YEY YEY YEY YEYYYYYYYYYYYY (Dance performance and Beast concert!!

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

I'm looking and feeling good these days. Check me out.

I got asked if I was on a diet and told by another teacher that my outfit "fit me very well."

Coming off of one of the best weekends I've ever had in Seoul and quite possibly my life, I'm having a pretty swell Monday.


I can't even begin to describe how happy I am right now.


My first week of school was so busy because of everything and rehearsals and whatnot.


I had a staff dinner on Friday, which was fun. I met my new coteacher Seung Hee, and had to say goodbye to my Principal, Vice Principal, and some teachers. Today was my last day with my 3/4 coteacher before I start working with the new one, so so much has been a whirlwind so far.


Saturday was full of jitters as we got ready for our dance show. Hours of practice paid off though. We look so good!

Introducing the newest girl group sensation that's taking Korea by storm....

I'm obsessed with us. 

At rehearsal with everyone.

Here are some versions of our performance:

And another angle:

My friend Helen made it to see us! And Tina's coteacher and former co came out too. It was really fun. We were second to last and everyone else did like hardcore dances and we were sooooooo cute. They kept teasing and calling us Koreans (Hankook Saram!!) And we slayyyed it.

We played some games at the club then headed out to the Hongdae playground (a popular drinking spot for foreigners and Koreans) to perform again! Since we were a group of foreigners dressed in matching pink outfits, we got a lot of attention and hopefully turned some foreigners on to Dance Joa! I hope more people come to the studio and get to get some little bit of the joy we get from it.

Tina's coworkers Young Ah (immediately to the left of Tina) and Hae In (Next to me and Young Ah) came too!

 We were a hit with Korean, foreigners, guys, and girls alike!

Afterwords we went out for chimaek and got to hang out with everyone in the studio. After many attempts to set us up with the guys in the studio, and lots of broken English and Korean conversations, we headed home. 

Won Oh is our resident crazy photographer.

I wish I could bottle up how happy I was this weekend and save it. 

Sunday was a different kind of adventure, since WE WERE FINALLY GOING TO SEE BEAST!!!!!!!!!

Beast's concert is called the "Beautiful Show." And oh was it beautiful. 

Our seats, unzoomed. 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

My favorite group is Beast, and I have been itching to see them for soooooooooo long. When the Beautiful Show was announced I freaked out. Beast's fandom name is Beauties, and they have the best lightstick. Ahhhh I'm still freaking out about how happy I am from it.

Just a few BEAUTIES ready to see BEAST!!!

The lightstick is a flower and it's so pretty!!!

<3

Seriously. Beast is amazing. It was so fun to jam out to the concert. Tina's fave had recently dyed hair so it kept running on his face when he sweat, my favorite ripped his pants on stage, Ronnie's favorite was adorable. It was such a good time jamming out to my favorite group. They were like all crying  at the end because everyone was really emotional. It's been a while since they've had a concert in Seoul. I can't imagine being an idol and like never being able to be home because of tours and stuff. Still, I'm glad they exist and that I got to see this show.

Here are some more pics!

So close!

Saranghaeeeee (I love youuuuuuu)

My girls! So glad we saw this show together!!

I'm obsessed with Beast so here are my favorite songs:

"Shadow" is my favorite song. This is a special MV. I freaked out so hard when they did this one. It was AMAZING live.

"Beautiful Night" is my second fave. Also Hyunseung's hair is the same color as it was for the concert and it looked like he was bleeding all over his face. Love it.

"Good Luck." As in, "good luck trying to learn this insane dance haha." Seriously one of the most fun dances I learned at Dance Joa, and such a great song.

"Fiction" featuring the girl from Oh My Ghost, the drama Tina and I just finished.

And finally

"Yey" which Tina thought I would start with. Instead I will end with it. I will also respond to any "yes" questions with "YEY YEY YEY YEY" from now on. 

Now I have another staff dinner tomorrow and some prep for another concert on Friday. It's another festival with a bunch of groups, and this time BEAST IS PERFORMING THERE TOOOOOOOOO.

SO STOKED.

My life in Korea has been pretty great so far, but man these last few weeks have been hard to top.


