Made My First Million

I'm rich!

Ok, not exactly, but technically I do now have over a million... won. Which equals absolutely nothing close to a million USD.

Luckily, it will be convenient having a bank in my building. Maybe next pay day I'll have direct deposit? Maybe? Yeah, counting this much money was definitely  pain in the behind, you'd think there'd be a larger bill than 50,000... and you'd think I'd at least gotten a couple of them. Oh well. Considering last month flew by, it makes me feel good to know what I'm actually doing here.

I'm also starting a list of things I want to leave with (physically or emotionally... or whatever) thanks to Naomi who had a great list herself.

I can't wait to start saving! I know what I want, and I plan on getting it.

Plu... "teacher, how do you spell plu?"

"Is that English?"

"Yes teacher, plu."

"What does it mean? I really don't think it's a word."

"Plu is English! Sick."

"Ohh, flu... f-f-f-flu."

"No, plu."

Haha, this was about a 5 minute conversation today between me and two of my students in one of my afternoon classes. I'm assuming "p" and "f" get mixed up often, especially when I heard one of my students call a phone a pone. Oh well, I can't say much... they know more in English than I do in Korean.

Speaking of flu... all our kindergarteners were sent home today because around three or four students at my school have or have had swine flu. I spent half my day doing a whole lot of nothing, and took a little bit longer lunch and enjoyed the peacefulness of Starbucks for a while.

I'm anxious to see how many parents send their kids to Gerstung tomorrow. It seems most parents freak out about the flu already, let alone knowing some kids actually had it. It might be another easy day...although it goes by a lot quicker when I'm teaching.

Well, fingers crossed I don't get it... that would blow...

“Money is not the most important thing in the world. Love is. Fortunately, I love money.”

Coffee and the Comfort of Cats

One of the most difficult things about leaving behind everything to come to Korea for a year was having to find a temporary home for my cats. They are my children, and I even travelled from Georgia to Minnesota to make sure they would have a good home and be well taken care of. I miss them, and there are days I wish I would come home and have them run up to me like they did back home. Instead, I come home to an empty apartment.

Cat Cafe: Gio Cat

Yesterday, I was invited to a cat cafe. I couldn't help but wonder exactly what that meant. Was the decor all cats? Was it just an interesting name? Was the food... well, cat?

To my surprise, it was a neat little place that serves coffee and lets you pet and play with cats. There were about 20 cats walking around, sleeping in large cat stands, or laying in customer's laps. Aside from the cat smell (which naturally would be lingering with that many cats), it was quiet, clean and a really interesting place.

Before entering you are required to take off your shoes and change into slippers, use hand sanitizer and then store coats and bags in a locker. They give a list of "rules" and a chart with each of the cats names and traits. You are required to order one thing from the menu, so naturally I got a White Chocolate Mocha. Mmmmm.

Then, you can either sit and enjoy your coffee and wait to see if any of the cats want to use your lap as a sleeping bag, or you can be procactive and sit right in the middle of things. I wanted to see if any cats would come to me... so I went to where the action was at.

Well, supposedly, my new laundry technique (the smell test-- if it still smells relatively good it doesn't need to be washed yet) isn't working as well as I thought because majority of the time I looked like this.

Yes, this is me sad faced with no cats in my lap. Everyone else had at least one cat come up to them and crawl in his or her lap to sleep and be petted, but not me. I think secretly they knew they could never replace Chaisey and Tommy... but boy did this make me miss them even more! Stupid cats. Eventually I was handed a pity cat... he didn't really want to be in my lap but then found he liked my necklace a bit so he stayed.

These two cats were a couple of my favorite. I love love love this first one and the smaller grey one was just too darn cute.

Research...

I did some research and found out that the owner originally wanted to run a cat adoption business. He wanted people to be able to come experience the cats before choosing to adopt them in order to understand what they would require and learn how to take care of them. His goal was to lower the amount of cat abandonments due to people not knowing enough about cats.

Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway...

If you're in Seoul and miss your pet, you should check it out. The cats seem to be happy and healthy and the atmosphere in the care give off a nice chill vibe.

And at the end of the day (or if they get sick of people) the cats just walk throught he giant cat mouth into the cat hotel.

“In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him.”

