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Monday:
No school today, thanks to the anniversary of the
opening of PaekChe. I was all set to enjoy a nice day
walking around my neighbourhood (it's a beautiful
day), so I walked down to the coffee shop to get a
latte for my walk. But I didn't make it very far-- I
started feeling really sick, and by the time I got
home, I was puking neon yellow liquid. Gross, I know.
I'm not really sure what was going on there, but it
certainly ruined my day.
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Thursday:
So it's Teachers Day once again, and I of course
completely forgot about it. So right before improv
class was supposed to start, I was going to leave to
grab a cup of coffee, but 2 of my students were
manning the door and wouldn't let me out! That's when
I started to get suspicious, but I was still genuinely
surprised when they all came marching single file
singing the Teacher's song, and carrying a cake and
flowers. Oh, my sweet students! This was especially
nice after a really rough day with my Seoul students
yesterday. It seems like my Seoul students are
constantly disappointing me, and my Iksan students are
constantly surprising me. Except this year, the
students weren't as organized as they were last year,
and forgot to bring plates, chopsticks and a knife for
the cake. So it just sat on the piano for decoration
during the rest of the class. And then I had to lug
the whole thing home with me.
On the bus back to Seoul, I sat with one of my 1st
year students who can't speak English very well. And
of course, my Korean is terrible, so it was kind of
funny trying to have conversations with her-- thank
god for phone dictionaries. She did make me laugh
hysterically when she was trying to describe Kim Jong
Il, and she said that he had "broccoli hair".
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Saturday:
This afternoon, I attended the wedding of Su Hee, one
of my former students at the hagwon. This is the 3rd
wedding I've been to in Korea, and this was by far the
nicest-- it took place in a church, there was no
canned music, no trumpet guns, no smoke or bubble
machines, no doves. It actually felt more like a real
wedding instead of a circus. Su Hee looked beautiful,
and I was thrilled to be invited. It was nice to see
that a lot of students were there, and even Ben, Jae
and Won Sool came. Again, I'm always surprised at how
short Korean weddings are. After the ceremony, a lot
of people just leave, and there's no real reception--
everyone just eats and goes, and the bride and groom
aren't even there for that part. This time, instead
of a buffet with a bunch of other wedding parties,
everyone had galbi-tang (beef soup) at a restaurant,
which was nicer and more intimate.
BTW, it kind of creeps me out that my STUDENTS are
getting married.
Later on, I was double booked-- 1st I met Annabelle
and Megan in Hongdae. A girl that Annabelle tutors is
a jazz pianist, and she had a gig at this nice club in
Hongdae. It turned out to be different than we
expected-- it was a latin jazz band, and they turned
out to be pretty decent. After that, we headed over
to Bricx for some martinis, and there we were joined
by Annabelle's boyfriend, Ji Hyoung, and his friend
Joon. Several drinks later, I ran up the street to a
different to meet up with Tom and his friends for
Tom's birthday party. Tom is a British guy that I was
friends with in Daegu, and he's just gotten back to
Korea, this time living in Seoul. So it was great to
catch up and meet his new girlfriend, and some of his
other friends. We all stayed out dancing til dawn.
It's nice to know so many people in Seoul now, but I
feel like all of my groups of friends are pretty
fragmented here. In Daegu, everyone knew everyone, so
we all hung out together. But here, I've got 3 or 4
different groups of friends who don't know eachother
at all, and it can make it difficult to plan my social
time. I'll have to do something to bring everyone
together.
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