I can't believe that at this time last month, I was in South Korea. Since then, I've been to Chicago, Virginia, Boston, and now I'm at my dad's house in West Virginia. It's amazing how fast the month goes when you aren't sure what time zone you're in...

Anyway, I'm sure my recent itinerary sounds odd to those of you who don't know me well (or whom I haven't talked to in a while), so I'll explain:

My sister got an invitation from Emerson College in Boston to come to a transfer student orientation/introduction. I *love* Boston, so I asked if I could tag along and got an affirmative. So I decided that I would make it into a longer trip and began by flying out to Richmond, VA, where Ramey lives. So I got to hang out with her and Peepers for a few days before we headed off to Boston.

We met my dad at the airport and went to our little hotel en masse. The next morning, Dad and Ramey went to the orientation whilst I took a trolley tour through the city. (I enjoy these tours - I took one in Seoul as well - because its gives you a bigger view of the city than you would have gotten from simply going to tourist spot to tourist spot within a certain walking distance.) As I rode through, I remembered how much I like Boston - I've been there three times now in the span of a year. When Dad asked me what I like so much about it, I couldn't really put words to it, but I ended up saying that it's a big city without feeling like a big city. The buildings aren't incredibly tall (like Chicago), it's not incredibly crowded (like Seoul), and it's got a lot of history mixed in with it's business and commercial areas. My dad mentioned that what struck him was the prevalence of 20-somethings, as compared to older people. I hadn't really noticed this, mostly because that's my age group, but when I think about it, he's right. So it's an older city that younger people flock to. Excellent. :-)

After the orientation, I met my sister and dad for lunch and then we went to the New England Aquarium (yes, we ate seafood before going to look at lots of sea...animals). My favorites were the penguins and the turtles. I'm not much of one for simply looking at fish...but it was a good (warm!) way to pass some time. After the Aquarium, we caught an IMAX flick, but it wasn't very good - supposedly a shark film, we didn't really learn a lot about sharks, although the cinematography was cool.

That night we ate at the Cheers Bar replica in Fanueil Hall. I had the best cheeseburger and then we split a piece of Boston Cream Pie. Yummy yum yum.

Sunday morning, we got up and packed our stuff, leaving it at the hotel until it was time to head to the airport. We walked from our hotel down Charles Street, meeting Boston Commons about 5 blocks past the hotel. From there we walked across the park to Filene's, which is apparently going out of business (the actual departement store, not the Basement), so of course we had to go in. I wound up with a pair of shoes that I didn't need, but I also walked away with some things that I did need - not appropriate for some imaginations. :-P

After a bit of shopping, we walked back to Fanueil Hall for lunch - clam chowder (for me) in a bread bowl. Once again, yummy yum yum. I *love* clam chowder even more than I *love* Boston. Which is good, because I can get clam chowder in places that I can't get Boston... ;-)

After lunch, we went back to the hotel and picked up our stuff. We then headed to the airport, where we broke apart (Ramey was going back to Richmond, I was going to West Virginia with Dad, but we were on different airlines). I then proceeded to wait for my delayed flight before being told that my leg from Washington Dulles to Charleston was cancelled. I went ahead and flew to Dulles, where I was told the flight was reinstated, but wouldn't be leaving until 11:20 - not too bad, since the original flight was 10:00 and at least it wasn't cancelled. Well, we didn't board the plane until 10 to midnight. We then waited, with the cabin shut, for 30 minutes before our flight was cleared for take-off. This all added up to an arrival time at Charleston of 2:20 in the morning.

I'm having bad flight karma...maybe I'm saving up for a free pony?

Anyway, now I'm in West Virginia, spending a few days doing absolutely nothing and loving it.

I'm still in my PJs at 4:30 on a Tuesday afternoon...where are you? ;-)
Lace

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

To show you how much I love you, I'll finish writing about Korea...

