It seems like every time I write a blog I end up having to write it twice. grrr Sorry guys, I've been really busy. At school there is like no time to breathe, and when I'm not at school and I have free time, writing a blog isn't usually at the top of my to-do list.
Anyway, like I said, school has been really crazy. We have almost no free time now. Monday's and Tuesday's are my best days. The week is just downhill after that. The kids aren't bad. There are just so many of them now and a lot of them don't know much english. The little bit of Korean I've learned has helped some. You have to be careful using it though cause they freak out when you speak Korean and they start trying to talk to you. Oh, kinda funny side note story... One of the new upper level kids got to class early one day. I was at my desk doing something and he was reading. He had a question so he said in the most serious, polite voice, "Excuse me sir, what is this word?" I thought it was pretty funny. I didn't laugh though, and I probably should have corrected him, but I couldn't. haha:) Ok, well that's enough about school.
Last Saturday I went to Lotte World with Michael, Kristina, and Shawn.

Lotte World is an amusement park that is half inside and half outside. We were excited about not having to freeze to death, but it wasn't too, too cold. The lines were really long though, much longer than at Everland. Everland was much better overall actually, but we still had fun. We didn't ride many rides, only one that was kinda scary. They had balloons that went around the whole indoor area. That was pretty cool. After we got tired of waiting in long lines to ride rides, we went to the arcade to play games and then we took pictures at the photo booth. Korean photo booths are so much better. They're also pretty stressful. You get to decorate your pictures, but it gives you a time limit, so if you don't know what you're doing you're in trouble!
Sunday after church we went shopping around Bucheon Station and then met our friend Janice for Shabu Shabu. Very yummy:)

After dinner, I went to meet Abby's new dog, Honey. He's very cute:) Makes me want a pet. I'm thinking maybe a hermit crab? Honey also got to meet Peanut. They got along pretty well. Then we went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. We wanted to get the ice cream fondue thing, but they didn't have it so we had to settle for normal ice cream:( Oh, well. So that was pretty much my weekend.
This week, not too much exciting. I did get to make St. Patricks day hats with the kids. When I say I got to make them with the kids, what I mean is, they got to color them, and I got to do everything else. They were much more complicated to make than you might think.
And that brings us to this weekend. Last night I went to see a movie with Abby and today I slept in and other than a trip to Homeplus, a little cleaning, and some laundry, I haven't done much. The weather is sooo nice here now. It's finally getting in the upper 50s to 60. Spring! Yay!! I love it!

This week hasn't been as bad as I thought... The morning schedule is kind of temporary. I think they're trying to get the kids used to coming here before we go into having normal classes with them. So I don't have much to do then. I have a few new classes in the afternoon, but a couple of them dont start until next week so I've had a break there too. Next week is not going to be as fun. Oh, but guess what! Pre-k kids are gone! Well, they aren't gone, but I dont have to teach them anymore! Yay! In other news, it snowed some yesterday. Not nearly as much as you guys got back home. I'm so jealous! So, I went to Outback last night with Abby and Kristina. The food was really good, but just couldnt eat it all, so we asked for to-go boxes. They took our food, brought it back in boxes along with 2 of the small loaves of bread for each of us! I was pretty excited:-) Oh, I forgot to tell you guys, I have a Korean name now...sorta. 돌벽 (Dolbyeok??) It means Stonewall. Don't ask. Ok, thats all for now.

I know, I know its been forever

My mother brought it to my attention that I have not posted in quite a while. I didn't realize how long it had been! Just haven't had a whole lot to write about and not much motivation to do it i guess.
Anyway, last saturday was the kindergarten graduation. Can't tell you how thrilled I was to get to go to school on saturday. I got to lead the kids in a song in sign language. I didn't really teach them the song. I think they got most of the signs from the internet. Then when they found out my minor was ASL they asked me to make sure it was right and to lead the song for graduation. This was like 2 days before they were supposed to perform it so I didn't change much. Its not like anybody would know if it was wrong. It went pretty well I think. I wish I had gotten some pictures from graduation, but I didn't. So the rest of the weekend I was pretty lazy. Went to Rhythm and Booze with Kristina, Abby, and Michael saturday night, but not much else.

This week has been really long and kinda boring. We had 3 age groups of morning kids. I don't teach the youngest group (amber) at all. I have a few classes with the middle group (jade). The oldest group (ruby) graduated so they come in the afternoon now instead. Some days I didn't even have class until 2:00 even though I had to be at school at 9:30. Not having anything to do made me feel really tired. Thursday and Friday we didn't have morning classes at all. It was parent orientation for the new semester. Thursday was orientation for the new kids and parents. Friday was for parents and kids that are returning. We have a lot of new kids coming in next week. Its gonna be scary. We don't even know our schedule for the morning kids. We know our schedule for afternoon, but they haven't told us what we're teaching or anything yet. So its gonna be fun. I'm going to have like no free time either. Ok, I'm starting to get stressed so lets move on to the weekend.
Friday we had Monopoly night at Kristina's. I think I mentioned before that Abby bought us Monopoly for Christmas, but it was all in Korean. We used Kristina's mom as a translator. It was credit card Monopoly too so that made things interesting. It was fun. Long, a bit heated at times, but fun:) Michael ended up winning the game. Pretty sure he cheated though...
Today I went to Korean class. We're starting to get more into conversational stuff. I now have 40+ stickers! Yay! After class, Michael and I went on a search for a Papa Johns cause I was pretty sure I had seen one and I thought I could find it...and guess what! I did! I'm getting much better at the whole directions thing. The pizza was delicious too:)

The weather was really nice today. It was sunny and not cold at all. We walked all the way back to the subway station, which is not a short walk, stopping to play on the swings at a playground on the way. I could get used to this weather, but it looks like its gonna be getting cold again tomorrow. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted!

