You Can't Force Amazing

Returning Home

2010-12-21T16:08:00.000+09:00

I've had almost 3 months back in the US, and I've come to a few realizations. First, I was not prepared for what coming home would do to my sense of purpose. Since coming home, I've gone through moments of great optimism and direction and severe pessimism. I've been forced to ask myself, what do I want to do with my life? What can I do and what can I be a part of so I don't feel like I'm wasting my time? I think my time in Korea was so fast paced that it allowed me to feel distracted. The job was also fulfilling for me, so it made me feel like I was on some kind of right path. I didn't feel like I was wasting my time while I was teaching.

I also realized that I was not prepared for the level of attention and energy it would require me to adjust to the fairly drastic change in lifestyle I'd be making upon arriving home. While I was in Korea, my apartment was small, but it was mine. I had a good amount of disposable income, and I didn't have to think much about budgeting. I could even pay my student loan payments! Since being home, I've had to make some conscious efforts to curb my spending in a big way. There's no more going out to eat every night. There's no more buying that cute shirt I saw on the way home. There's no more buying drinks for all my friends. In retrospect, I could have saved a lot more while in Korea.

Lastly, I've realized how much I value my independence. While in Korea, my dependence was on my school, but as long as I kept working and they kept paying me, I was able to support my lifestyle. I could choose things for myself financially, socially, and any other way. Since I've been home, I've had to rely on friends and family to help support me. I'm so thankful for all the help I've received, especially from my aunt and uncle who are letting me stay with them while I get back on my feet. However, I'm itching to get out on my own again.

I guess I've only been here a few months, and I do have some progress to show for it. I'm not a total Negative Nancy. I bought a car and paid it all off. I got a part time job, and although it isn't my ideal job, it's something. I'm just trying to take being back day by day and accept that I have to be accountable for my own happiness. I have to figure out what I'm supposed to do, what path I want to travel down next.

Being home has been quite an experience all on its own.

Here are some pictures....

Josh and I at the Zombie Pub Crawl in Minneapolis

My car!

Stuart and I at Gooseberry Falls

Tonya and I wearing our sweet mustaches!

Munich & New York City

2010-12-21T16:05:00.000+09:00

Stuart and I in Munich

One of the tents at Oktoberfest

Stuart surprised me with the American Idiot Broadway show for our anniversary. It was also Billy Joe's debut as St. Jimmy...pretty great evening.

Times Square

At the pier.

Brooklyn Bridge

Toledo, Madrid, Amsterdam, & Salzburg

2010-09-27T02:13:00.007+09:00

Toledo, Spain

Inside one of the churches in Toledo

Gates of Toledo

Madrid, Spain

Stuart and the symbol of Madrid at Plaza del Sol

Bikers during La Vuelta international bike race

The bull fighting stadium

Amsterdam, Netherlands

The canals were beautiful.

On our way to the Van Gogh museum

I wish I could see this every day.

Salzburg, Austria

Salzach River in Salzburg--it was a beautiful teal color.

In the Alps, above the village where Mozart's mother was from.

The church from Sound of Music, in Mondsee, Austria.

The lake in Mondsee, Austria. The mountains were amazing.

More of the Alps.

Stuart above Salzburg

Beer Garden

Travels

2010-09-18T01:24:00.003+09:00

My European adventure is about half way done and I have yet to write much about it. One might argue that I should be spending my time sightseeing and not spending time on my computer, but my feet are telling me that I should take a rest (as they say in Korea).

London--

London was one of the longest legs of the trip. We stayed in Beit Hall on the Imperial College campus for 5 days. The location was awesome. We were a block from the natural history museum and various other museums, the Piccadilly subway line, Hyde Park, Kensington high street, and tons of other stuff. All the major touristy things were within walking distance or a short subway right away. Our accommodation at Imperial College brought back memories of living in Grace Hall at St. Thomas. Our room was small, had two twin beds, and it really was living in the dorm. On a super positive side of the accommodation, there was a laundry room downstairs and breakfast included every morning on campus. Delicious!

During our time in London, we did all the touristy things. We spent an afternoon wandering around the natural history museum (which was free!!), checking out the dinosaur bones and other cool stuff. We spent a day touring London on one of those open top, double decker buses that you can hop on and off all day. It was a super cool way to get a guided tour and transportation around London. Our ticket for the bus also included a ticket to a river boat ride down the River Thames. It was a pretty good deal. We didn't go on the London Eye or in the Tower of London (largely because they each cost about 20 pounds), but the whole tour was pretty awesome, and I feel satisfied with my touring experience. One afternoon we spent some time wandering around Hyde Park towards Kensington Palace and saw the Princess Diana memorial fountain and the Peter Pan statue. The park was a great place to just walk around and check out tons of birds...there were TONS of swans, ducks, geese, and other smaller birds. It was a little crazy how close they came to the people who were feeding them. I was reminded of my childhood fear that birds were becoming less and less afraid of people and they were taking over the world...

