Come on Korea, it's now officially spring...so the snow needs to stop! I looked out the window today when I walked into one of my classes and I thought it was raining...No teacher! Snow!
Saturday was fun weather too. It was yellow weather. According to Korea Times, it was the worst case of yellow dust ever recorded. The sky looked really angry. I stayed inside most of the day, but even through my frosted windows, I could see the yellow tint. Rachel and I ventured out later that evening, and I just felt like I shouldn't be outside. And I forgot my mask!
Abby, Kristina, and one of her coworkers, Ashley came to my apt that night for what was supposed to be a movie night, but unfortunately our dvd player had been blown up when plugged in without a converter... but it was still a fun night.
Sunday was a much nicer day. I wouldn't say it was warm, but it was sunny and not yellow. A group of us went to the OEM church in Seoul. We really enjoyed it. I wish it wasn't so far away. We met at the subway in bucheon at 2:30. We took the subway and then a bus to Seobingo. It took like an hour to get there, and we got out of church a little after 5:00.
We went to a foreigner market near Itaewon after church. It was cool to see all the stuff you could get there, but I had no desire to buy a $25 bunch of asparagus or a $10 box of cereal. If the poptarts had been a brand I had heard of, I might have been tempted...but I didn't buy anything. After looking around there, we went to the On The Border in Yeongdeungpo. That one is new, and much closer than the other ones. Yum! I just finished my leftovers tonight. (I love having a microwave this year) Anyway, it was close to midnight when I got home, which I hate doing on a Sunday. I really did not want to get up this morning, but I wasn't as tired as I thought I would be today.
Oh, I posted my address on here before, but someone left a comment that it probably wasn't very safe to do that...soooo if you want my address, just let me know and I can send you a message! I'm going to try to be better about mailing stuff back home this year myself...

How do the weekends go by so fast?? Monday's over, so that's the worst of the week at least.
Saturday, Kristina, Abby, Rachel, and I went to a dog cafe in Hongdae. It was called Bau Haus.

It was not the easiest place to find, but we went in and asked at the information booth and they gave us a map and told us how to get there. PLUS we found a Hello Kitty cafe on the way! It was really cute:) We're definitely going back sometime.

The dog cafe was soooo much fun. They had all kinds of dogs. I was so excited to see big dogs! The wait for a table was a little long, but you get to play with the dogs while you wait. They just walk around freely, even on the tables, and sit with you at the booths. You can order a coffee or drink, but its not a place to eat. They do sell dog treats.
We finally got a table, but we were hungry and decided to just go ahead and leave. We got a cab to Myeongdong for shopping. We went to H&M and Forever 21. I bought a few small things, but nothing too exciting. We wanted to go get Quiznos, but we were disappointed to find it had turned into a Subway:( Oh, well.
Sunday, I woke up with a sore throat, and throughout the day I started feeling worse. Abby and I were going to make soup and watch a movie, but then pizza sounded really good to both of us. It was pouring rain outside, so we decided to make our first attempt at ordering delivery in Korea....and we did it! We successfully ordered and had a pizza delivered to my apt! It was a proud moment:) haha
Today I don't even feel sick at all...a little tired, but not sick.

It's March! Doesn't that mean it should be about time for spring weather?? It started snowing today, and while normally I would be excited for snow, I'm just ready for it to get warmer!
Besides the weather, things are going pretty well. Still adjusting to the new school. I like most of my classes. Some of them are a little crazy. They have me teaching some of the Korean kindergarten classes downstairs, which I don't like very much. There's a Korean teacher in there with me, but the classes are really big and the kids don't know hardly any english. I had to give almost all of them english names, which means they don't know or respond to their names at all, and I still dont know their names anyway. It was really hard to come up with so many names on the spot! I really still miss my ILS kids. I got an email from one of them today because I'm friends with her public school teacher and she had told her that I was back in Korea. It was sweet:)
So this weekend I went to see the Alice in Wonderland movie. It was really good. I went with Kristina, Abby, and Robin. Robin stayed with me for the weekend cause she's had some issues with her school. After the movie we went by The Park, a new foreigner bar in Bucheon, to see Rachel and then noraebang.
Saturday, Robin, Rachel, and I hung out and went shopping. Just e-mart and daiso for a few necessities. We went to see Rachel's apt, which turned out to be in the same building as Katie's old apt. It was kinda sad going there when she's gone.
Sunday I got my hair cut, met up with Abby for lunch, went to e-mart again... I swear I've been there like 10 times already. Rachel went with me to pick up the stuff I left with Amy. It was a good thing I had her with me, cause I had more stuff than I remembered leaving. That bus ride to Sosa made me so happy that I don't live there anymore. Standing on a crowded bus for half an hour with people constantly pushing you or falling into you is not my idea of fun. I cleaned my apt before Robin got here friday, but after shopping, getting stuff from amy's, and just having people here, it looks like it exploded! I'm soooo tired, I wish I could just go to bed now, but I have to clean. Sorry for a boring post! haha

Week 1: Check!

