The Proof is in the Pudding
What exactly is the origin of this saying, anyway?

Proof that I am, in fact, the best English teacher in the Gyeonggi province in South Korea--that's right, I am the new face girl of the most recent workshop guidebook. So, on Friday I had to go to that stupid seminar/workshop thing. Everyone who was at the one in August (the first place I went upon arrival in Korea) was at this...except for those who managed to skip out. So as we filed into the auditorium we were given a packet that included a pen and a book containing the speeches etc that we were to sit through. So I sit down...still not having looked at the book. Pretty soon someone yells across the auditorium, "Hey, Emily! Nice picture!" as he points to the book. Wtf? So I get out my book and, sure enough, there I am on the cover teaching my kiddies. It was from my demo class the previous Friday. But it's really not a good picture of me. I'm singing and I have my eyes closed. Why they chose that picture is beyond me. So then the first guy to speak to us gets up on stage and the first thing he says is, "Who is on the cover?" Everyone who knows me yells my name and points at me. The guy then makes me stand up as everyone is staring at me (there's over a hundred people there). He then apologized that I wasn't asked if it was ok and also apologized for picking a picture where my eyes were closed. So why'd you pick it?!?!? Anyway, I thought it was pretty funny. I even signed a few autographs. :)


So the seminar was at a 'resort' called La Vie D'or. Apparently it's really nice, but I don't think it's so hot. I guess the Ministry of Education forgot to tell the resort people that we were sleeping there Friday night (the seminar continued until Saturday afternoon). So there were only enough rooms for 1/3 of us. Hahahahahahahahaha!!!! If this situation isn't Korean I don't know what is. :D So the rest of them had to get shipped over to 2 other hotels. These hotels turned out to be 'love hotels.' The name pretty much speaks for itself. Each room contains a goodie basket of...goods of a certain sort. Not that I'd know or anything... But I was placed in a room in the resort in a very nice room (that had carpet...amazing! It does exist in Korea!). I didn't get to enjoy the room, however, as I was a naughty girl and skipped out on the second day. All the whiteys on Friday night invaded the 2 bars in the nearby vacinity and drank well into the night. The bar I was in actually ran out of tap beer before midnight. The bar owner had to go procure some from somewhere else. But I ended up leaving that night around 1am with Jaclyn, Andy, and Elissa. We took a taxi back to Pyeongtaek (since the buses and subways stop running much before that). It's a nice distance away...I got home just before 3am (but I had to walk about 10 minutes from where the taxi dropped us off between my and Jaclyn's apts). The fare was about $40, so only like $10/person. Well worth it not having to go the conference on Saturday. I hope I don't get in trouble for it, but what are they gonna do, really? Nothing, that's what.

I'm currently trying to plan vacation things for when Joleen comes. We want to go to Thailand. I attempted to go to a travel agency yesterday, but due to many debacles, it didn't happen. And it pissed me off. I wanted to go to the travel agency located in the USO Seoul near Camp Kim. Because they speak English and the tour I want to take of the DMZ is through the USO. So I take the subway 2 hours to get to Seoul. It's the coldest day ever, I might add. It was the wind that was the killer. It doesn't help that Korea is full of high rises so the wind channels through them creating a wind tunnel. It was horrible. Anyway, I never found the place (where I believed the entrance to be was being patrolled by Korean-looking soldiers who had no idea what I was talking about when I asked about the travel agency...but yes, they did speak English). So I just had to turn around and spend the next 2 hours going home. It turns out that it didn't matter that I never found it because it closes at 2 on Saturdays and I was there around 3. So that blew big time. I'm just going to try and do everything over the phone with them now, since I can't go there again until next Saturday. Which is Christmas Eve, so who knows if they're open? Bah. I also somehow 'broke' my T-money card...this card that you buy and put money on so when you use the subway you just scan the card and don't have to buy tickets each time. So it's not working and the ticket window guy was only able to say to me, "change-y." Then pointed to Korean on the back of the card. So I have to figure out how to get a new card, plus I had over 10,000 won ($10) on it, so I hope I can transfer that over.