Jibberish.

Well, as my mother pointed out in my last post, the demise of my writing and speaking skills has already begun. Either that or I was terribly tired when I wrote yesterday's post.

Although, what do you expect when you're teaching kids how to speak English all day? I mean it's already hard enough for me to explain simple things like the word "before," let alone speak complete sentences without seeing all my words float in one ear and right out the other. They like to ask what common knowledge (to English speakers) words are, and I have such a hard time explaining! I'm trying my best though.

I'm basically the teacher all the students dislike right now because they thought they'd be able to get away with doing nothing in my classes, and I'm proving them wrong. One of my students even supposedly flicked me off today while I was writing something on the board. She's lucky I was already so mad at her and the class I decided just to not say anything else since the bell was about to ring. (Obviously, this was one of my older students).  I think I'm just in a bad mood and hopefully it'll go away soon, the students did not help though.

E-mart

Oh, how I love E-mart. I finally got a webcam! I also got a really cute scarf that I thought was cheaper than it really was. No wonder my bill was pretty high. I can't really complain though... I've been here a month and have hardly spent any money, so I figured I could get a few things today. Snickers were a must have. I've been having such bad cravings for Chocolate!

Things I've Seen Lately:

1. An older lady spit a ferocious lugee. Man, people do not care about spitting here. They just do it, even if someone is standing right next to them. It was insane.

2. A drunken fight outside the bar by my apartment. I'm assuming it's a bar because there's pictures of beer mugs on the window... and I'm assuming the men were drunk because they were kicking and slapping one another. They start shoving right as I walked by and two other men ran up and separated them.

3. Other foreigners in my area! They are here, and supposedly they like Starbucks. I get so excited everytime I see another foreigner... it's like "Where's Waldo?"

4. The dog with pink ears again. I can't help but feel bad for the poor thing... although, maybe it's a she and she really likes her pink ears. Who knows...

5. High heels and slow walkers. There's no way I could wear high heels and walk up and down the subway stairs every day. It'd seriously be like committing suicide. Almost all the women here wear them though, and boy do some of them practically waddle down the sidewalk. I refuse to be uncomfortable all day just to look good. Plus, there are some really cute flats. I fear mine only have about another month left with how much I walk here....

Well, that's about all. I feel like work has taken over my life this week, so maybe after the weekend I'll have more interesting stories to tell. Aquarium tomorrow? Probably. I feel like my camera needs to be put to use.

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever. It's loveliness increases. It will never pass into nothingness but still will keep a bower quiet for us, and a sleep full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing." --the super random quote from the little notebook I bought today.

Thanksgiving in Korea is just like any other day.

What can I say about my 2009 Thanksgiving? I ate Kimbap for dinner, along with some other little snack thing I have yet to figure out... and drank a Coke. I guess it wasn't that different from last year considering I was in Vegas and decided the crab legs at the buffet were more appealing than the turkey. I worked, which is something new, but oh well, Thanksgiving isn't in my top 5 favorite holidays anyway.

Maybe I'll make it a new tradition to be somewhere different for Thanksgiving every year... Las Vegas last year, South Korea this year.. next year I plan on visiting mom in England during November. Then maybe it'll make it to the top five, only because I'll know I'm going somewhere. Although, if I get my happy little house in Florida I so badly want, I won't mind if everyone wants to come to my place. (Print this out and show it to me in like 7 years...)



Is it really holiday time though? I'm seriously stuck in summer mode. I have a feeling Christmas is going to fly by, especially with no one around to really do the whole gift thing with. I am experiencing the cold of winter time, and I'm getting used to it! I even thought it felt good outside tonight, and it had to be in the 50s at most. I'm sure by the time I fully adapt to the weather, it'll change. I can see the sweat dripping now when I walk to work. Yikes.

Phone! And gifts from Santa...

I found out I will actually be able to get a phone before I get my ARC, thank goodness! I won't have to worry about getting horribly lost and having no way to get in touch with anyone anymore. My director said he has a line I can use until I can get my own, and then just switch it to my name. Thank goodness....

Also, I found out I'm getting a totally cool gift from Santa! I'm super excited! My poor old iPod that I bought about 5 years ago, well he's going to retire. Yay for new one. =) I love my music.

