A Plea.

It's weird to think that three months ago I was an English teacher. I had a job which required a lot of my time and energy and I did it in a foreign country. I tried the best I could and I think I did pretty well. Of course I had some familiar faces around, but still it definitely wasn't easy at times. Then after I finished teaching, I traveled for a month which was another totally different and challenging experience.

And now my life is totally different again. It's maybe even morechallenging now because I feel very unsettled. This is the first time ever that I haven't had something to do every day. I'm not in school and I'm not teaching and as of now, have no employment. I know that I will find all of that soon, but all the questions "What are you going to do now?" and "What's next?" etc. etc. etc. Not that they aren't vaild, but it's almost like I don't wanna talk to anyone until I have answers for them. Which is stupid because it shouldn't be about what other people think, but I gotta admit I do care what others think. It's always been a problem.

So what I'm trying to say is. please don't ask me about what I'm doing or gonna do with my life. When I have answers, I'll let you know.

as for now- annyong!

OBAMA!!

I have soooooooooooooooo much else to update on and I will do that soon. But I just want to celebrate this particular moment because its so important.

Barack Obama was just elected the 44th president!!!I just want to live in this moment right now because I couldn't be happier. I am going to be proud of my president...that has never happened to me before! After eight years of (sorry to say) an awful president, it's just nice to be happy about the results!!

WOW.

I seriously SERIOUSLY failed at updating this blog while traveling.

I'm sorry for the two people who probably read this.

Okay so at the moment I am home....yup so basically I did not update my blog at all..woops. So now I'm just going to have to go back in time and let you know what went on. However, I need my computer to do so because I also want to display pictures along with my stories..

so I'm sorry you are just going to have to wait a little bit more.

I will say this I got to visit four amazing countries. Once I have more perspective I will realize how great of a life experience this was and how I'm so lucky that I got to share it with four close friends.

JAPAN!

Our trip has officially begun..

bye bye Korea! bye bye SLP!
hello traveling!

first stop- Japan
we landed yesterday in the morning in Hiroshima. We were going to stay one night but because of the trouble we have had with Indian visas, we opted to just stay in Hiroshima for the day and take a train to Tokyo! We got to see Peace Memorial Park yesterday where the Atom Bomb hit in 1946. It was very moving to see the park. On all of the monuments, they stressed peace and that the awful horrors of the atom bomb never be repeated. It gave us a lot to think about. Really glad I saw that.

Last night, we took the four hour train to Tokyo. It was very nice. Japan is so so so so so clean! I like that it is organized...Last night we stayed in a fabulous hotel. I'm so glad to be here!

About to leave..

Wow...sorry for the lack of updating...
This month has seriously FLOWN by! Since I came back from the Philippines (which was a great trip by the way), everything just seems to be going really fast. I like it that way thought..if things go by fast, that means I am enjoying myself.

As of today, I have two more teaching days left. TWO..wow! I never thought this day would come.
It feels very strange. Some of my kids have said "Don't go America teacher!" Its so sweet of them...but some I can tell are ready to be rid of me....haha.

Of course, its not only the stress of leaving and getting everything packed but I also going on an awesome fantabulous world trip so I definitely want to have everything prepared for that! I'm pretty excited about it especially since I am going with Erica, Kirsten, and Liz. I'm so excited for....just life right now! (of course a little nervous as well)

Some people ask "Why did you go to Korea?" Well here's the thing, when someone takes a trip others will often say that they are jealous or they wish they could do that too. I never wanted to have that happen...I never wanted to be that person. So thats why I came to Korea, so I could take advantage of this awesome opportunity.

While I am traveling, I will be sure to update this blog so come back for stories!

summer vaca

Finally finally finally!!

I will have a summer vacation! It's only a week and hey beggars can't be choosers.

Best of all, my summer vacation will be spent relaxing on the white sandy beaches of Boracay in the Philippines.

This is my first ever vacation in which the motive is to relax. I'm so excited.

Oh Korea.

So all of my Korean co-teachers think that I LOVE Korea. Not that I don't love it...I just think its funny. They just think I like everything about the country. I think I started liking it here when I accepted the food and the culture, but I'm definitely not an expert by any means.
I'll replay a scene had between my supervisor and I.

Supervisor: Wow Andrea you like Korean food. You watch Korean dramas. You listen to Korean music. Is there anything you don't know about Korea?
Me: Well I don't know Korean.

