my birthday in korea

so my past few birthdays haven't been that great cause when i was in college my birthday always fell on the week of or the week before finals. not exactly a time when i felt like celebrating or had the time for it. so i mostly skipped over my birthday and went right into celebrating the end of finals week. the only time i did much was for my 21st.

well today i wasn't expecting much at all except a cake at work, only cause i've already seen other people get them for their birthdays. the day started off kinda blah too cause i wasn't feeling that great when i woke up. i finally managed to get out of bed around 10:30 and get around to head into work. and then i found this ... 

hayley decorated my desk with balloons, m&m's, and dr. pepper. she also put balloons on my chair - "my birthday throne." hah. cracked me up. she bought me a bagel too for lunch. as more teachers came in, ju-hee (my co-teacher) brought me a sub from quiznos and ida (our head teacher) brought a birthday hat and some cookies and candy. my desk was pretty much un-useable with everything piling up. 

then my cell-phone started ringing and i didn't know the number so i didn't answer. but they called back again, so i decided just to answer but the person was speaking in korean so i just figured it was a wrong number. but then hayley said that cindy had told her that someone might be calling my phone to get directions to our school to deliver something. i was so confused but i gave my phone to so-young, another teacher, and she called back and told them how to get here. a little bit later, a guy showed up with flowers! i found out that they were from my parents - they had talked to cindy and got her to have someone order them! 

and just before classes started, annie (our director) came in the door of the staff room as i was about to walk out and had me sit back down. they brought in a cake and had me blow out the candles after they sang to me. she also gave me a lil poster they'd all written messages on and a small plant that i'm told might be rosemary. and right before classes started, my atlas kids peeked in the staff room and said happy birthday! they were so cute. sally even came in and gave me a hug. i gave them all suckers to thank them. 

the rest of the day i didn't really tell any of my classes cause i just got into the routine of things and i'm always rushing and behind so i just didn't want to mention it at all. but when i got to my 5th class of the day, i went to walk in and two of the girls came out and said no, wait teacher! they kinda pulled me away from the door and turned me around and said come over here. i figured they were up to something since ju-hee was still in the classroom. they brought me in then and the kids turned off the lights and sang happy birthday to me! so cute. they'd also written all over the board. i ran and got my camera to take pics of the board and of them. they are definitely my favorite class, even before today. my last class all said happy birthday when i came in too, hehe. 

after finishing up some work for our teaching competition, seven of us headed to a bar for a couple drinks after work. we didn't stay that long though, i was feeling pretty tired. we left around 12 to head home. one of the TAs even got me a box of dunkin donuts (his friend worked at one next to the bar). so sweet. headed home finally and snacked on my donuts along with some tea. hopefully my sore throat will go away soon.

all in all, it was a really great day. and if you want to see more . . .

only in korea

so i was just coming out of the subway on my way home from work and i heard a ton of noise, almost like an elephant. i rounded the corner of the block walking towards my building, to find this . . .

yes, that would be an elephant followed by 2 dragons, parading their way down one of the main streets in migeum. i have absolutely no idea why, but it was hard to ignore them. and they were putting on quite the show with all the dragony and elephanty smoke. as to why an elephant was breathing out smoke, your guess is as good as mine.

randomness of the past couple days

well i now have a working cell-phone, but i refuse to attach a dangling charm thingie on it. i even took off the charger converter one that the LG salesperson put on it. it drives me nuts to have it on there, all in the way. i just don't get why it's the thing to do here. 

friday morning we didn't have a meeting like we normally do, so i went to butterfinger pancakes with cindy & two of my fellow teachers. yum yum. quite the tasty brunch. with a side of dr. pepper. it sucked having to go to school after that though. i just wanted to stay out and about, or go home and take a nap after all that food. instead i had to go and teach 6 classes. bah. but then i was free! after speaking tests, that is . . .

i headed to the doctor again on saturday after sleeping in. yes, i am sick yet again. my cold had pretty much gone away after all the pills i took last time, except for a bit of a cough i still had. but then about a week ago i woke up with a sore throat and it's gotten progressively worse since then. my abs are in great shape though from all the coughing. got more pills, hopefully this cold goes away for good this time. did some shopping too, actually found out my size here for bras & undies. i asked the girl working there cause i had no idea what size bra i'd be, and she put her hands on my ribs near my chest and looked at me and said . . . "small." um, yeah i could've told you that. she handed me one though and it fit really good. i asked what size undies i should go for and she pointed at herself and me and said "same" then handed me the size i guess she is. worked out good there as well. but it was a bit weird to discover as i looked at more packages of undies that the size i am (95) is the large size here. i wonder what a small looks like, eek. 

