Separate Ways?

Our first vacation has arrived at last and quite surprisingly Pauly, Si and myself are all going our separate ways. Pauly managed to book herself a last minute ticket (I mean 4 days ago last minute) to Thailand with some co-workers for a mini-escape and Sionna has decided to travel to another city in S. Korea called Busan for the weekend. As for myself, I'm going to "kick it" in my hood since I'm never really around to enjoy it.

Lolli Lolli Lolli POP...

...is only the best and hottest song right now by none other than Big Bang and 21. It's so catchy that I often find myself singing it in class and what a mistake that is! Before I know it, class has gone from English to Music and sometimes even Dance as a handful of students will even begin performing the choreography. And do I stop them??? Hell no! I join in and ask them to teach me the song in Korean. Now that's bonding!

Check it out...you know you want to!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsy_m6xk1xw

It's all in a NAME

Cassandra Nadine Grabowski has been a name that I've become known by since well, birth. It has 24 letters in total and about a zillion syllables. However, here in Korea, that name doesn't exactly fly. Every time I'm asked what my name is, the response is always a puzzled look on a Korean face and sometimes the word, "What!?!" is soon followed. This dumbfounded look doesn't bother me much anymore because when you think of their names, they are usually a maximum of 9 letters from beginning to end.


Now imagine my 6-7 year old students trying to comprehend my name...yeah it's a mouthful!

So allow me to re-introduce myself as Yuri. Yes, I have been re-named. Apparently, my 6-7 year old students named me after some beautiful and popular actress, so I'm quite okay with it. :)


And I'm not the only one to be named. Both Sionna and Pauly received new Korean Names from our friend Young Ju. Paulina is no longer Machita (or delicious), she is Yubin. And Sionna has gone from Kinchana (or okay) to Ye San. So it was only natural for us to name Young Ju with an English name - Bella! Nevertheless, we are all quite content!

Among Celebrities

I learned from Sionna that her and Paulina have just been featured on the FRONT PAGE of the Royal Gazette, the Bermudian newspaper (which is similar to the AZ Republic or the Democrat & Chronicle). The two girls assigned a research project on Bermuda to their students here in Korea. Upon completion, the students showed up with beautiful, bright posters of the tropical island each covered with different facts and information about the country.

I think it's great that they were able to incorporate a piece of their home into their job and open some of these children's eyes to the outside world. Check out the article at this link:

http://www.royalgazette.com/siftology.royalgazette/Article/article.jsp?articleId=7d946a730030002&sectionId=60

Cherry Blossom Festival

After Sionna napped for an hour or two, we met Pauly on Easter Sunday morning to head off to see the Cherry Blossoms. We actually learned from our new Korean friends the night before that there was an actual festival that happens only one day a year. Yahoo!

We headed into Gangnam, got onto another bus which happened to be the wrong one (damn Daniel), quickly got off and jumped into a cab where the driver made fun of us the entire 20 min ride. We arrived and wandered down some streets and through a park full of hundreds of people. We were actually quite disappointed because we thought there would be more to the festival. But the scenery and all of the lines of cherry blossoms were absolutely breathtaking. We searched for a hamburger and fried egg for Sionna (she had a craving). After pushing through people and almost getting run over by people on two-seater bicycles, we found a street vendor who offered eggs cooked inside of pancakes and some delicious pineapple on a stick! I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to eating things un-kabob style. Everything just tastes better on a stick!

Eventually, we met up with our new friends Sean and Young-Ju. See this is where Korean friends come in handy. They took us right into the festival where the streets were all closed off and everything. Now this was a festival! Happy Easter to us!! We climbed a few trees and took a few hundred photos. We even saw some Korean elders dressed in traditional costumes playing various instruments and dancing around. Video to come!

We also stumbled onto a string of about 100 kites which made Pauly and Sionna's day:

Si: "Pauly, OMG, kites....look!"

Pauly: (Looking at the ground) "Where?"

Si: "Why are you looking at the ground? Look up!!!"

Pauly: "Where? Those are birds!"

Si: "Yes, Pauly all lined up perfectly in a row."

