Yup ... Update fail.

I gave up Facebook for Lent because I spend WAAAY too much time there updating and hitting the "refresh" button. Sorry. It was a bad idea, but now that I've made it four weeks, I wanna take it the whole way.

Oh, so now I devote more of my time to CyWorld. Go figure.

Anyways, in a few words, recently ...
... Nick and I started going to mass at Sogang University, Eun-Soo (my friend from church) will be enlisting in the military at the end of this month, I'm still teaching HS, I don't sleep a lot, I hang out with Nick, a bunch of people have gotten married (and there's still MORE coming up), Dean went back to America, Matt came back to Korea, I have new musical obsessions, I teach Writing in addition to Conversation, there's new teachers at my school, I attempt to use Korean more ...

That's all.

Here's some pictures. :)

I got a new hair cut/style.

Nick, playing guitar outside of Sogang University while waiting for mass.

How I spend my Sunday mornings PART I - With Isaac and Eun-Soo

How I spend my Sunday mornings PART II - With Chang-Won and Sung-Pil (also Chan-Joo, but she wasn't here yet)

Eileen and Superman Teacher got married!!!

Matt's back!

Hanging out with Eun-Soo (and Nick, but he was TAKING the picture instead of getting in it)

Some of the volunteers for the Sogang English mass - we got together for dinner one night

Nick and I, hanging out in Sinchon on a random Monday

SPRING IS HERE!!!

Lately ...

... I've not been keeping up with blogger. Oh well.

I just finished reading "Get Me Out of Here" by Rachel Reiland - it's about the author overcoming borderline personality disorder. It was sorta intense, but the ending was good. Now I've started on "The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way" by Bill Bryson. It's pretty entertaining.

Last Saturday, two of my friends got married - 곰언니 and 지홍오빠. It was a pretty awesome ceremony. This weekend, two people from church'll be getting married. Then, it's dinner in Pyeongchon. Church on Sunday - both in Suwon and in Seoul ... then on Monday (my freeeeeeeee day) I think I've got plans to catch a movie in Seoul.

Oh, and if all goes well, the biggest and best surprise EVERRRRR should be arriving in Seoul on Monday. PLEASEpleasePLEASE let it all go according to plan! :D But shhhhh ... it's a secret.

Oh, and we've now finished Day 2 of Lent. Less Facebook. More ... other things. :D

Love.

Say HEY to Vacation ...

... again.

Yup, that's right - it's Thursday, February 17th and I don't have to be back at work 'til Wednesday, March 2nd. I might be bragging ... just a little. :)

Don't worry, I'll spend next week doing SOME constructive things. For example, I need to get my grading stuff in order so that I can go over guidelines and stuff with my students when I finally find out who I'm gonna be teaching (yeah, don't know and probably WON'T know until Wednesday ... gee, whatta shocker). Oh, and I should probably sort through my lessons. And, you know, stop ignoring my TEFL course. Again. And submit my application. Yeah, yeah, I'll have stuff to do. :)

Anyways. What else is new? Oooooooh, yeah ...



I saw Taylor Swift perform in Seoul last Friday with Miss Mindy Page. :) :) :) It was pretty freakin' sweet. I mean, aside from the fact that it was the first concert I've been to in Korea where I've actually understood everything the performer said ... :) Don't get me wrong, JYP in 2008 and Rain last year were both AMAZING ... but ... it was cool knowing what was going on. And yes, I screamed like a 12 year old girl ... surrounded by actual 12 year old girls. :)



My favorite song of her's - "Back to December." :D

What else is new? Well ... not much. I just finished a two-week long teaching "stint" ... I'm not sure if they're going to be my students for the semester, or if I'll have different students or whatever ... so I'm calling it a stint. They seemed smart ... if not a bit smart-alecky. If they ARE my students, then we'll have to work on that. :) However, there's a few stand-outs. My new GFLHS best friend is a kid who said his favorite kind of music is country. :)

Speaking of best friends ... mine sent me packets of spiced cider. TAKE THAT, KOREA!!! I swear, if you just tried it, you would LOOOVE it. And you would be all, "Why aren't we marketing this???" It would be a great thing, Korea. Trust me.

She also sent me Glee music AND chocolate. My best friend rocks.

