Good night with my co-t!

you may not believe this but i ACTUALLY had a good night with my co-t!

she finally took me to buy that hairpin she's been wanting to buy me for weeks!

we left school at 5pm and went to a shop in shinae first (old downtown)- apparently it's one of her favorite shops and she's familiar with the owner now.

as we were driving there she put on some music and surprisingly i liked it! it was like yoga-style, indian, buddhist music of some sort and i felt a little weird actually having something in common with her lol

anyway we arrived at the shop and it was a really cute place- half coffee shop, half clothing shop. very small and a somewhat expensive. it's one of those places that only has one of each piece of clothing and i think some of the items have been creatively altered by the owner- the hairpieces especially look handmade. pretty cool.

anyway i thought we were just there to look around for fun- you know, eye-shopping as they say in korea. so i looked around and found some REALLY cute dresses. they were so cute i wanted to know how much they were so i asked- one was like 40,000won or so so i didn't bother trying any on. that's a little out of my price range. so i finished looking around and then my co-t asked- are you finished? i said yes and she asked- are you not satisfied with these clothes. and i was like oh yeah i am. i like those dresses but i can't buy them. and she was like oh oh! try one on! go go! and i'm like ok whatever. i would like to see how they look (still thinking it's just for fun).

so i tried on a long dress on and it fit perfectly. i showed my co-t and she said- oh so however i would like to buy this dress for you! and i was like oh nono, you don't have to do that!! but she argued with me and convinced me that she should buy it for me. but she told me to try a few other things on and decide what i want. so i tried on two other dresses and decided on a short dress (similar to the first one, just short and a different pattern). i told her i liked it and she said something like oh you like this one? not the long one? and i was like yeah, i like this pattern more. she hesitated for some reason and i worried that the one i picked was more expensive than the other but figured if she really didn't wanna buy it she'd say so. but she bought it and then she bought us some drinks at the coffee shop and we sat down and hung out.

she started talking about the dress again and said she thought i would have picked the other one and i was like no i like this pattern more (the other one was way too bright and loud for me and i probably wouldn't have worn it much so i wanted to get the more subdued pattern so i'd actually wear it and get her money's worth out of it lol) but then she started talking about how the one i picked "showed the breast" (meaning it was low-cut) which i know koreans are squeamish about but the weird thing is the other dress was the exact same style so i couldn't figure out why she was surprised i picked the one i did. it wasn't even super short either. it comes down to the knee. i kept thinking it was more expensive than the other but i finally looked at the price tag and it was actually cheaper! so i dunno what her deal was lol she did say- oh you can't wear this kind of dress to my school because it shows the breast so maybe she forgot the other dress was low-cut too and was thinking i'd be able to wear it to school and she could show off that she bought it for me. anyway, i told her the other dress was also low-cut and that either way i could still wear the dress she bought to school if i wore a sweater over it. she didn't seem to really listen to me and proceeded to ask me what else she could say for "shows the breast" and i taught her the word cleavage lol as in this dress shows cleavage.

anyway, we moved on after while and went to another one of her favorite stores in hadang. this one was bigger and had many more pieces of jewelry, hair clips and clothes. the main purpose of this expedition was to buy me a hair clip so i looked at those first. i had already had in mind what kind of hair clip i wanted - a long, rectangular one to clip all my hair back behind me- since it's going to get hot soon and that hairstyle looks a little more professional than a ponytail. i found one i liked immediately- it was long oval clip made of black plastic with tese small, white rhinestones all over it. simple but shiny. at the same time my co-t and this other woman were showing me smaller clips i could use to pull my bangs to the side but i really wanted on to pull all my hair back and when i told my co-t that and showed her the bigger pin she hesitated again and acted weird...but i figured it was just her being weird for no reason again lol so i put the clip in my hair and went and looked at it and said oh i like this one. but then she took me back to the counter and showed me some other clips and said see you can see the prices here. each pin had a tiny little dot on it with the price and the long clip i had been looking at was....you'll never believe this....48,000won!!! (back when the exchange rate was even that would have been $48!!!) i immediately said oh! surprisingly and put the clip back lol i could not believe that cheap looking thing was almost 50 bucks! that's insane! so i proceeded to find the smallest clip they had and we got that lol it's a tiny version of the big one with multi-colored rhinestones on it an i can use it to pin my bangs to the side. don't know how much it ended up being because it was so small a tag couldn't fit on it lol

then she told me to look around some more. i looked at some of the clothes and noticed the prices were all 100,000won and up so i knew i probably wasn't getting any more clothes that night. she said i could try some stuff on though so i found one top i liked and tried it on. it was really cute and i thought for a moment she might buy it for me but she asked if it was on sale and it wasn't so she asked me- do you like this more or the dress we bought earlier more? i definitely liked the dress more so i told her that and i put the shirt back.

we lingered a little while longer and then left so she could take me to her favorite flower shop to meet the owner. random i know, but that's my co-t!

