My cousin is sooooo cool

My mom emailed me this video of my cute little cousin Brody and I thought I would share it with y'all. He is only five years old and he is barefooting. For those of you that don't know much about water skiing, barefooting is really difficult. My cousin is extremely awesome, and it's because he has good blood running through his body.

Having a Korean boyfriend

Being a couple is a fairly popular thing here in Korea. It is something I have never experienced. Guys actually want to have a committed relationship. Girls do to and it seems that they jump into being a couple really fast. I however met a guy who wanted it really, really fast. I wrote about him earlier in "Can I Be Your Boyfriend, WHAT?". Anyway after he kept bugging me for a couple of weeks I just decided to go with it because I could just break up with him, if it was too much, which it is becoming. Since we became a couple I get many text messages every day. I actually got over 160 text messages in one week from the BF. Most of them just said "Hi Liz ^^" or "Have a good day", but then they started getting weirder like "Loving you my Loving Liz" with little heart designs, and weird stuff like that. How are you supposed to respond to messages that like that? So I just ignored them. Which made him upset. After I spoke with some of my Korean friends, they told me it was a cultural thing with Korean couples. They feel the need to be connected all day just by sending random messages. Since you know me, you know I wouldn't like this with some guy I just met and that is why we are breaking up.

Super Seoul Weekend

Seriously can my life get any better here. Well, actually it could. My brother could be here with me, but besides that, my life in Korea is good. I just finished up the best weekend ever. It all started out with a crazy night with Jamie(wait, do I write that every week?). We headed down to Kangnam on Friday night, because I wanted to check out the club scence. He decided to try and save money by preparing drinks for ourselves in my apartment and putting the drinks in juice bottles so we could drink them on the bus(this is actually quite legal to do in Korea, yay for their liberal drinking laws!!!). After a very entertaining bus ride, we arrived in Kangnam.

That is when the search an ATM started. Well, it was a short search because, I forgot that after 11 pm almost every ATM in Seoul stops working till about 5 am. Yep, I had no money and Jamie had only fifty dollars for the both of us. The club entrance fee was $30 for the both of us, so that left us $20 for drinks and a taxi ride home. ~ Time to get out the budget book!!!!!~ Since the drinks in the club were way too expensive we decided to go to the corner store to get more soju and juice. After we mixed our cocktail we decided to walk down the main road until we finished our drinks, of course we took pictures.

Now it is time to hit da club. We decided to start at NB(Noise Basement). This place was so crowded, this was definately the place for the people who really knew how to dance. Jamie fit right in, I just tried to keep up. After we were there for a bit we decided we needed to go get more alcohol. Again we were on a budget, so we left the club and went to another corner store and got a big beer(yummy). We met these randon Korea guys that looked to be about 18, they were funny(I think). While outside my friend TJ messaged me and said he was in Kangnam also and he was going to come meet us. When he got there we decided to go into the next club called Harlem(same owner as NB so you only have to pay one admission and you get both clubs ^.^). Here we met two guys named um... um... actually I am not sure. They were Korean and they were awesome dancers. After dancing with them it was time to leave and go to the soju bar. Yep more SOJU!!!!! Jamie loved the stuff. Right when we got there she was ouring everyones shot glasses and trying to get us all to drink. I decided to wait till our food arrived because I didn't want to die.

Jamie ended up getting wasted from the soju. It's not her fault, she doesn't understand the power of soju. Luckily these guys offered to take us home. They helped me get Jamie into her house and they were so nice. They kept saying they would call us tomorrow. Since we both got so drunk I thought they would definately lose our numbers. I was wrong(Really how often does that happen? hehe).

They called us the next day to go to the Korea University vs Yonsei University soccer game. These are the two biggest rivals and it was an exciting site. They held the game at the old olympic stadium. The place was packed and it was a very different experience. The whole game everyone stoood, and sang and danced. Really the WHOLE TIME! There is no sitting at these games. I had a hard time paying attention to the soccer game and trying to dance and sing. So I just paid attention to the dancing and singing. Here is a clip of the dancing.



The game ended in a tie in the last minute of the game. So everyone rushed the field to sing and danced togther. I could never imagine seeing two rival schools hugging and singing together, but I saw it and it was awesome. James and I went home because we had a long day. The next day was going to be even better because we were going to Everland.

TJ, Me, Jamie and Christy in Everland

I went to Everland with Jamie, Christy and T.J. Everland is kinda like Disneyland. We were expecting long lines, but we lucked out because the place was really dead. The longest we waited for a ride was about 30 minutes. This amusement park was beautiful. I could have been happy just walking around all day looking at everything and watching shows except all of the shows were in Korean. The rides were really good and we had a great day.

Anybody want some Peanut Butterd Squid

3-D Movie in Korean, but it was sooo fun

Wooohhoooo~ We love rides!!!

