Susy's-not-so-permanent-going-away

In less than 7 hours I will be boarding a plane to leave Korea. It still hasn't actually hit me at all. I feel like I'll wake up, head off to fight club, go teach salsa, get some Galbi, and dance the night away at Old Skool -- my usual Saturday... but no, that's not the case. Well maybe it will hit me when I get to finally see my Mommy and Daddy and Susa.

I'll write more when I get home...

It's zero hour.

Almost heading home...

I'm now a week away from my trip back to the states. I leave Daegu on December 6th which is a Saturday morning. I have to fly all over the place. I'm going from Daegu to Seoul, then from Seoul to Tokyo, then from Tokyo to Detroit, then from Detroit to Tampa. I'm anticipating being completely exhausted when I arrive in Tampa. Though I am extremely excited to have some of my Dad's delicious Cuban food and some of the other delicious things that I have missed over the past year. I feel like such a honky for being so excited about food, but I've made an official (written) list of all the foods I want to eat when I get home. I will have to double up the workouts so I don't gain a million pounds while I'm at home.

Well, Friday was my last official day working and as I expected it was really sad - the morning anyway. I pretty much knew that the hardest thing for me would be saying goodbye to my kindergarten students, and I was right. I hadn't even made it all the way into the classroom before I started crying. They all surprised me with cards that they had made, and even their parents wrote me letters (in Hangul of course so it will take me a long time to translate them, I'll have to enlist a Korean friend to help me). I thought it was so cute and sweet. I really will miss those kids like crazy. One of them, Kate, was one of the first students that I ever taught on my very first days at ECC so you can only imagine my attachment. But I took lots of pictures and got some funny videos of them being silly, so I'll always have lots of memories to look back on. My afternoon classes weren't really sad. I had a snack party with each class and I told them to be nice to their new teacher, and I said good-bye. A few of the students wrote me cards or gave me little presents. It was sweet. Then after work I went over to Ashley teacher's new apartment and had dinner with all the korean teachers. I'm really going to miss working with them, but at least I can find a way to hang out with them when I get back.

After Friday, even though I was supposed to be "done" working, things didn't really get any easier. Actually I spent most of the weekend feeling very overextended. On Friday night I pulled an all-nighter to try to pack up all of my apartment. I got a lot done but not nearly as much as I needed to. On Saturday morning (running on no sleep) I went to meet Nick and Young-gi at the hospital for Nick's hernia surgery. It was really bad timing (on the doctor's part, not Nick's) but I'm glad he was finally able to do it, and that I was able to be here. Especially because they don't really provide you with nursing care in Korea. In Korea, they assume/demand that the family do all the work for the patient. Aside from putting in meds and administering IV's and shit they don't do anything... at all. I think I would have been worried sick if I was at home when he was having this surgery. And Thank God for Young-gi. I don't know what we would've done without her. After Nick's surgery he was able to get some sleep so I had to go into school to get all the remainder of my work done. I had to make lesson plans, finish the kindie kid's writing books, clean out my desk, just a ton of stuff. I didn't get out of there until like 4:30 PM. Then I went home, got a few more things packed up and then I made myself a bag for the hospital and got ready for salsa. Even though I didn't really feel like salsa dancing, I felt that it was my responsibility to go to the last salsa class. A few of my Korean salsa students had made plans with me to take me out to eat so I had to go. So I went to the hospital for a little while and then went to the second (Intermediate) salsa class and to eat some galbi afterwards.

I spent Saturday night at the hospital. On Sunday morning I woke up and went straight to my apartment to get my stuff ready to move out. I have to say that I feel truly lucky because I have made some really amazing friends here in Korea. Elly and Janita came over and helped me clean up, Matt came over and was practically my work horse (he carried all my stuff over to Nick's and even helped clean), and Erin, my Kindergarted Korean co-teacher, came over with her car and drove all my stuff over to Nick's. They all helped so much. Even Stephanie, who will be moving into the apartment today, came over and cleaned a lot. By Sunday evening I was exhausted but I felt like I could finally relax a little. Matt and I headed over to the hospital after getting some Mcdonald's and Baskin Robbins for Nick. We all ate (it was Nick's first meal since Friday evening) and watched a movie. Then this morning (Monday) Nick was discharged and we came to his apartment. So now I'm at Nick's getting all my stuff ready for my trip and trying to leave my other things organized.

5 days til I'm home.

One-Year Anniversary

Today marks the one-year anniversary of my arrival in Korea.

It's hard to believe that I've already been here for a year. It's even harder to remember what I expected from my adventure across the world. I'd be lying if I said my feelings were crystal clear at the moment... They're a little mixed, to say the least.

I'm very excited to see my family and friends that I've been away from for a year. I know that seeing them and getting to spend the Holidays with them will make me very happy. Furthermore, the possibility of getting to see my family in Cuba is enough to give me a little ray of sunshine.

But...

I'm sad about leaving my school. My Kindergarten students have already begun giving me guilt trips. I've been teaching them for their entire school year and these kids really are all mine (as I'm one of two teachers for them). One of them, a little girl named Kate, insists - to anyone that will listen - "In December I will go America with Susy Teacher." She is so freaking adorable. I'm sad about not working with all the Korean teachers that I've really come to love. Who will be the Korean-English to English-English translator once I'm gone? Who will bring a little common sense and efficiency to the wonderful ECC I've come to love? I'm sad about leaving Nick and not getting to spend Christmas and New Year's with him...no New Year's kiss for me this year.

I'm stressed out about heading back to the states with no money because I just cant afford to change my money over right now. The exchange rate is so shitty I would basically be throwing a third of the money I've earned in the crapper. I'm worried about the fact that neither one of my parents is working. My little sister is overworking herself with a full time job and going to school full time. And my possibilities to help them have considerably diminished since I can't really send money over anytime soon.

I'm not sure... at this point I'm hoping for the best and trying to be happy just because I'm going to get to see my mommy and daddy and Susa; Tati, Caro, and Kristi (hopefully) - who I've missed so much; my Daniel - who must be huge by now; Katoya, Jose and the always adorable Brie; Dulce, Jesse, Dan... and many, many more that I have missed so much over the past and hopefully have missed me a little bit.

17 days til I'm home.

Halloween madness...

This year, I can definitely say that Halloween was unlike any other. For starters, I celebrated it in South Korea, where it's not really a holiday. Secondly, Nick and I placed second in a Costume contest. And third, I can now say that everyone has seen me in my underwear (well, my bra at least).

For Halloween this year, one of our friends, Sarah, decided to put together this huge "Rocky Horror Picture Show" Halloween event. I don't really think I anticipated how big it got but it turned into this HUGE event. Since Nick and I are both a little weird (and not exactly easily embarrassed) we decided to go in full Rocky Horror style with him dressed as Rocky and me dressed as Janet. For any Rocky Horror Virgins out there not familiar with these characters they don't really wear very much for the duration of the movie. Janet wears a white bra and a slip. And Rocky... well... Rocky wears nothing but gold underpants. Oh yea...

As all my friends can attest, if I do something I do it all out, so I actually made Nick's teeny, tiny gold shorts out of these crazy stripper pants that we found in the "hooker" stores on the shady side of downtown and then I used the left-over fabric from the legs of the pants to make him gold boots. We of course also found a gold wig and then I did my best to recreate the Rocky haircut on it. For myself I just bought a white bra and a slip and fixed up my white heels to look like Mary Janes. We're crazy I know. But I thought we looked really authentic. The only reason we didn't win first place is because there was a guy there dressed as Dr. Scott from the movie with a freaking wheel-chair and everything. Whatever, you overachiever. Lol!

So here we are as Rocky and Janet. What do you guys think?


