Guns and Girl Groups

hello hello~~

After another up and down week here in Seoul, here I am barely typing this because my wrists are really sore.

Here are some random pictures from the week:

My walk to work is lovely this time of year!

Apples in spicy sauce: why

I came out of the elevator and this happened. I never know what's going on in my building.

I had a really emotional week because a lot of stressful things are happening all at once, but it ended on some good notes. So Jung and I had a good time planning out our lessons on Friday, so I feel okay going into the next couple of weeks of field trips, events, and holidays that are messing up my schedule. Everything will work out, hopefully!

This weekend was full of fun! Friday night Tina and I tried a new pizza (beef quesadilla... Korea, you are strange but delicious) and watched some Running Man to unwind from a difficult week. 

Saturday brought us not far from my apartment to the Seoul Gun Club for a birthday party full of all sorts of new experiences. Our friend (mostly Tina's friend but I got to tag along because people are nice) Jen had the awesome idea for a way to get out of the normal routines we are all in: shooting some guns!

It's only like 15 minutes from my apartment!

Shooting is pretty expensive here since there are all sorts of regulations, but a bunch of us figured it was worth it for the story and to keep up that American stereotype to our coteachers. I kid. But really. 

The blue guns were easier to shoot and also cheaper. 10 rounds for 20,000 won.

 I have only shot a gun one other time, so I took the chance to use a revolver and pretend I was in a western movie since I've shot a semi-automatic something or other before. Tina shot the same type of gun that Lee Min Ho used in one of our favorite kdramas, City Hunter!

Tina looks more badass, tbh, but this will do.

It was a little scary, but they basically do everything for you and even had a guy who could explain in English. I can totally see why people love shooting these things. It's a scary adrenaline rush. I'm still scared of them, but it was fun to shoot.

Ready to go in! Also WHAT????? 

 The earmuff things really do make it so it's hard to hear. Then they bring you in to your gate thing and make you use the gun without any bullets so you can get used to slowly pulling the trigger and getting used to the gun. My revolver was a bit big and heavy for me, but it was only 10 shots so it was fine. And they have someone supervising the whole time, so it was pretty safe.

Looking badass as always.

 They loaded me up with 5 shots and then let me at it. After 5 they pull the target in so you can see how you're doing.

I was pretty terrible. I hadn't slept well the night before and was totally relying on my right eye too much, which is ridiculously near-sighted. Once I switched to focusing with my far-sighted left eye, I did better.

My gimpy carpal tunnel wrists didn't help either. Thankfully they have bands to stabilize the gun and it takes out a lot of the recoil, so it helped a lot. I would need a smaller or lighter gun next time, or just to not have my wrists seize up and also get more arm strength haha. I accomplished my goal of feeling like I was in a western though. Cocking the revolver is more fun than it should be.

Big Bang from the gun muffled by my muffs and attitude,

 In the end, I also achieved my goal of hitting the paper.

Had I realized I was aiming wrong a bit earlier I would have done better. Guess I'll have to try again! I'm actually excited to tell my coteachers about this, and possibly go back for a good stress reliever and a new experience for an afternoon.

 A cool 60 points for my first time with a revolver.

Lethal twins. 

I would totally go back. It was a good way to spend $20.

Tina and I ventured back to Hongdae for our weekly ddeokbokki, and met up with Sarah for hanging out and some window shopping. 

We finally got a dessert we've been eyeing: the ice cream waffle!

Yum!

It started to rain so we did some shopping and headed home. I wasn't feeling well, but we managed to have a good evening watching various kpop videos in preparation for Sunday. 

We were originally going to go hiking today, but since it was raining Tina and I decided to skip til next weekend and go to dance class.

I'm so glad we did! This week we learned the first minute and a half of Miss A's new song "Only You."

It's a little more sexy than last week's and a bit slower, but by no means less difficult. It was so much fun and my entire body is sore as I type this. But it was such a good time! The two hours fly by.

Here's the song and dance:

This has better audio.

The dance.

Suzy (wearing the oversized white shirt in the video) was just confirmed to be dating Lee Min Ho, already mentioned in this blog. A lot of people freaked out about it, but I think they make an awesome Korean power couple. 

I also really like Miss A, so it was fun to do one of their songs, and a new song at that! I want to learn the rest!