We walked around a few more hours until we had our fill of the magical Cherry Blossoms. Now it was time for Butterfingers (our Sunday breakfast joint). Fortunately for us, Sean was heading into Gangnam as well so he offered us a ride in his car. It was actually all of our first times being in a car in Korea that wasn't a taxi. Quite enjoyable! We arrived at Butterfingers and ordered everything on the menu. It turned out to be not such a bad Easter after all.

In times of need, create your own family. Sometimes they're all you've got...

Our Easter Weekend Distraction

So as I mentioned before, Si and I were desperate to ease our minds of our unfortunate Easter weekend. Two fashion shows, two showers, one quick email to Emilie, and two kettles later, we were ready to make the trip to Hongdae. Feeling incomplete without our third and most fabulous Diva, we took a detour on the way to the bus stop to try and convince Pauly to come with us. To our disappointment, she wasn't home. So with heads held low, we hopped onto the 5100 Bus and headed to Gangnam. Now I should mention that Sionna has "a bladder the size of a raisin", and after our two kettles and a travel drink, we soon realized that she was in trouble. Stuck in a little unexpected traffic, Si began to dance around in pain. At last, the bus pulled over and Sionna pushed her way off the bus as the two Korean guys next to us said, "run, run!"

Unfortunately for us, it was already midnight and the subway was closed down for the night. We asked several cabs to take us to Hongik University, but to our dismay, the drivers shooed us away. Then out of nowhere, this Korean guy says, "Can I help you? Do you remember me? I was sitting on the bus in front of you on the way here. I heard you had a problem"
Us: "LOL, yes we had a little problem. But yes PLEASE!"
Him: "Okay. Just let me finish." (his mandu)

Phewf! Around 20 mins or so later, we arrived at our exact destination. The cab driver was the best we've had so far. He even prompted us to touch up our hair and make up as we were almost there. He even gave us what we thought was a breath mint. But it turns out it was a menthol halls cough drop. (Eww.) We exited the cab and tipped the driver 5,00o won (which you never do) but we ran away too quickly for him to give it back. We surprisingly found exactly where we wanted to be within a few minutes and jumped up and down proudly for our un-sober accomplishment. Soon after, we walked into two clubs and then quickly out of them in search for a short bathroom line. I bought some street meat off my favorite vendor and then out of no where we hear the following:

Some black guy: "Yo that girl looks familiar! I know here from somewhere."
Us: (We keep walking, uninterested)
Some black guy: "New Paltz?"
Us: (We stopped dead in our tracks, looked at each other as we both swung around with our jaws to the ground in shock.) "Did you say New Paltz?"

It turns out he was a basketball player from NP who recognized Sionna from Kickline. We took a snapshot and learned that he'd been here for four months now. Si and I instantaneously new this was going to be one of those all out "random nights".

We walked into another club, used the restroom, and as we walked out, were malled by men like they've never seen a chick before. We both were actually uncomfortable at the line of 7 guys trying to get our attention. All I could say was that we just got here and needed a drink. As some white guy is trying to drag us to the dance floor, this Korean guy (Jimmy) comes over and says, "Come with me, I'll get you your drinks." Si and I shrugged our shoulders and followed the man to the VIP section of the club where we sat down with two other Korean guys (Joon and Sean) and one girl (Young Ju). We were each given a Jack and Coke and then the dumb guy who was trying to persuade us to dance earlier invited himself in. Nobody wanted him there as he was uninvited and he was continually kicked out again, and again, and again.
Jimmy: "I just said Hi. I don't understand! Why won't he stay away?!?"
We made friends with the table and to our surprise, they spoke better English than us!

Now Young Ju is the cutest little Korean you've ever seen and we became instant friends. She is super shy about her English (as she is still learning and getting confident with her skills) but her and Sionna established that they would be each others teachers. So for the rest of the evening, she called Sionna either Beyonce or Teacher. She also couldn't stop telling us how beautiful we were because we had curves, breasts, and big eyes. That's Korean culture for you! We were eventually invited out for 2:30 am galbi and soju. Sionna and I agreed and off we went with our new found Korean friends. We sat down, had three more bottles of soju, some pork galbi (Sionna finally gave into pork - it's everywhere), and then Joon, Jimmy, Si, and myself all hopped into a cab to Incheon where we would go to the bar that Jimmy owned. As the cab pulled over to let us out at our destination point, standing on the same corner was Aaron (our other friend from New Paltz). Seriously, out of all the places we could have gone, especially in Incheon, there was Aaron, drunk as a skunk, and on his way to McDonalds for some late night food. We hugged and kissed, parted ways, and then proceeded to the bar for some more drinks. Eventually our night ended at a motel at around 6am. 8:30am rolled around and Sionna and I picked ourselves up to go to home (we couldn't be late for the cherry blossom festival with Pauly). Sionna took the obvious souvenirs: a hand towel and two porcelain figurines, and we stumbled out of the motel together. We got a few looks as we tried to figure out where we were in our "club clothes" from the night before. Eventually we crossed paths with a Dunkin Donuts and Sionna ran for doors. See, she gave up Dunkin Donuts for Lent and it was officially Sunday. Need I say more.