I really and truly don't remember what we did on Saturday morning. I remember that I felt surprisingly better, even after standing out in the cold for go-awful long the night before. But Saturday night, Beth and I joined some of her co-workers and we went to see STOMP. It was poorly planned, in that the girls gave the two maps to the two guys, but we finally found the theatre and a really yummy restaurant that would serve us massive amounts of warm food in the time we had before the show. It woked out really well and the food was, as always, delicious.There was soup and noodles and rice and yum. :-)

Then we went to STOMP which was amazing! I saw it a few years ago (well, a few years being when I was in middle school or some such) and it was good, but I wasn't old enough to really appreciate it. This time, I found it brilliant. Not only in the musicianship that it takes to make a song out of, literally, garbage, but in the sheer physicality needed to do the things they did, such as strapping large garbage cans to their feet and walking around. They also had distinct personalities, a feat in and of itself in a venue where there is no dialogue. All in all, it was a fabulous show.














On Sunday, I felt the worst I'd felt all trip. I was in pain. So we nixed our plans to check out the National Museum of Korea and went back to COEX for a little bit of R&R - namely, manicures and pedicures. I felt really nice just to sit back and not have to do anything except move when the technician asked me to. After the pampering, we wandered around a bit, finally heading back to Mok-dong for some dinner. We went to a galbi restaurant, which had been my first experience with Korean food and something that I think is incredibly yum. So Sunday ended up alright, despite the pain in my face.

Monday, I decided that I wanted to learn more about Korea's recent history. The War Memorial Museum had really interested me and I wanted to add to my knowledge base, although I already knew more than a majority of my American peers...so I went out to the National Museum of Korea by myself. I forgot an important fact, however, when I failed to check the weekly closing date of the museum. I'm sure that you, my intelligent friends, have figured out that this particular museum was closed on Mondays. Drat. So I randomly wandered around until it was time to head back to Beth's apartment.

When I got home, I learned from Ken that Beth's Granddad had died. It had been expected, but I know the feeling of losing a beloved grandparent. So I took Ken to the school to surprise Beth with flowers when she got off of work. After a grateful greeting at the school, we went out for sushi, finding an excellent place just blocks from the school. When I say excellent I mean we got three huge meals, split them, and the bill came to about $28. And the food was amazing...I'm talking soup and donchass and a ginormous plate of sushi. I had octupus for the first time - wasn't a fan, but hey, I can say I tried it! Octopus and eel and caviar, oh my! That's been my experience in Korea. :-)

On Tuesday, I packed and did very little else, considering it SNOWED. Yuck. Who wants to wander around when it's snowy and ick when Korean apartments have heated floors?!? Not me, that's for sure! I did eventually venture to the Hyundai department store once again, on a mission that was unfulfilled, but I did end up with a great North Face bag to use as a carry-on for the next day's flight.

When Beth got home, it was time for something I'd been looking forward to for the entire trip - the sauna! I love Asian saunas. My first experience with one was actually in San Francisco - not surprising, considering the ease one must feel being nude around others. This one was excellent and you could tell it was a popular place for the locals...Beth and I were the only two Westerners there. We spent the first hour or so in the hot tubs and cool tubs, including some quality time with a jetted hot tub...it felt so good on tired muscles! Then we paid for the extra service of what Beth casually called a "scrubbing." That was an understatement. We lay on tables while a sauna employee sloughed our skin. It got all the dead skin off, that's for sure - it was cool and gross at the same time, seeing the dead skin being washed off the table when we were done. But I felt soft and clean and so relaxed.

Until the morning.

I got up around 7 in anticipation of leaving Beth's around 8:15 for the airport. Then I check United's website to make sure my flight is on time. Big mistake. My flight from Seoul to Tokyo was delayed until 5 pm...and my connecting flight left Tokyo around 5:30! I flipped. I called Brandon, freaking out, and he called United who basically (once again) said they couldn't do anything about it. I don't understand why plane tickets are so freakin' expensive if I'm never going to be guaranteed a flight. Grrrrrr...

I went to the airport anyway and, once there, the United reps were actually very helpful. They got me on an earlier flight to Tokyo through Northwest Airline and I was even upgraded to Premiere class, which was excellent...although it would have been nice to enjoy the upgrade on the longer flight but c'est la vie. The catch, however, was that the flight was leaving in about 30 minutes, so I had to book through security, immigration, etc. Luckily, it wasn't bad, and I made the flight. Once in Tokyo, I had a long-ish layover, but the flight left on time and everything was good so there's no complaining coming out of this traveler's mouth! Or fingers, as the case may be...

