Saturday Oct 21st: English Plaza

I don't know why it's called a plaza. Basically its just English camp where the kids come participate in activities run in english two saturdays every month. Linda, the head of English department in the Nam-Gu district (my district) for elementary schools, (phew thats a long ass title) asked me to come to one. I was sort of pressured into volunteering myself, the cincher being that I was gonna get paid to participate. Heck, I'm down for a little extra cash especially with my hefty student loan towering over me.

So I head off to English Plaza with no idea what its gonna be like. I mean, I had an activity planned and everything revolved around Halloween. We also talked about everyone getting dressed up as part of the activity. It was scheduled to run from 2-6 at least that was the time I was given. Unfortunately that meant that I was missing out on one of my colleagues wedding. =(

HaeKyong drew me a map of where the english plaza was held, but on the bus I recognized one of my students... hehe actually one of my favorite students.. I know I shouldn't have favorites but Yong Jin (that's his name) is SOO adorable. He's a bit chubby and everybody makes fun of him even tho really they're his friends. He always comes up to me and talks to me in between classes. He was apparently really too shy to speak english but to me he's my favorite because he tries so hard to get a concept across and he uses it each and every time so that it's drilled in. O AND HIS CHEEKS!! HEHE his chubby cheeks are soo pinchable!!!
ne ways back to the story. So I met his mom and his sister and they ended up taking me to the place because they were so afraid I was gonna get lost..

So I get there and I'm really early in terms of Korean time, which translates to me being 10 mins earlier. I go in search of a washroom to put on my outfit. I had bought a witch's costume from EMART and had bought some facepaint. I painted my eyebrows black and arched it more, giving it a bit more slant, I made my eyes a bit more angular, and painted my lips black. When I got outside (the plaza was held outside) all the other teachers that I recognized (namely the koreans) were NOT in costume. I stood there looking a little lost and the 2 foreign teachers I met were also not in costume. But thank god it turned out they had it on them and were gonna change into it. Sai Vang (I SO did NOT get her name right) was gonna be a mummy and needed my help wrapping her in tissue paper. Jason had a legit excuse, he was there as an emergency backup to replace Cara who couldn't make it. BTW these are all foreign teachers teaching elementary in the Nam-Gu district and so they aren't part of the whole Canadian Connection group. But they're all nice and fun too. Which is another reason I volunteered to do this Plaza thing: to meet new ppl.

I'm getting way to sidetracked. Basically I did end up being the most dressed up well, Sai was pretty dressed up too.. hehe in her toilet paper. I think its a great costume and its very useful in public washrooms here in Korea.

The entire thing ended a lot faster than I thought and it was relatively easy. I also got a free meal out of it and befriended, Sai and Jason.

One funny thing. So my activity was really a pictionary thing and then a race to put on costume and to say trick or treat. So.. my banner said.. Halloween story - Mimi ... There was no story involved. I don't get it.
On the way home, I hopped on the 41 bus without thinking about where I was boarding the bus so for the entire way I was a bit worried if I was heading the wrong direction. At one point I asked this woman and she told me that I was on the wrong bus and going the wrong direction. So she went off the bus with me and told me to board this other bus I was more familiar with. The funny thing.. it wasn't the wrong bus. The bus I was on, after I got off made the same turn on the right street. So I ended up paying extra to board another bus that was going the same direction. *sigh.. She meant well and plus it was only 80 cents really.

I rushed home to change because Anne was heading over soon so that we could meet up with the gang for some movie time at Mikes' place. Mike and Andrew live in the same apartment complex and let me just say. Their apartment is spectacular. It's got a separate shower (soo jealous) and its HUGE WITH 12 FT CEILINGS.. That being said I do love my apartment too. I just love their kitchen and their bathroom.

We spent the night watching Exorcist and somehow we ended up having a limbo competition. Natasha and I made the last round but we agreed that it was a tie game because Tash and I were the shortest so it really was unfair. The prize was a sore back for all of us.

By the time we left Mike's apartment, it was 2:00 in the morning and Lindsay, Tash, Eric, Anne and I took a cab back to the Art Center. Once there, Anne and I boarded another cab because Eric was going a different direction from us. Big mistake. The cabby was creepy and gross. Once in the cab and once we told him where we were going he tried to speak to us in Korean. We tried to explain to him we had no idea what he was saying. Initially we thought he was just curious as to where we came from and what we did. But we realized soon enough that he was questioning us as to why we were out this late. He kept peering over at us thru the rearview mirror and at some point we made the connection that he was asking all these questions because he thought we were hookers. He would laugh this weird laugh after we told him we were teachers and he kept going.. 2 am? and laughing. then he would look into the mirror and I stared back at him giving him the dirtiest look ever because he would shift to try to look down thru the mirror. It wasn't like we were dressed scandalously. We were dressed warmly and conservatively. It got to the point where had we not been so close to home I would've gotten out of the cab right there and then. Also when it came time to dropping us off. We got out of the car at the intersection and he stopped the cab in the middle of the street and didn't move even tho it was green light for him. He waited until we were crossing the street on our green and moved as if to hit us. WEIRD. We decided to stand there talking until he was gone before we parted to go to our apartment. Thank god we lived in a University district so there were people out and about.
UGH creepiness...I had never felt so violated just from a stare.
This would constitute as my first creepy experience from Korea