Restless Seoul : Morning Calm

Hello hello~

Another week came and went, and suddenly it's Mother's Day and Ted's Birthday! Woo!

First, a joke

The name of the song in English is "Growl" but in Korean it's more like "Oo Roo Wrong" hehehe

You may remember that we did this dance for our performance in December. It's an awesome dance.

On the weekend we just chilled around til Sunday, which turned out to be a long and emotional day, but in a good way.

First up, we were learning Beast's 12:30

I was prepared with my socks featuring my favorite member, which helped me channel my inner Beast.

The socks say "I love you" on top too

He doesn't always look like an alien, it's just my socks

The dance was SO hard. Thankfully I watched it enough and have listened to that song a billion times since it's one of my faves, so I did okay.

I did better the first time with the teacher but I held my own when we did it by ourselves. The dance is so fast and difficult compared to the slow pace of the song. It's nuts. Beast makes it look so easy!

God I love them

After, we headed allllllllllllll the way across town to Olympic Park to see Andrea Bocelli!

He sang so many favorites, including Maria, Music of the Night, Con Te Partiro, and Nessun Dorma.

I cannot believe that in Seoul, of all places, we got to see him. It really made me emotional, especially when he sang Maria. For those of you reading who are not my parents, my mom's name is Maria. And hearing Andrea Bocelli sing this beautiful song made me miss home. And it made me miss my grandparents and parents a lot. And home in general. It's a weird juxtaposition of feeling so lucky I live in Seoul because I get to see school stuff like this (so I would be crazy to leave) and missing home (so I would be crazy to stay) so it's confusing.

Anyway, the concert was so great. Bocelli was amazing and it made me feel all sorts of ways.

Thankfully this week was a joke since Wednesday was Sports Day and we had Thurs/Fri off!

I had to help for half of sports day. Some of my old 6th graders came back and it was an exhausting but fun day.

My small Korean Harry Potter leading exercises

4th grade tug-of-war

So Jung had to be a temporary 2nd grade teacher

So cute

6th grade

Some game where they all have to hold hands and jump over a pole. Idk Korean sports

We've started up our jangu lessons again, so I did that with the other teachers in the afternoon.

me and my traditional korean drum~

The music.

It's especially hard for me to learn since it's by sound like "koong" and "da" instead of counts and stuff. Plus I have to translate everything in my head while our teacher is talking, so it doubles as Korean class. I also had never heard the instrument before, so I have no basis like the other teachers. Still, it's really fun.

Some of my favorite girls from last year came back to visit, and they lamented the lack of games and ppts in middle school English. So Jung and I were laughing because we literally told them so, so they asked if they could write a note to their hoobaes (juniors) in case they listen to their sunbaes (seniors), so we let them but I think it will fall on deaf ears again haha

Telling them to appreciate how much we do for them and the games, ppts, and not so much homework.

Tina and I hung out from Wednesday til Sunday, which was fun/

Some fun signs near me

Thursday was Children's Day, which is celebrated by giving like everyone the day off so parents have to spend time with their children while I do not hehehe.

We had long ago decided to see the musical for Three Musketeers, but stumbled upon an awesome injustice. There were tickets for half price, but only on the Korean version of the booking site, not the English. Thankfully Tina has maaaaaaaaaad skillz and got them, so we got some awesome tickets for the price of the cheapest ones. Woo!

The actor we liked in Dracula is Athos in this, so we went to see him. He's, as my mom says, a dreamboat.

Weeeeeeeee

unzoomed shot of our seats. Def the best I've gotten in Korea

After, we waited to see him. He had to leave quickly but he signed some stuff for us, and even remembered us! We got in line and when we got to him he initiated and was like "Oh you came to see Dracula!" It's nice to be remembered even though it's obvious he remembers because it's hard to forget white people twins in Korea. Still, it was nice.

"Your name is very long" he says and write many hearts~

Ahhhhhhh I'm still so excited about it. There's even a video from another fan hehe.

On Friday we went to a beer festival despite the rain and dreary weather.

Chicken and beeeeeeer

As with many festivals it was not set up great and there were too many people, but it was fun! And we got some beers and got to chill, plus we got Magnolia cupcakes and banana pudding which I will dream about.

On Saturday, we woke up really early to head out to Petite France and the Garden of the Morning Calm.

Petite France has a lot of cute things for France and The Little Prince, and Cherie, Helen, Tina, and I spent the day wandering after a long and twisty bus ride and our first time in the itx trains, which are confusing as they leave from the same platforms as the regular subway but are really fast.

Anyway, France!

The drama Secret Garden had some scenes here, and Hyun Bin wore track suits a lot. Tina loves Hyun Bin but hates this drama.

"My Love from Another Star" also filmed here.

Beautiful day!

"Do something graceful," I demanded.

Helen is allergic to the sun, but not to performing!

Why does this painting show my soul

I'm French!

After, we took what should have been a 45 minute but turned into almost 2 hour bus ride to the garden to spend the rest of the afternoon!

Suspension bridge!

Tina and her Park Hyo Shin... I mean Wildflower... garden

Cherie and I with the flowers on this sunny day!

Pool of Nymphs

Wow!

Tulips!

Heaven?

Had to fight our way up there but we got pics

Finishing a great but long but wonderful day!

Dizzyingly tired, we managed to get back home and relax til like 10:30 when we fell asleep.

Sunday brought more relaxing til dance class. We're getting ready for a music video, so we're doing Produce 101's version of Bang Bang and practiced it again! It was so fun but I was so exhausted that it was hard to keep up the intensity!

Many dance friends came back so it was fun!