Seollal (Lunar New Years) Weekend

Well we didn't spend the whole Lunar New Years eating Red Mango (although that probably would have been a pretty good time). We did spend a lot of time hanging out with friends. Besides eating Red Mango we also went to Yongsan CGV (movie theatre) because they were showing a new Korean movie with English subtitles!! We saw 슈퍼맨이었던 사나이 (A Man Who was Superman) and it was so amazing!!! I really recommend it. It was really funny, sweet and touching. If you get a chance to watch it you should. I'm really excited because apparently Yongsan CGV will continue playing Korean movies with English subtitles. I think I will go to all of them!
After the movie we went to the COEX Mall and hung out/shopped. D and C hadn't been there before and there's a great CD store and Bandi and Luni's (a bookstore that has an English section) so it's a good place to know about. We also had dinner at TGI Friday's. I made everyone go to the COEX movie theatre to pose by the big 슈퍼맨이었던 사나이 display. Hahah! It was a really fun day!


Oh yeah, and I noticed this clothing store at the COEX Mall- who doesn't want their new wardrobe to be "Out of Date"? Hahaha!



Otherwise the rest of the weekend we hung out in Bundang with D and C. We did the standard eat yummy things, play games, go to norae bang routine. Dana even got a bit tipsy so that was amusing!

















On Saturday we met up with Eddie and Gisela, fresh back from Mexico (I'm so jealous of everyone that was able to travel during Seollal) and we checked out the Van Gogh exhibit at the Seoul Museum of Art. It was pretty good but it was so busy!! I've been to the museum three times now and this was ridiculous! We had to line up to get into the museum! Serves us right for going on a holiday, I guess. But it's not like it was a new exhibit (it started showing in November!).

For Stephie and Alison: Our Return to Red Mango

Last year my youngest sister and her friend Alison came out to visit us while we worked in Gimpo. They loved many, many things about Korea but I think their favorite thing was eating frozen yogurt at Red Mango. Matt and I forced Dana and Curtis to partake in the yumminess and I recorded the event just for Steph and Big Al. Nothing's changed guys, it's still the yummiest fruit yogurt in the world!!


































And all too quickly it was gone... Everyone loved it though and the coco balls are still as delicious as we remembered!

Taebaek Snow Festival

Here is another blog that is long overdue. So long overdue that it's already been covered by two other blogs! Since they did such an amazing job of writing about it I recommend you check them out for all the details of the day. (click for Eddie's account and Dana's account.) It was a crazy adventure and I'm glad we went on it because I highly doubt I will ever go to the Taebaek Mountains again. Hahah. There were some amazing snow sculptures but it's a big trip to get there and despite it being the 15th annual festival I was less than impressed with the organization of things. Oh well, live and learn. Good times, great company! Here are a couple pictures and if you want to see more look over here.

Watch Your Fingers

Since we'd been off work for four months and done a bit of traveling, a lot of shopping and plenty of socializing January was a pretty tight month, moneywise. We've since gotten paid (don't worry, we're not starving to death or anything) and are getting back on our feet but there were some rough times.

Like this night in particular. Matt went off with a couple of bucks to forage for some dinner after work. And this was the result. Check out the balanced meal he found... and devoured. I did get a few bites though!



























It was a frightening night but I learned an important lesson. Don't get between Matt and fried chicken.

He even ate the sauce! I'm sure his mom is really proud. Hahah!

Random things I love about Korea...

Here are a few of the things that have tickled my fancy since returning. I may have mentioned them in the past but I think they are so great that they deserve another mention.
Random concerts and performances. Now that we live near Lotte World (Jamsil station is actually our closest subway station) we are seeing these kinds of things a lot more. This was a group of musicians playing some sort of techno classical music. Yesterday we watched an a ceppella group. Free entertainment everywhere you go!


Funny signs. This one isn't hilarious (and for all I know, maybe this is the slogan for Johnny Walker) but it made me smile.





Crazy after school programs. I so wish we had Lego class when I was growing up. That would have been so cool!



Amazing prices and free gifts. Now this isn't on all products, but on certain ones. In case you can't tell, this is a buttload of shampoo and conditioner. Guess how much this cost me? GUESS. I dare you. There are 2 massive bottles with pump tops, one fairly huge bottle and then 4 normal sized bottles. Price? 18,000 won (about $20). The stuff taped to the top of the set are the free gifts. The two bottles that are loose on the table were extra free gifts that the saleslady stuffed into our backpack. I didn't see her doing this to everyone so I can only assume it's because we're foreign. I may never have to buy shampoo or conditioner again!

