the ladies' man.

the latest drama at tango pango: who will doyoon chose? subin or hee won? here's the scoop. we've been noticing that doyoon (english name donald, which i'll use from here on out) has his little 4 year old heart set on subin (english name rachel, which i'll use from here on out). she has long flowing hair, short choppy bangs, and wears big purple dresses with lots of fur. what's not to love? so the two have been spotted getting cozy during lullaby time in my music class--snuggling their faces together, donald pushing rachel's hair out of her eyes--and always leave the school walking hand in hand. last week thursday, donald came to school with a love letter, complete with a very "is this contemporary art or is this the work of a 5 year old?" picture on front, and some very messy korean scribbles on the inside that said something like "i think you a very pretty. love, doyoon." cute right? a letter for the love of his life in the purple fury dress, rachel. WRONG! the love letter was in fact made out to hee won (english name, monica, which i'll use from here on out). donald then proceeded to shower all his love and affection and hand holding and hair stroking on the much surprised monica, to the utter dismay of the much heart-broken rachel. but alas! rachel would not be forgotten so easily. the next day, she came wearing her finest and furriest dress and won back the coveted spot next to donald during the lullaby in music class, leaving poor monica confused, betrayed, and alone. in a last attempt to fight for her brief love affair with donald, monica stood up just as i was ending our lullaby, "By 'n' By," and made a brave dive between the happy couple, positioning herself face to face with a very-much-enjoying-himself donald. but her seeming victory was brief, as rachel quickly shoved her out of the way, grabbed donald's hand, and turned his attention back to her bright purple fury dress and short choppy bangs. in a grand gesture of defeat, monica cuddled on donald's back side, wrapped her arms around his waist, and burried her head into his shoulder blades. i don't even think he noticed. rachel and donald have been spotted leaving tango pango hand in hand ever since. HOWEVER, today, much to rachel's dissapointment and frustration, donald was caught snuggling up to min gyu (english name, charlie--the naughty one who's picture i've put on here that has the mischevious look in his eyes but is, ofcourse, one of my favorites)!!! i think donald is one confused little boy. the kicker? out of the little korean boys at our school, donald is NOT the cutest. and that's putting it lightly. in fact, i'd dare say he looks sort of like a weeble wobble with his giant head that's too large for his body and his now permed hair making it look even larger. (why or why do parents perm their little boys' hair here???) what do the girls (and boys) see in him?



here's some pics from my saturday night out with the girls. amelia (my yoga instructor), is on my left, and debbie (the only other person as unflexible and ungraceful as me in my yoga class) is on my right.





turns out my friend josh was playing a show across the street. how convenient. it was cool. he did well.





it also turns out that i rock at pool. who knew. well, let's be honest, i rocked at first. it was one of those blissful moment where i getting every ball in and everyone was like "what do you mean you never play pool!" and i thought "my hidden talent my hidden talent my hidden talent! it's finally here!" and then i got too excited and starting doing things like missing the ball with my stick and i realized that very rarely can you be amazing at something you never do. i have that with bowling sometimes where i think i'm amazing for the first 10 minutes. but i'm not.

mmmmm...butter...sugar...more butter...

last night, i got together with some girls for a christmas cookie extravaganza. you know how exciting it is to make christmas cookies. the anticipation, putting the food coloring in the frosting, listening to christmas music, so much christmas cheer. by the 9th batch, the christmas cd has long stopped playing, and your good spirits have been gone since batch #4. you feel sick from eating too much cookie dough made of 10 pounds of butter and licking the knife of the frosting too many times, you're covered in powdered sugar b/c you put the blender on too high, there's dirty dishes everywhere, and all you can think is..."seriously? there's more? i never want to frost another cookie again in my life." and usually you don't until the next christmas, when you forget the bitter ending from the year before and get just excited as you always do and think it's going to be the greatest event of the christmas season. so that's basically what happened.

the top picture is laura, stephanie, and debbie making the dough in debbie's little kitchen. the next picture down is laura and i...uh...eating.


"um...have you ever heard of a wise man christmas cookie shape? it looks like a pointy headed backpacker."







the finished product. it almost makes it look worth it.

korea kindergarteners.

much is new here in the land of tomorrow. (it's called that b/c we're a day ahead of all you people if you weren't sure what i meant. ) the most exciting news is that yesterday we started a kindergarten at tango pango. before, we were only what they call a "hogwans," which is a term they use for all schools that are privately owned and provide english classes. so as of yesterday, we have a kindergarten in the morning and hogwans in the afternoon. the kindergarten lasts for 2 hours (it will extend to 4 hours starting in march) and consists of an hour and half of classroom and 30 minutes of music for each class. it makes my mornings much busier, but i'm having loads of fun so far. the kids are ages 4-7 korean age, which means about 3-6 american age. most of the students have been going to the hogwans for awhile, including 4 of the naughtiest boys in the school, which, let's be honest, just makes things a lot more fun. the kids come every day, so i'm going to have to start being more creative with my class--i'm open to suggestions.

