"I'm breaking down, and no one understands why I got here."

I just got back from my Rachael Yamagata concert! It was at the Sejong Center. I somehow landed a second row ticket even though I bought my ticket two weeks before the show.






After the show I asked someone from the crew if I could have the setlist. He looked slightly annoyed but he gave it to me anyway. :)



The actual setlist:
Elephants
Over and Over
What If I Leave
Meet Me By the Water
Faster
Worn Me Down
Letter Read
Elephants Instrumental
Even So
Duet
Parade
Accident
Sidedish Friend
Sunday Afternoon
encore:
Be Be Your Love
Reason Why

During What If I Leave one of her vocal cables got screwed up so she stopped toward the end of it. She summed it up when she said, "I'm dressed in all black and I'm supposed to be spooky, dark, and depressed. But I feel goofy because my vocals sound like farting right now." She walked over to the piano and played Meet Me By the Water while techs worked on her mic issues.

I have a video snippet of Faster. I cut it short because I was paranoid that I would get busted.



Duet completely cracked me up because, well, it wasn't a duet. Where the hell is Ray LaMontagne when ya need him? When Rachael and Ray hum at the end, she did her humming and then when it was his part, she hummed really low so she sounded like "a really hairy man." It was cute.

She played Parade after I made a request. Here is how my brief interaction went with Rachael. I usually don't yell at concerts, but I had the feeling I was in the minority of people who understood what she was asking. And I didn't really have to yell since I was pretty close to her.

Rachael: "Does anyone have any requests?" (a few seconds of silence)
Me: "Please do a song from Loose Ends!"
Rachael: "Wow, you HAVE that?!"
Me: "Yes!"
Rachael: "Ok, I barely remember how to play any of those songs so don't get mad at me if I screw up."
Me: "I promise I won't."

She played it perfectly.

Unfortunately, my photos turned out poorly. This one accidentally looks cool.



When she was at the piano this is the view I had since I was way over on the side.



Seoul was the last stop on the tour so her band gave her flowers.



I think the highlight for me was Sunday Afternoon. That song kills me every damn time. She talked about how you should let yourself wallow, obsess, and annoy your friends after a breakup...but only one day out of the week.

I can't believe I got to see Rachael in Seoul. Bliss.

I made it through 8 months of SLP...and also 27 years of life.

Anneyaseo, everyone! ♥

Well, if you don't already know, my last day of work was Thursday, April 2nd. It was supposed to be March 31st but Mr. and Mrs. Yang asked me to help Jen (my replacement) the first couple days. Those last two days of work were reeeeally long. It didn't help that I was battling my fourth sinus infection in eight months. I was glad I could help Jen. She was really stressed out. I'm glad they chose her to take over my classes--I could tell I, along with my students, really needed a change. Anyway, I got a video and some photos from my last days at SLP. So, here ya go!

For our monthly field trip we went to see a ventriloquist. Ventriloquism kind of creeps me out so I was slightly less than thrilled.



Monkey Class:



James, who is quite possibly the cutest kid in Korea:



Daniel:



Elly and Michelle:



And here is my favorite class: Ann and Annie. I love these girls with all my heart.



My birthday fell on Easter Sunday this year. I kind of like it when that happens. A bunch of us went out for brunch at the All-American Diner. Omelettes? Pancakes? French Toast? No rice? We were in heaven.

Then Meredith and I went to Yuido to look at the cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, every Korean also went to Yuido to look at the cherry blossoms. We both have a similar distaste/phobia for large crowds so it was a bit more stressful than we thought it would be. So we looked for the humor in the situation. Mullets are pretty funny, aren't they?



A cute baby greeted us.



And here are some photos of the cherry blossoms.





Anyway, my head hurts from thinking about whether or not I want to stay in Korea. I can't seem to find any editing positions. I've applied for about eight but nobody has gotten back to me. I know there are teaching jobs here that would require me to work about half as less as I did at SLP...and I would actually make more money. Part of the problem of working at a full-time hagwon (private language school) is that there are a lot of students, a lot of classes, and a lot of paperwork. Everyone gets so burnt-out there because teaching becomes your life. And you are in the minority if you actually come to Korea to have teaching become your life. And I find myself really missing these novelties that you, my lovely people, are probably taking for granted:

-dill pickles
-Chipotle
-bathtub
-dryer
-GOOD cheese
-Reese's Peanut Butter cups
-English
-grass
-relatively clean air

xo,
Carly

"I keep uprooting myself unknowingly."

Hi, all-

I am (and have been) at a point where I'm counting down the days until my contract is complete. So imagine my unhappiness and frustration when my boss asked me to stay for an extra month (sorry, Grandma)...because it's difficult to hire people who graduate from college in the middle of May and then to get them here at the end of July (which is when I SHOULD be finished). I can say no, of course, but I'll probably stay that extra month. We have a week-long vacation at the end of July. I didn't do anything on that vacation last year because I had just gotten here a week before that. And I didn't go anywhere on Christmas vacation. So I'm pretty sure I'm going to travel to Bali. I need an awesome trip to plan and look forward to so I remain relatively sane.

Now I am going to post some pictures in an attempt to appreciate how cute my kids are.