I think the best part of the whole night were people's reactions. I got so many comments regarding the fact that I was in a bra. I got several "Nice rack," a few "Oh my God!" and of course my personal favorite goes a little something like this:
Me: (walking out onto a staircase)
Random Australian Guy: (walking up the staircase)
Me: (polite smile)
Random Australian Guy: Krroiikkeyy!
Yup! And that doesn't even compare to the comments that Nick got. Random Korean girls kept fondling him. The funniest thing is that most people who wear like Superman or other superhero outfits buy them with these fake muscles on them, but Nick's were actually real. Some girl said she thought we had photoshopped the pictures. But nope.

So yea that was Halloween. Nick and I finally stumbled home (after some delicious galbi, of course) at about 5AM.
Overall, one of the best Halloween's I've had in a long time.

Salsa Congress... plus my spark for dance reignited!

This past weekend was the Korean Salsa Congress in Seoul. Looking back on it I can honestly say that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. At the Babalu salsa party about a month back, Spin (the Korean guy running the Congress) approached me to ask if I could "volunteer" my time to help translate a little for some Colombian and Venezuelan dance groups that they had coming in, and they would put me up in a hotel and pay for my food. He neglected to mention that the Colombians, from a group called Swing Latino, are the current World Champions in group salsa and that there would be several other World Champions there. Um yea.

So I arrive in Seoul on Thursday night after having left directly from work and after a full day of work, 2 hours on the KTX train, and over an hour on the Seoul subway I get to a dance club where I'm expected to hang out and dance until 3:30 in the morning. (Oh and this was the earliest night I had all weekend). It is important to emphasize that being the airhead that I am I had no idea who any of these people were. Anyways, so I introduced myself to all the people from the groups and I translated everything that Spin said. All pretty normal considering that I was asked to be a translator. Then I'm told I'm in charge of getting everyone settled in their rooms, getting them up the next morning - at 8AM, mind you - and then getting them all together and onto a bus for workshops.

The woman that I was supposed to be doing this with, Suk Ja, was a Korean lady who speaks some English, but definitely not enough to not make my weekend ultra frustrating. She would constantly tell me one thing and then 5 minutes later tell me another. Only to then change her mind yet again in another 10. This chick was seriously the most a-typical Korean woman I've ever met. She dresses slightly scandalously, although she definitely does not have the typical petite Korean frame, she smokes and oh did I mention, she has no grasp of logic (although that last one is actually typical of many Koreans). So basically I ended up doing her job. Not only did I translate, I was in charge of all the international dancers (not just the Colombians and Venezuelans). I had to find them food and on several occasions get them around the city. But let's not forget I DON'T LIVE IN SEOUL! Whatever! Luckily I did have the help of a Korean guy named Simon, who was the other translator, but he only spoke Korean and Spanish. At the workshops we would have to be together because the dancers only spoke Spanish and most of the people spoke Korean but some dancers from Taiwan and Japan did not speak Spanish or Korean so I would have to translate it in English. Ridiculous!

Friday they had workshops all day, a big performance that night at the Seoul Opera House and then again dancing until the wee hours of the morning afterwards. That night at the performance I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to get everyone to where they were supposed to be and find dressing rooms and get the judges to their places, it was not my job to be a backstage manager, but there I was. And I kept getting lost backstage. Ahh! But it all turned out ok. Except for the part where Spin was trying to introduce the Colombians and then he turns to the packed Opera House floor and says "Susy I need you" so there I am running like an idiot,with everyone laughing at me. So I get onstage not knowing what the hell I'm expected to do. And I ended up trying to say a few words in Korean and they all laughed at me. Oh yea... ha ha ha... laugh at the weiguk. What else is new? After the performance we danced at Club Top all night. We went home at about 5AM. But I had to get up at 6AM to wake up some of the dancers that were supposed to fly out to China. Then again at 8AM to get everyone up. Exhausting!

Saturday was about the same thing. Workshops all day, but this time they said the bus couldn't come to get us so I ended up having to get them to Club Top for the workshops on two taxis. For the record I hate being in a car in Seoul. It's just not worth it. The subway is sooooo much faster. But at least the taxi ride was entertaining. The driver had a crush on Marayud and he kept saying to her "yepouda" which is Korean for pretty or beautiful and he made them give him their autographs. It was pretty hilarious. He said his name was Mr. Moon and he kept shouting their names so they would shout his back. It was a pretty fun taxi ride. Then that night they had another performance, only this time no one had given me a schedule, no one had prepped anything. I saw right it before the show was about to start. None of the dancers had even seen it. It turns out that they had Billy and Katie performing less than 10 minutes after he had finished judging for a routine that is so extremely difficult (well you guys can judge: it's just below). So I had to run around and get the Suk Ja to change the show order. At this point no one has even collected the dancers music, so I'm running around trying to explain to the DJ how to play the music (keep in mind, none of this is my job). Only at that point the judges were supposed to be going out to the judging table. Well since I was trying to do the music, I couldn't do it, seeing as I have not yet developed the ability to be in two places at once. No one else even bothers to think "oh wait, we're starting and the judges aren't out." So I realized this and I run backstage and I tell them we have to go. At this point Spin is all pissed off because one group already went and the judges didn't see it. I ended up fixing it and luckily the dancers realized that it wasn't my fault. I felt like it was a great compliment when Billy and Katie told Spin that "[I] did a great job and next year he needs 10 of [me]." Seriously, I got to the point where I was getting really stressed out. I was really annoyed that I was completely in charge of all that stuff. Who the heck am I, seriously? Anyways, after that performance we headed to the club again and I had to stick around until all the dancers left. So I didn't get to sleep until 5AM.

By Sunday I was completely drained what with less than 8 hours of sleep pretty much. But when I got up I had to meet with Spin and Marta to translate and then Spin tells me that the bus isn't coming to get us. So I tell this to the dancers. Then Suk Ja calls me, I tell her what Spin said and she's like "No no no, the bus will be there." So I tell this to the dancers. 5 minutes later she calls me again so tell me that the bus can't be there until later so we should take the subway as I had initially planned... this process went on for a little while. Needless to say I was getting a little peeved. Plus if I keep telling them different things then I'm the one that looks incompetent. In the end, I was like, "No that's it. I'm taking them on the subway." AAAHHH! In the end I took them on the subway, we got there on time, and everything was ok. I ended up leaving at like 4PM on Sunday even though I didn't really want to go, and the dancers wanted me to stay, but I knew I had a long day on Monday and I needed to sleep. I had even lost my voice. So I came back to Daegu.

Overall, it was a pretty draining weekend. Nevertheless, all of the petty annoyances were completely outweighed by how great of an experience I had with the dancers themselves. I spent the whole weekend with several dancers from Swing Latino (Kevin, Cristian, Nilson, Saray, Eliana, Deisy, and their director Marta), Grizzly and Marayud (a Cabaret salsa couple from Venezuela), Anya and Luis (one of the best-known On-2 salsa couples from New York), Victor and Burju (who are another On-2 couple from Boston who go by the stage name, Hacha y Machete), Olliver (an Australian guy, who is the current On-2 salsa champion with his partner Luda - who wasn't able to make it because she's on the Australian "Dancing with the Stars", Aki and Yasue (a couple from Japan), and Billy Fajardo and Katie Marlow (a couple who have been salsa champions forever, he is currently the head judge at the World Salsa Championships). I feel so priviledged to have met these people. The thing is that being as who they are, they could have all been total a-holes to me, but they were all the absolute nicest people ever. They even invited me to come hang out with them when they go to World's which are this December in Orlando. How cool is that?

The truth is that I didn't really realize the full extent of who most of these people were until I got back to Daegu on Sunday night. It turns out that I was dragging Billy Fajardo, the HEAD JUDGE of the most important salsa event ever around the Seoul Subway system. God I'm an airhead sometimes. But it all worked out ok. And all in all I feel pretty lucky.