I just think its funny...

Oh and here are some recent pictures from this month.

Me at the Kimchi Museum!

Some of my co-workers!

Kirsten and I on her birthday!

WOW its July!

So open house went decently. Some of my kids were constantly getting out of their seats and trying to run around and I had to politely say (*ear to ear grin*) "Sit properly please...." Whereas normally I would be like "SIT DOWN!" haha I remember when I first started teaching in September I was astounded by how mean and domineering I was. I've only ever been like that when I was playing a character, but I've never been outwardly like that in real life. Its kinda liberating I should say, but yelling is sure exhausting sometimes.

I am now definitely used to an enjoying life in Korea right now. Weird how I start to get used to and then I'm leaving, but then again teaching six year olds without hardly any holiday or breaks I could definitely do without. But my friends here have definitely been a blessing. Next Thursday, my co-worker Carla is leaving to go home to England for the summer. We have gotten really close and its gonna be really strange here without her.

Us at Seoul Land (along with some other new friends)

Erica and Carla

This Friday is the 4th of July! Hopefully us CUA Seoulites will be doing something...maybe the Han River cruise. Hopefully we can shoot off fireworks somewhere (they have no laws about that here).

Open House...aka shoot me in the face.

Tomorrow and on Friday, my school is having an open house. This isn't like the open houses that my schools used to have in which the parents would go at night and meet the teachers and talk, eat snacks, etc etc. For our open house, the parents come in and watch us (only the foreign teachers) teach a class. It's awkward because the parents just stare and the kids are like little Stepford children. They sit properly and they never talk out of turn. It's weird. I did it once before in January. But this time, I'm doing it with my six year olds....eeeek.

In case I've never explained it, I have two six year old classes that I teach from 10-2:30. One class, the Lovely Ladybugs, are amazing. I mean yes they tend to get a little rowdy and the girls have amazinly high pitched voices (I have to tell them to use their "small" voice), but all in all they are very cute and sweet and SMART! I love them. But my other class on the other hand- terrors. They are the "precious"( haha) Polar Bears. In this class, there are some little devils who don't listen and have no respect for me. I mean I can't fault them too much...they are actually five years old (six Korean), but man they drive me up the wall. The girls are really sweet though and much smarter than the boys (isn't that always the case?)



Anyways, we have preparing for this open house for awhile. In the midst of this prep, my supervisor tells me that I have to change my voice to sound like some creepy Snow White flight attendant I guess. And then she says 'You were a theatre major right? You should be able to do that.'
When she said that, I was just thinking 'wow...I really dislike you.' It really made me angry.

So I have this open house tomorrow...lets hope it goes well.

Nightmare Concert and other happenings.

Life in Seoul is good. The weather is finally warm and I'm enjoying my time here. My school is difficult but thats another story.

Jen and I are big fans of Korean pop and she suggested that we go see a K-pop show sometime. Jen found the "Dream Concert 2008" which is Korea's biggest concert and all or most of the big names come. We were confused before we went about how to get tickets. First, we thought we had to buy tickets online (or you buy a book and then you get a ticket free?) But we couldn't figure out how to do it! My Korean co-teachers and others told us that you didn't have to buy tickets because the concert was free and that anyone could get in! I was perplexed by this, but I was intent on going.
So Jen, her sister Cara, and I got there and there's already this mass amount of people. The fan clubs were taking up the most amount of seats...We even tried to blend in with a fan club but I think my whiteness gave us away! haha So by this point, there are huge lines and all of the doors are closed. We weren't sure how we were supposed to get in. We tried to just fit in with this crowd, but we were then shoved and pushed by crazy crazy angry fans. I have never been shoved like that in my life. The weight from the fifty people behind us was pushing and we then toppled over on the ground. I was so afraid of being trampled. It was so scary!

We finally did get into the concert. The concert wasn't so great. Some of the performances were good. Epik High was really awesome to see.
In Korea, all of the fan clubs wave balloons and they never stop waving them!

Here's a tip Korea. Give people tickets and ticket takers and scary, big security guys.

This is only for now

I have much to update on, but for this post I thought I would focus not on teaching English in South Korea. I thought I would give a little shout out to my homies in the U.S.

There were many graduations this month, but in particular my cousin Julia graduated high school yesterday. Julia is an amazing student (she's going to UNC Chapel Hill in the fall) and she works so so hard! She was also the speaker at her graduation, which I was so upset to miss. I'm really proud of her and love her alot!