we drove a while and i decided that since she had bought so many things for me i would treat her to dinner. earlier that day she had said- oh and so however i am taking you shopping so maybe you will treat me?? (meaning for dinner) and i thought this was a bit rude to say that outright so i just said oh i dunno, maybe. but that was when i thought she'd be spending like 5,000won on me lol after she spent 35,000won for a dress and however much for that pin i decided it would only be right for me to treat her to dinner. but then she said oh maybe the flower shop owner will come with us and i got a bit worried about how much that would cost lol

on the way to the shop we were stopped at an intersection near this bedding store i always admire when jens and i drive by it so i told my co-t - oh i really like that bedding store! they have really beautiful bedspreads there. and she was like oh! shall we drop by there? and i was like sure! i hadn't been there in like a year and they had some new stuff so i figured what the hay. i like eye-shopping lol so we went in and looked at everything. at one point i was looking at one bedspread and i said - oh this is really nice. and she said oh i think we have the same taste. we both like beautiful things. and i thought- god, i guess we do have some things in common! aaahh!!!! lol after looking at all the bedspreads we found a section of houseshoes and started looking at those. she asked how much they were and i thought maybe she was wanting to buy some for herself. but no- she wanted to buy some for me! i said no- you already bought too much for me. but she wouldn't have it. she said no i want to honor our visit to this bedding store. and i'm like ok whatever! so i picked out some slippers and she bought them!

after that we went to the flower shop and the owner ended up not being there. two other ladies were there and we hung out for a while. at one point one lady said something to my co-t and kind of pointed at her stomach and mine. and my co-t laughed and said something i can't remember now but she must have gestured to my stomach cuz i looked down and realized the way i was standing my stomach was kind of pooching out and i was like oh ok and then the lady said in korean (is there a baby in there??) to my co-t and i said no! no baby! and they all laughed because they were surprised i understood her and then i think the woman was embarrassed that she had asked lol i wasn't really offended. it was probably partly because i'm of child-bearing age and she was curious if a foreigner was having a baby here. anyway we laughed it off and left shortly thereafter.

as we were walking out though my co-t looked back and that same woman was walking directly behind us and they laughed and my co-t said oh she is imitating my walk. many people say when i walk (and she demonstrating swinging her hips) and i was like oh you swing your hips? (which i had noticed before but didn't say anything cuz that's rude) and she was like yes! and we all laughed and left. i was really surprised that woman did that though. i dunno if she didn't mean to get caught and my co-t just noticed her. or if she did mean to get caught and that's a normal thing to do in korea. very weird lol

so then! it was finally time to go to dinner (at 9pm! lol) i asked her where she wanted to go and she couldn't decide. only thing she could think of was galbi- but i know she doesn't like to eat galbi because she has high cholesterol or blood pressure (don't remember which) so i tried to think of something else. then i thought of shabushabu. by some miracle we happened to be right by my favorite shabushabu place so that worked out nicely! we ate there and it was really very pleasant! she really liked it and praised my choice over and over and we talked about various things including the difference between my old school and my new one. she wanted to know all about that.

after dinner she drove me home and went the wrong way a few times so it took a while and the whole way there she gave me advice about marriage and friendships lol after a while she put in a different cd of korean buddhist music and it was really pretty but at one point she had me sing along a phrase with her lol from the outside looking in it would have been a really funny sight lol

i think i got home about 10pm and that was that.

overall it was a good night! she never really irritated me and i made out like a bandit! lol

now some of you may be thinking- ok she's obviously bribing you! trying to put you under her thumb little by little. trying to show you that she's better than all the other teachers because she buys you things. but i bought her dinner so it was more of a back and forth thing. granted she spent more on me but she certainly didn't seem to mind and in fact she seemed thrilled by just getting to hang out with me. you may also think she's just doing nice things for me so i'll do nice things for her but what's so bad about that? don't we all do that on a regular basis? i think it's more fun to do nice things for each other rather than not doing anything at all for each other and just have a robotic, work-only relationship. hey i don't mind paying for dinner if i get a dress out of it! lol

and it's situations like last night that i can actually see a positive side to my co-t. not just because she's buying me things but because we're outside of work, we're doing something fun that we both enjoy (shopping around) and there isn't really any chance for conflict, ya know? i think doing stuff like that with her will help balance the frustrating times at work.

yes, she's crazy but i think somewhere in there she has a good heart. she does say lots of nice things to me. she compliments me almost everyday (my hair, my skin, my clothes, my decorating skills, my teaching skills, etc.) she's always telling me that she wants to help me in any way she can. she's been much more open-minded about my foreigness than any other co-t i've ever had. it's weird but it seems that since she's so crazy and out there she can kind of relate to being foreign, ya know? and any time i do get upset with her she does what she can to mend the situation. not just having me say sorry to her but she'll say sorry to me if she makes a mistake too. and sometimes she'll make coffee for me or take me out to lunch or invite me places (like shopping last night). i really do think her intentions are good. they are misguided at times but overall i think she means well.

i know a day or two or a week from now i'll probably be ranting and raving about something she did that frustrated me but maybe i can come back to this and remember she does have a good side too lol. i think that's the only thing that's gonna keep me sane this year lol

anyway, the end!