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.

r


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!