International Body Painting Festival!

So, in an effort to keep my posts semi-regular, here's a new post!

Sunday, a bunch of us decided to head down into the city for the International Body Painting Festival! It was so much fun! Too bad my camera pooped out on me halfway into the festival... but that's because I was taking so many pictures!!

The artists were crazy good. The only bad thing, was that you couldn't take pictures of some of the models... they had guards to make sure that you only looked, not photo-ed it up. It was insanely hot (temperature wise). We got there around 1... and we stayed basically until 10.

Hmmm, there were international food booths. Mostly Korean, but there was a Japanese takoyaki and a Turkish kebab place!! They were from Istanbul, and the food was soooo good. More gyro than kebab, in my opinion. Oh! And there were people from Ecuador there too! Diana and I stood staring at them for about 5 minutes wondering what they were. We definitely knew they were Indian, but they looked more Latino Indian than Native Amerian. Eventually we just ended up talking to them, and asking them. Turns out that they were wondering where we were from too! Haha, crazy.

Hmmm, what else?? Oh, I was definite creeper bait Sunday. A few old Korean guys have me the thumbs up, staring at my chest the entire time. Mostly old guys though... I guess they figure I want a sugar daddy?? I guess they smell the lack of money wafting from my direction!!

Payday is manana and it could NOT get here sooner! I'm fully preparing my lunches right now, which is definitely a cost saver, but not very socially forward of me. On the plus side, I got a bit more done today at work.

Classes today were a LOT better than last week. Probably because the kids were more prepared for the lesson, so I didn't have to explain as much. I also tried out a few more new techniques.

So, bank account achieved! And Robin asked for my passport, which means.... Alien Registration Card!! The gateway to all I could ever need!! XD Hmmm, first purchase when I get paid?? Mulan, most definitely.

XOXOXO. Leaving you with a few images of the body painting festival (before I post them anywhere else, lucky you!)

I'm Never Satisfied!

Haha, so I complain when I work all the time, but when I finally have free time.... I get so lost about what to do! I'm not used to free time! It feels unnatural!

Anyways, Kenny didn't bring it up, so I'm assuming it's done and over with (I hope). But yea, went to work today for like 4 extra hours that weren't needed. Meh. I just hope it changes in the next month. I did not sign on for a Monday through Saturday contract, so I'm going to give them a month to give me back my weekends!

I also signed up to do Relay for Life here at the American base in Daegu, Camp Walker. Which will be pretty exciting, because I'll get to see the inside of the base! It's September 24th, and if anyone wants to sponsor me.... that would be awesome :)

So no body painting festival today :( I ended up getting out of work like 2 hours later than expected, so we just said, meh. So we're definitely going manana though. I'm a little sad that we didn't get a chance to see Daegu's nightlife... but I'm a little scared to see what that is :P More pictures will definitely be taken, though. I've been a little lax on the whole picture-taking thing. Things are becoming a little more common-place and I work a lot, so no free time plus normality makes for less of an urge to take pictures. But I'm going to try to get that urge back!

Hmmm, what news? What news? I made my kids hoot like a monkey Thursday/Friday, and I named two kids Obama, and another one Pinocchio. Well actually, we had a Mario and Luigi, and then Mario decided to change his name (on his own will) to Pinocchio. I also have a kid named Ninja. The lower levels are amazing fun (so far), but my Jump Basic reading classes barely participate. It makes me so crazy!! Only two of my 5 reading classes actually had life and VOLUNTEERED answers. Meh, hopefully I can liven them up.

No work manana! Thank god! And I finally get a bank account on Monday... and I get paid on Tuesday! No clue when I'll be getting my Alien Registration Card though... All I know, is that the paperwork hasn't even been submitted (since they need our passports for that).

That's about it for now. Much love!!

BLAH!

