Le Tired

Hi friends! What a good weekend! Had kind of a crappy ending, as my allergies came back with a vengeance. Last night I couldn't decide if I was dreaming or if I was really that miserable with my stuffy nose and coughing. I'm guessing it was real since I woke up pretty  much the same way. Damn pollen! Or yellow dust...or whatever they have here.

Feeling a little better today, but still not 100%. I have some meds, so we'll see how things are tomorrow. Anyway, the weekend! Friday I went to a Korean baseball game and it was tons of fun. So different from American baseball! Well, the same game and all that, but different atmosphere. I always had a great time at Dodger's games, but the crowd at this game was just total insanity and it was awesome. Nearly everyone had thundersticks, and a bucket of fried chicken (they are crazy for fried chicken over here). There were also cheerleaders and an actual cheer leader. This guy was standing on the dugout doing all kinds of dances and leading the crowd. I was in the cheap seats, in the outfield, so things were not quite as exciting in my section, but I could see and hear everything. They have a different cheer for each player, so they do his cheer when it's his turn to bat. Some of them are to really random songs, like "It's a Small World" and "Jesus Loves Me." They are, of course, all in Korean, so I couldn't really songs so I would either make up my own words or I would sing the real words. I'm sure everyone around me appreciated that. Anyway, the actual game wasn't all that exciting until the end, when "my" team (I just randomly decided to support a team) lost when they were down by run and the pitch hitter on second tried to steal third and got thrown out. Sucks to be him! After that, I cheered myself up with some Soju (Korean alcohol) and dancing so I was happy.

Saturday I went to the Lotus Lantern Festival, held in honor of Buddha's birthday, which is next Monday. It was really really cool. One of the coolest parades I have ever seen. And I've seen the Disney parade, so yeah, pretty cool. I put some pictures on fb and will do it here as well, but probably later because right now I am super tired. This cold or whatever I have going on is making me exhausted. But the parade had a lot of traditional Korean clothes, dancing, and homemade lanterns and the whole thing was just really interesting. I was, however, getting pretty fed up with parade bystanders. They had up barricades along the side of the road but they had gotten knocked down where we were standing so people just kept creeping out onto the road (and parade route) and it was really hard to see. I am a rules person, so I didn't want to be out in the road, so I was just getting angry. Plus, some of the people were getting in the way of the people in the road! What the hell? Move! Finally a "security guard" pushed them back some but we found somewhere else to stand. Rude.


Sunday I did some shopping and now it's Wednesday and I haven't really done anything interesting. Oh, I did get my haircut on Sunday and he straightened it again. Apparently this time it looked much better (than the first time) because literally, everyone at school complimented me on it. It was quite lovely. However, I'm a little worried to go back to the curly style because based on the compliments, I look a million times better with straight hair. It's too much work to do all the time so I am just going to have to be ugly some of the time. Sad.

Today at school we finally had our "Open Class," when the mommies come and watch us give a lesson. It's really more of a play than an actual class since the kids have to sing and dance and have rehearsed lines. It was kind of a stressful event, especially since some of the admin and other teachers make this HUGE deal about it. I guess if the moms don't like what they see, life gets difficult, but I didn't really think it was that big of a deal. However, I also think my parents seem pretty chill compared to other ones. Also, I was a little out of it, since I had taken cough medicine and it was a million degrees in our classroom. I honestly don't remember most of it. I do remember I asked the kids if they knew a grain other than rice and bread and no one answered, and then I couldn't think of one either so I just kind of tampered off and then started a new sentence. Hopefully no one caught that. And, pasta. Pasta is another grain in case you were stumped as well.

Oh! And I got a package in the mail from my mom this week and that made me SUPER happy. So if anyone else would like to make me happy, feel free to send some mail. I'll send you something cool and Korean back if you do!!!

Going to Jeju this weekend! Excited!!!

Whew, all this typing has made me extremely tired. Think I'll go to bed soon. It's 9:00.

Dream big people!

Free stuff, FTW!

Today was awesome! It started off crappy, with rain and a frustrating morning meeting, but it improved 1000% by the end of the day.

Bad stuff first. Apparently it is a big no no for parents to give us presents. Even though it's teachers day AND the school didn't give us anything AND we work really hard AND we don't get paid all that much. But whatever. I'm not saying I deserve anything extra, but I think if the parents want to give us something, they should be able to do that. But no, the company makes this big deal and tells the parents to not give us gifts and today we were told that we would get punished for accepting them. They think we are going to show favoritism to kids whose parents give us gifts or some bullshit like that. Again, not that I expect to be showered in gifts, but I really don't think giving me a small token of appreciation is going to change my opinion of your child. It's especially frustrating because they don't even get grades or anything! I really just don't even understand how favoritism would even be shown. Like, would I start giving an excessive amount of high fives and hugs to one kid because his parents gave me a gift certificate? No. That is ridiculous. And the even more ridiculous part is that our supervisor was saying that some of the parents are sneaky and will offer up the present and then tattle on us if we keep it. They'll tell the other parents and look down on us. WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE?! Seriously the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I haven't had to deal first hand with any total crazy parents yet, but some of the stories I've heard have made them sound straight up psycho. Some were at the school spying on a teacher the other day! Not looking forward to my turn. Today I did get some cookies and apparently we are only allowed to keep presents we can eat. Which makes zero sense because it's still a form of "bribing" if that's how you want to look at it and furthermore, I don't want to keep the edible presents because I'm trying to lose weight AND Korean sweets are the least appetizing thing ever. So dammit. Additionally, I think it would be kind of rude to just give a present. Like, thanks for your thoughtfulness, but no thanks. Whatever. Spent too long on the bad news.

