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!