i've never seen a more festive bus

one day last week, i took the bus as i usually do to get to my korean class. i was feeling particularly tired that day, so i was wonderfully relieved when i found a seat immediately. i had my eyes closed when i felt the sudden urge to open them and noticed to my bewilderment, just how many crazy christmas decorations were on the bus! shiny garlands, reindeer window stickers, and yes, even a fully decorated christmas tree. have a looksy!

this was what i saw when i first opened my eyes:

and then, i noticed the tree:

that's the most smug motherfuckin snowman i've ever seen:

how lovely are thy branches, covered with random bits of cotton puffs!

it's a hard-knock life

let me just tell you, the level up test from 3 to 4, was hella more difficult than from 2 to 3! i took my test this morning and i don't think i fared well. nope. not all all. in fact, i think i bombed it. it's a hard-knock life. and sometimes, you just gotta pick yourself right back up, un-like humpty, who had an irreparable fall.

tomorrow is christmas eve. it doesn't feel much like christmas at all, but tomorrow i don't have to work so, it's beginning to feel a lot more like christmas than yesterday, when i had two days instead of one more of work. can you tell i'm getting just a tad bit crusty about a certain thing called work?

merry christmas to you. merry christmas to me. happy merry holidays to all.

post blog:
apparently, i didn't bomb as much as i thought i did. on one hand, i'm rather skeptically impressed. but, on the other hand, it means that level 4, is going to be a real DOOZY.

c is for cookie

that's good enough for me!

something about being able to bake chocolate chip cookies makes me feel more at home. tonight was my first ever batch baked in korea and i've gotta say, the cookies are damn good! i added coconut flakes for a slight variation on the classic recipe. yummers!

i had been searching for a cookie sheet that would fit in my oven for a while now, so, you can imagine my giddiness when i finally found a cookie sheet and a muffin tin as well at home plus, another version of emart, the grocery wonderstore. mmmmmm, mmmmmmm, good!

random fun

a few weeks ago, i was out with my girlfriends in hongdae, aka, the party district of seoul. it was nearly 5 am when we called it a night and right before we were about to get into a cab, this guy and i struck up an entertaining conversation about the stupidity of idiots (men, mostly) who are either too drunk or too stupid and lack the brains to realize that getting into a fight is a seriously lame idea. this random guy overheard my commentary about a fight i had witnessed and added his own insights, which i appreciated and found humorous. we exchanged names (his name is nick) and numbers and this past saturday night, chilled in his friend's phatty apartment.

my friend amanda and i went to seoul station to meet nick and friends and were so impressed and envious of dudes' apt: nice and spacious living room, kitchen complete with an oven and dining room set, three bedrooms, and balcony. wtf. it was so so so wonderful--i wanted to move in and call it my own.

the dudes: nick from cali, john from hawaii, jared from atlanta, and brian from new orleans.

the connections:
nick and john play in a band together.
john, jared, and brian are all roommates in said dope place.
amanda and i went to the same high school.
we are all english teachers. all from the good u.s. of a.

the occasions:
jared's korean girlfriend, jieun, finished her last semester of college. congrats!
it's too cold to go out so let's chill in the nicest apt, ever.

the drinks:
red wine
cass beer

enertainment:
random fun!

it was really hilarious to be in the company of such boys. BOYS in the best way. silly, goofy, giving each other tons (TONS!) of bullshit, but all in a fraternal kind of way. really cute, actually. it was also really wonderful to be around american boys. there's something really special about the american interaction, that comical, sarcastic, yet still affectionate way of communicating. i love random fun!

bookstore dinosaur

i went to the bookstore tonight to investigate the quality of english as second language books for adults. holy shit fuck. they are pretty damn awful. whoever designed, or rather, had incredibly poor judgement in designing those books need to learn that simple is better. there's too much information everywhere and the layouts are a nightmare! i felt like i couldn't focus on anything and i fuckin know english! imagine how incredibly distracting all that information may be to a beginner. good grief!

instead of finding any decent (truly! anyone want to co-design english books with me?!) english books, i found two fun children's books. while i was waiting at the check out line, the cutest lil boy who was with his mother (who, may i add was purchasing a butt load of books!) turned and looked at me. we made eye contact and he growled at me. yes. he growled. and guess what. you know it! i growled right back! he growled again, louder this time and like dinosaurs, we had a mini growl-fest. his mother turned and smiled at me (she probably wanted to make sure i wasn't some sort of freak!) and then i began speaking to him in english. the mother turned again, this time, with a priceless look on her face.

the child was simply darling. DARRRRRRRLING! he was a little man in a kid sized black puffy winter coat. he was carrying a dinosaur box and i asked him if he knew the name of one particular dinosaur, the tyrannosaurus rex! i told him the name and he repeated it, even matching my tone. bitchin. we had a moment. and i was smitten. this kid is exactly the kind of kid i love to teach--funny, smart, and playful. he head-butted my legs and gave me, what i'd like to think, was a dinosaur-ish hug. 5 year old hugs complete stranger. yes, i'm that cool.

the mother and i had a brief chat (in korean!) about possible lessons. i gave her my contact information (business cards will be made soon! gotta get on it!) and although they live a bit too far north of the city for me to give lessons to the wee one, i was charmed and flattered nevertheless. i've decided that if i want to acquire clients, i basically just need to lurk around the kids' section of bookstores and randomly speak a few english phrases here and there. all the mothers will turn and look at me. but next time, i'll be ready for action, with business cards ready to be taken! RAAAAAARRRRRR!

they DO exist!

korean men don't necessarily have the most admirable of reputations and after hearing stories of their m.b.a status ("married but available"--yes, i know i'm generalizing here and lurking into dangerous territory...) i grew even more suspicious of their widespread (and yet, still unspoken) promiscuity, dogmatism, and flippant attitudes towards women, sex, and gender roles.

