Drunk Chinese Food Destination

I may have finally found a decent Chinese food place for sudden cravings. I'm rating it a solid 8.3 out of 10. Plus I live super close.

It's on the exit 1 side of Dongnae station. You walk down the main street, and turn into the alley that is only semi sketchy-looking.

The food is good, and the waitress is super motherly. I get the feeling that she might speak Chinese, but I don't want to look like a fool trying to bond to a Korean in broken Mandarin. I need to find out what time this place closes, so I can go there for comfort food after drinking next time.

Saturday the 27th

The sun is shining. The weather is b-e-a-u-tiful. I'm seeing my friends later.

But Hods, you're leaving today. And you're the glue of our group. Glue is supposed to stick things together.

You don't belong to us, even though we want to lasso you and be with you for at least 365 more days.

Maybe it's going to be daily messages and chats, and numerous video and photo uploads until we run out of things to say and post.

Maybe you won't miss us as much when you make new friends.

Maybe we won't miss you as much when we keep hanging out as a group.

But that's impossible for now.

Because I miss you, we miss you, too much, just come back already.

We want the best for you. We really do. But we also want to be selfish and keep you with us. So you should go to grad school. At KSU. That would solve everything.

Even now, it doesn't feel like you're gone. I'm just waiting for the upcoming weekend so we can hang again.

Good-bye sounds so final and disappointing; I didn't say it to you at the airport, and I'm not doing it now.

See you later, Hods.

Friday the 26th

My morning shenanigans began with an early trip to Spaland with L and R. We look glorious in our matching smocks and make-up free faces, no?

Eating hard-boiled eggs and sausages in the common area

Flattering angle

Let's do the dab.

Michael being a sweetheart.

We headed to KSU Tom's and Tom's cafe to wait for Alex's cheese pretzel before meeting up with Hosu and Hoda to have lunch in his office at the university.

Bothering Hosu while he's working

The pizza and fried chicken lunch crew

I went home to rest for a bit, since we were going out that night.

I was still too sick to play basketball, so R and I met up with the b-ball crew in the last hour of their game to head out to dinner and drinks together afterwards.

We got our new basket-ball hoodies! Woo-hoo!

Fashionista weirdos.

일차

We went to PNU for the first time together as a group. We had Korean B.B.Q for dinner, which is the mandatory choice for celebration dinners. 

이차

We went next door to the makgeolli restaurant for round 2, taking up half the second floor, with plates of onion and octopus pajeon and giant bowls of makgeolli at each table. There was a name-chanting, makgeolli-chugging contest, the signing of Lana and Hoda's yellow shirts, and lots of noise and laughter.

삼차

Before heading to Thursday Party a few doors down, we took another group shot after Hods and Lana said a few words.

Thursday Party didn't disappoint.

"Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten".

Feb.19th, 2016 Graduation Day Ceremony

My sixth-graders graduated today, watched by their teachers, parents, and peers.

My 6-2 class that's always serious and somberly quiet, because they've learned that being loud gets you yelled at by the homeroom teacher. They're always sleepy and/or unimpressed, but whenever we have a discussion they're interested in, become alert, bright, logical, and perceptive.

My 6-3 class has such charming kids and loud personalities. I'll miss the class so much, and a few students especially.

My 6-1 class is the adorable bunch, always being animated and curious. The students are loud, but so comfortable to be around.

It didn't feel real at the time. The graduation ceremony felt like a regular school assembly.

It doesn't feel real now. It just seems like another day of desk-warming until I see all their faces again next Wednesday on the first day of school.

Live in denial, until reality looks like the more appealing option.

My graduation song was The Graduation Song (Friends Forever) by Vitamin C, along with every single person in my generation.

My students' graduation song? A popular ballad from a recent Korean drama. Of course.

But it's unbearably sweet, nostalgic, and undoubtedly, the graduation song of 2016.

The Twin Fiery Smoke Tornadoes

Monday 5:15 pm found me at Haeeundae Beach with Rose, Hoda, and Alex, staring at an overgrown shrub that was about to be lit on fire. A huge crowd of onlookers had gathered, cellphones poised for selfies and what not. We waited around for a bit, eating cups of fried chicken that had gone cold but still tasted alright. We later found out that there was an identical bonfire going on at Gwangalli and at Dadaepo, where Alex lived. He was slightly miffed.