i now have a table! thanks to cindy, who discovered a small table around her building, i now have an actual table in front of my couch instead of a box that i use as a table. whoo. now i just need to find myself some curtains . . .

all in all it was a very low-key weekend of a bit of shopping and mostly resting. i love sleeping on the weekend. doesn't help that i end up staying up late cause that's when it's day time in MI. oops. like tonite again. oh well, i'm sure next weekend is going to be different though. i gotta go out and celebrate being 24!

so i finally have internet in my apartment. it only took 57 days for that to happen. only.

i randomly have cable tv too. when the guys came to install my internet, i started to wonder what was up when they were messing with my tv. and then bam, i had cable tv too even though i didn't ask for it. i have some english channels now, so that's cool. and by that i mean korean channels that play some american shows of the csi variety. that has been my nite, watching csi:miami. and chatting online. good times. it's really annoying having to deal with a cable though since i don't have wireless. mreh, there are cords freaking everywhere. but at least now i can get a lot more work done at home if i want to. though i haven't done much of it tonite. i was super excited near the end of classes today thinking about going home to internet. hehe, i'm just that sad. i ended up finding the music video for a korean song that i keep hearing everywhere, and i've even heard some of my kids singing it and dancing around trying to do the moves. here's the song. it's really interesting to me the way some korean pop is a mix of korean & english.

and now i should probably go to bed . . .

i'm an aunt!

when i came in to work today, i saw on facebook that lindsey's water had broken (monday still in colorado) so i was pretty much glued to fb all day. i told all the other teachers that i was about to be an aunt, so they were all excited for me too, hehe. i'm usually scrambling between classes to gather up my stuff and move on, but today i made sure that i made it to each room quickly so i could run back to the staff room and check facebook. and after my first class, i found out that megan had been born! (11:26 p.m. April 13th) i'll never forget that birthday - my birthday month, hehe. i kept running back between classes to check facebook again for more updates. i can't stop smiling since i first found out, and i told everyone else too. brian was speedy and put up pics already on fotki so i've been showing everyone those too. 

it's so strange to think about actually being an aunt now. it doesn't seem real to me at all, even after i saw the pictures. but i'm sure brian & lindsey will be great parents to megan kathryn ismirle. 

i'm pretty much feeling back to normal cause of all the pills i've been taking that i got from the doctor. it's been over a month since i first got sick, and my ribs still hurt most of the time from coughing. i can't seem to get rid of this cough, but at least i have my voice back. not having water this weekend was horrible. i seriously hope it gets turned back on tomorrow.

today cindy, hayley and i went shopping in gangnam and dongdaemun. i wanted to get some new clothes to wear to school, but i ended up just buying a dress, heh. oops. but i really wanted to try things on! and you couldn't at pretty much all the places we went to. i randomly ran into one of my students though - i heard "teacher!" too cute. after shopping most of the day, i was exhausted and slept for most of the bus ride home. but it was nice to see a lot of scenery on the bus ride there and part of the way back. here's some pics of the day.

today i wandered around a park near my school some. it was in the 70s and there were cherry blossoms everywhere. and it was super sunny. my eyes were hurting from squinting, but it was pretty, heh.

there's more pictures here.

today i went to emart to get groceries. it's such insanity there on a saturday. and maneuvering a cart is ridiculous. i mean, you can't hesitate. it's not allowed here. you just get rammed if you do until you start moving. as in rammed in your cart, or rammed in the bum. eek. i got out of there as fast as i could.

so i've been sick for like 3 weeks. my ribs hurt so bad from coughing all the time, but slightly less today since i haven't been talking at all. i'm not looking forward to monday. not one bit. 

oh, and friday i had mcdonalds for lunch. i was not impressed. hayley and i both did not have good days, so we went out for a drink after work. and had yellow daiquiris and lots of fries. yum. i was quite amazed when i went to use the bathroom and found a toilet and toilet paper! astonishing. really. 

i came down to find internet around 11 but for some reason the signal was bad where i usually sit in the hallway on the second floor. i had to wander around the halls some to find a better signal, looking like an idiot. probably doesn't help my cold at all either when i'm hanging out in the chilly hallways to steal internet. a guard walked by too and stood over me until i looked up. then he started babbling a bunch of korean at me and pointing at me and the hallway. i kept saying i lived in the building, but i finally just said "i have to go?" and he started nodding a bunch and pointing down the hallway. arrr. i want my own internet!