Busy Busy Busy day

Last Sunday was a busy day. I woke up around 10 to get ready to meet my friend Andy for lunch. We went to Kraze Burger (even though I am dieting) and it was delicious and worth every calorie. After we had a great lunch we headed over to Yeouido Park for the river cruise. This has been something I have really wanted to do ever since I have been in Korea. Both of my EX-boyfriends said they would take me but they never did. It was the first thing Andy asked me to do, he is such a good friend. When we went to buy the tickets, we saw the boat was leaving in two minutes. The ticket lady said it was too late to buy the tickets, but we begged her, and she ok, but we would have to run. We ran all the way to the boat (this is exactly how I hurt my foot in Thailand, and I was really afraid of dejavu). Luckily, I made it onto the boat without falling. Andy pointed out all of the sights for me, since the cruise was in Korean.

63 Building~ The tallest building in Korea. Guess how many floors it has.... 63!!!!

The Korean Twin towers. They are owned by LG and it is supposed to symbolize the two partners.

Cut Throat Mountain... Christians were killed here in the 19th century. Now they have a christian church there. Can you believe they call this a mountain???? Mountain what?

Congress builing... It was actually quite pretty.

Andy drove me home around three and then it was time for me to clean my apartment. Well, I guess I should say straighten up. It's hard for me to make myself clean when I live by myself. But whenever I have a friend over, I just want to clean the whole time they are there. I am just a weirdo I guess..... A few hours later, it was time to get ready for my date.

My cute students

I love LOve LOVE my kindergarten students. They are the joy in my life here in Korea. Everyday they challenge me, and make me laugh. Here is a video of them singing one of our many songs. Noel is the one that tries to be a star.

No cell phones in class

Today I was teaching my second grade class when all of a sudden I heard music blaring from one of my students. I looked over and my best student answered her cell phone, looked at me, got up from her chair and ran into the hall to accept her call. The look on my face had to be of pure astonishment. The students acted like everything was normal as I just stared at the door wondering how my student could just walk out of my class. This girl is only seven years old and her cell phone is much nicer than my phone.

Yak, Yak Yak, I like to talk on my phone.

Hello new camera

Last night was a little chaotic. Jamie and I went out to Itaewan yet again to have a good time in Seoul. The night started out normal enough, Jamie and I taking pictures of ourselves in the taxi. Then I got the best compliment ever... Jamie told me that, I was a pile of shit! She then explained that Korean guys flocked to me like flies to a pile of shit . Haha, I thought it was sooo funny, but then she said that it wasn't just because I am pretty, but because I have such a great personality. Everyone loves to hear that they are pretty, but hearing that there is more to you than just looks is sooo much better.

Then when we arrived in Itaewan, we found out some of our coworkers were going to this gay bar, where they had two-for-one specials. Being the genius I am I ordered four vodka tonics, because I wanted four total, two for me and two for Jamie. Since I am super babo(stupid), I got 8!!!!!! So Jamie drank her four and I drank my four. Lets just say we were good to go after that. Jamie, Young (new friend), Gary(new friend) and I decided to go to Helios. After dancing a few songs I thought it would be a good time to take pictures. So I asked Jamie for my camera. UH OH!!!!! She lost my camera :( I asked the bartender if they found a camera. They did!!!! But my camera was all wet. They found it in the toilet. WHAT???? Yep, it was dropped in the toilet. My camera died. Jamie felt really bad and promised to buy me a new camera.

So today we went camera shopping and I got a brand new camera. I love it. It is beautiful and thin, with big view screen. I am super happy with my camera. Jamie loved it too and now we have matching cameras.^^

Can I be your boyfriend??? WHAT?

Saturday Jamie and I went out to Hongdae to meet my friend K. I kinda had a little crush on him and so I thought it would be fun to hang out with, plus he is a great dancer. I told him Jamie was coming so he invited his friend P to join us. We went to this club called HOOPER. It one of my favorites because, it's just crowded enough. Tonight there was a lot of Korean girls in the club (very unusual, because it's mostly males) and they really loved dancing with Jamie and I. So when I told one of the Korean girls, I thought P was cute, she stuck to him like glue. Even though she was really pretty, he wasn't interested in her and kept pushing her away. I ended up dancing with him a lot, and Jamie danced with K. K liked Jamie and I kinda liked P, so the night turned out to be good. We left the bar cause James was hungry, so we went to get food. It turns out that P doesn't speak very much English and I got to use my Korean. I was able to understand and speak a lot more than I thought I could (yay, for B helping me). Then, he said, "Ok, you and me couple." I thought he was joking about this, but nope he was serious!!!!

The Happy Couple. lol

After this he got a little too grabby, and I canceled our date for the next day. It's too bad cause he seemed so sweet, oh well, we can't be right all the time.

