I was dreaming last night that John went to a hospital for some sort of checkup. His mom, who looked more like Matt's mom oddly, picked him up from wherever we were and he was going to be gone for a weekend. And then I read in the newspaper that he died somehow during the procedure, and there was a video of him strapped to a table laughing with some nurses before being dead. It was awful. (the dog Korean outfit I got was too small, so my mom managed to choose the weirdest looking dog doll to wear it instead.)
I need to start getting ready for THAILAND. I'm attempting a beef rib (galbi jjim or 갈비찜) recipe again. This time I'm using the crockpot I bought for the Christmas hams, new ingredients, and the actual cut of meat the recipe calls for. So far it smells good... (picture is another meal of the Vietnamese spring rolls. Yummy and healthy!)
Tutoring the 2 local students is going all right. I finished Up with the one who lived in L.A. for 8 years. He chose to watch The Cove when I mentioned I had a couple of documentaries. Apparently, he really likes documentaries, and he went on about how he thinks it's important to know about the dolphin killings in Japan. I do, too.
I picked up a 3rd student, who is actually one of John's. She's the younger sister of one of my high schoolers, and wanted some extra help with the textbooks. Yeaaaah. Not really sure how successful this is going to be. In my opinion, I think the textbooks are awful, but there may be some supplementary material I'm missing... but they don't seem too instruction-friendly. My fluent student, as desired by the girl's mother is going to be a translator while I tutor. He claims it's fun, and I see it as good practice for him.
Ah, to blow through the holidays or not... yeah sure. Christmas, as I may have said before isn't a big deal here, and it was sad. We worked Christmas Eve; some of us had half days... I got off an entire hour early! buh. Stores were open Christmas day, another strange thing to me, but good because I forgot vital ingredients and the crew who came over had to split in two groups. I made a Costco run for rolls and pie, while some others went to the local Homeplus to find some tubing to fix the sudden break in my toilet. It's so old, the parts in the tank are dissolving. nasty.
I had friends over for Christmas Eve night into Christmas day. I wussed out at about 2am, while they got to play my new game from my brother and sister in law. As of yet, I haven't gotten a chance to play :( Christmas breakfast was awesome, french toast, eggs, and bacon. Christmas dinner was a more awesome repeat of Thanksgiving. And we blew through 3 pounds of bacon in one day.
In lieu of not having English camps like the other EPIK teachers, I'm tutoring 2 local students three times a week. One student is apparently fluent, so we decided to watch movies and talk about them. I'll be assigning reading work for him to do as homework once I find a jump drive for him and he recapped what was happening to me as the movie played. It's good listening practice, and also a good opportunity to practice English again since we're conversing far more naturally than instruction. I mean. He's fluent. The other student I'm teaching chapters from this weird musical thing. She flies through the work in 15-20 minutes, I'm supposed to be there for 45, and I can just squeeze out 30 minutes of working with her before there's absolutely nothing left to do. The way the work is set up, it's hard to practice speaking which is what she needs most. She has a good memory, but as far as using English in conversation, more support is needed. Small steps.
New Year's was spent over 11 hours in Seoul. Absolutely mother effin cold. I've never been so cold in my life. I thought last year sitting outside for 3 hours in the Harrisonburg Christmas parade and then getting stranded with 3 adults, 1 with low vision and needing help walking back, another too lazy and demanding help, and then having to walk across town back to the van when we should've gotten a ride from the other staff member... no no no. This night was far worse. Of course the fact that I was wearing tights instead of pants and flats and heels with no insulation probably had something to do with the level of cold I fell to. There was a noticeable temperature difference between Seoul and Daejeon. The midnight finale was kind of a let down. They beat a bell, and then a lot of people started to leave right away. Getting through the police lines were INSANE. Blocks of police, allowing a passage barely wide enough for one person to get through, while all the Koreans were shoving from behind to move forward. And then there were those lovely couples who pulled a Jack and Rose, never letting go even when they were in the way of others. Awkward when you're stuck between them. I mean, please.
We spent the rest of the night between two Ho Bars. In Seoul, there's a series of what, 7 Ho Bars? The last one, we split a bottle of Jack, though I feel bad because I understood it to be $10 a person, when it should've been more like $20. If I see the guy who paid again, I'll give him money. I'm not a big fan of whiskey. Around 5 we headed back to the subway station, bought new tickets for the KTX to leave sooner and get back to Daejeon much faster. John had been sick with food poisoning, so he passed out as soon as we got to his apartment. I slept for maybe 2 hours... and ended up being a cranky wreck for the rest of the day. That basically brings me up to today.
Oh! I saw Avatar! The story is unoriginal, but I can totally get into it because of the visuals, which I'm sure a lot of people say. I definitely want to see it again, and it's not an original story, but I liked it anyway. John and I discovered a new coffee shop in Old Downtown. Super cute little rooms. They offer coffees, smoothies, milkshakes, cake, and some meals. Love the setting.
I got some pink nail polish (finally) and painted my toes (seriously finally) for the first time since leaving home. Seriously. It was about time.
