Sooooooo glad this week is over. It wasn't a horrible week, there was just so much to do with open class and report card comments along with regular classes and lesson plans. Open class went really well I think. I only had to do one class. I had a really good group of kids, so I wasn't even worried about their behavior. I was just nervous about having all those parents watching me. Some of the kids were a little nervous so they were a lot quieter than usual and weren't volunteering to answer as many questions. It's amazing how much faster the lesson goes when you aren't wasting so much time trying to get them to be quiet and sit properly. Several of the teachers including myself found ourselves trying to drag things out to fill some extra time. They told me the parents enjoyed my class so I guess I'm not gonna get fired or anything. Some of the parents were surprised my voice could be so loud. haha:) Anyway, open classes were just for the morning kids, but we had 2 days of it. Half the kids went on a field trip to a traffic park (i dunno what that means) and the other half stayed for open class, then the next day they switched. I was supposed to get to go on the field trip, but then they changed their minds because they needed someone to help with the montessori class:( Thursday night all the teachers went out to dinner to celebrate open class success. Dinner was good, and afterward a few of us went to noraebang again. I'd been in this country i dunno how many months without ever going to noraebang, and now I somehow end up there almost every week. Last weekend we went there friday and saturday night. Some of Kristina's coworkers, Mike and Melinda, were celebrating their last weekend in Korea. They really like noraebang. Abby and I were gonna go to a movie friday, but we ended up at noraebang with them instead. Saturday, it was POURING rain, so we went to Bupyeong for some underground shopping. Then we had shabu shabu for dinner, went bowling, then more noraebang. Fun times.
I'm so excited cause today we're going to Seoul Land!!! I've been wanting to go there for a long time. We were gonna go last week, but it rained:( Today's supposed to be nice and hot though. Speaking of hot, my classroom and my apt are starting to get bad. This is gonna be a long summer.

k, I haven't done an ice cream post in a while, so of course I waited until I have tons of report card comments to write and stuff to do for open class (when the parents come sit in on class) to do this.
This first one is watermelon ice cream. I must say, I was not a fan. It would have been fine if they had left out the "seeds" I think. The seeds taste like little bits of chocolate-covered nuts, which didn't really go well with the fruity ice cream. Cute idea, but I think I actually threw most of this one away.

Next up is a coffee milkshake in a bag. I love these things! The only problem is many times you have to let it sit a while before it thaws enough to drink. The flavors I have seen are coffee, cookies and cream, vanilla, and strawberry.

Here is another favorite of mine. I think they come in other fruits, but the pineapple is the most common. The green part is a lid that comes off, and when you buy it, they give you a little wooden spoon at the counter. Inside is like hawaiian ice. So yummy and refreshing, especially on a hot day!

Alright, I guess I should get back to those report card comments:(

I'm sad I dont have my mom or anyone here with me to do my blog for me anymore:( This is a lot of work...so COMMENT PEOPLE! Seriously, it makes me feel better. Anyway, where was I? My mommy left me on Wednesday:( I did get to go with her to the airport cause my school gave me the morning off. Abby went with us too cause she's cool like that. I was pretty dead after basically playing Korean tour guide for 2 weeks along with work. I'm getting really good at it though! Who's next? Haha:)
From what I recall, the rest of the school week was pretty uneventful...
Friday night was one of Kristina's coworkers birthday so a big group of us went out for Korean bbq and noraebang. Yes, I sang this time. I sang A Whole New World (from Aladin) with Abby! I also used a squat toilet for the very first time...and in more depressing news, I broke another watch:( It was my new Hello Kitty one! I have the worst luck with umbrellas and watches in this country! Oh well.
Saturday, Kristina and I were both craving Quiznos, so we made a trip to Itaewon. We were trying to figure out when the last time we'd had Quiznos was and it was like in January or February! I dunno how we went so long without it. After that, we met up with a friend of hers who was visiting her family in Korea and we went to Myeongdong to go shopping. Yay for Forever 21:)
Sunday I went to church, then we were gonna go to Costco, but after waiting forever for the bus that never came, Kristina talked us into going to see a scary movie that I would not recommend anyone else go see. It was called Drag Me to Hell. Doesn't sound very nice, does it? There weren't 4 seats together anywhere, so me and Abby ended up alone in the front screaming through the whole thing. I feel like I didn't even see half the movie cause I was holding the popcorn bucket in front of my face the whole time. So yeah, that was my weekend.
Today was an interesting day as well. We had our first fire drill at school. Fire drills must not be big here, cause none of the Korean teachers knew what they were doing. They thought it would be a good idea to run through the school screaming FIRE! and then line the kids up right outside the door of the "burning building." We did have a real fire truck though, so that was exciting. All the Korean teachers were taking pictures as we were escaping from the building. It was amusing. THEN, after taking pictures with the firefighters, they got the hose out and proceeded to spray it beside our school building. That was fun.