And here are some videos of the dancers that I met:
This is the championship routine for the Swing Latino dance group. This is Cali style salsa from Cali, Colombia. It's pretty ridiculous the synchronization that they manage to have with their stunts and complex footwork.


This is Luis and Anya at the NYC Salsa Congress performing one of their routines. They are awesome!


This is Oliver, with his partner Luda, performing their championship routine at the '06 World Salsa Championships. They are fantastic!


This is Billy and Katie performing their best known routine "Conversation with a Snake." Keep in mind as you watch this, he is 51 and she is in her forties. It's absolutely amazing!

Winding down...

I now, officially, have less than two months left in Korea. It seems crazy to think that I've been here for almost a year already. It definitely doesn't feel like it most of the time. I'm starting to make plans for all the things I need to do for when I go back home: pack up all my stuff and find somewhere to put it all, find someone to take over my salsa class.... that kind of stuff. I think most of my stuff will end up at Nick's place. And I've met this really cool Ecuadorian/Canadian girl named Melinda that seems interested in teaching my class while I'm gone. And I'm also trying to plan for all the things I want to do/have to do in Korea before I leave. I don't want to end up like most people who are at their last week teaching and all of a sudden they realize they have two days left and a ton of stuff to get done. I want to go on a temple stay, get my Hapkido blue belt, buy souveniers for everyone at home... and more. Oh, and my kindergarten students have already started to give me guilt trips about me leaving. Monica even went as far as to write "I rell miss Susy T" on my hand. Awww.


Additonaly, I'm also having to start thinking about all the things I want to do in my limited time in the states. Realistically, two months is not a long time. Especially when I'll be in Cuba for like 3 weeks of that time. And at this point I don't even know exactly when I'll be coming back to Korea since I haven't set up a job yet (but I'm working on it). My "To Do" list - or lists, I should say - are getting pretty long. Any suggestions?

But in other news: The last month has been pretty great. Nick came back <3. My birthday was awesome. Salsa is going well. I've gone to some pretty ridiculous parties. Pictures of the cape party to celebrate Nick's and Francis's birthdays below... So yea it's been pretty good.
--- The whole "Capes" gang at Billibowl.--- Nick and I managing to be all cutesy even though we're dressed as villains.--- Francis and I getting into character.--- This is our official villain picture - although Dave's sarong cape doesn't fit super well with the theme. (Nick, me, Andy and Dave)

For Nick's actual birthday, which coincided with Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving, we went to Busan. We got to hang out at the beach and eat yummy food. Oh and we saw some Koreans almost drown. That wasn't one of the fun parts. It was pretty ridiculous because, being the crazy weigooks we had no idea what was happening, but yea, apparently they were drowning... What can I say? It's Korea. Then to celebrate the following weekend, Francis decided that he wanted to have a "cape party" for his (Sept 17th) and Nick's (Sept 14th) birthdays and we all jumped on then bandwagon. The premise is that everyone wears capes... that's it. But inevitably craziness ensued. Luckily we missed the drunken, naked, swimming in a fountain part of the evening... These pictures are too funny.

And then last weekend was Babalu's 3rd big Salsa party. It was awesome! After my class there was a movement workshop. At first I wasn't to impressed but afterwards the guy teaching it actually danced with me and he is probably one of the best leads I've ever danced with. I would go as far as to say he's like the Korean Danny G... lol. But there were some really amazing dancers there and it was great. Plus the free beer didn't hurt. I got quite tipsy. By the time I arrived at Old Skool, Nick was three sheets to the wind himself, so we ended up having to go home. I ended up with a wicked hangover the next day. :-(

This weekend I am SUPER EXCITED about attending the Korea Salsa Congress. It's one of the biggest salsa events in all of Asia. I hope it goes well. I'll be there to help translate for the Colombian and Venezuelan salsa teams that they're flying in. Wish me luck!

Susy's Chongalicious Birthday!!

I know this is coming a little after-the-fact but my birthday was pretty awesome so I felt that it deserved a blog nevertheless.

For my birthday this year I decided that in honor of my Miami roots I would have a "Chonga Party" (and also cuz I remembered how funny it was whenever Karim threw one in Gainesville). For anyone who may not know a "chonga" is the Miami version of a gansta girl, similar to the Mexican "chola." Urbandictionary.com defines a chonga as:

...a woman of hispanic origin, generally Cuban, characterized by the utilization of excessive hair gel, usually leaving two strands of hair hanging while the rest is pulled back, especially seen accesorized with giant hoop earrings and necklaces with their names written on them. Chongas can be seen wearing tight short shorts and anything that will provide the excessive exposure of cleavage, especially, but not limited to, tank-tops. Chongas generally have names of hispanic origin such as Marisleysis and Yamile. One is bound to see chongas in Hialeah, Florida, however, chongas are known to migrate. Chongas have a distinctive dialect involving both the Spanish and English languages, merging to create what we now know as "Spanglish."

Try explaining this concept to someone from Ireland or Australia... it was pretty funny! But people got pretty into it. We started out the night at salsa class, then we changed into out "chonga" attire, and went to go eat some delicious galbi. The kind of looks that we got as we walked through downtown were hilarious. People must have been thinking "what the hell are these people doing??" Then we ended up at Old Skool. DJ Jeff, who is awesome and who adores me, played tons of reggaeton and some really good hip hop music. Plus people kept buying me drinks...so I was feeling pretty happy (aka: buzzed). The one thing is that I ended up having to go around to all the people of African-American at the bar (most of which are in the military) and explain that it was a joke because they kept giving us looks. Lol! Oh well.

--- Nick and I at Old Skool!--- With Freddy (from Ireland) and Christine ( the only other Floridian in Daegu)!--- My raptor (Murphy) with the girls, Joonjung, Chris and me.
--- Burning up the floor at Old Skool!

M.I.A

I feel terrible that I've been Missing In Action for the entire month of August but it was a seriously hectic time. As I had anticipated Intensives were a royal pain in my ass. I was teaching about 47 classes a week, and for those of you that don't know... It's A LOT! Nine or ten classes a day leaves you completely drained. I was starting at 9AM everyday and on most days I wasn't getting out until 10PM, when the cleaning lady kicked me out. It was pretty draining but luckily it's over and for the next month at least I'll have a much easier schedule with only 31 classes a week. Still, as is obvious, things at work have been a little frustrating... and now it's about that time for me to start looking for a job for my second year in Korea. For a little while I toyed with the idea of staying at my same school for a second year, but now I don't really think that that's possible, or smart. I'm hoping to get a better job but we'll see what happens.

In other news, my Ninja is also M.I.A. He was supposed to be back here on August 15th and he's still not back now, and it's the 31st. There were some issues with his Visa requirements taking too long and now is when he just finally got his Visa, so he should be back by the end of the week. YAY! I'm excited.

My salsa classes have been going really well. There has been a relatively steady number of people coming to class and I think Mr. Hwang is happy with the amount of people that are coming in for my class. Especially a few of my friends here, Elly, Yoonjung, Jess, and David, have been coming more regularly and they are really getting better. I even got to show them what a rueda looks like because I got to meet a couple of people who know how to dance rueda. They really liked it. Just last night there was a big salsa party at Babalu, and yet again I was the only foreigner in a room full of Koreans. But I'm used to that by now. I spent all night dancing (from 7PM to 2AM it was nonstop salsa). The most exciting part though was that I got to meet the guy who is running the Korea Salsa Congress and he asked me to help him out as kind of a Hispanic liason for all the Hispanic performers that they're flying in. They would put me up for the weekend and get me passes for all the Congress events. How awesome is that?
--- I took a trip over to Busan on a small vacation and I got to meet up with Jesus (that's obviously his spanish name) my new Korean friend and he took me salsa dancing. :-)

After salsa I headed over to Old Skool, which has become my hangout spot on most Saturdays after salsa. I've been out at Old Skool until about 5 or 6AM every Saturday for the past 6 weeks just about, but it's a lot of fun. Mostly, I just hang out with my Hispanic peeps that I've met downtown. I even got to meet a bunch of people from a Brazilian dance team. They are awesome dancers. For the record, there is nothing like dancing the lambada with a Brazilian guy. I was just happy that I could keep up cuz they are like professional dancers, so I felt proud. But last night I was a little tired so I left at like 3:15AM, too early right? :-p--- Hanging out with at Old Skool with a some friends. The giant next to me is Luke teacher, whom I work with, and the other two giants are friends of his but I just know them as Creepy Drunk guy and Random Guy.
--- At Old Skool with Megan and Christine.

