Party! Party! Party!

February has been a big month of celebrations and it's not over yet. This past week, we celebrated our monthly Birthdays at school. Nothing says "Happy Birthday" in Korea better them some cake, pizza, and fried chicken. These are three items that are always on the menu.

Barney class

My favorite part about Birthday parties are being able to play with my little babies! :)

Princess Sevin

My sweet Isaac

Three of cutest but worst behaving students at ILS.

With graduation approaching in a week and a half, stress has become a daily occurrence. On Thursday myself and a few other teachers stayed three hours after quitting time to finish up poster boards for the kids' presentation. Luckily, our boss was so kind to treat us to a nice Italian dinner afterward!

On Saturday a few of my friends thought we'd be adventurous and check out Hooters in Seoul. It sits right next to one of my favorite buildings in Seoul. I call it the "Swiss cheese building"... because it looks like Swiss cheese. The food was bad and it was the worst service I have ever had here in Korea. Needless to say, I won't be going back nor do I recommend this place to anyone. 

After dinner, I celebrated two Birthdays for two awesome Canadians. The party was scheduled to be held at a hotel, which was the perfect venue for the classy and lovely Miss Gillian. Unfortunately, after about 20 minutes into the party we got kicked out. This did not stop us! We continued the celebration at a norebang. A norebang is a private room that you can rent out with your friends and sing karaoke. It's seriously the best thing to ever be invented. The best parties are the parties that don't go as planned! :)

Birthday boy & Birthday girl

It was great week here in the ROK! Spring seems to be teasing us with warmer weather. I can't even begin to tell you just how nice it feels to have above 30 degree temperatures. This coming week will be yet another week of graduation prep, celebrations, and farewells. 


I hope everyone has a fabulous week! Miss you all so so much! <3


-Jenn xoxo

I Met Anthony Rapp! OMG!!

I can't believe another week has just passed me by. Due to a nasty case of food poisoning on Monday, I was forced to take it easy and relax this whole week. Even though I was not feeling 100%, I refused to spend my weekend wasting away in my apartment. 

I found an awesome group called Meetup Korea that brings people, both Korean and foreign, together through events. I was lucky enough to score free tickets to see Anthony Rapp perform his memoir "Without You" in Seoul. For those who may not be familiar with Anthony Rapp, he is a famous Broadway and film actor. He's most famous for his role as Mark Cohen in the show RENT. 

The memoir was about love, loss and success. It told the story about his life when RENT was just getting started and the loss of his mother. I can't even begin to express just how amazing this show was!! It was so touching and he showed such raw emotion, that at times I found myself crying hysterically. His voice alone, singing songs like "Seasons of Love" and "No Day But Today," brought chills to my body.

After the show, Anthony was signing autographs and taking pictures. Of course I was not going to pass up this opportunity. 

"There's only this
Forget regret-- or life is yours to miss.
No other road
No other way
No day but today"

It was such a great day! I'm so glad that i got the opportunity to see such a gifted artist. The next couple weeks will be full of  more Birthday celebrations and our school's kinder graduation. I'll be sure to have lots more to update you all on!


-Jenn xoxo 

Birthday Weekend in Busan

I absolutely love to celebrate my Birthday, so I was nothing but excited to celebrate my 26th Birthday this year. Why you ask? Well of course being in Korea is one big reason, but I also had 36 hours to officially celebrate. 

On Wednesday I was surprised by my Elmo class who gave me the cutest Birthday cards and yelled, "Happy Burfday Jenn Teacha! We Wuv You!" It was by far the best present I could have ever received. 

After work a couple of my friends and I went to this awesome little Italian restaurant in Dongbaek, called Pasta Benne. The owner is Korean-American and is always very generous with the wine and desserts.

To continue the celebrations, this past weekend my friends and I went down to Haeundae Beach (pronounced Hey-un-day) in Busan. 

We arrived in Haeundae around 10am on Saturday and the fun never stopped. We stayed at an awesome guesthouse that reminded us of our college days, which in turn made me feel a little bit younger ;) I met a funny little Korean guy there when who talked to me about the TV show Glee and how his favorite character was the boy with the Justin Beiber hair.

pobi guesthouse 

After dropping off our stuff we went for drinks and lunch at the Fuzzy Navel, which is a Mexican restaurant/bar. 

As we headed over to the beach all I could think about was Virginia Beach. It reminded me so much of home that I almost forgot that I was in Korea. It was so nice to be around the water again!

Before going to Busan I knew the aquarium was one place I wanted to visited. 

That night all of my friends got together to eat clams, drink soju and dance the night away.

It was such an awesome Birthday weekend and I'm so glad I got to spend it with good people. My good friend and gifted photographer, Gillian, also has a blog and posted some pictures from the weekend. If you get a chance, check her out, http://loveoftheseoul.tumblr.com/


Miss y'all!


-Jenn xoxo

Happy Lunar New Year!

This past weekend I celebrated Lunar New Year, also known as Seollal, here in Korea. Soellal is the beginning of the Lunar calendar. Koreans also celebrate solar New Years Day on the Gregorian calendar, which is January 1st. This is the day when everyone turns a year older. To explain this, the minute a baby comes out of the womb they're already 1-year old. Then at the turn of every new year, they become a year older. Sounds complicated, but it's very interesting. 

Thanks to this holiday, I had a 5-day weekend. It was such a great weekend to just relax and hang around Seoul. On Sunday, I went to The War Memorial of Korea in Seoul.  This is one place that I've been wanting to go to for the last six months. It was a really great museum/memorial dedicated to all of those who fought!

After the Memorial, I went to Gwanghwamun and did a little sightseeing. I saw the statue of King Sejong. King Sejong invented the Korean alphabet, known as hangul. I also saw the statue of Yi Sun-sin, who was a Korean naval commander during the Joseon Dynasty.

king sejong

Yi Sun-sin

That same night, a couple of friends and I went to the restaurant On The Border. I've never been to this restaurant in the states, but I heard rave reviews about how much it tastes like the On The Border back home. All I can say is that I don't think I've eaten that much food, nor have I drank so much tequila since I've been in Korea. It was blissful!

coronarita

Lunar New Year was officially celebrated on Monday, the 23rd. I decided to cross another thing off my bucket list for Korea and that was to go to a jimjilbang. A jimjilbang is a Korean style spa with saunas, hot/cool tubs for bathing, and body scrubs. Because these operate 24 hours, many people will go for a cheap place to sleep. Yes...sleep! They have mats, TVs, and a food area. The cost is about $8 and includes a "not so hot" outfit for you to wear and unlimited access to all that I mentioned above. Unfortunately no one was giving massages the day I went, but after spending a few hours in the saunas my skin felt like a baby's bottom.

such hot outfits

all the ladies make these little hats out of towels

As many of you may have already seen, over holiday I decided to take a risk and get myself some bangs. If there's anything the Koreans know how to rock...it's the bangs. 

Later that night I met up with some friends and played Korean monopoly. It was a little different then the normal monopoly I'm used to, but it was still fun. 

While walking around Seoul I had remembered I had forgot to mention one very interesting thing in my posts. Below is a picture of gas masks stored in glass cabinets, called "nation masks". Each of these cabinets are found at every station, because many emergency shelters or "bunkers" are located in the subway. It's very comforting knowing that there are almost 4,000 shelters just in Seoul, but it's also a little distressing at the same time.

It was so nice to only have a 2-day work week, but it's going to be brutal to have to work five days in a row next week. Next weekend I'll be going down to Haeundae Beach in Busan for my Birthday. I've recruited some really great people to join and can't wait to bring back some great stories.


Miss you all more than you know!


-Jenn x0x0