And that was my first trip abroad! I'm still not sure if I want to continue to travel or if I want to ground myself in Chicago for now, but I'm thinking that I'll stay unbound until the end of the summer - I have plans to visit Mandy in Alaska this June and I'd like to extend the trip to make a drive through Canada, but that's it. I may still head to Guatemala for a Spanish immersion program that looks interesting, since knowing Spanish will never hurt my job search - but basically, I'm going to see family at the end of this month and after that, I'm staying put for a bit. Jet-lag and I just don't get along...

Good bye, and Good Luck,
Lace

Well, it snowed in Seoul today (Tuesday), so I'm spending my last day (for the most part) inside. I don't really feel like updating at the moment, so I'll steal something from my sister's MySpace

==================
Have you ever....
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1. Fallen for your neighbor? Um, nope. The only neighbors I remember have been female...

2. Made out with just a friend? Sure. That's what living in an Arts Dorm does to you, I suppose.

3. Been rejected? Oh yeah. Hasn't everyone at some point?

4. Been in love? Indeed. blog:

5. Used someone? Yeah...something I'm not exactly proud of, but I'm not gonna lie.

6. Been used? Yeah...I pour my heart and soul into things and that's not always appreciated...usually it just ends up being expected.

7. Been kissed? 22 and never been kissed? Please...

8. Done something you regret? No. I'm big on living in the present and for the future...I use my past to learn from my mistakes, but they made me who I am and if I don't embrace my past, I can't embrace myself.

9. Cried to get yourself out of trouble? Ha, I'm keeping Ramey's : yes. i have ovaries.

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Who was the last person...
=========================

10. You talked to? Brandon

11. You hugged? Beth

12. You instant messaged? Lauren (and Kiera!)

13. You missed? Momma

15. You yelled at? Probably Brandon - he knows how to push my buttons...

16. You laughed with? Beth

17. Who broke your heart? I did a pretty good job of that myself...

18. Who told you they loved you? Either my sister or my roomie.

(Ramey, I don't know what you're talking about on that one...it always feels good to be told you're loved. And know I'm saying it for all my friends to read...aren't you embarrassed? ;-))

======================
Have you / Do you / Are you...
======================

20. Have a birthmark? Yeah

21. - 22. M. I. A.

23. Own your own house? I did, sort of, but we sold it. So now I'm travelling on the profits...

24. Own a nice car? Well, I'm sure no one else would agree that my lil' Cabriolet was a nice car, but I loved her. And now I have Abby, my good lil' Kia. Both got me between Chicago and Richmond alright, so that's what really matters.

25. Speak any languages? Um, I can say "Thank You" in four languages: English (duh), French, Spanish, and now Korean...but holding a conversation, I'm embarrassed to say, only comes easily in English.

26. Cook your own dinner? Mmhmm...and I can't wait to be back in Chicago to cook with my roomie!

27. Color your hair? Used to...it's finally my natural color, after at least 9 years.

29. Stolen anything? Other than the spotlight, nope.

30. Smoked? Pleading the fifth because it's an absolutely disgusting habit.

31. Taken? If you're reading this, you really already know the answer, sort of...not to be confusing. :-P

35. Panic? I used to have panic attacks...now I can't even imagine what I was so stressed out about...I'm sure it couldn't have been writing my thesis to graduate from Northwestern while helping to run my sorority, start a national honors society on campus, and being in charge of a philantrhopic event that raised over $140,000...nope, that's not it.

36. Anxiety? What are these emotions of which you speak?

37. Depressed? I have been.

38. Control Freak? Mwahahahaha...I have my moments.

39. Obsessed with hate? Good God, do y'all know me at all?

40. Have a tattoo? No, though it's been considered...

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Questions..
======================

41. If you could be anywhere right now, where would it be? My bed. It's soft and my sheets are amazing...plus, I'm sick, where else would I want to be?

42. Can you do anything freakish with your body? I'm gonna say no and ask y'all not to ask such personal questions...

43. What feature do you find most attractive girls/guys? Physical features - I like the smiles. And the butts...it must be hereditary, sis. Otherwise, I'm a sucker for a guy who makes me laugh - especially with self-depreciating humor.