"This tree better start breaking out in song. I commuted 2 hours for this." - Alex

Finally, Thing 1 and Thing 2 showed up, both towering tall and wearing similar shades of beige that blended into each other, all ready to rumble.

The bonfire was for the full moon festival that night, but as Michael so lovingly pointed out, "There's no full moon tonight, you idiots".

Billowing smoke tornadoes 

That's karma for being mean to us, M. 

So after breathing in hefty amounts of ashy air, we went to Namaste for some dinner.

Paneer Tikka

Naan

Strawberry Lassi

The food was spicy and overpriced, but the lassi was really good.

On the subway, Michael and his homeboy Kai decided to make a how-to tutorial on how to apply chap stick properly.

How To Put On Chapstick

We were going to go bowling in Seomyeon, but they wanted to stop by LanguageCast to say hi to some people first, so Alex and I got bubble tea while we waited for them. We ended up going to the arcade, and wasted money racing on fake motorcycles, shooting zombies, catching virtual skewers of vegetables and prawns, and worst of all, shooting baskets. We play basketball every Friday, and still they chose to play basketball at the arcade. That's dedication right there.

Alex walked me to the subway, because the others wanted to stay, but when he went back to find them, they had left to go home. 

Lol.

Good-night, Busan.

Long Weekend With Friends From Home

Last Friday, my two friends Shota and Gyeong-Sik came from Tokyo and Incheon to visit me for the weekend. True friends are the ones who actually carry through with their I'll-come-to-visit-you promises. I wish I had more time to take them to more touristy places since it's Shota's first time in Korea.

Friday Night

We met up at their oddly named hostel Love In Busan, and headed to an early dinner together at a restaurant that served yummy flavours of makgeolli. We had an appetizer plate of assorted pajeon pancakes, kimchi tofu, and a fried platter of what I think is chicken gizzard. I was told what it was until after I ate it. My favorite thing is still the strawberry makgeolli. It's both tangy and milky. My taste buds agree that it was delightful.

You can see the jug of makgeolli there; I demolished half of it.

After eating, we headed to the Thursday Party in PNU to play beer pong, foosball, and darts. I slayed them at foosball, both alone and teamed up.

Unfortunately, I wasn't so good at darts. After losing spectacularly, I got double flicked on the forehead, painfully.

After a final round of beer pong, we went to the samgyeopsal restaurant near Dongnae station to say hi to the basketball crew, They occupied three tables, and had ordered mountainous portions of pork belly. 

On our way to my place, we stopped by a CU to pick up some beer and soju. I made them wait in the entrance area of my tiny apartment while I attempted to clean up at top speed, and hide my laundry. We played drinking games and tried to watch the Japanese version of The Ring, but we all dozed off until 2 a.m when we were woken by the screaming woman in the movie. After they left, I took a shower and slept soundly. Meanwhile, they got back to their love-hotel-named hostel, where it was obviously locked. They hadn’t thought of getting the passcode beforehand, and so had to spend the night at a 24-hour cafe, stretched out on several chairs waiting for the hostel to open again at 7 a.m. I found out when I woke up from my awesome nap.

Also, thank-you Shota! You're such a sweetheart to get me souvenirs from Japan!

Sanrio Hello Kitty pen, organic scrub towel, and banana sponge cakes filled with yummy custard.

Saturday

Usually if I’m meeting people at a place I don’t know, without data or wifi, I double check with them to make sure I know exactly where it is.

I don’t wander around aimlessly, borrow a stranger’s phone to call, then decide to get a burger and fries from Lotteria first before borrowing a second stranger’s phone yet again, finally showing up an hour later. But that’s what they did. If I didn’t love them so much, I would have killed them.

I rejected their peace offering of french fries with scorn.

So they ate it all and then stuck the paper in my backpack slot.

We had lunch in the food court of Centum City before heading to Spaland. I wish we took some photos at Spaland in our matching prison-like smocks and baggy shorts, but I forgot. By the time I remembered, we were so sweaty and gross from competing in the 71-degrees sauna room to see who could last the longest.

It was then when they decided to whip out the cellphones and take selfies.