I hate passive aggressive bosses. Well, he isn't really MY boss, just one of the bosses (but also the boss of my boss, gets confusing). Anyway, yesterday I waited around for Diana after work in their office (since my boss kicked me out of mine, telling me to go home), and right before we left, her boss told her that it was unprofessional for me to be there and that it was disruptive. Not sure how me being completely silent for 20 minutes was disruptive, but I can see your point about professionalism. I just wish he had said something to me the TWENTY minutes I was there! Seriously, if he had said something, I would've made other plans. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure he called my boss and told him, so now I'm going to get yelled at for doing something I wasn't aware was disruptive. Get some cajones and tell me if I'm bothering you. Also, how am I supposed to make plans if I don't have freaking internet or a phone?? (I mean my own internet btw, not just stealing it from the neighbor). I've been here over a month and I have still yet to get my Alien Registration Card, which is basically the gateway to my medical insurance, internet, and a phone.... basic necessities if you're living abroad.

Le sigh. Let's see how it goes today at work. Yesterday was a disaster. The kids definitely don't respond as we pretended in the demos. I actually get to go in later today! Wooo! A full hour before my contract time >_< I'm actually going to head over there in about 30 minutes so I can get there like 40-30 minutes ahead of time since I need to redo some of my lesson plans. I just hope we get lunch. Who knows with Kenny....


Sorry for the ranting. It just frustrates me that they couldn't tell me to freaking leave, and then freaking called my boss to complain

Life is crazy hectic

I swear I'll write more later! It's just been a loooong day of demos and now we're not allowed to be at our computers for very long >_< So it's a bit counter productive. Oh well. Tomorrow's my first full day of teaching actual classes. Monday and Tuesday were just fun days to get to know the kids (although I doubt I'll remember their names... bad teacher!). Good thing I made half of my kids make name signs. Let's just hope they remember them. Working 11 hour days instead of 14 hours... so it's a bit better. Can't wait until we're actually working the 8 hours we're supposed to be. But that should be in the next 2-3 weeks. I'm just happy that I have the option of getting actual coffee in the morning instead of Starbucks Fraps.

More later, I swear. But I figure that I should update a bit so y'all don't think I'm dead or something :D I swear I'll update more regularly when I have a more free schedule. I'm just so exhausted after work sometimes that I pass out completely.

Oh! Don't forget my Shutterfly account. I think I have it listed under the About Me section. You can access my photos there. I'll try putting a few photos in this blog (and I'll start... NOW!)

Sorry about the format... don't know code, so I can't fix it :(

So crazy

Not really up for updating right now. Just got done with basically a 12.5 hour work day. Thank god this ends Monday. I'm expecting a pretty huge bonus for putting up with this craziness. Hopefully, the new efficient way of demo-ing will let me get home before eleven this week. Probably not, but it's always good to wish, right?

I am so spoiling myself with my first paycheck. I'm going to hit up the bodypainting festival and pay a wii off of one of the teachers. It's not a bad price, especially since it comes with games and wii fit plus the board. I'll probably just sell it cheap when I leave, if it's still good by then.

A little more frazzled, a little less strain

If that doesn't make sense, it's ok. Most things in Korea don't really make sense. So my co-teaching is officially canceled, which is both a yay! and an ugh!. Yay! for the fact that my teaching career is postponed a little bit more, and an ugh! because I won't have real life teaching practice until my first day when I'm standing at the front of my first class, which is phonics for the lowest level. Apparently, I'm so awesome, they think that I'll be good with the kids who don't speak any English (or barely any). Little do they know, I'm planning on bribing them with Silly Bandz (if I can get them) and mucho candy. Muahahaha. I am so evil :P

But yea, I'm a little more frazzled because the head boss decided that we should do 2 demos a day (the same demo, just twice a day with improvements), starting tomorrow. So basically, I'll be working from noon until 9 (although I think we'll get out around 10ish if we're lucky) Friday, Saturday, and then Monday through Saturday. Oh, and no lunch break (although Thomas said we could just simply pack our own lunch and eat during demos). Thank god, we have Sunday completely off. Although, I'm probably going to prep for all of my demos on Sunday. So yea, basically working all Sunday, but on my own time. I'm going to let my OCD ride the reigns (I'm pretty sure that's not even a phrase), and over-prepare my lesson plans to include the first 3-5 days. Yup, that's right. I'm insane. Korea has officially kicked the procrastinator out of me (at least, for now haha).

