Updates!

Ok, so the movie didn't end up happening...

After dinner we hopped on the subway, intent on visiting with a high school friend of Caitlin's for the night. It just so happened that we were even more intent on Caitlin breaking her previous Tetris record on Nintendo DS and therefore did not realize that while we were indeed on the subway, we were going in the wrong direction. This finally became apparent to us about ten stops later (although still missing that record).

So we hopped off the train and found a new one going in the correct direction. Although this little misadventure did put us a solid thirty minutes behind schedule, it was well worth it, thanks to a soju-filled adjama (old lady), an equally intoxicated university student and his not-so-intoxicated friend who spoke decent broken English.

The adjama was insistent that Caitlin sit with her and her sister, despite occupying the "elderly, disabled or pregnant" people's seating. Seeing as she didn't speak any English she demonstrated this desire by walking over to us, grabbing Caitlin's arm, pulling her to the seat and, when Caitlin attempted to politely decline the offer, hitting her in the breasts until she sat down and stayed there.

She then proceeded to invite us to her apartment for a cup of coffee, an offer that was graciously interpreted by the not-so-intoxicated guy in between fits of laughter at the sight of the adjama beating his intoxicated friend away from us when he tried to (jokingly) point out that, seeing as Caitlin is neither elderly nor disabled, she must indeed be pregnant, seeing as she was occupying the reserved seating (FYI: had it not been for the invitation of the adjama Caitlin would never have been sitting there, as those seats are solely reserved for their special patrons and it's a big social taboo to occupy them otherwise).

Needless to say, we declined the offer and within half an hour we found ourselves not in a movie theatre, but rather in a noribang.

Noribang is essentially a private, sound-proof karaoke room. Anybody who has ever heard me sing is, at this point, thanking God for soundproofing and feeling more than a little sorry for the three other people locked in the room with me. Despite sounding more like a frog than a cat in heat by the end of the night, I do believe I did many artists proud. Or, at the very least, belted out everything from "Tiny Dancer" to "Wannabe" to "Kryptonite" to "Black Velvet" (and beyond) so loudly that the original singers had no idea what hit them.

PS: Did I mention that I also booked a flight to India for March 14th? :D

Love and Kisses

I find myself this Valentine's Day content and inundated with chocolate, despite being female.

Here in Korea Valentine's Day is a "guys only" event, with the female half of the equation expected to flower love and adoration onto their boys, the boys to bask in the light of female worship, and the singles to sit on the sidelines and wait for their day of glory come April.

Everyone has their day here: Valentine's Day is followed by White Day (March 14), which is when the ladies get pampered. White Day is followed by Black Day (April 14), which is when the singles get to eat cold, black noodles and wallow in the misery that is life as a bachelor or bachelorette.

Apparently being a teacher means that I've been granted immunity from these rules, seeing as I received so much chocolate on Friday that I may soon turn into a truffle, or better yet, a GuyLian Seashell...

As for my plans? Caitlin and I going to book our flights to India (Happy V-Day!), grab some green curry at the ever-amazing Silom, get a manicure and catch the on-screen version of He's Just Not That Into You.

Nothing says "I Love You" like a day of self-centered self-indulgence.

Go Team!

I feel like I should purchase a cheerleader outfit and some pompoms. I'm so proud of us. We actually made it out of Caitlin's apartment not once, but TWICE this past weekend. I know, I too am a little concerned that the end of the world is drawing near. But in the absence of Armageddon I'll just go hunting for those pompoms...

So it wasn't anything expressly interesting that made us leave the comfort and security of the Bundang, but I promised I would blog more, so this is what you get...

We finally ventured to the CoEx mall on Saturday and managed to get our hot little hands on the Nepal guide we've been seeking. Getting English books is a bit of a chore as it is here, let alone decent travel guides to somewhat random countries, but thankfully for us, CoEx has the BIGGEST Lonely Planet section I have ever seen anywhere on Earth, and they are blessfully all in English.