Huey, looking pensively at the wall:



I accidentally captured the essence of Darcie:



Jason, looking like a VERY unhappy sunshine:



Dana, as an adorable butterfly:



Four of my favorite students: (from front to back- Jooa, Huey, Daniel, Sarah)



♥

Video Extravaganza

Some of our kindergarten classes graduated last weekend. The ceremony was at Sogang University. I'm so glad graduation is over. Everyone was getting beyond tired of practicing their songs, dance moves, skits, etc. I unfortunately don't have film of the "star" of the show. Sally, who is in Meredith's class, did not move the whole time she was on stage. The rest of her class did a pretty good job. At the beginning of March she switched to the other SLP campus. I believe the embarassment drove her parents to switch her to a different zip code. :)

The butterflies practicing in the waiting room:



Pre-show jitters:



Miss Polly:



♥

Too cute

I have been really sick since Wednesday morning and stayed home from work yesterday and today. I have a horrible cough (which at times actually makes me vomit), a fever (I have been drenched in sweat since 2 this afternoon), absolutely no appetite, major joint pain, and moderate pain EVERYWHERE else. Maria had her two kindergarten classes make get-well cards for me yesterday. All of them are priceless, but I wanted to share a few of my favorites with you. I got them last night and some of the students decided to put a letter inside a letter inside a letter inside a letter...and enclosed them with a shitload of scotch tape. I thought, "Thanks, guys. I don't have the energy to even try to open your get-well letters right now." Anyway, the school Christmas party is going on right now at a restaurant that's near our apartment. We did Secret Santa. I chose Mr. Yang's name. Mr. Yang is one of the owners of SLP. Our head teacher told me he really likes soju (the Korean version of vodka) but I decided the gift of tea would be better. :) I sent my gift along with Meredith. I'm pretty bummed out that I'm not well enough to attend the party. And I am supposed to stay at a Buddhist temple this weekend and I don't think I'm going to make it to that either. Ok, on to the get-well cards...



Ashley has no idea who I am. I've never had her in class. I'm fairly sure she will know my gender once she meets me. And I think "dan mite me" is supposed to be "then meet me." :)







I have absolutely no idea what "come back without your body" means, but it's enticing nonetheless.

PS: The kindergartners speak much better than they write. Believe me.

North Korea, Sparring, Turkey, and Goose Track Meet

There's nothing like doing a mind-numbing amount of report cards to make me realize, "I really need to blog. I really need to clean my apartment. I need to do anything other than report cards."

I went to the DMZ a few weeks ago with Meredith T., Meredith D., Darcie, and Imee. It was cold, rainy, and foggy...but I found that somewhat fitting. A visit to the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea isn't a ray of sunshine.





Here is Imee with one of the ROK soldiers. A lot of people got silly photos taken with the ROK soldiers, but the whole situation really bothered me. They stand there for hours in the taekwondo stance so they can immediately fight back if they need to.



Speaking of taekwondo...I sparred at taekwondo class a couple weeks ago. It was my first time. My instructor put me up against Justin--a 4th grader who is approximately 2 feet tall and -12 pounds. And he's far more advanced than I am. My friend Katie tried to get some good action shots of our sparring, but that's kind of difficult. I did get a point in toward the end. I promptly fell on my knees with all my weight, but at least I got a point.



Some of my class: Moi, Katie, Justin, July, and Claire



I had a pretty good Thanksgiving. We all met at Cecelia's apartment (she works at the other SLP campus). We got a turkey and all of the necessary sidedishes from the military base. It was soooo delicious. I brought a ridiculous amount of Sparkling Cider from Costco. :)

We went on a school field trip that week to a sports museum. There was a ton of cool stuff there.





This was by far my favorite station, though. :)



Meredith T. finished her contract and moved back to the U.S. on Tuesday. A new teacher arrived. His name is Greg. He's from Toronto.

I apparently don't have the energy to write anything worthwhile. I had more fun posting pictures for this entry.

Peace, love, and kimchi~
Carly

Daring Souls

Yesterday I went to Danyang (a small town about 2.5 hours out of Seoul) with Imee, Erwin, Lee, Jennifer, Tracy, and Meredith...because we're crazy. We each flew in an ultralight aircraft. It was an incredibly long day. The weather was iffy so we did a lot of waiting once we got there. It was really chilly. Our pilot was great. He had a ritual of drinking a cup of coffee and smoking two cigarettes between all of our flights. He spoke no English. He used one of our dictionaries to say to Tracy, "You are very well-built." Ha! Thankfully, Erwin has been studying Korean for quite some time so he was our translator. I'm getting used to the language barrier but it's a bit more disconcerting when there's a barrier between yourself and the person who is flying you over mountains in a tiny aircraft. Everything went smoothly except when an ambulance made an appearance. A man hurt himself when he was hanggliding (he was training so he was just gliding off of a small hill). He's ok. Apparently he broke his collarbone.

Here is the aircraft we flew in:



Here's Erwin all decked-out in his flight suit. Once you step foot on to Korean soil you're required to pose with the peace sign in every picture you're in. :)



Erwin was a little nervous so we decided to be his cheerleaders. Here we are trying to contort our bodies to spell E-R-W-I-N. Meredith, who is supposed to be the N, completely cracks me up.



Imee was the first one to go flying.



I decided against bringing my camera up with me since I don't have a strap on it. I had Meredith take some pics with my camera instead.







Here are some amaaaazing photos Lee posted on Facebook.






(From left to right: Tracy, Erwin, Imee, Pilot, Meredith, Jennifer, Lee, and myself)

It was awesome. I'm not afraid of heights at all so I wasn't very nervous. It was a spectacular view of the mountains and autumn leaves. It was great just getting out of Seoul for the day and actually breathing fresh air. :)

Safe and sound,
Carly