after a brief but rather annoying and consuming preoccupation with wanting to be in a relationship and all the boycraziness that accompanies such a desire, i snapped myself out of that ridiculous waste of time and energy and tried (although sometimes, perhaps not so successfully!) to regain focus and concentrate instead of improving my korean skills. enter the language buddy concept! language buddies are people who exchange conversations (and explain expressions, cultural references, etc...) in two different languages, in my case, korean and english, and the chats can occur over food, drinks, coffee or all of the above. i wrote an ad in craigslist which i posted in the "activities" section:

i realize that for me to improve my korean, i need and want to practice often and, most importantly, have fun! i hope we can laugh while we learn and share funny stories over good drinks, good food or hot cups of coffee.

i'm an english language nerd, meaning i can geniunely help you improve your english skills whether you're interested in improving your interview techniques, slang, or simply maintaining your conversation fluency.

i'm korean-american, 29 years old, female, expressive and outgoing.
my korean is still at the beginner level, which is why i need the practice.

i received quite a bunch of emails. some that only said "hi!" in the subject line but nothing in the actual email or others that simply didn't make much sense. the handful that stood out were the ones that actually wrote something about themselves and i really liked the responses that were in both languages! (now, that's what i'm talking about!) i met four in person and while all the guys (i know, i know, right!? honestly the strongest language exchange candidates were dudes. and, not so secretly, i certainly don't mind the fun flirtations during a study session.) were very nice and quite generous, (they all paid for my drink or meal! wow!) two of the guys were much easier and much more natural to talk to. so, now i have two buddies whom i meet separately once a week.

buddy one: eun soo.
buddy two: jae yeol.

nice, intelligent, attractive, charming, caring and hilarious guys DO exist. now, before you get all loopy on me, these guys are my friends--FRIENDS. and i happily admit that it has been so much genuine, honest to goodness FUN getting to know them. really. yes, i'm really that much of a sap.

hibernation

it's cold. it's dark. i'm like a bear. i want to hibernate.

lunchtime!

my korean class, including me, has only three students. i totally dig the teacher to student ratio as it has definitely increased my speaking practice and contributed to my continuous growth in confidence. (meeting with my language buddies has also helped greatly!) after class last thursday, my classmates, nigora, na-o-mi, our teacher and i went out to lunch. it was a grand time. we feasted on shabu shabu: thin slices of meat simmered in a tasty broth with vegetables. i'm shabu shabu crazy!

class funnies

for my business conversation classes, i use a variety of topics to generate discussions. a few weeks ago, for the topic of ethics and morals, i asked my students to re-tell a fable or fairy-tale story to illustrate a lesson in knowing what's right and wrong. one of my students, yumi, began to tell the story of the little mermaid (unlike the disney movie, this version had a more pessimistic and unrequited, somber ending) and she couldn't remember the english word, "mermaid." i asked her to describe it to me, but since she struggled to find the words, another student, cool (yes, his name is cool! how rad is that?!?) volunteered. he told me that this creature was half fish, half human. but, BUT, he said that the top half was fish and bottom half was human! i immediately got this hilarious visual of a fish upper body with sexy legs and couldn't stop laughing. when cool realized his mistake, everyone joined in on the laughter.

another universal topic of discussion was stress. i asked my students how they coped or dealt with stress and one of my more outgoing students informed us that he usually releases stress by drinking soju, sleeping and then going to the sauna the next day. tickled, i said, "oh! you have the s-cubed method!" he looked puzzled so i explained his triple s stress relief. he got it, smiled and agreed.

this month, 5 of my business conversation students re-enrolled so we've already established a great connection. the new students are also engaging, so thankfully, these classes don't seem much like work. bonus!

it's december

it's outrageous. it's december and there are still mosquitoes feasting on me in the middle of night, disturbing my already unquiet slumber, and thus making me even more cantankerous in the mornings. lil persistent bastards. it's not very buddhist of me, but, i was not so secretly pleased when i smacked the lil bitch to it's quick and easy exit from this world.

it's december, how t.f. did that happen? i was hoping i would be less busy in the wintertime, but that's definitely not the case, as evidenced by my blog-lessness in the past couple of weeks. where shall i begin?

let's begin with my stomach. i just downed 4 rather well proportioned man-doo (만두) and i decided against eating the 5th, i'll save it for later. they were absolutely delicious! i bought them on my way home from my korean class, and right now, instead of having to get ready to go to work, i'm tickled that i have time to relax...you see, today, until this friday, i'm teaching morning classes in place of my office hours so i get to have a sizeable chunk of the day to myself. (APPLAUSE!) ah, you should know however, that i had to get out of my bed at 5:55am. no joke. before 6 am. my first class started at 6:40, followed by 7:40, and lastly at 8:40. OOOOOOOF! and surprisingly, i was incredibly alert and attentive to my business conversation students, who were quite entertaining.

besides teaching english and learning korean, i've been keeping busy by being what i'd like to call a language buddy slut. now, i'm not really being a slut in the traditional sense of the word, but rather, i've been adventurous in terms of meeting lots of different people for language exchange. it's been fun! it's sort of like internet dating only minus the dating part. i've met three guys so far, at cafes, restaurants and bars. tomorrow night, i'll meet another and i have a few more in process--see what i mean!-- mostly because it's difficult to even find a language buddy match!

just yesterday, my friend read my tarot cards and the cards advised me against any romantic interests. unrequited love from a player may strike...however, not all is hopeless. the card readings are only for a 3 month period and apparently, my work (a new job?!?) should be very very successful! hmm...interesting. interesting, indeed!