People Actually Read This......

Well hello there.  It has been such a long time since I posted anything on here.  I honestly didn't think anyone read this.  That is one of the reasons I stopped posting on here, that and I got busy.  Mostly though I didn't think anyone looked here.  So to my surprise today I randomly checked this and saw that I have had people come and check to see if I updated it.  I was so surprised!  I don't know who you are but you have made me realize I should keep up with this.  I have not been writing down stuff that happens to me, or funny stories and I know I will regret that a lot. 

Really, thank you who ever you are, you have inspired me to keep trying to update this so I have a record of what is going on with me here.  To start out with I have been here for a year and 8 months (what!!).  I cannot believe how fast time is flying here.  Since moving here I have converted to being as Korean as I can.

When I go to cafe's here I always see at least one person taking a picture called a selca (self + camera).  They always take it from above (to make you look like you have a smaller face) and they like to make their cheeks look big.  This is my cute pose.  Oh and  the glasses are fake, so fake they don't even put in lenses.  I have been trying to learn Korean, and it isn't going as well as I had hoped, but I am making some progress.  (I'll write more about it later).  I am loving living in Korea so much, so much so I am 90% positive I am staying for a 3rd year.

Like I said when I first got here I taught at a high school.  It was an all girls high school and I was so scared.  I have only ever taught elementary school and frankly high school girls scare me.  Lucky for me I had nothing to fear!  I had the best head co-teacher who also calls herself my Korean mom (and she really is my Korean mom).  The students at my school where so awesome!

See they loved me.  These students where the ones who would come to my class room on Wednesdays and eat lunch with me so we could all practice English. 

Here is one of my classes I taught.  On the right hand side in the blue shirt is my co-teacher/Korean mom.  Her English name is Jackie and I love her so much!  Plus look how amazing the students look.  It was a win-win situation for me, until they told me that they would no longer have native English teachers in middle or high school.  This made me so sad.  I didn't want to leave, but I had to.  I was moved to an elementary school, still in Seoul just another part.  I am still in my school and I love it as well.  I have been so lucky because I have ended up in the best schools.  I will tell you more about my elementary school later, because I am still here so I will have lots of time (that is if I remember to come back).

One of the goals I had when I came here was to travel.  Travel around Korea and other countries.  I have been fortunate and been to other countries a lot, but I haven't done a lot in Korea.  This is really sad I think, but I am going to change that now.  Here are some of the pictures of places I have been in Korea.

Spring time is beautiful in Korea.  There are a lot of cherry blossoms, that I always miss out on.  It is sad, I went down south to Gwang-ju to see them, and when we got there they had already fallen off the trees.  Oh well, at least I found a pretty place to take a picture, and it was a warm day.

I have gone to visit a few of the islands around Seoul in Incheon and to get there we have to ride a ferry.  They are usually a short 5-10 minute ride, but they don't provide entertainment.  My friend Jessica and I changed that and decided to make our own entertainment.

At N-Tower in Seoul they love to lock their love.  You buy two locks so you and your boyfriend/girlfriend can go and lock your love so that it will never open again.  I did this but with a friend and it was a lot of fun.  When ever I go back to the tower I look for our locks and it makes me happy they are still there.

Sporting events are also a lot of fun to see in Korea.  They make them so much more fun.  At the baseball game they have a cheer captain who leads the cheers and keeps the crowed entertained.  It is awesome.

You might ask what we do for fun here to keep ourselves entertained.  In America I would mostly go to the movies and dinner with my friends.  That hasn't really changed for me since moving here.  I still love going out to eat (mostly because I can't cook and I don't like to cook, plus less dishes for me to clean up later) and I go out most nights.  I would save a ton of money if I didn't do that, but I would also probably starve to death.  I go to movies still but not as much.  They do have movies from America here, just not as often.  They come for a week and then they are gone, so I usually wait till I can rent them on iTunes or Amazon.  So what else can you do to entertain yourself here?
Well you can try.......

going to a cake cafe.  I love these places.  The cakes are pre-made, you just choose the cake you want and the frosting you want on top and they give you a blank cake.  The cafe has tons of things to decorate with, so you can go crazy with your imagination.  At the end you take it to the cashier they add up all the things you put on it and pay.  This cake we made ended up costing about $20.  It was so much fun to make and then they gave us milk to drink while we ate it.

One of my favorite things to eat is BBQ.  They do it right here in Korea.  You pay for the meat and you grill it at your table.  All the extra food are the free side dishes you get.  When you eat all of one of your sides, don't worry ask for more and they will bring it to you.  This meal ended up costing about $15.  So worth it!

Sticker booths!!!  I love these.  You and your friends can take pictures and then add writing on them after.  Then they are printed out on sticky paper and you cut them out and have your own stickers.

Last but not least my favorite thing to do.....

noraebang!!!  Most of you know it as karaoke but that word is Japanese and in Korean they say noraebang, meaning singing room.  These rooms are so much fun, they have songs in English and Korean.  I love it because people have no shame (like me) and even if you can't sing, you do sing.  It is always so much fun with a big group.

Being a foreigner in Korea is fun, except when you go to a show and they need people from the audience.  When they spot you you end up here

on the stage to be made a fool of.  Oh this was fun, they made me dance.  Of course sometimes it is good.  For award shows they wanted to make it look more global so they needed foreigners to be in the audience.  I have been to 2 of these kinds of shows.  They are fun because then your Korean friends get mad because they can't get in but you can.

 

What is my favorite part of living in Korea you ask?  Well that is an easy question.  One of the reasons I love Korea is I love the k-pop music.  Now that I live here when I go walking in the streets, in the stores  or anywhere I here this music.  Plus I get to go to concerts and fan meetings to meet the artist.  I love it because like I said before, being a blonde foreigner makes me stand out. When I go to concerts or fan meetings I am hard to miss or forget.  My favorite singer I went to his concert and was pointed out and a few weeks later at a CD signing he remembered me and was surprised he had a blond fan.  Here are some of the concerts I have been to.

Fan meetings are better because you get to actually say 'Hi' to them and they always look excited to see a foreigner there.

All in all I am doing good.  Don't worry about what you hear on the news, life in South Korea is going good and we are not worried about the North. 

Thanks to you for reading and I hope to be back on here soon again with another update!