So despite having some unexpected time off, I have been pretty busy. Busy enough that I have not been keeping up with anime. T.T Anyway, let's start off with the school events first as those usually don't take too long. First, I had my first birthday party with my current kindergarten class. Jayden was so excited for his birthday that he started telling me about it two weeks before. It went well though they kept asking for more fruit, which I wouldn't give them till they finished what they already had on their plates. At least they like fruit. One of my students ended up moving and being too far to continue my class so he is no longer around and my class is back down to three kids.
We had a field trip to hike a mountain in Gyeonggi. We go on this field trip a lot and I still get confused about which way to go. It went smoothly (much easier than the last field trip) and had only one minor issue. My boys kept going so fast I was afraid they would trip and hurt themselves but luckily they didn't. As always, my class somehow ended up first and in the lead. We played on the equipment there and the boys helped Sophia reach things and get on things. It was quite cute seeing them help her to have fun, especially considering she is so shy.
So MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) hit Korea pretty hard and there were cases in my town as well. Many schools closed down for two weeks (some even longer) due to the risk of exposure. My school was closed for 8 days. English teachers were really worried about what would happen with vacations and pay days. Thankfully, my work scheduled make up days and we only have to work two Saturdays without missing too much of our original vacation time though Christmas vacation does get split into a 3 day weekend and five days off. But it could have been a lot worse like not getting paid, so can't complain.
A lot of students didn't show up even after the school reopened. I didn't have any kindergarten for three days as none of the kids showed up and I had to find other ways to make up the hours. There were a few classes that only one student showed up. Even now, there will be kids who will not return until after I leave for summer vacation though most of them have returned now. My work was nice enough to give me a month of to visit my family as I have been working for them for almost three years.
Photo By: Adnil Ofarim
Photo By: Alex Gondo Subroto
Photo By: Andi Ajib
Photo By: Kathy Kim
Photo By: Kim Young
Photos By: Andylove 앤디사랑
During the MERS outbreak I did go to see Jurassic World in theaters. I was super excited to see it because the Jurassic Park movies were some of my favorites as a kid. I enjoyed the movie though I can see why many people didn't as it was basically a monster movie. I think my biggest pet peeve was how the dinosaurs looked and that the characters didn't grow to much. Though I must admit I really liked the trainable raptors who formed an attachment to their trainer. Overall, I enjoyed the movie and would definitely watch it again, but as I said before I love the Jurassic Park world and was happy to see them finally show what would have happened if the park had actually opened. Honestly, there might not have been enough deaths considering the dinosaurs that were loose in the park.
Photo & Video By: Aditya Pratama Yoga
Photos By: Caoimhín Mac Ghille Aindrais
Photo By: Lina Mulyani
Now to talk about the cosplaying aspect. The May Seoul Comic World was a lot of fun. I did Asuna the first day and the guys at the convention were loving it. I guess lots of people like a strong female character who carries a sword. I ran into some people who recognized me from Cossamo (the Korean cosplay group). It was an interesting experience to have people I have never met actually know who I am. We got stuck in the back with a lot of groups taking our picture though I don't think we got too many of the pictures back. Someone even gave me a free health potion at the end of the day. It was some kind of red sweet sports drink or something. Asuna is a fun costume though I have to admit I cried a little inside when I shipped my sword home so I could use it at Otakon. It cost so much though that was partly because I accidentally shipped it home in three days. I even got to see a Meriko and Takuto from Full Moon wo Sagashite.
Photos By: Abbas Muntazir
Photo By: Pak Yong Jin 박용진
The second day I did Princess Anna and people loved it though I didn't get to walk around too much. A Korean girl recognized me as Anna from Cossamo even before I got in the costume and we later found each other and took a picture together while we were in costume. I had hoped to walk around more as people really like it when I dress as Princess Anna but we got caught in the back again and every time I tried to move forward, another photographer or group pulled me aside for pictures. There was a really big Indonesian photographer group who took a lot of pictures, though I only saw a few from each photographer in the end. They started singing "Let it Go" so I started singing "For the First Time in Forever" and they caught it on video. It is not my best singing but it was still a lot of fun. I will definitely have to do Anna again ... and buy the other costumes I don't have. I was also super excited to see two Chihiros from Spirited Away.
Photo By: Sae Rom 새롬
The week after Seoul Comic World, Anna and I had been invited to participate as an extra in a Korea movie called "Detective" with some other cosplayers in Cossamo. It was interesting because we didn't sign up but had been noticed because of our Asuna and Kirito pictures. I guess the director liked the idea of having foreign cosplayers in his movie. There were six of us foreigners in the end and there are definitely some scenes that we may be in. I was a bit concerned that it would be difficult because I don't speak Korean, but it worked out. There were a lot of Korean cosplayers who spoke enough English to help us understand the directions. Also, they had dressed up the cosplay park and gave it a bit of a Renaissance feel. This was kind of funny because none of the cosplayers had on Renaissance costumes.
Photo By: Anna M
Photos By: Kim Dong Ha 김동하
Photo By: Pijer Triatmadja
From what I understand about the movie, it is about a detective who failed to get into police school and became an otaku (thus the reason they needed cosplayers). He is after a murderer who is among the cosplayers. The murdered had on really cool wolf makeup and the wolf's mouth was painted on his hands. We basically got to do whatever we wanted so me and Danielle (an amazing foreign cosplayer who makes her own costumes) sword fought. The detective actor actually ended up running through our swords which surprised us quite a bit but it means that we will likely actually show up a little in the movie. They had to retake a lot of scenes.