On a completely random side note - I felt that I should share - last weekend Christine decided that for her birthday we were going to have a cross-dressing party. So I decided to go dressed as Nick. Considering that we have the same hair, I felt I could pull it off. And pull it off I did. I repeatedly got the comment, "Holy shit Susy! Is that you? I thought it was Nick." Nice huh? Lol! In fact, Nick even showed his mom a picture of me dressed as him and she said, "Nick, you look kind of like a girl in this picture." His Mom!! I think maybe I did too good of a job... You can be the judge.

--- Me (dressed as Nick) on the left, with my "boys" for the night: Elly, Jess, and Yoonjung.
--- Most people got really into it, they weird thing is that his "boobies" were being held up by my bra... yea it's a little weird.

My own personal hell (aka: Summer Intensives Month)

At the present moment I am teaching approximately 48 classes per week. For those of you that don't know. This sucks... a lot! I basically have to arrive at school at 9 AM and teach with practically no break time (not even an actual lunch break on some days) until 7PM. Then at that time I have to stay at school and make worksheets and tests and God knows what else. I'm exhausted most of the time and what makes me feel even worse is that because I'm so tired I'm not as energetic and involved in class plus I'm a lot more cranky and on edge.

This recent crankiness has brought about the installment of several new classroom rules including: if the students play with their chairs I will knock their chair sideways and they have to kneel for a to-be-determined period of time. I'm such a mean teacher. But these little delinquents are driving me up a wall. In reality, it's not their fault, this is their summer vacation and their parents force them to take extra classes. I was always a nerd and I always went to summer school even though I never failed a class in my life, so I probably wouldn't have complained at their age. But lord knows a lot of them really don't want to be here and the last thing they want is more work during what is supposed to be their summer break. Nevertheless, when they're in my class, they will learn something. I don't care if I have to beat it into them... God I hope anyone reading this knows I'm kidding.

On top of everything else this is Liz's last week in Korea. My partner in crime is leaving me. What am I going to do? We're having a going away thing for her this weekend so that should be fun. But there's also the fact that I miss Nick. He's been gone for almost two weeks but it feels like longer. Lucky for him he's been getting to miss the crappy Daegu weather and the recent Susy crankiness and he's getting to see his family and friends so that's a good thing.
Still, last weekend was the first time, since we first me that I went out in Daegu without him. It was funny because boys kept hitting on me and I wasn't sure when, in the course of their attempt at flirtation, was the appropriate time to tell them that I have a boyfriend. I'm thinking about getting a button and just wearing it when I go out (it's more subtle then the hat Liz suggested that says "OWNED" but I give her creativity points). In the end, I just danced with my friends and got to spend some time with all the new friends I've made from Nick's (former) neck of the woods so I had fun. Oh, and on Sunday Liz and I hit up Seomun Market and I almost bought a dog. There was this adorable black little puppy that just kept looking at me with his pleading little puppy dog eyes that kept saying to me "please get me out of here" and they only cost $20. But then you have to pay for all the shots and I don't think I could handle potty training a dog. Potty training a child was hard enough.

For now I think I'm going to try to take a nap before my next class. I've got 20 minutes. Let's see what happens.

Update: Here are some pictures from Liz's going away party.
--- Liz, Julia, and me at Hotel Ariana for dinner.--- We were playing a silly Korean drinking game.--- This is what the game looks like... I won't even try to explain it but let's put it this way: The last finger on the cup has to drink it.--- I was showing Michelle how to do the "Crank that Soulja Boy" move.--- It was also Jace's going away party, he was having a good night... Lol!

Mudfest!!

So this past weekend was Mudfest and honestly...

It was freaking awesome. It's like the craziest and most chaotic environment ever and then just for the heck of it everyone is covered in mud. There's mud wrestling, mud pits, mud slides, mud crowdsurfing... It's insanity. At one point I got into this mud pit with this girl Ely and Nick and as soon as I stepped in I felt someone just lunge at my legs and within half a second I was flat on my ass. It reminded me of that Dane Cook joke where he's like "Let's turn off the lights and just feel around." It's pretty wacky. The only problem is that there are certain logistical issues that you don't really consider before getting covered in mud, such as: What do you do if you get mud splashed in your eyes but your hands are also covered in mud?? Yes... um... it's problematic. But then after you just lay on the beach and veg out. Oh wait, did I mention that there extremely large quantities of alcohol involved? Most people were completely obliterated. But that's what happens when a bottle of alcohol that will fuck you up costs less than a dollar. The end of the weekend was a little bittersweet since Nick left for a month back home right after Mudfest, but we had a wonderful weekend and he'll be back soon. I wish that next year for Mudfest Susa could come back for another visit or maybe I can convice Tati and Caro and Kristi to come on down for the Muddy debauchery.
----- Nick and I all covered in Mud at the Boreyong Mud Festival
--- I was being silly. And annoying David (one of the funniest/funnest brits I've ever met) is a pastime of mine. :-p

But I must admit this has not been the only crazy weekend I've had as of late. Just the previous weekend we had an extremely off the wall experience. Last Saturday night started off great. It was Nick, Tyler and Steven's going away party. As I'd mentioned, they were having a "Sweaty Marker Party" which basically means that you wear a white t-shirt and everyone takes turns writing the most inappropriate and demeaning things they can think of. I for one had "I love hentai" (which I do not) and "Abusive girlfriend" (which I will also dispute cuz Nick likes to play fight so he's asking for it) written on my shirt. I won't even go into what kinds of horrible things were written on Nick's shirt. But it was all in good fun. After hitting up a few bars we ended up at Old Skool, which is where we normally wind up on Saturday nights to go dancing. It was awesome. The deejay even played some reggaeton and merengue. It was awesome. Obviously none of this is odd, but I'm getting to that.
As we were leaving the club (at about 4 AM maybe) Nick and I notice that there is a Korean guy a little further down the street getting pounded on by two other Korean guys. At first it seemed really bad, since it was 2 on 1, but then they started hugging, which is odd but at least it seemed like they were friends, so we decided to stay out of it and just kept walking. Behind us, Tyler had also walked out with a couple of Korean girls that we'd all been hanging out with. All of a sudden there's an ear-piercing scream and as Nick and I turn around we see that the (extremely drunk) Korean guy had reached out and grabbed one of the girls by the hair and was pulling her down to the ground. Mind you, he did not know this girl, he just randomly reached out and grabbed a girl by the hair. Immediately Tyler was trying to make this guy let go and Nick went over and landed two kicks to this guy's head and he was still not letting go. I have no idea what this guy was on but he just wasn't even feeling any pain. It was ridiculous. He finally let go and his friends made him walk away and they kept on hitting him. You just know that that bastard was in a lot of pain the next morning. But it was just one of those things that you just feel like "where did that come from?!?!?"And it turns out that as Megan was walking home she was also accosted by some crazy drunk Korean guy, who kept telling her he wanted to have sex with her. This makes me want my black belt really bad.