I'm gonna give another shout out to another class of '08...My CUAdrama loves! Congratulations!

Birthdays of past and present.

My birthday, which has April 29, has usually been a wonderful day for me. When I was a student in school, it was always the end of the school year so the weather was nice and people are usually in a good mood. I've always loved celebrating it! The last four years I haven't been able to celebrate with my family because I was always still in classes and this year....well I'm in Korea so lately I've celebrated it with my friends. So this post is basically thanking my friends for making my birthdays special and to my family for being amazing.

Okay so freshmen year....well I don't have that picture. But I figured I'll just put in a picture of me and my friends from freshmen year. I remember we went to Old Ebbitt Grill in D.C. and I got crab cakes...and they were good!
Sophomore year... I was stage managing a show so I couldn't really do the whole going out to dinner thing. So after the opening night of the show, my friend Meghan, kept saying "Let's walk back to your room together...I'll go with you.." But I kept talking to people and then when we finally got back to my room, there my friends were with a big "Surprise!" That had always been a dream of mine to have a surprise party because I LOVE surprises. So that was amazing.
Junior year...Quite a different birthday. I had studied abroad that semester and at the end I thought I would travel with some of the people in the program. I really wanted to go to Greece and they said they would go too. I bought my ticket and they said "Oh its just too expensive..." So I ended up going by myself. So I was alone on my 21st birthday. That was kind of a bummer, but I was in Greece so you know....it was okay.
Senior year.....my birthday was on Gilby's. For our drama department, the seniors put on a kind of Academy Awards type show where they give out awards and put on skits/ parodies about the shows/teachers/ students from that year. Its a lot of work so I wasn't expecting anyone to really remember or at least not to make a big deal out of it because we were so busy. However, during the ceremony, I hear from CSmith "What if it was Andrea Mullen's 22nd birthday?" Then everyone at Gilby's sang Happy Birthday to me and I got a cake afterwards (Tweety of course)...I couldn't believe that.
This year, it was another great birthday. Us CUAers along with Carla, Aerim, and Aerim's friends Ellen and Young Gwan went to Seoul Land, an amusement park. It was fun and not too crowded so that was nice! Then my friend Carla took me out for a really nice lunch at this place called Top Cloud...it was fancy.



Basically I'm so grateful.

Colbert vs. Rain

How fitting is this!!

One of my favorites (also he's from my beloved SC) Stephen Colbert and an awesome Korean celebrity Rain!

http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?videoId=156555

China trip

Mullens!

Mullens and some good folk

ummm all I can say is amazing!! It was so wonderful having my parents come to Korea and then to be able to go to China! It was a great family vaca. While in China (I came a couple days later than my parents because I was at school), we spent a day in Beijing seeing the Temple of Heaven and then some shopping (my brother is basically the best bargainer I've ever seen and the fact that he can now speak Chinese helps!).

We then left Beijing and journeyed to Xi'an, China. It's one of the biggest cities in China and its mostly famous because of the Terra Cotta soldiers. These soldiers have been underground because an Emperor wanted to have "protection" for his afterlife. Well those underground soldiers were then discovered in 1974 by some farmers...Anyways we went to see them and it was unbelievable. You'll see from the pictures just how many were made! Every soldier was made by a different person. I'd never seen anything like that. Wow! Our tour guide had been working there for 15 years and he was like a master photographer. He was constantly taking my camera and getting all these good shots. He was hilarious!

Terra Cotta soldiers

my family and the soldiers

this one is called the Archer

We then made our way back to Korea (sans Geoffrey) and my parents saw my apartment and came to my school. They took some videos and got pictures. It's nice that they now understand and can visualize everything I'm talking about.

April

April has always been an amazing month...Well first of all its my birthday and springtime which is my favorite season. When all the flowers are in bloom and the weather is warm (you can really appreciate spring after an awful cold winter like we've had in Seoul), its pretty amazing. Also April always meant one of the last months of school (or in college, THE last month). Well that's not the case here because Korean school children are always in school....but I've accepted that.

Anyways, this April is going to be a fantastic month. First of all my parents are coming tomorrow!! I'm showing them around Seoul this weekend and then they leave to visit my brother in Beijing on Monday. THEN, I'm going to Beijing on Thursday and staying until Monday (the best part is of course I'm off from work for two days...its going to be glorious). It will be so nice to be with them...The times when we all get along really well are when we are on vacation.

