Life In Seoul Continues... The May Edition

Tuesday, May 5th: Happy Children's Day!!! This was a happy day for one reason and one reason only: HOLIDAY!!! This was our first day off since the Lunar New Year in January and it was desperately needed. We were originally supposed to have the Monday off as well, which would have given us a 4-day weekend, but nope. Didn't happen and we had to go into work. Needless to say, no one was pleased and everyone was pretty bitter upon hearing this news. Anyways, a day off is a day off, right! I could (and kinda wanted to) spend the day in bed sleeping and being lazy, but instead woke up early and headed to Itaewon to do some shoe shopping with Meghan and Kelly. Fun! We spent the morning/early afternoon trying on shoes, looking at clothes and then eating Quiznos, followed by Coldstone for dessert. A trip to Itaewson isn't complete without a sub/ice cream combo! Which reminds me: Someone needs to open a Coldstone in Canada. Best ice cream EVER!!! Later that afternoon, Meghan and I took the nearly 2hrs trip to Uijeongbu to meet up with some army boys. Meg had a date and offered to meet him close to the base and since I'm always happy to spend time with AJ, I was quick to offer to make the trip with her. Meghan ended up meeting her date a bit later than intended, so she, AJ and I had dinner together which was great, because I love hanging out with my two favourite redheads! Once we were alone, AJ and I wandered around Uijeongbu then went to a DVDbang (DVD room). DVDbangs are one of those things that I so wish we had in Canada. They're all over the place and basically, you go in and pick a DVD from a huge selection. You then go into a private room with a sofa and watch the movie on a big screen complete with surround sound. So awesome! I've never had to pay more than W12,000 so it's cheaper than going to a theatre and definetly more comfortable. I met up with Meghan at around 10:30pm and we made the trip back home. I was in bed later than my bedtime, so I was once again tired the next day, but that's ok. It was a busy, but entertaining Children's Day!

Saturday, May 9th: On this lovely sunny day, a bunch of us headed to the Han River for the...

(3rd Seoul World DJ Festival)

Upon entering the festival grounds, we made our way to a painting booth. The paint was meant to be used on the wall, where people had written messages, drawn pictures, and so on. But as our group has never really been known for following the norm, we took liberties with how the paint should be used:

We definitely got dirty looks from the workers at the booth, not to mention strange looks from everyone else throughout the day, but it's not as if anyone tried to stop us! I personally think we looked fabulous! It was a great day. DJs from all over the world played so we had an eclectic variety of music to keep us entertained throughout the day. There were also booths setup throughout the park grounds, so I wandered to all of them with random friends. Amanda, Kelly and I made t-shirts for super cheap which was fun. Oh! And Meghan and I had our portraits done, but it wasn't very good. We both looked so angry in the picture which was annoying because we were laughing the entire time! I'm still a bit bitter about that because Jen and Tara had had their portrait done earlier in the day and there's was really good! *pouts* The day went by surprisingly fast and suddenly, it was nightime. Bring on the glow-in-the-dark accessories! Haha! By this time, everyone was getting pretty mellow after a day in the sun, so it would have been easy to head home. But Jamie being the fantastic woman that she is had the insight to bring jump ropes. I hadn't jumped rope in soooo long! It was great fun and had quite a crew, old friends and new, joining in on the action. Oh! Throughout the day, we kept being photographed by random photographers and journalists, which was kinda weird but fun all at the same time. I'm sure our pictures are in some Korean newspapers somewhere. Anyways, Jen (or was it Jamie... Can't remember!) was browsing DJ Fest's Facebook page and checking out the pictures from the event when she came across this picture that was posted as one of the album covers:



Yup, that's Tara and I in all our jump rope glory! We were very excited and felt like semi-celebrities! Haha! I'm very glad that I got to experience DJ Fest, especially knowing that I'd be missing Ottawa's Bluesfest this year. I need my yearly dose of music festivities!

Monday, May 11th: Happy 1st birthday to my beautiful niece, Abriele. I'm very sad to be missing your first birthday, but look forward to spending time with you once I get back to Canada! *kisses*

Thursday, May 21st: Happy 24th birthday Laura Teacher! Je t'aime!

Friday, May 22nd: In honour of Laura's birthday, Linsday hosted a potluck. The whole SLP crew made an appearance at one point in the night which is always fun. We're pretty good when it comes to birthdays and I find that everybody tries extra hard to attend whatever celebration might be going on. There was lots of yummy food and everybody stuffed their faces until we whined about how full we were. I'm not sure how long we stayed at Lindsay's, but eventually the group split up. Some were heading to Hongdae, but I followed the birthday girl and others to a nearby noraebang for some song therapy. Oh how I love noraebang! I haven't done it nearly enough times which I find silly because I absolutely love it. What's better than sitting in a room with your friends singing your hearts out?! Can't think of many things that top that. We should have been there for an hour but were given extra time which is always a bonus! Anyways, I had an excellent time celebrating Laura's birthday and hope that she too had a good Seoul-style birthday!