More to come...

Rome

2010-09-17T04:17:00.004+09:00

Piazza di San Pietro

The Pantheon

The Pantheon again

Everywhere in Europe had tons of graffiti.

Estuardo loves the Coliseum

Vino.

In the Coliseum

Spanish Steps

By the Pantheon where I used to eat lunch during school

Trevi

mmmmm!

Prague, London, & Istanbul

2010-09-10T05:40:00.006+09:00

The main square in Prague, Czech Republic

A guard and some Czech lady outside the palace

Prague!

The Astronomical Clock in Prague. Apparently there was a wedding...

London brings Diet Coke!

Being weird.

Yeobosayeo?

Tower of London with that egg building in the back.

Me and Parliament

The London Eye on the Thames River

Tower Bridge

Elvis and I

Tons of geese and birds near Kensington Palace

Outside our apartment in Istanbul, Turkey

Our first kebaps in Istanbul

Taxim Square

The Blue Mosque

Me outside the Blue Mosque

Inside the Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia again

Blurry picture of one of the mosaics in the Hagia Sophia

The Blue Mosque at night (it was the end of Ramadan while we were there)

Prague

2010-09-03T20:15:00.002+09:00

Right now, I'm waiting in the Prague airport to board our flight to London.

The last couple days have been a blur. We left Seoul and arrived in Moscow for a couple hour layover. After delay from rain, we left for Prague. We got in around 9pm and heading to our hotel, Hotel Anna. We arranged for a transfer service, so it was super easy. The driver even had a sign with Stuart's name on it as we left the baggage area.

After settling in at the hotel, I went to sleep in the super awesome bed. I didn't sleep at all on the flight, and I hadn't had much sleep the night before due to packing and such, so somewhere in the last few days I've missed about 9 hours of sleep.

Yesterday we woke up pretty early (probably due to the time difference) and wandered around Prague. Our hotel was about a 15 minute walk to Wenseslas Square and the Old Town Square in central Prague.

We spent the whole day wandering and we took a guided tour of "historical Prague" before having lunch and heading back to the hotel. The trek back to the hotel was a bit of an adventure because it was all uphill, and my feet were sore from walking for the past 8 hours. After a bit, we made it back there, and decided to take a nap. However, the afternoon nap turned into going to bed for the night....ha! I guess the time difference caught up.

Prague is a beautiful city full of cobblestone and old European charm. It reminds me a lot of Rome. The weather here is phenomenal! It was almost chilly, and I don't think I sweat at all--quite the relief. The people are friendly here, and there's something about them that makes me feel like I belong. It has been a while since I've been in a crowd of people that wasn't at least 80% Korean though. It was nice to be around people who look like me.

I'll post pictures later.
Off to London!

Here we go

2010-08-29T13:04:00.003+09:00

This is my last Sunday in Korea, and I'm finding the task of closing up shop here rather daunting. How in the heck am I going to fit everything I want to take with me into one suitcase?! ha!
I started packing, and my suitcase is almost full...I'm beginning to accept the idea that I'm going to have to sift through my clothes once more and abandon everything I don't really need.

On another note, I'm anxiously awaiting Wednesday afternoon. We leave Seoul around 1pm and will be in Moscow for a two hour layover about 9 hours later. From Moscow, we'll fly to Prague, our first destination on our European adventure.

Here's a map of our trip.

View European Adventure in a larger map

Anticipation

2010-08-25T20:55:00.007+09:00

Recently, my brother sent me a message on facebook regarding his feelings about my return,

"i feel a little excited for u to come back. and by little i mean extremely. and by extremely i mean i need to build a time machine to jump forward til u do. ha"

As much as I feel like I'm going back to the same old thing, and I have no idea what I'll do when I go home, comments like this give me hope that it'll be an amazing experience.

In other news, I'm going to the pension office tomorrow afternoon to get the ball rolling on all of that. In addition, Azzurra will be teaching about half of each of my classes tomorrow. Happy (albeit boring) day! :o)

Another Rainy Day in Korea

2010-08-23T18:49:00.002+09:00

It's nearing the end of rainy season here in Korea, but it's been quite rainy the last few days. There were thunderstorms today, and it was interesting to see the kids reactions. There aren't as many thunderstorms here as there are at home, so it's quite a sight for us all.

In other news, I'm going to the pension office this Thursday to apply for my pension to be sent to my US bank account. After processing the application, the government will send my pension to my US account. It'll be quite a nice sum of money coming about a month after I'm done here. It's just another milestone on the way out of my Korean experience.

8 days left in Korea.
37 days until US soil.
40 days until MN!!!
:o)

11 Days

2010-08-20T18:51:00.002+09:00

Three new teachers arrived in Korea on Wednesday, and they've been observing classes since Thursday. Having them around makes me think back a year and a half to when I was the newbie teacher observing and being overloaded with information on the weirdness that it is to teach in Korea. Time has always been weird here, both fast and slow at the same time, but it's even more apparent now looking back.

