Excited Panda

Another good weekend! Started off a little rocky, but improved 100% when I bought a ticket to JAPAN!!!! Woooooo, that's right! Going back to the motherland for Christmas. So excited, it's going to be fabulous. Plus my friend from LA is going to be there and I am so so excited to see her!!!!

Whoa, let me back up. Haven't posted since Halloween and that was some good times. The party at school was super fun and, of course, the kids were precious in their costumes. All the girls were princesses, except for one, who was a cat. And most of the boys were superheros except for a power ranger, 2 wizards and a knight. There were two Captain Americas but one thought he was Superman so it turned out ok. It was a really exhausting day at school but the kids were really pumped about the my panda costume. "Jacky teacher is panda!" It was pretty funny. My coteacher surprisingly dressed up as well and she was kind of a strange looking pumpkin, that they also enjoyed. We watched the Charlie Brown movie about the Great Pumpkin that day as well. I had never seen it in it's entirety before, and I will be just fine if I never see it again. It was freaking weird! The kids had no idea what was going on but they thought some parts were funny, mainly when Snoopy is dancing around. But then it got weird when he started crying. I don't really know what was going on, but whatever.

Anyway, that night my friends and I all went out in our animal costumes (there was also a giraffe and a lion) and we ran into about 20 other people dressed up in animal costumes, including 2 other pandas. No Koreans were really dressed up, so we got some strange looks on the subway, but we fit right in at the foreigner bar. The panda suit is super warm and I am strongly considering using it as my new winter gear. I don't really like getting stared at, but if it gets cold enough, I don't think I'll care.

This weekend I went to the other big amusement park in Seoul, Lotte World. It was fun, but super crowded....as is everything in Seoul. We only went on a few rides, but the whole day was a lot of fun. It ended with dancing so I was happy. The weather was super nice as well. The next day was not as nice but I finally got to play tennis! I have been looking for a court/partner since I got here and I randomly met one on Halloween. He was actually dressed as a tennis player, so I asked if he knew where we could play. Lucky for me he didn't think I was a crazy person, even as a panda with a tiara on, so we played yesterday. My arm is sore today, but it felt really good to play again. I'm not sure if we'll be able to play much more since it's getting so cold, but I'm hoping to find an indoor court.

Other random stuff going, but I'm super tired so more about that later. Overall, another fantastic weekend. Really looking forward to Japan. I'm also really happy I booked that trip because now it means I won't be totally sad and lonely on Christmas. Being away from family on Christmas is tough stuff so at least this way I'll be with friends, and I'll be surrounded by my people, haha. They probably won't realize it, but I will!

Dream big people!