Stories from the North

Well well well.
Look who it is.

You probably thought I was eaten alive by my 3rd graders.
Either that or abducted by the North Koreans right? Right?

Fear not dear reader! I have survived more than two weeks at my elementary school on the border and I might even be enjoying myself!

My students are adorable, crazy, temperamental, and naughty, but I already love them. Now I just need to figure out how to be an awesome teacher… trial and error my friends!

I have a few fun stories to tell now that I have a chance to breathe. And - oh right! It's Day 66 already! Whew!

I've been a little busy meeting all the new people there are to meet in my new home. But I did manage to run away last weekend to the nearby town, Chuncheon, for a free KPOP concert! The moment I found out SHINee was performing - well... there was kinda no way in Hwacheon that I would NOT be going to this concert.
Just my luck, one of my smart-aleck 3rd grade boys was also at the concert with his mother.
And just like that - I go to school on Monday and everyone suddenly knows I am a SHINee fan. Poof!

Best thing about the concert: It was free!
Awkward thing about the concert: no standing/screaming/rushing the stage/leaving your seat.

The concert was a special preview for the 2018 Olympics as the KPOP performers are going to be the same performers for the Olympics. That meant that the entire center section of seats for the concert were occupied by older men and women officials (mostly men, Korea, like my other countries, has a sexism issue) in business attire who watched the show very quietly. And the security guards meant business. The dude by where I was sitting looked like he was having a terrible day and had a I-could-snap-at-any-moment-so-you-better-not-try-to-mess-with-me type of a look in his eyes.

I personally enjoy screaming at the top of my lungs, jumping and dancing to the music, and doing my best to be as physically close as possible to my idols… but this time around I sufficed with shouting my love confessions in a moderate voice when I thought they might be in hearing distance. That and waving my arms and SHINee balloon vigorously.

A SHINee fan went around before the concert and gave away hundreds of these balloons. Fandoms are awesome.

There was a very epic opening ceremony for the concert with dudes flying around on propelled hang gliders. * NOTE NOW THE VIDEOS WORK :D

Along with several boring speeches.

Then the unreasonably beautiful KPOP stars performed!

Girl's Day and their hip dances

SHINee and their Russian soldier dance

MBLAQ, K.Will, After School, Bangtan Boys, and 인순이 were there as well! I think there are other better videos online if you want to see them. But I think you'd rather finish this blog post… so moving on.

There were fireworks and flame blasts that either made me jump in shock or feel super hot with the burst of flame heat. I can only image how boiling it was on stage with the flames a couple feet away...

My final short tibit about the concert was that Taemin, from SHINee (if you don't know who he is, just know that he is the best dancer I have ever seen and he is awesome) broke from his dance routines multiple times - all because he was freaking out about the moths. Enjoy this video of the flinching:

CLICK ME

Switching gears.

Today after vacuuming the English classroom I was given ice cream as a reward (all the students finished their desk cleaning much earlier than I, and picked out who-knows-what type of other delicious ice cream). Mine tasted pretty good, but came in a container like this:

I don't know about other countries (or maybe even other states in America) but I never saw any ice cream/popsicle container in a thick plastic case like this. Korea has lots of other fun pouches and ice cream shapes too:

I enjoyed eating this Tank Boy (yes, the name of this pear flavored popsicle in a soda bottle shape is "Tank Boy"). I ate enthusiastically. A bit too enthusiastically. Soon I noticed blood in my popsicle and yet, since my mouth was numb from continuously eating ice, I had no idea what was bleeding and felt no pain. Turns out I cut my tongue on the plastic case somehow.

Korea, your ice cream is very yummy but just too dangerous. 

And I do have more stories. And it is now a long holiday weekend in Korea - so check back soon for more! Gotta run now…

Thank you for reading you lovely, wonderful human.

-The Gab Gab