We were planning on heading to a coffee shop and calling it a day whilst curled up with our newly-acquired travel bibles, but somehow Kyle managed to convince us to meet him in Myeongdong to pick out some new glasses and, in the spirit of routine (from days previous), the night found us in our little wine bar in Itaewon, sipping sangria and gazing at the Mini that occupies three-quarters of the venue's interior.

On Sunday morning we did manage to find our way to a coffee shop to lounge with our growing Lonely Planet library, although we opted for a change of scenery and, as a result, of beverage. The Tom N' Toms coffee shop at Ori Station really is a gem, so we relaxed there until Kyle came to whisk me away to our mystery luncheon with my Korean teacher, Michelle.

We had absolutely no idea what to expect as our cab pulled up to Michelle's apartment complex, seeing as this meeting was so top-secret I didn't even know about it until about an hour before we were expected at her place. As it turns out, it was to be a simple Thank-you/ Good-bye lunch (she is my Korean co-teacher and Kyle is her daughter's homeroom teacher)and it was, overall, a pleasant experience. It was my first time being invited into a Korean home and therefore also my first time eating a traditional Korean meal in a Korean home. For the record, my chopstick skills have improved exponentially since my arrival! I could totally rock Wagamama's world, if I don't say so myself...

After that I made my way back to Tom N' Toms for yet another latte and another chat (this time with Kyle) until I found myself on a train bound for Seoyheon station and a long-overdue dinner date with Julia. I somehow managed (despite having just consumed a five course meal) to pound back a strawberry marguerita and a chicken burrito whilst discussing our current lives, future plans and reminiscing a bit about the past.

I was home by nine pm, sufficiently stuffed full of good food and settled almost immediately into a Harry Potter movie and a long chat with a good friend.

All in all, the weekend proved to be a success. Fingers crossed for a repeat five days from now!

Living the Dream

So Caitlin and I have this little problem: we’re both hard core caffeine addicts. This probably wouldn’t be so much of a problem as a way to casually meet and discuss the recent events in our lives whilst enjoying a warm, tasty, comforting beverage, except for the fact that I pretty much live with her over the weekends. Which means that our coffee drinking sessions are not merely limited to a couple of hours on a specific day, but rather last each day, all day throughout the weekend.

That’s a lot of coffee.

Especially since we don’t limit our coffee intake to home brewed Bodum goodness. We have to go out for specialty coffees. Which are not only ridiculously expensive but are also full of unwanted calories. And our particular favourite is probably more calorie-laden than most:

The Coffee Bean’s White Chocolate Dream.

That’s right White Chocolate Dream.

It’s a latte with a perfect splash of, well, white chocolate. A definite “don’t touch me” moment if I ever had one.

We even have a nickname for the experience of purchasing and enjoying this beverage. We call it “living the dream”, which I’m sure sounds ridiculous and overdone and a whole host of less than favourable adjectives, but that’s only because you haven’t had the opportunity to “live the dream”. Even non-coffee drinkers couldn’t help but enjoy this experience.

Now I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I haven’t been blogging about Korea lately, or much of anything really, not because I’m lazy, not because I’m uninspired, but rather because I haven’t been doing much of anything Korea-related.

I’ve been drinking coffee.

Caitlin and I have been spending the majority of our weekends this past month laying around her apartment, drinking coffee, watching movies and planning our quickly-approaching (though not quickly enough) trip to India. I mean, you can’t really fault us. It’s cold and, well, we’d prefer to hibernate.

Except that we’ve recently come to realize that we actually do need to start doing things, if for no other reason than to prepare for this trip of ours. Plus, if Caitlin ever manages to retain her passport for an entire weekend we would love to see the DMZ before we leave.

Plus, we’ve also decided that we must have a case of the winter blues and getting out and about will probably do nothing but make us feel better.

So what I’m trying to say is that I hope I’m going to be posting more often in the near future as I may actually have something to write about. I’m not promising anything though, seeing as I’m turning out to be rubbish at keeping my word...

Pop the Bubbly

Here's to what would have been an amazing Champagne birthday.

Come One, Come All!

Alright, I get it. I'm not good at this whole "post with consistency" thing.

