A Sea of Green

I've just returned from Seoul from what was the fastest weekend yet.... it seemed to go by in about 6 hours.

A rainy Friday night 7:30, Eve, Caroline and I get two pizzas, fries and brownies and have an endless funny Youtube video party. Leave Eve's house at 10:20, straight to band practice, ears ringing until 1:30. Run home in the rain and try to sleep, lie awake, it's 3:30.
Wake up Saturday morning 7:15, head to the bus 8:30, get on the bus to Seoul with my pals, ride four hours, laughing, napping, playing intermittent drinking games.

Eve, Dallas, Sarah, me, Emma, Dan. Ready to go with mimosas in hand, 8:30.

 
Get to Seoul 1:20, find the subway.

Sarah and I, still able to navigate. 1:30

Find the Irish festival in Sindorim, find the rest of the group, find my two long lost friends, Erik and Youngil, drink two bottles of Makgoli, laugh a lot, not sure what's going on!

Eve, Tony, me and Erik, Sindorim, 2:30

  Everyone in green, hard to spot people I know. I can understand what the people around me are saying- am I crazy? A Korean U2 cover band! 4:00! Time to go to the boat!!!!

Eve, Erik, me, Youngil, so happy together. 4:11

4:20, McDonald's, on the huge cruise ship, standing outside watching the sunset as we pull away from the docks, so many foreigners, 6:30.

ah, the memories- top floor of the boat

tony's birthday, 8:30

Drink, eat, dance and make sense of it all, three hours, and we're back at the dock! Too many cigarettes! 10:00. Trucker mouth and peeing in public, 10:04. Somehow getting from the boat to "the club," in Hongdae, more dancing, drinking, and laughing, stumbling around with Youngil to bars he used to bartend at, standing in a gay bar where someone seriously yelled "Who let the fish in?" ugh, 11:15. Rambling on the phone to Rita, somehow finding kebabs and delicious potatoes on the street, heart to heart with Erik, finding our friends sitting in a restaurant, turning into zombies, midnight. Leave the restaurant, somehow lose the group, find accomodations up a huge hill, jjimjilbang, 12:30. Pay $9, change into pajamas and sleep on the floor.

Wake up lying next to a sleeping Korean man who has his arm around me. Remove his arm and drift back to sleep, 2:45. Wake up once again to that man's friends slapping him awake and dragging him out of the jjimjilbang, 3:20. Wake up ten more times until it's the final time, I'm alone, 8:30. Chug water, drag myself down to the saunas and hot tubs and sweat out the hangover, 9:30. Get dressed and go shopping, find Forever 21, go crazy, spend money, 12:45. Head back to the bus terminal, just miss the 1:20 bus, wait in the bus terminal for the 2:20, find Eve and Emma again!!!!

Four hour bus ride, yuck. Scramble home, unload and splash water on my face, 6:30. Grab a sandwich and it's back to band practice, 7:15. Ears ringing, I'm back home and climb into bed, lights out when my head hits the pillow, 11:30.

Today is Monday... and it's time to recover. More pictures (and video... ugh) to come, once I figure out how to make it through the day.

<3M

Visions of Seoul

As predicted, my weekend in Seoul was wild and crazy! All in all, there were probably about 700-800 santas, cramming into a subway, caroling, and generally spreading the Christmas spirit. It was beautiful!! It was super fun. But rather than further cheapen the experience with words, I present to you a slew a photos:

the bus ride down. everyone is lively, happy, and excited!

santas in action, hongdae

here we are, watching a complete lunar eclipse in hongdae, seoul. it was amazing!

we quickly made lots of new friends, haha

attempting to navigate the streets....

this lovely old man pulled my hand to sit down next to him on the subway. we cuddled for a little while.

surely more to come soon!
<3 M

A Sunny December

Thanks to fistfuls of vitamins, a good amount of luxurious napping, and a generally positive outlook, I'm feeling 1000% better today! The sun is shining, and so am I. I still have relatively no voice to teach with, but I'm making do with powerpoints, pictures and movies. This afternoon I'm showing Home Alone to my students.... my favorite Christmas movie! They better appreciate it, haha.

Time is moving so fast, I really can't believe I'm approaching four months away from home. My co-teacher says that when you're in your twenties, time moves 200 kilometers per hour. When you're in your fifties (like her), it's 500 kilometers an hour. The weeks seem to fly lately; I'm nearly a third of the way through!

This weekend a large group of friends and I are travelling to Seoul together. I'm so excited! This will be my first time in the second largest city in the world. Though I've never really felt a penchant toward bustling, large cities (ie, New York), and I am more than a little nervous about getting lost on the winding labrynth that is the Seoul subway system, it will certainly be amazing to visit. We're going to be going to "Santacon Seoul 2011," which is, quite simply, hundreds of people dressed in Santasuits, parading through the streets of Seoul caroling/bar crawling. Last year, there were about 500 santas, both foreign and Korean, and this year promises even more people. I bought my santa suit last weekend (complete with beard!!) and I can't wait to wear it!

Pictures coming soon to a computer screen near you!