Eating, Museums, Furniture

In the previous post, I discussed my birthday and hanging out with Carrie. I also hung out with my coworkers/friends a lot too. We've gone to dinner lots of course and we've gone to see a couple movies. Actually, the Sunday before my birthday, Cindy invited all of us teachers over to her apartment for dinner. She made us delicious food and we all sat around and talked and played with her daughter, who's about 2 and was a little bit terrified of me.

After dinner at Cindy's, we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4, which I greatly enjoyed. I love Johnny Depp. We also saw X-Men, which I also liked a lot too. I love James Macavoy... I ran into the "I don't speak Russian and the subtitles are in Korean" issue again, but J helped me with some of them. They spoke German for quite a bit of the movie and I understood all the German, so that was ok. They also spoke some French and I understood about half. But for the Russian, I leaned over to J and said "I definitely don't speak Russian" She laughed. At least I could understand most of it again! We're also seeing Transformers 3 Thursday night which is exciting! But, what I really can't wait for is Harry Potter. I am preparing myself my changing my profile picture to this:


I choose Bellatrix Lestrange, because she was my favorite evil character in the books, even before they made the perfect casting choice of Helena Bonham Carter. And also because she is involved in my favorite scene in all of the Harry Potter books. I know that some of you have not read the books, but will see the movie, so I won't ruin it for you, even though I think that it is blasphemy to not have read the books.

Oh and have I mentioned, I get to see Harry Potter approximately 2 1/2 days before all of you. Mwahahaha.

So, I hung out with my friends slash coworkers a lot. Wandered around Seoul quite a bit.

I ate more food with Carrie.




We went to a cafe that was totally in Carrie's style...A princess cafe. It was very cute, but a tad expensive. They gave you your own little room with sliding doors and they knocked on the door before coming in. It was kind of cool.

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Sliding class door of adorableness

Here's the claw:

But rather than cute stuffed animals, you could pick up Pringles...hahaha

A couple weeks ago, my friends slash coworkers and I had a girls night out. Carrie and Tricia came along. We got this chicken soup thingy that is basically an entire mini-chicken in a soup with rice. I don't remember what it's called, but it's really good. We've gone a couple times. We then wandered around Hongdae, hanging out and chatting about various things. It was a really great night though!




The next day, I went to the Seoul Museum of Art near City Hall (about 20 minutes away from me by subway)

I saw this flower. Father, what type of flower is this?


Then, I saw some art. Most of the art is of areas around Seoul, but there were some really cool paintings in there. Modern, traditional Korean and a few other styles. It was very small, but a good museum on the whole. There were cool statues outside too, though one was a little concerning from a certain angle...guess which one!









I also went to dinner with Tricia and Carrie, near where Tricia lives, which is right by the Olympic Stadium. Pretty cool.

Last week, Craig took me to Insa-dong and Dongdaemun one day. It was about 1000 degrees, but very interesting...Insa-dong has a lot of touristy shops (which Carrie and I went back to that weekend, where I bought a couple decorations for my apartment.) In Dongdaemun, we looked at the shoes. Lots and lots of shoes. I didn't get any, but they literally just have walkways of shoes.


I also ordered some furniture, so my apartment now looks less like a white box of solitude and more homey.
same cabinet, but with a decoration on it.
My new bookcase
my new bedside table, which I love, but I hit in my sleep a lot by accident. Apparently I got used to being able to flail around in my sleep.
My coffee table.

I also signed up for a Korean class, which I cannot take, because they were being ridiculous. They had one placement test scheduled on Saturday at 1. I called because I had to work Saturday until 1. I explained to them that I had to work and couldn't go to the placement test. I also explained that there was no point in my taking the test since I speak absolutely no Korean and would just sit there and stare at the wall for an hour not being able to write anything. They told me there were absolutely no exceptions for taking the test and the next one is in 6 months. Dumb. Now I must find another class. Blergh...