Ah, Korea. You never fail to amaze me.

I couldn't help buy stare at one of my 7-year-old student's jacket yesterday. He ended up accidently leaving it after school, so I took the opportunity to take a picture.

Is it me... or does the symbol resemble what my oblivious grandmother would call "a pretty plant?" (Yeah, she should live in Korea... obviously they think it's pretty too...)

Hilarious. It was like a jumpsuit right out of a rap video. I realize since this country has pretty much no tolerance for drugs it would make sense they have no idea what that looks like, but imagine if they did?

Oh whatever. I don't smoke, but seriously, if I wouldn't be thrown into a torture jail (haha or wherever...) for doing it here, I probably would.

The kid who wore this actually told me today that he doesn't listen to me because he doesn't like me. It took everything I had not to tell him he's the biggest pain in the ass himself and that I really don't like him either.

Another one of my students told me I give him a headache because I'm so loud. Imagine that, me loud... I told him I get a headache trying to talk over all of his classmates. Then I talked in my normal voice to prove my point, and guess what? Yeah... no one heard me.

Really, I think I'd love this job if I didn't have to discipline all day. I mean, I know kids don't really want to be in school... but at least back home they know they have to at least fall asleep or scribble on their books while pretending to listen. Here, it's like, what random object can I play with next or who can I talk to while the teacher's talking, or can I go to the bathroom/get a drink/see so and so, blah blah blah.

Ok, just a quick rant. It's really not too bad, but there's some days I just feel like it's a bigger pain than it's worth.

Oh yeah, and supposedly the parents who can look in on our classes, can also hear us. Joy.

I think that's just my lack of turkey, gravy and stuffing talking. Don't be alarmed anyone who's thinking of coming here. There are some really good things about being here. I'm forming a list for another day... ;)

"I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower...." -Willie Nelson

Korean TV isn't always lame.

Man... I hate to admit it, but I'm a little too overly excited that Twilight is playing on my TV in English. I also don't want to admit that I'm thinking about going to see New Moon this weekend if I can find a theater that is playing it in English or with English subtitles. Yes... I'll go alone. I'm lame. Whatever. It doesn't take much to make me giddy these days.  Plus, I really like the Twilight soundtrack.

I wish I could read the whole series again. I really want an e-reader and iTouch. Moreso the iTouch, but an e-reader would be awesome because then I wouldn't have to lug books around. I may treat myself. I've been a cheapass anyway since I've been here, so why not?

Short post, but I'm tired. School is super busy this month. Is it really Thanksgiving week? Wow.. this has been the fastest year ever....

"'Twilight again, he murmured.' Another ending. No matter how perfect the day is, it always has to end." --Stephenie Meyer

Amanda Teacher... Imagine That.

You know you're a kindergarten teacher when....

you get cool random presents! It's a cute little (and by little I mean big) handkerchief (why does this word look so funny? Google say it's correct...) In case you can't read the note, it says "I love you Amanda." with a heart and a smiley face.

I'm not going to say much, because it was really nice of her to give me this... but mom must have been watching the classroom camera from online the past two weeks. Presents do work, however, in winning me over. I won't lie.

What to do with crying kids?

I like kids... and I feel really bad when they cry, but I never know what to do! I hugged one of the little girls one time while she was crying, and she wiped her snot all over my sleeve. It seriously grossed me out. So, now I stick to patting backs and getting tissues. But what the heck do you say when a kid cries because they've been goofing off with another kid and get elbowed in the eye? Especially the ones who can't even speak English. I probably look terrified when they come to me crying and speaking Korean. Yikes.

Electronics...

I want an Itouch and E-reader, but don't know where to get them. Anyone know? Anyone...?

Imagine all the people...

living for today. Yes, John Lennon was playing when I left the subway station today, and it made me really happy. It made me even happier that a Korean guy was standing there singing along with it... the English lyrics. I wonder if he really speaks English or just memorized the lyrics. I guess I'll never know.

I do want to bring country music to my older students one day. They were singing some pop song in class today. Well, it sounded like pop. I love my music and it amazes me how it can totally change my mood.