I have 11 days left in Korea, and each day I hand a little more of the job off to my replacement. It's a little sad to be going, but even more exciting. I can almost taste the amazingness that is to come.

Happy August

2010-08-16T23:27:00.004+09:00

So it's mid August, and the weather is starting to cool off a bit. There was a typhoon in Southern Korea recently, and the storm has made the summer weather here a bit more reasonable.

As far as school goes, my time here is winding down. We're video taping for our "open classes" this week, and on Wednesday the new teachers arrive at LCI.
As of now, I have 14 days left in Korea before going to Europe and about 34 days until I meet American soil again. We'll spend a few days in NYC before I return home to MN, but I'm anxiously awaiting it all.

We have "swimming day" tomorrow for morning kinder, and it should be a good time. Afternoon classes are working on their presentations, and evaluations are well on their way to being finished. It's all closing up and finishing my time here in Korea. I'm anxiously awaiting the new teachers' arrival to train them in and pass the torch along.

It's all a matter of time.

Here's a video of one of my kidlets being weird, as usual. :o)

Summer Vacation

2010-08-02T19:22:00.005+09:00

Last week was our summer vacation for a week. Last year I made the trip home, but this year, in preparation for the Europe trip which is rapidly approaching, I stayed in Korea. Stuart and I went to Busan from last Saturday to Thursday. Overall it was a very relaxing trip. We saw some of the sites, but spent most of our time on the beach. Thank goodness the weather held out; it was supposed to rain all week, but ended up only raining on Thursday. We went to Haeundae Beach and Songdo Beach, and it couldn't have been better. Last time I went to Busan, it was just for a weekend, and I got completely sunburned, but this time I was quite generous with the sunscreen, and I managed to escape with a nice tan. :o)

It was a much needed vacation, and a total signpost on the road to the end of my contract here in Korea. I have 21 working days and 29 days left in Korea. The countdown to Europe continues!

Traveler's Bar and Grill

2010-07-07T21:03:00.002+09:00

Tonight a group of fellow teachers had dinner and drinks at a new bar at Seohyeon Station called Traveler's Bar & Grill, and it was pretty darn good. The food was phenomenal, like real burgers that you usually have to go to Seoul to get, complete with delicious fries and real dill pickles (NOT SWEET ONES!!). The staff was friendly and speaks both Korean and English. Oh, and the prices were pretty great too. I'd totally suggest going there if you're in the Bundang area.

Morning Kinder

2010-07-06T19:19:00.003+09:00

Here are some shots from my morning kinder class. They always make me smile :o)

Mid-Summer Update

2010-07-05T18:55:00.004+09:00

The summer is moving along quite quickly. It's already the second week in July, and I'm finding myself counting down the days until my Korean adventure comes to a close. I have 35 working days left in Korea, 64 days until I get on a plane for Prague, and 90 days until I'm in Minnesota again. The numbers are all still pretty large, but they're all small enough to wrap my brain around, and I feel like I can almost hold my breath that long.

In other news, I had a little accident on Friday evening. I was walking out of my apartment building when it was raining, and I slipped on the top step and slid down the stairs on my left shin. While I'm sure it looked quite graceful (as graceful as a complete biff can look), it was like surfing down the stairs on my leg. Sounds fun, but no. My leg has been all bruised and swollen all weekend, and while the pain has been minimal, I went to the doctor today to get it checked out since the swelling was getting worse. The doctor said it is just bruised and the internal bleeding and tissue leakage has caused the swelling in my foot. I'm just supposed to keep it elevated and iced and heated.
It's quite beautiful...check out my fatty foot complete with cankle!

DMZ Trip

2010-06-22T20:04:00.003+09:00

On Sunday we went on a trip with Adventure Korea to the DMZ. The trip itself was kind of unorganized, and we spent a lot of time waiting around between stops on the trip. However, it was an interesting experience, and I'm glad I got to visit it before my time in Korea is done.

Here are some pictures...

Korea, Korea

2010-05-31T19:52:00.004+09:00

The tension between South and North Korea has been growing since a few months after I arrived here, and like a lot of foreigners living here, I'm finding myself asking questions about what's going on and wondering if I really understand.
I've stumbled upon a couple links that seem to give some good information about the sinking of the S Korean warship and what it means for the Koreas.

'North Korean torpedo' sank South's navy ship

In the Koreas, Five Possible Ways to War

South Koreans divided over response to North

China's dilemma on eccentric North Korea

All that being the news, life in Korea remains the same. People don't seem too worried about things here overall, and I don't feel any less safe, just more alert, I think.

