Maychel's Birthday
So this post will cover December 2014, January 2015, and the beginning of February 2015 as I have been quite behind in posting blog entries. So I had a lot of parent meetings for kindergarten, first, and second grade in December and we have started getting ready for the kindergarten graduation. My class has been studying the longest so our speeches and song are quite long. I have on boy who just jumps around the stage and has no clue what is going on because he has trouble paying attention. We are doing a news report for our speech and singing Summer Nights from Greece. I'm actually quite surprised that they are having a kindergarten sing that song since it is about teenagers making out and summer flings, but I hear it is a popular song in Korea so who am I to argue. Besides, my class quite likes the song.
Cindy's Birthday
Bella's Birthday
One of my students, Cindy, does belly dancing and she brought in her dancing wings and demonstrated some dances for the class. Then she let us all try on her wings which was a lot of fun. I have to admit that I tried them on, too. ^.^ She was spinning and twirling around, flapping the wings, and doing all sorts of cute things. It was so hard to take pictures of as she was moving around so much but I tried my best.
I've had six birthdays since December (Maychel, Jumee Cindy, Bella, Sua, and Matthew) which is over half of my class. Maychel had a puppy dog cake and a few of their moms came in. Birthday parties are fun but they sure do take up a lot of time which sucks when they are all at the end of the year when you are busy getting ready for graduation and the new year. But at the same time it is a good break for the kids who have been working so hard to get all their work done in class and prepare for graduation.
Christmas at LCI was nice as the kids all wore the antlers and hats that I bought them for Christmas and sung my favorite Christmas song, Where Are You Christmas by Faith Hill. They didn't win song contest but I enjoyed it. They all got presents from Santa and it was cute watching them give Santa a massage so that they could prove they were good kids and get their presents. Liam's mother, the lady whose oboe concert I went to a while back, came to the school and performed Christmas and children's songs for the kindergarteners. It was a fun day overall for sure.
Photos By Andylove
Then we had the Staff Christmas Party at a galbi restaurant though the grills kept catching on fire. Personally, I like the galbi restaurant I normally go to that serves egg and a nice salad as side dishes. Hanna MCed this time so I got to relax and just watch. Sunny Teacher seems to enjoy the hair clips that Chris and Alexa recommended I get her. I really like the scarf Hanna teacher got me as it has come in handy as I have been sick quite a bit. Otherwise, I left before everyone started drinking too much as I'm not much of a drink.
Photos By Dragon
Photos by Iinsang 이인상
As I just mentioned, I have been sick for the past month. First there was the nasty stomach flu, then the following weekend a 102.2 degrees Fahrenheit / 39 degrees Celsius fever, and then the sinus headaches. I just can't seem to shake the cough sadly. I feel like my kids and I keep trading illnesses. That is one of the disadvantages of having no sick days and kids coming into school even when sick. In Korea, it is often if you are not in the hospital, you have to be at work. Which doesn't make it any easier to get better and as working with kids is basically working in a germ factory, you are exposed to lots of different bacteria and viruses.
So I had dinner with Sue, and then Amber soon after. It was nice seeing friends I don't get to see very often. Sue, Anna and I explored some malls in Suwon for New Years Eve though I don't think any of us bought anything as everything was ridiculously expensive. The mall had a Santa parade which was enjoyable as one of the performers waved at Anna's phone. The lights around the mall were pretty, too. Though I did finally get a new coat a few weeks later as my old one was falling apart. I also saw the last Hobbit movie with Anna and that was enjoyable though I wish I had seen it in 2D as the 3D made it seem cheap and destroyed the beautiful backgrounds in my opinion. I helped Alexa move into Megan's old apartment, which was interesting as we were Skyping her mom while rolling suitcases down the street. Though I can't say I really did that much as I mostly just unpacked suitcases while Alexa went back for more.
Daiso closed but reopened nearby and it now has three floors and quite a nice selection of items. I am at Daiso a lot more often now. I am also becoming addicted to some face cleaners and masks that Alexa has introduced me to as they feel so nice and I do notice that my face looks less blotchy than before. Though I have to admit it is a lot of effort and time consuming. I don't normally care much about the beauty process but so far I'm liking the simple face regiment Alexa has recommended. Also, the new teacher's name is Alexis so that gets confusing and I have to admit I've slipped up a few times. T.T Sorry guys.
After over two years of living in Korea, I finally went with Kristine and Alexa to get my hair cut. Before I waited until I visited the States before getting my hair cut. Getting my hair cut in Korea was a nice experience. They massage your head as one of the services that comes with the haircut. Also, I was pleased that when I asked them to thin out my hair, they really did thin it out. I was very surprised when he continued to thin it out even after he had finished the styling and cut. I don't think I have ever had such a thin ponytail in my life and I quite enjoy it. The put my hair in a nice soft curl in the bottom but to be honest I had it back in a ponytail within two days.
