Wannabe World Traveler: April 2012

Korean students have it tough...man I thought my life was hard when I was their age; I had nothing to complain about. These kids do nothing but study, it's a shame. They go to school then to an academy or 2 or 3 and then go home. A lot of them don't even get home until late and most if not all also have to go to an academy on Saturdays. By the way academies are schools that specialize in a certain subject usually and they get homework from them as well as the homework from school.

I work at an English academy and my students are always complaining about being tired or being hungry, especially the night students. I have elemetary students from 430pm to 730pm and then middle schoolers 730pm to 1030pm....it's even tougher for the middle schoolers since they're being pressured to get into a good high school so they can get into a good university. They're always tired and you have to try and get them motivated and energetic which is easier said than done.

I do have some energetic ones which helps. In the last hour of the class we do this group project thing, they get separated into groups and then have to put together a mini presentation. The subject changes each class. One night with my middle schoolers, we were doing this and one group started singing YMCA lol I was cracking up I wanted to take a video of but as soon as I got my camera out they got shy but here's the video anyway ^_^

Another thing about the students is they're brutally honest sometimes lol they have no problems what they think about you or what you're wearing or anything like that. My coworker said a student told her that her blue nail polish was inappropriate. I've mostly had good experiences with that though they do like to play around too. I've heard from other teachers how they're students called them ugly or said they're no help, though said these things laughing so I think it's they're attempt to joke around. They definitely need to laugh with all the pressure that's put on their shoulders.

I spent this past weekend in Seoul...place is awesome & I got some really cool pictures.

Friday Night
The first hostel we stayed at was ridicuolously hard to find though...the woman's directions made no sense...suspect she used google translate because they were so out there. Once we found the hostel we met up with a friend of my travel buddy in Itaewon. Itaewon is like foreigners' paradise lol the most foreigners I've seen since I've been in Korea. It was a good night out, helped to clear the frustrations of being lost for a hour and half looking for the hostel. I met a fabulous tranny lol he was soo tall & that was before the stilettos. He was getting down too. We found a reggae type club, but although the music was good the men there were kinda annoying. They kept trying to dance with us even though we clearly said no...needless to say we didn't stay there long. However, it was still a good night.

Saturday
Well went to a fish market that was in a huge warehouse type plae. You could definitely tell how fresh everything was because it smelt like the ocean not like rotting dead fish. You would buy what you wanted & then go to the second floor to a restaurant where they would cook it for you. There is also the option of bringing it home & cooking it yourself but that really wasn't an option for us. We then went to a place called Myeongdong...shops galore, I wish it was after payday so I could've done some shopping...so many cute trinkets & jewelery & clothes (not that I could fit most of it). After going around there we went to Seoul Tower...it was awesome, though we had to take a cable car which wasn't fun for me because I'm afraid of heights. We didn't actually go inside the tower though because it cost money & I was on a tight budget. Afterwards we got dinner and then went to Hongdae. Hongdae also had a lot of foreigners around, & some interesting bars & clubs. We ended up running into someone I knew from training at a random dubstep concert in the park & hung out with him the rest of the night. The night ended up at a salsa club which was a lot of fun.

Sunday
We both made an appointment to get our hair done but before that we went to a really nice Thai restaurant for lunch...it was amazing and had really good food...ok back to the hair, I was getting a touch up & my friend was just getting her hair blown out & flat ironed. So we went to this Nigerian lady...yea not happy, my hair was made so greasy that my hair actually feels heavy & the same goes for my friend. She didn't do a good job straightening it either. Needless to say we will not be returning there...I should not have to fix my hair after getting it done. Well after that fiasco I had a date with the professor while my friend went to meet one of her friends for dinner. The date went well, had dinner & talked ^_^ we have another date on Friday night, he's coming here & we're going to the movies.

Monday
Woke up roun 10am and our train back was at 12pm...almost missed the friggin train! That would've been bad since work starts at 430pm and I still needed to fix mine and my friend's hair...anyways it all worked out in the end...can't wait to go to Seoul again! Hopefully next time with more money so I can actually do some shopping! Ok, it's picture time!!! Enjoy =^_^=