End of May

2010-05-29T23:56:00.002+09:00

The last couple weeks have been pretty busy at school. We had to do student evaluations this month, so on top of the normal week to week stuff, we've had deadlines for filling out online evaluations for the kids. It's not difficult to do, it just takes some time, and it's rather boring. This month we've been having parent meetings for our morning kinder classes too. I've had 2 meetings every day last week, and while they're fairly painless, they take up all of my afternoon prep time. I'm finding that I'm enjoying parent meetings more this year than I did last year. Last year, I was kind of nervous, having only been at the school for a couple months when we had them, but this year I think my co-teacher was more nervous than I was. It's great to meet the parents and see where the kids come from. :o) My last meetings are on Monday, and it'll be good to have them done with so I'll have the time back to do the normal stuff.

So, May is basically over, and the summer is starting. Spring pretty much didn't show up this year, but it's summer now, and it makes me wish I was back home. I wish I could drive to the lake and just enjoy the day.
I'll be home in about 4 months, and I'm pretty excited because I booked my flight home from NYC on October 3rd. It's a good feeling to get things settled, even though I have no idea what will happen once I'm there. I'll just try to deal with it day by day.

Sweet Weekend

2010-05-16T18:46:00.007+09:00

This weekend was pretty great. On Friday evening, Stuart and I went to a bar/restaurant called Gecko's at Jukjeon station. We had been there before, but this is the first time we've been there when the terrace was open outside. The place is on the 9th floor with an outdoor terrace, and they have great food! I always get the BLT with a choice of salad. It's so delicious! One of these times I go back, I should try something else...but the BLT is so good!! We usually take the subway there, but we took a cab home, and realized it's just a straight shot from where we live. Not an easy walk, but there is probably a bus that goes there quite easily.
On Saturday, we had brunch at Daily King's (finally...we had been meaning to go there for a while), and it was pretty yummy. It's located across the street about a half a block down from Suji's (another good place to get breakfast food at Jeongja). While it was delicious, the options are about the same as Suji's or Butterfingers, and I think I prefer Butterfingers. Although, Suji's and Daily King's have more to offer when it comes to sandwiches and other non-breakfast foods.
After brunch, we went to the Lantern Festival in Insadong, Seoul. There was a parade with big lanterns and dancers in Insadong. After the parade, Stuart, Dylan, and I went to eat at a bbq place near by. After dinner, we went to the street dance/party. We sort of stumbled upon it, but it was a good time. There were tons of foreigners there, but the people from the parade and many Koreans were there too. It was a good time in the streets of downtown Seoul.

Today, some of the kids from LCI had a soccer tournament. They all play on a team in a league, and some of the parents invited Melissa, Stuart, and I to go. I had some of the students in my class last year, and they're in Stuart's class now. It was a good time. There were tons of kids there, and tons of families cheering them on. It reminded me of going to Josh's games (football, baseball, whatever) when we were kids when my grandma would make food for the whole team and families would just sit and watch and hang out on a nice Sunday afternoon. The families of the kids were super nice, giving us food and letting us sit with them. It was really nice to get to do something different and spend time with the kids outside of school. Meeting their families gave some insight into the kids too that we don't get at school.

Teacher's Day

2010-05-11T19:00:00.003+09:00

So, Teacher's Day is on May 15th in Korea, and it falls on a Saturday this year. It was an interesting experience last year with tons of gifts ranging from lotions and high end lip gloss to cookies and cards. I got my first Teacher's Day gift today from a student, and I am now officially equipped with some flashy lip gloss and eye shadow from Clinique. Anyone who knows me knows how much of a lip gloss person I am (I am not...), but the kids are super cute when they give the gifts and you say thank you. Branden gave it to me today, and I said thank you and hugged him, and he looked so happy. According to wikipedia, a lot of schools give Teacher's Day off in Korea because it was seen as bribing by giving lavish gifts. I wish we had the day off...

Children's Day

2010-05-06T18:54:00.002+09:00

Happy Children's Day! How great is it that there's a day in Korea to celebrate kids! And...teachers get the day off too! :D
We had a picnic on Tuesday with the kids, and Wednesday (the day off) we went to a baseball game (like I did last year). All and all, it was great to have a day off and get to spend some time with the kids at the park.

Sunny with a high of 75

2010-05-02T19:45:00.004+09:00

The weather was super nice this weekend, especially today. It's such a relief! On Friday night we had a get together at Nick and Kristina's apartment followed by norae-bang fun. It was nice to hang with all the teachers and just relax.

On Saturday, we caught Iron Man 2 at the local Cinus theater. I didn't see the first one, so I didn't really know what was going on, but it was alright.

Today, we ventured into Seoul and walked around a bit before going to the Steve McCurry exhibit "Unguarded Moments."
"Unguarded Moments" - Steve McCurry
Sejong Cultural Center, Main Exhibition Hall - 81-3 Sejongno, Jongno-gu, Seoul, ROK
Dates: 2010/04/08-05/30

He's taken some pretty sweet pictures.

