Like Ophelia, you wave goodnight

Oh what a transient weekend late March served up. My eyes did one of those cartoony eye-bulge things when I realized it was 8pm Sunday night. I guess time passes quickly when you're having a good time!

Friday night David and I stayed in, relaxed. You know. And then Saturday we ventured out into Seoul territory, Gangnam to be exact, for dinner with a few friends and then norebong (Korean karaoke). It was so much fun! It was a tad chilly, but I left home without a coat and did just fine. I feel better when I don't have a coat on dragging me down!

Today (that would be Monday) was a good day, even though it finalized the end of the weekend. My kindergarten class greeted me with a bright and cheery "HELLO WENDY TEACHER" and then the kindergarten teacher, who is my age, gave me a cake. Yes, a cake. It was so sweet of her (pun intented)! She even wrapped it in gold wrapping paper. :) It made me happy the rest of the day.

Hmm, let's see. Wedding plans are coming along. The flower details are all sorted out and I'm super excited. That was a big thing to finalize so I'm glad that's taken care of. So many surprising details go into a wedding. Really I can hardly believe how much there is to plan. It's no wonder a person can make a vocation out of planning weddings! It's hard work, cookie! This weeks plans: practice my calligraphy (hopefully I can revive my skills), get addresses from David's friends and figure out the groomsmen attire! Wee!

That's all for now. But, before I go, I have pictures. No surprise there:

Spring skies. This is the view from the school


Pretty blossoms at school. I meant to take pictures of them for a week straight and finally got around to doing so on Friday afternoon!


The sky probably doesn't get much bluer than this. ^^


Two of my lovely students who noticed me taking pictures of flowers. They said, "Miss Wendy! My picture!"


My little Korean corner. It's the only road that separates our apartment from my school! Those are high schoolers in their uniforms!


Rice cake! My co-teacher brought me rice cake last Friday (a parent brought it in) and we shared it and talked about life, Korea and whatever else you could think up! I really really like my new co-teacher. :)

This piece I brought home (she had 2 pieces)!

Next update I'll have pictures from Saturday's excursions! ^^
G'night! Wendy

I know what I'm after

I've really enjoyed this week with the students. It's been pretty laid back and for some reason all of the kiddos are especially excited about English class! They are listening so well and being very respectful which is great! Hopefully they keep it up for the rest of the semester! ^^

Anyway, I don't have a whole lot to say (there's a new episode of America's Next Top Model waiting for me), but I did want to share a few pictures! You see, today David sent me an AIM at work to let me know that a certain Amy Korbe had mailed a package all the way from the Indy city to cozy Hanam si. (We would soon find out there were goodies from Ryan and Heather, too).

I love mail, of course. Really I can't imagine anyone who doesn't. But I was so eager to get off work so that David and I could open the package together! We couldn't contain our excitement -- what kind of goodies from the U.S. of A would we find enclosed in the sturdy brown box?

Well, Goguma fed off that same excitement. We all sat around the box (David waited patiently while I took some snaps!) and Goguma sniffed/kissed the box. Pictures:

(isn't Goguma funny?)


Everything that was inside! A gossip mag, some cheese wiz, mac n' cheese, pringles, sephora perfume samples, a kitty calendar, a postcard and a letter from amy/lilly (her sweet pup).


Amy explained that she wanted to get us things that epitomized America. And, well, she thought of "Junk!" ha! ^^


Letter from Lilly (or Rirry). She even signed it, as David pointed out!


David admiring the Pringles and mac n' cheese!


The Pringles made it semi-safely!

So...YAY!

That's all for now, lads and lassies!
Wendy City

Do you want to be my sidedish friend?

Happy Tuesday, lads and lassies! I dear pray that this budding spring-time finds you full of joy! Today, despite it being a bit colder than I would like to have it, I noticed the daintiest pink and white blossoms scattered across a row of tiny naked branches. They reminded me of sugar candies floating atop a mound of fluffy, whipped frosting. I craved a camera in my hands.

I was talking to my dear from Amy-roo via Skype this past weekend and she mentioned that she has started a project to document spring. Every week she takes Lilly (her loveable pup) to their favorite park and then she takes pictures of the same objects. What a lovely idea, right?