Sunday, I had a date with a guy I met on Friday night. I actually met him in the bathroom. He followed me into the bathroom and talked to me a little bit and asked for my number. Honestly I was flattered that he followed me and had enough guts to talk to me (Korean guys are kinda shy around foreign girls). He called the next day and told me to meet him at a the subway station at eight. I was actually 30 min late, yikes, not good for a first date. Right before I arrived I got a text message from him saying "are you Mexican?" Haha, I am so white and I was shocked by his lack of knowledge of a mexican person. On our date when I asked him about it, he said it was because I was so late and he heard that Mexican people were always late. I laughed so hard. I never heard of Mexicans being late, but I do live by a lot of them and I am ALWAYS late. So maybe I adapted that part of their culture.^^ Well a few minutes into this date, thats right I wrote minutes, he asked me to be his girlfriend. WHAT?... I am not the girlfriend type. I hate being a girlfriend, I hate having a boyfriend. I think I am too young to have a boyfriend. I mean I am only 23. I told him no, but he persisted. I rejected him again. He didn't give up, but I wouldn't cave. I don't want to be a girlfriend. The rest of the date went well and I am going out with again tomorrow. ^^

Boyfriend #2

Sunday-Sunday-Sunday

Today a group of us decided to go to the pool. There is a public pool in Yeoido and it's pretty close. Jen and her BF took their scooter and Jamie, Jackson and myself hopped into a taxi. We got their and the pool was closed (BOOO). Goodnews: the Hamilton Hotel is open (YAY!) Badnews: It cost 12,000 won ($12)(MORE BOOING). We decided to eat the cost and go since we all wanted to get some sun. The pool was packed and they were playing great music. Two guys were in thong speedos!!!! You really can't help but stare at that kind of a thing. Actually one of them looked really good in it. Anyway, we had a blast swimming and tanning. It was a relaxing day at the pool and then we all went for dinner on the rooftop of Nashvilles. A nice way to end a hectic weekend.

Jamie can't keep her tongue in her mouth!!!!!!

Jamie's first weekend

YAY!!! Jamie is here! The first few days were a little difficult cause of some problems with the fam. But luckily Jamie was here to help with everything. So after we took care of a some stuff we decided to clear our heads on Friday and Saturday night and I would show her Seoul. Friday night we went to Itaewan (little America) and it was awesome. We started at Gecko's one of my favorite bars. Right when we walked in we had a lot of stares (lonely Army guys). I told her to not make any eye contact and we went to the back of the bar to get a table. We ordered two drinks and right after that the table next to us made their move. They asked us if we were American and we said yes. They threw a pitcher of beer on our table with two glasses and said "Happy Labor day." I have to say this was an interesting way to get our attention. We were hesitant at first but agreed to join them for more drinks. My friend Christy joined us later and then the whole group of us went to The Loft for LADIES NIGHT (woohoo free drinks). This is where one of the Army guys got caught by the M.P's for violating curfew. I felt bad for him, especially since it left us with his less fun and more creepy friend. Anyway, on to Helios for some dancing. Here Jamie saw a guy she thought was cute. She danced with him and we added him to our group and moved on to King Club. Its a dance club that pretty small but had really good music. Once we got outside we noticed Jamie's guy wasn't so cute(Boo for bad lighting). After we were at King Club(and quite a few free drinks later) we decided we needed to lose these guys. They were definetly getting a little too grabby. We deicded to have a meeting in the bathroom to come up with a plan. Since we were intoxicated, our plan was less than steller, we were going to run out of the bar and hope they didn't see us. Of course they were right outside the bathroom door waiting for us and they caught us( I guess they weren't smart enough to realize we weren't into them). Right outside the club there was this really cool mini motorcycle and I being the smart girl I am decided to hop on for a picture opportunity. The owner of the bike ran up to me and I told him I just wanted a picture and he decided to be in the picture with me. Jamie didn't even get a good picture of the bike. Side note~ My skirt wasn't as short as it looked, I just didn't sit properly with my skirt.

You are who your friends are

So I always thought everyone is there own person and no matter what, you are who you are. I honestly think its still true in a way, but I have also discovered that your friends affect your personality. For example, when I was an University student I was always happy going, fun loving Liz. I rarely struggled with a good time. I thought this was just my personality, until I moved to South Korea. When I first got here I was the same person. I just always wanted to have fun, but then after a few months, I changed. I was friends with people who were different from my friends back home and I kinda changed to be like my new friends. I didn't change completely, but I definitely wasn't the same. I would say looking back at the past few months I haven't quite been myself and I didn't know why until now. My friend Jamie moved to Korea a few days ago, and I went right back to my old self. Even though I am going through a difficult time right now, I feel more like myself and I am happier. Even my coworkers made a comment about it the other day. They told me I have an inner light that is shining through me. I feel like I am doing a better job at work and I just feel better.

Which is a really weird feeling for me. As I said earlier, I am going through a hard time with my big brother being away. I really miss him and it's hard for me knowing that there is not that family member watching over me. Luckily Jamie has been an outstanding friend, so supportive and so very helpful. Even both of my ex-boyfriends here, have been so kind. I feel lucky that I have a support group for my troubles.

My mom always told me water seeks it's own level. After these past few days, I feel good knowing that the people in my life are at my level, and it's a good place to be.