This and that

2010-04-30T18:42:00.004+09:00

In recent news, I sold my old computer through craigslist. It was the first time I tried selling anything on there, and it was super easy and great. I had like four responses after it being up for only a day, and I met a girl in Seoul to make the exchange on Wednesday. Easy peasy lemon squeezie (as they say in Korea).

We had a staff dinner last night at a local galbi bbq place, and it was a good time. Morale was pretty low with spring dragging its ass and all the changes in the last couple months, so it was nice to hang out and eat tons of food on our boss. A few of us got to talking about the end of our contracts, and it really hit home that the end is quickly approaching. Four months today, and I'll be on my way to Prague. :o)

I came across this speech and found it very hopeful.
I don't care if it's optimistic and idealistic, it's still perhaps what we should strive for.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

2010-04-25T18:06:00.004+09:00

Seoul Grand Park Zoo

2010-04-24T20:24:00.001+09:00

Freedom

2010-04-23T18:54:00.002+09:00

I've come across this article about a proposal in Belgium to ban full veils in public. I don't know anything about Belgium laws or cultural practices, but such a ban anywhere seems to go against freedom in the full sense of the word. Does anyone have the right to dictate what's acceptable to wear, even behind the guise of security? Assuming Belgium's laws about religion and expression are anywhere as liberal as the US, a ban on religious dress seems totally inappropriate. I'm no authority on such matters, but the issue seems to raise the larger question of where security and freedom meet. Does any government have the authority to say someone can't wear garments that are an expression of their religion? On a human level, I think the proposal is completely out of line. According to the article, the Muslim population of women who wear the veils is minuscule compared to the number of Muslims in the country. Isn't such a ban just a desire on behalf of the proposers to control the population? make them "more European"?
Fear seems to dictate our lives all over the place.
I don't know if I'm able to say anything coherent about this, but it struck me as pretty significant and an attack on freedom of expression. Upsetting for sure.

Another month goes by

2010-04-22T18:54:00.003+09:00

April is all but over. March crawled by, and April has been going by significantly more quickly. I'm thankful. My new classes are growing on me, and we're all finding our new groove.
It's been kind of strange going through the yearly routine for a second time now. We went on a field trip on Wednesday to a farm (which wasn't what us Minnesotans think of when we hear "farm," but more of a city garden site). The trip was basically the same as last year. We took our classes there and helped them plant some lettuce, then posed for pictures for about 10 minutes before returning back to school. It's nice to do some hands on stuff with the kids, digging in the dirt and such, but it wasn't much of a field trip, more of a photo opp. Koreans love their photos...

Big tests for the afternoon classes are on Monday, and then we start our new month of stuff. Everyone is always excited to start a new month and new material. It's rather amazing how quickly my youngest students are learning. When we started in March, my morning and afternoon kinder classes were at the same place (beginners), but after 2 months of studying, I can already see the difference between the classes. Morning kinder meets every week day from 9:30am to 2:30pm, and afternoon kinder meets just Tuesday and Thursdays from 4pm to 6pm. It's interesting how noticeable their difference has become.

Spring is slowly happening. While on our Jeju trip 2 weekends ago, there weren't many flowers here in Bundang, but when we got back Sunday there were noticeably more already. The last couple weeks things have been in bloom. It's rather beautiful. I love flowering trees. Even the lilacs have started blooming :o)

During May we have Children's Day (May 5th) off and a long weekend with Friday the 22nd off for Buddha's birthday. It's been quite a while since we've had any days off, and I'm looking forward to whatever plans I'll make. Last year for the long weekend, Amanda, Hyun, and I went to Sokcho on the east coast of Korea. I'm not sure what I'll do this year. I kind of feel like saving as much money as I can until my Europe trip so I have anything left over after I get home.
Luckily most attractions in Korea are pretty cheap. We went to Seoul Grand Park last weekend and spent Sunday at the zoo, which cost like $8 to get in.

As of now, I have about 4 months left before my contract is done. It's crazy to think how long I've been here. However great it's been, I'm ready to take a break and figure out what's next on the agenda. Hopefully it won't take me long to find something else amazing to do. :o)

Europe Plans

2010-04-12T22:43:00.000+09:00

Here's a link to our Europe plans.

Details are coming soon...

Jeju Weekend, Part 2

2010-04-12T22:13:00.003+09:00

Thanks Stuart for the photos.

Jeju Weekend

2010-04-11T17:52:00.004+09:00

April plans

2010-04-08T19:05:00.002+09:00

First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TONYA!!
We're finally becoming old ladies together! (not literally together right now, but soon!)
I hope you had a great time in Vegas and watching the Twins game in Cali :o) I love you!!