44. Would you vote for a woman candidate for president? Only if she wouldn't embarrass the gender.

45. Would you marry for money? I'm going to go with a no...

46. Have you had braces? Negative.

47. Do you wear lip gloss? All the time... I like L'Oreal's Color of Hope the best...plus a portion of the sale going to benefit the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.

48. Do you sing in the shower? I don't know why every girl seems to embrace this habit...but I like to enjoy serenity in the shower and simply focus on the water and the smell of my body wash...

50. Could you live without a computer? Natch. It doesn't have to be mine, but I need access of some sort.

51. Do you use AOL, MSN, Yahoo messenger? That would be AIM.

52. If so, how many people are on your list? Looks like 74 lucky winners.

53. If you could live in any past, where would it be? Something with fancy clothes and houses.

54. Do you wear white socks? Sure...is there something wrong with that?

55. Do you wear shoes? Being from West Virginia...of course I wear shoes!

56. What is your favorite fruit? The kind from the Loom? :-)

57. Do you eat wheat bread or white? Whole Wheat

59. Fav DVD? Forrest Gump. West Wing. Finding Nemo. Friends. Batman Begins. LOST.

60. Do you kiss on the first date? I haven't been on a first date in almost 2 years...but yeah, I did. :-)

61. Are you photogenic? At some points. But this is where I say I hate prednisone...

62. Do you dream in color or black and white? I almost never remember my dreams...

63. What are you wearing right now? Socks, Jeans, and a Teal Striped Shirt...what are you wearing?

64. Do you eat a lot of fruit? Who are you calling a fruit?

65. Do you have dimples? Not any of the good kinds... :-P

66. Do you remember being born? Um, no. Freak.

67. Why do you take surveys? 'Cause I was bored of reading and I didn't want to take another nap.

68. Do you drink alcohol? Not so much.

69. How's school? I am now a student of life...and not so sure if I'm ready for it.

70. What is the best accent? Chi-cAH-go. Or not.

71. Do you like someone? 0:-)

72. Do you like sunsets? No! I hate the sun! I hate small kittens! I hate...oh wait. Nevermind.

73. Do you want to live to be 100? Only if my friends and loved ones get the same chance.

74. If not, why? I would hate to be left all alone.

75. ran away too. If found, call 1-555-555-5552.

76. Are you loyal? When people deserve it.

77. Are you tolerant of other people's beliefs? I'd like to think so. If I've ever done something that would prove contrary, someone please smack me.

80. Do you think you can draw well? Hahaha....my stick figure, Ben, says sure!

81. At what age did you find out that Santa Claus wasn't real? I don't remember a defining conversation...more of a dawning awareness.

84. Do you write poetry? Naaaaaah.

86. Do you sleep more on your back, front, or sides? Side. And I have to be facing out from the center of the bed, if there's someone next to me.

87. Do you like cats/dogs? Yes. I miss my puppy.

88. Do you lick stamps? I like the self-stick sticky sticker stamps.

89. Do you use an electric can opener? Nah, we're primative in Wilmette...

90. Have you ridden in a hot air balloon? No, but I bet that would rock. I have a friend who was proposed to in one.

91. Like your name? What's not to like?

92. Were you named after anyone? My mother's maiden name.

93. Do you wish on stars? When I think about it.

94. Which finger is your favorite? I'm going to go with the pointer, for reasons I'm not divulging on the Internet.

95. When did you last cry? Um...on the subway a few days ago? When I was really tired and getting sick.

97. Who do you admire? My Dad, who always supports whatever I want to do. My sister, for going back to school and continuing to dream. My Cheerbear, for being (almost) always perky and being so knowledgable about human interactions. My Goober/Grumpy Bear/Penguin, for knowing how to make me laugh and knowing how to hold me when I'm upset and also for being extremely smart in an area I'll never understand. My Grandmother, for volunteering at a cancer clinic after losing both her husband and one of her daughters to the horrible disease. Mandy, for going through more self-actualization than I wonder if I'll ever go through and still coming out as a loving, super friend. And many others who come into my life and change even the tiniest whisper of who I am, without me even noticing it.