A half dozen donuts later, we jumped into yet another cab for Youngton Homeplusaaaahhhh. It wasn't long before we figured out our cab driver had no idea where he was going. We stopped for directions a few times and he found a homeplus in Suwon. ("You can't just find a random Homeplus in Suwon and expect it to be ours!") A few highways and a dead-end later, we finally had arrived home.

Mission Random Night of Distraction Complete!!

Without Family on Easter

As hard as it is to be away from your family, try spending that time in Korea without the opportunity for much communication with them on Easter.

Sionna and Paulina were down in the slumps this past weekend as Good Friday and Easter are HUGE holidays celebrated in Bermuda. I learned these holiday are full of the infamous hot-cross bun, kites, the beach, Easter egg traditions, and many friends and family. I also learned this is all accompanied by a ton of food and very many gifts. So when Sionna's Easter package couldn't get cleared from customs in time due to the fact that Koreans have never seen a care package quite so large and full of homemade goods and candy (31 pounds to be exact), Sionna was more than devastated and I couldn't even fathom what she was going through. I've missed so many holidays over the years that I mistakenly disregarded how important it was to her. (Si - I am so deeply sorry).

After working many hours on the phone trying to clear the package, it came down to the worst case scenario: Sionna would be hot-cross bun-less for the first time in her life on Easter.

So after many tears and not so many happy moments, the three of us picked ourselves up on Saturday afternoon and headed into Seoul for some day-time strolling. We spent some time shopping underground in the subway and each of us excitedly purchased three Korean pieces. We decided after how much we spent (which was close to nothing) we would never shop above ground again!!

Eventually, we made our way back to Suwon, enjoyed some duk galbi, and then Sionna and I parted ways with Paulina as she had some urgent business to deal with in the morning. Si and I decided that the only thing we truly needed was a distraction to get our minds off of things: i.e. a hopefully crazy night in the Hongdae district of Seoul.

TO BE CONTINUED...

It's beginning to look like SPRING!!!

The dead of winter is finally fading away and the signs of spring are in full bloom. It's now time to put away all of my warm clothes and winter scarves and bring out the sunglasses, flip-flops, and more! And to my delight, the cherry blossoms are better than I had ever imagined. The spring is turning out to be absolutely breathtaking and each day I am discovering new beauty. Check out my transformed route to work!

I will now go to the Doctor for any little thing...

After spending $30.00 on a single bottle of DayQuil (silly me only packed NyQuil), loading up on massive amounts of Vitamin C, and finding that 12 days later I still wasn't getting any better, I finally broke down and went to see a Korean doctor.

I dragged myself out of bed and made the trip to the closest clinic, which was about a 10 minute walk. I had no appointment and I had no idea what to expect, but the process was absolutely painless. It was actually more enjoyable than visiting the doctor back home. I filled out a rather short document and then the Doctor saw me about 20 minutes later and to my surprise, spoke perfect English. He started asking me questions about where I was from and what I was doing in Korea and before long, he gave me his diagnosis. It turns out I have Bronchitis and a slight sinus infection. Awesome! He wrote me a prescription and then he started talking to me about his son and how he's studying to be a pharmacist at the University of Texas. I think my eyes got pretty wide at the thought of a young Korean man who spoke English, had a doctor for a dad (an extremely pleasant one at that), and was studying to be a pharmacist. So instead of thinking about how awesome it was that I only paid $3.80 for my doctor's visit and $6.00 for my drugs, all I could think about was when is that boy coming home? Does that make me a bad person?

