or something like it.

"Sometimes things happen and you just have to deal."

-How to Deal

Life is . . . interesting.

Today was . . . tiring.

My dreams are . . . unpleasant.

I still smile. :)

We have not spoken for a week.

I don't know what to say.

But I feel I am not wrong for not speaking.

I can't tell if you care.

If we are friends . . .

then we will stay friends.

This will end. eventually.

maybe.

I am planning on going to the Lantern Festival in Jinju this weekend.

Next weekend I am going to Seoul. [again.]

I plan on visiting the Seoul Museum of Art and going to a dance performance. Later that night, possibly a party. We shall see.

Soldier. Souldier. Seouldier.

See what I did there? ㅋㅋㅋ

Anyways~ here is an overview of my week in Seoul. I'm going to try not to write too much and just give a brief description + pictures. Pictures speak a thousand words after all.

♥Saturday, Sept. 18th♥

I just chilled around my apartment until a friend suggested I go to Seoul on Sunday rather than Monday. I stayed up all night cleaning and packing.

♥Sunday, Sept. 19th♥

Wake up at 7a.m. and head to the bus station. Catch the 9a.m. bus to 동서울(East Seoul)bus station. Arrive around 2-230p.m. and figure out my way to Seoul Station, the major KTX station in the middle of the city. Once at Seoul Station~ I have to figure out how to work the pay phone. Who knew that if you just wait a minute there are English instructions right after the Korean. *shruggg* Called up señor Choi and was all "so are we hanging out or what?!" Haha- I'm nice like that. So I guess he was a little ways away because he told it would be forty minutes before he could get to Seoul Station. Ughhh~ so he said to meet half way at Sadang station. Being the awesome navigator I am, I had no problem getting there. (_ _;;) Except for getting off too soon and having to wait for the next train! (>w<;;) So then I'm there and have to call up Kevin again because we failed to decide a meeting place. We find each other quickly enough... or rather he finds me. Haha~ He then takes us to the CoEx mall. Yay malls! We chill there for a while.

♥Monday, Sept. 20th♥

Wake up and head out to Itaewon to run an errand or two. I had a few glitches, but that's okay. Everything got worked out sooner or later. I kept calling Grace all morning, but she didn't answer her phone. (>o<;;) As it turns out, she slept in that morning and then her phone was out of minutes so she could only receive calls. Eek! And I kept calling from pay phones so she couldn't message me or anything. Kevin and I decide to go to Taco Bell (YUM!) for lunch. While we're there Grace texts Kevin!!! I had called her the day before on his phone because he's cool like that. (^^) So she and I talk and then I made her talk to Kevin because I didn't know where to meet up with her. They decide on CoEx mall! Even though we were there yesterday. Doesn't matter~! (^___^) I got to see Grace! She and I had ice cream then starbucks. Hehe, Kevin just followed us around and kept silent most of the time. Sorryyyyy, Kevin. (^^;) Grace and I caught up (not enough!) but enough for that time. ~ Grace had to go and catch a bus though! (T.T) She was going to see her family so it's okay. (^_^) Kevin and I just hung out for the rest of the evening. Looked at cars we can't afford. (; __ ;) Had dinner and visited a cute, cute cafe~!

Kevin at Taco Bell and the Jack Black look-a-like we saw!!

♥Tuesday, Sept. 21st♥

I ended up staying up ALL night. I sat in a 24hr Burger King eating fries and sipping on a coke. I wrote in my journal, read a book and people watched. Very interesting. Tuesday~ oh, Tuesday. It rained so much that day. Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain and more rain. A car drove by and sent a wave of water to drown me and my belongings. (; ___ ; ) Luckily the new clothes I bought that morning didn't get wet since they were in a plastic bag. I checked into the Hongdae Guesthouse 2.o - Yellow Submarine, the hostel at which I was staying for two nights. Went back out when the rained paused for a bit, called Kevin and we went for food. Yay because I was bored . . . (-___-")

Tea'Us in Myeongdong where I hid from the rain for a bit.

The last two pictures at in the Konkuk University area? We were at a Lotteria.

