing my line 6 train by an hour, so I had to take a taxi home from line 7. *sigh* But at least the taxi driver was very nice. ^^



I just realized that I've already been in Korea for a month!!!!! ^^ Wow! How time flies!!!!!

Gonna meet up with Joa tonight in 신촌! ^^ It'll be my second time going there. *hehe* We're gonna meet up for din din and then, who knows what else later? ^^ Afterall it is a Friday. ^^ *lol* But since I'm not really a party person, we'll see what my mood is. ^^ If I'm too tired from sitting at my desk all day, then I might go home and crash afterwards. ^^

Currently I'm sitting at my desk again. I am going to make it my point to produce more lesson plans.......But it's hard because lesson plans make me very very sleepy. Brainstorming makes me sleepy.............*yawn*

Yesterday I took the subway to Konkuk after work to pick up my package from Gwanghee. ^^ The package my mom sent me finally came!!! ^^ Thx mom!! ^^

My gift to you: My First Movie. ^^

So, I've decided that the best solution is to direct everyone to click on my "slideshow link" to see my most recent picture updates. I will no longer post pictures directly on my blog because it takes up too much space. I will reserve my blog for entries and video clis only. ^^

Already that's it! ^^ I've just updated a lot of pictures on my slideshow so just click on the picture and check it out!!! ^^

Well, I've been sitting here in the same seat in the same office for the entire day just waiting for 4:30pm to arrive. *sigh* There are no classes today because the students are writing their National exam today. I've been staring at this dang computer screen trying to come up with lesson plans but ended up looking for more karaoke songs for the "Last One Standing" game that I hope to do with my kids. I've been nodding off like crazy because I'm so bored. I'm sure the other teachers thought I was a bobble head or something. *sigh* Ah, only an hour more to go and I'm outta here!!! ^^

So, they say fall has come to Korea, but to me, it still feels like summer. It's no longer hot hot, but the trees still haven't changed colors or anything like they do in Canada so it just doesn't feel like fall to me here. There's a slight breeze but it's a comfortable breeze. ^^

So far I've only met up with 2 people -- Gwanghee and my orientation friend Jessica. ^^ I've hung out with Gwanghee more because he's been taking me around Seoul every Sunday. ^^ I think we're going to InsaDong this Sunday. ^^ I'll be meeting up with Joa on Friday after work. ^^ Hmmm.....going to the temple for dharma service on Saturday morning at 11am........then meeting up with Jessica at 3:30pm to go to Korean class. ^^ It's free!!! ^^ Oh shoot right! I'll have to reschedule with Dalki for Saturday then......hmmm....Meeting up with Gwanghee to go to Insadong on Sunday. Meeting up with Jinkyo next Thursday for dinner. Hmm.......

There are still a lot of people I have yet to meet up with again.................

My butt's got calluses from sitting on it too much. TT___TT

Woops! Looks like I’m falling behind again. Sorry for the delay. I have 30mins to type up something before I leave work to meet Jessica in 명동 for some good ol’ 칼국수 and maybe shopping. ^^

So just to recap, I successfully completed my first week of teaching last week. I can say that the majority of the time, it’s been pretty engaging. ^^ I had loads of fun leading the activities, however I almost lost my voice because of my over enthusiastic response to my activities. I’ve been getting pretty good feedbacks about my classes, however some teachers were saying my classes are too loud. *lol* The principal walked into my class one day while we were wrapping up, so I had to dive into a back up dictation activity to kill the last 5 mins of class time. *lol* ^^ I think she liked it because she told the other teachers to follow my example and make good use of class time. ^^

I have some favourite classes, but there’s one class, 201, who are enthusiasm killers. A lot of the students in the class don’t even know how to form complete sentences so they are bored, don’t give a crap about English, sleeping, and they’re not willing to participate. *sigh* What to do with them………..

So I had another chillaxing weekend. ^^ On Saturday I stayed at my apartment because it rained and I didn’t feel like going out. ^^ Then on Sunday, I met up with Gwanghee again and he took me to 경복궁. ^^ We spent the entire day there looking around and taking pictures. ^^ I took so many pictures and videos that my battery died before we even reached 명동 . TT_TT *sigh* So sad. We saw the changing of the guards at 경복궁 though. ^^ After 경복궁, we took the subway down to 명동 to have lunch at this famous noodle place called 명동 교자. ^^ There were two branches downtown but both have HUGE line ups!!! ^^ It snaked all the way outside! But it was oh so worth it. ^^ The 칼국수 were so good and the 만두 was yummy yummy. ^^ I hope to go there again tonight for dinner with Jessica. ^^

So this week, I’m not expected to teach in the classrooms because the teachers are having reviews with their students. ^^ So I get to sit at my desk and make lesson plans after lesson plans. Oh joy……….

Oh! I’m off work!! ^^ Time to head back to the ol’ apt, put away my stuff, and head on out to 명동!!! ^^ I’ll update more later. ^^

Update** Alright, it's close to 10pm and I'm back at my apartment. ^^ Just came back from dinner with Jessica at 명동 교자. ^^ It was so yummy and oh so worth the trip. ^^ We walked around a bit afterwards, going up to Uniqlo. But we didn't buy anything. It was too late and I didn't wanna make bad choices anyways. ^^ So, I'm gonna make another trip down there on the weekend. ^^ I can't wait! ^^ Hmm........yeah that's about it. I can say that I've successfully took the subway all the way to 명동 from my place. ^^ Transfered 3 times, but it was all good. ^^ *sigh* When I was in 명동, I wished that I didn't live so far away......actually I wished I can live in 명동.......

