Julia's Asian Travels: February Leaves Us And So Do Some Friends!!

I spent the day Monday in bed recovering from the crazy birthday weekend I had. I was glad that I didn't have to school on Monday. I met up with Nicole Monday night and we had dinner together by her house. Tuesday I didn't have to go to school either, so I slept in and then just spent the day chilling out at home. Not too much happened at the beginning of the week. Wednesday I had to go back to school, so it was tough getting up early and dragging my butt to school. There were no students at school because the new school year doesn't start until next week. We spent the first part of the morning in an assembly where we introduced to all the new teacher's joining our school and then all of last years teacher, including me, were introduced. Then all of the teacher's were assigned their grades and classrooms, some of the teachers grades didn't change and some did. My co-teacher, Jiny is now teaching her own grade 1 class, so I have been assigned a new co-teacher. My new co-teacher's name is Enee, she is two years older than me, she has good English and she is the cutest little thing. She will be my new co-teacher for the year and she will be my grade 3 English co-teacher. I'm very excited to be in the grade 3 office now because grade 3 is my favorite grade, so I will get to hang out with those teacher's for the year. My school has grown in student population, so my English Zone is now a grade 3 classroom and there are now nine grade 6 classes instead of the seven that there were last year. I'm also very excited that Mrs. Kim has returned from her sixth months in America taking an English course and she will be the new grade 6 English co-teacher. We taught really well together and we got along really good as well. After the assembly Jiny talked to the Vice-Principal and he agreed that I could go home, so I left school around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday night I met up with Nicole for a chill evening at her place. We ordered take-out, but then decided to head to Yeonsu to do noraebang and drinks with Tracy, Holly and Lisa. With Tracy leaving in 5 days I want to see as much of her as I can, so we met up with them and hung for a few hours. Thursday I had to go to school again, this time to move my stuff from the grade 6 office to the grade 3 office. Enee talked to me about moving apartments when my new contract starts and how they are still looking for a place for me to move to. I got to see Mrs. Kim for the first time since she got from the US. Since, I ddn't have anything to do at school really once my stuff got moved, Jiny and Enee talked to the VP about me going home early again and he agreed, so I left school at 10:30 a.m. again. Thursday night was Trivia night in Bupyeong and Andrea and Damien were hosting, so we had to attend. Damien leaves Korea next week as well, so we thought we should show up for his last Trivia night. Nicole, Mike and I were a team and we let this random guy, John, who happens to live in my building join our team. There were a lot of teams that attending this Trivia, so it was some tough competition, but we ended up soming in 4th place, which was better than the first Trivia night we attended when we came in 2nd last place. When Trivia was over Nicole, Mike and I took the bus to guwol-dong together. Mike went home for the night, but Nicole and I decided to hang out in guwol-dong for a bit. We started at Rio's and then we headed to eat and meet some Korean friends. I wasn't really feeling the night, so Nicole and I got a ride home from our friend and called it a nght. Friday I had no school, so I got the luxury of sleeping in again. Tracy and Damien were having their going away party in Bupyeong, so Nicole and I wanted to treat Tracy to a 'farewell' dinner first, so Tracy, Holly, Nicole and I went for some galbi and then headed to Bupyeong. We started the party at Rock Bar, which I haven't been to in about 6 months or so.

Tracy is my favorite person in Korea and I've known her the longest, so saying good-bye to her will be a struggle.

Mike and Andrea are such a fun couple and I never stop laughing/smiling around them.

Nicole (my wife) and I enjoying the fun times at Rock Bar.

Carolina and I at Rock Bar. We take such good pictures together.

We played some drinking games at Rock Bar and when we had enough we headed to N's pub around the corner. I wasn't feeling N's pub because there were so many foreigners and when they are drunk they are arrogant and annoying.

The "cool posse" loitering on the streets outside N's pub. Left to Right: Me, Andrea, Nicole, Damien and Mike.

*Photo courtesy of Tracy.*

We stayed for about an hour and then Tracy, Damien, Carolina, Nicole, Andrea, Mike and I headed to noraebang. We rocked out at the noraebang for a good two hours before it was time to call it a night.