This Friday, I had to finish my student evaluations, which take forever, so it was a less exciting Friday than usual. Saturday, I worked then wandered around Sinchon with Carrie. Sunday, Elaine and I went to Myeongdong to celebrate her birthday which was a couple weeks ago. Basically, we shopped and then ate dinner. I actually bought 4 shirts, which was exciting. 3 at H&M and 1 in the Myeongdong Underground Shopping area, which Elaine accidentally referred to as "The Black Market," which is now what I will be calling underground shopping areas around the world. I got a tad tired of my clothing already, since I didn't bring enough. Emily sent me some of her shirts, which was great. So those plus my new ones will really help me be less annoyed with my lack of choices. I bought a couple other things too. And I am reading "Bossypants" now which is really hilarious. Also, I will be reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows again in preparation for the movie.

Anyway, more to come as I see more things and hang out more! Sorry my posts are so few and far between. But, I'm very busy working, which means I don't have as much time to wander around like I did when I was in Vienna!

Random Events during the time without a computer

Lots of things happened while I didn't have a computer...There is about a month of blog posting that I need to do, but I will probably shorten it a bit into just a couple posts.

Lets see, I hung out with Carrie a lot. She lives about 30 minutes by train from me, so we're able to see each other a lot. Basically, we eat food and shop. Korean BBQ tends to be where we end up, but occasionally sushi or kimbap. I bought a few decorations while wandering around with her. I also went in search of black flats (since the ones I bought right before I left completely fell apart...in about a week) and ended up with 3 pairs of shoes.

These adorable flats:

These converses, which I did not intend to buy them, but I loved them:


and these black flats:

at least I got what I went out for!

Also, I got these boxes, which I figured I'd use for storage and decoration.


This box is holding my sweaters that I don't need now that I'd 100 million degrees every day...aka, 92. But feels like 100 million. I just wander around overheating all over the place. I made it myself! As in, I put it together from a box making kit. By myself since I don't read Korean. All those years working in medical records really paid off I suppose...I can put together boxes!


Oh and I got this picture frame for a dollar at daiso...The picture inside is of Vienna, so I figured I could use it until I print a picture to actually put inside it!


Here I am hanging out with Carrie and Tricia.

This is Carrie.
This is Tricia. and me obviously
A coffee shop we went to
The cake we bought...so delicious

Here we were eating dinner earlier that day.

There will be further pictures of us eating together.

My birthday fell on the last day of the term with my favorite class. They were all very attached to me and were all really upset when they realized I wouldn't be their teacher. A lot of the girls wrote me letters. A few wrote a goodbye note on my board too:

I felt flattered. They come to visit me. Tis cute.

After work, the majority of us coworkers went out for dinner, since it was my birthday.

We went to this place that's pretty close to work. We just got various snack food-y things and hung out and chatted.
Matt and Brian looking a little crazy haha...and my other coworkers
Blossom, Bree, Me, Jane
Peter, Queena, Cindy, Blossom, Bree
J and I
Drew, Brian, Kim, Octavian, Steve
Blossom, Bree, Jane
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We all had to work early the next morning, so we headed home. Saturday, I worked. Then, we all went out to eat as a Birthday/Going away for Octavian, Drew and Steve. We had planned to go to a restaurant in Myeongdong that served some kind of food that I don't know about, but we ended up at Tony Roma's, where I got a hamburger that was great! Again, we just hung around and chatted. Then we wandered around Hongdae til late in the evening. Then we hung around the apartment building til about 4am. I'm glad I get along with my coworkers so well!
Feng Xia, Cindy and I not being ready.





On that Sunday, I met Carrie and Elaine and we went out to dinner at this Korean fast food place where we got various types of Kimbap, then looked around the mall near Carrie. I ended up buying a purse (and a new book since I was trapped without any books in my apartment. My books got purged on my way here, but for some reason I brought a bunch of books I'd already read instead of the news ones I had from Borders...my 2Am panic packing made me leave behind some pretty important things! Luckily, my friend Emily is sending me a package which is including "Bossypants" by Tina Fey and I'm extremely excited.

We looked around some more, then went to a coffee shop called "A Twosome Place" that Carrie's students told her was the best around. It was pretty good.

But, we passed this cafe on the way there.

This alligator(?) was just hanging out on display in the window.


And this turtle.

He was cute

We also saw George Clooney at the mall:

We're pretty sure that a hand that does not belong to George Clooney was photoshopped into the picture...

Anyway, that's my blog post for the time up until my birthday. I don't think I missed anything...I will add if I remember anything. If not, more blog posts to come