the weekend was really nice. friday night we took elly out for her birthday, complete with thai food, cake, and nuribong (in case you've forgotten or didn't read my last post--this is korean style karaoke). i think my voice is still a bit hoarse. which is just never good when you're the music teacher. saturday was restful--watched movies, painted something for matt and mary's wall as per their request. i've never painted for anyone before and i was stressed b/c i don't think people understand that i'm actually not a painter. but it turned out really cool and they love it. and then sunday i went to a little english worship service at a church some of my friends go to and ended the day meeting amelia (my yoga instructor) for a movie and a glass of wine at a really cool wine and coffee bar. we saw the movie "august rush" and i really loved it. sometimes i just get so emotional in movies and the whole time i wonder "do i really love this movie as much as i think i do? the next time i watch this am i going to think it's lame?" and then i just stop wondering and let myself bawl my eyes out. it's all about music and how it lives inside of you and i had so many moments where i wanted to stand up and shout "I LOVE MUSIC!" and i even had a moment through my tears where i cried out in my head, "God! all i ever wanted was to be a famous musician! to be really really really good at music and play it for thousands of people at a time! was that so much to ask?" i used to think i should be doing something greater than teaching kids, but then when i'm in my classroom and all of their squinty eyes are looking at me with their empty little heads(actually big--koreans have really big heads) just waiting to be filled with whatever i give them, i think God is just smiling and saying "sorry, carolyn, but you are not going to be famous. you are going to be a teacher. deal with it." it's a good thing those kids are so cute and i love my job. most days.

this morning my alarm went off at 7:20. i hit snooze. it went off again at 7:25. snooze. 7:30. what to do what to do what to do... snooze. 7:35 do i really have to get...snooze. 7:40. alarm off. lay down. don't fall asleep don't fall asleep don't fall asleep. sit up. lay back down. sit up. snuggle back under the covers. finally, i sat up and had a 5 minute conversation about why i needed to go running this morning.
"self, you're already up. you've been doing so well. it's not a big deal."
"oh, but i'm so tired and cold and hungry. that's like the triple threat reason not to go running." "self, you've been doing really well. if you don't go today, then what's making you go tomorrow or the next day?"
"oh, but it's colder today. it's not good for my lungs."
"self, your lungs will be fine. you'll feel better when you're done."
"fine. but i'm not going very far. only a 5k."
"fine you big baby."
"don't call me a baby."
and the conversation went on until i was dressed in all my layers and out the door. i've turned my heat off in my apartment to try to save money and it's getting colder and colder outside and i just wonder if i can do another winter with no gym. i felt like the air was going to bite my face off this morning.

one of these things is not like the others...

tonight after yoga, i hopped into the elevator and just as the doors were closing, there was a girl coming out of yoga ready to leave so i made a heroic dive in between the doors and just as they were about to squeeze the life out of me and turn me into a martyr, they re-opened and the girl walked in. "yikes! that was a close one!" i gasped with pride. her response? no thank you, no smile, not even eye contact. just as the doors were about to close again, two more people walked out of yoga and, despite the lack of appreciation from fellow yoga-er #1, i threw myself between the closing doors again, allowing for two more little korean women to join us on the elevator. again, no response. and let me tell me, it sucks when you just miss the elevator b/c yoga zen is on the 9th floor and it takes a long time to wait for the elevator to go down to the first floor and all the way back up. but despite their lack of expression, i maintained my good spirits and even told one of them that i liked her shoes. they were a leopard print stiletto type of thing and they were fabulous. i pointed, gave a thumbs up, and she looked at me in confusion and annoyance. come on, lady, every country knows what thumbs up means. so then i started looking around at the shoes of the other women. one pair of leather pointy toe boots, one pair of red and blue patterned heels with a little diamond thing. and then i looked at down at my own pair of black and white pumas that look like they're made for rock climbing and have been several times. suddenly i found myself whistling the tune to "one of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong" from sesame street. my whistling turned into humming, my humming turned into full out singing. (well, not full out. i was singing the words loud enough for them to hear.) i thought it was hillarious, but i don't think they got it. apparently, they don't have sesame street here either. today, we also found a place with a tanning bed, which was shocking considering that every skin product and lotion in korea is purposed to whiten the skin. they want to be white, we want to be brown. but mary's going to thailand for christmas and i'm going to the philippines and both of us will be on the beach for a week and a half straight and i'm petrified of turning into a painful and peeling bright red tomato after day 1. i haven't been to a tanning bed since high school prom (with the exception of once) and i really hate them. they smell, they're claustrophobic, they make me all sweaty and hot and, the obvious reason--it's a box of cancer. but i figured a few times wouldn't hurt and would also make my transition into beautiful beaches much smoother. anyway, we went after school today and seriously, i think the bed was from 1979 and i don't think they've cleaned it since then. i felt like i had been slimed. or given an std. i'm taking some cleaning materials next time. gross.

