king of pop.

ever since i heard the news of michael jackson's death last week, i've just had such a terribly sad feeling inside. last night we watched a documentary on his life and i've been tuning into the news articles of how his life got so twisted by the news, media, interviewers, false charges...it seems so tragic.

i've also been watching youtube videos of his performances and listening to his music and i think it's safe to say he was and will always be the king of pop. in my opinion. how did he do it? i'm buying as many of his albums today as i can afford. (and by that, i mean one. the essentials of course...)

since i'm riding the pop train, i've also been a sort of fan of lady gaga ever since i saw her music video of paparazzi and last night i also watched her do an accoustic version of the song live on a radio show. i cannot stop singing that song! i was singing it all day in class as my little korean kids just stared at me like..."are we learning that in music class this week?" i just want her to pull her hair back, wipe off her make-up so i can actually see what she looks like. what's underneath lady gaga anyway? i can't tell if i'm totally anoyed or totally a fan.

am i having a blog affair?

Who loves Nepalese food? ME ME ME!!!! Who loves the best Nepalese food in the whole wide world? ME ME ME!!! That’s why I headed to Everest Resturaunt in Dongdaemun on Friday night. I have to say that for the 9 months I was out of Korea, Everest was on my top list of Things I miss about Korea. Nothing has changed: the vegetable samosas are still to die for, the Malai Kafta is still heavenly bliss, and the garlic naan is still dangerously close to making me wonder if it’s possible to become a garlic naan-aholic and if Korea offers group rehabilitation classes for that somewhere. (”Hi, my name is Carolyn and I’m a garlic naan-aholic.” “Hi Carolyn…”)After stuffing ourselves with deliciousness, we ventured into the Dongdaemun shopping district. At 10:30pm, the Dongdaemun market was just coming to life, with endless streets of vendors, malls, more vendors, more malls…talk about overwhelming. We were hot, sweaty, and tired of the wierd smells, but we found some fake Calvin Klein underwear that could pass for the real thing (at least from a distance and how many people do you have looking at the details of your underwear anyway? hopefully not many…), so our work there was done.

i feel like i'm double dipping because i took part of this blog from an entry i just wrote on the adventure teaching blog, but it seems ridiculous to write 2 entirely different blogs when, in this instant, i sort of wanted to write the same things. trying to be witty and clever twice on the same topic is just too much work. but now i sorta feel like i'm cheating on my personal blog. like i'm two-timing. what if my 2 blogs find out about each other? scary thought...

korea has a cool band!

so i discovered a great band in korea. they're called swingset committee and i heard them a few weeks ago and then ali and i looked up their myspace and went to another of their shows last weekend. they're sort of indie-electro and they're my new favorite! check our their myspace here:
swingset committee myspace

something else that's new is that i've been working really hard on a facebook page project for adventure teaching korea. they're the recruiters who found my first job in korea, and also friends of mine. ali and i are heading up their facebook page and blog project, which is meant to be a center for information, upcoming events, helpful links, and community building in korea. it's exactly the kind of thing i wish i would have known about when i moved to korea almost 2 years ago. (what!?!?! almost 2 years ago!?!?!) check out the page here:
adventure teaching korea facebook page
and check out the blog i've been working on that's connected to the page:
adventure teaching blog

oh my links! i think that's enough for one blog.

a life again.

i've just gotten home from a long day. ah, it feels so good to say that. i actually have long days again that i can feel proud of. :)

i bumped into an opportunity to do 4 hours of private lessons until the end of july. they are two 11 year old boys, and ali and i are sharing every other day. they mostly like to talk about farting and see how many english swear words they can throw in before i give them the evil eye, and it's really a hoot. the money is also a hoot seeing as i'm living on it for the next month until i actually get my first full paycheck. :)

i'm feeling happy to be living a life again...working every day doing a job i care about, going home every friday at 5 with that "WHOOPIDY DOOPITY DOOOO!!!!!" feeling like everybody else i'm squeezed between on my bus, dreading every sunday night because it means i have to go back to work the next morning...ah, life is meant to be that way...

and the music teacher lives on.

so i was sitting in one of my classes this week thinking...'you know self, i really think a music program could be squeezed into this schedule. i wonder if a did a little convincing, i could get back to what i actually love doing...i'll give it a month and lay it on the table.' well, the month turned into 30 minutes later, when i just blurted it out to the head kindergarten teacher. result: she was thrilled, now they don't have to pay for a music teacher to come in, i start next week.

