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Published: April 1st 2008
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drink in a bag
leesa: just hook it to my viens "Merry Christmas! Can you move to a new apartment in four days?" I had movers arrive to move me to a new apartment two floors directly below my old one. It looks the exact same, it feels the exact same, but wait- it isn't the same apartment! I now live in 1116! The reasons for the move remain unknown except some detail about the owner wanting to sell, and the buyer wanting to live there... oh well.
New Years was quite uneventful this year, it was a combination of forced enthusiasm and antibiotics. I was so sick with yet another sinus infection so Sam, Mark and I went to TGI Fridays for a steak dinner to bring in the new year. Where better to see 11:59, 2007 turn to 12:00, 2008 than
Beer O'Clock here in Mokdong with friends and co-workers. Needless to say I was very excited for a holiday to spend in bed and recover!
I didn't have much time to recover because in January we began an intensive winter program in the morning time at my academy. There are school holidays for the month of January, hold on- the children have a moment of
free time!? We better fix that, let's make them study English 5 hours a day instead of only 3!
With that said, I was then working 11 hour days, I felt like a true Korean! I was exhausted, but it was worth it for the extra money!
Once the intensives were over, we got back to our regular routine! A couple mornings we went a restaurant on the US Military base, the USO, that is open to the public for a cheap American breakfast/ lunch. This is going to sound very strange, but we love to sit and watch CNN, and buy English magazines!
My Aunt Wendy had a friend, Peter, visiting Seoul so Sam and I met up with him and his friend Jung-Ah for some delicious Korean jjigae (soup/stew), some great coffee, many "old man jokes" and lots of laughs! It was nice to hang out with some people that aren't English teachers and get some different perspectives and conversations going!
Overall, January was a beautiful month, the weather was quite cold, but so many days where the sky was such a beautiful clear blue.
I also developed an addiction, to HBO's
The Wire. It began very innocently and before I knew it I was rushing home from work to watch The Wire well into the night. Oh boy, now that the series has finished, I have some with drawl issues but I am dealing with them.
FEBRUARY 2008 This is life here, I no longer feel like a tourist. I ride the bus and the subway without anxiety, I can tell a cabbie where to take me and how to order my lunch. I go to work, I come home, I meet friends for dinner, go to the nightclubs every couple of weeks, get groceries, do laundry and watch TV on my computer.
We started February out with an amazing trip to
Shanghai, (see Shanghai Blog!) to celebrate Lunar New Year.
It really was a crazy and very fast month, definitely the fastest so far! After our Chinese Holiday, we had level testing at the school, to see what level the students should be in the following semester. There is tonnes of marking to do, but no teaching which is a great break!
It was
Dale's Birthday on the 18th, so Sam and I
will you marry me?
if not you David Beckham, how about the guy to the right, he'll do also...??? went to Sinchon to meet up with him and his work friends for some Korean BBQ, and then to a really cool Bar,
Mike's Cabin. It really does feel like a cabin, we were sitting on a bunk bed hanging out, and there are picnic tables everywhere and they've got lots of games too, like a big screen with a Wii. Very cool.
The following weekend my friend who is in the
American Army, posted here in Seoul, invited Sam and I to the Base. We were soooo excited! He told us once we got on the base that we would take the 3:30 bus that goes all over the base. (as if it was a tour bus! ha)
The base is absolutely massive, and it felt like we were in America! The only Koreans on base are either military counter-parts (doing their military service with the Americans) or if they work in the cafeteria for example. All the signs are in English, all the food is imported from the States. It was so strange!
We ate a couple meals while we were there and got to see my friends room, the Dragon Hill Lodge
(a really nice hotel on base), the bars, and even the library. We sat and chilled in the library for a while reading magazines! We were pretty easy to please! Going to the base was definitely one of the coolest things I've done here!
MARCH 2008 March 1st, Sam Dale and I went to
World Cup Stadium, along with about 35,000 other people to see FC Seoul take on LA Galaxy. It was part of a three game Asian tour that LA Galaxy was doing. Asians are crazy over David Beckham, and I think I might put myself in that category as well. Every time the ball touched his foot, the whole crowd would scream! But of course, they still wanted FC Seoul to win.
I'm pretty sure that when a foreigner called to get tickets to the game they put us all in a group of four sections. It was funny to see so many foreigners in one spot for a soccer game! The Korean kids that sat in our "foreigner section" spent more time watching us than watching the game. There were a few Brits that had gotten dressed up for the
a thai dinner date
many more of these to come game and it was clearly not their first football game, judging from the songs they were singing. The kids had no idea what to think, they just kept staring.
FC Seoul ended up winning after a shoot out, the game had been tied 1-1. Beckham scored his shot. It was worth every penny of the 40$ to go, we had a great time and plan on going to support FC Seoul in their regular season!
We celebrated our friends, Sarah and Lauren's birthdays this month with some soju just 30 minutes south of Seoul. Sarah and Justin live in a place called Beomgye (yes, pronounced Bum-Gay) and have an absolutely amazing two bedroom, brand new apartment. My apartment is a good size, and was comparable to their living room!
I met my new neighbours, a family with a boy in grade 2. They are living in the same sized apartment as mine! EEK! That is not my idea of a good time!
Sam and I began a master cleanse that consisted of only a homemade lemonade mixture for 10 days. NO FOOD! It was hard to get over the habits of eating, but we
did it! It felt great to complete it and we really felt great by the end of it. But now we have a lot of dinner dates to attend to, and food to enjoy!
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