And that's pretty much all. Gonna go read, work on finishing the application, and maybe watch a video. If anyone's hangin' around Seoul during the next week, shoot a text my way. :)

Too Awesome NOT to Share ...

Local Church Thank You (feat. Dusty Quarles) by S.A.U.N.N.A.

Matt (a past coworker of mine) created this track with a bunch of friends on the night I was waiting at Incheon airport for Stuart's little brother to get here from the States. I'm pretty sure my friend from church can be heard rapping the Korean alphabet. :) Dusty is saying "Il-shim-gyo-hei Kam-sa-ham-ni-da" which is the name of a local church (that most people use to get back to the apartments when they get in a taxi) and then "thank you".

"ga na da la ma ba sah ah ja cha ka ta pa ha" is the Korean alphabet (가 나 다 라 마 바 사 아 자 차 카 타 파 하).

"You figured out how to use the English website! Congrats!"

A little tidbit from my day:

After I arrived in Gimpo (first time back since Monday morning), I was talking to my best friend on the phone when I got hungry. Hey, it was like, 5 PM - cut me some slack. Well, the only food I had that I could readily prepare was cereal. No big. I like cereal. So I get out my Oreo-O's and milk ... shoot. No bowls. So, I take stock of what I have, and I come up with a solution (now, don't judge me) and I end up eating my cereal out of a pot. A small pot, but a pot, nonetheless.

Fastfoward to later in the evening when, after studying Korean in preparation for tomorrow (FAIL), I'm feeling a little hungry. Remember when I said earlire that the only food I could readily prepare was cereal? Well, this time, I couldn't decide what kind to eat - so I mixed them together (you know, like you do when you're a kid). So, I'm prepared to eat my Oreo-Os/Cornflakeish hybrid ... shoot. No bowls AND the pot hasn't been cleaned yet. Again, I take stock of my kitchen supplies, and this time ... I end up eating my cereal out of a pie plate.

My name is Marcie, and I have a problem. LAAAAAAAZY.

Another thought? It's mind-numbingly difficult to translate song lyrics from Korean into English when they were ORIGINALY in English (because they get sorta skewed in the first round of translations [from English to Korean] ... and then DOUBLY skewed in the second round [from Korean back into English]). Especially since I know the songs fairly well to begin with ... ugh. Sorry, 창원 ... I fail.

What else ... OH! I'm going to see TAYLOR SWIFT perform in Seoul for the first time on FRIDAY! :) :) :) Thanks to LEIGH (Morgan, you ROCK!), I found out yesterday that Taylor Swift would be coming to Seoul on the 11th (that's just a week away!) ... and I found myself automatically texting my friend the exciting information (the only person I could think of who might be as happy as I was about this news) ... automatically as in I wasn't consciously thinking of what to say, but the words were coming out of my fingers ... no joke. After a few preliminary texts, I was too excited to focus on typing the words, so I just called - our dialogue looked sorta like this:

Me: "OH MY FREAKING GOODNESS, THERE'S STILL TICKETS!!! WOULD YOU GO WITH ME!?!?!?"
friend: "Uhm, yeah, sure, okay ..." (I think my excitement was a little overwhelming ... because I was literally yelling into the phone)
Me: "YESSSS! Okay. I'm going to buy tickets. Wait. I'm on the website. If this doesn't work, I'm going to say bad words."
waiting
pause
friend: "Uh, do you want me to do that? Is it in Korean?"
Me: "No. It's in English. I think I can do it. Wait. Stop laughing at me!"
friend: laughing ... "sorry."
Me: "It's hard to concentrate! I'm too excited! If you make fun of me, I'll kick you."
friend: "How? We're on the phone."
Me: "... smart aleck."
waiting ... small talk
Me: "OH MY GOSH I DID IT! I DID IT! YESSSSSSSS!"
friend: "Great job! You figured out how to use the English website! Congratulations!"
Me: "... I don't like you right now."

That's what it kinda looked like. Anyways. On Friday, we're gonna see TAYLOR SWIFT! I already created my playlist for the week, and my friend and I are memorizing the songs, haha. :) :) :) EXCITING.

In other news ... Eric Clapton is ALSO coming to Seoul! I think this month is going to freakin' rock.