Next, April is in full swing, and Spring is almost here (almost almost almost!!)
I'm going to Jeju Island this weekend for a mini-vacation, and I'm pretty excited. Jeju is Korea's Hawaii, I guess, and while it's not going to be super duper warm and awesome, it'll most likely be warmer than here and quite awesome.
The flight from Gimpo in Seoul is only an hour, so it'll be the best flight I've ever taken (hopefully!). I'll be sure to post more about Jeju after the trip is done. :o)

Planning continues for the excellent Euro-trip this September. All the flights are booked (except the one from NY to home), and almost all the hotels/hostels/apartments are booked. Providing nothing horrible happens on the trip, these things will hopefully be our largest expenditures, and there will be minimal money worries while on the trip.
I'll post more about our specific plans, complete with a map of our travels soon.

I just wanted to give a little update.
Until next time.

My new kidlets

2010-04-06T19:33:00.003+09:00

Some of this and some of that

2010-04-05T20:07:00.003+09:00

Some stuff I wish I was awesome enough to come up with...

Chat Roulette Improv--Seriously. I wish I was this cool.

Alice by Jan Svankmajer--Alice in Wonderland never seemed so creepy and awesome.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Nanta and FC Seoul

2010-03-28T21:21:00.003+09:00

This weekend a group of friends ventured into Seoul to see Nanta. It was a super funny and entertaining show to say the least. I haven't laughed that hard at a show in a while. After the show we went to see a Seoul soccer game. Seoul beat Pohang one to nothing.

It's been a good weekend...but the weekends would be a little bit better if it would warm up a bit.

Yum!

2010-03-21T20:52:00.003+09:00

This weekend the rumors of a new Dos Tacos at AK Plaza were verified in the most delicious way. The restaurant is in the same building as the Outback Steakhouse and Thali Indian Restaurant, but it's on the first floor right by one of those weird rocking, orthopedic shoe stores. The place is very small, seating probably 25 people max, but it was satisfying in every other way. The staff is super friendly and speak pretty good English, which is probably good because the times we've been there about 90% of the people eating there were foreigners. The menu includes nachos, chips and salsa, various taco, burrito, and quesadilla options, flautas, and a few different kinds of Mexican beer.
I'm super psyched there's such a delicious food option so close to home.
:o)

At last

2010-03-12T19:57:00.004+09:00

At last, the first full week of our new classes is over. It's felt like the longest week of my life. My stress levels have been crazy. My morning kinder class is growing on me, but they're still very frustrating. My frustration isn't because of them, but compounded by the high level of energy that's required of me every day to teach them. I've just been super frustrated by the lack of communication with all the new staff and teachers at our school. I knew it'd be a little crazy starting a new school year with a new group of kids and everything, but having almost all new Korean staff in addition to all of that makes things really difficult. Everyone is doing their best, but it's easy to forget, and the frustration sets in.

I know things will smooth out and settle down as time goes on, and I'm just hoping that I can maintain the high level of energy needed of me to sustain my sanity until that happens.

On a more positive note, we've booked most of our flights for the Europe trip in September, and I'm super psyched about it! We'll be flying from Seoul to Prague on September 1st, and then to London, Istanbul, Rome, Madrid, Amsterdam, and Munich. After Munich, we'll fly to New York City and spend about a week there before I return to Minnesota and Stuart goes back to LA. It'll be a good way to end my time in Korea and start the next chapter in my life.

Last weekend, Stuart and I ventured to Suwon to explore the fortress there. It was a pretty good way to spend a Sunday. Here are some pictures...

Breathing

2010-03-05T18:56:00.002+09:00

The first week of the new school year is done, and I couldn't be more relieved. It's been all sorts of crazy. My kids are all super cute, but the majority of my students hardly speak English. They speak to me in Korean all day, and by some miracle of communication, we manage to understand each other like 50% of the time. It'll be nice when things settle down and a routine is established, but for now things are nuts.

On another note, my first contract is officially over, and I got my severance pay today with my regular paycheck. I've decided to spend about a month traveling in Europe after my second contract is done. I wasn't planning on doing any traveling and saving my money for student loans and getting settled into whatever I'll do when I get home, but I've decided this is a much better way to do things. When else will I have the time or money to do something like this? The itinerary is still in the works, but we're considering visiting Istanbul, Prague, Rome, London, Amsterdam, Madrid, and Munich.
We'll see what happens in the next 6 months, but that's the tentative plan.

Long birthday weekend

2010-03-01T20:15:00.005+09:00

We had today (Monday) off for Korean Independence Day, and I have to say the long weekend was excellent. On Friday night, some of the teachers from school went to a local pub for drinks and to relax outside of school with some of the new teachers. It was a good relaxing time. A girl I lived with when I studied abroad in Rome just came to Korea a couple weeks ago, and I ran into her at the pub. It was pretty rad. It really is a small world.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day. Stuart and I made a trip to Gangnam to bring his fostered cat (Furlock) to her new permanent owner. She was definitely a cat lover, and I'm sure she'll have a great home for Furlock. After chatting with them for a bit, we went to Apgujeong and wandered around a bit. We were looking for a certain store so Stuart could buy new jeans. The area was pretty cool, full of boutique-type stores, restaurants, and such.

