Cheolwon and beyond

Friday morning and I am exhausted. It's accurate to say that I live for the weekends - regardless of what the plans are, they are guaranteed to not sneeze on me and give me aneurisms - I don't make those kind of plans, but I do work for them.

Last weekend, December 5th was a monumental one. 

Background story: Every Wednesday, as I have mentioned before, we go to a sweet little bar called "MoonBlues". The owner, Mr. Cha and his best buddies, Mr. Alex, Mr. Kim and KoTol are sweet. They let us play whatever music we want and jam out on their instruments (don't worry, this girl is not one of the jammers, unless I'm into the SoJu and there is a tambourine). It's our weekly foreign gathering and where I've met my friends outside of school. 

Back to the weekend: Mr. Cha and the guys built a "pension" as they call it 

- a mansion outside the city. Friday night a crew of 16 of us hopped in an assortment of vehicles for over a two hour ride, arriving at the pension soon after midnight. Cheolwon is near the DMZ, like if you wandered away from base for a half hour, you may have crossed into North Korea and been another statistic ~ don't worry Mom, Dad and bros, it wasn't dangerous at all. When we got there the house was invigorating in an absolutely freezing kind of way, as no one lives there 90% of the time. The party started soon after arrival. The weekend turned into an epic eat, drink, noraebong, read, and play-fest. That sums it up best, rather than going into details. It was just awesome to get away from the city, see the beautiful mountainous countryside and breathe some fresh and frigid air. We are incredibly blessed to have the MoonBlues crew to experience with - an by "we" I wonder if I am referring to Ashley and I. Sorry Andrew, step aside. Apparently Ash and I are a "we". 

For example, "our" weekend plans involve another going away party, our school's Christmas program, a card making party, shopping and a noraebonging eve with our recruiter Vanessa. Vanessa, from pegasus, just showed up at work yesterday, like "hey, nice to put a face to the emails". We were blown away, assuming we would never put a face to that Times New Roman signature. Sunday she wants to do galbi, soju and noraebong - the three greatest gifts Korea has to offer. Then there is Saturday, which holds the end to a seemingly endless pain in the butt - Christmas performance. All of us teachers are stoked for that to be over, but that is not to downplay the cuteness explosion witnessed - the kids have memorized a series of songs and plays that they will perform in front of an auditorium of parents. We will feel like proud mama's watching our babies on stage, but it's more for the parents. Anywho, after this weekend there will be fewer tears, no less class time wasted on "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". Ahh...

Besides the weekends, all is well. It's kind of been a weird week though. I think too much fun and not enough consistency has thrown me for one. I'm seeking to find reason in my up and down mood swings and banking on that being it. It feels like when I am by myself I am just living for the future, be it the weekend or when I get to go home. I hate wishing away time.

In other news, I bought my ticket for Beijing - I'M GOING!!! Dec 26th to the 1st of January, Becca and I will hitting the hotspots of the city - no real plans yet, but that will come with time.

Best moment of the week: goes to the eagerly anticipated phone call from Mom and Dad. I miss the goofy stories and being able to share every detail of my life without being hushed. I love you Ma an' Pa!!!

One more random sidenote: I have a student who has a licking obsession, ya know, glue sticks, desks, my skirts and other students. He doesn't respond well to my daily fingershakings. Any advice??? Any mom's reading this who have dealt with this before?! HAhaha... gotta love Ryan.