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...