So yea that was my last few weekends. A little nutty but not too bad over all (except that part where Nick had to kick a guy in the face).

It's that time of the month...

No, I don't have my period. That's not what I meant you sick-minded individuals. It's monthly evaluations time. As always, I have procrastinated to the last second and now evals are due tonight and I'm still not finished. Furthermore, I'm having trouble mustering the energy or drive to even get going on them. In my defense, the shit has really been hitting the fan at work. It all started with what I mentioned in my previous blog and it only got worse from there. At our monthly teacher's meeting we came to discover that, because they are splitting monthly intensive classes over two pay periods, we aren't going to be paid overtime for doing a substantially larger amount of work. Yes, it sucks ass. In their defense, the dates of the kids vacations (and thus the summer intensive classes) were determined by the government, so it's not really their decision to screw us. Or is it? Maybe it's some big X-files type conspiracy with the government. I don't know.

What I do know is that ever since we found this out, almost everyone has been in an extremely foul mood at work. I think it just came at a really bad time because most of us foreign teachers had been feeling dicked around for a while (Luke's apartment is a shit hole, Megan's is infested with bugs, Kate hasn't been helped to get to an important doctor's appointment, I haven't had a computer for more than 4 months now and yet I'm expected to make tests, reviews, worksheets and tons of other stuff, oh and don't even get me started on Liz, the poor girl's frustrations have reached epic proportions). All of these things and then to feel like yet another thing is getting thrown on, things came to a head. I feel kind of bad for out academic director, after all this is not entirely her fault, but it is her job to be our liaison and make sure that the things we need get done. Whatever. Then to have to start yet another month without any resolution and tons of work to be done. It's been a stressful week. But enough venting.

The ray of sunshine in my life has definitely been getting to spend time with Nick. I'm trying to take advantage of time now before he has to go to the States for a month. I know that it will not be too long, but I'm gonna be lonely without my Ninja. Last Sunday he had his black belt test for Tae Kwon Do. I think he did really well, especially on the sparring part. I helped him practice for that part on Saturday during fight club and I'm still nursing a few monstrous bruises :-P. He doesn't know the results yet but I'm willing to be optimistic.

Luckily, today is Friday so I get a couple of days to rest and help Nick move out of his apartment. And then on Saturday night he and his two best friends here, Stephen and Tyler, are having their big farewell party. It should be a lot of fun. They're having something called a "Sweaty Marker Party." Now I had never heard of this but apparently the idea is that everyone wears a white t-shirt and carries around a sharpie marker and throughout the party (and as the level of intoxication increases) people write on each other. A very strategic place on my body has already been claimed as a box will be drawn around it and the words "My boyfriend is a cage-fighter" will be written in it. I'm amused, to say the least. Anyways, I'm looking forward to that and a couple of weekends ahead as the following is Mudfest. Yay!!

So that's it for now.

My little life in Korea :-P

The last few weeks have been pretty fantastic, overall. Nothing too out of the ordinary, just having a good time living my little life in Korea. I've been spending a lot of time with Nick. We've been pretty good about alternating sleepover nights to keep things fair ;-) but I would make the trek out to Siji nevertheless. I've also been going out more than I had been in the past. We've gone out dancing at Old Skool, where Nick knows the owners and most of the people are pretty cool, several times. And it's great that when we go dancing Nick and I just dance the night away. Last Saturday we didn't get home until after 5AM. I've also gotten to hang out with some of the people from his neck of the woods. We did this trivia night thing on Sunday (I need to brush up big time... :-p ) and it was a lot of fun. Nick kicked ass. I love his big, sexy brain!
--- Nick and I at a Bar-B-Q on Sarah's roof in Siji.--- Nick is making his silly face. He's so cute.
I've also been going to salsa pretty regularly. I like it a lot, though I do get a bit frustrated because the salsa on two thing feels so foreign to me. I don't like feeling like an amateur but I think I'm just having to learn to deal with it. The only thing that sucks is that when a Korean guy asks me to dance it takes me a minute to adapt to their style, because they do NOT lead the way men are supposed to. They lead in really vague, soft ways and with very little tension so I get a little flustered. But I am getting better. Salsa Hwang is great and hopefully I will be able to start teaching a salsa class for foreigners sometime in the next month or two. That would be great. My real goal is to start a Rueda class, but it may take a little bit of time for Koreans to be open to the idea of Rueda. Oh well.

My eyes are feeling almost completely better. I do feel that they get a little bit dry sometimes but mostly they're doing really well. The only bad thing is that they eye doctor told me I cannot go back to Hapkido for a month after my surgery. For the record, this completely sucks. The last thing I want to do is delay or regress on all the progress I've made. But I just need to resolve to not spend the next three weeks sitting on my ass. I'm going to work out a lot harder than I have been so that when I do go back to Hapkido I'm even stronger. Nick got me the best present, he installed a chin-up bar in my apartment. For the moment all I can do is dangle from it, and not for very long at that, but I think having it there makes me want to make progress.

The only thing that has been a little tricky is that for some reason I feel like the shit is about to hit the fan at my school. Liz (who happens to be my best friend in Korea) is leaving at the end of July, sniff sniff, and they haven't found anyone to replace her. They don't really seem too concerned about it. Also, a lot of the foreign teachers have been having concerns that are being completely ignored by the management, even though they've been told over and over and over. Megan has a bunch of bugs, Luke's apartment is a shithole, and Liz had been after them for a long time to set up an extension of her contract (which would have helped them a lot more than it would have helped her) and they just haven't done squat, about anything. I'm not currently having any specific issues, other than the fact that I feel like stuff within the school is run really inefficiently, but I think the last thing they would want is a pissed off Cuban in their midst. Hee hee. Koreans aren't really used to confrontation so we'll see what happens, because if Liz leaves and they don't have anyone to replace her and we get stuck with a bunch of extra classes, then like I said... The shit will hit the fan.

On a more positive note: I'm really looking forward to going to Mudfest (on July 12th), which is exactly as it sounds. It's thousands upon thousands of people all gathered on this beach, covering themselves in mud. It sounds FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC. The only sad thing is that Nick goes home for a month right after Mudfest, so I'll miss him. But that just means I'll have to eagerly await his return. Also at the end of July I have a week break. Unfortunately, Liz will be gone, Nick will be back in the states and due to the LASIK thing I'm going to be pretty broke at that point, but I may just head over to Busan by myself and veg on the beach to relax for a day or two. I just won't get to have a big trip or anything. But that's not too bad.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention that I dyed my hair black and it has bangs now. Random, I know. But I think it looks really cute.

I can SSEEEEEEE!!

I finally did it. I finally got my LASIK eye surgery. Yes, I know that I'm slightly crazy for getting eye surgery in a country where I'm all alone (practically) and God knows what could've happened but we all know that I'm wacky and impulsive like that... so it's ok. It actually went well (or so the doctor says). I'm not gonna lie, it was not fun by any means, but the actual surgery was not that bad. The first part feels like they have your eyeball in the palm of their hand and they are squeezing the shit out of it. But that's the worst part. The second part was not really that bad at all. It's kind of nerve-wracking but not painful. The really bad part was afterwards. After the surgery Liz walked me home, because I could not see AT ALL, and my eyes were really hurting. The doctor said to try to get some sleep and it would get better but i seriously could NOT do it. It felt like my eyeballs were on fire. It was one of the most uncomfortable and painful things, I've experienced. So we ended up having to go back to the doctor's office so that he could give me a pain killer shot, which (Thank God!!) allowed me to sleep a bit. I owe Liz sooooo huge for taking care of me and dealing with my grumpiness. I was so bad but I get really cranky when I'm in pain. I don't think it's an irrational reaction. Then around midnight Nick, the bf, came to relieve Liz from Susy duty. He was calling me Jet Girl all night because I was wearing these funny plastic things that were taped to my face and protect my eyes. He found the goggles to absolutely hilarious. I just felt like an idiot. But the important thing is that now I can see and my eyes, though not completely better yet, are improving steadily. The right one is still a little blood-shot and they feel dry and a little uncomfortable sometimes but for the most part it's great just to be able to see.