May you ever feel as happy as I do now.

Love you all! 

In which I appreciate my life in Seoul

Hello~~

It has been a crazy month with no signs of slowing down.

Camp happened. It was a lot of work and I wanted to murder some of my students but also I love them to death as well and the response was really good so it's fine. Here are some pics from snack day:

Before the last day of camp we had a birthday party for Maria, who is also leaving soon, so it was a nice hurrah for everyone.

Selfie-stick in use.

Literally the second camp was over it was time to prep for Veronica coming. This would be the best 2 weeks of my life in Seoul. So Naturally I used my camp time to make this sign.

there are like 200+ stickers.

Tina made this one. 

We also got her Starbucks ASAP.

We showered and relaxed, then headed out to Jamsil for a Doosan Bears game!

Featuring Annie, Grace, and Grace's Boyfriend

They have fan chants FOR EVERY PLAYER.

Then we got some soju served in a watermelon

The next day found us at the dance studio, as usual, where we trained Ronnie to be a Kpop star. Little did she know that she would be up to her eyeballs in kpop by the time she left.

Here are some videos:

Looking good ladies.

Then we got BBQ and Ronnie got to try her hand at it:

Monday the 10th was all about the food:

Banana Tree cafe sells pudding in flower pots and it is awesome.

Brick Oven Pizza

Gigi's Cupcakes

This all took place in Gangnam.

We did some shopping in the underground section of Gangnam station since Ronnie only brought like 3 outfits, then headed out.

Tuesday brought us to Edae for some serious shopping, and cats.

Dakgalbi, chicken (and pork in our case) in sauce with veggies and rice cakes

then they use the extra sauce for rice.

Obviously we approve.

We did a lot of shopping then chilled at a cat cafe for a rest. You all know how I love those.

This cat is one of my faves.

Coffee and Cats

Cat queen

Wednesday we wore our new outfits and got brunch, then went to Namsan and Myeongdeong.

Pancakes Original Story. Blueberry pancakes and a French Toast platter.

Namsan time! They have a culture show with drums and weapons that we caught.

Ronnie tried the spear.

Drum show

I tried too.

Then we went up the tower! We got a love lock and locked it forever. Ronnie has the key so our friendship will never be broken!

Thursday we started out at the Coffee Prince Cafe, the set of the drama of the same name.

Coffee Prince!

Then we did perhaps my favorite thing this vacation and rented hanboks (traditional Korean dress) and went to Gyeongbokung! We were celebrities.

My favorite colors!

Doctor Who??

We all look so beautiful!

Friday we took a bus down to the traditional hanok villiage of Jeonju, where we stuffed our faces for most of the day.

Chocopies

Jeonju is famous for Bibimbap and Moju, a rice and veggies dish and an alcohol, respectively. 

Me explaining the side dishes to Ronnie. The big bowls are bibimbap.

Moju is one of my favorite alcohols. 

After a long day we came back to rest up to meet Jesus.

Kind of.

Saturday we went to see Jesus Christ Superstar, which was fun since we all saw it when were in like 6th grade. It was in Korean, but obviously I know the story and I knew the songs pretty well.

Easily one of my favorite pictures of the vacation.

We got to take come pics of our Judas and cast rockin out"

And Park Eun Tae was our beautiful Jesus.

After that we headed to another going away party for my Australian friend, Debbie.

It started with 700 grams of meat.

And ended with Noraebang.

 Sunday brought us again to dance class for Apink's Mr. Chu, then we had a dinner since it was a lot of peoples' last time.

Chimaek!!

It downpoured like crazy on us as we went home, but nothing could dampen our spirits.

Monday the 17th brought us to Jongmyo Shrine, which houses the spirit boxes of the most famous kings of Joseon.

Their bodies are in the royal tombs, but this shrine is the spiritual resting place where they do rituals and rites.

Juniper tree.

Traditional king outfit.

The shrine. 

The middle path is for spirits. Each room houses a different king's box and his queen's or some other important people. Taejo (first king of Joseon) and Sejong (invented hangeul) have spirit boxes here.

It was so pretty!

