I Am a Good Boy~

Hello~~~

Spring/Summer is here! 

I have been really busy this week with something kind of fun: dance! My whole body hurts right now, but I feel really great about things. A pair of shorts I brought with me from America was literally falling off of me when I wore them on Friday, which is an awesome feeling. I think my recent burst of physical activity in the last month has helped spur on some good results.

Tina and I saw a cat on our way to her apartment this weekend! I feel like Buddy the Elf: I saw a cat today. Have you seen a cat? You probably have.

Anyway, Tina, some friends from dance class, and I are going to perform for this thing called Dream Concert next weekend. The people who put the dance group together sent us a bunch of cuts of videos we had to allegedly learn, and it was all very disorganized and confusing. Thankfully we knew a few of the songs, and I was able to put my old Zumba skills to the test and watch some of the videos and figure out what they were doing. I also finally have accepted that I like EXO's new song "Call Me Baby" as that is the one I'm performing for the concert! Eeeep!

So the whole week was devoted to learning dances. Tina even came over on Wednesday, which is always nice. Then we had rehearsals for like all day Saturday and we had dance class on Sunday, so my body is like nooooooooooo. This week too will be devoted to lots of dancing as we have to polish off our Miss A dance and the others before the concert. I'm so excited though. We get to go to a concert where tickets cost upwards of $200 for free! And some big name groups will be there performing: EXO, SHINee, 4minute, INFINITE, VIXX, B1A4, SISTAR, BTOB, T-ara, GOT7, Red Velvet and EXID. The second lineup hasn't been announced yet, so even more acts could be coming. Idk. I hope Beast shows up. I'm beyond excited though,

I just have another week to get through!


Backtracking on this week, it was actually kind of stressful. We have open classes coming up, and So Jung and I have a combined one for her class and my renewal. But it's on a Wednesday (in a week and a half!) and so we had to plan way ahead this unit for 6th grade, and it's really stressful to prepare. Along with that, we got surprised on Monday with a trip for Teacher's Day, which was Friday. Suddenly we lost our afternoon to a hiking trip and staff dinner. There goes all my planning time!

So I had to be really productive this week and plan way ahead. As a result, I kind of have this week almost all figured out because I used like every minute of my time at work. But I still have a lot of things to make for my open class and what not, AND I HAVE TO GO HIKING AGAIN FRIDAY. This time, it's during the school day and I have to take the students hiking nearby our school. We all have to be in charge of groups and I thankfully get to stick close to So Jung with my group, which consists of like one kid from every grade. I get roped into things because my school is so small. Sigh. Thankfully this knocks out my Friday classes and not my afternoon, so I can still plan things (hopefully) and stay on schedule. We're also off next Monday, so I'll get to recover.

So this week ended with a hike. Friday was Teacher's Day, where students give gifts to appreciate their teachers. I got LITERALLY 2 NOTES. It was really disheartening to watch all of So Jung's students come in (they're in 3rd grade and had her as their homeroom teacher in 1st grade) and give her things and ignore me even though I'm their English teacher. It's also hard not to take it personally when I am sitting in the subject room for lunch and the kids come in and parade around giving gifts to everyone accept me. I do understand that it's scary to write in their second language, so I laughed it off as best as I could.

I did get one note from a third grader at lunch, and So Jung made a big deal of congratulating me and I put on a show of showing it off and all of the other subject teachers wanted to read it and were all like omg so cute she wrote in English omg. I'm not going to lie, I almost cried when I got it because god damn am I attached to these students and even one note made me feel really special.

Here is the adorable note:

I'm not crying, you're crying.

I think my favorite part is the spelling of my name: Prenchesca. Francesca is really hard for them to say and spell. There is no "f" sound in Korean, and since Francesca is an Italian name, the "ce" making a "ch" sound is hard too. But I really, really appreciated the note. It's making me emotional to even look at it again. I'll stop.

 Anyway I was a little concerned about the hike because So Jung couldn't come, but she didn't find out for sure until Friday. She had to go to the doctor for some skin issues she's been having. I hope my unni is okay!

Thankfully, the young teachers took care of me. Jin Sang chaperoned me down to the bus (you can see the confusion on the students' faces when we walk together because they have to politely bow to him and they usually just wave to me but they never know what to do when we're together, plus when they hear any of their teachers speaking English to me they freak out) and Su Hyeon and I were reunited for most of the trip. I hung out with them and Moon Jung, my Korean soulmate, Seul (who told me she was glad she got to sit and talk to me because she always wants to but is nervous about her English - she shouldn't be, since it's fantastic), Shinae, and Da Yeon (my coteacher from Winter Camp when So Jung couldn't be there, who is coincidentally moving into my building in June!) and we had a good time.

I got to show off a very small amount of my Korean, which is always infinitely amusing to them. Jin Sang and Su Hyeon were teasing me because I text So Jung in Korean, and they find this amusing since she apparently showed them. It's all in good fun and they all told me it's cute. The older teachers are very impressed that I'm learning. When these things happen it makes it feel like studying is way worth it.