Aside from the LASIK I had a pretty good week. I spent a couple of night in Siji with Nick. And I'm aware that I've slipped it into the blog kind of inconspicuously but yes, I have a new boyfriend. As I said, his name is Nick and we met a few weeks ago (when I first mentioned him in the blog). We've been having a lot of fun so far and I'm hoping that it will only get better. On another fun side-note, I taught my first, ladies styling class yesterday at salsa. There were only a few girls there but I thought it went ok (especially considering that they don't really speak English and I obviously don't speak Korean).

That's it for me (for now at least).

Two Great Weekends (and an icky week in between)

I just got back last night from Busan, which is on the southeastern coast of Korea. I had a great time. I got to lay out on the beach, sleep, listen to my Harry Potter book on Audio... in short, my own personal heaven. I also got to spend time with some cool new people that I met last week (get to that in a minute) and it was just a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the water was freezing, and there was this really strange man in a thong speedo (Eww!) that kept blowing his whistle if anyone even tried to swim. He wasn't even a lifeguard. I don't get it, but whatever. TIK. There was also yummy food and dancing involved in my weekend. Overall it was pretty great. Oh and I got a little burned... Oh well.

I really needed the break because last week was just annoying as hell. It was the first week of the new teaching month and those are always the worst. You have almost no time to prepare for your new month of classes. It feels like people are pulling at you from every angle to get shit done, and we have to do our monthly evaluations, which take forever. Also, and for the first time, I got really annoyed at work because on Tuesday, like 5 minutes before I have to go teach a class, my partner teacher says to me, "Oh Susy, the kids don't have the [this] book, they have [that] book." Mind you I had an entire lesson prepared for the first book, not to mention that I had already made my monthly lesson plan for that book, and on top of that I have never taught the second book series so if I had known I would definitely have taken a lot of care to be ready for the class. So I walked over to my boss (and I will admit I was a little peeved), and I said told her what happened. I don't think she really understood why I was upset. But my main thing is, how am I supposed to know that something is changing if no one tells me, especially when I had prior to all of this asked (verbatim) "Are there any changes this month that I need to know about?" Um.. hello?!?!? But it was fine, I went into class and I winged it. What else could I do?
Also because of all of this I ended up missing Hapkido for most of the week, since I had evals to do on Wednesday and Thursday, and I left to Busan on Friday morning.

The previous weekend also happened to be great. On Friday, one of my kindie kid's moms came to the school and she gave me two tickets to the opera. She's so sweet. So I took Liz as my date and I got actually go to the opera (and my seats were pretty sweet). After the opera I decided that even if I had no one to go with, I was going to find a place to go salsa dancing. So I walked over to a place that I had found on the internet called Babalu. When I got there it was empty except for the owner and a couple of people but it ended up being pretty cool. We hung out and chatted (as much I can chat with people who speak very little English) and we danced a little. The owner is a guy named Salsa Hwang (which sounds like Salsa Juan if you don't see how it's spelled so I thought that was pretty funny) and he's awesome. He's a little Korean man with a lot of latin flair. Lol. I went back to salsa on both Saturday and Sunday. I was just putzing around doing some old salsa shines and I got offered a job teaching Salsa for the club. How cool is that? I'm pretty excited. For now I'm going to teach a ladies styling class and then maybe we can start a rueda course. Yay! I also got to make friends with a young Korean guy named Song Gu, but he goes by Ron, who lived in the states and actually lived a few months in Cuba, so it's great cuz dances more like Cuban-style salsa and he's my official translator.

Also on Saturday I went to this fight club thing that I had found on the internet. A guy named Nick is doing it and it was also a lot of fun. It's basically just other foreigners (or weigooks as we are called here) just getting together to practice martial arts and spar. I'm not quite up to their level yet but I try. Nick is pretty awesome. He does cage fighting and Tae Kwon Do, so I like hanging out with him. After salsa on Saturday I met up with him, and a few of the other people from Fight Club at a hip-hop club named... Old Skool. Yes, the name is a little cheese-y. But I had a great time. We danced for hours and it turns out that I am (hopefully) going to be in a music video for a local artist named Tony B (and he's not Korean). The video shoot will be in a couple of weeks. It's a lot, I know. Then on Sunday I went to watch Megan and Luke's softball game and after I went to grab food with David (a tall Canadian boy who I met at Fight Club) and Francis (a funny half-Paraguayan boy that I met at softball and who likes to practice his spanish with me).

So the last two weeks have been pretty eventful. But also pretty good. A few things are in the works that I really hope pan out. I always get a little apprehensive when I see things that I really want and may actually be able to have. But that's just my skeptic side coming out. Wish me luck!

Movin' on up!

I'm officially a yellow belt. How cool is that? Ok so I know it's not that huge of an achievement but I gotta get to black one step at a time, right? I had my belt change test on Saturday but it was all kind of hectic because the belt change test was at 11AM and then I had to leave immediately to meet with Liz, Kate and Michelle to head over to Erin's wedding. I have to say my first experience with Korean weddings left me wanting more. First of all the ceremony is ridiculously short, like 10 minutes long (and no I'm not exaggerating). Afterwards everyone, from multiple weddings, goes into this big buffet/cafeteria type place. You give them the food coupon that you have and then you try to look for a table where people can all sit together, which may or may not happen and eat. Then when you're done eating you leave. That's it. It all felt a little cold to me. But on the positive side Erin looked absolutely beautiful, she was just glowing and her husband is so sweet to her. He even sang her a song. It was so cute.

On Saturday night I went downtown with my new friend JK. I vegged out for most of Sunday, but I think I needed a rest since last week was exhausting. For some reason I was having a lot of trouble sleeping. On, both, Thursday and Friday I didn't fall asleep until almost 6AM. Crazy I know, but this is sometimes typical for a nightcrawler like me. It was just a long week and I really miss my sister (well my whole family). Being in Korea is great but once in a while it gets a little lonely. If I didn't have Hapkido and my Korean friends I would probably be going completely crazy. This week I've decided that I am going to find a salsa club if it is the last thing I do. I'm going completely stir crazy with no dancing. Still, in Hapkido I'm learning some really cool stuff. I'm learning how to do fight choreography for Hapkido shows. I'm learning how to fight with fans of all things. Every time I practice I feel like Mulan (if you don't get the reference you need to go back and watch the movie). But anyway, it's so neat and we're working on new flips everyday. YAY! My backspring is still not happening at all but my front handspring is getting there. Hey I'm only a yellow belt...

Devil teacher

My new nickname is Susy, the devil teacher... and I'm so nice. I don't get it... ok, ok, I can hear certain people laughing from all the way over here. But lately in my more advanced classes I'm having trouble with some students that aren't doing their work and then they end up falling behind. The problem is that the punishments that are instilled here just aren't enough to actually scare them into listening. The kids get these little minus stickers every time they misbehave. If they get 10 stickers they have to stand with their hands up for a class period. The little ones don't want to do this but the older ones really couldn't care less. So something occurred to me. I said to them, "if you get 10 minus stickers you have to stay after class for an hour with Susy teacher." They shit a brick. One of them was like "No susy teacher, hands up ok, hands up ok." And I said, "no, you will stay after with me." The real fear of this is not really me, but what it means to their parents if they have to stay after. It means that they are doing bad and their moms are way scarier than I could ever be. When I got back to the teacher's room I told some of my co-teachers what happened and Jenny was like "Wow, Susy the devil teacher, you even wore your devil outfit" because it just so happens that I was wearing a black skirt, my red turtleneck tee, and my red high-heels. So yea, now that's my official Devil teacher outfit. Whatever, it's way cute. In the end, all the students except one did their work for the next class, and I actually made him stay. A punishment is no good unless you carry it out. Right?