Now! Video time!!!! ^^

Alright, this is gonna be short. But I forgot to mention that last Thursday, one of the teachers took me to 신당동 떡볶이 alley for dinner and oh my tummy, it was the best meal I've ever had!!!!! ^^ Yummy Yummy Yummy!!! I'm just salivating just think back to it. ^^ Anyways, here are the pictures. ^^

Oh! And here are some videos from yesterday with Gwanghee. ^^

I’m sorry for my sporadic updates. So much has happened recently and I’ve been so busy that there just wasn’t any time to sit down and chillax.

Just to recap, I met up with Gwanghee and we went everywhere in Seoul. ^^ Well, not quite everywhere. ^^ He helped me find Fo Guang Shan temple ^^ He also took me to the Kyobo Bookstore so that I can get my English teaching books. ^^

Anyways, so our first stop was Fo Guang Shan temple. ^^ We got off at Dong Dae Ib Gu and made our way out the #2 exit. ^^ Then I spotted a sign that said Fo Guang Shan pointing into a tiny ally (yay). ^^ So we walked up the ally, but when we got to the entrance, the door was locked. Good thing I had thought to copy Fo Guang Shan’s number so Gwanghee helped me call them. ^^ While he was talking to them, I saw a shi fu coming down to open the door. ^^ Yay! ^^ Then I saw another shi fu (I recognized her right away because of the Seoul FGS website pictures) ^^ come down to greet us and wow! ^^ I can finally practice speaking mandarin with the venerable there!! ^^ The venerable took us to their guest room and I gave one of the venerable the souvenirs I bought over from Canada. ^^ They then asked me questions about when did I arrive in Seoul, how long will I stay here, what am I doing here, etc. They then told me that Venerable Chueh Yu was in Seoul too but that she’s leaving later on tonight. So one of the venerable helped me call Venerable Chueh Yu and I got to talk on the phone with Venerable Chueh Yu. ^^ Afterwards, they asked me and Gwanghee whether or not we’ve ate yet, and I told them that we’ll go out to eat. But one of the shi fu had started to make noodles for us so we stayed for lunch. ^^ And oh my goodness! ^^ She made sooooooo much noodles for us!!!!! *lol* Gwanghee was surprised too of course. *lol* The shi fu sat down with us and we ate together and I tried my best to speak mandarin and she tried her best to speak English. ^^ We were both horrible at it though. *lol* Oh well, more practise makes perfect. ^^ Anyways, afterwards I helped wash the dishes and then the shi fu showed me the main shrine. ^^ It felt so good to be able to be in the main shrine again! ^^ The shi fus told me that even though the shi fus will all be in Taiwan this coming week, Seoul BLIA YAD will still be meeting for Dharma classes. ^^ So I think I will join them on Saturday at noon. ^^ Later, we went back up and the head venerable came out and gave us souvenirs. ^^ It’s so cute. ^^ It’s a little monk on a cell phone string. ^^ I put it on my bag right away. ^^

Afterwards, Gwanghee took me to Kyobo book store to get some books and teaching materials. ^^ Omg! Kyobo bookstore is BIG!!!! Way bigger than Chapters in Canada!!!! Wow! We found the English section and I picked up two books. ^^ One is a discussion book, and the other one is a drama book for the classroom. ^^ Kyobo book store is like a freakin warehouse!!! Freakin big with a LOT of people milling around!! *lol* After Kyobo, Gwanghee and I walked to downtown Seoul. ^^ It was awesome because we passed this big square with fountains and a lot of kids running around playing in the water. ^^ It was so funny and the kids over here are very very cute!!! ^^ So chubby! ^^ *lol*

We also saw a Korean drama exhibit where the different Korean channels here have displays of their dramas all together. ^^ There were sets and costumes for people to try on and take pictures in. ^^ It was so much fun. ^^ We went into this haunted house set and one of the workers reached behind a book shelf and put a fake skeleton hand on my shoulder! Darn him I was feeling like there was something on my shoulder the entire day! *bleh* *lol* After the film exhibit, we went to an arts museum and saw a lot of Korean folk art and paintings. ^^ It was amazing!!! ^^

After the film exhibit, we went to an arts museum and saw a lot of Korean folk art and paintings. ^^ It was amazing!!! ^^ Afterwards, we walked towards Central downtown. ^^ I got some cappuccino shake from Baskin Robbins and it was soooo small but costs so much. What a rip off. *sigh* Oh wells...........

We walked past the pit that was supposed to be city hall. They are in the process of rebuilding it so it’s still a pit. There was an open air free concert right by city hall but it was wrapping up when we got there. They later had this Christian concert which we didn’t bother staying for. It’s not that I am anti-Christian or anything, but Korean Christian are so hardcore, it gets scary.
We walked past Myeongdong later but we never got around to doing any shopping. I was almost broke (I need to exchange money baaaaaad) and Gwanghee had to meet up with KiYong for dinner. Oh wells, next time. ^^ I have an entire year to explore everything. ^^

Ahhhhhhh!! I start teaching classes tomorrow. I wonder how that’s gonna go?.........wish me luck!!! Getting a little nervous..........

PICTURE TIME!!!!!



































Seoul Fo Guang Shan! ^^

































Going to JoongGak and Kyobo Bookstore! ^^





































































































Arrived at Kyobo Bookstore. ^^





































Feels like a subway in here but nope, it's a bookstore. ><
































I bought 2 books!! ^^

























































































































*haha* Cute chubby Korean kids playing in the fountain. ^^



























































































Drama Festival. ^^ All the main channels in Seoul set up drama sets here. ^^ Pretty cool. ^^

Red pepper festival with multi-colored pepper plants. ^^