On Sunday, Stuart treated me to some birthday festivities. We had brunch at a place called Suji's at Jeongja station. We stumbled upon this place online and decided to check it out. It seems like a great addition to our usual breakfast/brunch restaurants. They serve delicious breakfast foods (french toast, pancakes, etc.) and their deli sandwiches look quite yummy as well. The only thing it doesn't have on Butterfingers Pancakes(also at Jeongja) is the drink situation. Butterfingers gives free refills (which is somewhat rare in Korea) and Suji's doesn't. Other than that, it was awesome.
After brunch, we went to Lotte World at Jamsil station. We took the 116 green bus from Seohyeon station and it took us right there. It's nice to see Korea above ground while traveling. The subway system is usually the most reliable mode of transportation, and there's not much of a view underground. The experience started out with a mixture of happy surprises and frustration when we made our way through mobs of people to wait in line to buy tickets to get in. At the ticket counter, the girl said we get the foreigner discount (10%), which ruled but seemed super strange to me. How would a foreigner discount be seen back home? Then, the girl asked if either of us were born in 1986, and I was, so I said so. She then said, "Oh! You get 20% discount for being born the year of the tiger, it's the year of the tiger this year." They were having their New Year celebration still, I guess. After the discounts, the experience was frustrating and interesting. It seemed like a place with the potential to be quite fun, but the sheer number of people there made it all very frustrating. Koreans are kind of weird when it comes to walking. They don't seem to have any radar that tells them there are other people walking around them, and they zig zag and stop all over the place. As a result, they bump into each other and walking is super frustrating (for me anyways). What I don't understand is how they can have no notice of people around them and still be upset when they walk right into someone else. It's goofy and I don't get it.
Anyways, after Lotte World, we went out to eat at a place called Cafe Marianne at Jeongja station. We had been there once before, and it was pretty tasty. On top of the pretty delicious Korean version of Italian food, they have event wine, which is unlimited house wine for about $9/person. It was a delicious day :o)

Today was a low key day. We went to see Lovely Bones at the Seohyeon Cinus theater. It was a pretty good show. It combined the tension and suspense of a mystery while creating a surreal, dreamy depiction of heaven that was visually appealing. After the movie, I bought some running shoes because it's getting warmer, and while I don't usually partake in physical activities these days, I feel like I want to. We'll see what happens. :o)

Tomorrow is the first day of the new school year, and I'm kind of nervous. I know it'll be fine, but I'm also preparing myself for a very stressful day.
I'll keep you updated as things progress.

A Class

2010-02-26T16:23:00.004+09:00

It's starting to feel like spring has arrived. It has been dark after school for the past 3 months or so, but one day last week it just wasn't all the way dark yet. Slowly, things are warming up, and it's staying light out longer. Almost all the snow is melted, and it rained yesterday, so the dirty snow was washed away and it's only a matter of time until everything starts getting green again. I'm a fan of spring.

It's my birthday on Sunday, so I decided to treat myself with a new computer. My old laptop was sufficient, but it's almost 3 years old, and little things were starting to quit working. I'm not too computer savvy, but with the help of a friend, I think I picked out a nice one for a reasonable price. Happy birthday to me!
Oh, and it comes with a remote to control the dvd player and such. Pretty rad.

In addition to the changes in the weather, things are changing at school too. Wednesday was the last day of morning kinder classes. Morning kinder graduation was on Thursday, and today is the last day of our afternoon classes before the new school year. All the teachers spent the morning time cleaning our rooms and preparing to move to our new classrooms. I moved from D class to A class. My new schedule will be quite different from the last year. My morning kinder class is the youngest class of first year students (5 years old US age), so it'll be a change from teaching my very competent second year morning kinder students. My PK (2:40pm) class should be good. They just graduated from morning kinder, and I've taught them special activities before. They're a good group. My 4pm class on MWF is made up of four students who are 8 years old (US age), so they'll be easy to teach and talk to. One of the students is from my previous textbook level class. My 4pm class on Tuesday and Thursday is afternoon kinder again, but I'm starting all over with a brand new class of babies. They're at the same level as my new morning kinder will be, but I'll only see them twice a week. I'm not looking forward to the stress involved in having 2 baby classes a day twice a week, but I'm hopeful it'll be alright.

Here are some pictures from the last day of morning kinder.