Just in case you think...

We only spend our time with Eddie, Gisela, Dana and Curtis here are some pictures from our reunion with Joi Teacher. We met up with her at a great Mexican restaurant in Hongdae and had a great time catching up. It must have been birthday day or something because we saw not one, not two but three birthday parties! Because I am silly, I jumped in and posed with one of the birthday girls.









After lunch we wandered around Hongdae and did a bit of shopping. Joi picked up a really delicious mocha where they put pieces of a chocolate bar on top. I think they were pieces of a Mr. Big bar.

Oh and look at the weird sandwich that we had for breakfast on the way to go and meet Joi. It has egg on the outside and the bread on the inside! Silly Koreans and their inside out sandwich!

Amber's Day of Birth Activities...

As a birthday present to me (not really) our job gave us the 14th and 15th off from work. So we went to Dana and Curtis' on the 14th, spent the night (they have a spare room) and then on the 15th went to Suwon for dinner at Eddie and Gisela's.
In case you don't know, Dana is an outstanding and vastly talented cook. So after playing board games and guitar hero into the wee hours of the night she woke up early to make me a real breakfast. And it was glorious!
Afterwards they went to work and we decided to explore Bundang (where they live) a bit. We enjoyed a delicious soft pretzel at Auntie Anne's and then did some important internet related activities at a PC Bang. Finally we braved the bus system and got on a bus to Suwon.
We made it to Suwon without a hitch, did a bit of shopping and then hopped a cab to get to Eddie and Gisela's place. I have the most wonderful friends. Eddie cooked a Mexican feast and they picked up cheesecake as my birthday cake. It was amazing!!! I'm drooling a bit thinking of it. Eddie even opened his bottle of special wine from America that Maynard from Tool co-owns. It was really cool. And Eddie even had an Oilers game playing in the background (unfortunately I already knew the Oilers won but that's okay!). What a great birthday.
And in return we brought over the weirdest and creepiest thing I have ever seen. This was left behind by the girls that lived in Dana and Curtis' place. Dana didn't want it in her place (and I don't blame her) but Eddie (and Matt but I vetoed him keeping it) thought it was great. Look closely if you're brave... Can you tell what it is? This is disgusting and disturbing snake wine from Vietnam!!! Can you see the two snakes in the bottle now? *shudder* There is a cobra with a smaller snake in it's mouth. So vile and creepy!! Matt and Eddie claim they will drink it one day but I'm not sure they would survive! I mean, it's got to be at least part formaldehyde!

For complete birthday pictures you should mosey on down here.

You Gotta Have Friends...

Not long after we arrived was one of the most important events in the year: my birthday. This time around I was turning the big 2-6. I am now officially closer to 30 than 20. Blah. However, as my mom always says, getting older is much better than the alternative. Hehe.

Matt didn't have a massive amount of time to plan my birthday but managed to do a pretty good job. Some unfortunate circumstances meant that everyone we invited wasn't able to make it but we had a fab time with the friends who came.

First off we met up with Eddie and Gisela and went ice skating at Lotte World!! You may remember that this is what I wanted to do last year but Lotte World failed a safety check or something and the entire place was shut down! Skating was so much fun! I used to skate a lot when I was a kid but I hadn't been in years. In Korea they have interesting rules about everything and this was no exception. You're not allowed to skate at Lotte World unless you wear gloves so you'll notice that Matt is wearing weird gloves that he rented for 500 won (about 50 cents).
Skating here was an interesting experience. It was ridiculously crowded and you had to remain vigilant at all times. There were kids everywhere and 85 lb Korean girls clinging to their boyfriends and bringing them down every other lap. Craziness! The ice got really destroyed too and after about an hour they herded everyone off so they could use the zamboni again.

