going away

I'm off to Ko Samui tomorrow. Before I go, I leave you with the photos from my going away/birthday party.

We ate delicious jim ddak in Seomyeon. My favorite Korean food ever!

We went to an arcade after to play some awesome games. This kid watched me play skeeball the whole time. A little awkward, kid.

We rode a 3D ride.

We found the best Noraebang above the arcade. I don't know the name, but the interior is like Mayan/Cambodian influenced. There was an incident when we got off the elevator, I thought we found a sex motel and we tried to run but the guy ran after us and stopped our elevator... Haha! I shall draw it sometime.It is mighty awesome noraebang, plus their song selection was more recent than any other place I've seen. I'm on a boat!

Happy cup says Drink Me!

Ended the night kinda bruised; fell down on my rendition of Singing in the Rain.

i'm gutted

That's what P said about leaving and I feel the same.


Last day and my favorite good-bye was this: I taught my favorite student Richard how to give the 'Live Long and Prosper' sign and that is how we said good-bye.

last birthday party and pre-grad

Currently my emotions are constantly fluctuating. I think the reality that I have two weeks left can't sink in most of the time.

Every month we have a birthday party or field trip. It's hard for me to wrap around my head that this was the last one I'll be celebrating with my kids. Anyway, instead of waxing philosophical I'll just post some pictures.

They start them young--learning those Korean pop moves.

Jimmy! He's so cute I want one just like him.

What do I do in a day? Teach, referee, hug, play, discipline, clean... Basically I'm Mary friggin Poppins.

let it calm you amidst a sea of chaos

I'm closer to the end than I realized. And for once I don't have a plan ready. I'm just going with the flow and fine tuning and trusting my instincts.

Artwork by my student Annie. Guess which one I am!

in a year things change yet stay the same

Once upon a time, almost a year ago, a girl moved to Korea to teach. She escaped one of the harshest winters of her life, yet somehow managed to bring the snow with her only a week into her stay.
Now the girl's mother has come to visit from the same place, only to bring the snow again. The only thing that seems different is that some of the buildings have been torn down.

Best part though, is that I didn't have work then and I didn't work today. Best Valentine ever, thank you!

bexco 3D art

We went to BEXCO for a 3D art exhibit. Basically it's just multiple opportunities to pose and get some funny pictures. I must have assimilated into Korean culture because I found this to be immensely fun.

This isn't even half of the pictures we took. Just wish we had more time and space to plan out the shots, the venue was swarming with people. My favorite was the giant T-Rex.

want some cheese with your wine?

Aw, thank you Packers. I owe you one.

Anyway, we went skiing on Thursday. It was a small resort north of Busan called Eden Valley.
In my opinion it was overpriced, but I have never snowboarded before to compare with. Even if I did fall down and it took two hours to get down the slopes, I still had fun!

seomyeon salsa

I lied. I don't have snowboarding pictures yet. But I will post what we did last night-- Korean salsa!

I have salsa danced in San Francisco, but I'll tell you what-- I was pretty intimidated here last night. Cici said it best: "Man, this is hardcore!" Also, I am not used to their incorporation of K-Pop in their salsa dancing.

The place is a little underground club in Seomyeon called Latino. I had a blast.



















They call it line dancing, which makes me think of hoedowns. It is not country at all. Also, I love that the men totally get into it. Unabashedly shaking their shoulders and hips all sexy.

lunar new year's

It's holiday time in Korea and this is how we celebrated!

Day 1-
It was Jazz night at Monk's. I really enjoyed it, and it has gotten me more excited for New Orleans. We decided tonight was going to be our "Classy" night.






I received a bottle of wine for a Lunar New Year's gift, so we decided to head to a Noraebang to drink it. This marks the second time I've ever been in said establishment. We found a great place that has a billboard out front with roses on it. We chose it because some of the rooms had windows that overlooks the street. You couldn't drink alcohol inside but we snuck it in anyhow... KARMA-- we spilled it over the floor and I had to sacrifice my socks to clean it up.





It had a... fireman's pole* in the room! *I am aiming for a PG-13 rating in my blogs now.












I'm always amazed by the weird variety they have. My best song of the night was the 'Numa Numa' song.





We ended our night in KSU by heading to Kino Eye and grabbing some more wine. Man, do I have a million memories of this place.







Actually, the night ended at my place where we watched 'The Office.' Next up-- snowboarding at Eden Valley!