HOORAY!!!!

i was feeling so sad about the prospect of an entire year of no music teaching, and then alas! a door opened. get ready for a whole bunch of songs that you're not gonna be able to pronounce and will be clueless to the meaning of kids! it's gonna be a blast! bring on the shoo, fly!

i don't know where my money's gone. i hate how when you settle into a new apartment, your wallet gets drained. going out to eat b/c you have no groceries, kitchen utensils that are absolutely essential for any hopes of cooking, bright olive green heels that are absolutely essential for any hopes of adjusting...you get the picture. it's time to get back to a budget so i can start kicking my student loans in the pants.

ali comes tomorrow. twill be crazy being back in korea together!

like i never left?

another weekend in korea. nothing's changed, not a thing. i'm still exhausted and elated on fridays as i head hom from school, i still find korean jimjilbong the most relaxing/strange thing ever, and hongdae is still the place to be on saturday nights.

i spent friday night at the jimjilbong (korean sauna), in the steam room dressed in the hugely oversized pink shorts and t-shirts they require you wear, in the women's only area where everyone walks around completely naked trying out the various temperatures and styles of hot tubs (like green tea), and getting scrubbed raw by an old naked korean woman. ah, the jimjilbong scrub-down. there is not a trace of dead skin left on my body.

saturday night we went out to hongdae for mina's birthday--ate some korean style bbq meat, then the usual--bricxx for drinks followed by club ff for dancing. they do bands at club ff every saturday night now, some of which i truly enjoyed (the cool electro duo who wear funny masks) and one of which i truly enjoyed less--the last band that played did covers and covers only--you know, the killers, oasis, kings of leon, and big hits from the 70s. yawn. it was all a big hit to everyone attending, but i couldn't help but feel like these guys would never get away with such mediocracy back home. anyway, they finally stopped and the dj took over. SIGH OF RELIEF.
but the night out was good, mina's day of birth was celebrated, and i got to dance. so i was a happy girl. :)

sunday nights are the worst. every second, the clock ticks on, dragging me to the doom of monday morning. i just want to the pause button. or the fast forward button to 5:00 next friday. he he. ooooo, a remote control for life. if only...(however, i think that went badly for adam sandler is some movie about 5 years ago...)

seriously, i want to put up pictures i do! but my camera input into my computer thingy is broken. :( i'll find a way soon, i promise!

oprah. does it every time.

i forgot that when i live in korea, my standards for television go down. way down. but it's not my fault, there's simply a lack of english channels to choose from. gone are the days of carefully chosen movies of integrity from netflix (twilight doesn't count) and dvr at tricia and jen's place where i watch what i want, when i want, and don't fill in the gaps with crap. no no, here i'm just happy to catch ANYTHING in english, which usually consists of a lot of terminator movies, grey's anatomy, and oprah. good thing i would secretly give my right foot to be at the oprah show. how does she make me cry 75% of the time i watch that show?

i'm continuing to attempt re-arranging my box of an apartment, and the latest addition is new bedding. bedding is important in here, given the fact that my bed takes up about 1/2 of the space. (no joke.) i opted for olive green (it looked cool and subtle online) and i opened the box to find the brightest limish greenish olivish greenish you could imagine. good thing i love a dramatic look!

i'm also still working on gaining an appetite again. the smells here are really hard to get used to again--everywhere i go smells like some form of kimchi. i'm having a hard time getting anything down.

tonight i needed to spell the word "dissapoint" in a post i put on facebook, and the red squiggly came up underneath it. so i took away an "s" and the red squiggly stayed. i couldn't imagine any other way it could be, so i looked it up online and WHO KNEW disappoint is spelled with 2 p's. it looked so weird and awkward to me. i think i've been spelling it wrong my whole life. sigh. i need tricia in my pocket for the rest of my life if i ever hope to become a competent speller.

i promise i'll post pictures of my box soon, but i want it to dazzle first!