The good news! Lots of it! I found the Subway today! And it tasted the same as at home! Yay, got my sandwich fix. Also, our principal agreed to let my friend and I host Zumba classes in the gym after school some days. This is going to be hilarious and awesome. Zumba is super fun and while I have a great time with my one woman Zumba party in my room, it's kind of small and lonely. So having it in the gym will be nice. Also, doing it with other people will be really fun. It might be a little hard since no one else has done it and we don't have a teacher...we just have to follow along with online videos. We'll see how it goes...I'll keep you posted. Plus I get to go to a legit class tomorrow! Maybe we can talk that teacher into coming to our school. It's kind of far. We'll see. Our principal also agreed to let us have a teacher's cookout on our roof in a few weeks, so that will be fun as well.

More good news! Going to a baseball game on Friday! Fun fun! And, there is a lantern festival this weekend and it looks SUPER fun. I can't wait! The stuff online looks amazing. And on Sunday you can make your own Buddhist paper lantern and "pray for your wishes." So hopefully after this weekend all my dreams will come true. Can't wait.

And the best news! I got a ton of free shit today! A girl in my building is moving out and is giving away tons of stuff. I got shoes, a table, a bookshelf, a Swiffer, all kinds of awesome stuff!!! I am seriously so stoked. I have been scouring the internet for a bookshelf and not only did I NOT have to pay for this one, but it was just two floors down from me! Free stuff is awesome! Hooray!!!! Monday, for the win! :)

A sandwich and a free bookshelf! What a good day.

Oh, also, not to totally copy LizzyLou, but I've decided to start posting my craftiness as well! I made it a page on the side ----> http://jackydoeslife.blogspot.com/p/craft-craft-craft-it-up.html Check it out, if you want.

Dream big people!

Oh yeah, and if you didn't watch Will Ferrell host Saturday Night Live, you should look that shit up right now and laugh your ass off. Funkytown was amazing and the 100th Digital Short rocked my face off. I was literally laughing out loud in my apartment, by myself.

Pics of the free stuff:

I am a good sister

Just wanted to let everyone know that my sister started a blog about the cute things she makes. So check it out yo!

http://lizzylou-erik2.blogspot.com/?spref=fb

So, all 12 followers, enjoy!

And like I said, I myself have really been into the crayon medium lately so maybe I'll post some of my fantastic creations when I feel like uploading pictures. For now, enjoy her crafts!

Annyeoung!

Dream big people :)

Sea Mustard Soup

Health and food month is proving to be a bit difficult here in Korea. For one thing, when I try to get the kids to talk about what they had for breakfast, I get a bunch of blank stares. I think part of the problem is that they only know the foods in Korean and eat a lot of foods that there isn't an English translation for (or they don't know it). I managed to get "sea mustard soup" out of one girl as her breakfast meal. I have no idea what that is, but it doesn't really sound like an appetizing breakfast to me. Another one said rice, which also doesn't seem that tasty in the morning. That also means they have rice for at least breakfast and lunch (we have it everyday at lunch) and I'm guessing they probably have it at dinner as well. That is a shit ton of rice. I eat the rice once every few weeks...I can't imagine eating it for every meal of the day.

Every day we have a "password" and the kids are supposed to keep repeating it all day. It's basically just another stupid thing we have to worry about during the day. Yesterday's was "I had breakfast this morning," which is why we were discussing breakfast food. I loved today's password, "lunch was delicious" for a couple of reasons. One, it was boiled octopus day, along with kimchi and rice, of course. So, I don't really think lunch really was all that delicious, but whatever, I don't make the passwords. But also, the kids saying it was cracking me up so much. Delicious is a pretty long and grown up word for them and it was pretty hilarious to hear them all saying it. Plus, now, they all say, "jacky teacher, delicious!" for the snack or whatever instead of "yummy." They grow up so fast.

I really do like school, but damn if they don't make us do SO much stuff. Pretty much every day something new gets added onto my to do list and it never all gets done. I wouldn't mind so much if we didn't have to do the stupid after school classes. What bothers me about those is there is no book or anything so I just have to find stupid crap to do for an hour and a half. Whatever, enough complaining.

We got two new students this week. One is a little girl and her dad was a famous soccer player in Korea and is now on the Korean version of Dancing With the Stars. (*note: this may not be true. I just spent the better part of an hour looking for this guy and found nothing. It's what I was told, but my school is full of crap sometimes) I can't wait to meet him so we can discuss our TV star lifestyles. Also awesome, she has a brother who's English name is Messi. Pretty fantastic. Her name is not after anyone cool...that I know of anyway. Messi is a super famous soccer player for Barcelona and he just broke some major goal scoring record recently. You can also see him in the 'Waka Waka' video from the World Cup 2010. He's the one with the really bad hair. Anyway, I guess the dad is a fan. I've heard from another teacher they knew a kid named Totti, who is a famous soccer player for Roma. Cracks me up.

Anyway, went to Zumba last night! Super fun, so glad I found a class here. It's pretty far to get to, but I think it'll be fun if my friends go as well. It wasn't as fun as in LA, but it might have been because it was in a teeny tiny bar with a pretty crappy sound system instead of a gym, but whatever.

So, yeah, I'm done with this post. I just realized how boring and stupid it is. Sorry friends.

Dream big people!