So basically the Mullens are taking over Asia...

watch out.

The parents comments

Lucy and SoniaDaniel
This was the kid who cried everyday for the first week of school. He's actually really smart and so sweet. All of the Korean teachers seem obsessed with the fact that both of his parents are doctors. They mention it all the time! It reminds me of how in "Gilmore Girls" Lane's parents wanted her to marry a future doctor. I just think its funny.

Lina and Irina

Every month we have to write report cards and since this is my first month with these new kids, some of the parents left comments for me in English. They are pretty interesting to read. Enjoy!

Andy:
Hi! Andrea Teacher. Thanks for your message. He said. You're very kind and pretty voice. It's begging of term in new class with friends and ... teacher. But he like SLP. Because he is very exciting and fun. I'm thing proud of Andy. Thank you Andrea Teacher. Please be careful not to catch a cold. Have a good weekend~ -Andy mom-

Jenny:
Jenny is enjoys English learning when being dissatisfaction, Jenny is very gloomy. for example, it cannot hear English or the teacher to do well compared to in the friend, etc. when being like that, it has an interest and it gives and with playing which is different fun and it changes it comes loose. Just now, I hope Jenny enjoys SLP. Thanks you.

James:
Sir, I am glad!! James that go SLP amused. There is fear about Enghish yet, but there is greed which to learn. If come to home, English that wonder, and knows how speak various kinds in Enghish speaks well. Mistake is Ithabopni(I have no idea!) some on expression that want to get along well with friends. Now, that do not promise I do. Be obliging as is not originally extreme child. All teacher two persons like James. Forward, I want to study more joyfully. Thank you!!!


Daniel: (This one is actually intelligible)
I appreciate that you took good care of Daniel. He is getting better I think. He is adapting himself to SLP. I am happy for him. I wish he can make friends with his classmates and improve independency. Thank you so much. Daniel's mother

Oh no

I can't log into facebook because I was trying to take off my cua email address and put my alumni address on there. Stupid mistake. Now it's saying none of my emails are registered...This is not good.

CanMore lady

Sometimes during my break or after work I go to this place called CanMore for some coffee or a smoothie. It's a nice little place because I can sit down and read in their big comfy chairs (they also have swingin chairs) and get away from SLP. The lady who works there (she probably owns it) knows who I am because I've been there a couple times and plus her son went to SLP. She's so, so kind and she always gives me a confidence boost. Today I actually had a good conversation with her. She said "May I question your name?" After I told her my name, she said "Oh very hard.. (Her name is Jung-il Kwan I believe...at least I hope I got that right)...when I hear Andrea I think of novel or movie...I think of beautiful woman running and beautiful man running.."
She also said she'd miss me when I went back to America...she's amazing.

Happy Easter!

Life in Korea has been good....its definitely been getting better! Plus this week the weather got warmer...I've said sayonara to my winter coat. I can't wait to get all of my winter clothes out of my apartment! My kids are starting to speak English..slowly! March has been a bit rough because I'm teaching kids who don't know any English....and as I said before teaching them drama when they don't speak or read English and have the attention spans of a nat is difficult! I'm coming to love them though...well one class more than the other. One girl Jenny is adorable! She looks like a Korean version of Cindy from the Brady Bunch, except even cuter. Come August, I think it will be amazing to see how much English they have learned and can speak. I'm getting a new Korean teacher next week as Elie's last day is March 28. It's such a shame she's leaving (but she's getting married and moving to the other side of Seoul)..Also, I don't really like the supervisor because I don't think she's doing a very good job...

On another note, I bought a cd for Jesus Christ Superstar at a Kyobo bookstore this week and I literally can't stop listening to it. I forgot how much I loved this show. I saw it first freshman year with CSmith. She loved the movie and I hadn't seen it yet so we watched it together. At first I thought....interesting...they made a musical about Jesus...I guess we didn't really click at that time. Then sophomore year, CUA did the musical and I was apprehensive about how it would be. I remember everyone thought Judas was cute and he was, but seeing it then really made me love the show. It gave me a new perspective also. Most of the show is from Judas' point of view so it doesn't always paint JC in the best light. I never really thought before seeing this show about the betrayal and the denial of Peter and Judas. I enjoy seeing the musical more so than the movie. Of course JCS came to Seoul last year...naturally I missed seeing it. I would totally see it in Korean.
If you are in the US, you can listen to some of the music here:
http://www.rhapsody.com/album/jesuschristsuperstar

Also Happy Easter!

contemplation

Sometimes, I feel that I am constantly defending myself because I am the opposite of what people think I should be.

