2월 25일 - So much for books :(

Right, now I won't be able to borrow any books from Jang Ik's library because he just graduated on Monday and is no longer a student. I believe there is a library near our apartment, we will try there but I don't believe they will have many books in English.

Yesterday, February 24, was beautiful. It was 16 degrees Celsius and I went for a walk after dark. It feels like almost the beginning of summer. But anyways, I went for a walk and checked out a couple stores - just for the hell of it because I love to look at things for no reason. I love touching things. Especially things I can't buy. lol But I went pretty far, like 15 minutes walk away from my place and saw a second hand(used) book store. I asked if he as any English books.

"영어 책 있어요?",

"영어 study?" (I think thats what he said.)

"아니요. 영어 읽다. 읽다. " (yeah.. great conjugation there Katie -_-)

then I mimed opening a book and reading it. Lol...

"아, yes."

"감가합니다." I said.

Then he showed me a whole bunch of old english books. Grammar, pronunciation, and normal novels. There was a few "romance" novels (the ones that tell all the sex scenes) and some Michael Crichton( the guy who wrote jurassic park and the sphere). There was a huge book with three of his novels as a special edition. It was so cool. I really wanted to get it, because I like his writing.

But then I found a book I had wanted to read in High school that I never got to read. A book that has a movie and I wanted to read the book ever since I saw the movie - -It was called Little Women.

(NEW POST) 2월 21일 Spider pig???

Okay, two really cool and fun things.

Lollipop 2 (the second generation of the Cellphone I have) and

TOP(on left) and Taeyang (on the right) from the Korean Idol Group Big Bang ^^ so cute!

SPIDER PIG!!!

(need I say more)

(NEW POST) 2월14일 Happy Valentines day/Seollal

Today was Valentines day AND Lunar New Year (called Seollal in Korean)
We went to Jang Ik's parents house for the holiday and they bowed to the ancestors. I was kinda too shy to bow to the ancestors but I bowed to Jang ik's parents and his grandma, when we visited her at the old folks home. She is cute and didn't notice that I was a foreigner. She is really old and has Alzheimer's Disease. Jang Ik and I kinda believe that she has never seen a foreigner before and maybe thought I was just an odd looking Korean girl... with dyed hair maybe... but who knows... 


She really liked me though ^^ If Jang Ik's parents send pictures I will upload them later.
And his uncles said to me in English "Welcome to the Family" ^^ It makes me happy that they like me, because I know I will be with Jang Ik for a very very very very long time.

Also, on our way back home Baskin Robins was having some event where you put your hand in a big globe that was blowing white Styrofoam balls around and you have to grab a coloured ball to win (it just had coloured dots on it made with marker) and we both won these super cute hats ^^

They are matching penguin hats!! yay!! ^___________^

(NEW POST) 2월5일 and 7일 Whitney Houston concert and Cold Showers

On February 5th I had to go to a public bathhouse because my water had been like ICE all week and I didn't have a shower much that whole time... only washing special parts. So I went to the bathhouse, this is my second time in Korea but last time it was empty and I was with a friend. But this time is was filled with 30 naked Korean Women...
^^  it was awesome and wasn't as scary as I thought. Korean bathhouses are pretty clean and there are saunas, a cold water tub, a hot mineral tub and a hot tub of green tea leaves to soak in. Oh the niceness and best part, you can buy food and drinks (even beer or soju)
It was awesome.


The main reason I had to shower at a bathhouse and the reason why the shower was Ice was because Jang Ik was really busy, he was working for a part-time job at a whitney houston concert. I wanted to be clean to go there. It was a fun concert, well definitely not as fun as marilyn manson or TOOL but she really loves her fans and tell them so all the time  <3


It was good. ^^

Okay... So I just spent about 1 and a half hours making a post and it screwed up somehow and the half of the post was missing. So I'm kinda pissed now. I have no Idea what happened but I'm not happy about it

I took me forever to write it and my fingers hurt urrrgghgh

I will not post it again.

But anyways...

I finished reading Red Dragon yesterday and I will be reading Silence of the Lambs soon ^^ yay for Hannibal Lecter!