After we'd had our fill of ice antics we met up with Dana and Curtis. This was especially exciting since it was our first time seeing them in Korea!! Next we decided to go and eat some dinner. None of us were really familiar with this part of Seoul (and since we've just moved here we really don't know much ourselves) so we ended up choosing Hooters.
This was hysterical to me on many levels. I've never actually been to a Hooters before and I thought it was funny that my first time would be in Asia. The food was decent and I got a big kick out of the dance routines they randomly performed and by my birthday song. They made me stand on my stool and use the menus as wings. When they pointed at me I had to say "La la la, it's my birthday". Embarrassing, but pretty frickin' hilarious. Definitely memorable.
What birthday would be complete without some norae bang? Plus, Dana and Curtis had been in Korea over a month and still hadn't been initiated!! Unacceptable! As you can see, they are both naturals and since my birthday we have rocked out numerous times. The highlight of the norae bang was when Matt and Eddie sang a special birthday song dedicated to me. I think Matt hit the wrong numbers and a totally random Korean song came on! Instead of just hitting the stop button and trying again they decided to go with it. (They didn't try to sing in Korean, they just made up English lyrics.) Well they must have a knack for that sort of things since they scored a 99 for their efforts! I thought I was going to pee my pants!

Okay, this is starting to get really long so I think I will make a separate entry for what happened on my actual birthday. A tad narcissistic? Sure. But it's my blog. (^ ^)

Updated Links!

Just wanted to bring attention to my links section (on the left). I updated them so KB's is correct and replaced Jon Teacher's (since he hasn't posted in forever) with Dana Banana's blog. We convinced our friends Dana and Curtis to move to Korea and they have a blog too. Read their adventures!

Oh and here is a recent picture of the pencil-mobile that has been cruising the area. I thought it would help everyone get the point. Har har har. (Groan!)

Our New School

This year we're working at KNC Hyunjae Language Academy and the differences from last year are staggering. Remember how we had 10.5 hour workings days last year? And crazy winter intensive that lasted for 3 months? Or how our lesson plans included things like tearing up newspaper and popping balloons? Yeah, well those are definitely things of the past.

This year we're working with older kids (elementary and middle school aged) and we work 6 hours Monday- Friday. It's glorious. We have so much free time we're a little unsure what to do with ourselves at the moment. It's an evening job but we're not minding that since we tend to like staying up late anyway. So I work from 3pm-9pm and Matt works from 4pm-10pm. Nice! This school is apparently very famous for being serious, professional and giving students lots of homework. I would say that it definitely lives up to these assertions.

If there was a downside I would say that the school feels more impersonal to me. I mean, we are hardcore with our lessons and there is a strict no games/puzzles policy. Also, we test kids and they can change to a new level every 4-5 months. So I don't think I will know my students as well as last year since they will be changing levels more frequently and because we really don't have any time for small talk. Really though, I don't think it's possible for me to love any students as much as I loved the students at Little Brown so this is probably saving me from disappointment. The Little Brown kids were my first students and so they will always have a special place in my heart.

Right now things are a bit chaotic at work since we're a brand new school full of many new teachers so I am constantly learning how to do news things and do things better. I'm currently teaching 4 levels of students (all of the A level classes- which are the lowest level of English at the school) while the other foreign teachers have 2 levels each. And my classroom is upstairs and everyone else (except my coteacher and the Homework Room) is downstairs. So it's a bit weird and I feel a little out of the loop and isolated at times. This will all change soon though because they are hiring a new foreign and Korean teacher for March to take over A1 and A3 so I will be teaching A2 and A4 only.

We had Parents Night on Monday and it went really well. It was a little stressful for everyone I think since it's really important to get a lot of good publicity right now considering our school is new and there is a lot of competition between schools for students. I spent a lot of time standing there and smiling since a large portion of the meeting was in Korean. I did get to speak and my coteacher, Seon (a girl), translated. My impression was that the parents were happy with the meeting and a couple of the moms told Seon that their kids like me so that's good news.

As for the nuts and bolts of things. I have my very own classroom this year and I have a million PERSONAL BUSINESS CARDS. You have no idea how excited this makes me. It is possibly the most exciting thing to ever happen. Trust me, everyone is getting one whether they like it or not. And they seem to be good luck. The morning after I got my cards a girl talked to us on the subway briefly. I gave her a card and she found me on facebook. She seems really cool and I think we have a new friend. Success!


















I should probably decorate my room a little bit but we'll see. Any suggestions? I think it needs to stay professional so I won't be putting butterflies and flowers up or anything. It's wonderful having my own classroom though!


Oh and the other two foreign teachers seem really nice! Their names are Will and Ryan and they're from Toronto area (and are childhood friends, actually). Hurray for no insane coworkers!