Photos By: Ardianto (Ardian Syah) Cilacap
Photos By: Axell Pratama
Photo By: Tyree Chansan Syeeo
Later on they asked about 25 of us to form groups of 5. My group just happened to have two Koreans and three foreigners at the time, so we decided to try and got picked. They said it was going to be shown in the opening scene of the film. Basically, my group fought amongst themselves, my against Anna and the two from Rozen Maiden fought. Then Wade, the odd character out, tried to stop us all from fighting saying we would destroy the world. Honestly, I forgot they were filming, I was just having so much fun sword fighting that day. My sword has a few chips and dents in it to prove it. ^.^
Photos By: Faiez Al-Rahmad
Photos By: Hemry Danone
Photo By: Van Danu
It was a lot of fun, but a long day. I even got paid about $60 (60,000 won) for it (I would have done it for free). Plus they provided lunch for us and gave us ice cream at the end. I ended up getting sunburn that day, but it was totally worth the experience and now I can say I was an extra in a Korean movie. Though I think my favorite part was the fact that the Korean cosplayers were talking to us a lot more and we are becoming more involved in the cosplaying community. It was nice to actually be able to talk with the ones who understood English. I hope I get to hang out with them again.
Photos By: Ko Yeong Ho 고영호
The only part of the movie extra day that I did not like was that the fact some of the less mature cosplayers were giving the staff member who was helping coordinate between the cosplayers and movie people a hard time. They were downright nasty to her, making up rumors, and basically treating her like crap. It was really sad to see because cosplaying is suppose to be a way to express yourself, be someone new, and something anyone can do. Thankfully the situation was settled later on and people stood up for the awesome staff member.
Photos By: Western Sky 임명연
These cosplayers reminded me of why many great cosplayers quit. I have been extremely lucky in my cosplaying events that I have not had to deal with any negativity myself (but perhaps that is just because I don't speak Korean so I can't understand them - but if that is the case, I am glad I don't understand them). It is just a shame that people can't just come together and enjoy cosplaying. It has become too much of a competition and practically a beauty pageant at times. It's just a shame that cosplaying becomes less enjoyable the more involved you get in it. I hope that I don't ever reach the point where I want to quit.
Photos By: Chwe Ji Hwan (Meta) 최지환
Last, I cosplayed as the black dress version of Megurine Luka from the Vocaloid song "Let's Be Friends." Anna likes her Luka cosplay so I told her I would do the reverse version of her character. I was a little hesitant as the pink wig doesn't usually look that good on me, but with the pink makeup and black dress, it actually looked great. I got some great pictures from the shoot, too, so definitely can't complain. It is definitely a costume I would do again if I had a friend who could help me out with the makeup. I'm so useless with hair and makeup. T.T One photographer took a while and made us late for a promise with another photographer but it turned out alright as both photographers gave us great pictures.
Photos By: Rain Park (Photorain)
After cosplaying Luka, one of my favorite photographers asked us to do a private photo shoot with normal clothes that I am excited for. It makes me realize just how much I feel like a real model sometimes even though I'm not a model and just do cosplay as a fun hobby. This upcoming photo shoot makes me feel like I am a model the most because I won't actually be cosplaying for it and it was a shoot that a photographer set up. I hope it turns out alright, though I'm sure it will as I have always gotten amazing photos from the photographer. It gives me something to look forward to when I get back from my vacation.
Photos By: Kim Hak Bo 김학보
One last thing that has happened recently is that Bella is helping me become friends with my neighbors. There is a girl who always jumps rope outside my window. She says hi to my cat a lot so I took Bella out to meet her. Now her mom and sister come to see Bella, too. They even gave me onions and chicken for Bella. It is really amusing to watch the mom tell Bella not to eat the grass but to eat the lettuce or apple because it is better for her. They are really nice even though they don't speak much (if any) English so communicating with them is hard. I hope I see them more when I return.
So I met the new teacher who is covering my classes while I'm on vacation. His name is Peter and I like him so far and the kids seem to like him, too. I went to noraeban (karaoke Korean style meaning individual groups have their own rooms and you are not singing in front of strangers) with Alexa and Melanie. It was Melanie's last full fun day in Korea and she wanted to sing her heart out. Plus she is an amazing singer who makes me look awful (and I'm not a bad singer). It is a pity that I didn't get more of a chance to hang out with her during her stay in Korea. We sang enough that my voice was cracking and I was actually starting to sound pretty bad. By the end, I had to stick with low songs and even those were a challenge. Eventually, I just gave up doing my own songs and just sang along with songs they picked but it was still a lot of fun.
I also took my cat to Anna's apartment in Seoul since I won't be in country to take care of her for a month. Bella did pretty well on the trip to Seoul and she only yowled like a minute or two during each transfer. She garnered quite a bit of attention but that was okay. I let her stick her head out of the carrier for a bit and that was pretty cute. Then we played with her for a bit while we let her get used to Anna's apartment. So far she seems to be settling in quite nicely and isn't driving Anna too crazy with her antics. We shall see how Anna feels about her when I return to Korea. ^.^