In my defense, I do have a few posts written that I've been wanting to post, but haven't been able to due to lack of pictures. I'll try to remedy that this weekend...

I had my first (and, I suppose, only) Open Class yesterday. At this point, you may have an overwhelming urge to ask "Open Class? What is this thing you speak of?" Don't worry, I'm about to tell you.

Instead of having normal parent-teacher interviews, which are stressful enough in their own right, Korean hogwans invite the parents of each student to come and sit in on, and participate in, one of their children's classes.

This is on top of the fact that each classroom's door has a little window in it so that Mummy can stop by and watch her child any time she sees fit.

Oh, and have I mentioned that we have cameras in each of our classrooms so that the Principal, the Director, the Maintenance Staff... anyone and everyone can "look in on us" from the comfort and privacy of their office?

So I COMPLETELY understand the need for an Open Class. Really, I do.

But I digress.

So last Tuesday I was informed that it was time for 6A2 to have their Open Class. Normally, this would cause me a little bit of stress. However, OISE had all but rid of me of any need I may once have felt to experience paralyzing fear at being judged while trying my damnedest to instill knowledge into the minds of today's youth. Thank-you Usha and, of course, Olga.

Now Open Classes are a big deal, for the school at least. They're often what determines whether or not a student re-enrolls the next year, or a parent recommends the school to their friends. So, if you don't get it right the first time, you have to keep doing it over until you do. One colleague had to redo hers three or four times because the parents weren't satisfied. They couldn't understand why their children weren't speaking, didn't seem to be having fun.

I could be wrong, but perhaps it's because their parents are all stuffed into their classroom, waiting anxiously for their little Einstein to re-discover the Theory of Relativity while simultaneously composing the world's next great symphony and achieving their black belt in Taekwondo. But like I said, I could be wrong.

Ya, so that may be a bit of an exaggeration. A bit. Parents here are VERY concerned with their child's academic success and are not above using corporal punishment to help their little darlings achieve. I'm not passing judgement, I'm just saying... if I knew that I was going to get a whack when I got home for answering something incorrectly at school, I wouldn't talk either.

Ok, back on topic.

So I knew that I had to get it right the first time. Mainly because a lot of effort goes into planning these things and, well, I'm a little lazy. I'd rather hang out at Caitlin's, watch zombie movies and eat soup on a week day night....

So, to make an already long-ish story a little bit shorter, I will not be re-doing my Open Class. My nine Mums and 1 Dad were thoroughly impressed with how well my students are doing and seemed to enjoy making shadow animals with their children (give me a break, we're learning about shadows right now).

So now I'm on my way to Caitlin's. 30 Days of Night, here I come!

Being French

So it would seem that one is not allowed to be French in Korea. In fact, it appears to be very much frowned upon.

Everyone looks as you oddly when you try to speak the French language; they're all like "ANNYEO" (ummm, that's "no" in Korean... in case anyone was wondering.  Ya, I'm practically fluent...). Plus, they also disapprove of sitting in the French style. That is, sitting side by side as you drink your cafe, as opposed to facing one another.

Last night Caitlin and I attempted to challenge the Korean anti-French sentiment.  In a busy Starbucks we chose to sit side by side and see whether or not anyone would sit in the same manner opposite us. Well, I decided to challenge my theory; Caitlin was merely a not-so-unwilling participant in my ploy (albeit, one who got a Caramel Latte out of the whole thing), occasionally stating "Ummm, is this allowed?".  Whatever our roles, the outcome was indeed decisive--the only people who ventured to sit opposite us was a couple, the female half of which was heavily pregnant and was looking rather uncomfortable.  And, as soon as we stood to leave, the man immediately moved his seat to be opposite his wife.

So there you have it. In a not-so-scientifically-correct experiment we have concluded that Koreans would rather not be French.

We have also realized that I'm kind of missing Europe and have become rather nostalgic about my trip to Paris this past summer.

You may also have come to the conclusion that we have been consuming astronomical amounts of coffee since our Winter Holiday began.

More on that later.