Dee Adventure Traveler

I will say that this time, I wasn't fired and I didn't quit.

I. Finished. My. Contract.

But the only reason I'm not staying with the school I finished is cause they were very inconsistent with my money. There was a time I went almost 2 months with no pay and that just doesn't sit well with me.

I will miss the friends I made in Sejong but I'm not gonna be too far. I can just hop on a bus or taxi and go hang out with them when I can.

My new academy is with hours I prefer (afternoon hallelujah) and I'm finally getting some decent training. And of course, guaranteed pay never late.

I want this to be the last school I move to cause damn I done moved twice in the last year and a half.

Wish me luck as I move to Cheongju everyone!

Moving is exhausting.

Day 1 of Tokyo has been an exhausting one. I mostly slept and ate when I got hungry. Which lemme tell y'all

I can eat here with zero issues!

I know that sounds weird to hear but as somebody who grew up not eating beef chicken or pork, it's been a blessing to have more options for me to eat without worrying that there will be random pieces of pork or beef in it.

I've had to give in and eat chicken since being in Korea cause like, I can't be hungry and only seafood and veggies isn't enough for me there.

I know what y'all thinking. "Amadee why did you choose to go to Korea knowing you would have trouble eating there?" The answer is simple: it's not impossible for me with the diet I grew up eating. It's just exhausting eating the same dishes no matter where I go.

I'm actually feeling kinda overwhelmed with how many options I have to eat in Japan. But I'm so happy to have variety again y'all. AND THE FLAVORS!!!! Delicious.

Well I'm finally going to finish a full contract with one school this year. What with my issues from my first 2 schools, I'm glad to know that I can make it with one school for a year. I just won't be staying at this one.

I've officially decided to stay in Korea one more year before I head off to my next destination.

The academy I'm with is great except one thing: I haven't been paid on time the last 5 months. That's a deal breaker for me. Otherwise I'd probably stay but I'm not comfortable staying in a place that waits 3-7 days AFTER pay day to give me my check.

I got bills to pay and things I wanna do. I earned my money so uhhhh yeah. I'm looking into more experienced schools to go to once this contract is up at the end of August. Hopefully in the same city if not the closest one so that I could keep up with the things I've set up here for my health. (I've paid off my braces yay but I still have stuff to do with my teeth boo)

I have so many new cute babies at work now and I am basically squealing everyday because of them.

One of my baby girls today was learning the letter Tt with her class. I started singing Twice's TT (ya know the bop?) and she kept singing 🎶Tell me won't you be my babyyyy🎶 I got it on video and I'm cry.

Same baby girl one day gestured for me to come close to her and she gave me a kiss on the cheek. Have I mentiones how much I love this baby girl?

Another student has recently started calling me "mommy" in both English and Korean. Her older brother who also goes to our academy hates it cause I just accepted it and call him my son. He goes "Noooooo son" now most of the time when I see him lol

Our longest running kid has gotten so much better with his English that while he doesn't know how to say everything, he has been translating to the other kids in class with him that don't completely understand what I said. And it tends to be stuff higher than his own speaking level. His understanding. My hort.

One of our older girls runs to give me a hug every time she sees me.

Our morning kids have gotten so close with each other, that the one boy has developed a serious crush on the girl. He follows her around so much. I'm just glad she doesn't let him get away with anything.

The same morning girl said once "Don't trust men!" to all the female teachers.

All my kids have been in love with this jellyfish song from Super Simple Songs youtube channel and they dance to it when they get tired.

With that being said, I have been at this school 7 months with no major issues and my kids are my life.

Whew when was the last time I used this page for my traveling stories? *dusts off cobwebs*

So it's become sort of my ritual to visit @coffeeprincetaekwoon every other weekend. She always says she wants to talk to adults which is fair because we do talk to tiny children all day, 5 days a week.

First we go out to eat at this place in Itaewon called Boiling Crab & Shrimp. It's Louisiana style seafood bags and gawd it is delicious. Expensive and worth it. It's been so long since I had crawfish and now I got a spot! It's also not too far from Nelly's braiding where I get my hair done bi-monthly.

We then go to our favorite spot, Joon's Bar, in Hongdae. I recommend it if anyone visits Korea. The drinks are inexpensive and delicious. The DJ has changed a few times in the times that we have gone and in the past month or so, this new DJ???? He is amazing. The music has been great with some old school mixing with the new music.

I don't know what was going on last night but for the first time since he noticed Lauren and I dancing and enjoying his sets, he bought us shots last night. Quite a few times. We just kept getting free drinks and shots most of the night which was very new for me.

The DJ then came down and wanted us to request songs and Lauren ass was like "lol should I ask for Fantastic Baby" in all serious drunkness 😂 but we got some Pretty Ricky played and kept dancing. Once his set was finished tho, he came down and bought us more drinks, our fave bartender wanted to do shots of tequila more than once, and some other folk just came and asked if they could buy us drinks.

Who are we to say no to not spending our own money???

We danced with the owner and he is such a goof nut. Lolo just says he a hoe and a dumbass all the time. It was fun. But then suddenly everyone was gone from the bar and it was just us two, the DJ and the bartenders.

