To be honest, there are many things I could and should be doing right now.  I could be making example Christmas cards for my Christmas card lesson next week (and when I say "lesson", please understand that I mean "giving my kids a load of markers, colored pencils, and a4 paper with the order to "go Christmas card crazy, kids."") I should be writing my personal essay for grad school.  I should be contacting my university about mailing some extra transcripts to my parents' house.  And really, I should put on my jacket because it's freezing in here.  It's a common gripe among foreigners, this constant coldness during the winter.  We may be indoors and the heat may be on, but the windows are open in the hallways and sometimes, even in the main office.  I've heard things from Koreans about it helping circulation or needing "fresh air."  So all the teachers and students walk around in their jackets and scarfs for the entire day.  And the bathroom? Like ICE.  Kind of miserable.

But I shouldn't be too hard on my school.  I guess I should be thanking them.  My students are now ALL finished with their final exams, meaning I can show them a movie this week.  I couldn't find my USB flash drive yesterday so we watched "Merlin" (the new BBC series) in my 1st year classes.  Er, I guess I can now admit my slight obsession with this show.  The writing isn't great, the CGI is kind of funny, the story lines are a little too Xena/Hercules, but I still enjoy it.  I've always been intrigued by the Arthur legends and even though I initially balked at their drastic changes (Merlin is now the same age as Arthur, Camelot has been around for hundreds of years already, Arthur is an arrogant playboy), I've now just accepted them.  No Arthur legend is the same, I remembered, so at least this new incarnation is keeping that same spirit.  Also, um, I find the lead actors insanely attractive.  The girl playing Morgana is a darker, more defined Keira Knightley.  The kid who plays Merlin has cheekbones that could cut diamonds and a great neck.  The guy who plays Arthur has that almost too generic handsomeness that is saved by his stereotypically British teeth.  The girl playing Gwen is lovely in that great girl-next-door way.  So yeah, I ate up all the episodes I could find and then made Dean watch them with me, too. 

The rest of the week and next week will be a beautiful nothing.  There are more field trips scheduled for the kids, all of us native English teachers are being taken to the Yongin Folk Village for OUR own field trip (holla), and then next week, it's just Christmas cards then...Christmas.  Eeesh, actually, I haven't thought about presents for Dean or my friends at all, only my family back in the U.S.  Every year, I buy Dean some cool gadget but he always manages to break it, so this year, no expensive Apple products for Dean.  Hmm...maybe I shouldn't write this here at all since maybe he's lying to me and he really does read my blog when he's bored at work. Suspicious. I'm stopping here.

Last weekend was Seoul's "Santacon 2009."  It's kind of like a flash mob but minus the flash.  So basically, it's just a meeting of random people wearing Santa costumes.  I had seen a group of them last year and thought that it looked really fun, so when I saw an ad for it on facebook, I signed up even though none of my friends--out of the 800 that facebook claims me to have--had signed up.  Happy to be doing something different, I ordered a cute Santa dress and pushed Dean, Michael, and Susan to play along, too. 

On Saturday, we all met up at Ho Bar III in Hongdae.  Even though I'd been determined to have a good time, suddenly, I just felt kind of deflated.  I had my camera with me and, after spending months in Apgujeong/Gangnam, felt like I had to go around and try to small talk with strangers.  It bugged me incessantly and I'm sure it bugged my friends, to whom I kept mentioning, "I think we should go meet some people."  It was weird to be at a party of that size and literally know absolutely no one.  So after my third drink, I decided to get up and just "talk to people."  That went fine for about thirty minutes until I decided I really wasn't in the mood.  The four of us went to get food, met up with some non-Santa friends, and eventually moved to Club Naked in Gangnam.

Already feeling exhausted, I wasn't really in the mood to transfer my night to Gangnam, but I tried to be positive.  I was supposed to take pictures for Kurt's SOMA party--he gave me my own little press pass and everything.  But I just felt...weird.  Michael sent me a song a few weeks ago called "Everybody But Me" by Lykke Li that he said reminded him of me, for better or worse.  I'll use it as a blog title of these days, but I am going to wait until I have a *really* depressing weekend of clubbing.  But anyway, if you know the song, it's just a song where the singer is feeling separate from everyone and everything.  That's pretty much how I felt at the club.  I guess I was also bitter enough to update my facebook status from my Blackberry that said something like, "Gangnam girls are plastic idiots." 

So after a few hours at Naked, Dean and I went back home.  It was a miserable taxi ride, full of loops, too much breaking, and wrong turns.  The next day, I was content to sit in the apartment and do nothing but watch TV with Dean. 


Oh, also, because I have so much free time (four free periods in a row) right now, here's a list of all the jerky things Blue has done in the past year:

-pooped on the couch while I was sitting a few inches away
-barfed in my new handbag
-sprung at me like a freaking flying squirrel when I leave the shower (maybe 20-30 times now)
-eaten a shirt off of me while I slept
-scratched up my arms while I was passed out
-eaten and ruined at least 25 items of great clothing
-covered our entire wardrobe in his white fur, meaning we cannot go anywhere without lint rolling ourselves a few times

He's so bad.  Dean and I like to make up songs about him, which is quite easy because "Blue" rhymes with so many things.  We also change the words of already existing songs to sing about much of a jerk he is. 

Anyway, picture time.

Susan and I bought matching hoods, but I was pretty cold.  Underneath it, I just had that little dress.


Random Santas in Ho Bar III.


Club Naked pictures!  Kurt played his new single and I died when he told us the name: "There is no Human Smell."  A few months back, Kurt, Dean, James and I were standing outside of Club Naked and I guess Kurt was feeling pretty disillusioned and let down by the Gangnam nightlife.  Watching all the drunk girls stumbling around in their tall heels and luxury cars pull up to the valet parking, he gave his quiet and out of character, "There is no human smell here. These aren't people" speech.  It was something that surprised us all (especially since he throws parties at Naked once a month...) but that we continued to quote on a weekly basis afterward.  So his new single, "There is no Human Smell" is actually fantastic. 


More Club Naked pictures.

This title is How I Became Paranoid by CSS

We walked inside and watched TV for a while
The news crept me out the ‘x’ put me down
I got so bored to death
And then outside the bugs starting eating me up
I felt so bad I looked up to the sky
The stars the clouds, the moon, the beautiful light
It all made sense but just for a while

But it's not for me; no it's not for me