life and etc.

i realized that my posts have become few and far between. and that i haven't really said anything in any of them.

진짜 미안해요!!

i've been super busy lately, at school...and after school. i teach a bunch of extra classes now--advanced english. which means that i'm grading essays. and trying to make sense of essays. and i'm disappointed with my korean skill. so i've been studying super hardcore. and now i'm trying to go to the gym twice a day [5 days a week] and once on weekends. so i get negative 234869 hours of sleep. which may or may not be a slight exaggeration. and then my poor kitty had to have surgery last week, which was an absolute nightmare. because she screamed [not "cried", not "meowed", not "whined"...screamed is really the only way to describe those horrifying sounds] the entire way there, and the entire way back. and then she escaped from her carrier somehow. but luckily she jumped onto me instead of onto the street.

in other news, i'm in the middle of looking for a new job to start in september. i've applied to private kindergarten/elementary schools in seoul exclusively. i've talked to 4 potential employers, and now i have to go in for face-to-face interviews sometime within the next week or so.

also, during one of my classes this morning, a boy sitting towards the back of the classroom spent about 5 minutes trying on glasses, and taking off glasses, and fixing his hair, and smiling, and puffing his cheeks, and making "cute poses". finally, i called him out and asked him what in the world he was doing...his response: "teacher, i'm practicing cute poses for my selca". only in korea...
[selca=a picture you take of yourself...this practice is infinitely popular in korea, probably because of 얼짱 "ulzzang" (best face)...basically, this is ridiculously cute people who take ridiculously cute pictures of themselves doing different poses. people actually become famous this way.]

i'm just another girl~

i've been trying to post a lot less about kpop and focus more on things that i actually do in korea.

but, i reallyreallyreally love this song.

kimchi museum

this week, i had monday and tuesday off of work, due to buddha's birthday being on tuesday. even though korea is traditionally buddhist, it seems like a lot of people these days are either christian or not religiously affiliated. since i am not buddhist, and i don't know anyone who is [well, i don't know anyone who is a practicing buddhist], i'm not sure what people traditionally do on this holiday.

so, my friend and i decided to go to coex mall and check out the kimchi museum. coex is a ginormous mall, build underground, and it's quite famous in the seoul area. it has tons of stores, an aquarium, casino, kimchi museum, and a large food court with a variety of different restaurants [and a sbarros--heckyess]. the mall is also arranged like a giant maze, and i'm pretty sure that i've never walked around the entire thing before...

jen and i had never visited the kimchi museum before, although we had been curious about it for a while. we decided that it could be something interesting and cultural to do for buddha's birthday.

the museum itself was much smaller than i had anticipated. the displays detailed the history of kimchi, as well as how it is made [then and now]. it also explained the importance of kimchi to korean culture, and how the taste is different between the different regions.

all-in-all, it was an interesting experience. although, i wouldn't recommend travelling all the way to coex just to see the museum...but if you happen to be at the mall already, it's definitely worth checking out.

coex mall is located on seoul subway line 2 [the green line] at 삼성 [samsung] station, exit 6. the museum itself is a bit trickier to find. it's on level B2, but you should look for the signs inside the mall. the museum is closed on mondays, and the entrance fee is 3,000KRW.

hello kitty cafe~

yesterday was children's day, which is apparently a pretty big holiday in korea. i think that children are supposed to get presents and/or money on this day. since i am [shockingly] neither korean nor a child, i received nothing. other than a day off of work, which is a pretty great present.

to celebrate, my friend reallywally and i went to the hello kitty cafe at 대학로 [daehakno]. there are several hello kitty cafes sprinkled around seoul, and last year i went to one in 홍대 [hongdae]. but since this one was brand new, we decided to check it out.

the menu was virtually the same as the other HK cafe, and the interior was very similar. pink, girly, kitty. cuteness overload. [basically, it's like my dream house.]

the cafe had two floors, which looked pretty much the same..and the world's cutest bathroom. there was also a separate room for couples, although i can't imagine dragging my boyfriend there [assuming i had one]...

i enjoyed a delicious iced caramel machiatto, and we shared a choco-banana waffle. [it was shaped like hello kitty!!]

it's definitely worth a visit...especially if you're a kitty fan^^

YGEntertainment

a few weeks ago, i went to the YG building in 합정 [hapjeong--an area of seoul located a covnenient 30 minutes from my apartment]. YG is the record label that produces BIGBANG, 2NE1, SE7EN, Psy, and Gummy. [but most importantly bigbangㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

anyways, i was totally not creeping because bigbang wasn't even there at the time. and i knew that they weren't gonna be there. [they had another concert at that time...and for some reason i didn't goㅠㅠ] and, it's not creeping if they're not there, right??

anyways, i had wanted to drop by the building because i'd heard that it was really cool, architecturally. [ok, and also because i wanted to see bigbang's workplace...i'll admit it...]

there's a convenience store right next to it where fans have written messages for YG artists [although it appeared that most of them were for bigbang]. apparently, fans usually wait outside of the building for the artists to come out, but on the day that i went, there were only 3 [probably middle school aged] girls waiting. my friend and i only hung out for maybe 15 minutes or so...just enough time to enjoy our convenience store ice cream and take a few pictures. and it's possible that we may or may not have also written a message for bigbang.

anyways, it was cool to visit once. and i'd recommend stopping by to see the building [especially if you're a fan of YG]. but i'll probably never go back again unless i have a specific or legit reason to be there. mostly because i don't want my future husband [*cough*T.O.P*cough*] to catch me creeping. because that would be embarassing.