The DJ takes us to see why nobody is in Joon's anymore and it's cause somebody was doing a DJ busker not too far away keeping folk from going to places that have DJs and drinks. He was so mad. Rightfully tho.

We go back to Joon's and play beer pong with the bartenders and the DJ and one other random person who was still there.

Note that the entire time the DJ is giving us cheek kisses and pecks the rest of the night. It was very interesting to say the least. He not that bad looking, but with the liquor flowing everyone within reason was kissable

Ha.

I'm not trying to stay here forever. I wanted to move to Japan and that is still my goal. I've been here officially a year now so one more year then I'm going to Japan.

Honestly, the chance to leave my country is what motivated me. I always wanted to travel and until I got older, I didn't have the means or mindset to actually travel.

I'm safe now though so don't worry too much. But it was creepy as hell as me and my friends were leaving from going karaoke.

He followed us for about 4 blocks and when we first thought we lost him he ended up turning around to follow us back the way we came.

We ended up crossing the street and ducking into a cafe just in case. We were so creeped out.

This new mom shows up for a demo class with her daughter. Now her child is super shy and that's something I'm already used to.

Then her mom looks at me and starts talking like "My daughter really loves Africa and African things and African language and African blah blah blah"

I had to tell her I'm not from Africa then she keeps going asking if I know anything about Africa and I'm like "N...not beyond what I was taught in school which wasn't much." It wasn't until I said I'm from America that she chilled out and I had to say it twice.

My temp co teacher asked the mom if she knew Afrikaans but the mom was like no.

So y'all know how there are some nightmares when working in Korea as a teacher? Especially at an academy (hagwon). Well, I just went through it in this last month.

From my knowledge, if an academy (hell any company as y'all see with the whole Hyuna and cube situation) no longer wants you they will find any reason to get rid of you. No matter how small or petty.

My previous academy was going fine. And from what I've heard, my now old director, had 0 issues with my ability to teach or do any of my work required of me. Something that was a big confidence boost in my ability to teach after the first academy I started with.

However, the reason that I was given by the director was that she started to ban us from having a lunch break because it was work hours. It started from me forgetting one piece of material that kept me from one of my classes for 5-10 minutes. She talked to me through kakao, which she would frequently do after work hours instead of talking to me in person as she had begun to do.

I made her speak to my face and the things she said to me were beyond rude and disrespectful. She was placing a lot of work on the white new guy and telling only him things as if she expected him to tell everyone else cause she was training him to be a manager, but he was in the same work position as myself and other teachers. I call her on this and she tells me "Well that's because he's American" (see = white)

I got visibly upset at that statement alone and she was confused as to why. Add on that she told me she doesn't understand why I as a human being needs to eat on a break and that she doesn't care to listen to anything I had to say, I had already set up in my mind that I'm not going to resign (hah jokes on me amirite). I mean she was tryna use stuff I did when I first got there but haven't done since the first month as another excuse but ya know it was never something bad???? But whatever.

So since then she nitpicked at everything and eventually took away everyone's right to eat or even leave the office to get food for a break. Everyone was visibly upset over this unethical and unlawful rule. But of course everyone expected my black ass to be the martyr. Not today.

Finally she had the last straw with me eating before work hours at the office and when told she's being unprofessional, I was let go.

The following was said since my release from the last academy (I got another job within a week btw) and the meme above was my reaction:

"I don't like you, but if I miss you can I text you through kakaotalk?"

Yeah well....I don't go places much cause tbh I'm a homebody even back in the states lol

I've been doing pretty well here in Korea. My students are hilarious.

One time at the end of class we played a game of hangman. Then I took over the last game making them think it was one of their words when it was actually "break time" but without the space to trick them. They were so upset with me that day 😂😂😂😂😂

I've recently gotten a kindy class and they are the most precious darlings. Yesterday idk why but they started smacking my butt lightly to get my attention. I'm just looking at them like "why are you hitting my butt???" And they run off giggling because of my reaction.

I usually end my day with a middle school class and my fave class rn is on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. One of the girls is really good at English so when the other two don't understand she translates for them a bit. She still has more to learn but her understanding? Top notch. The other two girls love to tell me how pretty they are and joke that the other is ugly but they are best friends and its so cute. They told me today that my box braids look amazing.

Note: I've been teaching my kids at my academy to ask if they can touch my hair. I generally say no because just no for me but its becoming a thing with some of my older kids to ask me which is getting better.

With me now being on vaction for the next 5 days, I decided to go out and do some looking around the city I'm in.

I started off the end of my workday with a delicious meal from this spot down the street from me. While the garlic bread is sweet it was very satisfying as I continued my night.

I haven't been going out much with work and some of the stresses it comes with but I decided to do some shopping today and hopped on a bus to this lovely shopping center with H&M and other nice shops. Treated myself to a new perfume as a small gift as well from lush, I'm a body oil type of person so we will see how I feel about it in a week or so.

Finally I ended my day with a movie and I saw Incredibles 2!

It was a great movie and I kinda want a 3rd one just for the kids powers. I even ran into couple of my students. Two of them didn't see me but one said hi while I waited to go to my movie. All in all? A good day in Cheonan and it will end with some takeout and a movie.

Tomorrow I wanna chill at home cause its soooooo damn hot but who knows? I may change my mind and go to Everland.