98. What is the 1 priority in your life? To be happy and loved. And I hope those two things are possible together.

99. How many kids do you want? Two or three...I never want to raise a single child, because I'm prone to spoiling...and spoiled kids often grow up to be spoiled brats...myself excluded, of course. ;-)

100. Any bad habits? Sure, but this post is too long already... :-P

Sweet, I just wasted about 30 minutes,
Lace

Tuesday was my first day to explore Korea on my own. Unfortunately, it was also the day that my allergies decided to attack full force...

So maybe going to an herbal market wasn't the best idea, but having proven in earlier posts that I don't always think these things through (Canada being cold in December, eh?), I ventured to Gyeongdong market without a second thought.

As soon as I got off the subway (achoo!), I realized my mistake. The sight of herbs falling into the street from various stalls was defnintely (sneeze!) interesting, but the smells mixed together into one big (sniff!) allergy fest. I tried going into different alleys of the market, but once I left the herbs, I hit the fish. Neither one smelled extremely delicious...so I bought a few apples and got back on the subway (ahhhh...).





Next on my list was Dongdaemun market, supposedly a fashion market. It was incredibly confusing...I'm so used to Western malls! The market was simply stalls selling anything you could imagine...CDs, jeans, shoes, etc. You had to know your size, however, since dressing rooms were definitely not present, and since they use different measurements here, I was lost. So I wandered around to enjoy the experience and then left without making any purchases. Probably a good thing, in the long run.




















On Wednesday, I decided that I wanted to hit a museum, so I chose the Korean War Memorial Museum. It was extremely cool. There were statues and stuff outside, which were neat, but since it was cold, windy, and sneeze-inducingly sunny, I went inside after a cursory glance (and a few pictures since something was FINALLY worth taking a picture of...). The museum itself was great, although a lot of it was in Korean which I didn't get at ALL. Luckily, enough was in English that I didn't feel gipped out of my admission fee. (Admission fees here are amazing - at $3, this was the most expensive fee I've seen/read about yet.) I saw weapons and military uniforms and depictions of battles and read a lot. I've never known anything about the Korean War, so I wanted to learn more, and I did! It's really amazing that American children aren't taught more about this, especially with the modern day worries about North Korea - I mean, a majority of Americans don't even know what the war was about or even that it's technically still going on! I mean, an entire country is divided (families haven't been allowed to reunite for decades!) and we (the future leaders of a world "superpower") are oblivious to the factors behind it...unbelievable.

Anyway...

After the museum, I went to Itaewon. I ate a sushi lunch ($7 got me sushi, soup, onions (these little pearl onions sauteed in something...delicious!), and green tea...perfect!) and then wandered around looking for the bookstore and an earring store Beth said has cheap, fun earrings...but I found neither. So I went back home, took some Benadryl, and relaxed for the evening.

My Thursday was totally low-key because my allergies had begun morphing into a cold. So I spent most of the day inside, reading and sleeping. Finally, I decided that I had to get out of the apartment for at least a little bit. So I looked up bookstores in Seoul (another reason I had to get out...I had nothing more to read!!!) and found the one in Itaewon that I had been looking for the day before - with a map! So I headed out thataway. Once off the subway, I overshot the road I was looking for by a little bit and I found...the earring store!! So I found BOTH shops that I'd been looking for the day before. And I got more reading material. :-)




















Friday, I knew I had to do something, so I decided I'd get on a tour bus of Seoul - one that lets you get on and off. A good idea, in theory, but after spending an hour looking for the tour bus stop and then waiting for a bus to stop, I was cold. The tour guide mentioned that I wasn't dressed warmly enough, which I found odd - until I took off the mask I've been wearing to abate my allercold, and found an icicle! hanging off of it! Now, I'm used to Chicago winter, but that's ridiculous! Apparently it was -15 degrees Celsius. So instead of hopping on and off the bus...I stayed on! Which worked out fine because I got to see a lot of Seoul and they had blurbs about each of the stops in English, so I learned a lot too.