Speaking of lovely, the other day I walked by the kitchen table and noticed a certain Sweet Potato looking up at me with the biggest, doughy-eyed expression you could ever imagine. So I dashed into the bedroom, grabbed my camera (charged and ready to go for a moment such as this), crouched down and took a snap of my orange princess! Gift for you:

Oh I love her!

Anyway, as I mentioned in my last update, David and I ventured off to Seoul-land this weekend for my voice lessons and then to treat ourselves to some good food in Itaewon! We went to one of Seoul's popular Irish pubs, Wolfhound. It did not disappoint and is now our favorite place to go! It used to be Oktoberfest (German, in Gangnam) or Three Alley (German, Itaewon). Here are some pictures from the excursion. I enjoyed fish and chips and a Nutty Irishman cocktail. David and a beer (of course) and a fish sandwhich. Peeks:

The names of the drinks make your eyebrows go up a little...! ^^*

Doesn't it look so delicious? I absolutely love school lunch and all the Korean food, but it's nice for a change of pace!

Lastly, and you can stop reading now if you'd like, I wanted to share a recent purchase I made! I love Forever 21 and was browsing their items a few weeks ago and saw probably a million "must have" items. So I bought some in celebration of spring! I can't wait til my order gets here -- I love mail! ^^* Picture of things I bought...relish in the color!

Oh, and FYI you State's people, the "Keen on Green" owl tote was only..$1.50 and they have 3-4 styles, I think. So please, purchase one and bring it with you when you're picking up a few things at the grocery! Or just wear it and be stylin'.

Asalam Olaykum (Peace be with you - Arabic).
Wendy

You're never too old to become younger

Top of the morning, to you! Things have been much better this week, almost as if a burst of rainbow dust (not yellow sand) has been released into the air current to greet those below with good energy. Or maybe it's just the warm breeze and chirping birds that accompany Spring? Nay, I prefer the former!

Anyway, needless to say I'm over my stomach ailment and feeling a little better about my classes for the semester. I've made it a goal to work at least 3-5 days ahead of each class which seems to help things go more smoothly. Still though, you never know what you're going to get when you walk into a class.

Take my last class of the day on Friday, for example. It's a group of 30ish 4th graders who are very, very ornery. They were learning greeting phrases, such as introducing a friend to someone else and saying their name. Well that was hardly possible! Last week a brigade of 4 young boys assembled DIY toy guns and this week the same kiddos acted out. I just use them to my advantage. I had one of them sit with me up front the entire class period and he was my volunteer each time I needed one. He even had to pretend he was Julie's mom (who all the kids think is so funny).

And when he decided to inform me that he was "crazy," I simply replied, "I know - a crazy monkey!" and all the kids died laughing. It's so hard to be mad at them for more than 2 minutes.

Moving on... the weekend was nice. I had voice lessons yesterday and felt like I had a mini breakthrough which was nice. Ryan had me do a warm up that involved yawning before doing a 5 note scale and it kind of changed the way I think when preparing to breath. The "old way" is habit so it'll take a while to break.

Ooh, before I forget, Friday was such a nice day and the setting sun was letting off some really beautiful light so I decided to take my camera out and shoot a few things. I bought this lollipop on "White Day" last week (March 14) for the sole purpose of incorporating it into a shoot. I allowed Goguma to sit in and then took a few self-portraits. The result:

and me.

Next update I have pictures from an Irish Pub that David and I visited in Itaewon Saturday evening (food was sooo good...drinks too!).

Ciao!

someday i hope to find the horizon

Plug: Two new articles on Miseducated.net:

First of all, I know it's been ages since I updated this thing, which is completely unlike me. In fact, today I was thinking about my blogging adventures and realized that I've been doing so since 2002. Before that I religiously kept a private journal (marking back to grade 2) that documented everything from schoolgirl crushes (Let it be known that I never went through a cooties phase).

