It's been a few weeks since my last update. I haven't forgotten about the blog, I swear! I've just been a really boring person lately. I've gone to a few concerts, but since photos aren't allowed during the shows and y'all probably don't want to read my rambling feelings about Jonghyun's stage outfits, I've really got nothing to post about them.
In early June, my friend Leigh and I went to the Korean Folk Village which is in our province. It's set up to look like a traditional Korean village with replicas of how towns and buildings used to look. They use the village as a filming location for historical dramas and movies. Here's me with saeguk Kim Soohyun. The fact that it looks like I'm holding his hand was totally unintentional and it's great.
There was also this 7-Eleven with a traditional-style roof. Unique.
On June 17th, Jonghyun had 2 back-to-back concerts and I went to both. I was on the lower level for the first show and in the front row on the balcony for the second. I could write 3 paragraphs about how he looked right at me, but I'll spare you and just say that it was a great day and he's an amazing performer.
It's the standees that were at SHINee's 9th anniversary party! Except here I didn't have to wait in line to get a picture with them.
I have a Sulbing addiction. At this point Leigh and I are on a mission to eat everything on the menu and we're making good progress.
On Friday my coteacher and I left school right after lunch and went to an elementary school in my province for an open class. I had my open class a few weeks ago, where people from the Ministry of Education and other native English teachers came to my class to essentially evaluate me. We sat in on the class and then had a meeting where we talked about what we thought of it. Afterwards, all of the teachers at my school went out for dinner as a going away party for two ladies from administration who are moving to new schools. It turned out to be quite an evening.
First round was Samgyupsal at a Korean BBQ restaurant. In Korean drinking culture when someone pours you a drink you basically have to drink it, and Koreans "cheers" to EVERYTHING. By the end of dinner everyone is quite drunk. My principal spilled an entire glass of makgolli that had just been poured for him. I was sitting right next to him and grabbed his phone so it didn't get too wet, but his entire pantleg was soaked. I was like, "In America we would say, 'You're flagged.'"
Round 2 was at a sul-jib - "alcohol house" - a few blocks away. The art on the walls of the sul-jib was amazing, but by far the best picture was this one of Bob Ross. I was laughing at it and got up to take a picture and my coworkers wanted to know why. I was like, do you know who he is? No one knew, so the picture wasn't funny to them.
 Round three was at a noraebang - karaoke room. I originally wasn't invited. They were like, "Okay we're going to noraebang. Not you, though," and I said, "I like noraebang! I'll sing!" So I sang two songs in Korean at noraebang, then had the realization that I had to face everyone in that room at work Monday morning. I have some regrets.
Yesterday (Saturday) I went to Seoul for a concert. It was a Japanese and Korean rock festival with 5 bands. I was there to see Miyavi and FTIsland, but the other 3 bands were certainly interesting. Like, I used to listen to a few Japanese rock bands who did visual kei, but that was almost 10 years ago. I didn't know Japan was still doing it. Then one of the groups, Codomo Dragon, came out and I realized I was wrong. The normal-looking guy in the middle is my guy, Miyavi. All the other guys are doing the visual kei look, and I seriously spent their whole performance watching the drummer because he was sitting all stiff like he didn't want his headgear to fall off. I was into their music though.