Cool new experiences

So this weekend I went to a show with Jacky and Nami teacher. One of the teachers at school had gotten tickets and so we got some free tickets to go to the show. It was super cool. portraying some traditional korean dance. There was a mix of slow-paced dances, and some super up-beat ones. One of my favorite ones was the very last one which was literally like a 10 or 15 minute drum performance. I would have thought that maybe so much drumming would be too much for my head, but it was pretty awesome. Oh, and what was cool is that we got to see some other people from school there including minji, minju and their mom and dad! So I was super excited cuz i finally got to see their dad and extra excited becuase I got to see their mom, whom i absolutely love. She is just SO nice. and always smiling.... OH btw... i greeted both my girls with a hug and guess what??!?! their mom gave me a hug too!!!! I was super surprised and super happy. Especially because up until now I have been more of the thinking that korean people just dont hug. Mainly because Jacky said they dont. But I am starting to find out that some koreans do actually hug. Anyways... so I was super excited about that. The show very nice, unlike anything I have seen and we all had a good time. The only bad thing is that when we left it was freezing cold!

HUGS: I have now extended my list ofpeople who I now know for a fact like hugs and who can give me daily hugs. The list includes, Minji and Minju's mom, Nami teacher, wang teacher, Grace, and of course Dana. So yeah....really happy that I can get more hugs during the day!

APPLESAUCE MAKING: So the other night I decided i wanted to make applesauce for Jacky. Dana had made it for me once and it was SO delicious!!!.... i just wanted to make some for Jacky, of course, hoping that it would turn out as good as dana's. Anyways.... the applesauce making process was actually not as complicated as I thought it would be. You just peel the apples, dice them, boil them, smash them, then add cinnamon and sugar and you're done! I guess whats more important is just picking out the right apples. They have to be big and sweet. not tart. I serioulsy think I am gonna become an applesauce addict soon. Love it!

SHOPPING: This past weekend was also my first official going out to shop. I was on a mission to find some tights, and a winter coat since it has been getting colder and I do not have a nice winter coat here (just my tommy one that is kinda sporty) Anywho... so i went to the newcore outlet store that is actually not too far from my house and I went shopping there. At first i was super overwhelmed by the amount of coats and choices and did not even know where to start, but finally i just picked a spot and started looking at stuff. In one of the stores I ended up getting a turtle neck, and two sweaters. One black one that I can keep in school for when it is cold and then another grey one that is more meant to be worn on top of a turtle neck. its super cute. I love it. Even though i really do not want to buy lots of clothes here, as i already have so many back home, I feel like i might end up getting a couple more articles of clothing. the only thing is.... i guess really in korea, even though i absolutely love their style and fashion, the clothes are a bit more expensive and the fabrics i find, are not as nice as some you might find in the US. Maybe im just being picky,..... anywho... just a thought.

So i got those sweaters and the turtleneck and then went on the search for the coat. First of all, the search was difficult because there were so many cute things in the outlet! i just wanted to buy it all... All kinds of gloves, scarfs, mittens, sweaters, .... no joke. If i had just like $5000 that i could just spend just because I would have spent every dime. As was saying, i went to a couple of stores and looked at some coats but not luck. I either did not like the style, the coat was waaaay to expensive, or they did not have my size. Finally i came into this one store and the lady helped me look at the coats and the one i originally liked was too small in the arms and the boobs, and so then she showed me this one coat that is "free" size. meaning one size-fits all. And so I am thinking to myself "yeah! one size-fits all KOREANS"-especially since i had mentioned to her that I have big arms and big boobs which is many times a problem. But she said it would be okay and that I should try on the coat. So I did and guess what>!>!>! it actually fit! It closed perfectly fine on my boobs and my arms actually had some room. So the coat was super cute, it had full sleeves, fit well, and had little bows on the side. So now it was time to ask the price (please note: this whole time this lady is speaking to me in Korean with some English words in between like "large" "Free size" as she spoke no English) So I ask for the price and she tells me the price and i could have sworn i understood either $74 or $85. Something along those lines. My counting skills in Korean are terrible. So i thought i understood and I was like "ok. i will take" So she wrapped it up for me and when i went to sign after she had swiped my card i realized the coat actually was $149. Now, its really not THAT much, and it was super cute and it fit me well so I was very happy with my choice. Then again, that doesn't take away from the fact that I should really learn my numbers for prices. BTW- in Korean there are like 3 different number systems which you use for different situations and so you need to know which one to use. And when it comes to prices i always get confused. OH well.... so one learns.

SAYING THANK YOU: Something i find very interesting here in Korea. In the US, if you go out to lunch and your friend pays, or someone invites you to the movies and they get the tickets,.... situations like this, you would say '"Thanks for lunch, thanks for the movie, thanks for inviting me out" ... or something along those lines. In Korea, people really don't say "thanks for..." For example, if someone buys you lunch, the way you say thank you for treating me to lunch would be to say "I ate very well/i enjoyed the meal" or if they pay for tickets to a show "i enjoyed the show thanks to you" - but they just don't directly say "thank you for getting tickets to the show" ... i guess this goes with part of Korean culture of being a little vague sometimes when it comes to saying certain things. Like for example.... Koreans most of the time will not say "you need to study and do more work" instead they will say something like "maybe you need to study and do more work" or not"you must come to school tomorrow" but "maybe its better if you come to school tomorrow"... so this can sometimes be difficult because you don't always know if it is something definite or not, but its just a matter of getting used to it and slowly figuring out what people are trying to tell you.