I have been playing Eden Eternal again and I have partnered up with Xyrs. The game now has a wedding system so, if you have been an in game couple for a month, you can get married. We decided to get married as we wanted the wedding ring that gave +2% to all stats and increased couple buff skills but I have to admit the wedding was way more fun than I thought it would be. It was so hard to figure out and I actually wasted money cause I didn't enter and let the time run out but we eventually figured it out. So Myles married us and then we had little imps crash our party. Then there were fireworks and we took a ton of couple photo screenshots. I'm surprise a fake online wedding would be so much fun but it was.
So Anna and I were invited to the special cosplaying group that regularly goes to the cosplay park in Yangjae and Seoul Comic World. They had a Disney cosplay shoot in December so Anna went as Olaf and I went as Anna. We got our photos taken and they gave us snacks and hand warmers. They were so nice, even the ones who couldn't speak any English. I even overheard some girls speaking in Japanese saying they loved Anna. They were quite surprised when I answered that I liked Anna, too, in Japanese.
Photos By Kyeon Ryong
We learned that a lot of Koreans do not get as many photographs as we did. I think it is just because we are foreigners that we get so many pictures taken. Though Kathy did say it helped that we were not young teenagers, we had good costumes, and we were always polite, even when we don't understand the Koreans. A few photographers called us models which was a nice compliment and enjoyed the poses Anna and I made. Anna and I have good (*cough* antagonistic) chemistry when taking photos and it really makes the photos interesting.
Photos By 잉크와펜 Wolfgang Pahk
Anyway, there were a ton of Elsas and Annas at the photo shoot though some of my favorites were the Cruella Da Ville, Maleficent, and Belle. Many of them made their own costumes and I have to say I wish I had half their skill. Though Anna has some skills at making costumes and weapons. She made her Danielle from Ever After costume a long time ago and is currently working on making Kirito's sword. Though there were many there who were not wearing Disney costumes. The day worked out really well for those in Frozen or Jack Frost costumes as it started snowing. Sadly Anna and I were done with our pictures before it started to snow. Korean cosplayers are really dedicated. Some of them, like the Rapunzel and Jack Frost, were taking their photos with bare feet. It was so cold so I don't know how they were able to survive and manage that.
Photos By 잉크와펜 Wolfgang Pahk
A week or so after the Disney cosplay shoot was the December Seoul Comic World (they didn't have one for January). Anna went as Danielle from Ever After and I went as a cosplay Misaki Ayuzawa from Kaichou wa Maid-sama on Saturday. Though to be fair, I don't really think my costume looked much like Misaki. It looked more like a goth maid but still we got a few good pictures out of it. There was this one Kirito that kept coming back and talking to us. He said he liked maids so its not hard to guess why he kept coming back.
Sua's Birthday
We didn't really get many professional photos but we managed to grab a few a little before we left and they didn't turn out bad. In fact, on of the photographer gave us hot packs for our hands and another handed us hard copies of our photos on Sunday. Some photographers even give us snacks to keep our energy up. Korean photographers are just so nice and I really enjoy working with them.
Photos By Sing Wang Seop 신광섭
Photos By 미소년 Dongyu
That night, Alexa bought my masquerade mask that I have been eyeing for a long time and so she joined us on Sunday and we did a masquerade duo. Alexa was the bodyguard and I was the doll/mistress. Anna went as Megurine Luka from Vocaloid. This was probably one of the first times Anna's costume was the most popular, as usually my characters are a bit more recognizable. Though her pirate one and Chinese dress one are pretty popular, too. We were pretty cold as we left the hot packs in the storage area.
Photos By Li Min Ki
Photos By Mango
The video photographer spent some time with us taking walking and spinning videos. I'm not sure if he will put them up on YouTube or not but I have hard copies of them saved. Though I think the most popular photo from that day was when Alexa kicked a tree that I was holding. Some of the guys attending and the photographers really got excited and a bunch of people started snapping pictures so we couldn't move. I have to say that I do enjoy the attention during the conventions but I definitely don't want the attention all the time.
Matthew's Birthday
It was so cold during these events that I could barely write in my contact information for the photographers to send us the pictures so I ended up making a simple business card to give them. Kathy set up Naver accounts for Anna and I so we can now see photos that the photographers post online and catch any pictures that they may not have sent us. I just got my Tohsaka Rin from Fate/Stay Night and my Asuna Yuki from Sword Art Online costumes in the mail so I look forward to using those costumes in the future. Look forward to more cosplay photos in the future. ^.^
Jumee's Birthday
