Three Dogs, and a Bicycle

Today is Buddha's Birthday! So we have today off, which is Monday. It was a nice weekend, I dogsitted for a friend of mine so I had a house guest from Saturday to Sunday. Mandu is adorable and a really good dog, she doesn't bark a lot and doesn't pee inside the house! And she's so loving :) We went on lots of walks and ajusshis love her. The construction workers who are building the subway outside my apartment stopped working to say hello to her when we walked by.

I also won another dog from a claw machine, he's the green one. His name is Inman and he is super comfy. A few weeks ago I won a mechanical dog in a claw machine (and two cans of peanuts) and named him Bin. I need to get a small screwdriver to get him to work though....

I bought a bicycle last week and named her Barbra. She is shiny and new and purple and has a basket, and she is just fabulous! I got to experience so much more of Bucheon by riding around with my friend.

And today I rode to Incheon's Grand Park with my friend Michael. It's a really big park in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. The ride was tough and I was not prepared for the really big hill, but going down was nice. At the park we had Japanese style kimbap (but not sushi!) for lunch and rode around a bit. There was a cool free zoo where we got icees and then looked at all the animals. There were ostriches!! YAY. They are called tajo in Korean.

It was a lot of fun, and somehow we were only gone for about 2 hours. We were thinking about riding to the Yellow Sea but it started to rain a bit so we headed home. Next time maybe.

It started raining quite a bit while I was still about 10 minutes home so I got pretty wet. But it stopped thankfully and now I am home and relaxing.

Okie Dokie!

Another week has passed, time is really going quickly here! And it's already pay day again! Yay!

Tomorrow is not only pay day, but it is also Teachers' Day. I've already gotten a few gifts from my students which is really nice! I got some wonderful vitamins, a cell phone charm, a cake roll (with cranberries, yumm!), home-made hair bows (so pretty!), fancy sunblock, fancy face mask cream, and a really fancy lotion set. All the moms are so cute, one said she was worried I wasn't going to like the gift.

My kindergarten class is getting easier, things are falling into place nicely. We have a good routine going, the kids are still all over the place, but they are learning a lot. I am still amazed how well they remember things, especially things I wasn't even focusing on teaching them. They really enjoy saying "please" which is a good thing, but I think they might think it means "give me" since apparently there is no word for "please" in Korean. They don't really need "please" because they have honorifics so adding "yo" at the ends of words and phrases makes it polite. So instead of saying "Give me water please" they say "mul juseyo"

So the really enjoy saying things like "Alice teacher please!" "pumpkin please!" (where there is no pumpkin in sight), "Alice Teacher's cup please!" They go on and on and find it hilarious. At least they are speaking English!

They also caught up on my usage of "okie dokie!" (whoops!) and "Uh oh!" or "oh no!" which I tend to say a lot during story time.

It amazes me when looking at the six year old class, how different my students are going to be by the end of the year. Korean school goes all year long (for hagwons) so the six-year old class was just in the five-year old class about 3 months ago!

Anyway, this weekend I went to Bupyeong for dinner on Friday, then Hongdae for dinner and a maekeli house (fell in love with honey maekeli!) on Saturday, than Bupyeong again on Sunday for a sushi buffet. A nice relaxing weekend, it was good to get home earlier than what I usually do during the weekend.

Adventure Time!

This week and weekend went by so quickly! We had Wednesday off because it was Election Day so on Tuesday night all of the foreign teachers went to dinner and then norebong (again). We actually did the exact same thing as we did before except dinner was at adifferent place. We went to a BBQ place so I got a Lunch Box. Which is rice, roasted seaweed, kimchi, eggs, beans, and little fish but I took out the fish. It comes in a little tin (see photo) which you then close and shake.

Norebong afterwards was fun, but after that we went to Gun Bar which is a bar right above the norebong place we go to. Gun Bar is awesome because everyone is really friendly. The bar owner gave all of us foreigners a free drink, then even though she doesn't speak English she gave me her phone number and had our mutual friend translate to me that I should call her if I ever want to get food or anything. She's super nice, and I love making new unnies! :) And her brother works there too and he is super friendly and said he is my oppa. Woo for making new oppas and unnies. Everyone always asks how old I am here and when I tell them they say "Ohhhh so young! Very very young!"