Mommy's Visit

k, i know this is really lazy, but my mommy is here and i dont have an abundance of free time...so here's the link to her blog:
http://sherrysimpsonblog.blogspot.com/

I know its been forever! My friend Robin came to visit me last week so I've had zero free time. She got here sunday evening. I did my best to give her tips about traveling in Korea, subway, bus info, etc. I had to work, but she was really brave and went out sightseeing on her own. I dont think she got too lost. We did stuff together in the evenings, which was really fun, but also quite exhausting! Im not sure we got home before 11:00 at all that week. Monday night we attempted to find the 63 Building, but we gave up and went to Insadong to do a little shopping instead. Tuesday night a group of us got together to study korean cause we had a test saturday. We didnt actually get very much studying done. We went to TGI Fridays and then bowling. Wednesday we made a second attempt at the 63 Building...and we found it! Yay! There's a sea world thing and some other stuff in the building, but we just went to the observation thing at the top. The view was really good. Thursday night we went to Seoul Tower. We wanted to take the cable car to the top, but we had some difficulty finding the cable car thing. We hiked up and down this hill a couple of times before we ran into another foreigner who informed us that it was in fact up the hill. We just hadn't gone nearly far enough. You would think taking the cable car would be a way to get around hiking. Guess not. We eventually got there and got some good pictures. Friday night I wanted to take Robin for Korean bbq. We met Kristina, Abby, Katie, Michael, and Joe. Dinner was really good. After dinner we decided to get a lion ice cream cake from baskin robbins, then we moved the party to mcdonalds to study korean (sorry robin). Saturday morning I took Robin to the bus for the airport:( I went to Korean class where we had our test. We won't talk about that. It makes me a little angry. After class, we went to Bennigans for lunch cause we had free coupons. While we were eating Robin called and informed me that she was back at my apt because after getting to the airport, she found out that her flight wasn't until sunday. oops! haha;) i went back home and after resting a little, we went to bupyeong to meet abby, katie, and kristina. we went to a hookah bar that kristina had heard about then we went to meet michael and joe at rhythm and booze. sunday morning robin left again:( Abby, Kristina, and I went to Forever 21 later for some summer/bali shopping. Yeah, I'm going to Bali for my summer vacation! Im excited:)
More exciting news: MY MOMMY IS COMING TOMORROW! Yay!! I can't wait! She'll be here until next wednesday. I'm hoping the weather will be nice. We had a thunderstorm yesterday...the only thunderstorm i've seen in the 8 months i've been here! Its my 8 month anniversary by the way! Time has really flown by.
Lets see...what else is new? Everything's going good at school. One of my kids just came back from america. She brought me a keychain from Texas. The idea of one of my korean students giving me a souvenier from america made me laugh a little. I've never been to Texas though.
Its funny how kids I've been teaching for months will tell me like they've just noticed, "Teacher! Your eyes are blue!" Well today I was informed by one of my kids that my eyes are in fact purple. I tried telling them they were blue, but eventually just gave up and accepted it.
I'm sorry about there not being any pictures, but they're on facebook. I dont feel like going through the effort of posting them here too. I gotta go clean...cause MY MOMMY IS COMING!