Week 38 (Nov 13th to Nov 19th)
Monday Nov 14th, Evan's parents are here, finally. They are very nice, and much more parental than Jason's mom. I'm happy to meet them, but it's kind of depressing, because it means that Evan is really leaving soon.
Wednesday Nov 16th, Today was Evan's last day at Wonderland, and his last night in Daegu. After work, Sue took us all out to a fried chicken place (although I'm now terrified of fried chicken, I managed to eat a little bit). I was exhausted because I had been out with the funk band really late the night before, but I knew it was my last chance to see Evan for at least four months. Sue made Evan and Jason give speeches, and I couldn't help but cry a little, as embarrassing as it is to have cried in front of my co-workers.
Thursday Nov 17th, Today was Jason's last day at Wonderland. Evan came in to say goodbye in the morning, and to drop off his cell phone, which I have now inherited (my first cell phone ever), so we had a sad goodbye, and then Jason and I had a sad goodbye at the end of the day. Jason is going to be in Daegu til the 26th, so it's not so bad with him, cause I know I'll see him before he leaves, but it's still upsetting to know that I'm not going to see my two favourite boys every day at work anymore. Plus, the new teachers aren't getting in until Sunday night (due to a mistake with the paperwork made by Sue; I'm pretty pissed off about it-- I mean, how many times has she brought foreign teachers over? She should have it figured out by now), so I know that tomorrow is going to be hellish.
Friday Nov 18th, It's my birthday! And it sucked hard! Because we had to cover two full teaching schedules, I was running around all day trying to do a million things. I taught solid all day, 9:40am to 6:30pm, and several of those classes were double classes. The one redeeming thing about the day was the kids: they were funny and delightful today. Most of the morning students remembered my birthday, and were really sweet about it, singing me songs and giving me big birthday hugs. My last class in the afternoon is a little older; they're about 11 years old. So they got a bunch of paper crackers, and turned off all the lights in the classroom, and when I came in, they all jumped out and yelled Happy Birthday! One of the girls in that class, Sung Hyun, even got me a birthday present-- a pair of mittens and a nice pencil, in a box that she decorated herself. After work, we did the traditional birthday cake stuff (we do it for everyone's birthday), and I got a $50 dollar gift certificate to a big department store, but the work didn't end there. We have a big presentation for the incoming parents tomorrow, so we had to stay until 8:30pm to set up for the damn thing! I was certainly pissed about it. Because I was so grumpy and tired by the time I got home, I didn't even want to do anything. So I crawled into bed, and watched a movie. And that was my 24th birthday.
Saturday Nov 19th, I had to be back at work for 10am today for the stupid parents' meeting, which I didn't have to do anything for anyway. All I had to do was stand around and smile at the moms. We were told to dress nicely, but in the past that has meant more of a business casual kind of look. So I was shocked when I came in and found everyone in suits and fancy dresses. I was a little underdressed, and really wished that Carey had warned me about the level of dressing up that was required for this meeting! (I can't believe that we have to dress up so much to meet a bunch of kindergarten kids.) Then I literally did nothing for 3 hours, except stand around and say hi once in awhile, and have really mundane conversation with Carey, and think about how much I wanted to be asleep. Afterwards, Sue wanted to take us all out to lunch, and I made up some excuse about having birthday plans to get out of there. Usually bailing on a work event is completely unacceptable, but I guess the birthday excuse was sufficient. And I really didn't have a lot of time to spare before I actually did have to birthday stuff . . .I met my girlfriends Anna, Charlotte and Tristan at 8pm downtown to go to dinner at a fancy restaurant named Dijon. Since I've gotten to Daegu, I've heard nothing but good things about this restaurant, from foreigners and Koreans alike. It's even in the Lonely Planet book. So I was really excited to get to finally eat there. I was not disappointed�the presentation was gorgeous, and the food was even better. I had a stuffed chicken breast with curry and coconut rice, and it was perfection. Then the chocolate souffle . . . words can't describe the chocolate souffle . . . After dinner, I had to hightail it over to Pussycat, where the funk band was playing a set at a DJ party, also doubling as my birthday party! Most of my friends were there, and ready to party, so I was pretty pumped. The funk band played a set that was actually somewhat sloppy, but it was incredibly well-received. They were begging for an encore, but we couldn't give it to them, because the DJs had to go on and do their sets. Then we all partied it up and danced like maniacs for the remainder of the night. One thing that really pissed me off about the night: the number of creepy foreigner guys who kept on trying to hit on me. It's like they all came out of the woodwork just to harass me on this night. It was then that I really started to feel the absence of Evan, because usually he would scare all the stupid guys away for me. Tonight I didn't have anyone to do that for me! (The boys in my band are too mild-mannered to be scary.) At about 3:30, I had had enough of fending off complete idiots, so I bailed rather suddenly, and kind of early, considering my track record! I suppose all in all, it was a pretty good birthday, celebrated one day late. I got to hang out with most of my friends here, although the absence of Jason and Evan was certainly felt, and I was pleasantly surprised with the gifts and cards that I received from students and friends here. Perhaps 24 isn't so bad after all. (I can't believe that I'm actually 24 .. .)
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