And ... I'm out. I've been ignoring Blogger because I'm now obsessed with CyWorld. Sorry. But I'm trying to keep up my once-weekly posts. Oh, and I'll tell you about Lunar New Year week soon. Loves.

Rice Cooker Fail

Right now, I'm baking bread.

Yes, I realize it's 10:00 PM, and I have other things that are more important to do. But this is pretty dang important. See, today I bought wheat flour and brown rice. I was super excited because that meant I had food (rice) in my room for tomorrow morning ... say ... breakfast. Or lunch. Whatever.

Well, I got back to my room at like, 7 PM and was pretty hungry since I hadn't eaten since noon. So I decided to cook some rice for dinner. I have a rice cooker. This is NOT rocket science. It's measuring rice and water and hitting the switch. When the light turns green, the rice is ready to eat. NOT HARD.

Evidently, it is beyond my abilities to use a RICE COOKER to make rice. I failed. Miserably. So, I am now baking bread out of necessity because if I don't, I will not have food tomorrow (with the exception of whatever they're serving in the cafeteria ... which ... is sometimes hit or miss).

How I failed with a rice cooker, I'll never know.

___

Anyways. I also might have messed up my bread since you're supposed to mix all-purpose flour with wheat flour, and I didn't really have enough all-purpose flour so I tweaked the recipe and improvised a little ... but it's easier to eat messed-up bread than it is to eat messed-up rice. Trust me on that one. This isn't the first time I've failed at making rice (nor will it be the last, probably).

___

And yes, I've been ignoring this blog - although I'm getting pretty good at my once-a-week updates. (but I HAVE been doing that "31 days of pictures" garbage on my *new* CyWorld [which 지선언니 made for me]).

So what did I do last week? Well, as always, there was church on Sunday. I love church. I love that church. Specifically, I love the people at that church. I know I've said it before, and I'll probably say it many, many, MANY more times, but I'm so blessed by the people I've met there. I'm so very, very lucky. And I know sometimes I may be viewed as the odd-ball ... since, you know, I'm Catholic (with a big "C") and some people really don't seem to understand that ... but we have thus far managed to overcome our differences, haha.

Monday was Matt Loutz's last FULL day in Korea ... for this time around ... since I didn't have to work, he and I met up at 서울대 (Seoul National University) and walked around ... a lot ... since the campus is pretty HUGE. We went to the museum there - not the art museum, but the regular one, and practice reading in Korean. We also got to talk a lot, which was nice since it's been FOREVER. PS, I've since decided that I want to go there to study a little ... maybe some graduate school ... maybe just to study something random. I don't know. But I'll keep you posted on that.

At some point in the past week (the days all kind of got jumbled in my head), I went to the National Museum of Korea (국립중앙박물관) to explore. First of all, that museum is HUGE. I'm not joking. I was there for over two hours, and I only made a small dent ... as in I only made it through half of one floor (intensively) while merely glancing at everything else. It's got an AMAZING set of collections. Oh, and it's free. That's right - free. If you want to see the special exhibitions, well, you have to pay ... but if you just want to go peruse the permanent galleries (which is what I did), it's totally free. They even offer free tours in English (and other languages), but I chose to rent a headset for like, a dollar. Less than a dollar. uh-MAY-zing. And I will be returning SOON to finish perusing everything.

Yesterday (Saturday), Chang-gi and Nick and I met up in Seoul, which was cool because it's been a while since the three of us have been TOGETHER. Come to think of it, I guess that was the first time since we were all at the Saint. Wow. That's pretty crazy. Oh, and I just realized that it's been almost three years since I graduated university ... which seems like a long time ago (or NOT). But, that reminiscing is for another day (and another post).

I didn't stay long at church today - I peaced out right after the sermon so I could catch that bus from Suwon Bus Terminal to Gimpo at 5PM. The general gist of the message today was on dating/courtship. It was sorta interesting, and I got a good look into the mindset of ... Korean Christians in regards to dating? Or, at least, into my pastor's thoughts? We'll see. Again, that's for another day and another post.

___

Mainly I just wanted to tell you how much I FAIL with a rice cooker. Oh, and that Winter English camp starts tomorrow and I'm all sorts of not prepared - I haven't taught anything since maybe the first week of December ... that was a long time ago ... I feel WAY off my game. Luckily tomorrow is just introductions (lesson plans be damned).

