Sick and Tired (of being sick and tired)

Hello all! I wish I was coming to you from a better place, but I'm pretty sick these days. I'll keep it short.

Some funny things:

My fifth graders for 50 class points so we had a snack party. They bring in snacks and we watch a movie. Kids are so easy to please. I learned from last year that Narnia transcends culture and time, so we showed it to them and they are totally hooked and will not shut up about it. 

So much focus

Love my 5th graders

Not so funny things:

We had a dance performance Saturday and I had an open class Wednesday, so I knew I would be really busy all week. What I did not account for was how sick I would get and how hard this week would be on me overall.

These losers give me life though

I didn't sleep well Sunday, and my class schedule was all sorts of messed up this week for open classes. Then we had frustrating rehearsals on Monday and Tuesday in which I didn't get home until after 12. 

Whenever I tell people I'm leaving Korea they get all nooooooooooo whyyyyyyyyyyy and then on Tuesday my principal called So Jung into her office and basically interrogated her as to why I'm not staying. She listed off all the reasons I should stay, like that the kids and teachers like me and I'm a good teacher and I'm a good representation of America to them and I'm so open to Korean culture blah blah blah. So Jung has stopped teasing me about leaving since she knows it upsets me, and she told the principal she wouldn't ask me to reconsider. 

"I'm trying to understand her heart," So Jung told the principal about me, "and I am sad but if she wants to leave I want to send her off happily." 

I wish I could bring So Jung back to America with me because she is my guardian angel. 

So I was emotional and tired, and experiencing a bit of a panic attack about all the pressures of leaving and staying, along with symptoms that I would later realize were my illness. 

Come janggu class time, in the back of my head I knew I shouldn't go. But I like the teachers and it's fun, so I tried to destress with it. 

It did not work.

We started off with the janggu, which is pictured here as the bigger hourglass shaped drum, before moving on to the drum we started learning last week: the Ggwaenggwari (which is named after the sound it makes).

It's much harder and much more annoying of a sound. 

Last week we started learning it and So Jung and I were really bad at it, but it was hilarious. This week, however, I was still bad at it and kept being picked on for my posture and other things. Mind you, all the teachers who do this are Korean and the whole thing is taught in Korean in terminology that I don't exactly understand, so it's hard for me to keep up and translate everything in my head. If the Koreans are bad at it, it's expected that I'm going to be worse, but it really struck me and I had to leave to collect myself in the bathroom.

When I came back, So Jung (bless her) kept asking if I was okay right until we left, but I couldn't really tell her all the turmoil going on inside my head so I kept it to "I'm having a bad allergy day" which explains my puffy eyes away. 

When I offered to take her stuff up to the room so she could leave straight from class, she looked suspicious but didn't push it. I sat in my classroom and cried for a while for so many reasons, none of which I can remember or explain. I used to get panic attacks like this in grad school a lot, and they're really draining.

Unfortunately we had a full evening of shopping for our dance outfits then rehearsal Tuesday night, so no rest for me. Thankfully the girls in my group are really great and supportive, but the dance studio politics are wearing on me.

I got home after midnight to find this:

The bottom rack in my closet collapsed. 

And then I woke up Wednesday to an incredibly sore throat and a fight I'm still in now with my stupid body. 

I thought I just needed sleep, but after several days of 5 classes and sleep not really working, I went to the international healthcare center at my hospital on Friday. We had our dance performance on Saturday and I couldn't let anyone down. 

 The result? Just like in real Kpop style, I got to live the life of a Kpop star. Sometimes when they are really busy they get exhausted but still have schedules, things like this happen:

Yup. Real Korean hospital experience of getting an IV of vitamins and antibiotics.

 When the nurses saw my temperature they all gasped and basically threw a mask at me. Then when the doctor looked at my throat for .0000001 seconds she almost dropped the stick and gasped "It's so red omg" and they didn't understand how I was functioning. Weirdly, on Friday I had felt the best since Tuesday, so I was surprised too.

I thought I was going to be better.

After an hour letting my IV pump me full of goodness and 3 days more worth of pills, I went home to rest.


I know I shouldn't have done my dance thing but I felt shitty either laying around my apartment or being out so I might as well make it worthwhile for all the hard work the girls put into the performance.

It was a really fun day but I couldn't enjoy it to the fullest since I was weak and woozy. We got it done though, and we did well.

Here are some fun pics from Stella (far right in the white shirt) and her husband of the performance.

This one had us all in tears

Even I don't know what I'm doing.

Much sexier

There you have it. Will post video some other time. 

Shout out to Tina for taking care of me all weekend! 

I hope I feel better soon. Love you all. 

Good Luck girigiri You Like Me~

Hey hey heyyy

Not a ton happened this week in terms of things I feel the need to blog about. My kids were really good so it makes it even harder that I had to officially decline renewing my contract. So Jung was like "nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo I will say 100 times noooooooooooooooooooo" and teased me a bit, but must have sensed how upsetting the decision is she stopped after a bit. I was close to tears simply saying no, and I hope I don't have to explain myself. It's hard to leave when things are good here.