1월 28일

Right now, I am making 배추국 - 맛있어요! (Baechu guk - Its yummy) Its only tasty because I make it with love.
But seriously, its really good. Sometimes I put Tteok in it. I like TTeok... or Mandu. ^^ yummy!

but anyways, I'm kinda bored because my nampyeon is ...playing Sims 3... too much right now. I played yesterday and the day before (while he was gone) but today I didn't, at all.
So now that I figured out that there are really interesting people on youtube that vlog everyday (or nearly everyday) I have become addicted to it a lot more. Although out of all the popular/famous youtube channels I watch, I am only subscribed to one popular channel. hahaha I'm awesome ^^


so today, I basically had two Ahjumma stare me down as I passed them. It really makes me feel uncomfortable because they had an air about them that was "I'm better than you, so I'm going to glare at you while you pass and then gossip later about you".
Its not really a friendly attitude. ... I mean a lot of other people are nicer and stare at me like "she's cute" or "omg, its a foreigner" but in an air that is curious instead of bitchy... (sigh)

Yeah, that's about it for my day. I drank lots of coffee. I better cut back because I'm starting to hate my teeth.. they are kinda more... yellow. So... That's my first sort of new years resolution. I still have until Feb 14th until Lunar new year, so I can start then ^^ because Asia is cool like that.

Here is a list that I'm going to make up now:
1) drink less coffee, more green tea (matcha)
2) stop buying random(I mean really random) junk
3) read 100 books before the next lunar new year
4) stop being so lazy
5) clean more, cook more, eat better things (ex: cut down on the ramyeon)
6) start running/jogging
7) Vlog more
8) Upload when you make the video and not 2 weeks later hahaha
9) learn/study korean harder
10) always be cute and loving towards all people, as usual ^^

Studying Korean 1월 24일

So today was very interesting,

On Sundays, I am now tutoring a boy who is about 10 years old (Korean Age), Grade 2 of elementary. I am tutoring him English Grammar and holy HELL! He knows more about it than me... He speaks fluent, natural English because his father spoke to him in English since he was born, so he is completely bi-lingual. His father works for a foreign bank (Australia-New Zealand Bank - I believe) here in Korea, so he had to learn English. Its pretty neat, I will totally try that with my future future children because its so cool.

Anyways, the main intent for writing this blog is to mention that, considering I have only been in Korea for 6 months (as of today), I am pretty - or somewhat but not actually - fluent in Korean (Just a VERY little fluent.)

Here is an example of my fluency - I had tried studying Japanese for 6 years (age 13 - to age 18) and I don't speak a word of legible Japanese (is that a proper sentence??) and in the 6 months that I've been here, I can carry on a small conversation of broken Korean/English (Konglish). and at least I can get my point across.

I am very please with myself. ^^ I can't wait for another few months, then I'll be a lot better. I know my pronunciation is super super good, unlike a lot of people.
People who use romanized Korean or Japanese are doomed and will never learn real pronunciation and no one will be able to understand what they are saying.
To me, using romanization of Korean gets me super confused and gives me a head ache.
Plus, in Hanguel, there is one way to spell things, with romanization; there is more than 10 ways to try and spell a Korean word and they are all wrong.

Like what the hell is this : jwe-song-ha-ji-mahn. ?? or this jeo-nun han-kook-o-rul jo-gum-bah-ke mo-tahm-ni-da. <-- I can't even read that in English.. how the hell will I pronounce it properly in my life! Unless I read the Hanguel I will never know. My Fiancee can't even understand these weird romanizations.
and wtf ---> mahn-na-bwep-ge dwe-o-seo bahn-gahp-soum-ni-da. Wow... that is one effing long word. According to the website that I got it off of - to get some examples of what gives me a headache (which shall remain unnamed) - It means, "I am very glad to meet you. "
But... I learn "Nice to meet you" as 만나서 반갑습니다. (and in Romanization I would spell it as - 만나서 반갑습니다 because I don't even know the Romanization AHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!)


ANYWAYS, enough of my rant! I am going to edit more youtube videos ^_^

시카코 (Chicago) Musical

so, on the 19일 I went to the musical with the tickets that I won from ArirangTv. I'm so happy that I won tickets

Wow. Chicago was very interesting.

Happy new year. 2010년1월15일

Its been a while since I posted on this blog.
I really have a hard time blogging because my life is rather boring.

But I'm starting a Vlog on YouTube
you can check it out on my YouTube page.