Speaking of the subway...

it's my place to think. I always think of things I want to write then forget them. Today, I basically thought about where I wanted to stop and buy some cookies. I tried some seaweed thing at lunch today and seriously had to spit it back out into a napkin. There's no way that thing was making it down my throat without every other thing I've eaten today coming back up with it. Awful. Ugh. It grosses me out even thinking about it.

On that note... I'm eating another cookie.

"You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one." -John Lennon

Yeoksam, Appujeong and back to Sinjeong.

Supposedly, people here can order food at any hour of the night, as I found out around 2:30 this morning when I heard knocking on my door followed by a strange ringing (which I'm guessing was my doorbell). I opened the door to a man with a helmet handing me a bag of food. I had no idea what was going on since I had just fallen asleep and didn't expect someone to come knocking on my door, so it took a good minute to realize this was not for me. The communication wasn't happening so after a good 3 minutes we both realized it was a mistake and he took the food and tried to find the correct apartment. I know he tried to find the right apartment, because for the next few minutes I could hear him speaking Korean in the hall. Interesting. I'd like to know where he came from in case I ever get hungry at 2 a.m., not that I'd really be able to order anyway.

Tomatillo

I finally got some mexican food. It was quite nice, even though I had to wait longer than everyone else because they gave my food to some other lady on accident. I got a quesadilla, and it somewhat resembled cinnamon bread with icing (it was sour cream). I didn't go for the lime margarita like I planned, but I was on a budget due to not bringing my passport to exchange money on Friday. I'm not sure why I've waited so long. It's been somewhat nice being here a month and only spending $250 though. Hehe, I can imagine the bank account in a year already...

Oh! I ran into Evan (a guy I worked with at Best Buy) and his wife at Tomatillos. It was pretty random. Small world, huh? Hopefully we’ll all be able to go grab dinner one night.

Monkey Beach

No, we didn't go to Thailand for the night, but we did venture to a bar that is supposedly based off the beach there. It has been a while since I've been to a bar or a club on a Saturday night, so it was slightly shocking at first. One of the girls asked me if I was scared. I wasn't, I was examining the stripper pole cage thing and the poles in the middle of the tables. I was also looking at this one girl dancing alone with glowstick bunny ears and a lady who could have quite possibly been a Russian prostitute, although that's an entirely different blog altogether. See picture below for the bunny eared girl, she was actually quite funny, but as Natasha went to snap the picture she ended up looking quite normal. The bar was interesting nonetheless.

I did decide to drink here, seeing as how a place like that usually makes me want to right away. Despite all the nasty germs, we all decided to go in on a bucket.

Cranberry juice and vodka.

Mom told me to take  a picture, so I thought I'd make her proud. I dragged Brigid in to make it look like I wasn't drinking the bucket alone. Heh. Notice the girl in the background? Well, it totally doesn't look like it on the blog post, but in my camera photo you can totally tell she's looking at the camera and smiling. Everyone's always willing to take a picture, and I guess the smiles come out when alcohol is around.

Here's Miss Bunny:

Her and her man were having a good old time. I don't think she even noticed when he went off to the bathroom... she actually looks slightly shy in this picture. I should have recorded her dancing...

Can someone please tell me why the subway doesn't run all night?

I thought I was going to miss my ride home last night. Supposedly, the last train comes between 11:45 and midnight... and it was like 11:53 when I got to my last transfer. Luckily, I made it. I actually ran and got a stomach cramp. First time I've run in... ever, maybe?  Yeah. I have no idea how I would have told a cab driver to get me home. Next goal: get my address written down in Korean.

I was given a handy subway map though, which I'm super thankful for! It makes taking the subway soo much easier. Look!

                       

Dinner:

I  made spaghetti. I really wasn't thinking at E-mart the other day and bought noodles but no sauce. So, I went to the little market on the corner and made an attempt to find some. Luckily, I did! It was actually somewhat decent for mising all the good ingredients like cheese and meat.

                                       

Now, I could totally go for a big bowl of chocolate ice cream. Even though I just finished a box of these, my new favorite litle treat:

Delicious!

Well, I think next weekend I might venture to the aquarium. I figure it's nice and warm and it's relatively cheap to get in. Works for me!

"Work like you don't need the money, love like your heart has never been broken and dance like no one is watching."