Life Update

    Ok, so as you can tell from my archive, I have been doing a pretty poor job at keeping up with my posts here, or well at least keeping them more frequent. I guess all I can say about that is that life happens. I have been busy with getting every thing lined up for one more year here in Seoul, plus I got a promotion at work, so I have had to  adjust to a slightly more demanding work load; plus with learning to live on my own (laundry to wash, dishes to clean, the crazy Korean trash/recycling system, balancing work and play, "minor" Netflix addictions, etc) I might have neglected my blog a little too much. But I promise I will try to make a stronger effort to post here. 

   Alright so where to start with my update...well I guess since I touched on it earlier we will start with what I am going to do for the next year. I have as of 8/26/16 extended my visa until Sep of 2017, I have taken over the security deposit of my apartment (so now everything is in my name, not my company's), and I have signed on for another year of teaching at my academy. Anything past next year is up in the air. I am not sure if I want to go to grad school, if I want to go home and find a job, if I want to go to another country and do something there, or if I want to stay here for another year; I just think I will focus on this year first and the later (maybe around Nov.-Dec.) figure out what my next steps will be. But no matter what they are, whether that will be going somewhere else, working, or going back to school, I know that (hopefully) it will all be for the best!

   Moving on to work related updates, If you have not head through the grapevine that is my family's gossip, I have been given a promotion to Head Instructor at my branch and even got a raise when I re-signed for my 2nd year. As a head instructor, I help out the faculty manager and help give feedback and help to the other teachers (even though I tend to work with the newer teachers the most). I also seem to be given all the new and special classes when they are launched, because according to my manager " we only trust our best teachers with the job," so I guess that means that I am doing a good job as a teacher, right?

This weekend is Chuseok, aka the "Korean Thanksgiving"( Thanksgiving because it is there autumn harvest festival where most Korean have large family reunions with lots of traditional foods), so that mean that I got an extra 4 days before I take my week long vacation. I had asked for the week off before I knew that we were going to get the full 4 days of Chuseok off, so I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I was going to be getting almost a full week and a half off for vacation! First vacation in over a year, so I am really looking forward to relaxing and unwinding!

For my vacation, I am going to be going to Jeju Island for about a week and the going to Busan for a few days before coming back to Seoul. Jeju is advertised as the Hawaii of South Korea, with beaches and palm trees, and for having a really relaxed attitude--aka the perfect place for me to relax and explore. I am so lucky that I get to stay with a friend of mine who moved there recently, so I did not really need to worry about booking a hotel! After a week in Jeju, I am planning on going to Busan and meeting two of my friends who are going to come down from Seoul, and we are going to explore over the weekend!

Other than that, nothing much is going on, but I promise if anything exciting happens, I will keep you all updated! And of course, I will update here about my vacation^^

Until next time~

Sarah

Insadong Poop Cafe

So this is a long time coming (since January 13th!), but I have been very busy with school so I have not been able to post as much as I would like to. But I am here now, so that is all that matters!
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So if you know me well, you know that I am obsessed with cafes. I freaking love them so much. I can spend hours and hours just sitting there surrounded by the smell of brewed coffee while I work on  my computer or prep for my classes. I had found an article about the most unique cafes in Seoul and that got me thinking about what other fun cafes there could be in Seoul. So I looked up crazy fun cafes in Seoul up on Google, and low and behold I found a blog post about the Poop Cafe that was in Insadong.

Insadong is the traditional neighborhood here in Seoul where you can go to buy traditional goods or to eat Korean food in a more traditional setting. It is near the major palaces and the main touristy area. So really, putting a cafe in this area will definitely bring in lots of visitors. So hearing that there was a cafe that was themed around poop in this area, I knew I had to go check it out!

The small shopping center where the Cafe was located.

Well getting there was not too hard and there were signs in the main market area that it was in to let us know what floor it was on. From the outside it looked like a normal cafe (albeit there was a large poop drawing on the window and a large poop plushie in the window as well.) On the inside is where it really became different. Also next door was a little stand that was selling hot poop shaped red bean filled buns, as well as hot citron tea, hot chocolate, and coffee.

The inside was actually not super in your face with the feces, but rather it was just like a normal cafe, but with lots of pretty painted toilet mugs and little "poop" swirl pillows in folk-art patterned cloth. All-in-all, it was a cozy, artsy, and classy as you could make a poop themed cafe. (In fact, I was a little underwhelmed in that it was not as crazy as I had originally thought it was going to be.)

That being said, it was actually a really great cafe and the prices were about normal for the area we were in ($3-5 dollars for normal drinks, $6-8 for specialty drinks, and ~$8-10 for food). I went with my friend Suzie and we ordered some of the specialty drinks and then a spaghetti since it was half off for $4 and I had not eaten yet that day. I got a rose latte and Suzie got a flower fizz (fizzy flavored water with eatable flowers) and then we settled in to study Korean until we decided to leave and go get dinner.

But anyway, here are some pictures!

Here is all of our food. My latte is on the left, in the toilet bowl mug and the spaghetti is in the middle and was served in a large toilet bowl. Suzie's drink is the pretty right one with all the flowers.

Close up of my rose latte

I am not sure, but I think you are able to buy the toilet mugs and the poop swirl pillows

So many plants inside and I was really impressed with how they used the different toilets in the decoration

They had pretty succulents around all the windows~

So until next time!

Happy Holidays

Just a quick note from me to say that I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season and that the year of the red monkey (aka 2016) bring you all nothing but happiness and joy!

From my home to yours, HAPPY HOLIDAYS