Is it time to breathe yet?? This past week has been CRAZY! I left last Monday morning and was supposed to arrive in Korea Tuesday evening. Just my luck, my flight from Charlotte to Chicago was delayed because of bad weather in Chicago. I would have been pushing it without the delay to catch my flight to Korea, so I missed my flight. There were no other flights that day so I was stuck until the next day in Chicago. They wouldn't pay the full price of my hotel room because they said the weather wasn't their fault. They gave me a voucher to get a hotel room for $60. There was another english teacher and a dad and his son who missed the same flight, so at least i wasn't alone. We went out for dinner that night, and I at least got to see a little of Chicago.
So the next day I made my flight in plenty of time. I got a seat on the exit row, so a little extra leg room. The plane leaked on me where the door was at take-off and landing though... that was a little scary. I finally arrived in Korea around 4:00pm wednesday. I had planned on taking the bus to bucheon, but the driver wouldn't let me on with my 2 big suitcases so i ended up having to take a cab for 90,000won (about $90)! i know i got ripped off, but i couldn't find one to take me for any cheaper and by that point, i didn't really even care so much. The driver took me to my hotel where someone from my school met me. She drove me around and showed me where the school was, etc. Then I went to see Kristina and her mom for a few minutes before meeting Abby for galbi. I was exhausted, but super-excited to see my korea chingus again!
Thursday and Friday I observed a couple classes, but it was kind of a weird week. Kindergarten graduation was Friday and Thursday was rehersal, plus I had to do my health examination thing. Glad that's over! This school is a good bit bigger than ILS. I'm still trying to figure out what's going on.
Friday I moved from my hotel to Abby's apt. Abby, Kristina, and I went to Beijing for the weekend because Monday was a holiday for us. It was soooooo cold, especially Saturday. None of us had expected it to be quite that cold, so we didn't pack our warmest clothes.
Anyway, we paid to have someone from our hostel pick us up at the airport, which was about an hour away. Our hostel was pretty good for being cheap. We got a room to ourselves, so that was nice. It was really close to tiananmen square and the forbidden city, so we did that the first day and nearly froze to death. We were miserable and had a really hard time catching a cab to take us back to our hostel.
That night we braved the cold again and went out in search of a toilet themed restaurant kristina had found online. We found some interesting street food on the way...
Starfish anyone?

Somehow, we managed to find the restaurant. The chairs were toilets and they bring your food in toilet bowl shaped dishes. i got the curry. it was good, but perhaps a little too realistic looking in that toilet...

Sunday we went to the great wall with a tour we had arranged at the hostel. It ended up being only us going, so that was kinda nice. We stopped at the ming tombs and a jade place on the way there. They say in China that you are not a real man until you climb the great wall. When you do, you become a hero. After being there, i think i understand why they say that. Those stairs were INSANE! I wouldn't say i'm really scared of heights or anything, but I wasn't letting go of that handrail. It was soooo steep. I was scared I wouldn't be able to get back down. There was one little tower part that you could go up in if you wanted. Those stairs were like 10 times worse. When I climbed back down, I had to sit on the stairs and inch my way down. It was sooo scary. BUT i am now a hero! haha:)
After coming back down, we stopped for lunch, which turned out to be our only chinese meal in china...sad, i know. it was really good though. Next, we went to a silk factory where we got to see how silk is made. i bought a pillow that unzips into a blanket. It's not all silk, but I thought it was cool. After that we went to a tea place where we got to try several different kinds of tea. Then we went to get free foot massages. The master doctor guy came to tell us what our health problems were. he told me I was anemic.
When we got back to the hostel, it was about 5:00. We were supposed to have a 1 hour nap, but somehow that turned into like 15 hours... Abby tried to wake us up, but it was really cold and we were really tired. Oh well, I think I needed the extra sleep.
Monday was our shopping day. Shopping is fun in cheap countries:) You have to haggle with them a lot, but I think we're pretty good at that now. I bought a few souvenirs plus a new purse. It's dulce & gabana, which i'd never heard of, but abby says its a really good brand.
We were pushing it on time to get back to our hostel so we could get to the airport in time, but we stopped for a 3 course meal. Food was what caused me to miss my flight in tokyo... Luckily they were pretty fast. I had pumpkin soup, asparagus wrapped in bacon, and lasagna (very chinese, i know). Everything was really good.
Soooo our flight was at 6:50, the lady at the hostel said we should leave at 3:50 to get to the airport in time, but we (meaning abby and kristina;)) said 4:30. It was a little after 4:30 when we got back to the hostel and then there was a lot of traffic on the way to the airport, but somehow we managed to make it with enough time to spare for some last minute airport shopping. I got panda earmuffs:) When we got back to Korea, we made the last bus from the airport to Bucheon. It was like midnight when we got home. We tried to move my stuff from Abby's to my new apt (which is the building beside hers), but the school had changed the code. I got to move in on Monday! This apt is smaller than my old one, but I like it. It has a lot more storage space. I have an actual closet and drawers, plus a loft! The washing machine is NOT in my bathtub. I don't have a bathtub acutally, just a shower.
So tomorrow will be my first day with actual classes. I'm a little nervous, but hopefully everything will go ok.
Well, I guess I should stop wasting time on here and go finish unpacking... Annyeong!