On Friday we did dinner, drinks, and Gun Bar again. Pretty low key but when I got out of the taxi by my house I realized I didn't have my key! I left it in my jacket at school. It was 2:30 AM but thankfully my friend was awake so I slept there. Then in the morning I went to the office and the guy let me into my apartment. That was fun.

Then on Saturday Ann, Josh, and their friend Will planned to go to see the LG Twins play the Kia Tigers in Seoul but when we got there the game was sold out. We were so sad, but we plan on going to a baseball game again soon. Instead we had a picnic on the Han River and then went to Itaewon to a place called CraftWorks which was awesome because there was actual good and real beer. You could taste the hops! After that we went to norebong again haha. I didn't get home until about 4:30 AM because we had to take a taxi all the way back. Boo.

And today I went into Seoul to go to my former teacher, Elena's, birthday party picnic at Children's Grand Park. It was really nice because it was warm out. The park is gorgeous and has animal exhibits and rides and lots of things to see. My teacher has been here for 3 years now and her friends were all really nice and there were I think 4 couples of foreigners and Koreans which was cool.

So Adorable!

I keep forgetting to take pictures of my kids during the day, but I have four kids who stay after class (they are my favorite haha) so I took pictures of them. :D

Whenever one of my students sees me she yells "Alice Teacher!" and if I don't come over she gets upset. And when I'm talking (or telling her to sit properly) she goes "Teacher!" ...... "I love you!"

Yesterday, the kids decided to give me and the other teachers and themselves play dough manicures (my new student gave me a green

manicure!). 

And here are some photos of my classroom. We

planted seeds the other day for Arbor Day!

My Apartment

Okay, I forgot to post this video on my blog, but I made this a few weeks ago. My apartment isn't much different than when I made this video. I moved my table a bit, my comforter now had a duvet that is purple and I put up some more pictures. If you have any questions let me know!

Finally started watching my TV, there are some English channels but I am currently watching so variety show in the hopes that I will learn Korean because it's sad how little I know.

Roly Poly and More Norebong!

Another week had passed! Time is going by so quickly. I'm trying to get in the groove of things with my classes but I just got two more kindergarteners! That's ten 4-5 year olds in a room together for 5 hours. Some of them are great, but I've got too many troublemakers to handle. Sadly, my co-teacher, Elly, is moving on soon and I should be getting a new partner soon, I hope she/he is ready for the challenge!

A new English teacher started last week, Sidra, she is from California and is really nice. All of the foreign teachers went out last night for dinner and norebong. The school took the Korean teachers on some sort of retreat, and we are not sure if we are supposed to know about it.

After norebong we went to a bar nearby called the Gun Bar, it's an awesome bar because it has darts and it served peanuts and gummy bears as their free side dishes. Yum! We met some new people which was nice.

The other foreign teachers live right near the Gun Bar, but I had to take a taxi home. My taxi driver did not speak English (they rarely do) and I handed him my card with my address on it but he still managed to get lost, but he reset the meter! Then he got me home and he was very nice and asked where I was from...I think haha. Well I told him either way.

One of my favorite things about my Korean experience so far is my dance class. My friend, Anny, couldn't come to dance this entire week so on Monday and Wednesday it was just the dance teacher and me. Last night, another girl was in the class and she spoke English really well because she went to Berkley School of Music in Boston. That's pretty legitimate! So we finished learning "Be My Baby" (though we are still working on perfecting it) and we started "Roly Poly" by T-ara. Start the video at 4:25 because before that there's no music.

KPop Dance Class

My co-worker, Anny, and I signed up for a KPop dance class. We'll be going every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:30 for an hour. We've already been to two classes, and we are currently learning the dance to the Wonder Girls' "Be My Baby". It's so much fun!

We are the only two people in the class which is a lot of fun, the teacher is so nice and we both laugh when either one of us tries to speak the other person's language. She's a lot better at English than I am at Korean though. But who needs verbal language when you have the language of dance? bahaha.

Here's the video for "Be My Baby":

It was only 90,000 WON for a month. And for three classes a week, that's pretty awesome! Maybe once we get better I'll post a video of us doing the dance! For now, watch the pros in the video above :)