So now I'm on a lot of drugs for the next three days. I literally take 5 pills in the morning, 3 in the afternoon, and another 5 pills with dinner all while taking a liquid pouch of syrup with each dose.

But whatever! I'm already starting to feel better. And Doctor Jae Young Kim said to come back Friday if I wasn't feeling better. I'm thinking I might just have to in order to meet this son of his!!

I love Korean POP

So I feel as though I should finally share my favorite Korean pop song with you...check out the video link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpQkYHFKSNU

It's by Big Bang...only the best boy band to hit Korea. The song is called Sunset Glow and it is still very popular even though it's getting old now. Big Bang makes me think back to the days when the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC ruled American pop culture. It's almost tragic.

My absolute favorite part of most Korean music is all of the random English words intertwined with the Korean ones. You can always catch me randomly singing (usually just the English parts and humming the rest) on the street, the bus, in my classroom to my students, really anywhere. I can't seem to help myself. They're just catchy!

I am also in love with the Wonder Girls who kind of remind me of the Spice Girls in a way. If you're curious, my favorite song by them is called, "Nobody". Check it out!

"I love you girl!"

:)

End of the Month = New Classes

So at the end of every month, report cards are due for all of my classes. As the new month begins, so do new classes which means that I could gain or loose students or perhaps even teach an entirely new class. Well my second to last class rolled around with my absolute favorite class (with my favorite student - Denny). They had somehow learned of "The Merge" and as soon as I stepped foot into class, I was drilled with a hundred different questions from my frazzled students.

"Teacher! Are you leaving? Do we have a new teacher? Will we have a new class? Will you go to another school? What is happening? I need to know answers!"

Then their frantic questions turned into panicked statements:

"I don't want you to leave teacher! You cannot go! You are the best teacher, I do not want a new one! Please teacher stay."

I didn't exactly know how to react as I wasn't supposed to share any information with them and to be honest, I didn't know the answers! I didn't know what they would do to with me! But I was so relieved to learn that they felt the same way about me as I did about them. Well our intermission/10 minute break rolled around and I went into the teacher's room to grab a quick snack. After the 10 minutes was up, I traveled back to my classroom only to find my students sitting proudly at their desks with their hands folded. Denny ran up to me and said, "Cassandra! We all asked very nicely to the counter teachers (the main office) for you to stay and be our teacher. We hope that helps!"

Then I looked at the board and it was COMPLETELY COVERED with the most wonderful and heart-felt messages. It literally brought me to tears! Here, take a look!


Needless to say, I learned the following day that I would be keeping this class. I also learned the parents really like me as their teacher as well (which is a huge accomplishment as I'm so new...these parents are tough!!) Here are some close-ups of my best/favorite day as a teacher!:

Denny vs Peter

So I know I've talked about my class crushes in past blogs, so I imagine you are somewhat familiar with at least their names. And if you aren't, Denny was my first crush, has an amazing personality, is smart, funny, and is 9 years old. Peter is a newer student that I acquired last month and speaks excellent English, is also 9 years old, and is very shy.

Now as a teacher, I realize discussing the issue may be totally inappropriate. But I simply can't hold it in. They really are so darn cute and I very much look forward to seeing them in each and every class. I would also like to throw in the following disclaimer:

I am not now, nor have I ever been a pedophile.

I feel as though I should be allowed to express my gratitude for being blessed with such adorable students. Besides, crushes are harmless....right!?! Well allow me to share with you some recent photos. You can be the judge!

(Denny is hiding in the chairs to SURPRISE ME! So clever!)

(Peter is a little more camera shy - in the stripes!)

Beijing is out

So it's official. As a trio, we decided to spend our short holidays exploring Korea itself rather than try and fit entire countries into just a few days. We decided it would be best to take a month after our contracts are up and go backpacking from one Asian country to the next so we can really do and see all that we want. I love the idea and plus it gives us a lot of time to save!!

So on the top of the list for now is some sort of temple stay, bungee jumping, and Jeju Island. The options are endless! Stay tuned!

Change of Name

Having Paulina around has been nothing but fantastic. Especially when she shares her Polish heritage with a me. I'm learning a lot from her. Like for instance, my name in Polish would be pronounced:

Cassandra Grabovska

I like the way the Poles say it much better. Americans really butchered it!

I'm fairly certain I'll change my name someday! Thanks Pauly!