♥Wednesday, Sept. 22nd♥

Wednesday was the actual holiday day. Most of us at the hostel were like... what to do today? We figured most places would be closed. I went and walked around Hongdae for a couple of hours. Saw some pretty cool graffiti here and there. Saw a YELLOW♥♥♥Nissan 370Z! I was thrilled. \\\(>w<)/// There were quite a few people out. Then I went to Myeongdong and shopped with the HUUUUGE crowds of people. Haha, and I thought it was going to be a quiet day. Nope, nope. (^_^)V It was fun~! Then I went back to Hongdae. Ended up going out to eat with the hostel peoples! Yummy, yummy food. Lots of fun~! The people are so unique~! We all ended up staying up really late because a girl wasn't checking in until 2a.m. so the guys in charge had to stay up. Sander was like STAY UP WITH ME. Lol, of course everyoooone stayed up. Orla and I ended up giving Tom a make over. ...while he was sleeping. Hehehehe

♥Thursday, Sept. 23nd♥
I was originally planning to leave on Thursday, but I ended up staying. After raining and being cloudy all week~ Thursday had gorgeous weather. It was a good, good day. (^^) Yepyep. Kevin and I met up at TechnoMart which is this huuuuge shopping center. Mostly electronics. It made me very dizzy. (@_@) But on one floor they have this Sky Lounge where you can go outside and get a great view of Seoul! It really was a fantastic view!~ Kevin took some nice pictures for me... Because I fail at taking pictures. (= =;;) Whatever. Then we went to Lotte World where we sat at Smoothie King and just... sat there. Hahaha~ It was fun, though. After that we went and walked around a little bit, ended up in a Homeplus that had bunnies! They were super cute and superrrrr soft. We walked around a bit more, sat on a bench and guessed the ages of people walking by us. (^^;) Quiznos for dinner~! It was soooo satisfying. I really wish Gwangyang had Quiznos. Oh well. Once we finished dinner we headed to. . . the Han River? I think so . . . It was amazing! The bridges were all lit up and the lights of the buildings across the river were so pretty! Lots of people were there, too. (*^o^*) We also went into this museum-like building/thing and looked at a few pieces of work. I liked the light displays. :) We walked so much that we were hungry againnnn. (>w<) I had takoyaki and Kevin had noodles~~~ then we had 순대 which is sausage that is filled with noodles instead of meat. Stupid Kevin kept telling me that it was weird things like cat or dog or brains! (; _ ; ) I had to look it up later just to make sure it wasn't. (>_O) Hehe, other than thatttt~ I was super glad I stayed Thursday. It was definitely the best day of the whole week. And probably one of the most fun days ever! And also one filled with a lot of bullshit. C'est la fucking vie.

Coming Soon...

New post about my week in Seoul plus the upcoming weekend in Seoul and a new look.

Stickers. Sayyyyy Wuuuuuuutttt?!

Stickers are the end all, BE ALL for these kids. I tell them there are stickers at the end of class if they're good and .... BAM! Sitting still, sitting quietly, looking at me.

Muwahahaha~ Little do they know that I only told them about stickers to let them know I have stickers. From now on~~~~ I will not say "If you're good and pay attention, you will get a sticker." Hoooooooo no. They are going to have to work for them without the incentive being stated beforehand. HAHA!

... Watch it backfire on me. :)

Oh, and the whooole "Look, look, look at me." thing. Works. I tried the clapping and the students would follow me, but it was more of a... "Wtf is Teacher Skye doing?" "Hell if I know. Just do what she says..." type of response. The "Look, look... " gets their attention and everything. However, I'm trying to get my 3rd & 4th graders to become quiet after doing it once. Today it took two or three times before they'd all be paying attention.


Ahhh~ and I wasn't feeling well this past weekend nor earlier today. The school's lunch today almost killed me. Not that it was too different from the lunches every other day, but it was just ~ not what my stomach wanted. I tried to eat as much of it as I could, but I ended up eating soup. All of it, but I left almost everything else. Unfortunately~ they had spaghetti today and my not eating it translated to it not being tasty. I didn't even try to explain that it wasn't that the spaghetti wasn't delicious. It actually tasted pretty good, but my stomach just wasn't going to take it. *sigh* Lost in Translation.... It's a black toe thing. = =;

Okay.. now.. is lazy time. So have a look at these pictures ^^:

Fifth and sixth grade boys playing with their phones.

My bruise is finally turning lovely shades of green and purple...

The super intelligent and creative folder for my super intelligent and creative 1st and 2nd graders. :))

They were a necessary purchased. I swear.

Kids are so clever~

I just typed out a long(ish) e-mail to my family so! being the lazy person that I am. . .

Copy & Paste *with a few more details added to this.

My first day of "teaching" was today, but I only met the fifth graders. This is because the first day back from a long break is spent cleaning the classrooms. The kids clean~! I had the fifth graders for 40 minutes and they just asked me questions the whole time. They were very impressed that I knew so many Korean Pop artists and liked it even more than I could dance to some of the songs. One little boy kept telling me to sing a song. I cannot sing, but he kept asking if I knew Korean songs. I misunderstood the question and thought he meant did I know of any songs... Not can you sing the Korean songs. (_ _ ;; ) I sang two words from one song. Haru Haru(하루하루). ~which means day by day. He loved it. These kids are easily pleased. (<<>

A popular question is "Teacher Skye, do you have a boyfriend?" (the other teachers have asked me this as well.) The conversation with the students went like this:

☺"Teacher Skye, do you have a boyfriend?"