This week is looking good with nice weather towards the end, and Big Bang next Saturday! Ahhh so excited! Here are some of my fave songs since I'm so excited and listening to them like crazy:

Bad Boy. I really love TOP's like minty hair color.

Monster 

Taeyang's Ringa Linga. Such a good song to get pumped up to.

Anyway, I have one full week before there are all sorts of days off in May, so I'm pretty stoked. I'm tired but content this Sunday. Let's hope the mood can be carried til this weekend, WHEN I GET TO SEE BIG BANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now, this:

Why would you put a pocket over the K? 

Peace out, Sailor Scout. This VIP (Big Bang's fandom) is off to practice. And sleep. Mostly sleep. Love you all~

Becoming a Kpop Star!

Hello all! Since I updated so late last week, nothing much has happened. My classes have started to get off schedule, so that's stressful but so far still manageable. Other than that, life is normal. So here are a few pictures of random occurrences in my week:

Special lunch is awesome. Though drumsticks are too hard to eat with chopsticks. 

The problem with having to wear heat tech stuff all the time to school because it's still cold...

In Korean class we're learning about how you say someone is wearing something. Except there is a different word for wearing rings, earrings, suits, neckties, shoes, hats and for using an umbrella, side bag, purse, etc...

I treated myself to ddeokbokki. I need to learn how to make this when I ever go home.

Spring is finally here! At least it seems to be here to stay for now. We've had some lovely weather lately, and aside from last weekend's rainstorm in Jinhae, it's been sunny and nice for most of the week.

This pretty tree of not cherry blossoms is outside my school.

On my walk to from/school

We took the opportunity to see more cherry blossoms, this time at night! 

Yeouido has the park filled with the cherry blossom trees, and at night they light them up with different colors, and it's stunning. Since we saw so many different incarnations of the blossoms (sunlight, rain, pouring rain, and lit up at night), I think I have satisfied the quota of looking at them this year. It's sad that they don't last longer. They brighten up Seoul a lot!

Evening blossoms.

Seoul is so pretty at night! Make it prettier with some lit up blossoms!

Wahhhh so cool!

PURPLE.

THIS BLUE.

LOOK AT ALL THE COLORS.

THIS BLUE.

RED

THIS BLUE. AND LAUREN PEEKNG IN THE CORNER.

PINK AND PURPLE LIKE TINA AND ME 

Casually walking through the blossoms.

We walked for quite a while, dealing with the hoards of people who come out for these festivals. After over an hour of marveling at the beauty of the trees and our lives here, we headed home.


On Sunday, Tina and I watched some Running Man (I cannot get enough of this show) and got ready for a new adventure: a Kpop dance class! A studio not far from me offers a 2 hours Kpop for foreigners class on Sunday afternoons, which was perfect this week!

HOLY SHIT IT WAS SO HARD.

These dances are no joke. There are a ton of little movements and fast counts. I haven't been exercising enough lately let alone dancing, so it kicked my butt!


HOLY SHIT IT WAS SO FUN!

Our instructor was so cute and awesome. We all had to communicate mostly in Korean, but that was okay since the majority of the time was dancing, which doesn't require too much explanation.

I will definitely be going back!

Here's the song we learned:

The group is "Girlfriend" and the song is "Glass Bead"

We only got through the first minute and a half. These dances may look easy (or not), but trust me, they are way harder than they look, hands down. 

This showed that my dreams of becoming a Kpop star are over. Sigh. Haha.

I can't wait to learn more!

Not much else going on here, folks! I hope spring comes your way soon!

Can't wait to watch Game of Thrones. So salty that I have to wait until Monday evenings. Oh well. Here's to hoping it's another nice week!

Lots of love! 

Blossoms, Buses, 'brellas, and Busan.

It was a wet and wild weekend here in Korea. Okay, wet and a lot of time on a bus, but it was wildly entertaining and kept me on my toes.

I didn't have my 6th graders on Tuesday and Wednesday, so that opened up my week a lot. I recently started watching a show called "Running Man." It's a variety show, and it's awesome. They have idols and actors and whatnot as guests for each episode and they play stupid games. Usually there is a nametag ripping game, which is always fun.

Here are some funny moments throughout the show. It's fantastic and I love watching it.

Anyway, So Jung and I only had 1 class on Tuesday and Wednesday thanks to our lack of sixth graders, so we got to relax and have fun. It was great!


So I had a quick week to get to an even quicker weekend. On the docket: Cherry Blossoms!