But seriously I love my students. Most teachers wouldn't care enough to stay. I think it's always been part of my personality to not blow things off like "well that wasn't my job." As far as I'm concerned, if it needs to be done it's your job. Most people just don't give a shit. And I really do love my students a lot.

Especially my kindie kids. Last week we went on their monthly field trip. I'm so attached to these kids. They're adorable. And my class definitely has the brightest kids... maybe I'm a little biased.

(Pictures coming soon)

So there's good news and bad news...

This weekend was one of the longest weekends ever. I got pretty much zero rest and did a billion things. The most important of which was of course...my Hapkido tournament. Now for the good news: I am currently a gold medalist in Hapkido... wait, wait, don't get too excited. The bad news: I am a gold medalist only because there was no one else in my weight and belt to fight. But of course, they can't just give you a medal for showing up and being the only one. So I had to fight...........a BLACK BELT. Are you effing kidding me??? I'm sitting there, waiting to get called up and I'm looking around and I see no one else that has a belt below black. So I'm there putting on padding and I see that the only other girl in padding is this crazy looking black belt. This chick was rock diesel and she kicked hard as hell. Let's just put it bluntly: I got my ass wooped. She seriously just went off on me. Now, don't get me wrong. I didn't just sit there and take it. I kicked her back, I blocked as much as I could and I avoided her taking me down twice. Nonetheless, I got my ass kicked. So if I got my gold medal for taking a beating like a man, well then, I earned it. Realistically, I'm only a white belt. I've been doing this for 3 months and I went up against a girl that was bigger, stronger, and had been doing this for upwards of 2-3 years (which is the minimum time it takes for a black belt), so there was no way I was going to win unless she just stood there. But I tried as best I could and that's all I could do. And no, I will not be posting that video in order to avoid my humiliation.

Practicing before the tournament (I think the look of consternation of my face is pretty funny... I'm very angry at the pad, lol).

This is a big group shot of all the people from Hapkido.

The Hapkido tournament was all day (we left Daegu at 6AM and got back at 11PM) on Sunday. And Susa and I had barely slept as it was. Previously that weekend we had gone out for drinks with Luke and Megan (2 of the teachers and my school) and some people that they've met here on Friday night. But that was after me doing two hours of Hapkido and teaching 9 classes that day, so I was already exhausted. Then, on Saturday Susa and I woke up pretty early and headed out to Seomun Market. I wanted to show her all the weird stuff they have.

Case in point: The octopus is HUGE. Use the lady in the background for a size comparison.

I got some really nice (bootleg) Roberto Cavalli sunglasses for W20,000 :-) and some delicious and very cheap strawberries.

This is the strawberry salesguy. He was funny!

Susa bought some of the very weird stuff including a dried chicken (that she ended up having to leave here since we realized there's the whole bird flu issue and she'd probably get arrested) and this really large weaved tube thing (that we thought might look cool as a decoration). The tube thing got a lot of attention, though, people kept looking at us, laughing and motioning their hands like an empty hug. We, of course, had no idea what the hell they were doing until finally one man told us that the thing is called a Bamboo Wife. Apparently, people sleep with this thing... Mulayo (I don't know). But all I know is that all the Koreans thought it was hilarious that we were walking around with it. After Seomun Market we headed downtown. Mind you, while I was at school teaching during the week Susa spent her time going downtown everyday to go shopping. She is heading back with sooo much stuff that it's crazy. We shopped a little bit more (at my cheap-everything-for-W2,000- store) and found some cute stuff and then we went to exchange a dress Susa had bought during the week.

Susa sitting in the big pile of clothes at the cheap store.

That night we went back downtown with Liz and Mi Kyong to hit up the Noraebang. Yup, we reveled in most Korean's favorite pastime. Singing crappy kareoke at the top of our lungs. It was funny as hell and we had a good time.

Susa belting one out at the Noraebang.

But by the end of the night I was freaking out about my Hapkido tournament the next morning (and in hindsight, I had good reason to).

Then on Monday morning we woke up again at 6AM to take the KTX into Seoul, to then go straight to the airport. We got to the airport at a decent hour and went to check in her bags, only to go through the biggest mission ever. When Susa came into Korea she had two 50-lb bags and a carry-on, but at the counter they were telling her she could only take back 30 kg (that's approximately 66lbs). WTF? They wanted her to pay an overage and they said she couldn't carry on the bamboo wife thing. Yea, right!! I guess the people at the counter are used to the mentality of people just doing as they're told (as is common in Korea) but they apparently had never dealt with two pissed off Cubans. In the end, they didn't charge her anything. But from there things only got worse. Susa's flight into Shanghai, where she would connect to Atlanta, was very delayed. It's all over the news that there was a massive earthquake (7.8) in China and it caused a bunch of stuff to be affected. So she got to Shanghai too late to make it to her next flight, so on my train back to Daegu I got the most frantic call from Susana telling me that she's stuck in Shanghai for the night. MY GOD!!! What a mission. Luckily, the people ended up getting her a hotel and she was able to get a flight for the next day at the same time.

Susa and I went hiking at a mountain that is like 3 blocks from my apartment.
At the top of the mountain (any strange behavior is strictly due to the altitude... I know I'm silly).

Susa with my kindie students. They're so cute!

Like I said, one of the longest weekends ever! But we made some great memories!

Time in Korea with Susa.

My sister has been in Korea for 4 days now and it's been so amazing to have her here. It's like a part of me feels like my life in Korea is not something that is real to the people back home and somehow I feel ...validated. Like now there is someone that sees what my life for the past 6 months has been and it feels more real. Although she's been pretty tired we've still managed to have a good time.

Susa's arrival in Korea.

She arrived on Saturday and we had to suffer through the two hour trip back from Incheon to the inner city of Seoul. But we did it.

Walking around Seoul.

We dropped off all the suitcases and then we went to go eat Samgyupsal. I think she liked it, but not as much as I do (I LOVE me some Samgyupsal!). Then we went next door to Pish and Grill and got some yummy Soju cocktails I know Susa really liked, "It's like candy that will fuck you up"). After that we went back to the apartment and Susa proceeded to fall asleep. I figured that she would because a 13 hour time difference is kind of rough but getting her to wake up was nearly impossible. We were supposed to go out so at like 10 I started trying to get her up and that did not happen. So I let her sleep a little more and then at like 11 I decided that even if we didn't go out she still needed to wash her face, so I started getting her to wake up (aka torturing her). Most of this was captured on camera in what I can only describe as one of the funniest movies ever! I love it! When I finally got her to wake up, I said, "ok, just go wash your face and go back to sleep" and she was like "no...I don't like that." So we got ready and headed over to Hongdae (the clubbing neighborhood near Hongguk University).

Looking cute before heading out.
We LOVE cotton candy!
Susa and I dancing on a table at TinPan.

