Studio Ghibli Exhibit Excitement!

Last month when I took a little trip to Seoul, I went to a Studio Ghibli exhibition. Ever since I heard about it--I knew I had to go. And I am so happy I did. For anyone that does not know, Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio. Most of their movies are directed/written by a man named Hayao Miyazaki. Please don't dismiss these films as simple "cartoons." They are beautiful, entertaining, powerful, and moving. Miyazaki is a fantastic and inspiring story-teller.

So clearly I was enthused haha.

Advertisement for the exhibit 

The exhibit was inside this mall

Ponyo sculpture

 

Walking up to the exhibit!

When you get a ticket, you also get a blank round sticker to draw on and stick on this wall.

I drew little forest spirits from Princess Mononoke

Cool idea, right?

Finally going in!

 The first part of the exhibit was Howl's Moving Castle, one of my top 3 favorite movies from the studio. The first thing you see is Howl's castle--moving! And you can hear the beautiful music from the movie. It's was a pretty magical moment for me.

Markl

Turnip Head in the window

Selfie with Sophie

I was most excited about the next part, Princess Mononoke--one of my top three favorite movies of all time

Ahsitakaaaaaaa!

 Pom Poko

My Neighbor Totoro

Hmm what's inside this tree??

A big sleeping Totoro!! 

He moves! 

Porco Rosso! Love this one

Spirited Away! First Studio Ghibli movie I ever watched. I remember watching it for the first time one summer at my grandparents house. I completely fell in love with it.

I wish I could have taken a better picture. The line to take a picture with No Face was insane so I was rushing!

I don't know this family but they were so cute

Naturally, the exhibit led straight into an impressively expensive gift shop. Don't get me wrong, of course I wanted to buy just about everything but the prices were so, so, so high.
 Before exiting, I went back to the beginning of the exhibit and meandered through one more time. I was in there for a loooong time. I was just so happy--I couldn't get enough of it!

I only bought a book about the exhibit. It had nice pictures of everything

Unfortunately this is a temporary exhibit. It will be in Seoul until March 1, 2015. I would totally go again if it was staying around longer. Seeing the exhibit made me want to go to Studio Ghibli in Japan incredibly bad!

I would love to have seen other films included in the exhibit like Arrietty and Castle in the Sky. But hey, I am satisfied with what I was given!

February Fun Times

February may be the shortest month of the year, but in 2015 it sure is making up for its lack of days by being very eventful! To kick off my February 2015, I received a package from my wonderful mother. It was full of my favorite candies as well as Valentine's Day candies for my students. Here is a video of me opening up the box:

In Korea, kids are preparing for a new school year, starting next month. This means two of my kindergarten kids are graduating and will start elementary school soon! So this week, we did class pictures. It was nothing like the way I remember school pictures ever being done--then again, this is the only Korean school I've worked at so I don't know if it was unusual by Korean standards either. Although it should be noted that "kindergarten" here is actually equivalent to our preschool. Some kids start when they are 3 or even 2 years old and it's not a public school, it's a private business. So technically it's compulsory I guess but I would be surprised to find a Korean child who did not attend Kindergarten for a few years.

Anyway in my schooling, I remember LifeTouch (really, is there any other company that does school pictures--maybe it was just my county) would bring their equipment to the school and set up camp in the gym for the whole day. Then class by class, they would file kids through a queue, snap a quick picture of each one in front of an ugly background, then send the kid on their merry way.

For these pictures, we went to an actual photo studio. We changed into coordinating shirts and took some group pictures. Then the two graduates got some special individual pictures taken in new dresses their parents bought for them in honor of their graduation. The other five kids had nothing to do during this time except run amok and play with all of the props in the studio. The other English teacher and I had a rare chance to just play with the kids, which was fun. I felt like a babysitter haha.

Seo-Young

Gah! She's so cute!

Yu-Seul noticed Seo-Young and I were taking pictures so she joined in

Everyone, meet Ha-Eun. She's a goof

Ra-Hee is so sweet!

Ha-Eun causing mischief!

Ye-Young is one of the girls who is graduating. She is one smart cookie

Taking some selfies with Ye-Young...

...when suddenly...

...Ha-Eun appears out of nowhere

Shout out to my mom, who is a birthday girl today! Well, it isn't her birthday in Colorado quite yet but it is in Korea!

Another shout out to my dad who I get to see in about a week!! Eeeeeee!!! Thanks for the Valentine's Day card!

One last shout out to the country of Thailand. Thanks for existing and for being warm and sunny this time of year. I look forward to experiencing it this month!

Happy February, everyone! If you haven't got around to buying Valentine cards yet, just print this one off and give it to all your friends:

Okay love you all, bye!