Here you go Abby. These are some pictures from Kristina's birthday dinner:





Ok, be proud of me. You guys didnt even have to wait a week! This weekend was fun. Went too fast as always... oh well. I went to a temple with Abby on Saturday. No Korean class cause we had it Thursday night instead. The temple was pretty cool. Kinda looked like the palace except there was a lot of bowing and a few cats.

After that we went to Coex Mall. We walked around there for a while. Quiznos for lunch which we were a little disappointed we ate when we found an On the Border after eating. The mall also had a Sbarro. No mall in the US is complete without one, but this was the first one we've spotted in Korea. Coex Mall also has an aquarium and a kimchi museum. The kimchi museum was closed:( We didnt go to the aquarium either.
Sunday after church I went with Kristina, her mom and brother, and Abby to Apgujeong, which was supposed to be like the Beverly Hills of Korea. It did have a lot of the expensive stores, but we weren't overly impressed. We did go to this really nice italian place for dinner. The food was really good:)
And now we're back to monday... Not a whole lot of exciting news about monday. Pre-k kids pulling my hair, one punched me in the face (pretty hard i might add), you know, just an average monday.

Ok I know, I know its been a while.
Last week was not a bad week, but for being only 3 days it really seemed to drag by. I was very happy for the weekend to get here. Saturday I had Korean class. The new teacher was so much better. She called me and Kristina geniuses and she gave us stickers! Yay! We did a little shopping after class and then went home to rest before going to Hongdae to celebrate Kristina's birthday. A group of 7 of us ended up going. We had fun.

Sunday Abby and I joined Kristina's family for her birthday dinner. We went to this nice buffet place. There was so much food...and it was all really good! Natalia's birthday was Monday so after work we went to TGI Fridays. Yum! All the people who worked there were wearing fun hats. We bought one of the waiter's hats:)

And this week has pretty much just been a normal week... Nothing too exciting. It is spring now in Korea! It hasn't been quite as cold this week. Its gotten up to like the 40's. haha I remember when that was bad. Anyway, thats really about all I have for now. I'll try not to take so long to write my next post.

Lunar New Year break

Monday was the Lunar New Year so I had Monday and Tuesday off. We had a little party at school last Thursday which meant the teachers got to wear the traditional Korean hanbok! I was so excited! We played a traditional game called Yut, made traditional candy, and learned to bow. It was fun.

Friday after work I went out to dinner with Abby, Kristina, and Michael at VIPS. It was very good. After that we went to rhythm and booze for a while. Saturday we decided to go to Myeong Dong cause there's a Forever 21 there. So that was the 4 of us plus Kristina's mom and brother. We shopped and went to a really good italian place for lunch. We got to see some really pretty lights...and some turtles:)

Sunday was church, snow angels, then more shopping at Bupyeong station. That was just me, abby, and michael cause Kristina had korean family stuff. Dont make fun of my snow angel, k?

We went to Outback for dinner...always yummy. Monday I went to lunch with my boss's family. They invited me, Michael, and Natalia cause they felt bad that we had no family to celebrate the holiday with, but Natalia was sick. We went to a really nice hotel in Incheon. The food was really good. After that I went to Itaewon with Kristina, Abby, and this guy Nick that we met a while back. Quiznos for dinner (thats a given) and a few other places. Tuesday we decided to go to a palace--Changdeokgung Palace. We thought there would be some sort of New Year festivities or something, but there werent. It was still cool though even if all the buildings kinda looked the same after a while. There was supposed to be a secret garden that is one of the "most enchanting places in Korea," but I'm thinking maybe that's only in the spring cause I didnt see anything like that even though I spent the majority of the day searching for it.

We decided to continue with our Koreaness and go to a Korean barbeque place for dinner with Kristina's mom and brother. It was a lot like the sam gyup sal place, but they had more kinds of meat to choose from. Same cook it on the table in front of you kind of deal though. It was very good.

I got home pretty early, but my sleep schedule might be a little off cause I didnt sleep great and I was really tired today. I'm happy though cause I keep thinking its monday and then its not! Its Wednesday! I mean the week is already halfway over! K, that's all for now. Comment people! It makes me sad to write these blogs and not get any comments:(

Sinchon

Guess what guys! I'm taking Korean class now. I've only had one class and its like super hard. We're just learning to read right now. Its at my church. Kristina and I had decided a while back we were gonna do this. I told Michael about it and he wanted to come too. I'm gonna be fluent pretty soon guys;) haha. It is fun though to try to read Korean signs when I'm walking around. Anyway, after class the 3 of us went and got Abby and headed to Sinchon. There was lots of shopping there plus a Quiznos and an On The Border, which is where we ate lunch and dinner.

Soooooooo good! It snowed Friday and there was still some on the ground so we played in that a little bit. Not the best idea if you arent wearing gloves, but it was fun.

It was my birthday at On The Border so they sang to me and brought us all sombreros and me a poncho.