Bottoms Up

3:09 PM Jmo 0 Comments

I think going to the movies here may become a regular event. I'm a movie buff, of course, but for some reason I've stayed away from the theatres back home. Unless there was a film that I couldn't wait to see -or truly benefited from a theatrical experience, a la The Artist, then I was perfectly content with staying home. I think it was all the tweens... Anyhoo! Friday night a group of us waygooks went out to the theatre in Old Downtown. We met up and walked about to find a place to eat. Once again it was great to catch up with everyone. I love the mix of personalities that I'm surrounded with. I swear we could be a reality show: The Expats. Sounds like a ratings winner to me.

The theatres here are quite impressive. For the most part they are housed within high rise department store buildings. And they serve beer. Cheap beer. Always a plus. Except when the movie you're watching is kind of a downer. We saw Looper. The plot was nice and original, and I was surprised to find out that it wasn't taken from a graphic novel. But I could've lived without seeing it. I think I was more impressed with the fact that I was drinking beer from a straw. Call me easily amused.

Saturday was the Deajeon International Wine Festival at Expo Park right by my place. At least, I thought it was right by place. Alas, when I set out to walk there I ended up taking an hour long riverwalk adventure. It was a beautiful day so no worries. I was just late meeting friends. Wine-Fest, as it has become so infamously dubbed, was fabulous. I honestly didn't know what to expect, but I can tell you that I didn't expect to pay $3 for a nice wine glass and a wristband to unlock the doors to an all you can test global wine tour. Ridiculous. But standing off to the side, us foreigners are quite the magnet. One of my friends was pet (honestly, pet!) by an older lady because he had a beard and chest hair -a rarity here in Korea. And I volunteered to be interviewed by a local television station. They asked my opinion of the festival and I said that I was impressed by all that Daejeon had to offer. And other invaluable bits of wisdom I'm sure. Too fun.



Today was my first day teaching with my new coteacher. Things got off to a pretty bumpy start... We only met once prior and I thought that maybe that was because she already had a plan in mind. But that wasn't the case. She asked me what her role was in the classroom and what she should do...with about 10 minutes prior to class starting. Good thing I had everything prepared and ready to go. But! Of course...the game I prepared didn't save for the first class and I had to run back to the office in the middle of class to work out the bugs. It ended up working and the kids went crazy over it. Haha, it was a Gangnam Style powerpoint game. Thank you waygook.org for the template...instant entertainment! The winning team from each class got to pick a 'migook' sticker courtesy of Mamma-Mo and Daddy-Mo. The "Jessica" ones were actually quite popular! Haha, who would've guessed.
As the classes went on things started picking up steam and I think me and Miss Lee will get along incredibly well. Her English is actually a lot better than I thought. A lot better. She may have just been shy when we were introduced. She is taking a TELSOL class in Seoul and she teaches at her church on Sundays. Very busy lady. And quite adorable I must say.
I ate lunch with her and student after student came by to say hi. Or, they just yelled my name from across the lunchroom just to elicit a wave. She said: "Wow. So popular!" That made me happy. It's the stickers...

And oh yes..I'm sick again. It's all this "burning the candle at both ends" business. That combined with certain stress has led me to withering up and dying. Last night I slept..maybe 2.5 hours. I layed down at 9, rolled around til midnight because I could barely breathe, then shot up in bed around 1:15am because somehow my body thought I was late for school. I can't win! As soon as I came into work today my coteachers noticed and Miss Nahm whisked me away to the school nurse. Haha, yep. That happened. They gave me this hand full of God knows what to down after lunch. I just did and I almost lost it. Almost tossed my kimchi if you catch my drift...
The..."elixir" (yep, let's call it that) tasted like licorice, grass, and molasses with a hint of medicinal menthol. And the pills had a flava all their own. Holding the dark brown glass bottle in my hand I asked Miss Nahm how much I should drink. She laughed, tilted her head back, and said: "All. Bottoms up!" Thank God my desk faces the corner. I'm sure if they saw the look on my face I'd never hear the end of it. haha Let's hope this "holy medicine" takes hold and that my courageous display wasn't in vain.