I'll probably add my video's here, then I'll probably blog more. I guess I do have some news, I got my hair cut in December it's really cute and short now haha
and I also have been taking a free Korean language class at Sookdae ip ku station in Seoul Korea. (I forgot the English name of the station because I don't know the English versions of the station names because I'm one of the smarter people (foreigner) in Korea to actually learn hanguel and only know the Korean station names. *sighing at dumb people*
Their website is at: Kongbubang

Well, right now its 10:30pm on Friday January 15.
For anyone studying or who knows Korean its;
2010년1월15일

I guess for now I will be putting up some Korean.
I may try a Korean learning thing, also on my Vlogs. I really like this one guy from Korea name Hyunwoo Seon and he is really good at English and actively teaches Korean.
His YouTube channel is here And his Korean teaching website is Here.
he does pod casts in English and teaches Korean. its awesome.

Ok, thanks and maybe I'll post later tomorrow..

oh BTW I won Chicago tickets in Korea through Arirangtv.com!! So awesome!

English Camp!

There is this event that goes on at some places called an English Camp. Its where kids go to after school to do activities, roleplay and games in English. Its so much fun.

I did my first English Camp on Friday and I would love to do it again.

I got to be an Immigration Officer and I asked for their passport, names, age and where they were from and they had to answer me in English, then I put an Immigration stamp in their passport and they went to line up and get their tickets ready and memorize where their seat was and then they went on the plane...

Here they pretended to be on an airplane and the flight attendant asked then questions in English ("what would you like to drink?") and they answered in English and were given their item.

("Orange Juice, please")

Here is another fun room, after the airplane they went to another room and did a play about three goats and a big troll, in English. It was tons of fun!

Here they were making telephone lines out of cups.

And then they played Bingo, in English, and even got good prizes. ^^

I will totally do it again. I can't wait to do another one

bad day

Sorry for the really late response. today has only just started and its bad. i was on the bus when i remembered that i forgot my materials. so i got off at the next stop and got them. this time the bus was packed, i got pushed by ahjumma. then on the subway got pushed by an ajossi. then a full thrust out of the way by another ahjumma. it really sucks so now I'm pissed what else can go wrong


anyways, several hours later, I continue this post...
nothing bad happened ^^ I am very pleased. The kids were really good today. They absolutely love my hand crafted stories (stolen of course but still printed, cut coloured and glued all by me)
and baby monkey. Oh, how he is so cute.


So... I have this little cardboard cut out of this cute cartoon monkey in diapers, his name is Baby monkey and he is cold when its winter, so we roll dice with pictures of a coat, scarf, boots, hat and sweater and but the corresponding winter clothing article on him (yay for Velcro!!)


Its fun. Now for Christmas.. I have to figure out what game to play because we cant really use baby monkey for Christmas because my theme will be Christmas for all of December yay!

second time at a sauna

went with faith, a friend I met two weeks earlier and we all went out to eat in gwanghamun, we got stuck in sindorim station because we were on the last train and thats were it was stopping at, but our station is 15 or 20 minutes further and all the busses were stopped.

after midnight the taxi prices go up and we didn't have enough money to take a taxi and our friend didn't have any cash on her, so we ended up staying overnight at a jjimjilbang (public bathhouse).

we showered and then soaked in the tubs for up to an hour and then met jang ik at the co-ed (clothes) room. The floor was heated and there were sauna rooms that were blazing hot or ice cold. They h

I have been really busy!

Really super duper di do - busy.
Please forgive me for not blogging, its not like anyone actually reads this, even when I post the link in many different places on my facebook. aishh!! Comment if you actually read this

So! This is how it all goes down...
Monday; 10 - 12 at a school called 이화 유치원 Iwha Yuchiwon (yuchiwon means kindergarten)
Tuesday; 10 - 1 at 고은 유치원Ko-uen and 2 - 3 at some other school(forgot the name)
Wednesday; 10 - 2:30 at Wizard of Oz Kindergarten
Thursday; 3:30 - 5:30 tutoring at a place in 서현(seo-hyeon) (which in about 55mins away by subway)
Friday; 10 - 1 at ko-uen kindergarten and 2- 3 at that other school (yes again)

And then weekends off. Omg I'm so busy... but still not money yet. I will be getting it.

Also, tomorrow at my most favourite kindergarten (Oz), we will be doing an outside activity all day so I have to dress warm. AND! I promise to bring my camera for it so I have pictures! It would be blasphemous to not bring my camera. The heavens would rain sulfur down on me and turn me to salt... well.. not really, but I promise this time I really do.

Oh, my lord almighty, look at me ranting. Haha I sound religious with my style of speech.. hehe

I hope you enjoyed my ranting!!
TTYL!

