Meet my friends

Oh hello there, friends!

Behind me is a map of Incheon, my front door, and proof that I am indeed alive and well. Come on a virtual tour of my world since I can't visit those of you who read this blog. I know I haven't been awesome at my coorespondence. I'm working on that I promise... but as the post office is closed on Sunday, I thought a blog post might be good too! I don't know how to make my text wrap around the pictures on this blog, so if anyone does ... Ahem Kathleen, I could use the advice.

Meet my friends ... for those of you who may have doubted that I had them in Korea. (I don't just work long hours!)

Pictured below are some of my work friends.

There's Mark, Nicole (who left already back to South Africa), and Jenn. Mark is a great guy and a great manager. He's very sensitive, and he's always there for you if you need him.

Of course, you'll see more of Jenn in the Halloween picture with as one of the Pirates. Chris, pictured on the far left, has also left, but Jenn and Jillian are both still raging life and being generally awesome. These two ladies introduced me to the awesomeness that is Makali.

To the left there is Jean and Chantel. Chantel is from England and Jean is from Connecticut. You may remember my post about snowpeople, which featured Jean. Both Jean and Chantel are very witty. I wish I had better pictures of them, but I seem to forget to bring my camera a lot of times.

This is Taylor and Melissa. They both tell great stories, go on great adventures, and are the life of the party wherever they go. I met Melissa when Kathleen was still staying with me. She was friendly and one of the first girls that I met in Yeonsu. I gave her my blockbuster rental card so she would have my name to facebook me later. I didn't have pen or paper and at the time it sounded less weird than what I'm typing now. Taylor was one of the ladies that came to the sleepover and we instantly bonded over a love of cake. I had two leftover cakes from my birthday which I brought to the potluck sleepover. She's now a staple of most of Sunday nights and she's going to China with me. Also, secret fact about Taylor. She was Ms. Teen Pennsylvania in the Miss Teen USA pageant some years back.

This is Rebecca and one of her many admirers. She charms everyone she meets, but I think she has an unfair advantage with her Irish accent. Of course general awesomeness is sort of ingrained into her very core, so there's that too. We met when we were both at a little cafe and a certain snl song came on over the PA. I looked around for someone else who might possible appreciate how insanely inappropriate it was to play that kind of song at around 1 in the afternoon in a crowded cafe of people.

This is Padrica (AKA Paddy) and this girl is like an accumulation of everything cool I wish I could be but have no way of actually becoming. Padrica can dance (without the need for liquid courage) and she can keep dancing until early morning. Believe me, I have seen it! Padrica majored in Art and is an amazing artist. She has actual fans on facebook, again something I'm pretty sure I don't have. You would think someone that cool would just make you jealous all the time, but she's so humble and down to earth that you just feel cooler around her. This morning she cooked me breakfast, and we watched The Royal Tennenbaums.

There are more to mention but I think I'll stop there for tonight just in case you're getting jealous. I miss all my friends back home, and you'll always be the best folks in my book. Lots of love, and expect letters soon!

Lunar New Year

In Korea, on Valentine's Day the girl's buy something for the boys, and then a month later (March 14 - White Day) the boys buy something for the girls. It's not so horrible to be single then because being with someone would mean I would have to buy them stuff today. Instead, I went out with some of my friends to this Italian joint in Yeonsu. The restaurant looked like Valentine's Day overload.

Also, it was Lunar New Years so we lit fireworks and set them off. Of course it took a few times to get them lit. Seollal is the Korean word for Lunar New Year, and a lot of shops and stores closed down. Actually we were lucky to find an open restaurant. Some of my students told me they were going to visit grandparents and get some serious cash. Sebae is a traditionally observed activity on Seollal, and is filial-piety-orientated. Children wish their parents and/or grandparents a happy new year by performing one deep traditional bow. If they do a good bow they get some cash from their grandparents.

I leave for China with Taylor on the 27th of this month and return March 1st. Sorry my blogs are mostly vlogs, and I'll work on a real post this week. Maybe you guys could work on real comments and then I'll be motivated to actually post. (I mean, how do I know you actually read this thing?)

Bau House in Hongdae

I took some anti-histamines and toughed it up to go to this "Dog Cafe." Before the jokes start pouring in, it was not a place where they served dog! The directions we found online we way off, and one day I'll edit this post to include better directions. Needless to say, we were able to get good directions from the helpful information guys right by the subway exit.