LOL

Saturday Night

We headed to KSU for the best pizza at SOL, and I made a bet with Gyeong-Sik that if he could finish a whole pizza, I would pay for it.

Fool.You could see the panic in his eyes when the pizza came. Of course he couldn't finish. This is why you don't bet against Stella.

We met up with Michael, Alex, and their crew at the kitschiest hof/restaurant ever located right above Chir Chir Chicken. Almost everybody brought new friends, and we all drank and watched Hoda and Michael bicker about whether she looks like a turtle or not.

Damn girl. I love you, but you kinda do.

New friends, old friends, good friends.

Hoda managed to successfully convince Shota and Gyeong-Sik to come to Thursday Party KSU with us. Of course she did, that wily femme fatale.

Selfie fail.

S and G-S decided to call it a night and cab home, so the rest of the crew went to Revel. There’s a cover of 10,000 won, but I loved it. The multiple mini-levels, steep stairs, and brick walls gave Revel a distinctly underground, urban hip-hop feel even though I embody none of those aforementioned labels. I had a lot of fun though. I tried to be a wingman, but my heart wasn’t really in it. My half-hearted attempts were unsuccessful, and I was later told that I wasn't as smooth as butter as I thought.

Around 3:30 a.m, exhaustion finally set in, and I decided to head home. I had Faye's early birthday brunch the next day, and skipping it was not an option.

Sunday Morning

Brunch Day!

We were the only ones on time to meet at Gwangan station, exit 3 at 10:50, so we walked to Caffe Primo first to grab a table for our party of 14 people. Luckily we were the first customers of the day and managed to snag the best seats by the windows.

Eggs Benedict with a side of hash browns

Happy Birthday Faye!!!

A few of us took a stroll along Gwangalli Beach before heading to Nampo to shop for souvenirs, eat some street food, and go on the disco pang pang.

Gwangalli shenanigans

That says J <3 S to Stella ajumma

Yea, yea, love you too.

Street food at Nampo-dong

Afterwards, everybody kind of separated, and Shota and I went to Savoy in Seomyeon for some beer. Michael and his friends were also having dinner at Seomyeon, and so we joined them for dessert.

I had to call it a night afterwards, being all coughy, phlegmy, red-eyed, and exhausted. 

Monday

I took the two of them to an early lunch in their area. We had Korean B.B.Q at 11:30 a.m. It was hard to find a restaurant that was open, but we finally found one, called The Gentle Pig. That's just cruel. We ate, chatted, and I took the subway with them to Seomyeon. They were going to Gimhae airport together, and it was goodbye, zai jian, sayonara, an-nyeong, until next time.

See you later, guys.

Wednesday, Second Last Day of 2015 School Year

For Wednesday broadcast today, I did the story The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Basically, I arranged the storybook pictures into a power point presentation, and rewrote the story in a simplified version so that my lower level students could understand too.

My first two classes with fifth-graders were cancelled due to movie parties happening all of this last week. My class with 5-1 carried on as usual, and we just chatted about the upcoming year before watching a bit of Mr. Bean. 

The third-graders played the Family Feud game as a wrap-up of their whole textbook, and watched a bit of Mr. Bean going to the dentist as well.

This afternoon, I have 20 minute classes with Ms. Marie's kids. For the first-graders, we're doing a speed writing game. For the third-graders, I'm doing 4 pictures 1 word with them. The fifth-graders are playing the Categories game quiz. Hopefully they like the activities.

Tuesday, Grade 6 Last Class Before Graduation

My grade 5's yesterday played the Speed Writing Game with vocabulary words and key expressions of lesson 14 in their textbook, and really enjoyed it. I gave them all new Stella Teacher Stamp Sheets and transferred all their leftover stamps over so they could continue collecting and trading stamps for treats next year.

I'm going to see them again tomorrow, and I'm letting them choose between Adventure Time or Mr. Bean episodes to watch for the last class of this school year.

Today, I had my last class with my sixth-graders before their graduation ceremony on Friday.

Will miss these kids so much. 

When a new school year rolls around next month, I'll be wondering where my sixth-graders are. It's going to feel like you guys are away on a field trip, like that time you went to Seoul for three days. Its going to feel too quiet, too empty, until I get finally get used to the fact that you guys are gone. :(