Cosplaying and New Classes

So here is the blog about what I was up to (mostly cosplaying or being sick) last month.  I didn't do too much in March but I got a lot of cosplay pictures taken and my new classes for the new school started too.  I apologize in advance but this will be a picture heavy blog entry.

Photos By: Hwang Doo Yeon 황두연



First, I will mention that I met up with my friend Sue (Sujin) and we had dinner at my favorite galbi restaurant (which sadly disappeared T.T .... I will have to search to see if it is gone or relocated because a new restaurant is where it was) and bingsu.  She wanted to meet my cat and I had no idea that she had never been around a cat before until we got to my apartment and she froze.  It surprised me because I had just assumed that she had liked cats and that is why she wanted to meet my cat since she was in the area.  She was definitely nervous but Bella is a good cat for beginners as she loves people.  I wonder if Sue will be brave enough to try again but it was definitely amusing for me as I have been around cats my whole life.

The beginning of March was also when Chris left so we had a goodbye dinner.  Without Chris, no foreign teacher from when I first started at LCI is left and that makes me the foreign teacher who has been at LCI the longest.  It is a weird feeling being the most experienced, but I can only hope to help the new teachers as much as Chris and the others helped me.  Living in Korea has definitely been an experience, and I have enjoyed most of my time here.  I will definitely miss having Chris around now that she has gone back to the States.  I even met SY who was a Korean they always mentioned but I had never actually met.  We all went to noraeban (karaoke) one last time before Chris left.

I'm liking most of my new classes, even newspaper though I don't care to teach newspaper.  I kept my kindergarten for first grade so that made the transition for them easier as they were already used to doing similar books with me already.  I have some low level classes that I was originally worried about but they seem to be doing ok and did ok on the first set of monthly tests though I had a few students who ended up in tears...  I didn't think the question, "What are three school rules?" would be that difficult .... but then again these are kids studying in their second language.

Photos By: Healing Garty 박종철

I get to teach literature again, though at a slower pace.  But that is okay as it just meant rearranging some of my schedules that I had already made and means I have less to plan overall in the year.  Plus, it will be good as I can just leave one book for the teacher who takes over my classes when I am home for a month and then he or she doesn't have to worry about new books and schedules.  Besides, I enjoy teaching Percy Jackson and the students really enjoy the books, too.

Photos By: Kom Ting 콤팅



So Anna wasn't able to come to one of the cosplay weekends because she is working on making her sword and fixing my stuff (thanks again Anna) so I went by myself in my maid cat costume.  I attempted to do my own makeup.  It was okay but not as good as if Anna or Alexa did it.  But that is okay because it was still fun and I managed to work the costume out even with the corset, tail, and bows all twisting together.

Photos By: Lee Jae Hyeong 이재형

Photos By: Metak 김희윤



I got there and have to admit it was awkward at first, especially since I don't really speak Korean.  I talked to Kathy for a short while but she was busy as staff so I just sat there until a photographer was brave enough to ask me to take a picture.  After that I wasn't bored, because once one photographer asked me, the others realized that I could be worked with despite not speaking Korean and we all tried our best.  There was one girl photographer who was a little younger than me and I wished I had gotten her Kakao address as she was really friendly.  The photographers who spoke English were really friendly and chatty so it wasn't awkward anymore and I had a lot of fun.

Photos By: Western Sky 임명연

 

Photos By: Poid 김재호

I had actually forgotten to bring the right shoes for the outfit so went shoeless and destroyed a good pair of socks and tights but it was worth it.  All the photographers were worried I had lost my shoes and I had a hard time explaining that tennis shoes did not go with the outfit but I had forgotten to bring the right shoes.  It was quite amusing as they offered to help me search for them and kept worrying about me.  As I said before, the photographers here are really nice.

