Previously La Dolce Vita, which documented my time spent living in Perugia, Italy, Restless Seoul will be my way of sharing my experiences in South Korea. Enjoy!
It has seriously been the busiest month ever. Between school, camp prep, and dance, I have had like no time to myself, and when I do have time, I don't feel like blogging. Even now, I'm exhausted from the culmination of so many things on this my first day of deskwarming.
For a better update on basically what happened in the last few weeks, look to my twin's blog haha:
SO without further ado, here is a much-need update that is mostly going to be pictures and vague descriptions because literally so much happened in the last 3 weeks.
Stylin in my Totoro sweater. The kids loved it.
One of my girls left this mirror in my room and So Jung and I were crying because this is literally the worst picture of EXO's D.O. that anyone could have picked for the front.
The inside is better. My student nearly burst into tears when I returned it to her.
Thankfully my classes were a bit light near the end of the semester. So Jung and I planned pretty well with 6th grade so we didn't have anything strenuous to do. The English test robbed me of all my time and strength during the day, and we had to frantically put together the lessons we had left for them and I had to do the same for the 3 other grades I teach.
With assessments and last minute things happening with the classes, it was a rush to the vacation, but we made it.
My 6th grade girls observed that I like animals a lot. My heated mouse pad is a rabbit and my wrist rest is a cat, and I have a lot of animal things, so they aren't wrong.
I got to spend some time with Namho and his friends and I told him to never wear that sweater again.
On Friday the 11th, after one of the most exhausting weeks of my life, I got to see Les Mis with my coworkers and friends! It was in Korean and I was so tired but it was awesome. The new staging is something wonderful. Korean isn't quite as flowy or as poetic as English (even my Korean coworkers agree!!) but it was amazing to see all the same.
My two cos, So Jung and Seunghee, followed by my camp coteacher and current 5th grade teacher Da Yeon who lives in the same building as me. We had a great time!
Tina and I accidentally wore corredponding outfits. Also, we look hella awesome.
After a very late night since the show ended at 11, we headed to Tina's to relax before the next event: A Kpop concert!
Since we're foreigners we get a lot of perks for these things, but we got some extra ones since we know a guy from our dance stuff. He hooks us up with prime spots and we got to skip all the lines.
Grace's Korean boyfriend even got to join us under the guise of him being our tour guide.
It was an awesome, awesome day.
Unzoomed spots.
We took lots of pics on the way up but this is my favorit.
Grace and our tour guide and me and Tina photobombing.
A close up of my amazingness
Kpop friendsssss
So much love for these ladies, especially after all we had to do in the last month
There were quite a few groups in the lineup, but as usual they started with the rookies and saved the best for last. We came to see the last 3 groups: BTS, Block B, and my favorite group of all time, Beast!
BTS was awesome. Their dances are FIRE.
The front part of the stage was hella close to us. This is zoomed in but still.
An unzoomed pic of Beast during "On Rainy Days." Most groups can't pull off a slow song in the middle of their set but damn, Beast can do anything
Beast was of course the highlight. They have so much energy and are so good with the crowd, plus their set is awesome. I love them so much.
Here are some videos of BTS and Beast!
Back to dance on Sunday. We spent all day at the studio, and after we finished we treated ourselves at Lotteria. We got a sandwich called "Mozzarella in the Burger." Yup. That is the real name.
And boy does it have hella mozzarella
We also got like a gallon of ice cream and 4 of us devoured it.
So continued the days of getting home at like 11PM.
We were surprised to learn on Sunday that we were not learning more of Growl as we had been told at our practice on Wednesday (with a hilarious mix up between the Korean title and the English - one group member insisting she didn't want to learn more of eu-reu-rong (this is the best I can translate..) but wanted to learn more of Growl ) but were adding in Rhythm Ta, which we had requested 3 weeks ago in the beginning. And we had no time to learn it from our teacher as we had already done it in class, and by the new rules we couldn't do it again. So it was up to us to relearn it and teach it to each other again.
Fortunately we were given lots of time and space to practice. Except we super weren't.
We got confined to the tiny tiny single room in the basement because other classes were running and other groups were practicing. We could only ever have like 2 people at a time practicing, and we were there several days a week starting from 8 pm and usually finishing around 11.
We went a little crazy.
One class was learning a dance to Justin Bieber and the teacher's style was cool.
Pau documented the results.
Stir crazy.
Plus side, a few of the teachers noticed and commented on how late we were there or how the waygookin (foreigner) team was always at the studio. So you think we don't take this seriously? We'll fucking show you.
Interlude into dance:
I bought a skirt from China and it finally came in:
I am art.
I have never received so many compliments from so many people. My students loved it, the teachers loved it. I really needed it since this was in the middle of all of the practicing.
I sent this picture to my boyfriend to prove that I wore his present since my "it's not cold enough" excuse doesn't hold water anymore. It's fucking cold. So far no more breakouts!
On Saturday the next week we had some downtime, and we sure as hell needed it.
I wanted to get in the spirit for Christmas despite this feeling like the least Christmasy Christmas of all Christmases, so I painted my nails.
All that youtube wormhole stuff came in handy.
We gave our teacher chocolates and her reaction was adorable and she had to take a selfie with us. We really love her and she really loves us. We all had no idea what to expect with this class, but we're all glad we came.
Christmas was in the air with the students and teachers, and the art teacher gave me book she wrote. It is obviously a kids book because that is my level.
