Hip Hip Hooray for a Happy 2011!

So not feeling the blogness much today, but I thought I'd pop in a quick New Year's resolutions entry so that I have them written down somewhere. Happy new year to y'all by the way! Hope you've all gotten off to a good start, and have eaten some yummy ddokguk (떡국 or rice-cake soup) if you're in Korea/are Korean.

Ok, so, resolutions. Not many and hopefully all achieveable - keeping it simple is hopefully the key to actually keeping the resolutions.
1. Less procrastination. Decision making and work-doing both!
2. Finish my TESOL coursework before my new contract period starts on February 25th.
3. Go to the gym more often - Chanel and I decided that twice a week is too few, so I'm going for at least ten times a month.
4. Hmm should probably add "ignore nosey old buggers asking too many personal questions" here too. That or switch to a different gym with a less annoying ajosshi owner : p
5.  Be more patient. Accept that some things take time, and other times that decisions shouldn't be made on impulse. I have to add here, my policy still stands on repeating myself with people who have no excuse like language or genuine hearing problems - if I have to repeat something more than three times, too bad. If you didn't get it the first time, ok, maybe you didn't hear, second time, maybe it was hard to understand, more than three times, you obviously weren't paying attention which is either just plain rude or lazy. So too bad - if you want to hear it again, you're gonna have to make it worth my while and ask nicely! To a lesser degree, this applies to all of my students too - if they want me to say something again, they at least have to say 'please' and 'thankyou'. Yelling out 'one more time!' doesn't cut the mustard with Amy Teacher! Which leads me to number 6:
6. Teach all of my students the basics - "Hello", "Goodbye!", "thankyou", "no thankyou", "Please", "yes please" and whatever random idiom I decide to throw in :) (This year, for first years it was "awesome!" and "you beauty!", and for the second years it was "too bad!" and "hooroo!"... hahahahaha ㅋㅋ)
7.Stop doing favours for people who don't appreciate it. I like helping people out, and I don't expect something material for every little thing, but if you can't manage to even say 'thankyou' when someone helps you out, you need to go back to school 'cos your parents obviously didn't bring you up properly.
8. Don't waste time and effort on people who aren't worth it. This may be the wrong resolution to have if you're teaching English in a Korean public school as a native English speaker (a job that could be done by the English robots they have these days or a talking parrot), but outside of work, this has been a good resolution to have for the last couple of years so I am sticking to it.
9. Eat less sugar and try to actually stick to as low a GI diet as is possible in Korea.
10. Travel somewhere new. I'm holding out for Vietnam next winter holidays with Chanel and anyone else who's up for it!

With Chanel and Ji at Ho Bar #1 in Hongdae

Hope you all had a good NYE too by the way. I had a good evening shopping in Myeongdong (well, going around with Chanel while she went crazy over the sales at Forever 21 and H&M), then dinner, then drinks over the NYE countdown with Chanel and Ji amongst various gay couples having a romantic evening at Bricx (by the way, their Lycheebug Limonade cocktail is DISGUSTING! tastes like soju made in a sweaty boot. Seriously, it was so strong that any sugar in it vaporised), and some more drinks with other Cheongju-ites who had also flocked to Seoul, and then dancing at one of the weirdest and awfully constructed clubs in Hongdae, 'Oi'. Seriously, if there is no ventilation, everything smells of nicotine grossness, and the smoke machine is pouring out chemical fog onto the dance floor, why would you decide to add to it and smoke when you could just inhale deeply and get your hit there? Gross. But it was a fun night anyway and I got to see Addie briefly, one of my classmates from my Ewha exchange in '06!

But anyway, it was a good night, if long. We ended up giving up on the taxi scrum and getting the first subway ride back to the bus station and hopping the 6.20am bus back to Cheongju, so I then ended up passing out on my deliciously warm floor when I got home. After a much needed shower to get rid of the stink of smoke in my hair (and washing all my pillowcases and clothes and Febreezing the hell out of my jacket), I was just in time for dinner with Super Onni. She is an awesome cook! Her ddokguk was scrumptious ^_^ Sadly, the panforte I took over was not so successful (sadly because I doubt they'll actually eat much of it before they throw it out, so it was a bit of a waste of something really yummy) because Koreans don't really seem to like dried fruit very much, but it was a nice relaxing dinner anyway.

By the way, thanks for the photos I mercilessly stole Chanel :) hehe~

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! All the best for the year ahead :)