I'll let you know how it goes ...

___

Oh, and today (and yesterday, for that matter) was WAAAY too cold.

Random Odds and Ends

"You have to at least say goodbye before you leave.  If you don't, I'll hunt you down, kick you in the shins, and run away.  Korea is a small country - it wouldn't be that hard to find you."
"And then you'll write to me?  After you kick me and run away?"
"... yeah."

"Well, there's a KFC to the right and an Italian place to the left.  What do you want?  I wonder what else they have at the KFC ..."
"Chicken."
"... thanks."

~~~

Went to the Marc Chagall exhibition today in Seoul with my friend - I think the best way to sum it up is to say that his art work REALLY evolved throughout his career (which spanned like, 6 decades or something).  My favorite ones were "The Acrobat", "The Prodigal Son", "View from a Window", and one that was of a vase of flowers - it was very bright and cheerful, and I can't remember/find the name of it.  The first one, "The Acrobat", is of a woman who appears to be holding some sort of hoop.  I'm not sure why I like it, but of the pictures in his "Circus" series, it stuck out to me the most.  Now, before you start, let me be the first one to admit I'm anything BUT an art aficionado.  In fact, I'm kind of set in my ways - I know what I like, and what I don't like, and that's that.  But, it was fun to go to the exhibit, and see everything.  And, of course, it was great to hang out with my friend.

After the art exhibit, we grabbed lunch which is where the "KFC vs. Italian restaurant" quote came from (and the decision of where to eat was decided by a simple game of rock-scissors-paper).  Then came coffee, where conversation ranged from university requirements to military to church to religion to architecture (I still believe that that building is best described as "the one with the hole in it") to whatever else in between.  Finally, we went to the Kyobo bookstore at Gwanghwamun Station (it was too cold outside to do anything else).  Then, I fell asleep on the bus on the way back to Gimpo (but luckily woke up before my stop, unlike this morning on my way to Seoul).

So, all in all, it was a really fun day.  (^_^)  Tomorrow, I gotta buckle down and get some work done.  Psssht, right.

~~~

Totally felt like a rock star yesterday - came back to Gimpo for the first time since vacation and decided I wanted to see some of my students.  Walked into their study hall, and was greeted like a celebrity.  No joke!  The way some of my kids reacted, you'd've thought it had been months since I'd seen them (and yes, I know you can't make a contraction out of you+would+have).

Last night, I got to meet Chang-gi for dinner in Gangnam!  We were also supposed to get together with Jae-Jun, but he didn't answer.  *sad face*  Jae-Jun will start his military service soon - which makes me kinda sad.  Hopefully, I'll get to see him before he enlists.  AHHH!  ENLIST!  That's the word we were looking for today to describe it.

I knew that would come to me eventually.  Oh well.  A little late (9 hours later), but ... meh.

~~~

OH!  PS, my phone has made its comeback.  Thanks to Seong-Don oppa ... he helped me take my phone to the service center yesterday AND fielded their phone calls AND took me back there this morning AND taught me the sentence I needed to say AND made me go up on my own to retrieve it.  I still remember it, too - "한드폰 찾지로 왔어요" (or something that sounded like that.  I probably wrote it wrong.  But, I said it correctly!  And the guy kind of started, looked at me, and said, "Ahhhhhhhhh!"  And knew exactly who I was.

So, now I have a phone again.  성돈오빠, 고맙습니다!!!

~~~

Alright.  I feel like I should be off now.  Just wanted to post a short, rambling update.  Oh, and I think you should read what my friend, Jen, posted on her site - http://jkganal.tumblr.com/post/2594905754/late-night-rambling

I especially like the part she quoted from the Catholic catechism.  Think about it.  Discuss.  Let's talk sometime.  :)  Her thoughts kind of go along with some of the things we talked about today.  Sort of.

Anyways.  Food for thought.