Classes start the 23rd, so I should hopefully get back to a more normal schedule (2-10), plus I'll get weekends off. That first weekend of school is the weekend of the international bodypainting festival in Daegu! It should be a LOT of fun. Let's just hope the boss doesn't pull a company outing that weekend (although, it WOULD be paid for). I'm conflicted, free (expensive) food and drinks or awesome bodypainting in Daegu?? I can't choose!!! >_<

So yea, I'll basically be a ghost (maybe) for the next week. I'll probably be online, but not for any long periods of time (unless we manage to get some miraculous free time). Semi-slacking off the first two weeks is really kicking us in the ass now. It sucks to be the new teachers from this week and next. They'll basically have no break from work until work actually starts (and it lets up a bit)

<3 <3 !! I also have my mailing address, so let me know if you want it!

Le sigh

Work's been crazy intense the past two weeks as we're inching closer to the opening of the school. It hasn't gotten much more organized, so that just makes things way more difficult. For instance, not all of the books for the upcoming semester have gotten in, so we can't really plan a syllabus for certain classes. And the lesson flows for my co-teaching on Friday still aren't in, so I have no idea what levels I'm teaching and what material I'm teaching. This is very much making my OCD tendencies come out, as I panic a little more each day. It's supposedly a good thing for a teacher to be a little OCD, so that they over-prepare for classes, but it's hella draining when everything is such a mess.

I'm also supposed to be giving demos every day until we open, fun stuff. I guess it's good practice, and it gives me something to do, which is always a plus. Today, I just basically sat around for about 2 hours messing around, because I finished all my work. And I couldn't go home until the boss said so. Normally it's ok, but today I didn't bring my computer to work because Daegu was hit with the edge of a typhoon, so it was majorly storming today.

But yea, same old, same old. Work, maybe go out with co-workers, and then back to the apartment to start it all over again. The lack of money and time (since I work Saturdays for now) is definitely a deterrence for traveling and exploring. BUT I think I'm going to hit up downtown Daegu this Saturday if I get out of work early enough. There's a rally to build a memorial for comfort women (we're just basically walking around). Not exactly sure how it'll go, but hopefully I can drag someone to work with me (pref. Diana). I'm not sure if any of you know this, but my major interest in Korean history is the study of comfort women. I spent the last two years at Loyola researching them. If and when I go to grad school, I'm planning on focusing on the comfort system and sexual slavery in Japan (I know, depressing, but it's really interesting!). So this is something that I really feel strongly about. I'm really glad that I can somehow participate in it! And in Korea! Things like this makes me glad about my decision to live here for a year.

Decided against going out with the co-workers today b/c a) I need to save money, b) I need to do laundry before it stacks up on me, and c) my room is completely messy, so I desperately need to clean it. Also, I'm kind of tired. I've been so mooching off the free internet at home, since I have no idea if it'll suddenly disappear like last time.

So yea, right now, I'm doing laundry, and I just figured out how to work my gas range (it turns out the gas line wasn't open >_<). I'm going to make myself a late dinner, watch some Degrassi or Dexter, and then probably head off to bed (maybe some Skype for a bit if anyone signs on).

Love! I'll try to live a bit more exciting life, so there'll be more posts ^_^

Such a busy week!

It’s been a while since my last entry… sorry about that. It’s been a little crazy at work. Actually, I don’t even remember what my last entry was

Updates: Basically, I’ve been working… a lot. It’s not too bad. I generally wake up around 10ish, go to work at noon, and then work until 8 or 9 pm. Then it’s usually either off to eat something quick with my coworkers, or head back to my apartment, where I generally watch a movie or two (or drama or anime) before I nod off. Nothing too exciting. Sad news is that my internet disappeared on Sunday! Well, not MY internet, but the internet that I was mooching. Le sigh. So I can’t go online unless I go to the café or work. So lately, I’ve been heading out around 10, so I can have an hour or two of internet before heading into work. Like I said, way boring. The most exciting thing, well actually, there’s two! The first is that I discovered that HomePlus takes Visa (which so far has taken a beating in the last two visits). The second one is that there’s a new foreign teacher, a GIRL teacher! Wooo! I’m not the only girl anymore. She’s actually pretty cool, my age, and she’s from Cali. Actually, a new teacher came Thursday, so there’s another guy here. At least it’s two girls for three guys. And another teacher arrives manana.