Anyway, all of the young teachers hate hiking, myself included. We went to Paju or Shin Han San (I have no idea what the mountain's real name is) and we hiked in the hot weather for like an hour and a half. It wasn't too bad. Pretty steep. They all kept teasing me since my face gets so red so easily. Haha.

Anyway here are a few pictures I took along the way:

The angle of this is not good, so you can't really see but the incline of this was no joke.

At the top.

Nice view!

It was a bit gloomy.

Always nice to get out of central Seoul.

On a clear day you can see North Korea.

We went up pretty high pretty fast!

If only I liked hiking more. Though I have been hiking a lot lately. 

They have maps to tell you what you're looking at

It was still so hot despite the gloom.

The way down. My kind of hike. 

After we made our ascent and descent, we had some time to kill since we had to wait for the teachers that actually liked hiking, so naturally we went to the cafe at the base of the mountain, where I impressed everyone with my ability to read the menu since it was allllllll in Korean. Mango smoothie sounds almost exactly the same in English and Korea, btw.

And it is also just as delicious. 

 After waiting for a while, we went to dinner.

We had some kind of soup that Koreans eat in the summer. Samgyetang? But instead of chicken, ours had duck. And some of the ingredients were from a 100 year old tree or something. Someone was trying to explain it to me, but it got a bit lost in translation. But it's literally a whole duck in the soup. I got a lot of bones, but a lot of meat too. Then they gave us rice to mix in and eat the rest of the soup with. It was delicious.

Anyway, Koreans eat this special soup on 3 occasions in summer: the first hot day, the hottest day, and the last hot day. So Jung had explained it to me before she couldn't go on the trip.

Here is my serving. One of many.

We also had makgeolli, which I surprised everyone by saying I liked it more than soju. Really, it's much better. But makgeolli is a sneaky beast, and though I only remember my bowl being filled 4 times and not full each time, it definitely hit me later.

We had to leave at 7, which is quite early for these things to end. We hopped back on the bus and were heading home. 

The sunset was really pretty but instead it looks like I just took a creepy picture of someone sleeping on the bus...

Unfortunately we hit some traffic on the way home. The amount of water I drank on the difficult hike, plus the exhaustion of the hike, plus the makgeolli, plus the amount of greasy duck I ate, plus another unpleasant monthly factor beginning and declaring war inside my body made for a really bad ride. I was actually trying to think about how I could pee in a bag or bottle on the bus without anyone noticing. Really. But I started to feel dizzy and ill, especially when one of the teacher behind me offered me more makgeolli. I got Su Hyeon's attention and she's a saint, so she told the head teacher I wasn't feeling well and we got to get off the bus and find me a bathroom. She actually confessed that she was feeling sick too. She hates cucumbers, and someones was eating them behind me and the smell was making her sick too. So she was thankful for the chance to get off the bus. I feel bad that I had to unceremoniously exit, but I also did not want to embarrass myself. Also I found out later that some of the teachers went for more drinking after, and I was in no state to continue.

Su Hyeon is an angel and got a taxi to take us home. I didn't realize how much I missed seeing her, but we finally got to catch up a bit on the ride home (side note: I would not have made it back to school on the bus) and we got out early to walk a bit. She also bought me banana milk because it makes her feel better when she's hungover haha. I had like an instant hangover or something, but the banana milk did make me feel better, if only because I wanted it to work because Su Hyeon got it for me. When we said goodbye I was really happy that we got off the bus and that I got to hang out with her. She really wants to teach English again, and I would love for her to be my coteacher again. She was really excited when I told her I wanted to stay for another year.

When So Jung said she couldn't go, I almost didn't go on the trip as well. But I'm glad I did. I got to bond with my coworkers and see Su Hyeon again, and i did have a good time despite buses being the worst.

Then it was all dance all weekend! I'm so sore and tired but I feel awesome. I'm looking forward to next weekend, and even this week a little bit. I have some fun things happening!


I was watching a drama with DooJoon from Beast and I loved this scene. It was like episode 14 of 16, which is hella late for kdramaland.

And for teacher's day we recorded my 5th grade nuggets singing their song:

It's to the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man" and at the end they say "Teacher, I love you!" some in English and some in Korean. I almost died they're so cute and I love them.

This week in dance class we almost died learning Good Boy:

We got through like 3 minutes of the song! We also had some guys in our class this time, which was fun and especially funny when they were really tired and our teacher called them out and was like "What's wrong with the guys? The guys are weak. The girls are fine." Though, to be honest, we too were dying. It was a lot of fun!

Next week we tackle EXO's new song: Call Me Baby. Unfortunately we won't learn from our teacher before the concert, but we will have like 20 seconds of it done for class haha.

I didn't really like the song very much at first, and I still think it really feels its length and the rap detracts from the overall flow and feel and strength of the song, but the other parts are catchy as hell. I learned part of the dance from watching a slow mirrored version of the song, and most of the moves were on real beats and it wasn't quiiiiiiiiite as hard as I was expecting. So I'm excited! But Good Boy kicked my butt so I am also terrified since EXO is hella good at dancing. Oh well! We'll see next week!


I'm off to rest my poor body that I have so artfully abused this week. I hope everyone stays well!