(^_^)

Out With the Old ... In With the New

How 2011 began:
♥ Noraebang-ed it up in Anyang ("Noraebang" for those of you NOT in the know is Korean for "Singing Room" = 노래방) with some uh-MAY-zing people ... Matt Loutz (welcome back to Korea!), Yooooooooon, Trevor-and-SeulKi, "Grandpa" (Steve) and Mi-Hee, Dean, Judy. Seong-Don oppa, Danielle, Sung-Min oppa, Jung-Soo oppa, Dan, Rob-n-Hannah, et all. 
♥ Coffee with a long-lost oppa at Starbucks (^_^)
♥ Dinner with Matt Loutz, Yooooooon, Grandpa, Mi-Hee, Dean, Rob, and Hannah
♥ Dropped my cell phone in a bunch of water (and it's not sitting in a bag full of rice - hopefully it'll dry out before tomorrow morning ... or else it may be i-Phone time)
♥ Currently in the process of falling in love with the movie "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" (and Robert Downey Jr. is now one of my favorite actors)

2011 has, so far, been a great year (minus the dropping the cell phone part).  :)  For lack of a better update, how about a review of 2010?

In 2010, I ...
▫ Rang in the New Year in style at Bar Rouge in Shanghai (www.bar-rouge-shanghai.com) with Mindy, Stephanie, Noel, and our two German hostel-mates Mahur and Christoph.
▪ Taught exceptionally smart children - the Lions Class at Knox School (Harry, Lucy, Hye-Won, Robin, Da-Eun, Nathan, Julie)
▫ Flew back to America for the first time in almost 2 years - less than optimal circumstances, but we do what we can, right?
▪ Started teaching a new class of equally smart (if not smarter) students at Knox - the Tigers class (Ethan, Ryan, Kipper, Dave, Lina, Angela)
▫ Celebrated the marriage of Trevor and Seul-Ki
▪ Made new friends at church and got to know people there better
▫ Spent untold amounts of hours at Central Park in Beomgye (not to mention at Cafe Harrar and Indigo Blue)
▪ Cheered on the South Korean football (soccer, to all of you in America) Team with awesome people in Beomgye
▫ Spent more time studying Korean (language exchange at church, study group, private lessons)
▪ Met up with Jae-Young and Sun-Joong in Seoul while they were in Korea for a vacation
▫ Welcomed Nick to the world of native-speaking English teachers in Korea
▪ Celebrated another birthday in August with some of the most awesome people ever (^_^)
▫ Spent a week as an unemployed person living in a foreign country
▪ Experienced my first typhoon (^_^)
▫ Went on my first ever "REAL" job interview for the experience, got lost, did the interview, and was offered the job
▪ Became a high school teacher
▫ Went on a church retreat
▪ Made new friends outside of work and church
▫ Watched Korea play Japan at the World Cup Stadium in Seoul (three cheers for Makoto Hasebe and Ji-Sung Park being in the SAME place at the SAME time)
▪ Baked my first pie ever (ew, pumpkin)
▫ Reconnected with old friends (^_^)
▪ Was in a Christmas skit at church
▫ Went to a sauna (spa) twice in two days
▪ Rang in the New Year Korean-style (that means NORAEBANG)

All in all, 2010 was a fabulous year.  There were obviously good things and bad things that happened.    Luckily for me, the GOOD outweighed the bad.  Oh, and I know that the bad things were only there to help me grow. 

And that's all.  Here's to 2011 being an EVEN better year than 2010.  (again, minus the phone dropping part) ^^

Hey, guess what!

It's raining. Again. Two days ago, it was snowing. Now, it's raining. We're not talking a slight mist. We're not even talking about a drizzle. We're talking all out POURING. We're talking rain coursing down the rooftop of the building next to mine. We're talking about mud puddles, and rain boots and umbrellas and rain hats and rain jackets.

It's also cold. Not just a little cold. Hot apple cider drinking, fireplace sitting, blankets and books cold. Steaming bowls of hot soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, and marshmallows in hot chocolate cold. Upturned collars, layers of clothes, fluffy scarves, and big mittens cold.

I really don't understand this weather. But that's okay - I can deal with that. Oh, look - it stopped raining.

Tonight, I'm baking peanut butter cookies. Call it a trial run for next week. Next week, I plan on baking for my kids while I show them a movie. I'm thinking "Elf". Christmas movies and cookies - what do you think?

Why is the Decepticon SOOO much bigger than Optimus Prime??? And HOW could Optimus Prime take him down? Oh, yeah, I'm also watching the second Transformers movie. In the opening sequence, that Decepticon is SO much bigger than Optimus ... and yet, the Prime managed to take him down. Hmmm.

