march

so sorry for the late post..my internet was down for a while there and then i just got so busy...this is part one of two for march...enjoy!

time has been flying by the past few weeks. the weeks are packed full with teaching, going to the gym, meeting up with friends etc and weekends with going out, which typically turn into late nights.

 some things about the past few weeks:

apparantly my students think im a psychopath. im one of my older classes - the kids are about 15 year old - they get these texts all the time with quizes on whether or not youre a psychopath. they always test them on me, and each time they scream "ahh psychopath". its awesome.

we had a teachers dinner a few weekends ago. this was to welcome the new teachers - we got about 9 new ones, and saying bye to the ones that were leaving. it was awesome. such good food and drinks...and it was all paid for my carol our director. we all went out afterwards to a noribong - the singing rooms and had a blast there. from there we headed out to hongdae, i was in a cab with 2 other new teachers and they were looking to me for directions which was a hit or miss situation but we ended up there in one piece which im thankful for.  

that sunday i went on a hike with two other teachers at bukansan - the mountain right near our house to try to sweat out the hangover.  we took an intense path up the mountain, but had such a good view of the city. when youre at the top of some peaks you can see so much of seoul, but this city is so large that you cant see the edges of it all which i find crazy.   we could hear a cowbell and chanting going on towards the top of the mountain and wanted to check it out. but at the top there was this huge temple but the chants and cowbell were just on a loud speaker. i was half expecting to see this old monk rocking out on the cowbell, but the architecture of the temple was so amazing. i didnt bring my camera that time, the next time ill have to document as much as possible because it really is amazing.  on that treck we also saw a wolf/dog roaming about the mountain which was sweet as well as a group of 5 or 6 girls with this old guy.  they were walking in a single row up the path, but not using their arms at all and stepping so gracefully it was very odd. at one point they all stopped in a circle listening to the old guy, he clapped as to say lets go....then they all proceeded one at a time clapping and following in line, again wish i had my camera for that one

one thing that ive noticed about koreans is that they are very vain. on subways, buses, even sitting on the street they always are looking at their own reflections or taking pictures of themselves with their phones. even guys are doing this regularly, people back home are vain too , we jsut hide it and do it in the privacy of our home

i finally got a cell phone, i went to the place 3 times and the third time the lady was finally there! within the day i had a charm on it and had texted a bunch already...it was werid not being connected with people wherever i was. because i had been there so many times without getting a phone the chick gave me this electromagnatic sticker to put on my phone, apparently this is supposed to stop the waves from reaching my head while talking on the phone. i put it on but not sure if i believe it or not.

koreans are obsessed with tv. you can basically watch tv anywhere. they have antennas on their cell phones so many people watch on the bus and subway.  they have portable tvs that look like portable dvd players that are also carried around. you can watch tv in the taxis, its everywhere.in fact they have one show - called boys like flowers or soemthing along those lines - based off of a japanese cartoon  - and on monday nights everygirl and most guys are tuned into it. i got to watch a bit one night on the bus with a girl beside me..she even offered me a head phone. nice, but obsessed 

i got a class of new kids and on the first day the foreign teacher has to give them english names...i listened to their korean names and tried to find something similar...while still picking ones i liked. it was awesome like naming kids or pets only 10 at a time.  so my 1-1's are now, jude, kimberly, patty, maia (i miss her!), rose, chelsie, dommy, layla, gale and charlie. they are very cute but very confused at the same time. we sing lots of songs and go over colors for most of the class. its good times, they especially enjoy my rap version of head and shoulders, complete with running man at the end