So my weekend in seoul was pretty nuts. I spent more money that I probably should have but hey at least I have warm stuff for winter. It’s started to get cold and sometimes I need gloves and scarves. I can’t wait till it starts to snow.

We arrived in seoul on Friday night, found a motel and then went out on the town. We found this great Canadian bar (ahhh it felt like home) and ordered a big plate of nachos (so wonderful) and some beers. We hung out there most of the night and kept meeting up with different people from Ganwon-do (the province I’m in). it was really weird seeing so many foreigners. It was freaking us out. They were EVERYWHERE!!!!! In the bar alone there were more foreigners than in our entire county. After the bar we got some food and walked around getting in at about 3am (yeah this weekend did not contain much sleep).

The next day we sent shopping for various things we needed. That took us all over seoul. It was good to find where the cheap items are and now I have a better idea of where things are in seoul.

So after shopping the main thing was the Halloween party. I went as Natasha the Russian Spy. I had a gun strapped to my thigh and everything. I used it to shot at the drunkers. That was fun. I had a great time seeing everyone I haven’t seen in a while and dancing the night away. After the bar we went to a noriban (singing room) for an hour and then to a club just past hooker hill (such a weird place) for more dancing. The club wasn’t that great and kinda slimy so at 3am I headed back to the motel. I met up with brianne and we crashed for the night.

The next day we got up, grabbed some breakfast (I laughed at everyone who had a hangover) and then we got some spices (I love spices) and some books (there is always a need for books) and started headed home. When we got to the bus station they’re were only 2 tickets left for the next bus (there were 3 of us) so I was going to wait 2 hours till the next bus but luckily not everyone who bought a ticket showed up so I got to get on with the others.

We got home around 5pm on Sunday and shuffled home. We had nachos (started the weekend with then might as well finish the weekend with them) and crashed.

ok so i've now carved a whole chicken with chopsticks and a boy in my class added a penis to the hangman. what next?

WARNING: this is a vent...

I'm going to kill something or someone. i have this one class that won't listen. now i'm not talking a little bit of won't listen i'm talking about talking the whole time won't pay attention to anything listen. AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! i don't know what else to do. i've tried rewarding them for good behavior, i've tried reasoning with them, i've tried compromising, i even tried yelling at them. i don't know what to do anymore. do i have to go all drill sargent on them. cause i will. i understand now why the korean teachers hit them so much. i'm so fricking frustrated. and this is me. it takes quite a lot for me to lose my patience but i've lost it now.

every other class of my 17 listens. yes some are better than others but i have control of the class. this one no. they' re completely out of control. i'm so angry. this has ruined my whole day. my heart is pumping. i'm shacking i'm so angry. i don't wnat to have to become a major bitch but i don't see any other option.

Well an exciting adventure of rock climbing I’m back at school sore, tired but happy. Kim, Bradley, Sophia, David and I left on Friday afternoon and headed to Daegu (a big city in the province south of us). About 5 hours later we arrived and upon pacing back and forth cell phones (excellent inventions and necessities in other countries) we found a motel for the night. We dropped our stuff off and headed into the night. We past a pirate and a knight, took pics then headed back to crash for the next morning.

We got up early and found the subway. We were so organized we didn’t even mess up. We took a bus for about 1 1/2 hours to our desired location. Then we saw it: the bull. Yes, that’s right we were going to climb a giant bull. We phoned the guy in charge and he gave us the drill, bolts, and holds to get started (they take the bottom ones off so no one will play and kill themselves). These climbs were crazy hard. They lasted forever and you’re arms burned out in no time. They weren’t the best designed so you mostly had to muscle your way up but it was fun none the less. After about 6 hours of climbing and freezing we headed back to Daegu. We got changed and headed off to Cosco. Now I’ve never been so excited to be in a Cosco store before. English, everywhere. And name brands I recognized. And North American food. We were all giddy strolling around. We left about 2 hours later full of food (we had all brought bags and suitcases to fill with cosco goodies).

The next morning I left early (I had to meet one of my students in the afternoon) and took the train back. It took about 4 hours. I arrived exhausted but happy with the outcome. 2 of my students and my co-teacher arrived and we worked on one of my student’s speech for the next few hours. He goes to the National English Speech Competitions on wed.

So now I’m back at another week of teaching. They’re going by so quickly. This next weekend I’m heading to Seoul for the EPIK Halloween party. I’m going as a Russian spy (I even have a fake gun to shoot at the drunks with hehehe).

So the speech and the play went pretty good yesterday. My boy (his English name is Fred) got 2nd place in the speech. I’m so proud. I was smiling the whole time. He has so much energy when he talked that it was a breath of fresh air compared to the regular drone that the other’s had. The play was shorter than the others so we didn’t do as well but it was really funny. I had one of the boys dress in drag to be the girlfriend. It was hilarious. He was wearing a wig, a skirt and a pink shirt complete with mid-drift showing. Ahhh I love torturing them.

After the play I took them out for ice cream. Some other boys came by and wanted some too so I kept telling them how good the ice cream was or that I didn’t understand what I wanted. I’m so cruel. Today I’m teaching the 1st years. They are great. They don’t know as much English as the rest but they are so willing to talk. They will do anything for some candy. I did a lesson on describing people today. I’ve never had so many volunteers to describe me before. They would say anything for a point. I kept getting called beautiful and sexy, it’s great.