Well, that didn't last for long. Optimus Prime is dead. Josh Duhamel is exceptionally attractive. Randy and I grabbed dinner at a pretty freaking good grill restaurant in 마송/통진 (whatever you want to call it) ... but then went on a search for 호떡 which was unsuccessful. Unfortunately. GIVE US 호떡!!! GIVE US 호떡!!! Oh, well. 인사동에 가요! 호떡 주세요!

PS - if you receive emails from my YAHOO account, ignore them. I think my account's been hacked - I can't even get into it (even though I've reset my password) ... laaame.

Anywho. I'm off. Have a good night all. Next post? 31 days of pictures. FUN!

Yeah, right.

"So, how did that turn out?" - "... Not good." - "Oh."

I have an addictive personality. I can admit that. And that is why I should never try drugs of any kind. I'm not saying that I WOULD become addicted. I'm just saying that I would be predisposed to it.

Once again, let me declare my devotion to "Glee". I'm currently catching up on episodes. I'm on Episode 14 - Finn found out that he's not the father. New Directions won sectionals. Will found out about Terri's deception, and now he wants to date Emma. Sue is still out to get Will and Glee Club, and has now enlisted Brittany and Santana to get under Finn's skin. Rachel just met a guy from Vocal Adrenaline in the library (he seems like a prick). Has a nice voice, though. Oh, and Will is singing a Neil Diamond song. God, how I love this show.

Yes, I'm a "Gleek". Oh, and I love that Asian kid (Mike) and his dance moves. The boy's got mad skillz. And yes, I wrote that with a "z".

The weekend has come to an end yet again. After a mini-freakout in the office on Friday, I decided to hop onto a bus to Anyang. Snap decision, actually. Just needed to get away. So, I did. Hung out with the Anyang crew on Friday night, and then met up with Hyun in Seoul on Saturday (after a SUBWAY lunch with Evan) in Apgujeong. We got our hair did ... awesome salon in Apgujeong ... and then headed over to Sinsa and Garosu-gil. Garosu-gil is an amazing place. It's easy to forget how awesome Seoul is. There's so many great little nooks and crannies to discover and explore - Garosu-gil being one of these. Hip little shops, cozy cafes, trendy little restaurants ... Garosu-gil has ALL of these and more. I can't wait to go back. :)

Today at church, the sermon was from Judges Chapter 6, when God tells Gideon that it's his job to drive the Midianites out. The pastor went on to Chapter 7, where Gideon defeats the Midianites with only 300 men. The story in this passage seemed a little familiar, so I turned to Eun-Soo ...
"Did you ever see the movie '300'?"
"Hmmm, no, why?"
"This kinda reminds me of that."
"Oh really? How did it turn out?"
"Not good."
"... oh."

So, I've started utilizing my dictionary more in church. There's always words that I see or hear over and over again. So, sometimes I'll surreptitiously sneak out my cell phone dictionary and type in words I want to know. (Or to use it when Eun-Soo doesn't remember a word ... which happens EXTREMELY rarely. I think it's happened three times since September.)
Examples?
영원 - eternity (ps, I have a student named Young-Won), 땅 - the earth, 마음 - the mind, spirit, 아직도 - still, yet, 현재 - present (time), 영관 - an honor, glory, 평화 - peace, harmony, 세상 - the world, 고정관념 - a fixed idea (a negative thing), 의심 - a doubt
Trust - 신용, Obedient - 순종하는, Future - 미래
선포하다 - to proclaim, 송축하다 - to bless, to praise, 기뻐하다 - to be glad of, to rejoice, 경배하다 - to bow respectfully, 항복하다 - to surrender (oneself), 순종하다 - to follow obediently, 거룩하다 - to be sacred, to be holy, 종귀하다 - to be high, noble

Yay, vocabulary!!!

Okay. That's all I've got. Now, t'is the season for the tests. Gimpo HS students take their finals this coming week. Some of my friends have tests this coming week, too - one of them is related to several business/CPA-esque concepts that I don't quite understand ... and the other is kinda big (even if he doesn't want to tell anyone about it ... punk. I mean "punk" in the nicest possible way). (^_^) So, I wish everyone all the best - good luck and don't stress. Remember, the holidays are just around the corner. :)

And that's it. Love you much.