Hmmm, what else?? I observed the other campus on Friday. It was pretty interesting to see how the classes are taught. Oh, and I gave a demo on Thursday (without ever actually seeing a class), so it was pretty nerve-wrecking. Especially since the boss and the Korean teachers sat in too. I didn’t do TOO bad…. The criticisms I got were that it was a little too much like a lecture, and that I spoke a little too fast. I’m giving another demo tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll do a little bit better this time.
Today is my only day off from work. Yesterday was a placement test, which took way longer than expected (so hardly any internet use). Afterwards, we all went out for a pizza and then for some beer and soju (which is gross, but extremely delicious in cocktail form). ^_^ The whole “that’s what she said” FINALLY made an appearance yesterday while drinking! I was wondering if only people from the states did it! We rounded off the night with a game of “Never Have I Ever,” which is always a good way of meeting people haha.

No exciting plans for today because I’m quickly running out of money, so I have to conserve!! I had hoped not to use my credit card at all while I’m here, but that turned out to be impossible. I still have some money left… I just didn’t want to exchange them into won, hoping that I would be less tempted to spend it. So I’m off to the bank tomorrow to exchange the rest of my money.

That’s about all I can think of right now. I’ll try to blog more frequently. It sucks not having internet!! Hopefully, though, I can get a phone soon! Or I’ll soon become a frequent visitor of cafes and HomePlus

Staycation

Costco Experience
Basically, my Korean Costco experience wasn’t too different from my regular American Costco experience, with the minor exception of Hangul EVERYWHERE! And of course, they differentiated between US sizes and Western sizes. I will definitely not be going to Costco for cheap clothes (the highest US size they go to is a size 7!), unless I lose a drastic amount of weight. It was nice, though. They gave out free samples of food (so I’ll definitely always go when I’m hungry), and they had live fish! I don’t think the US stores have live fish (but I could be wrong). Oh, there is one difference that I noticed right away… they sell Fendi and Prada purses!! They supposedly charge a luxury tax, but still, that’s pretty crazy. One more sign of how Asia is designer obsessed.

Vacation:
Basically my vacation time was spent exploring Chilgok and staying inside cleaning my apartment. A LOT of time was spent indoors. It was insanely hot, and supposedly it hasn’t even hit the hottest temperature yet. I finally found a bank, and exchanged money. Then I found these faux French bakeries, which were delicious. Yesterday I went down to downtown Daegu. I started off at Camp Walker, where there were massive amounts of Americans (I was in shock!) and then I wandered around trying to find a cell phone store (failed, all of them were closed). I did manage to find this DVD shop with English DVDs, pirated of course, for cheap. They have this frequent user card, which I got. I tried finding this Canadian restaurant, which I couldn’t, so I ended up taking a taxi to the middle of Rodeo St to go find this English bookstore. I couldn’t find it on my own, so I grabbed the first Western looking people I could find and asked them. Turns out they were heading that way, so I tagged along. I made friends, yay! Haha. One of the guys made me a pair of earrings for free (there was a craft fair at the bookstore), and the other gave me advice on living in Korea. The bookstore had amazing chili, made to order (so glad it wasn’t spicy!). Then I basically just wandered around, taking pictures.

Yup, not a very interesting vacation. I was too scared of public transportation to try risking getting to Seoul, especially when taxi drivers seem to have a hard enough time finding my neighborhood in the same city!

Sorry this is short! My neighbors wised up to the fact that I was mooching off their internet, so I no longer have internet at home, at least not for the next month. It's practically impossible for foreigners to get anything here without an Alien Registration Card, which I can't get for at least 3 weeks. Le sigh. But I'll write my posts, and then post them when I go to the cafe in the morning for my coffee.

Off to work!