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!
The short version is my computer broke and I've been really sick. Now I'm okay. Still not 100% and I haven't had the energy or heart to blog, but I want to post it before things go much longer.
Here's the long version starting from like April 9th or whatever was the last time I blogged:
First, we got up bright and early on Saturday so we could make the long journey down to Jindo island. Jindo is pretty south, not far from Jeju, so it was quite a trip.
There were cultural performances.
Korean wrestling
They had foreigners try and this ahjumma loved this girl.
Love spending time with Helen and Tina
Katie and I escape the sea
The Jindo legend statue
The story goes: Tigers used to roam and terrorize the village, so the people fled to a nearby island. The grandmother got left behind. She prayed to be reunited with her family, and miraculously the sea parted and they got to come back together.
We bought festival boots that went up to our thighs. Good thing, too.
Sexy
Helen found a puppy
Jindo dogs are famous too.
Puppy love
Now here we are adventuring into the sea. It parts because of the tidal pattern but it's cool to think about the magic.
People go out to get seafood and stuff. We saw someone pick up an octopus.
For more Jindo pictures, check out my Jindo album.
Jindo was really cool. I really liked it and it was nice to be out of Seoul.
Next we headed to Boseong to the Green Tea Fields.
It was a really relaxing and great weekend but my condition got worse and worse after.
Some love notes from students
I dropped my computer and then it wouldn't turn on, so I had to go to a repair shop and took a train with no one on it.
Turns out my hard drive crashed and I had to get a new one. Annoying.
I can't remember anything about school except I was getting more and more stuffy and coughy and my computer problems really agitated me.
The next weekend Tina was busy studying for her TOPIK test, so I hung out with some friends.
Grace, her bro, her bf and I did a Victorian style escape room and got out in 33 minutes even though they give you an hour.
Champs. Also the dog there peed on Jonghyuk's leg and it was hilarious.
After, we went and played screen golf. Grace and her bro played a lot so they taught Jonghyuk before and now they taught me. I'm not great at it but I managed. It was fun.
My name is "Ramyeon Meori" which means "Ramen Hair"
Woo
That week in dance we did "Good Boy" again by G-Dragon and Taeyang. The MV recently hit 100 million views.
I had already learned it so it was fun to review.
Watch me kill it despite my nose leaking everywhere the whole time.
Helen had been around so she came to watch. Then Tina was done with her test so we got dinner and dessert.
Awesome cupcakes.
Next week my condition worsened even more, but the walk to school was pretty so here's that.
I went to the doctor but my eye was messed up from my nose so I didn't wear makeup to work for a week. Actually I just started up again now that I'm better and my kid who looks like small Korean Harry Potter asked why I was wearing it again when I'm so pretty without it. Kid is going places.
After a golf ball sized lymph node blow up and a steadily worsening eye along with red and itchy swollen lips, I made a visit to a different doctor to find out I was probably allergic to Monday's medicine, so I got more to take. I'm okay now. It sucked a lot.
Sunday we went to dance class and learned Sistar's "Shake It" which was super fun.
After, a friend wanted to go to dinner at a taco place in Sangsu, and we did because she had been unable to join us the previous week at a different taco place in Sangsu.
It was fated. We actually were in the restaurant when a famous Korean idol came to eat. For everyone's safety I won't post his name or the group he's in. But it was pretty cool.
He's in the white with the mask.
I like this picture more for Tina's face than his
Friend who wanted tacos loves him and his group, but his manager declined a picture because he's not wearing makeup. Alas. It was still weirdly cool to be in the same place as him. I was starstruck and I follow him or that group like none percent. My coworkers were hella jealous though. They love him. And were mad because they've lived in Seoul for 25 ish years and never ran into anyone. Hehe it's the foreigner luck.
This week came and went as I still recovered from being sick. Wednesday was some BS bonding day at school so all the teachers split by their grades and left school at 2 to go do various bonding activities.
The 6th grade teachers are over all this nonsense, so we went "hiking" in Bucheon's ecological center, which turned out to be awesome. We had come last year but in summer when everything was dead, so this time was better since there is a tulip festival.
It was really pretty!
They also inexplicably have a zoo exhibit there with various birds and animals that don't seem to go together but whatever it was cool.
So now I'm just chilling and watching my Korean soap opera and getting ready for another adventurous weekend.
Songs I'm obsessed with: NCT U's "The 7th Sense." All of them are babies (like 95 to 99 liners) and there has been a lot of controversy with my personal favorite member Taeyong (seen in the center with the white hair in the still of the video) but the song is killer and I've been listening on repeat.