The biggest one- I'm am an American, which recently I have felt somewhat attacked about. Native Koreans actually like America. Everyone seems generally interested/ curious when I say where I am from. However, its the foreigners in Korea that are the problem. Yeah okay all Americans are dumb, fat, and rich. Sure that doesn't sound judgmental at all...Maybe before you believe a ridiculous stereotype like that...how about you take a look at the sheer size of America and maybe think to yourself...hey maybe all Americans aren't the same? How about that? Also I really don't like talking about the U.S. Presidential election with people who aren't from America...

I am a Southerner yet I don't have an accent. The way people say "But you don't have an accent" really bugs me.. I was still born and raised there and just because I don't have an accent doesn't make me any less of a Southern girl.

I am Catholic...no I am not extreme or crazy religious. It's also something private for me and I don't pretend to think that everyone should have the same beliefs as me and I don't want to impose on anyone else.

I love theater....its another great passion for me. Theater has always been an outlet and has allowed me to just being the quiet, nice girl that is ignored but loved to something else. You don't have to loud and arrogant to be in theater...it takes patience, confidence, and skill...Its just amazing and something that I miss.


Okay I need to stop because this is making me sound angrier that I am.

Another school year begins...

My co-workers at the goodbye dinner for th e teachers who left

In Korea, the school year starts in March, weirdly enough, so I now have all new students and classes. Its very strange because from August until February I taught seven year olds who had been at our school for two years. Naturally, they spoke English quite well. The drawback was they had an attitude and behavioral problems. Now I'm teaching six year olds who have just started speaking English last Monday...lets just say its interesting. They are still speaking Korean in class and they'll say things to me in Korean or ask me questions and I just look at them and say "I don't know what you're saying..." They are soo, sooo cute though and they look at me like I'm their god which is quite a difference from the seven year olds I used to teach. So March is gonna be difficult to get through. Oh and I also have to teach them drama....they can't read and oh yeah they can't speak English! How are they supposed to perform "City Mouse and Country Mouse?" I don't get it..


My Korean co-teacher Elie is getting married and moving to the other side of Seoul so she's not gonna be my partner teacher anymore...sad story....

SLP Birthday Party

Lauren and I

Some of the girls

Jasmine and Freesia classes

This video pretty much speaks for itself

An observation..which is of course rather obvious

I am the red umbrella

In seven days, I will celebrate six months in Korea (which will also be Caitlin Smith's birthday!)...This is unbelievable. Had I not gone home for Christmas, I don't know how I would be feeling right now. But life right now is Seoul feels very normal I guess you could say. It always takes me awhile to get used to being in a different place. Every new experience I've had, I have always dreading going into and HATED at first! I like for the end to always be the best part. Thats why senior year of college was so amazing because I left at the top of the game when I felt happiest. Hopefully that will be the same for Korea. But yet I still feel so uncomfortable here in many ways. I don't think I'll ever get used to the shoving on sidewalks without so much as an "Excuse Me" in Korean of course or the staring (which as Tennyson pointed out, is understandable in children but when adults who know better, is ridiculous...moving on). But most other things about Korea, I'm getting used to.
Anywho, the observation which is of course rather obvious about Korea that I've just thought about has been the loss of anonymity. The place where I live here there aren't many foreigners so basically I stick out. The places I have been to a couple of times (like the coffee shop, movies, etc.), they know me. I'm used to blending in and looking like everyone else. I'll admit it is nice to be noticed because it gets people interested and curious about you, which I haven't felt before. But sometimes, I don't want to stick out.