We then went to Insadong to shop for traditional things for Ronnie to bring as gifts to the other Peace Corps volunteers and whatnot. Then we got Gusto Taco because no trip is complete without Gusto.

On Tuesday Tina and I dragged Ronnie to dance practice (we have a show coming up on Saturday so we have a lot of prepping) then we went to Itaewon to the foreign food market.

We spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday watching and downloading Kdramas and Kpop videos for Ronnie, who is in far too deep at this point.

We then took our time and went to the Mr. Show, where Tina's blonde hair got enough attention for her to get picked again, so she passed her chance to Ronnie, who gleefully accepted a lapdance from Ty here.

We met them after the show.

His English was incredible! He pointed to Tina and was like "you purposefully dyed your hair." WHERE DID YOU LEARN THAT. 

My favorite comment was the "high school uniforms dance" where Ronnie goes, "If these students were in my class, I would go to jail." Same.

Since we were in the front row and I'm a hot foreigner and I'm really loud, I was making eyes at Marco again, who was totally dishing it right back. I made a heart to him when he was in front of me and he laughed. So I met him after.

This is while I surreptitiously asked if he had a girlfriend and gave him my number when he said he didn't. 

This is also pretty high up there on list of my favorite things for how much Ronnie enjoyed it. It was fun. And always makes me happy. Ronnie is quite into Korean men thanks to this whole trip.

With only a few days left, we still had a lot to do. Thursday brought us to the other important palace, Cheongdokung, which was favored for its secret garden, which we toured first.

Our very amusing guide.

The library is up on the hill. Also if you look close you can see the big gate for the kind and the small gate next to it for his officials because Joseon kings always had to rub it in haha.

Lotus building

So pretty! I kept forgetting we were still in Seoul

Long life door!

Fan-shaped building

After exploring the World of Warcraft... I mean Secret Garden... We went to explore the palace part.

First we visited where the concubines lived and Ronnie opened a door haha.

It's easy to forget that we're in the middle of the city.

Ronnie and I being scholarly since we're at the top two most important positions. 

Conquering the palaces.

I just really love this picture.

After a long day of exploring, we decided to unwind at a dog cafe this time. They're a bit more active than cat cafes but no less cute!

He takes your drink order and gives it to the dog.

Who then adorably brings it to the kitchen.

HE THINKS HE'S PEOPLE

This little one stayed on Tina for like an hour then me until we left. Tina wants this dog. Not this kind. This exact dog.

SO cuuuuuuuute.

After, Tina split off to go to Korean class while Ronnie and I went to see Fantastic 4. We wanted to see Ant Man but it wasn't in Korea yet. Ronnie wanted to see an action movie so we saw it. AND IT WAS TERRIBLE.

My favorite review of the film:http://www.impulsegamer.com/fantastic-four-film-review/

with such lines as " In his short appearance, the bad von Doom stares at people until their faces explode—except the heroes—and he sneaks in clunkers like: “there is no Victor anymore, only Doom!” "

We finished out the week with lots of chilling and maneuvering all of Ronnie's things into her bags.

We got to the airport bright and early only to find out her flight was delayed 3 hours. We should be more careful when we wish for more time together.

WE watched some Kdramas then said our goodbyes.

Ronnie's trip really made me love Korea all over again. She was impressed by all the things I take for granted. I really love my life here and it makes me feel like I made the right decision to come and stay here. Thanks for a great time, Ronnie! Come back soon!

Sunday we had rehearsal for dance, then a goodbye dinner since Sarah is leaving for Berlin and like everyone is moving and starting new jobs. We went to a place for samgyeopsal where they give you 8 different flavors. It was awesome.

It's been a really busy month but what a good one. I'm back and ready to teach (well except for my whole coteacher, principal, and vice principal changing situation) and feeling pretty happy. 

Current music obsessions:

Cross Gene "Play with Me" - Takuya, the former Japanese rep on abnormal summit, is in this group.

Infinite "Bad"

Big Bang "Let's Not Fall in Love"

Tomorrow is officially my one year at my school! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

This week is full of school, rehearsals, getting my apartment back in order after abandoning it for two weeks, staff dinners, dance performances and on Sunday we're going to see BEAST!!!!!!!

So excited to see what my second year has in store for me!!