Yes, that is something that one of my students actually asked me.  I have 2 rowdy 12 year old boys (Eric and Steve) in one of my classes.  They are pretty smart, but just like to goof off and are actually super funny.  Obviously they always like to sidetrack the class and have bizarre conversations with me about anything, but their reading books.  So on Friday, I wasn’t surprised at all when Eric said that Hwan (a girl in the class) had seen his “panties” (his words not mine).  That got them into this weird frame of mind.  Then they started telling me I looked like Brittany Spears (they’re good at sucking up and trying to get on my good side) including the hand motions for an hour glass figure.  It was too fun.  Then they were both up out of their seats strutting around the classroom doing model posses with their hips jutted out.  While doing the posses they kept saying “ass line”.  (I’m pretty sure they were referring to a curvy body making an s shape.)  So that resulted in them saying “teacher, can I see your ass line”.  They wanted me to strut around the room sticking my butt out.  I don’t think so.  These boys are to hilarious!  They always make my day interesting.  Thought I’d fill everyone in on my quote of the week. 

Like I always say, I love Korea, because I embrace the craziness.  You can either get annoyed or you can laugh. 

One of my favorite things about Korea is that random, bizarre, funny, and interesting things happen to you everyday.  Since I’ve been back I’ve really noticed how Koreans go out of there way to be friendly to you at times.  (Don’t get me wrong they also push you and spit and stuff.  2 of my friends were unlucky enough to be walking in the wrong place at the wrong time this week and got hit by flying spitballs, on accident.  One girl’s shoe was spit on, the other was much more unlucky and it landed on her head as someone spit out the window of a building she was walking by.)

Anyways, I’m really enjoying the random friendly things.  Today I was wandering around on Namsan Mountain, I had been at the Global Village Museum (waste of time, it’s a tiny museum and nothing is in English).  Anyways I was walking a few paces behind these 30 something Korean women for quite a while.  One of them stopped and came up to me.  She said, “lunch” and made eating hand motions.  Then she said, “single” like are you alone come eat lunch with me and my friend.  If she could have spoken a bit more English or I could speak Korean, I might have taken her up on this random offer.  How often do you get asked out to lunch by random women in the US?  Never. 

A few days ago Tim (my coworker) and I were wandering around Sinchon and random business men invited us to eat dinner and have soju with them.  (They might of thought I was a Russian prostitute though, so I definetly didn’t think twice about taking them up on their offer.)  And then a different time I had a great conversation with this sweet little old man and his grandson in the subway when they offered to help me with directions.  And then today I had this highschool boy stare at me for about 10  minutes while I waited for my subway (and not in that you’re a bizarre alien from another planet way).  When my subway pulled out of the station he stood on the platform waving like crazy at me.  Very cute!

Plus my kids are super sweet this year.  They are sort of suck ups.  Some of the little girls come into the break room between classes and give me backrubs.  They always offer me candy and stuff.  Plus a bunch of the girls ask me if they can touch my “golden” hair everyday.  I know my “newness” at school will wear off so, but it’s still amusing.  (I’m the only foreign girl that has worked at my school in quite a while, so it’s something different for the kids.) It’s so much fun being a minority!

Well, I’ve been in Korea for about 9 days now.  Things are going really well.  As I said before, my school is very cool and laid back.  Also, my coworkers seem pretty nice.  My apartment this year is part of a villa, which is basically a house converted into apartments.  It is much bigger and nicer than I expected.  I have 2 bedrooms and the school did end up buying me a few odds and ends for the kitchen (including a few plates, a kitchen table, and a telephone).   Here are some pictures of my apartment and also the view from the front door.  (It is pretty cool how the area around my house seems really old and traditional, but then just 2 blocks away are the super fancy highrise office buildings and apartments.)

 Here is a picture of my school building.  It is a 3 story building and Mapoewha (my school) has the whole top floor.  On the basement is a grocery store, so it’s really convenient.    (Sorry, I’m having major problems with the computer, you have to look at it sideways.) 

 I’ve been having a good time meeting up with my friends.  On New Year’s Eve, Tim (my new coworker), Yenz (his friend), and I headed to Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon.  Basically as soon as I walked in the door I bumped into 4 of my friends from last year.  They were people that had lived in my neighborhood, who I went out with a lot on the weekends.  Then when I went upstairs I ran into a whole different group of friends from last year (my old coworkers from ECC).  What a random coincidence.  Almost everyone I know in Korea was at that bar, and it was totally unplanned.

During the week I’ve pretty much been laying low and saving money, since I haven’t worked for 8 months!  Shannon a good friend from last year, invited me out yesterday (Saturday night).  We went to Pita Time (the best sandwich place in Korea) and then went to Rocky Mountain Tavern to met up with friends and watch a Canadian Hockey game.  I’m not really a big fan of watching hockey games on a blurry tv, but it was fun chatting with my friends.  Then Shannon and I went to Hongdae to met up with one of Shannon’s Korean friends, Sidney.   We hung out for quite a few hours, drank lots of soju and then went to Tin Pan with a different group of friends.  It was a very fun night, but a bit too long.  I don’t think I’ll be starting a Saturday night out at 5:00 again.  Me and Shannon made it back to my apartment by about 3:00am and crashed.

Then we woke up this morning and went to Ewha.  We ate lunch at an awesome pretzel place and then got our noses pierced.  (I’d been talking about getting my nose pierced for the last 3 months, so I was really exicited.)  The place was very clean and sterilized and the piercing didn’t hurt too much.  (Leanne took an awesome picture of me with the huge needle sticking out of my nose, that I’ll post on here as soon as she emails it to me.)  So now I have a cute little pink sparkly stud in my nose.  Yeah! 

Here’s me with the nose piercing: