Seoul = No sleep!

I cut my bangs! I am now officially Asian! Lol I have been feeling the need to do something bold, something I would never do if I were back at home. Cutting my bangs was the first thing I could think of that wasn't permanent or involved me changing my hair color. I already feel like I am doing something drastic by coming to South Korea for a year, but it wasn't enough, apparently. Amy, another teacher at LCI, offered to take me to the same place she went to get her hair cut, which was really nice. I knew it was going to be a challenge for me to communicate to them what I wanted to get, so I brought a picture to show the hair stylist. She was incredibly nervous to cut my hair because she didn't want to cut too much, or thought I didn't understand what I was getting myself into. Fortunately the woman sitting in the chair next to me spoke a little bit of English, so she could translate the hair stylist for me. Cutting my bangs was only 3,000 won! I like how they turned out, but they are a huge pain in the ass and take up extra time in the morning that I could be saving for my precious sleep! ;-)

I finally got a cell phone this week! Not that I have any real purpose for it, unless I get lost somewhere. I don't see myself using it too much since I'm always with at least one friend at all times. Maybe that will change though…

It was Michelle’s birthday on Friday, so her and her friends invited Katie, Tia and I to celebrate with them. We met up at Alia and Michelle’s apartment to hang out for a bit before heading to Suwon. Their apartment was about 3 times bigger than mine, I was pretty jealous! They had a huge living room area, 3 bedrooms, a large kitchen, a huge bathroom with a normal shower and a laundry room. It put mine to shame!!! I'm happy to be living alone though, so I guess that is the trade off. We played a few “get to know you” games first, which were hilarious!! All of the girls have a great sense of humor, cracking jokes and saying inappropriate things that we all got a good laugh from. I definitely see us hanging out with these girls on a regular basis, thank goodness they are all living in Dongtan too!

We took 2 cabs to Suwon and walked around for a while before deciding on going to a club called Tao- easy for me to remember because it is the name of my favorite club in Vegas. It was the first club we have been to while being here in South Korea, and it didn't disappoint! The lights were bright and wild and the crowd was full of Koreans. This is probably what I love most about going out in Korea, you can never get lost because I have red hair and my friends are blonde, so you can spot them from a mile away! Alia and Michelle lead us up to an area where we could dance on the stage. They played great music and we were SO happy we decided to go out tonight! Katie was like a kid in a candy store- ecstatic about everything that was going on around here. I loved watching her excitement, but eventually we had to leave early because we worked at 10am yesterday (Saturday) ☹

Yesterday was the orientation for the parents of the new students that will be at LCI, beginning on March 2nd. We have been cramming all week to teach our classes and set up our classrooms! I was also busy trying to complete my Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate, so I wasn't as prepared as the other teachers were. I had to bring a bunch of art and crafts home so I could finish my Welcome sign for my door. By the time the orientation started, I only had a fraction of my room complete, while other teachers were much farther along. Other than working on our classrooms, we had to introduce ourselves to the parents at each of the four orientation times. This consisted of all of the teachers running across the street to the Brown English Language School and standing in front of about 200 parents and students for 3 minutes, then running back to LCI to hangout for 2 hours until the next orientation. It was incredibly boring and unproductive! But the worst part was that we weren’t getting paid!! We worked ALL day on a Saturday with no pay! I strongly believe in overtime pay, so I was NOT happy about this! But we made it through by keeping in mind that it was Sarah’s birthday and had a fabulous night out in Seoul to look forward to!

While we were getting ready to go out in Seoul for Sarah’s 24th birthday (Katie, Tia and I are the babies of the group), the new boy, Andrew, arrived!!! There are only female teachers left now that Kevin and Daniel are gone, so we were all looking forward to the new boy coming! I only spoke to him briefly, but he seems like a really friendly, fun guy and I cant wait to see what the new dynamic will be. His room is in between mine, Katie ‘s and Tia’s apartments. It is interesting to think about how this complete stranger could be one of my best friends in only a few short months. He doesn't seem to be bothered by the fact that he’s surrounded by girls every day, he said, “It could be worse”. Hahaha seems like a funny guy, too. We invited him out to Seoul with us, but he ended up sleeping through the night – which turned out to be to his benefit ‘cause last nights trek home was insane!!!

A bunch of us left for Seoul at around 9pm. We started at cute Irish pub that was really expensive, so we only stayed for one drink. Sarah’s Korean boyfriend and his friend Jake came to celebrate with us, which was great because they are both so nice. Jake and I spent a lot of time trying to teach each other the simplest phrases- He taught me some Korean and I taught him some basic Italian and Spanish, he thought I was a genius! Haha After the Irish pub and one other bar, we headed to an area of Seoul called Hongdae. Hongdae has a lot of bigger clubs where most of the Koreans go. We had to pay a 15,000 won cover, but it was worth every penny! It was huge and full of people and great music. We danced for hours and met some really fun people. A danced near a few Korean guys and they loved watching me dance and jump up and down. We would make faces and laugh at each other, it was pretty entertaining! At some point we met a few guys who spoke English and they happened to be from Tacoma, of all places! I was SO excited! How random is it to be in Seoul and meet people who live 20 minutes away from you in the US?!?! Jake, my new Korean tutor ☺, must have received some mix signals because he was following me around all night, I played it friendly, but it was a little awkward. He even grabbed my purse to hold it for me. I'm not the kind of girl that likes it when people hold onto my stuff or pay for me, but Lyla explained to me that all Korean guys hold the purse of the girl they like because it shows other guys that you have a woman. Nice little fun fact!

Eventually we were all exhausted from dancing and decided it was time to head back home because it was 5am, but the subway didn't open until 6am and we didn't want to pay for a cab back to Dongtan. To pass the time we went to a little restaurant to eat some food. When 6am rolled around we walked to the subway station, freezing and feet aching! Little did we know that from Hongdae it takes 3 different subway transfers just to get to Itewon, THEN you have to walk to the bus stop to take the hour-long bus ride to Dongtan. During the 3 long subway rides we would take naps and somehow wake up for our stop and moan about how cold we were and how bad our feet hurt. The frigid weather and walking in 4-inch heels was unbearable by the time we made it to the bus stop. Tia was pissed!! The bus finally picked us up at 7:30 am, when the sun was out and people were wondering the streets starting their day. It was miserable!!! We slept the whole way to Dongtan. We arrived in Dongtan at 8:30 at this point we were almost in tears because we were so tired, cold, and wanted to take our heels off. We finally made it home at 9am- 12 hours after leaving!!! The night was incredible, but the 4 hour trek home with never be forgotten, or missed! Now we are positive that the cost of the cab home is worth every penny!!!

Today we slept until 5pm and spent the whole day watching TV, and now bloging. Oh, but I FINALLY figured out how to use the laundry machine, after 2 weeks and translation of the user guide by Lyla- our little Korean savior ;-).