So Kate, Kim and I started taking traditional Korean drumming lessons on Monday nights. They’re great. We have bradley’s co-teacher Mr. Bahk translating for us and then we have Mr. Bahk’s master drummer teaching us. It’s really hard. You have two different sticks. One is flat and you use this to make a sharp muted sound on the right hand side of the drum. Then you have a round ended stick that you make a loud sound on your right. You also bring this stick across and use it on the right. The hard thing is that the right side you hit and keep it there to create the muted sound and with the left hand you spring it to create a louder brighter sound. My brain gets mixed up trying to do both. But it’s a lot of fun.

So yesterday Mr. Bahk invited us and Sarah to go see a traditional drumming performance at the cultural center. We went and it was amazing. They are really good. Well at the last number all of a sudden Mr Bahk (who was the mc) called us all by name to come on stage. We all looked at each other and thought @#*$*! Is he going to make us play. We’ve had two lesson. We all suck. Well it wasn’t that bad. We only had to go on stage and dance with the other performers (they dance and play at the same time). So we all piled up on stage and danced our hearts out.

Today I get to judge all the English speech contests from the different school in Yeongwol and then show the English play that I’ve been directing. I hope it goes well. Wish me luck…oh wait no don’t I need to break a leg.

my bad...apparently the number i gave only works within Korea. so my number for everyone else is 011 82 10 7164 0858.

So my night last night was certainly an interesting one. The exams finish and I head out for the hike. There are 6 of us going. Mr. Pak, who is the Ethics teacher that has befriended me, Mr Ham who is the 3rd year of middle school English teacher and then 3 others that I haven’t really met yet. The female teachers all went home to look after the children while the males and I went out to play. Well when Korean say hike they mean hike. We drive for about 30 minutes till we finally find the entrance of the hike and start to go up and I mean UP. I’m thinking holy crap this is steep it should start leveling out soon. But I am wrong. So I start to wonder where are the switchbacks? (zig zag paths up steep terrain) but none are coming. As more and more profanity enters my brain and I start cursing the fact that this is my 4 hike in 3 days, I start to wonder if Koreans even know about switchbacks. Then as we get to slight crest I think thank goodness we have reached a resting point, only to see another mountain ahead of me. Once I realize there is more a worse feeling hits my stomach. The Koreans aren’t stopping. Not even for 5 seconds. They keep going. WHAT?!?!?! So it dawns on me why they don’t have switchbacks: Koreans are part mountain goat.

Now I’m not the most incredible hiker but I’m not bad, but I felt like the laziest, weakest thing in the world (at least I wasn’t the worse in the group). Sufficient to say with a 30 minute lunch we climbed over 600m of elevation in under 2 hours. The view was incredible and I’m glad I went but man, am I sore today.

Well, you’d think that that was enough adventure for one day but no, that would be too easy. We get back down and meet up with the other male teachers who had gone fishing. They start to prepare dinner. Ahhh just as it should be: the female sits on her ass while the men prepare food around her . Well the thing about Korean men is that they like to drink and the thing about dinner is that’s when you drink. So out comes an entire case of soju (tastes like a combination of homemade vodka and rubbing alcohol). Now Korean men are serious about their drinking (kinda like the Russians). There is a whole ritual into drinking and pouring soju. Well they start giving me some and well let’s just say thank goodness I’m not a lightweight. I keep telling them no but they insist they I say very little and they give me half a shot glass. Thank goodness I’m a women (hey it actually does come in handy sometimes) cause if I was male they would try and get me to drink even more.

Well the dinner is finished and Mr Ham, my vic-principle and I climb into my co-teacher’s car (don’t worry my co-teacher managed to drink basically nothing, I still don’t know how he managed it). Well it’s about a 30 minute drive and my vic-principle keep singing to me (he’s very drunk). He then start to ask me question (through the English teachers cause he doesn’t speak English). I tell him a little bit about Canada and when he hears that Canadians like beer he gets really happy. I’m thinking @#*# what have I done. Well we drive past my place and end up at a Noribang (karaoke bar). Oh great! My vice principle herds us into a booth, trusts a beer into my hand (thank goodness their beer is basically water) and start to sing. Well to make matters worse he then grabs my beer, puts it down, grabs my hand and pulls me up and start slow dancing with me. I thinking, crap what do I do now? OCWARD!!! He then precedes to dance with my to ever song while pushing his hand on my back to force me closer and not only squeezing my hand but digging his nails into my palm. Don’t ask me what that’s about. Finally they ask me to sing and I’m thinking yeah at least he won’t be touching me. Well someone else sings another song and of course he dances with me and then out of no where he just gets up and leaves. The other teachers look at me and tell me it’s time to leave. We go to the car (the vice principle still no where to be seen) and I grab my bag and book it out of there (my apartment was just down the street).

This morning everyone is back to normal so I have no idea what to make of last night. Today I will head to Wonju with Mr. Ham and his son to meet Annie (a friend of mine from Seattle who will be a new English teacher in the town next to mine). Who knows what will happen there.