A while ago we booked a trip to Jinhae and Busan to see the blossoms. They bloom earlier in the south, so this was the perfect weekend.


Or so we thought.


On our way down we had quite a bit of sunshine, but we were stuck in traffic too long in Jinhae to notice the clouds come rolling in. We got to the famous train tracks about an hour later than we should have (WinK - When in Korea, the trip group, is great if a little bad at planning for traffic), and we wandered there for a bit.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. Walking on the train tracks surrounded by blossoms with my best friend in the universe. No amount of rain could ruin it!

So many pretty flowers lining the tracks.

Jeanie and Tina got some blossoms!

 We got lost on the way back to the bus (another thing that happened far too many times on this trip), and a trip down to the main part of Jinhae took another hour on the bus.


Alas, our sunshine was gone. It started to rain when we got down and it did not stop.


Rather than let the rain on our parade ruin our trip, we decided to go to the famous stream, Yeojwacheon, in Jinhae too. It's famous for being a romantic spot, and was a filming location for something or other.



And oh man was it pretty! Even with all the rain, the blossoms floating down the river and the stream being lined with the trees was incredible. They had cool decorations in the stream and whatnot.

All these umbrellas and I still got soaked...

We managed some photos and continued to marvel at how rainy it was.

Awwww.

We still managed to find ways to enjoy the day despite our wet clothes and feet!

Jeanie with Exhibit A: the bomb-ass food we referred to as the Potato Tornado.

 After getting a potato tornado treat, we made our way back to the main part of Jinhae to dry off.

I liked the look of the blossoms on the umbrellas.

 On the bridge over some train tracks, we came across some rainy day gems:

"Line of People with Umbrellas Waiting to Get on Train"

"People Without Umbrellas"

 Seriously, the guys using the boxes for protection were my heroes. We could not stop laughing.


After warming up with some tea and coffee and migrating to get food, we went back to the bus and helped round people up so we could make our way to Busan.

Tina and I did brave the rain for one more time to go buy the poor bus driver a sandwich. He was stuck driving in the traffic for so long and he hand't eaten by the time we got back, so we felt like he needed some cheering up. He was really chill and helpful and nice, so a sandwich and a coke was the least we could do for him.

Bus driver dude got the job done and got us to Busan on time! We made it to our motel and finally got to be warm and dry once we changed our clothes.

The famous "Diamond Bridge" all lit up at night!

 After some rest (and a glorious electric blanket for me!) we got up bright and early to explore Busan. First stop? This awesome temple:

Too much to type.

It got messed up and rebuilt thanks to our good friends in Japan. It was a really cool temple!

Korea needs this.

This is really famous for having a female buddha I think.

Unlike being on a mountain, this temple is located along the shore of the sea. It's got some pretty cool views!

The WinK leaders love pics, so we have a lot of group selfies. 

We made our way back to the bus, but not before snagging this gem:

If there is an interactive statue, they will take ridiculous pictures on it.

 Next we made our way to Haeundae Beach to walk along the beach and boardwalk.

In the bottom right you can see the mermaid statue.

 We headed to the non-functioning but cool lighthouse.

 After a lot of walking and exploring beautiful Busan, we headed to the Wolfhound (an Irish pub that is also in Itaewon) for fish & chips then headed back to the bus.

We got to cross the Diamond Bridge, which is less cool looking in the daytime. On a not so cloudy day, you can see Japan from some points in Busan. Alas, we were cursed with clouds all weekend. Oh well.

There's an abandoned roller coaster. There used to be a ferris wheel too, but both were shut down for ... reasons...

We took one last stop back at the motel before finally making our way back to Seoul. It took forever for me to get home. I seriously got home at about the time I usually go to bed and I was so tired and sore on Monday (naturally the day I have the most classes), but it was so worth it. I really had a wonderful time! The only problem is now I keep looking up more trips that I want to take! Ahhhh!

We'll see what else this week has in store.

In honor of the cherry blossoms, here's the song that will be playing all over Korea while they're blooming: 

Busker Busker's "Cherry Blossom Ending."

And in honor of Big Bang's comeback and the amount of time I spent looking

out windows this weekend, here's G-Dragon's "Window:"

Hopefully this week will go fast and it won't be so rainy! 

For more Jinhae/Busan pics, check out my album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153867625339968.1073741857.697649967&type=1&l=846ff71672

Peace out, Sailor Scouts!