An Ocean Away

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. ^^