Summer evenings

My recent bicycle purchase coincided with my decision to stay another year in Seoul. I’m loving the change of perspective. Seeing the city from a bicycle makes me feel so much more a part of it. The Han River has a very well developed bike trail along either side of it, which has made for lovely summer evening rides, and some great photo opportunities as well!

Teaching kindergarten is funny.

I came in from lunch today to find my co-teacher scotch taped to a chair with her hands and feet taped together. It seems as though she allowed the joke to happen for a minute, then found herself incapacitated.

…I had to cut the tape off of her to free her. Moral of the story? We have the best students ever.

Also, managed to dye my hands pink today while trying to dye clay into various colors. Alicia Teacher : 0, Kindergarten : 1.

In other news, the ink is dry on my contract renewal. Korea and I are lined up for one last dance.

Viewing Abroad

I’ve always been funny about tv. I don’t tend to watch too much of it (in fact don’t even know how to work the one I’ve got now) but I do get stuck on a few shows, and I love being able to chill out in my apartment and watch my favorites. It’s a constant source of frustration to me, though, to see the message on the screen “This Video Is Not Available In Your Region”. Gahhh. If there was one thing I’d change about all the lovely new online programming, it’d be that damn message. I want to watch me some good ol’ American television online in Korea! It’s a global world, let’s make that happen!

Anyway, that started as a rant but will end with a rave, because I have discovered online PBS broadcasts that work in Korea. Rejoice! Not only television, but EDUCATIONAL television. Will let you know how many hours I spend in my apartment since this discovery, it’s sure to be a bit pathetic.

I’m currently watching “Jesus in China” about underground Christian churches trying to worship freely without the Communist government telling them how to do it. Pretty interesting I must say.

Anyway, watch and love.    http://www.pbs.org/video

Vacation all I ever wanted: Muui-do

Long weekend due to Children’s Day (May 5, kind of stealing the Cinco de Mayo thunder there, Korean kids!) I headed to Muui-do with some friends, which is an island a stone’s throw from Incheon Airport island. We rented a beach hut, brought an obscene amount of Carlo Rossi, and spent the entire glorious weekend playing frisbee, exploring mud flats, singing to strangers/new friends guitars and generally having a lovely time. I came back to enjoy too much card playing mania at Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon, then an extended Tuesday playdate in Hongdae with my friend Athena. Good times, all around.

And now because pictures are worth a lot more than words…

Lotus Lantern Festival

….more to come. My computer is running out of space for all the darn RAW files, hah!

Cherry Blossom Festival

Headed to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Yeuido this weekend. Didn’t really take part in any festivities (if there were any, aside from an increased amount of street food vendors^^) but concentrated on practicing with my camera!

Saturday’s alright alright alright

I’ve got a lovely post about some fave bars in Itaewon brewing, until then, Saturday stories! It’s been quite the epic Saturday. I woke up much earlier than I am accustomed to, and went straight to the mountain trails near my apartment with my dog Elly! She spent about an hour playing (leash free! woohoo!) in the dead leaves leftover from fall, while I took photos of the spring flowers. I’m loving the change of weather!!!

Elly, on a mission, avoiding the camera as usual

pretty spring flowers!

After the hike this morning I studied some Spanish on Rosetta Stone, and then I spent about an hour reading at a cafe called Little Jakob in Cheongdam before my afternoon lesson. It’s a great little coffee shop outside exit 12 (Cheongdam, Line 7) with comfy chairs! I’ve been on a reading spree, starting and finishing “Sellevision” by Augusten Burroughs yesterday, and starting and finishing “A Long Way Gone: Memories of a Boy Soldier” by Ishmael Beah today. A bit all over the board with genres, clearly, but both were good. I picked up a couple more books but hopefully can contain my enthusiasm for reading and draw them out a bit more!

Tonight will start at a great hookah bar called Rainbow in Kangnam. I’m looking forward to the laid back, dimly lit atmosphere for a chill evening. I’m attempting to have more chill weekend nights to facilitate more productive weekends as my time wanes in South Korea. There’s so much I haven’t seen, and I only have 4 months! I will keep you updated about the best places I find

Saturday Afternoon

Konichiwaaa!

I know I promised news of Japan, and photos…. but I’m lazy and I hate the WordPress photo uploader. Here’s the links to my facebook albums, so you can check out the photos! I took a lot… I loved Japan!

Japan 1

Japan 2

Japan 3

Japan 4

The trip was too short, and I must go back as soon as possible! Enjoy the photos

Absentee

Sorry friends, I’m horrible lately at the motivation. But that’s not completely true, because I’ve got all sorts of motivation in other aspects of life, just not writing it all down here! I’ve been writing epic letters, nay, NOVELS to friends at home,  I finally added Skype money to stay in touch, and I started planning the epic vacation that my brother and I will take when he is discharged from the Marines next spring! So many ands… AND! I am tackling the task of learning to create stop motion video using still photos and iMovie. What? My pre-schoolers decided they wanted to learn about animation for their final project, so now I’m making it happen. I’ve been obsessively downloading suitable background music and sound effects and playing with iMovie, which is a program I previously thought wholly pointless and taking up valuable space on my MacBook. If I can figure out how to post the final results here, I will!

In other, completely lovely news, I will be starting to teach a new class come March. My new co-teacher is wonderful and the children we’re getting are ever so cute and almost make up for the fact that I will miss my current students FAR too much. I’ll be teaching the same level as the past 6 months, but it’ll be the first half of the year that I finished, so it’s like reversing the curriculum I’m used to. Should be fun! I’m excited to have a fresh start and be the official “teacher” of a class, instead of feeling like I’m taking over a class and trying to play catch up.

This weekend has been especially fabulous. It was my friend’s going away party, and we spent Saturday night at a theme party where we tried to embody “French Riviera”. I met a lot of great people and look forward to more theme parties! Sadly we also got another taste of the consequences of packing every foreigner in Itaewon, and my friend’s purse was stolen. We have terrible luck at this one particular joint, and I doubt we’ll be going back there anytime soon.

I’ll try to write more often, I won’t post a goal or anything because let’s be real, I’m more motivated when it doesn’t feel like a necessary chore, but a fun retelling and remembrance of life. Until then, I’ll be out living!