That night was dinner at Seoul Tower. The dinner was totally worth the drama it took to get there, but while we were standing at the subway, freezing our arses off, we weren't so sure it would be. We waited at least 30 minutes for a taxi to take us to the cable car, which then took us up to the base of about a million stairs that we had to climb before getting to the tower. However, the meal was delicious (Korean-style salmon and lots of side dishes...and ice cream corns, of course! (Oh Konglish...)). It didn't take as long to catch a cab back, which was nice, so we went to Itaewon, where I took the subway back while Ken and Beth went to RMT for a bit. I was conked by the time they got back. I mean, we had a weekend to start the next day!

But more on that later...
Lace

Okay, so I've made it to my first weekend in Korea...

Saturday, Beth and I hit Insadong, a really neat street full of handicrafts stores and street vendors. Here are a list of things that caught my eye:
*Tea. I didn't find any tea stores I really liked (I wanted a cool shop with loose-leaf tea in jars, but apparently they don't really do that in Korea), but we went into one where they gave us a free sample of a naturally sweet tea that Beth liked enough to buy. Y'all know me, though - no sweetness in my tea, please. However, I do like green tea more than I thought I did...
*Candy. Koreans don't really use sweetners and even their candy isn't very sweet. However, it's very good. Vendors were selling it everywhere, so I had to try it. I bought a bag of it where the nougat (which is considered the "official" candy...I think it's wheat gluten or somesuch) was rolled in peanuts. It was good, although the nougat gets rather hard and the whole thing is very chewy. It hit the spot when I was hungry though!
*Homemade Cards. These are truly beautiful. Made of paper, many of them have paper designs pasted to the outside. I don't really know how to describe them other than to say some of them are just fabulous works of art. They're all blank, not Hallmark-y at all (which is good, considering the majority of Koreans' grasp of English - "Konglish" as the teachers at the school call it) amd each one is perfectly unique.
*Masks. They're really ugly but I also think they're totally cool. They're hand-made out of wood (individually) and then painted. There are traditionally two to a set - male and female - but the women are pretty scary looking. For the most part, they're all laughing.
*Scrolls. You've all seen these - the long tapestries with painted paper in the middle. I really liked the nature scenes, all waterfalls and flowers and trees. They're amazingly inexpensive as well. If I go back, I may be tempted into buying one, although I'm a little worried about how they'll travel. Plus, I already have my souvenir, bringing me to...
*Jade. Gorgeous stones, although with the little stores, you've got to be wary of the authenticity. That's why I bought my necklace at a larger, almost department-like store, in a side alley of Insadong. It's bright green and stays cool against your skin (which Beth tells me is how you know real jade from imitation).






And, oh yes, *Korean Starbucks.







(Before Insadong, Beth surprised me by getting off one Subway stop before the market and we saw my first Korean palace. We only saw the outside and courtyard, but the detailing on the roof was remarkable and the peacefulness of the courtyard (directly facing a major road in the middle of Seoul) was amazing. The Sol Nal games were scattered around the outside courtyard, so Beth and I watched some people throwing the arrows and kicking the hackey-sack like object, then we jumped on this see-saw looking device which tests your balance although doesn't have any significance we knew about...I also saw the mountains which surround Seoul for the first time. It's amazing how close they are to the city - they're like West Virginia's mountains in size, but I guess I'd never really noticed that Charleston has suburbs...)

After the market, we came home and took a nap before heading back out. Ken had made plans for Beth and I to meet him and a friend and go out to Outback Steakhouse (yes, in the week I'd been in Korea, I'd been to Costco AND Outback...). So we met Ken and Matthew by base and walked to an okay dinner. Matthew was quiet and reserved, so Ken's plan to make me feel a little more included kind of backfired - I talked to Beth and him just as much as I would have if Matthew hadn't been there.
Then we went to Polly's, a bar in Itaewon, to shoot pool and drink a bit of "Korea's finest." Finest, my ass. Beth got a thing of something called a "SoJu Kettle" - think Jungle Juice, my college-aged friends. It's Kool-Aide and SoJu (Korean Everclear, apparently) and it made my tongue go numb. Fabulous. :-P After a bit of pool and a few drinks, we all headed back to base, where Beth and I got our IDs back and Matthew went back to his bunk. Ken came back with Beth and I - it's a good thing Beth's friend offered use of her room, or else "get a room!" would have illicited a response that I'm guessing would have had me sitting on the steps for a bit. ;-)

Sunday, we attempted to hit Itaewon, but it was basically shut-down for the holiday. The two stores we wanted to hit (an earring store and a used book store) were shut down, so we grabbed lunch at a pita place and headed home with Ken in tow. I don't even remember what we ended up doing, but I think it was just another evening in Beth's apartment, reading, watching videos, (this may have been the night I was subjected to Anchorman...yes...), and making dinner. It was a great, low-key night. And now I understand at least every other work out of Ken's mouth...

