It's raining

It's pouring, Paul is in bed snoring...

This is the first rain we've had in weeks, dare I say, months! I take it as a sign that Seoul is sad today. For today is the last Sunday Funday. March marks the beginning, and also the end, of the Korean school year. Due to this fact everyone is jumping ship. Contracts are finished, tickets booked, and for some, bags packed. This week Carolann, Scott, Sarah, Nicole, Catie, Brad, and Liz are all leaving Seoul. A few will be back in a couple months after traveling South East Asia, but you know what, I'll be on my way out! It's going to be really strange here for the next few weeks, My only good friend left is Krissy! And we're both leaving in June, I wonder what Seoul will do without us! Despite this sadness, there's a silver lining. My one year contract (well one year and 3 weeks) is finished on Thursday!!!!! No more elementary school!!!! I'm basically working at the school Daekyo, my company, forgot. They don't give a shit what we do, and since their contract with the school is up on Thursday, we can drive it into the ground for all they care. What does this mean for SUnny (the 5th or so Korean co-teacher I've had this year, also the coolest) and I? SNACK PARTY WEEK! We will be watching Megamind and eating cookies all week. This Tuesday is Declaration Day which means no school. Monday night happens to be 10,000 won bottomless beers at Hooters. Guess where I'll be Monday night.

I started working a few weeks ago at BHive. Krissy works here Monday/Wednesdays and hooked me up with a few classes. The school is for children and adults who are basically fluent in English who are preparing to move to the US for boarding school or college. Each class is 2 hours and we usually focus on reading literature or just chatting, My current two classes are awesome. The first is for Taeha who is 22 years old. He went to middle and high school in California and came back to Korea to serve his mandatory 2 years in the military. He's been back in Korea 3 years and hasn't spoken English at all and wants to go to college back in the states, so it's my job to sit and talk to him for 2 hours just so he gets back in practice. It's the greatest job! He's really cool and all we do is talk about what movies we've seen and what we do on weekends. My second class is with Jessie. She's 13, her mother's a congress woman here, father's a lawyer, she goes to art school, and her English is basically flawless. We read the Mixed up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankwieler and discuss what we've read. It's like real teaching!!! So yeah, come March I'm picking up an additional three classes which will keep money in my pocket but also allow much more time for studying, which I am totally slacking on....

On Friday Hwan and Jay, the owners of BHive, took us out for a company dinner. Two teachers were sick or something, so it was just Krissy Emily and I. (I also know Emily, she used to be my neighbor). We had such a blast. Dinner was at Mercado which is a Brazilian steakhouse. I know I've said this, but just to reiterate, I'm not a meat person. Give me broccoli over steak any day. We started with an awesome Chilean Cab. Ohhh how I've missed good wine (I have recently regressed to Fanzia. Beggars can't be choosers). They the waiter walks around with huge slabs of meat and cuts it off onto your plate. I had veal, sirloin, bacon wrapped steak, garlic steak, chiken hearts (good!), and a couple other cuts I can't remember. Everyone at the table ate most of their meat, and I tried, I really did, but my plate when I was finished was still heaped with meat. They kept laughing at me :( but seriously, that was probably more meat than I've eaten in the past year combined. And I actually really enjoyed it!! In the center of the table were side dishes, pickles (because you can't go to a meal without pickles), mashed potatoes which were amazing, spicy sauce, salad and some more pickedy things. Walked out of their full, but not busting, and ready to go party back in the Cheon.

Saturday was gorgeous! Paul and I went out to an interesting brunch at a new Russian place. I don't think you could even call it a restaurant, more of a bar with kitchen. You walk into this tiny room, sit at the bar and right behind the bar the Russian lady cooks your meal. Kind of a Russian diner. I don't know how many Russians you know, but I don't know any. And I think there's a reason for this. I can't tell if they didn't like Americans or they're just super mean, but I was picking up some pretty nasty vibes from this broad. It was definitely one of the weirdest experiences I've had here. They spoke Russian and Korean (weird accent!) and we obviously speak English. I didn't know how to communicate, I just kept switching between English and Korean, and they certainly gave no indication of their preference. I just felt her staring with cold angry eyes throughout the whole 20 minutes we were there. The food was actually decent, and super cheap, so I'm curious to go back and try their bananas foster (everything they make is in a crepe), but I will definitely get it to go!! Creeeeeeepy.

Saturday evening was an Indian buffet for Sarah and Nicole's going away. The party was nice, but I was still tired/hungover from Friday, so I called it an early night. I can't hack going out two nights a weekend anymore. Damn you CFA. I got an awesome email from my cousin Mike recommending places to go in India and Nepal! Yey the trip is coming together. Tentative plan is to leave the second week in June, fly to KL and from there I found flights for < $80 to Bangalore. Then we will train up throughout the country. Goa to Agra (and I'm sure a ton of places in between) and finally end the trip in Nepal which is supposed to be the most magical wonderful place ever. Yes, EVER. All of this in 5 or 6 weeks and then fly direct to our new home in Hong Kong. The job market for Paul is looking promising. There seem to be a lot of positions for kindy teachers, and hopefully they will come with housing. If not, I need to find me a real nice box.

6 days til Thailand!!!!!!