Caterpillars, Sports Day, and Sky Park

Anyeong :) I'm back again. This month is flying by, mainly due to the ever-exciting Halloween celebration that will happen at the end of this next week! It seems like it has not been a full year since the awesome ninja adventures from last year (miss you Shanna!) but I'm so ready to make new memories with new costumes and new friends. Before we get to Halloween however, I need to update you on the past few weeks.

Starting off with another cooking class with my wee ones. This time we would be making banana caterpillars using peanut butter glue, raisin eyes, and pretzel stick legs. Though half of the ingredients found their way into the students' mouths before they had the chance to be a caterpillar body part, the kids enjoyed this delicious and slightly nutritious snack. Most of the students didn't know what peanut butter was! My jaw hit the floor as I scooped a spoon full and stuck it in my mouth to comfort myself after that terrifying discovery. Peanut butter is a stable food in my life. But enough about peanut butter (how many times is she going to say peanut butter......peanut butter).

 This was one cooking class where I took some of the extras and made my own, because let's be honest. Peanut butter (hah) and banana is the best combination of foods ever invented by man.

The next event was Sports Day! Again, it feels like we JUST had a sports day but there we were again on the big green soccer field with Bear Teacher running around like mad people. The weather, despite it becoming a tad colder each day, was beautiful. A perfect day to spend outside playing organized relay games with 30 kindergarteners. Bear Teacher brought his usual bag of tricks with him including scooters, foamy six-legged-race-thingys (scientific term), and HUGE inflatable orbs for students to push around.

Jean racing around a cone

My Idaho Caterpillar

Adorable pigtails

Found someone.

Sadly, we lost Liz Teacher. Death by giant inflatable ball. You will be missed terribly <3

After sports day the kindergartners are either wired and full of sugary snacks that they parents pack for them (thanks parents...) or physically exhausted and passing out in the buses on the way home. The teachers usually take the second route but as we have a full afternoon of classes to teach, we don't get to take a nap and watch a movie that afternoon. *fast forward to the weekend*

Saturday, after getting some grad school homework finished, and a workout done with Kaitie, we met with Alex and Liz near the World Cup Stadium to grab some lunch and explore a plant festival at Sky Park. We stopped in a small fish market to find some deliciously fishy food, Kaitie's favorite.

The stew was perfectly spicy and had so many different kinds of seafood in it as well as the usual veggies. These giant tentacles didn't taste too bad either. After stuffing ourselves with marine life, we made our way through the market up to Sky Park to wander around the grasses.

Sky Park is located about a 10 minute walk from the stadium. Usually, you can walk up a winding staircase to the top of this hill, but due to the crowds we took a more gradual-hill-style route to make it up to the festival. The tall pampas grass completely takes over this park, allowing you to kind of forget you are in the middle of this huge city. The park actually used to be a trash heap, which was then converted into an eco-park. A layer of soil was put on top of the garbage heap and now it is covered with gorgeous plants and plenty of benches to watch the sunset over the river. Wind turbines and other green-technology makes for a very environmentally friendly Sky Park, well done Korea!

The winding staircase

 As the sun began to go down, the lighting of the park became even more beautiful. The grasses created an ocean-like effect around us. Koreans were going crazy with selfies and photoshoots obviously.

My beautiful coworkers

And then we found this human bowl...

Then, suddenly, I turned and saw a strange metal structure in the distance. I was pretty sure it was a UFO, so I decided to investigate. It turned out to be a giant, flower-shaped cheese grater. So, nothing to be afraid of.

 Unless you're made of cheese.

Then you can be afraid for many reasons.

The sun set as we stood facing the Han River together enjoying some bananas and dark chocolate (yum thanks Kaitie and Alex). Watching the sun go down behind the mountains of Seoul just reminds me how beautiful this country is. It is easy to get bogged down by the negative or less wonderful parts of city life. Like kimchi splats on the side walk or crowded-sardine-subway-cars. But there's nothing a good, old-fashioned, gorgeous sunset won't fix.

Once the evening is dark enough, the park shines colorful lights onto the grasses, creating a sea of rainbow on the fluffy white canvas.

Overall, a great way to spend the day. I love learning more about my Korean coworkers and getting closer to them. Both Alex and Liz are amazing people and they have so much love, advice, and support to give to both myself and my other coworkers. I love them both and can't wait to spend more time with them over this year!
That evening, Kaitie and I met a bunch of friends out to celebrate a birthday. We met at Reilly's Taphouse in Itaewon which turned out to be a great little spot up on the top floor where I caught up with a whole group of people I hadn't seen in a while. From there we ventured off to Hongdae for the usual debauchery at Thursday Party, enjoying the night full of music and yelling-conversations.

Today, after a bit of a slow start to the morning (a side-effect of Thursday Party) I met up with Kaitie, Katrina, and Tarah to get started on our Halloween costumes! Going with an Alice in Wonderland theme at work, I am prepping my "Red Queen" costume, Kaitie, her Alice costume, and Katrina has a great Cheshire Cat outfit coming along! Tarah, who doesn't work at Little America (unfortunately) is being a Loofa this year, therefore we had a bagillion yards of brightly colored tulle in Kaitie's apartment. After some math and calculations, Katrina and Tarah began the process of folding and cutting in order to create the human-loofa. I got my skirt all ready, a small crown, and created a Mad Hatter hat for Liz teacher's costume!

 Once we made some significant progress it was time to get ready for the Pretty Parti. This concept was introduced to us by a friend, Jeanine, who has had several of these with her friends from home. The idea behind a Pretty Parti is to get a group of girl friends together and ultimately share how amazing each of us is to one another. After some hilarious ice-breaker games, we pick a name from a hat and that person we must come up with 5 things that make them beautiful as a person, both inside and out. Going around the table we have girls who have known each other for varying lengths of time, sometimes only seeing each other twice to spending almost a year and a half together. It shows you just how quickly you can meet and make lasting friends here. As expats we do not have a lot of time with each other in the grand scheme of things. These friendships and connections make your experience here meaningful and amazing. I love each of the girls at the party tonight and I wish I could have picked everyone's name from the hat. After everyone feels happy and better about themselves and each other it's time to exchange gifts. This is the second aspect of a Pretty Parti. You must pick an item that is your favorite thing. Could be your favorite nail polish, or candy, or clothing item, anything. You buy one for every person at the party and so by the end of the night you leave with a goodie bag filled with one of each of everyone's favorite thing! I love the idea of this party. It helps us connect more with one another and also create a positive and loving relationship between us all. <3 As girls we need to stick together. Girls rule, Boys drool.

The clan

A pretty good haul, no?

Tomorrow is already Monday. This week will be spend practicing my Halloween song, making crafts, and attempting to avoid all Halloween candy so I don't turn into one of those giant inflatable balls (RIP Liz Teacher).

Until next time xoxoxo

Korean of the post:  
나는 찌개에 큰 오징어가 있애요.
(neoneun jjigae-ae keun ohjingeoga isayo)
"There is a large squid in my jjigae"