Korean Trad. song and dance

I know I promised pictures but I forgot to bring my Camera.
But this day, some of my classes were cancelled because there was a Korean Traditional Song and Dance performance at the Kindergarten. (not dont by the kids, but by some of ther teachers.)

I have videos on my cellphone, but when I put them on the computer and tried to upload them to youtube and blogger, the sounds was gone.
I have to firgure out how to make the sound stay and turn it into .avi or something.
hehe someone help?!!

so, I cannot post the videos, because they do not look good without sound.

~~~****~~~
Finally got something to fix my problem, I will upload them now

This is the Phys Ed teacher using Korean Drums. The kids love what ever he does. They really respect him I think. They are really the greatest kids so far. I really enjoying playing and teaching them. ^^ I have to think of some cool activites or games we can play with our books. I would be so fun. Maybe I'll introduce baby monkey to them kekeke

Here he is again, this time with a fan dance. The sound of the fans being timed with the music was really neat. thats why I went (woooahhh..) lol

This is a traditional song, I don't know what it's about but it sounds nice. I really love the instrument she is playing.

kkk

Enjoy!!

Whaahhh!!! ~

I cry. Right now it is raining and with scary thunderstorming and lightning. :'(
Jang Ik is coming home from school, so i'm all along and scared.

Anyways, I got another job! yay

My recruiter G->Got me a job for Tuesdays and Fridays from 10 - 3 ^^.

Its kinda far from home, but it gives me money yay!

So now, I have 3 jobs which then I should be racking in the money!! (lol jokes)

I'll keep you posted about the T/F job, I get to start it this friday.
Tomorrow I have my Wednesday kindergarten class at Wizard of Oz Kindergarten.
I will bring my camera this time so you get pictures ^^ yay!

They are so much fun.
Right now, I am making timetable for myself to see when I should get up and running in the early morning, 'tis an hours subway ride to the school.
arghghgh!! but Money yay!

No more crochet

For a while at least. My fingers hurt and all I can think about is "single crochet single crochet, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 chain 1, repeat"
So, here is the finished product with her new dress

Front of the dress. This is supposed to be a dress for Kelly (barbies sister)

and the pattern was different from the other dress I made, so this one doesn't really fit my bunny.

So, I added more rows and make it look like a corset....sort of.

in real life it looks better.

Beautiful Miffy with her new dress.

There is too much white, so its a little weird. I'm gonna make something else another day

but without so much white.

Here is the back. It looks really weird on her from the back.I didn't really sew it up properly. I'm still new at crocheting.

This is what is was supposed to look like,

but remember people, I only have one size crochet hook

and it is somewhat big.


here is the pattern:

http://kellybasics.tripod.com/page7.html

I can ACTUALLY finish a started project...

..As long as I have 2 or 3 days straight to do it.

I finished a project that I started yesterday and my fingers really hurt :(

Here is is:

(drum roll please...)
.
.
.
.


Tampons??


Thinner tampons??



Round Tampons??


whats the meaning of this!?!?!
Who the heck crochets TAMPONS and calls it a finished project?!?!
...
...
..
...
...
....
..
...
...
...
Haha, just kidding..

This is what I did!


A Bunny Rabbit Amigurumi!! (crochet stuffed animal)
It looks not as good as I wanted and one arm is lower than the other and the eyes are uneven
but... how many of you can do this?? (yeah, i thought so)



If you read that other post, this is the Kelly dress that I crochet. Well, I'm so happy that it fits, that means I get to search for Kelly clothes for her to make her cute!
She doesn't look too cute naked :(

Well, what do you think for my first crochet stuffy? (oh, btw - I used the stuffing from my pillow to stuff her! hahaha lol - the reason: my pillow is TOO big and I want to make it smaller, without wasting the stuff on the inside, hahahah)

Please enjoy,
I will be making a lot of clothes for her!!



Next projects: finish that damned kimono that I have been sewing for the past 4 years!! (oh yeah...thats all in Canada. lol)

P.S I got the pattern from a website in which its closed down.. so sad :(

My freetime

I know this is a random blog now... since I am going to post about my free time.
So, today, I had a nice long day off to do nothing and that's exactly what I did...nothing.
Well I did crochet all day and I even have some pictures of my work. I follow patterns, of course.