Photos By: Andylove 앤디사랑



One photographer I really liked only spoke a little English but he made me laugh a lot.  He tried to take pictures with different expressions, poses, and locations.  He wanted from cute to serious and would meow and stuff to make me laugh.  I worked with him for quite a long time and I have to admit I had a lot of fun as he tried to explain what Korean phrases meant and get me to do different poses.  I would gladly work with him again even if the photographs turned out awful (I did get some good ones from him so can't complain).

Photos By: Cheon Sae Hwan  천세환



After eleven photographers, I tried to slip away but four more caught me before I even got to the station.  I had even put my tennis shoes back on for the walk back and had to take them off as another two photographers wanted pictures.  I have never been popular before but living in a foreign country as a cosplayer has made me well known among the photographers as I am one of the few foreign cosplayers which makes more of them want to take my picture.  I can't complain as they are all so nice and send me the pictures which I love.  Some of them even print out a polaroid for me so that I have a hard copy of my favorite picture to go along with the ones they email me.

Photos By: Fragrance of Summer 여름의향기



Seoul  Comic World was at the end of the month and with the flowers starting to bloom it was a good chance to get some pictures taken.  We also got to hang out with Sarah a bit more this convention on Saturday though sadly she has since returned to the States.  She was Princess Bubblegum on Saturday and Cinderella on Sunday (though I didn't manage to see her on Sunday).  She was with a family and had this little girl dressed as Elsa who liked to photo bomb pictures.  She was quite good at it I have to say.  I'm hoping to see Sarah at Otakon when I'm home briefly in July. 

Photos By: Hyoseong Kwon (Kkamshang) 권효성



Anyway, on Saturday I borrowed Anna's Danielle from Ever After costume and she borrowed my maid cat costume because it had been so popular the weekend before.  She ended up grumbling though because I got more pictures in one day of Danielle than she did the three times she wore the costume.  We have decided I am easier to notice because my hair color sticks out more as it is lighter and more brown.  Plus, the coloring of Danielle's costumes made it good for pictures.  Besides, Anna got plenty of pictures of her in my maid cat outfit too.  ^.^ 

Photos By: No Hyo Bin 노효빈



 

Photo By: Psman

Anna was actually pretty late that day so I had time to wonder around and take lots of pictures myself for once as she had the costume I was wearing that day.  It was a nice change and an interesting feeling being invisible for once and not being stopped constantly for pictures, especially since most of the photographers don't know that I normally wear glasses.  Now, don't get me wrong, I really enjoy all the pictures I get but it was nice to get pictures of people other than me as well and that gave me more time to talk to people instead of being rushed off from one place to another. 

Photos By: Yangjae (Sunny) 양재



I really like how some of the Danielle pictures turned out for me.  Seems I make a pretty decent princess, even if I am not the princess type.  But we have decided that I have no idea how to do a curtsy.  Every time I try to do a curtsy .... well it just doesn't turn out right and it shows in the pictures.  But it was still a fun costume to wear as I have seen the movie Ever After and like the character Danielle.  We also ran into Alexa and her friend Elisa there and some of the photographers grabbed them, too, because they have interesting styles.  But hey, we got a nice group picture out of it, so yay!

Photos By: Healing Garty 박종철

 

I was really excited for our costumes on Sunday as we did a reverse cosplay of the Chinese dresses we wore in the fall and were our first popular costumes that made the photographers notice us.  Plus the fall pictures turned out so nice so I had high expectations.  So I wore the white dress and was Yukina Sonogi from Senkou no Night Raid and Anna wore my blue Chinese dress for Maria Wong from Descendants of Darkness.  As I said, I was really excited but this was the first time I went home disappointed.  Though some photographers did indeed take our pictures, I never actually saw any of them and the photographers were less creative and rushed.  Now I understand there were a lot of people there but it is still disappointing to not even get the pictures that were taken in an email even though I did hand out my email card like I always do.  T.T Oh, well, we will just have to try again to do the reverse Chinese dresses when we get a chance as I really want more pictures of that one.