Talent Show Extravaganza!

Last Friday was the annual Dae Gyo Elemenetary School Talent Show! It's hands down, one of my favorite days of the year as an elementary teacher. There's nothing better than getting to see your adorable kiddos dancing about on the stage, singing cute songs, and banging on traditional drums!

Like clockwork, vendors had set up tables outside my school to sell chinsy fake flowers and lollipop gifts for the parents to give to their kids after the show.

The teachers had worked really hard to creatively display their student's best work on the school walls leading to the auditorium...

The show started at 9:30am sharp with an introduction from the Vice Principal, Principal, and head teacher.

Then, it was time!!!  The kids were hyped up, behind the stage, ready for their debut!

1st grade was up first!  How awesome are these costumes!  Korean teachers are given a budget to buy custom fit costumes for each of their students for the annual talent show.

The other half of the 1st grade class came out in black, waving their gold glittery pom poms and prancing around like little butterflies!

The 2nd graders sang and did a traditional dance about Korean playground games.

6th grade boys did their own rendition of a pop music video! 

But their female counterparts definitely stole the show when they came out with GIGANTIC shimmering bows on their heads and dancing to Roly Poly, one of the most popular pop songs in Korea right now!

6th grade girls...

The audience was full of cheering moms and smart phones held in the air to record their kids performances!

4th graders singing an adorable Korean song...

The 3rd graders dancing their hearts out!

Here's a little video to help you feel like you were there :)

Good ole' danso performance!

4th graders doing a traditional drum performance...

Koreans love the recorder! 

5th grade girls doing a cute tap dance...

5th grade Taekwondo performance!

She is a fantastic singer and has sung for the Korean news stations...

6th grade

6th grade

5th grade puppet show

6th grade dance team performance

3rd and 4th grade dance team performance

3rd grade dance team...

The 3rd grade teacher loves to swing dance, so she choreographed an entire swing dance performance!  Super impressive!

2nd grade band

1st graders are so awesome!

While all of the acts were great, this 5th grade class's dance routine was my absolute favorite!  ENJOY!

This week we're back to studying and homework... but Friday sure was a nice break from the stress of teaching and learning! :)

Careful what you eat!

I started feeling a little nauseous around 7:00pm on Saturday, and by midnight I was waking up every hour to hug the toilet. I knew right away that it was food poisioning!  Probably that darn Eel they made me eat at the staff dinner!  I knew that thing looked sketchy!  By the morning I was exhausted and completely dehydrated.  Aaron helped me walk over to the hospital (2 mins walk from my apartment) and checked me into the ER where they gave me a shot in the butt (ouch) and hooked me up to an IV for a couple hours.  Aaron absolutely hates hospitals... but he was a champ and stayed by me the whole time.   Made me love him that much more! :)

I'm feeling much better today, but took the day off work to fully recover!  It's a big no no to take sick days in Korea, even though we're allotted 11 sick days on our contracts.  Go figure!  Monica, my co-teacher has been teaching for over 30 years and has NEVER taken a sick day!  I felt kinda bad calling in today, but decided that ultimately my health is more important than my attendance record.  With that said, I'm going back to nap # 3 for the day!

Lucky Seven!

Aaron and I decided to have a little date night at Seven Luck Casino in Seomyeon tonight... Glad we did, because I won $100.00, A won $190.00 and we both got a free dinner! I'd say that makes for a pretty sweet AND LUCKY date night!

Tonight's Menu-- Eel

Tonight was a special school staff dinner to celebrate the completion of the school talent show, which was awesome!   But, you'll have to wait to hear about that until sometime next week (I have about 300 pictures to look through, edit, and chose for the blog!).

With that said, after school today, all of the staff went to a beachfront restaurant in Taejongdae

(on the island) and ate... ready for it?? 

EEL!

Oy vey!

Well, that was the main dish.  I had never eaten Eel, so it was a bit interesting to me. (top left and bottom left picture). It came out raw and chopped up, and was then cooked at our table.  Then we dipped it in a red sauce and wrapped it in some lettuce. The grossest part about tonights Eel was the fact that the men sitting at my table not only cooked and ate the entire eel heads, they cooked and ate the stomach and intestines too.  Uuuuggghhh!

(photo's take with my phone)

When you need something at a restaurant in Korea, you don't raise your hand or try to motion for your server to come over... you simply yell "Emo!" or "Chogio!"  etc... During the dinner I heard another teacher yell "Sajang neem" to an older man working in the restaurant.  I asked Okk what it meant and she said it meant "owner."  Perfect, I thought, I'll have to remember that and use it in other situations.  Later in the night I was thirsty, so I yelled "Salang neem" to that same old guy.  When he didn't look my way I yelled it again, "Salang neem!"  When he realized I was calling for him, he looked over and gave me a really strange look.  Simultaneously, Okk was doubled over laughing next to me.  Turns out I said "salang neem" instead of "sajang neem," which directly stranslates as "My love", "darling", "sweartheart," etc... 

You get the idea!  LOL

After dinner, my principal set up an entire Karaeoke machine in the restautant and made almost everyone sing while he played his saxophone... including me!  Luckily Okk joined me and we sang a random English kids song... turned out to be a big crowd pleaser - thank goodness!  Could have gone either way.

Okk and I snuck out before everyone else left and ran in the rain (without umbrellas) about a mile to the bus stop, laughing the whole way with our scarves wrapped around our heads!  Luckily, another teacher had left after us and picked us up as we were almost to the bus stop and ended up driving us both all the way home... so nice!   It's great to have good co-workers... I just wish they liked going to eat Mexican food instead of Eels!  Can't have it all!

My friend Jess...

My friend Jess is awesome...  let me count the ways!  She's creative, beautiful, smart, compassionate, fun, adventurous, inventive, funny, authentic, devoted, inspirational, and just plain awesome!  How could you not love her?

 

With that said, I think she's actually become even more awesome in the last 10 minutes, if that's even possible!  

Why you ask?

Because I just received a package from her, and inside was a copy of her very first official cookbook, a longtime dream of hers!  I'm so proud of her!  Her and a friend/co-worker named Danielle created, wrote, designed, photographed, and published their very own cookbook full of healthy and sometimes even vegan foods!  It's going to be a quarterly, 

and I have the 1st one - Fall/Autumn, entitled SHARE.  

You can buy it here on etsy!

It's full of healthy and yummy recipes... a mix of Asian, Spanish, and all around health foods.  I'm especially looking forward to making Arroz De Leche, which Jess has made a bunch of times for me for breakfast!

I am so proud of her, and can not wait to cook up some of her special recipes!

Congratulations on making your dreams come true Jess!