Maybe some know, that when I lived in Vancouver I had taken up the hobby of crocheting. I had done some knitting before but nothing ever got done and the language was too hard.

Here is what I have done today:


A Flower.

Another Flower


Merigold flower


Almost the same as that last pink one, but this time its bigger, with more petals and it is around my button for my jeans ^^


A HAPPY fried egg!! (He looks better in real life, I didn't fold him properly to actually look like an egg)


Cherries!!


I got this pattern off a site that does knitting and crochet for barbie, this little dress is for kelly, but my crochet hook is too big and it's not completely finish, I lost the rest of the pattern (because I didn't bookmark the website lol)


Tamago!! (egg roll) I originally did these sushi in Vancouver, I found the pattern in a book in the library and fell in love. I photocopied it, so I can still make more!! hahahah!


California rolls (without the eggs - I need orange beads to finish the white one)


Well, this is all for now.
I have about a million granny squares (squares that are crochet in rounds).
I am currently working on a bunny plushie(stuffy). If you are interested in what a crochet plushie looks like google amigurumi and you'll get lots of nice pictures.

I hope you enjoyed these pictures hehe ^^

Teacher! Teacher!

This is what I heard on Wednesday and Thursday.
Do you have any idea how cool it sounds when a cute little Korean kid calls you teacher(in either English or Korean)? Its so awesome.

I'm really tired today :( Yesterday (Wednesday) was lots of fun and made me tired because I was singing and dancing and playing. Actually on Wednesday I had to wake u[ at 7:30 to catch the bus to the subway and then a 60minute subway ride to the school...
I slept in until 10am today. (I have been getting up early lately, yay go me)

Also here are some pictures I owe:

This is my cupboard. I have oil, curry cubes, spam and ramen.

Jang Ik's mom lent us a rice cooker!

Its total technology! 100 times better than my Dad's rice cooker lol.

Propane Gas Range. Scary isn't it??

This is Yena's sister, In-Young.

She is 6 (i think). Totally cute! She goes to an all English Hakkwon (a private school), so her English is ok. I tutor her after her sister for about 30 mins. I just read a book, talk and play ^^

Its fun! Next time I will have songs for her

This is their little brother. He is 30 months old (which is 4 in Korean lol)And their mom. I don't know her name yet lol...

Well I hope you enjoyed some of these pictures.

First Day at Kindergarten

So, today was my first day of kindergarten but this time I wasn't the little 4 year old....
I was the Seon-saeng-nim(선생님) - the teacher. I only go there on Wednesdays though ^^
It was tons of fun! They are the cutest little kids ever! I love Korean kindergarten. The youngest kid in Korean kindergarten is around the age of 2 (because Korean age counting is different. InKorean he would be 4 - yeah weird) and the oldest would be around 5 (7 Korean age).
But they are really smart kids ^^

So, its a 3 hour day with lunch in the middle and lunch is from the school (so Korean food-yum!)
My time is as follows:

TIME AGE MEMBERS CLASS NAME
10:00 - 10:20 age 7, 15 students, Pine Tree
10:20 -10:40 age 7, 15 students, Pine Tree
10:40 - 11:00 age 5, 20 students, Happy Kids
11:00 - 11:25 age 6, 15 students, Forest
11:25 - 11:50 age 6, 15 students, Forest
11:50 - 12:50 ~~~LUNCH~~~
12:50 - 1:15 age 6, 15 students, Dew
1:15 - 1:40 age 6, 15 students, Dew
1:40 - 2:05 age 7, 10 students, Zelkova Tree
2:05 - 2:25 age 5, 10 students, Dreamy Kids

Do you notice doubles here? yes for class name, they had to be split because
they are such LARGE groups and the little class room wouldn't be able to fit them
all!! I'm glad for the smaller numbers lol ^^
Oh and Happy Kids... oh they are VERY happy. I'll get you pics of my groups
next week when I go to school.

Anyways for this month, the theme is time, so the books I got to read were
5 year old class: Five little ducks (OMG do you remember this book?! I do)
6 year old class: Ten little monkeys (jumping on the bed!!!)
7 year old class: What's the time, Mr.Wolf? (actually this book sucks and the song sucks too...there are barely any actions to do while reading it...)

With the first two books there are ways to get them to remember the material by asking them a question like "how many monkeys?" or "1,2,3,4,5 ducks..... 1,2,3,4 ducks... uh oh...where?"
Exactly like that. And of course the monkey book is my favourite!! Because I know the song soooooooo well.. I don't even have to read it hehe "5 little monkeys jumpin on the bed, one fell off and bumped his head, mama..." lol you know the rest.

I hope you enjoyed this segment...

TTYL

I promise to post pics of my groups!!


P.S I'm not that sick anymore!! yay!!