18 months

This month's update comes a few days early because I'll be away on vacation on the actual date. 

During month 18... I attended the Seoul Music Awards. This was my second time attending due to the generosity of the KTO and organizers of the Korea Grand Sale. Nobody from YG attended this time, so I was a little sad not to see Big Bang like the previous year, but it was still being around all the other different fan groups made me excited when groups like EXO and B.A.P. took the stage, even though I wasn't familiar with their music prior to this event. Pictures from this event are on my personal computer, and as I'm writing this from my work PC I don't have access to them, maybe I'll add them in from home later.

During month 18 I also attended a Big Bang concert. I've gone to two of GDragon's solo concerts, and seen Big Bang perform as a whole unit a couple of times before, but only for one or two songs at different events, but this concert was the first time I'd gone to an official performance in which they were all together on stage for a long time. Big Bang doesn't have fancy choreography, or stage designs but regardless of all that they still manage to put on a great show. They interact very well with each other on stage, and engage the fans in a way that makes you feel like you're very close to them and you're not competing with hundreds of others in the same room. They haven't come out with new songs as a whole in a year or so, so they did a lot of their early stuff and their big smash songs like Fantastic Baby and Bad Boy. All five members also had their time to shine on their own and presented the solo stages they'd been working on throughout 2013.

Aside from those two big events, this month was mostly spent trying to spend as much time as possible with friends who will be finishing their teaching contracts and leaving Korea soon. I've been visiting tourist places that I've procrastinated on, and been preparing for my upcoming vacation.

The official end of the school year is coming up in a couple of days so my sixth graders are running around practicing for their graduation ceremony, and cleaning out their homerooms. Today I got a lovely visit from three of my girls from last year's sixth grade class. They were the very first bunch of students I ever taught, and definitely one of the hardest groups to manage. It made me very happy to see them, and of course to chat with them and see how far they've come after their first year in middle school. Sometimes I wonder if I'm making any kind of impact on the kids I teach, but today has definitely livened up my spirits and made me feel like yeah, these kids care! and even though they can't fully communicate with me, and they haven't seen me in a year, they still remembered me and wanted to spend time together.

My favorites this month were:

Movie- Brokedown Palace-This was recommended to me by a friend since it takes place in Bangkok, Thailand and that's my first stop on my trip. It is an older movie and has the regular cliches but it was still really interesting and gave me some safety tips for my trip.

song- Lonely by B1A4, I've pretty much been listening to this since the MV was released some weeks back. I've never really listened to B1A4's songs, but this one seems to be different and more mature even though I don't actually really understand what they're saying.

book- unfortunately none :( I had started on "the book thief" since it came greatly recommended, but I just couldn't get into it like I hoped. I don't know exactly if it was the book, or just me who wasn't in the mood to read that kind of book, so I might give it another try later on. I've recently started reading The House Girl by Tara Conklin, so hopefully I'm able to finish it during my vacation.