hannah got some pictures from the website of the 10k we did. here is the start.





there's me! #1399 just about to cross the finish line. and just to clarify, the children who are about to beat me walked the 5k and sprinted the last 10 feet of it. so no jokes. they aren't beating me.

look at the sea of koreans! try to find us! it's like where's waldo.

the one who makes me bendy turned 28.

our thanksgiving meal turned out to just be the tip of the iceberg as far as as our celebration of thanksgiving was concerned. sunday afternoon, we all headed to annie and matt's, friends who have a beautiful apartment in the city, and spent the entire day, preparing (well, i did a lot of sitting on the couch--i'm not really the first to jump up and get all helpy helpy in the kitchen and there seemed to be enough of them crowded around the oven), anticipating, and enjoying a fantastic turkey dinner. they have a real oven so we could actually have turkey. it was super delicious and i think i'm still full.

but i did more than eat this weekend. saturday night, we celebrated amelia's (my yoga instructor who's the size of my leg) 28th birthday. about 7 of us headed to hongdae, a really hip and lively part of the city, to a bar called bricxx and it was sooooo cool. probably one of the coolest bars i've been to, and that says a lot cuz i lived in chicago for a year. it was dark and candle lit and underground and we sat on cushions on the floor and i think i may have said "seriously you guys, i just love this bar! seriously! it's so cool!" about 15 times over the course of the night. so we ate food that was too spicy and drank some german pinot grigio that was too delicious and had cake that was too small, and then we hit two other places and i danced my face off and didn't get home till 4 am. what am i, like, in college or something? i know. i haven't stayed out that late for a really, really long time. but i was having a genuinely great time and enjoying the people i was with so much. one of them, debbie, was a girl i met at church awhile back and she goes to yoga with me, and debbie's roommate rob came with his korean girlfriend mido (i don't know why i specify that she is korean, but i'm just trying to create a picture for my readers), and then amelia along with 2 more of their korean friends. i think one of the reasons i enjoyed the night so much (other than the fabulous atmospheric bar) was because it was with different people then i often find myself hanging out with. it was really nice to hang out with non-work people and not talk about work stuff (b/c that is what tends to happen when you're with work people). i can't swing those up-till-4-am nights like i used to (i don't know how the kids are doing it these days), but it was most definitely worth it.

so i found an old white head board in the trash and decided it would make a nice art project. so i spent a night last week painting it and had a blast. i'm no artist to say the last, but i enjoyed every stroke of the brush. :) i put it by my window b/c when i put it behind my bed, 3/4 of it was covered. (i just sleep on a mattress on the floor). so here is the finished project.

kimchi stuffing.

happy thanksgiving!!!! as the only american in a sea of koreans and canadians, i hosted the thanksgiving meal at my place last night and it was fabulous. here is what our menu looked like: mary and i both made chickens (we found turkey at costco but it was about 4 times the size of any of our little conventional ovens) and mary even made stuffing to keep the insides of our birds happy, and her and matt also provided the mashed potatoes and wine. i made a DELICIOUS pumpkin soup and broccoli, hannah and rocko brought sweet potatoe casserole and carrots, lucy (she's the korean teacher who helps us with all of our classes and is kind of like our korean mother figure) brought apple pie that we were all too full to eat anyway, and elly (our korean friend) was supposed to bring bread but she said she couldn't find any (couldn't find any bread? what?) so she brought two large pizzas. i don't think she really gets what we do at thanksgiving. but it was hillarious and thoughtful nonetheless. i totally made everyone go around and say what they were thankful for and there was much laughter and good cheer. to end the night, we headed across the street to nuribong--korean karaoke--and spent the remainding hours of thanksgiving day belting out christina aguilara's "beautiful" and kelly clarkson's "since you've been gone" and will smith's "gettin jiggy with it" (which i would not recommend nor ever do again--there's more words to that song other than "na na na na na na na gettin' jiggy with it." a lot more words in fact and lets face it i am a white girl who can't rap.) we met up with elly's mom and some of her friends who were there and i even got a lap dance from one of her mom's friends. not exactly what i would expect from a korean woman. i had never done nuribong yet and it was awesome. karaoke asian-style means you get your own private room that you pay for, complete with two microphones and tambourines. it was a memorable thanksgiving.

that didn't take long.

I'VE GRADUATED!!! I'VE GRADUATED!!!

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