Monday counts as the weekend as well, seeing as how it was a long weekend for the schools due to the Lunar New Year. Beth and I hit COEX, a gigantic mall that has two attached hotels, a conference center that was hosting a travelling wax museum, and an aquarium (just to give you a vague feeling for the size of the place). We ate lunch - $6.50 got me sushi, soup, onions, and water! - and then wandered around looking for a place to get our nails done, since Beth's usual salon was closed for the holiday (it was the only place closed in the mall, I swear!). After getting our manicures (mine polished bright red and her's a very subtle silver), we wandered around, waiting for her friend to come by with the paperwork for picking up her IPod. We spent an hour or so in the bookstore - one of the only ones around that sells English language books. After a while, her friend called to say he wasn't coming, so I bought the book I'd been carrying around (called "The Koreans" - I'm facsinated by their history and want to learn more), we stopped by the Apple store (where she found she could pick up her IPod without the paperwork), and we went home.

And that was my first weekend in Seoul, Korea.

Which, truthfully, smells like pure gasoline.
Lace

First, let me say that I've got to get out of this city...it makes me sneeze. :-P

Now for the Korean Update, Part II:

I spent the first five days of my "vacation" at school. I'd told Beth that I would substitute teach for a friend of hers who was going to play hockey in Mongolia for a few days. So I spent Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning at the school, getting to know Lexi's kids and going over lesson plans and protocol with her. The kids were adorable, although somewhat high maintenence - that's what you get with kindergarteners! - and I made it through the day with little to no problems - not even jet lag!

On Wednesday, I got the kids to myself and let me tell you - I am *not* meant to be a kindy teacher! I don't care what language they speak. Almost every kid cried...I didn't find out until lunch time that Lexi's kids regularly employ the waterworks. Great.

(They're adorable though, aren't they?)






The afternoon kids were a lil' older and a lil' better behaved. It's still tough to teach English to children whose native language is something without even the same alphabet to go on...but I still enjoyed it for the most part.

Thursday was good because every class (excluding Kindy, but they were much better) had a test. Lexi slightly overestimated the time it would take the kids to finish their respective tests, but we played card games and had spelling tournaments that filled the time nicely. I thought I would get out of my late class (T and Th, some classes go until 7 pm), because the class consisted of two girls and we knew one girl was going to be absent. But the other girls showed, albeit 30 minutes late...just when I thought I could safely leave...and so I gave her her test. Haha! That'll show you not to be late... :-P

Friday was great because we celebrated the Lunar New Year (Sol Nal) with the Kindy kids. The holiday actually fell on the 29th, but give us a reason to celebrate, right? So we all dressed in hanbok, traditional Korean attire, children and teachers alike - that's mine on the left. The morning was spent on learning the play and then we got to go down to the multi-media room and learn to bow and say Happy New Year (the kids and Korean staff alike laughed at the English teachers' attempts). Then, after lunch, we played games with the kids that included a game throwing sticks at a basket, attempting to get them in, a game like hacky-sack, with the sack attached to a string, and a game that consisted of spinning a top by whipping it with a string. Violent, violent games. Hands were stepped on, ankles were turned, faces were hit...but the kids loved it. The teachers, maybe not so much...



So that was my experience teaching English in Korea. All in all, a great experience, but I was definitely getting antsy to explore "Dynamic Korea," as all the advertisements proclaimed. I had a long list of stuff I wanted to do and see, but all I'd done and saw were a) school b) doctor's office (for Beth's cold) c) a Canadian bar d) the Dollar Store and e) one Korean restaurant. I was glad that school was over and I was now free to explore.

More on that later.

60 percent of the time, I work all the time,
Lace