Here are my 3rd graders finally actually doing well at something I planned. We learned an Alphabet dance since they finished learning the alphabet. Here they are being energetic and adorable:

See when they get to be up and active they are cute but that is not how English class always is.

Tina and I went shopping for ideas for our dance outfits for a performance coming up. This effort proved to be fruitless upon Sunday as everything we thought up was rejected and changed, but that's neither here nor there.

We stopped at Starbucks for a Smores drink:

Only to find it had coffee in it and I can't drink it

Tina got to drink it

 It's sandal weather now (blisteringly hot at 90 degrees) so I got prepped:

foot masssssssssk

I met a dog on my way home one day 

 My club activity on Thursdays is called English Communication Club or some nonsense like that and basically we play English games. This time we practiced colors, left and right, and body parts with Twister:

 It was kind of a riot. So Jung and I really made this class easy on ourselves.


Friday I went hiking with my students in 88 degree weather and if you think that's fun think again because I also had a class to teach after lunch. Wooooooooooo.

Trying to get lined up for a photo

in the hot sun

The photographer was on the roof. Each grade has a different color shirt. 

 So Jung and I were in charge of 6 students and they had to make a group name, flag, and chant. There were some missions along the way and lots of playtime and ice cream to cap it off. It's fun when it's not scorching. Thankfully the actually hiking part was pretty shady, so it wasn't too bad.

Making flags

My group. So Jung and the 6th grade leader had to pay attention to our first grade nugget

Our little first grade nugget explaining some martial arts moves to So Jung

He was effing adorable

Sometimes he would just yell 'POWER!!' and start running. 

 After a long morning hiking, we had lunch and then mercilessly had 5th period. Thankfully my 3/4 co Seunghee timed our lesson perfectly so we were drawing posters and it required no effort on my part to teach.

I fell asleep at my desk for the first time in forever and then finished out the day making a few lessons things for this week. I have another open class so my week is all sorts of moved around. Sigh. Things like this make it easier to leave.

Saturday I accompanied Tina across town to a special event: A Park Hyo Shin fan meeting!

In case you don't know him, he's one of the best singers in Korea.

I know for a fact I've posted this vid before but if you haven't watched it yet WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE?

He's singing live in the vid and his voice is unreal. I cannot get enough of this song. 

Idk why the fanclub is Soul Tree but whatever

 As I am not a member, I did not get a ticket to go. But it was quite an event to get Tina her ticket, and she managed despite being a foreigner yayyyyyy! It's hard to navigate all the info for these things, since the English info is super limited, but she did it like a champ.

She got to hear him sing "Wildflower" live so I'm shocked she isn't dead, and she got to hear his new album stuff before anyone else and was in his presence for hours and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a liiiiiiiiiiittle jealous. I'm not as big of a fan as she it, but he was amazing in Phantom when I saw him and I love his voice and he's incredible, and I wish I could have shared it with her. But I am sooooooooooooo happy she got to go, and I know she'll cherish that chance forever. He's super private and doesn't do broadcasting or shows, so this really was a once in a lifetime chance to see him, and to be in the room with him singing her fave song? Wow. I got chills just writing it. So glad she got to experience it and I got the honor of having the computer she booked the ticket on, plus the joy of hearing about it.


Meanwhile, we were out near Magnolia's again so we had more yummy treats with Helen.

Chocolate chocolate cupcake and banana pudding yum

I hung out with Helen during the fanmeeting which was nice since I love her. And we sat around and talked and talked and shopped and had a good time.

Sunday brought us to dance class, where we learned the hot new song by AOA: Good Luck! I'm so excited because it's been out for less than a week and we learned it. 

It was really tiring but really fun. I always like AOA dances. Unfortunately I was stressed about some stuff for our performance, so I'm not sure if I enjoyed it as much as I could have. 

Still, I felt sexy and strong.

Here it is!

Good luck girigiri I like you~

This week is open classes and dance practices, so I feel like I will be stressed but it will all turn out okay. 

Off to bed to prepare! Fighting everyone!

Just Get It Together, and then Baby Cheer Up!

Hello hello!

This week was back to normal-ish, so not as much adventure was had. Day by day felt really long but suddenly it was over!

I was reminded that I graduated with my Master's two years ago and my Bachelor's four years ago, so I celebrated with some macaroons.

So delicious, yo.

This is my friend Bryan. He's nice to me.

Hard to believe so much time has passed. I still feel like I should be getting ready to go back to Bona's when I come home. Whoa!

Sometimes lunch is awesome and sometimes it's hella weird. Here we have flower bread, which looks pretty but is not much beyond pasty white bread, and I don't even know what these abominations are in my soup. I asked So Jung but there is no translation beyond the scientific name and she was like "they grow on rocks?" Gross.