☺"Hahaha, noooo~"

☺"Teacher Skye!"

☺"Yes?"

☺"Do you have a best friend?"

☺"Yes, I do have a best friend."

☺"Is it a man or a woman?"

☺"... A man."
☺"Oooooooo BOYFRIEND!!"

I should apologize to my friend for that one. Haha, they're so clever. First the table of girls asked me that then the table of boys. They seated themselves. Both tables after asking if my best friend was a man or woman immediately responded with "Oooo"s when I told them man. Aha~

The keyboard at my computer stopped working today. T_T Hopefully I will have another one tomorrow, but I will have less free time while at school tomorrow. .. Oh, I am at home now... I only work half days. Wednesdays and Fridays- I work from 9:50am to 12:30pm, but they asked me today if I would teach the kindergartners as well. I agreed to teach them twice a week for 30 minutes. ***Cut out the typed out schedule.. Here's a picture instead:

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There are two different sets of books I have to use. For Wednesdays and Fridays(morning classes), I use the books provided by the school and I just follow the teacher's guide and CD-rom. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays ~ I am required to use the TaLK English book. I have to prepare lesson plans from this book. Nine lessons per week. We will see how my lesson planning works out tomorrow when I meet 1st and 2nd grade. 5th and 6th graders are pretty awesome. They are quite willing to talk to me.. whether it be English or Korean. (= ='')

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, my co-teachers are coffee drinkers! That makes me soo happy. It makes them happy, too, I think. I will be eating lunch at the cafeteria thanks to my principal (ko jang? seon-saeng-nim. seonsaengnim or 선생님 means teacher. ) ... however the food they serve for lunch..isn't bad, but spicy. I'm use to Korean cafeteria food by now (almost three weeks of it already.. haha) kimchi and rice is always served. Then there about 3 other sides that are prepared. Everyone at school is very worried I won't like the food. I tried to eat everything on my tray since lunch is provided courtesy of the Principal and so they don't worry so much... but I don't eat that much. (TT^TT) I couldn't finish my soup or rice. I ate all of my kimchi though ^_^ Oh, when people ask about my favorite [Korean] food I answer with kimchi and patbingsu. Kimchi is always a popular answer... supposedly it makes me more korean~ (^_^;;) Patbingsu is a dessert/snack of shaved ice, sweet red beans and other items. Ice cream and fruits usually. It is delicious. It's also a popular answer.

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Okay - lesson planning time. (x_x).. Byebye~

Since no one is online. >:[

Here is an entry that covers the last three weeks week in the United States. I'm not big on long, well written and thoughtful posts so yay for bullet points!

♥ July 29th

>> 230am - My admission status changes. Goodbye waiting list, hello Korea.

>> 10am - I had my visa application and documents over-nighted to the Korean Consulate in Chicago.

♥ July 30th

>> KoreanAir sends me an itinerary/receipt for a flight on Monday August 2nd. Time to call the education office in Chicago and see if my visa will be ready in time. Not happening.

>> Sasa for dinner. I loooooove sushi.

♥ July 31st

>> Start packing. Printing off documents. Freak out. Go out for dinner!

♥ August 1st

>> Continue packing and freaking out about flight and visa.

♥ August 2nd

>> Call the Education Center and confirm that my flight is being rescheduled. :) Pack more items.

{la la la~ kill time until the day of my flight}

♥ August 9th?

>>We leave in the early, early morning to drive to Chicago. I arrive at O'Hara and fly out at 1230pm.

♥ Auguest 10th

>> Arrive in South Korea.

♥ ♥ ♥ Start my training in Jochiwon. ♥ ♥ ♥

♥ Meet lots of amazing people.

♥ Eat lots of amazing/interesting/don't ask foods.

♥ Visit Seoul.

♥ Field trips.

♥ Noraebang.

♥ Mudslide.

I'll compose a better entry for Jochiwon, Gwangju and Gwangyang later. See? This is why I don't have a blog. My attention span is much too short.

I'll throw in some pictures and a video here or there. However, if you have me on facebook then you can see all the pictures there. Yepyep. ^^

Being un-lazy

This is as good at it gets. . . for now. I finally set up a blog.

*~*~*\\(^o^)//*~*~*

I promise I will think about trying to make posts frequently.

ㅋㅋㅋ ~ Perhaps I will throw in a little Korean here and there. After all~ this is a blog about my time in Korea. Or . . . just whatever I feel like posting. (>ω<)

At this moment, though, I am going to take a nap. ^^

Enjoy this picture while I sleep~ :P