Lunar New Year vaca

So in honor of having a vacation from school, Erica and I decided to go on a skiing/ hiking trip to Gangwondo and Seoroksan Mtn. I know what you are thinking- skiing and hiking...that sounds like Andrea Mullen (at least I know my family would be surprised!) But I most definitely didn't want to be stuck in Seoul so this sounded great especially since we were going with a group. I left on Wednesday morning from Itaewon at 11am. We were supposed to get to the ski resort at 3, chillout, and go night skiing at 5. Traffic was awful (because everyone was traveling that day) so we got there at 5 or so. Oh and our bus ride was spent watching concerts. We watched Eric Clapton, Cher, some music videos, and then Shania Twain. Not everyone was thrilled with those choices! Thursday was spent skiing (after a Korean breakfast). I definitely took to the beginner runs. Friday was when things got interesting. We had to travel on Friday morning to the lodge near where we were hiking. The bus ride of course took forever so we had to forfeit hiking for that day. Also, our bus and our tour guide were never on time so this gave people on the trip the excuse to never be on time. It usually took us an hour to get anywhere. And because we were on a bus all day and didn't do much, this gave others on the trip an excuse to knock some back. It was like "Animal House" sometimes. Saturday we actually went hiking up to Seoroksan and it was beautiful! Not too crowded on the trails. We took lots of pictures! Then Saturday night before we traveled back to Seoul, our bus stopped! People had to push the bus about three times! This caused one guy on the trip to utter the phrase, "Korea is the most random country ever. No contest." Soooo true. The only time we were ahead of schedule the whole trip was getting back to Seoul. I'm not sure I would reccommend ZTravelbug to anybody, but it was an interesting trip!

Sooo wow

So January turned out to not be such a blah month...in fact, in the lives of my friends from home in SC..it turned out to be quite life changing. And friends I'm sorry I am writing about you, but let me say you have been on my mind lately. I have never been one to always state my opinion because I believe there's a time and a place for things. There have definitely definitely been decisions that those around me have made that I haven't agreed with. Sometimes I feel that I let others peoples lives, mistakes, and happinesses affect me too much. I know that I should simply say "Its not my life..I can't control other people" and let it be....But I find that so hard! In my circle of friends from home, one lost a family member while my other friend got engaged all within a week. It feels really weird to not be there. Had I just been in college in D.C., I could fly home easily for the funeral for one friend and attend the wedding of the other. But I can't do those things. Its so scary to be so far away sometimes. However, I do my best to keep in touch. I wish more people but an effort in to keep in touch so those of you who do, I appreciate it wholeheartedly.

Back in the swing of things...yay?

So January is kind of a blah month..but then again its always like that (plus there's no MLK holiday to look forward to). However, there is a holiday in February for the Lunar New Year which everyone and their mother is traveling in Asia. This makes traveling a wee bit difficult and expensive! Erica and I have decided to travel together (just like we did for Chusok in September) and we were going to go to Japan but that fell through...So I think the solution is to go skiing right here in Korea..My co-worker Carla and some others might come as well! I just want to have a good break because it'll be a long time before we have a number of days off...not until July! (We've gotta start planning that asap as well)

Oh and the Lunar New Year is when the year changes...as in "Year of the Rabbit" or "Year of the Horse." 2007 was the year of pig and 2008 will be the year of the rat!

Christmas and a Happy happy New Year

So since I last wrote, my school had our Christmas concert.....wowza! It was some intense preparation let me tell you. Basically, our kids didn't learn much that month as we were ALWAYS practicing for the concert. But in the end, the kids are 6 (7 in Korea because they had a year on to your life) so the chances of them doing a 20 minute one-act play and 5 songs well was too much to ask. But you know what the performance turned out okay!

It was definitely nice when it was over! Then the next day I left to come home! I was sooooo ready for a break and to come back to SC and see everyone. With all of my traveling it was about 15 hours and when I landed in GSP, there was my family waiting (with Renee holding sweet tea I might add). It felt so normal to be home like nothing had changed which is not what I expected. I tried to get all of the food that I had missed so I definitely ate well while at home!

Whats strange is that its now 2008...crazy! 2007 was a wonderful and crazy year full of big changes. The biggest changes of my life. Thinking about where I was in January of 2007- a senior at CUA, living in Mil. North, doing No One Here Speaks French to now where I am a teacher (which still freaks me out a bit) in Seoul, South Korea. Its pretty unbelievable actually. Coming back to Seoul, I'll be honest here, I didn't feel so good about it (that could also have to do with the fact that I've been pretty ill lately)...So I'm gonna write the things I enjoy about Seoul and 2008!
-My friends here who truly make this experience worth it
-having my first real job
-my students who actually listen and seeing them learn
-Korean food that I actually like (oodang, bibimbap, dukbolgi are my favorites)
-movies are subtitled here, theres no dubbing!
-we found Mexican food....nuff said (GRACIAS DOS TACOS)
-the kindnesses that I have been shown by some Korean people
-Seoul is a safe city


2007: