The Weekend of the Rooms.

This weekend we decided that we were going to make the absolute most of indoor space, because it's very, very cold here now.
Saturday morning Lindie and I went shopping for clothes.  We found a place a few days ago that sold pj pants that we could fit into (for CHEAP too!) and we both desperately needed them, so we thought that MAYBE they would have something else for us as well. . .
. . .they didn't.  Not a single thing.
So, a few more unsuccessful shops and an entire stuffed crust pepperoni pizza later, we gave up and headed home.

Do you remember Dave?  Anyway, later that night we met up with him and went to our new favorite PS3 place, and played Tekken and Sonic Racer.  Poor Dave lost all of the Tekken matches (mwa ha haaa) and poor Lindie lost all of the races (awwwww) so we decided to leave and try something else.  We saw a Wii room the day before or so and thought maybe we would try it out, but when we actually got outside it was so cold that it literally froze any desire we had to walk anywhere, so we went to our favorite 4D theater, again, instead, which was much closer.  Plus, Dave hadn't been there.  When we walked in there were kids everywhere, and they were all telling us as much English as they could.  It's really awesome because, when they're not your students, kids here have a tendency to make you feel like a celebrity (unless they make you feel like a leper, which also does happen, but this time, mercifully, not) so we went in the photo booth and took some silly photos, played a couple of games and took off once again, while all these tiny little kids shouted "GOODBYE!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!"
awesome.

THEN we headed for a place that Lindie and I hadn't tried yet: DVD room.  It's literally a room with a big screen, you choose a DVD, go in there with your friends, and watch a movie.  Pretty sweet, right?

Very large screen

VERY long legged Dave

Look how big that couch is!  There's subwoofers under there.  Very cool.

Lindie, making herself at home. . .

. . .absolutely nothing new about that! :-)

Movie time!!

DVD rooms are really fun.  We decided that we needed to include that into our regular stuff.  :-)
So, after all the rooms, all the gaming, and the movie, we went home.  Then Lindie and I stayed up watching Scrubs way too late.  Way too late.  Because, in the morning we had to be up to meet two of Lindie's students.  So, when 5am rolled around, we finally managed to get some sleep.

The next morning, I rolled out of bed and got ready.  At 11:30 Lindie and I caught a taxi to Shinae to my first movie theater in Korea experience.
But first, we had to run into a bag shop and buy new bags.  You know, like you do.  Then we met the girls, Cherry and Julia, two of Lindie's best students, and the two biggest balls of sunshine you could ever hope to meet.

We bought tickets for the movie, then went to get something to eat.  Buffet.  Awesome.

Meet Julia and Cherry.  Really awesome and completely-different-from-each other-friends.  They're 16, and really cool.

Here's what Lindie and I ended up with:

Corn salad, spicy chicken, noodles, garlic bread, chicken curry, mushroom soup, and non-alcoholic berry wine tea.  

Chicken, spicy chicken, ceasar noodles, salad, corn salad, pumpkin and cherry casserole, veggies.  I used the flash so everything looks white, but actually it was really colorful and delicious.

Dessert.  Yum.  :-)

Ice cream is awesome.  :-)

Right, Lindie?

Totally.

Then it was movie time.  After we properly stuffed ourselves, of course.  :-)

Cool students with a cool teacher.  Good times.  :-)

 Lindie and I are both really out of the loop as far as movies go, so we really had no idea what we were seeing.  It ended up being a REALLY crazy movie, so we needed to decompress afterwards.  And how better to do that then to play games where you shoot stuff?  I can't think of a better way!

The girls shooting something in a Pirates of the Caribbean game.

And of course, what day would be complete without the traditional street game?

And the traditional, poor Lindie winning nothing.

 We went to a crazy busy stationary shop where they sell all kinds of cute stuff, and we were there for a while, just looking at everything.  Then, we lost Julia while we were looking at enormous stuffed dogs, so Cherry went off to look for her.  It was funny because Cherry looks around for her for a second and then says "I'll go find her.  Teacher, you stay here."  So Teacher said "okay." and we waited and waited for them to find each other.  Finally, I walked to the front of the store and found Julia instantly because she intercepted me while I was trying to get to the line to pay.  She pretended not to understand me when I asked if I could get past her to pay, so we stood, her blocking me in an aisle for a while.  Clever girls had a plan up their sleeve and Lindie and I had no earthly idea.  :-)

THEN!  We went to a singing room!  Because you HAVE to do that, right??  So we did.

I kind of expected them to be shy, and maybe they were for a second, but Lindie and I sang one, and then they sang one, and I decided to tape them because I thought they sounded really good.  I hid the camera though because I was worried that if they knew they would stop.  Silly me.  Anyway, here's how it started.

I don't know what this song is called, but you hear it a lot around here, and I thought they did a really nice job with it :-)  As you can see, Cherry is not shy.  And Julia, I think, was beginning to feel a little better around us. . .

Lindie and I sang a couple more songs, and the girls decided to do an English song on their own:  Take a Bow :-)

They were feeling a little better now, I think.  So, we picked the song that we hear everywhere, and that all of my students are always begging me to teach them, the terrible but catchy Tik Tok:

Nice job, right??  Feeling a little better now.  So, then it was time to really get everyone loosed up with the oh-so-scary Lady Gaga and the song we all know so well, Poker Face: 

After Poker Face the girls showed us a really cute Korean song, Shy Boy, and Lindie was relaxed enough to try and sing the Korean. . . :-)

Then, I don't know if you remember back in the summer when Albert, Lindie and I went to the beach and this guy ran up to us and said "sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry" and did this dance for us, which we later learned was an actual song and an actual dance and a song that we actually really love.  Even if you don't remember, we made the girls do it for us.  So, here's "Sorry" with the dance. . .the Seated Version.

That song really got the party started, and by party I mean the dance off.  I don't think we sat down for the rest of the time.  By the way, you get an hour usually in these things, but you can win time.  These girls were so great they won us about an extra hour.  For the whole second hour we were dancing.  Really cool.  So, here's Singing Room Sorry, the Standing Edition :-)

Then we taught them the Macarena.  I have an about 20 minute video of this, and then about a 30 second video of this that I can totally post, but seriously, it's the Macarena.  Hey!

Besides, there are much better things to show.  They started really feeling it, and it ended up being the best time in a singing room I've had so far!  We didn't score hardly anything toward the end because everyone was too busy dancing!  Here's Tell Me by the Wondergirls.

THEN it was time for one of the foreigner favorites, by the same band, Nobody, that everyone knows and I'm going to REALLY miss when I go home!  Take it away, girls!

but wait!  there's more!!  :-)

Good times :-)  Well done, girls!  :-)

Very cool girls :-)

At the end of the night.  I really hope we can do this again!  :-)  Very fun day :-)

 Right before they left, Cherry says "Teacher, do you want number 1 or number 2?"  So, Lindie says "ummm...2?" and Cherry turns to me and says "Then you'll have number 1?"  We had no idea what they were talking about, but then Cherry pulls out two little packages out of her bag with rings and matching earrings and gave them to us.  That's what the girls were doing in the stationary store :-)  Too cute!!  They are just the sweetest things!

Here are the rings, aren't they adorable??

Lindie and I headed back toward our town, called Albert and went to the DVD room once again :-)  Great end to a great weekend :-)

Dinner At Raina's!

Saturday night, Albert, Lindie and I had a hot date with Ji Young, Raina, and pork :-)

Earlier that day Albert and I went to Ji Youngs salon to get his hair cut.  I have been there twice, but I got ridiculously lost.  It should have taken us maybe 20 minutes to walk there, but it took us all of an hour and I found it only by a complete accident.  I'm so glad that we didn't have an appointment.  We were there until about 4, and Raina came by to talk to us about dinner that night, invited us to be there at six, so we ran out to get ready, get Lindie, and get back. 

I was really excited to go, I thought it was the sweetest thing for her to invite us over.  Raina is really awesome, and really takes care of us.  And Ji Young was also there, so it was definitely a party :-)  We got there, and Raina started working.  I was just stirring the soup, but Lindie still thought it was worth taking a photo of:

"On my gosh, Jean's actually 'cooking!'"

Ha ha

Crazy Mom.  :-)

Albert and Lindie chillin'

Raina's husband grilling the pork!

This is how it started.  There's a salad, some delicious grilled peppers, onions, and mushrooms, then a salad of raw cucumber and onion with a really nice, little bit spicy sauce, I'm not sure what's in the blue dish, I'm ashamed to say I didn't try it, and then this really awesome corn and cheese dish.  Awesome.

Then it grew with pork and rice and kimchi/ham soup. 

Ji Young and Raina.  Cheese!

So.  Much.  Food.  :-)  But it was incredible!

Cheers :-)

After more pork and veggies than we each thought we could possibly hold, they fed us even more.  :-)

They put on some music and Raina and her youngest daughter put on a show.  :-)

Raina, showing us how it's done:

 Then her mom showed us her moves :-)

Found out that night that not only is Raina awesome, she also used to be a DJ, a bona fide record-scratching DJ.  :-)  And her husband was a bass player.  How cool is that?

Lindie Grace and Crazy Mom :-)

She was adorable :-)

 After eating, eating, eating, laughing and singing, we decided that we needed to go to a singing room together.

Ji Young blowin' it up!  :-)

Raina taught us that night which singing rooms to go to.  Apparently the ones that say "Singing Room Town" are more expensive because you can get a lot more there, including an "escort."  Thank you, Raina!  You saved us from some trouble for sure!

Lindie rockin out on lead guitar.

Rock on.

They are so much fun :-)

See?

I do NOT understand why we don't have these at home!!!  They are so far beyond a blast I can't even begin to express it!

Which ballad was this??  Ji Young and Raina sang a lot of English songs, which we all appreciated as being quite a feat, especially when Lindie and I tried to struggle along with a Korean song.  Luckily a lot of the hit songs right now have quite a bit of English in them, so those are always fun.

We were absolutely pwning that singing room.  We got so many 100's it wasn't even funny!  :-)

We were there for maybe 2 hours, and it was a lot of fun.  We were all hoarse by the time we walked out.  This singing room was underground and when we were trying to leave there was this big fight on the stairs!  Like, people getting shoved down the stairs, kind of fight.  Pretty intense, so of course we had to figure out what was going on (and Lindie and I just happened to know Korean for "FIGHT!" so, we probably weren't helping. . .)  :-)  The owner came up to us eventually and ushered us out the secret back entrance.  Soooooo celebrity!  And you know, as soon as we got out there were MORE fights!  Drama city out there!  And you know what those crazy girls tried to do??  Feed us again!!!  But, it was about time to get home.

Great night.  Great food, great sining, and really great times :-)

Love them :-)

SNOW DAY!!!

This past Monday we got a wonderful surprise.  The best.  The most amazing surprise.

We had Winter Vacation Wed through the weekend and none of us were looking forward to getting back to work, but Monday, we woke up, got ready for work, and the most incredible thing happened:

At about 1:30 I have to get on my bus to get to work.  This is what happened at about 12.  The snow flakes were huge...

...but I really didn't think that they would stay.  Hoped, but I mean, come on.

By the time I started walking to my bus stop (I left myself an hour and a half to get to work) this is how it looked.

The church near my bus stop.

The road I walk from my apartment to the bus stop.  Beautiful, isn't it?

 I SHOULD have taken a picture of the street.  I've never in my life seen traffic like that.  Not even in Detroit.  I waited for a bus that I could literally see for 30 minutes.  Got on.  Waited 15 minutes and my co worker Mac got on the same bus at the same stop.  Still, no word from work about whether anything was happening, so we got on and hoped that we would get there before we were scheduled to get off that night.

On the way to work.  We were stopped dead.  I finished a novel.  From the beginning.  Okay, not really.  Still no word.

At this point we tried to call, tried to text, to at least let them know that we KNEW we were going to be criminally late.  But, nothing.

So, I kept snapping pictures.  Eventually we called someone else and she told us that classes were cancelled until 5, so that we needed to be there at 4.  We had been on the bus for an hour already and weren't even close to halfway there.

 Lindie called during this time to tell me that her classes were cancelled, which was amazing because she had never touched snow in her life, or seen it snowing, so she deserved a snow day for sure.  Especially one as exquisite at this one was!!

Stuck, stuck, stuck.  Now what.  I know!  Take pictures!  :-P

 So, Mac and I got off the bus and decided to forget it, we were going home, there was no way that they were going to be able to have classes later in the day! It was snowing HUGE snowflakes and was just TOO amazing a day to worry about it.  So, we grabbed a cab and headed home.

The blue sign over there is my apartment building.  Ahh, snow.

Here's the school that they're building across the street from my apartment and my little town.  Look at that snow!!  It never stopped!

My coworker Mac and I at an intersection waiting to get home and out in the snow.  We would worry about getting back to work later.

 Then, this wonderful thing happened.  I was on the way to the park with Lindie when Mac called and said that classes were cancelled.  I'm not ashamed to say that I jumped up and down and screamed like a little kid.  And in keeping with the theme, Lindie and ran off to the park to greet the snow like proper six year olds on Christmas :-)

SNOW!!

We didn't make him, but he was the first one we met, so we had to take a picture with him.

The park in the snow was amazingly gorgeous.  The snow got a little thin for a while but then started absolutely dumping.  Of course, my camera ran out of batteries before then.  It's so good at doing that.  :-)

People were in such a good mood walking around the lake in this lovely snow.

:-)

The stadium and the swan boats.  In the snow.  Look at that sky!  It's still got another 12 hours of snow in it!!

Beautiful, isn't it?

SNOW PIC!  My camera died right after this, and we walked the rest of the way around the lake and went off to buy some more batteries.  By the time we got there, though, we decided we were absolutely starving to death so we went hunting for food.  But not before we got in a short interview with the new snow bunny.

Did you catch her trying to catch snow flakes on her tongue?  :-)  ha!

Look at those snowflakes!

This is Lindie going "Jean, I'm starving.  Stop taking stupid pictures!"  :-)

This little creek that divides our little town.

 We went to our favorite chicken place but they were closed, so we went to the one across the street, which is also good.  All we knew was we needed chicken.  And lots of it.

The poor panda bear was exhausted.

Lots of chicken!  Those white things, little rice cakes, are amazing.  I don't really know why, those are deep fried and salty and I'm absolutely addicted to them.  That was like popcorn chicken, then there was bbq chicken, yummy kabob chicken, and really spicy chicken that Lindie had to eat all of.  :-)

We were starving.  S.T.A.R.V.I.N.G.

 While we were on the lake I told Lindie about how when I was little mom used to make snow ice cream and the absolute best home made hot chocolate, and chili on snowy days.  So, Lindie decided she was going to make dinner (that lovely girl is always feeding me when I'm nostalgic!)  :-)  She had some wonderful plan, so we went to the grocery store to get some supplies, then took a nap for a couple of hours (during which it continued to snow like crazy) and then met up again later to make some food.  Lindie Grace, trooper that she is, made dinner for FIVE people in my little kitchen!

Potatoes.  Everything good begins with potatoes.   

I did a bad thing.  While I was waiting for Lindie, I ate her cookie.  A Christmas cookie.  It was fantastic.  I felt really bad, but I did it.  And then I made her feed me.  I'm a bad person.  But, she got me back:

I was stabbed to death shortly after this.  Okay, so she didn't make me pay at all.  I am still waiting for the punishment.

Starting to smell amazing.

Mac and Chris arrived, and I left to go get some Coke and stuff to drink, because I had nothing, and it was so pretty outside, so guess what?!  I took more pictures!

Still snowing hard!

This is the road I walk down every day I go to Korean, need to get anything in town, or need to go to Family Mart, which has 24 hour service for any of your snaking needs.

Pretty, right? :-)

This would all be ice by the next day.  Whoops!  But it's pretty now!

 Lindie made chili pies, which was mashed potatoes on the bottom, meat with really yummy homemade sauce, beans, tomatoes, and, the secret ingredient, a LOT of cheese!
She put everything into little tins and baked each of them in this tiny little toaster oven.  Fantastic.

She's by far the youngest of all of us, but she's always taking care of us :-)

Awesome.

Albert, Chris, and Mac.  And my apartment.  Can't bear to part with the Christmas lights. . .

Dinner on the heated floor.  Good times :-)

Delicious!  :-)

Good times.  :-)

 We ate our lovely dinner and then headed out to play in the snow.  It was already like 11 at night and we were pretty sure that we would actually have to work the next day, but we needed a little more time in the snow.  So, we went.

A snowman I built while my friends were having a hard core snowball fight near the cars. . .and getting threatened by the cops :-)  Lindie actually stole this whole snowman and hid him.  I don't know how she did it without breaking him.  Very funny, Gracie.  :-)

We just went from one place to another, playing on whatever was there and  kept up one huge snowball fight.

Photo Op!

Lindie about to absolutely slay Chris.  :-)

This is how much it snowed in one day!  Amazing!  Apparently it hasn't snowed like this in Ulsan in like, a  million years.

Snow on the fake palm trees in front of a house near my apartment.  Thought it was entertaining.

 Then we found a soccer field, with basically an infinite amount of snow, so we made a really big snow man.  Awesome.  And had another snow ball fight.  Then, it was time to defrost and go to sleep.

He was standing in a goal, he was our little snow goalie :)

Goodnight, snowy Mugeo-Dong.  :-)  Thanks for an awesome snow!