Saturday Night (01/26/2013) International Party!!

Hello All!

Although it's been a week I had an awesome weekend. I separated it into two posts because I have many pictures from each event :) Alright well Saturday day time was pretty uneventful. I met with my friend Nicole for lunch and we hung out. However, that night I went to an International Party with my other friend Bianca. So before I get into it, I'll just give a little background about these parties.

There is a group that meet at a cafe called Talkaholic where they do language exchange between Koreans and Foreigners. I actually haven't been to this place yet though I have been meaning to go for the longest time. Well these people who set up this language exchange decided to set up monthly parties for people to get together and have a good time and make new friends. The parties are held at a type of bar-restaurant place and you pay 20,000won for unlimited drinks and food. I've been to one before and had a really good time so I was happy that I was able to make this one.

This was the 7th International Party and I had a great time. I met many new people which I hope to meet again. There were about 60 people total that showed up and from what I hear everyone had a great time. After the party a group of us went to do 노래방 which is when you rent a room and you sing karaoke. It was a good mix of Korean and English songs being sung. Then we proceeded to go to another bar called Yellow Taxi which I'm sure I've mentioned before in earlier posts. I had such a wonderful time I can't wait for the next one!

Now for your viewing pleasure....PICTURES!!!

Jet Lag is a....

I wish there was a better way to travel. There are so many places I want to see but getting there is such a hassle. Not to mention there is the problem of jet lag. Yes, jet-lag, the condition where your sleeping pattern gets all types of messed up from flying over different time zones. Needless to say, I friggin hate it...a perfect example: it's 430am as I'm typing this post right now. The worst part is I'M WIDE AWAKE...not a bit of sleepiness. ~sigh~ I guess the smart thing to do would be to do something productive with this time but I don't really feel like it lol

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Dear lord I'm so horrible with this blog thing....therefore my resolution is I'm going to try and keep this thing updated! Technically this should be my last term before my contract ends but there were some issues at my job so I ended up having this term off which makes spring term my last term. As a result, I am currently back in America...actually I've been back since December 12th lol...I return to Korea on January 15th. Once back in Korea however I am still on vacation...btw this is unpaid :-/ oh well I agreed to it. So once I return there should be more posts...maybe...if interesting things happen lol. I hope everyone had great holidays and new year!

Boryeong Mud Festival

Hello everyone! Long time no hear I know but nothing exciting has been happening. Anywho this past weekend I went to the Boryeong Mud Festival with 13 of my coworkers. It was amazing! I would definitely suggest going if you're ever in Korea during that time. The festival is for about 10 days but we only went for the first weekend. They have more events and concerts as the days go on. Apparently Boryeong is known for its mud and the benefits the mud gives your skin. However the festival is just like a giant mud party. People were smearing mud on each other with paint brushes and throwing mud at each other. There was an area you paid to get into where they had mud pits and water slides of mud and some other attractions. I have some pics from it...didn't take too many though didn't want my phone to get messed up.

Sports Day....New Teachers...New Term

Yo! How's it going? Yeah I know it's been like 3 weeks but that's better than my usual length between posts lol there have been a few things that have happened over these past couple of weeks. I went to a Sports day, we have new teachers, and a new term has started...now for the first exciting thing...Sports Day!

Lately I've been with this organization called Mannam. They are a volunteer association based in Korea. Here's the link for more information: http://www.mannamintl.org/ They are an awesome organization that are truly non-discriminatory. They aren't affiliated with any particular religion and it's a good way to meet other foreigners here that aren't from your job and do some good for people at the same time.

I digress though, the point is I went to an ultimate sports challenge they put together in Seoul for all the branches in Korea on May 19th! It reminded me of Field Day in elementary in school, it was so much fun and I liked watching the different sports being played. There were also little booths along the side of the field that were fun carnival type games where you could win raffle tickets.There were also a Tug of War and this strange paper airplane game lol it was a good time.

Stopped here for a quick bite to eat

This is the ceiling of the COEX

Ultimate Challenge time!!

Soccer!

Basketball!

One of the members in our branch has the nickname Giraffe lol

Me and another memeber....I don't have a tshirt yet lol

On the bus ride home we had Norebang! (Karaoke)

It was fun but a bit difficult with a moving bus lol

Ok next new life event....NEW TEACHERS!!! We got 4 new teachers, the first two came the May 18th and the other two came May 25th. We have people taking this term off so new teachers is good plus now I'm not the newbie anymore lol They're all pretty cool too so that's good. This also leads to my next topic...kinda sorta not really lol but a new term has also now started! I now have new students and new classes that I'm teaching as well as every other Friday off....I have the best schedule out of anyone at work I think lol I do miss my old students...some of them two girls I had last term gave me chocolates they're so sweet!

Chocolates!!!

More chocolates! Also a note

The cute note she wrote

Quick post...this was just too cool

I just wanted to share a discussion I had with my middle school students last night...while in the last hour of class they asked me if I thought Korea was racist...I was a little surprised by this question and I told them that so far I've had no problems, which is true....I've had nothing but good experiences with people here though I've heard stories of people who haven't had such luck...but what surprised me was when they said themselves that Korea was racist because the society only likes white people...it was pretty amazing to hear their thoughts about the whole thing and it made me smile to know that the future generations have a different way of thinking and want to change things ^_^

I know I'm sucha slacker with updating...

Ok so a few things have been happening & I've just been lazy with this whole blog thing...my bad...now on to exciting events of life ^_^ ummm went to this fort called Gongsanseong. It was awesome I will post pics on the bottom. After looking around the fort we went out to lunch and then we were taken to a place where they make ceramics! I love ceramics and we got to make stuff as well ^_^

I went to Daegu for the day and saw some friends from training. It was a lot of fun, we went to this really nice mountain. I forgot what it was called though lol again I will post pics at the end of this post! Not much else exciting has happened aside from those two things. Oh wait, there was like a work "hike" that I did as well. I say hike but it was a paved road with shops along it on a mountain lol though there were trails that were actual hiking but I stuck with the easy way. I'm not much for hiking and it was pretty hot, or rather, it's been hot lately.  

The term is coming to an end so things have been pretty hectic lately with the kids taking the TOEFL to see if they get to level up or not. I have started taking Korean classes so hopefully I can get some understanding lol plus I just joined a gym...the plan 5 days a week 1 hr workout...ugh...this should be interesting lol I'm definitely sticking with going considering how much I had to shell out for 3months >_< not happy bout that....

My computer has recently turned into an even bigger jerk...it's not even 2 years old yet...I've had more trouble with this computer than the Dell I used to have...On top of that my other student loans are coming out of deferment and I'm trying to open an account at Citibank in the US from here because if you have one here in Korea and one in the US you can transfer money for free....I wish someone told me that before I left -_- sooo if you plan on sending money back home open a Citibank account BEFORE you leave for Korea. Also, I will try my best to update more frequently...sorry to those who keep track and read this

Ok time for pictures yes?

First up is the fort called Gongsanseong

Walking up to enter the fort

A ceiling in one of the look out post

So pretty here!!

A flower that looks like a bird

The river that flows through it

Guards!

Guards again

Me n friends with one of the guards lol

Lunch time!!

 Now for the cermaics!!!

Explanation of the history & stuff

My bumblebee bowl I made

My duck I made...I named him Howard lol

There was a shop at the place and all the stuff was made there...I bought these awesome tea cups

 Day trip to Daegu!

Love road...people write their names on locks and put them there....I just thought it was funny the locks were made in China lol

My friend on a rock lol

We all climbed up after her...awesome view

Downtown Daegu

Work "hike" lol

The start of the hike lol

Lunch time!