In other news, my favorite group Beast lost a member as Hyunseung (Tina's fave) left to pursue a solo career, citing differences in music opinions that led to personal problems between the members. Sigh. But we're learning the dance to 12:30 this week and Beast is still my favorite group, so there's still that to look forward to.
Hopefully I feel better and can keep updates more consistent.
Oh, I passed TOPIK level 2 by a lot. I'm pretty stoked. Wooooooooooo!
I've been having some really bad days lately, emotionally, so I couldn't really bring myself to blog. I still don't feel great, but I don't want a million things to do after this weekend, so here it is.
School has been on and off lately since my kids keep doing field trips and mandatory seminars and other nonsense. I also have a lot more time since I don't have to make everything from scratch for each lesson. We already did the books, so I have a lot of materials. It has been good for watching Signal, the best kdrama and tv show I've watched in a while, but it hasn't been good for me emotionally since when I have too much time and nothing to do it makes me anxious. An unfortunate byproduct of my personality and grad school, I suppose.
Anyway on Wednesday we went strawberry picking and hiking. There was supposed to be a strawberry festival, but it got cancelled. Oh well. The strawberries were good and it was fun to pick them.
And fun to eat them.
There was also this cute dog.
Then we were supposed to see the cloud bridge at Daedunsan, but the cable car wasn't working and we didn't have enough time, energy, or skill to scale the whole mountain as our first outing after winter.
Flowers blooming
Where we should have quit
The only stairs
What most of the way up was like
After we quit we felt a lot better
We made it about halfway up, but the next half was even steeper and rockier, so we decided not to risk it. Tina and I have terrible cable car luck (Seoraksan it started working an hour after we go there but it wasn't when we first arrived and in Beijing the Great Wall one was shut down for high winds) and this was no exception. We saw them testing it on our way down though.
Flower time
Fuck you, cute cable car thing. Y u no work
Same to you, mister
On Sunday we made our way to dance. I was excited because they had asked Tina and I to do a tutorial video with them, but it was for SNSD/GG's "I Got a Boy"
I do not know why, but I really hate this song. It's just really annoying to me, and like GG/SNSD is trying to hard to be hip. Idk. I like them when they're cute.
You can actually see my disdain for the song while we did it.
I really can't even explain what it is that I don't like about the song. It feels really disjointed and like 4 different songs in one. But I like other songs that do weird stuff like that? Idk.
The class was on the whole a little more enthusiastic than I was, and our teacher slays as always.
I was a little more pleasant in the tutorial because I want to help out the studio, but I think I'm awkward on camera. oh well. I hope I can do it for a song I like next time.
This week I just watched Signal (drama summary: A walkie-talkie in the present somehow picks up signals from a detective in the past, Lee Jae Han (Jo Jin Woong). Police profiler Park Hae Young (Lee Je Hoon) finds this walkie-talkie and uses it to help solve cold cases. Detective Cha Soo Hyun (Kim Hye Soo), who was once a rookie at Lee Jae Han’s station, leads the cold-case team. Thanks to Park Hae Young (and Lee Jae Han), the team solves infamous cold cases. But communicating with the past has consequences.) and helped my coteacher with her thesis since my 6th graders were on a field trip and I didn't have much to teach.
The poster for Signal. I wish I had more energy to explain just how incredible this drama was. I'm a sucker for time loops and past/present consequences so it was really good. Each minute felt valuable and the emotional payoff was intense. Loved it.
Wednesday we had one last dinner with our coordinator, Jon, from SMOE. He's been really great and helped us all a lot, so it was sad to say goodbye.
But the sandwiches were great.
Anyway, it's cherry blossom season and I took a walk on Thursday near my apartment to clear my head and my heart a bit. It was nice.
You should play this song while you look at the pictures for the authentic Korean experience:
Seriously. You'll hear Busker Busker's "Cherry Blossom Ending" more times than you care to remember during this time of the year. But it's a really great song and is always stuck in my head these days. I wonder why.
Some of my favorite lyrics:
How is this love song that you hear right now? I hold hands with you, whom I love As we walk together on this unknown street
As the spring wind blows The scattering cherry blossom petals Spread out on this street As we walk together
Enjoy a few pictures:
This couple was taking couple pictures in their couple clothing
Feeling good among the blossoms with my Coffee Bean drink
And here are a few from my walk to school every morning, which is the opposite direction from the previous pics:
It's such a shame they'll be gone soon...
This weekend I'm going to Jindo and the Boseong green tea fields, so maybe I'll be able to get back into good spirits.
If not, I always have my cats:
Sapphire and her butler Jeeves, along with Xerxes IX came to visit me
And here is Senor Don Gato
Off to pack and whatnot. No update this weekend, but I'll try to do some next week, Stay well all!