I love it!
My 6th graders were watching The Chronicles of Narnia, and I cannot stress how magical it was.
Look at them. They never concentrate this hard.
Some of the kids told me they found the books in the library. They loved to hear that there were 3 movies out. They shouted "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooOOOOoOoOoOoO" when we stopped the video. My normally terrible class was silent and attentive to watch.
It was magical. I loved Narnia as a kid so to give some of that magic to them and see all their reactions was incredible. So Jung had never seen it either, so she was right there with them, hitting me and asking me questions about Aslan and telling me how much she (and everyone) hates Edmund and the amazement when they come back through the wardrobe. Shudder. I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it. It was an amazing choice.
Tina and I had gone shopping at some point and got some sale stuff at H&M, then met up and this happened.
I bought the shirt first, then Tina bought it on our spree. And sometimes this happens.
I was really into Christmas, which most Koreans are not, so on my last day with my students I went all out.
This represents everything I want in a Christmas outfit.
Weirdly that day the principal called the subject teachers and told us to play ping pong with her. I am considered quite good by their standards,as I played it in gym class in high school. It was awkward, but since the gym teachers were really good and so is the principal, me and my cos got to just chill at the non-competitive table.
So Jung's first time playing ping pong/the pros are in the back
Chill/competitive
I also went with Tina to get her new tattoo!
Awesome!
Then we got cupcakes because I demand cupcakes
I brought in one last treat for my coworkers on Christmas Eve, where I had to be at work ALL DAY WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE WHY.
They arranged them because they thought they were so cute.
After some chatting about Christmas differences (explaining Mistletoe and why we call them "stockings" not "socks" is hard) and some work, we were released for vacation! Except I still have to be at school like all vacation because of camp and life.
Anyway, I was feeling pretty sick this week, so on Christmas Eve I went to Tina's apartment and went to bed at like 7PM and slept it off. On Christmas we opened presents with the family back home
Funny story we bought a 55 inch TV for mom and dad then mom won a 55 inch TV like 2 days earlier.
It almost feels like we're all together.
Thankfully literally everyone ever cancelled Christmas plans so we sat around and watched TV and dramas all day.
We watched "Splash Splash Love" because it had Doojoon from Beast and Kim Seul Gi, the Ghost from "Oh My Ghostess" and was only 2 episodes.
Here's the trailer:
A high school senior who isn't good at math and always runs away from her problems has the inexplicable ability to teleport when it rains, and she ends up back in the Joseon Dynasty and meets King Sejong before he's the super-great king and when he's just a young man king. I knew it would be funny but the romance really got me.
And it may have one of the most romantic lines ever uttered:
"Stay with me as long as the sun rises and sets."
Melting.
We meandered to my place and got chicken to call it a night.
What a strange and wonderful Christmas it was.
Time to retire the Christmas sweaters and songs til next year
Until next Christmas, perhaps in America this time.
Christmas was our last rest before the final show. Saturday we spent all day (11-9) at the studio practicing and rehearsing the skits and staging, and on Sunday at 11 we arrived at the theater to prepare for our performance at 6.
Back... or should I say under stage...
This was how we had to go up and down to and from the stage.
We had a couple of technical rehearsals, and got our makeup on in a truly team effort of epic proportions.
Without further ado, here is what everything led up to! We were backstage a lot so we took tons of pics:
I love you, waygookin team
Waygookin team and Idol Team meeting (you go, 2PM group!)
Our favorite move from Psy's new song Daddy, which one group performed and which we did absolutely any chance we got.
We met some awesome people at Dance Joa
And performances!
The skit where Tina and I unwillingly got pulled in to say cute Korean lines. Everyone loved us even though we hated it haha.
Cutest boy group members everrrr
And here's a video of our performance of iKON's "Rhythm Ta" and EXO's "Growl:"
Everyone agrees that the waygookin team was amazing. We really went from being hopelessly the worst to being the best. It was a lot of work and a lot of pain, but now that it's over let the romanticizing begin.
Here are some more pics of performance time:
the opening of "Rhythm Ta"
the Guro and Gangnam studios come together!
The Psy group was so fun!
the 2PM Idol team!
This is perhaps my favorite picture of us from the performances.
After, we met our friends who came and then everyone went out for foooooooooooood!
Namho made it to see the show and was such a good sport when I dragged him on stage and everywhere!
We couldn't have done it without our awesome teacher.
It was so much stress on my body, mind, spirit, soul, whatever else, but man was it awesome to perform like that. We really KILLED our dance and everyone thought so. We got a lot of compliments and "omg you were the best group" from the teachers and audience. And we're a bit of celebrities since we are foreigners and it's the first time they've had a foreigner class for such a big performance. Time and time again we get closer and closer to the people in the studio.
I was rereading how upset I was in the last blog post 3 weeks ago and it seems miles away now. I think we were entirely justified to feel the way we did. I will begrudgingly admit that they're tear you down method worked since we were all "OH YEAH WE'LL FUCKING SHOW YOU HOW AWESOME WE ARE" but really. I have never been so proud of a performance. It feels really cool to be a part of something that brings so much joy to people here and other than that one incident gives me so much joy.
So I will continue to go to Dance Joa for as long as I stay in Korea and I hope I can feel as happy as I did on that stage.
Happy 10 Year Anniversary, Dance Joa, and may you have many, many more!