There are lots of "priority" seats (for elderly, pregnant, etc...) on the buses and subways, and lately the pregnancy seats have been a topic of discussion. Do people really need to be reminded to stand for elderly or pregnant people? Yes, especially pregnant women! So Seoul has been aggressively highlighting the pregnancy seats.

Most seats are blue. This is ALL hot pink. It's really obvious. I hope people take the hint!

On my way home from Tina's on Friday night I had a panic attack on the bus because there were so many people and lots of high school kids bashing me with their backpacks. Usually this only mildly annoys me but for some reason that evening it sent me into a tizzy. I got off the bus a few stops early before there could be serious damage, but it turned out to be okay. Near my apartment is the International Buddhism Center, so it's decorated all pretty for Buddha's birthday.

 I managed to make it home despite my weird attack, and had a relaxing end to the evening and a relaxing Saturday since Tina was out of town visiting Young Ah's family.


School happenings!

Today is technically Teacher's Day, where the kids give notes and things to teachers to tell them how much they appreciate them, but since it was on a weekend we celebrated early!

I got a basket of soap flowers made by the class leaders for all the teachers. I have no idea what to do with this.

Cookies at lunch

Originally we were supposed to go hiking, but the date changed. Regardless, I didn't have my afternoon class and we had a party.

So Jung got an award!

 We had a huge cake, and for some reason we sang happy birthday... Inexplicably I got roped in to "helping cut the cake" because I am the "multicultural representative." I thought So Jung was going to cry she was laughing so hard when she told me I had to and why.

Much cake. Such ceremony. Wow.

I'm not sure why the other teachers had to. On the far right is my coteacher Seunghee, and she had to because she's the maknae (youngest). Then the principal... Then meeeeeeeeeee

Cake spoils. Too bad it was coffee flavored!

 We got to leave at 2, which was freaking awesome. I would like school a lot better if I could always leave at 2 haha.

Anyway, aside from that I got a few cards from the students. Here they are:

This girl is one of my favorite 4th graders and this card is my favorite. In my wallet I actually keep the note she wrote me when she was in 3rd grade because it was the only one I got and it was so sweet. This one is a gem too.

 Every one has its charms.

Fancy envelope! I wonder what's inside!

This. This was inside. Thanks, jxy~

Then one of my boys gave So Jung a card, and he came back at lunch time frantically searching for me so he could give it to me. He was worried since he wrote it in Korean, but I told him it was okay. I wish I could explain how cute this kid is. Ugh my heart.

It would be great if I learned some Korean so I could read this, says the small child. I like the changes of color and marker size. 

 Now, my name is hard to spell in English, Francesca. But it's also hard to spell in Korean! Problem 1: there is no "f" sound in Korean, so the closest is "p."

There are other problems too. Like how my first name has more characters than most Koreans' full names.

And in Korean, the "a" always makes an "ah" sound, so my name is pronounced Peu - Rahn - Che - Seu - Ka.  Like Frahncheska.

The previous card has my name spelled 프랜체스카, which is actually closer to the A sound the first part of my name actually makes. Peu - Raen - Che - Seu - Ka. Kudos to you, kid.

Lots of my students gave cards to So Jung that said "I wanted to thank Francesca Teacher too but I can't write in English" so apparently I'm not doing my job. Anyway, one of my fave students wrote us a joint card so So Jung let me have it.

This one is more like Peu  Ren Chee Ka

 This is from the English card.

A valiant attempt at my name in English. 

 And finally we have a correct Korean spelling of my name

Ding ding!

I was so touched by all the cards and things from the kids. The younger ones especially are hella into it. So cute! Makes it hard to think about saying goodbye to them, but I will deal with that later~

Back to non-school things!

Sunday was a much-anticipated dance class.

We learned Twice's "Cheer Up!"

Seriously, you cannot be sad during this song!

The dance is sooooooooooooooo cute and fun! I love Twice's dances. They're manageable and I actually feel like I can do them well after 2 hours! Tina and I look crazy similar when we dance. I know it's not weird but it's weird. We both love this dance so it was really fun to do. 

I just watched it again before putting it in here and I cannot stop smiling. It was surprisingly tiring, but I am soooooooo glad we learned it!

It looks really cool when they do it all together, so check out the dance version too!

Okay also this week there was a new "group" debuting called BgA (Boys generally Asian)

It's Wong Fu Productions, and they made a not-quite parody of kpop videos. If you didn't know Korean, you would think it was a normal catchy song. They didn't want to make fun of it, but emulate it in a really hilarious way. Success! 

 

They had teasers, countdowns, profiles, dance practice videos, behind the scenes, and so much more. It really was like a legit Kpop group. And the song is hilarious, even if you don't know Korean since there are subtitles. but since I understand what they're saying it's even more funny. I was crying I was laughing so hard and I had to stop the video. 

Good times. 

On to another week and we'll see what happens next~ Cheer up! It's almost summer!