We ended up at "TinPan" like I always do when I go there. God that place is such a shithole. I can't stand it at all. Luckily Susa had a fun time, but I am totally over it. There were so many stupid, drunk foreigners (sorry, I don't mean to be a traitor to my people but they seriously annoy the bejesus out of me, Ugghhhh!). Anyways, we were there until 5AM and then we were able to take the metro back at 5:30AM when the subways reopened. By the time we got back it was already light outside :-(. So we showered (cuz I would never want to go to sleep with God-knows-what all over me from that bar) and passed out.
On Sunday we woke up at like 11 or 12 and after we got ready we went to Namdaemun Market. We were able to get some cute, small things (like Susa got some sunglasses, and some cute imitation Chanel stuff). She found this amazing Louis Vuitton wallet but it was W50,000 so she didn't get it. I found a rack for my clothes, like the kind that they have in stores, for like W20,000. The problem was that the weather got pretty shitty. It was raining, and kind of cold and uncomfortable. We walked all of Namdaemun and a little bit of Myong-Dong but we were tired and a little out of it. I realized that I had left my mom's glasses prescription back at the apartment so we had to go back to get it and then go all the way back to Namdaemun. On the way there, I experienced one of the most frustrating, horrible taxi rides of my life. We got in a taxi to try to get to Namdaemun faster and instead it was a waste of money and time and definitely my sanity. We ended up having to take the subway anyway. We managed to make it in time to get the glasses and then we went to Itaewon to get shawarmas. After that it started raining a lot more, so after yet another frustrating walk we just decided to call it a night.
Monday we had an early train (10:05AM) to Daegu so we had to rush, but we made it in time. We got into Daegu at like 2PM and Susa finally got to see where I live. We unpacked a bit and then we met Mi Kyong for lunch. We had Posam which Susa really didn't like, and then we went out for coffee and chatted for a while. At night we headed into Downtown because I wanted Susa to be able to get there by herself. We just walked around a bit, and Susa fell in love with the million and one boutiques that have super cute clothes. And we also found a bar to have a quick drink.
Today I had to work but Susa had agreed to meet with Mi Kyong and go see some stuff at her University, so at least she wasn't stuck at home all day. And before she went she passed by the school and got meet my kids. In the afternoon, I finished work at 6 and we went to get Boor chicken, since poor Susa hadn't really eaten anything all day. We went to Hapkido at 8:30 and I sucked yet again. Susa says I don't attack enough. WTF! After Hapkido Kwanjangnim took us to eat Makchan and Wangalbi with Nam Sa, Jun Pyo and Ju Sung. We had a good time although the communication was difficult, of course.

Kwanjangnim and the Hapkido boys out to eat Makchan and WanGalbi.

It was a nice night overall.

Catching Up... (News + Susy Ninja continued)

The procrastination of writing the blog got so bad that I actually put "Post blog" on my To Do list. That's pretty bad. But the reason that I haven't written is because I truly don't have any extended down time to sit and think and write. And when I do have some time I'm often so pooped that I just want to veg out. Anyway, time to catch up.

First off, I'm SUPER EXCITED because in less that 24 hours Susa will be in Korea. Yup my little sister is coming to visit me. I've been so busy that I didn't even have time to blog about it. Plus, it was super spur of the moment and last minute but she had a school break and I was able to get her a reasonably priced ticket so now she's coming to Korea. She'll be here for 9 days (which seems extremely short to me) but I only work 4 of those days so that's not so bad. We'll be spending the first few days in Seoul and then heading down to Daegu for the rest of the time she's here. Hopefully, she'll have fun. I'm also excited that she'll get to go to Hapkido and see what I spend so much time doing.

That brings me back to the Susy Ninja thing. So, I know this is going to sound a little (ok, a lot) odd but I am going to be in a Hapkido Tournament on May 11th. Truthfully, I have absolutely no idea what I'm getting myself into. I've only been doing Hapkido for 2 and a half months. But two weeks ago Kwanchangnim walks me over to the calendar and the conversation goes something like:
Kwanchangnim: Today (pointing to May 11 on the calendar), Suji Hapkido matchi. Ok?
Me: (With a blank, deer-in-the-headlights look) What?
Kwanchangnim: You, Suji Hapkido fight? Ok? Ok.
Then he walked away so that was the end of that discussion. So now I'm entered in a Hapkido tournament. We've been practicing a lot, but last Tuesday while we were practicing sparring I kicked one of the guys in the elbow as he was trying to block my kick. It hurt soooo much, I felt like my foot had shattered, but I didn't want to look like a wimpy, whiny girl, so I just kept going. Well, there's a reason why hindsight is 20/20. I should have worn foot padding because I ended up kicking someone twice more in the elbow. And that was only during the first class. In the second class Kwanchangnim drove me to another Hapkido dojang where Sisengnim (Hapkido Grand Master) was so that I could spar with another girl. Since I had already hurt my foot I think I did horrible because everytime I would actually land a blow it would hurt me more than her. By the end of the night I was totally limping. Then, the next morning I woke up only to find that my foot was completely swollen. And in only got worse. After two days of the swelling not going down I went to the doctor, and luckily its not broken. But it hurt like
hell. I had to miss Hapkido for 3 days.
When I went back I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to compete in the tournament any more. But Kwanchangnim said we should try. Still, since it looked (and hurt) pretty bad, Kwanchangnim, asked Che Ha, who is a nother Hapkido student that is an oriental medicine doctor, to do Acupuncuture on me. I must admit that I was skeptical at first but I am now a HUGE fan of Acupuncture. It has helped a lot, although my foot still hurts and it's uncomfortable as hell to hit the pads with that foot but whatever... I'm just dealing with it. No pain, no gain right?

School is going pretty well. I absolutely adore my kindergarten students. Mind you, I want to murder them half the time, but I think that's only because I love them so much that they have the ability to make me crazy. Oh well! So last week we took them on the first field trip of the school year, and I had so much fun just messing around with them. This one student named Ricky, who has quickly become one of my new favorites, was doing the funniest things. At one point he calls out my name so I turn to face him, and he proceeds to kick his foot up in the air, hold it there, and yell "Yoga pose!" I snapped a picture and I about lost it laughing. I have no idea where he got that from. Also on that day Erin teacher took one of the cutest pictures ever. It's of me with Jin, my little darling, climbed on my back. I love it. She's been so lovey dovey lately. All of them have actually, it's great. That's what I love about kids, they don't yet have issues about showing affection (although--on the bad side it also means that they don't know they're not supposed to stick their hands down your shirt, but whatever). And since I see these kids everyday, I naturally get very attached. The other day I was teaching and Susa called me in the middle of class. Since I knew it was a Skype call I answered it and I said "Class say 'Hello' to Suji teacher's sister." So they all yell out "Hello." Then they all rushed at me to get near the phone but Jin got it and she was sooooo freaking cute. All I got was her side of the conversation but that's what made it cuter. She's like "Hello.............I'm fine, thank you..........My name Jin." Awwww! I hope Susa gets to come to school and spend some time in a few of my classes. I think the students would love it.

Lastly, I finally succeeded in making a Bridal Shower in Korea. Erin teacher is getting married in a few weeks and I had told her I would do it. None of the Koreans had ever been to (or even heard of) a bridal shower, so it was a nice thing to do, I thought. Erin teacher liked it a lot, and I had a lot of fun doing it. Susy, the party planner, is always ready. Plus I got to do some things that I loved. Like I discovered that Daegu has an amazing (and super cheap: 10 roses for $4) flower market. I got to make really yummy sandwhiches for everyone. And I got to hang out with the Korean teachers (since I ended up being the only foreign teacher there). Actually, the night before the bridal shower was a blast because Michelle and Kate came to my apartment to help me make the flower arrangements for the party and at about midnight as we were finishing Kate's boyfriend calls her that he's nearby at the Hotel Ariana drinking with a couple of co-workers. We headed over there and ended up eating yummy food and drinking Mekju (beer). But it is important to mentiont that by the time we got there, Kate's boyfriend and his 2 co-workers were pretty hammered. Still it was a lot of fun. I got to practice my Korean a bit. Overall, it was awesome (minus the part where the Mekju came back up that night...but let's move on...lol).

Wow! Ok, I wrote a lot. And I know that I've missed a lot of stuff (like I spent a nice weekend in Seoul with Jure, I got to hang out - and go get my hair done-- with Liz, I spent a day wandering downtown with Mi Kyong) but I've got to go teach class now. I will try to not be so lazy about writing.

MUA