Anyway, this week has been a strange one, hence the hiatus in imploding the interweb with my (very amusing) thoughts. I started out on Monday feeling kind of strange. I attributed the weirdness to the commenced new semester, but as time would tell it was slightly more than that. The two following mornings yielded more strangeness and then Wednesday I capped everything off with a nervous breakdown in the middle of an extra class (tears were involved). I normally don't cry, in fact I've only cried two times in the last six months I've lived in Korea. Alas, the fountains spurted out a good amount of salty water. My co-teacher was so sweet, saying, "Please don't hurt your heart."

Turns out I was getting sick (strange, but I tend to cry when I'm sick, especially when sick with a fever). I took off the next two days and decided to take it easy. My advisor (Joy, or Mrs. Hall) called me Thursday to make sure I was okay and explained that she and the principal understood me and that maybe after 15 years of teaching I would be stronger. It was a sweet conversation. :)

Anyhow, Friday was awful - definitely the worst day of the week. I spent the entire day curled up in bed and eventually puked (too graphic?) which is only the 3rd time I've ever regurgitated since I had my appendix out in Kindergarten. Today my throat is really sore and I've slept through most of the day. David has been ridiculously sweet, buying groceries and making me tea with lemons and giving me massages. I luff him very much. He's even sad today because his Ipod decided to delete all of his music, which is now only on his computer in Indiana.

I'm gonna wrap this up, but before doing so want to share a few visuals. Pay attention:

This is a video I took of Goguma

And lastly, we received our wedding invitations in the mail yesterday. They are lovely and made from recycled paper! :) Sneak peak:



All for now.
Cheers. :)

All the flowers would have very extra special powers

So as I mentioned in a previous blog, I've had quite a bit of time to just sit around and do nothing over the past few weeks. I must confide in you, dear readers, that it felt awfully strange to have no obligations or personal projects that were demanding my full attention. As a result, I did a bunch of nothing and I regret that in no way.

Anything I did it was because I felt like it (including the dishes) and no alarm clocks were forcing me to abide by their shrill beeps. There was no guilt that accompanied my time spent doing nothing which is at least a second or a third, if not a first, for me. The glossy pages of my $8 USA magazines were lazily paged through (and I didn't even take notes), destination-less strolls were had and lots of flirting went down with my handsome prince. Bliss.

With that said, today was my first official day back to work and I ushered the change of pace in with a cup of hot coffee, bread with jam, a giddy smile and cute earrings. It was good to be back. :) I don't know if it was because of my much needed - and deserved - vacay or the fact that I'm just warmed up to the new job, but things went really well today. And I'd like to say that I'm excited for what the semester will bring. Am I making you gag yet?

Anyway, a cute story to share with you. Today I taught 3rd graders and since it's the new semester, these are fresh 3rd graders who just graduated from the esteemed 2nd grade and it's their first year studying English with the foreign teacher (that would be moi). I pranced into the classroom right as the bell was ringing and all the students got quiet because, well, I'm like an airplane to them (rare to come by and very cool). All of a student, a wee little girl with the jolliest grin and pink-rimmed glasses shouted, "HELLO MY NAME IS SOPHIA!"

I said, "Well Hello, Sophia!" Of course.

Anyway, in some of my most recent down time, I had the chance to re-visit some old websites that I frequented a lot in my high school youthhood. Sadly, so many have disappeared since then which is to be expected, I suppose. After all, I've been out of high school for almost 5 years now. Scary.

But a few survived the cinco anos and for that, they deserve some attention. I think I'll have to purchase something as soon as the exchange rate gets better (urgh) from each one. In the mean time, I'll let you drool over them:

#1

Oh Karissa Cove! She has been around for a long while and her things are so cute. I've purchased a number of her unique doodads in the past, including my very used whitie-tightie makeup bag and a brown tote with an apple that reads, "Easily Bruised."

I'm craving this of hers right now:

Irrisistable.

#2


I've been a Pancake Meow admirer for quite some time and I admire her tenacity and business prowess. She makes earrings and necklace charms. A lot of people make this kind of jewerly, but she does so at a superb level. Everything looks (and smells) edible. See for yourself:



#3



Erica Weiner is so sophisticated and her crafting is impeccable. I've been craving this peice for quite some time. It's reasonably priced and utterly quaint so I'm not so sure what the hold up has been...



'Tis all for now. Cheers, friends!
Wendy Rose