Friday, May 29th: Today I went on my 2nd field trip with my new batch of preschoolers. We headed to a farm in Il-San where the kids had a chance to pick vegetables, hang out in a grassy field, and take a tractor ride around the farm. Here are my kiddies showing off their prize cucumbers:

Cherry Class (aka Cherry Cats)

Banana Class (aka Banana Monkeys)


It was a fun-filled morning and the kids got to run around like little maniacs, something they always enjoy doing. I also got in a good workout chasing and being chased by kids from not only my class, but others classes as well. Amanda has a video on her Facebook page with me screaming and running around like a lunatic.. good times! Since I was sleepy by the time we left, I'd hoped they'd be sleepy on the trip back home and relax, but as always, I was wrong. Even after all this time, I'm still amazed by kids seemingly unlimited amounts of energy!

Friday, May 29th - Sunday, May 31st: This Friday night was spent heading to Busan for a beach-bound weekend. This was the opening weekend of the beaches in Busan, a nearby city by the sea, so we went to celebrate .

(2009 Haoundae Sand Festival)

We caught the train at 10:oopm-ish from Seoul Station and settled in for the 3 hour trip. I sat at a table with Meghan, Tara and Laura and we entertained ourselves by playing cards, drinking, and trying not to get kicked off by train personel who kept coming over asking us to quiet down. In our defense, we were being quiet! It's just that no one else was talking or they were asleep. What didn't help was that we kept having mad giggle fits in our attempts to be quiet which pretty much defeated the purpose. Anyways, the trip went by fairly quickly and without any real incident. Upon arriving in Busan, the group split up since we were staying in different places. I headed with Amanda, Meghan and Laura to a hotel in which a friend had reserved rooms for us. Our group chose not to go out that first night so once at the hotel, I settled in my room that I was sharing with Amanda and went to bed.

We slept in the next morning and after figuring out directions and getting ready in our beach-wear, the four of us headed for the beach. One slight problem: IT WAS FREEZING!!! It was overcast and windy, not an ideal day for lounging on the beach! We kept hoping it'd clear up, but the weather was still dreary once we got to the beach. We met up with the others and tried to sit on the beach, but gave up when we decided it was too cold. Instead of being beachbums, we wandered around and checked out the shops in the area. I ended up buying a bathing suit that I paid far too much for, but it's fabulous and worth every penny (or WON, in this case...)! We then went to eat which became a mission in itself. We had tried to go to a reknown Mexican restaurant, but it was a tiny takeout restaurant and the lineup was insane. We stood in line for a while, but we were a large group so we finally gave up. By this time, we were all craving Mexican food so we went to a restuaurant that we had seen by the beach. This place was originally a bar that they'd turned into a restaurant not too long earlier. It was easy to tell that they were ill-equiped for such a busy weekend because most of us waited for over an hour for food that never came. Sigh. We left after paying our drinks and headed back to the beach. Sand sculptures were being created so we decided to check them out:

After checking out the sculptures, Amanda, Meghan, Laura and I, the quartet that hadn't eaten since breakfast, went to TGIFridays and FINALLY ate. We spent more than we're used to spending in Korea, but it was worth it. YUM! There were plans to go out that night, but Amanda and Laura opted out. Once we got back to our hotel, I switched rooms with Laura and got dolled up with Meghan. We cabbed to Ellen's, Tara's friend whom she, Jen and Susie were staying with. We hung out at Ellen's for quite a while, listening to music and playing drinking games. We finally made our way to Foxy's, a fantastic club. SO MUCH FUN! It has several levels and each level played a different kind of music. It made for a great dance party and we spent many hours dancing our little hearts out.

Waking up on Sunday was slightly painful thanks to all the fun that was had the night before, but we once again made our way to the beach. The weather was much more cooperative that day and we stepped out of the hotel to sunshine and warm-weather. The entirety of that morning/afternoon was spent lounging on the beach. Amanda and I were crazy enough to go for a dip in the ocean (it was cold!), although not many were quick to follow in our footsteps. We left the beach and headed for the train at around 3:00pm and made it just in time to catch our 5:00pm train back to Seoul. Even with the crappy weather on Saturday, it was a great weekend and I'm glad that I got to visit Busan, a city I'd heard nothing but good things about. If I were ever to live in Korea again, I think I'd want to live there. It's a large city but has a chill small city feel to it. Plus the beaches are great, so it's totally my kind of place!

(Meghan, Me, Laura, Tara, Susie, Amanda, Jen)

June - to be continued...