Tonsilitis and canker sores

2010-02-17T17:56:00.004+09:00

The morning kinder's winter festival went just fine. It was a long, exhausting day of practicing and waiting around, but overall it was a success. I guess I really don't have much else to say about it. The LCI staff went out for dinner afterward, and it was a good time (and on Mr. Kim's tab). Then we had a half day of school on Friday, and entered the long weekend for the lunar new year.
Since almost everyone had the weekend off and travels to their home towns, traveling is pretty rough. We got a hotel room in Seoul at this nice place and were planning a nice, relaxing long weekend away from home. The hotel was great, and the plan was perfect, except that upon arriving at the hotel, I started feeling sick, and it just got worse as the weekend went on. I had a fever all weekend, and an unbelievably sore throat. I went to the dr yesterday, and he said I have tonsilitis, probably brought on by stress and an bacterial infection. Ok, I've had tonsilitis before, and I remember it sucking in a real bad way, but somehow this time it's worse. I'm on my second sick day now, and my fever is gone, but my throat is more sore than ever. I thought it was getting better from the medicine, but then this morning at 4:30am I woke up and couldn't think about anything else. I had barely eaten anything the last couple of days, and now my throat hurt even worse. Popsicles even hurt. :(
I went to the dr again today, and he said that there are ulcers on my soft pallet in addition to the infection on my tonsils. I could feel it was worse, and after he mentioned it, they do feel a lot like canker sores on the back of my throat. OUCH! I can't eat, drink, or sleep, and I'm exhausted and in pain all the time. I'm just crossing my fingers that the medicine will start helping some more and the canker sores will start going away. I really wish I had some shots of novacaine or something.
But, I'm taking this opportunity to relax as much as I can and try to take a break from the stress of work and everything else. I'm supposed to go back to work tomorrow, but if my throat feels the same, I might ask for another day off. We'll see what happens. I hope I get better soon.
Thanks, Stuart, for being so understanding and helpful :o)

Finally.

2010-02-10T19:03:00.002+09:00

Today was the last normal day of classes this week before the long weekend, and it feels great. Tomorrow is the winter festival (FINALLY!!) and the plan is to meet up at school around 1pm to get bused over to the festival site. After that, a few hours of practice and milling about are planned before the festival starts at 6pm. The kids have been working so hard for so long, and it'll be nice to finally get this out of the way. The festival also signals the beginning of the transition into the new school year, and I'm totally ready for the changes in store.
As far as I know, we're supposed to meet the new teachers tomorrow, and the new school year starts at the beginning of March. The next couple of weeks will be out of the ordinary and a welcome change to the routine of things.

I'll post more as things unfold.

Moments

2010-02-08T21:53:00.002+09:00

Today in my PK class, one of my students came in with a flowering plant in hand and approached my desk. She walked up and said, "Teacher, this is for you." I responded with sincere thanks, smiles, and hugs, and she responded by explaining. She said, "Teacher, it's your birthday, and I know you like purple, but they didn't have purple, so I got pink because they're close. I wanted to get you a headband, but I went to a flower shop and got this." :o) Such a cutie!
My birthday isn't for a couple of weeks yet, but she's on top of her game.

In my 4 o'clock class, one of my kids was telling me and the other students that she didn't want to go home after school. I asked her about it, and she said that for every wrong answer she gets on spelling tests, her mom slaps her hand with a back-scratcher. I was speechless, and the rest of the class responded by telling her, "when that happens, my mom just says I should do my best." I feel bad for her, and I know the customs here are different than home, but it doesn't seem right.

Hello, FurLock

2010-02-07T20:09:00.002+09:00

Today Stuart and I went to Gangnam to go to a "puppy party" at a vet clinic. The event was put on by Animal Rescue Korea, an organization that helps people foster and adopt pets from a shelter. After wandering around for a while, we ran into our friend Alex who said she just dropped off her cat that she was fostering. While we were searching for the clinic for a long time, it seemed like a good omen. We found the clinic and found her cat right away. There were a bunch of other foreigners working and looking at pets, and after a few minutes, Stuart decided to foster Alex's old cat. Unfortunately, the people working were quite busy, and we ended up waiting around for quite a while. In the end, it was a successful trip, and Stuart acquired a new feline companion whom I named FurLock. If he hadn't decided to foster her, I would have done it. She's such a nice, mellow cat.

So say we all

2010-02-04T19:45:00.002+09:00

I've been tempted to believe Spring is coming in recent days, with warmer weather and sweet sunshine, but the last couple days is a brisk winter slap in the face. I can't express how badly I want spring to come. It's crazy because winter here is nothing compared to winter at home, and it makes me wonder how I endured it for so many years.

Aside from the weather, things are going relatively well. All the kids are stressed out because of the school festival program preparations and the ending of the school year, so all the staff is automatically more stressed than usual as well. We've been practicing for our festival for about a month or so, and it's been going fine, but as the date of our festival approaches (Feb. 11) the tension grows. Despite the stresses of the end of the school year, there's hope and excitement for the upcoming school year. New classes of 6 year olds will start classes next month, and the afternoon classes will be rearranged. On top of those changes, 4 of the foreign teachers and 2 of the Korean staff will be leaving. Only 3 new foreign teachers will be coming, so our count will be seven, instead of the original 10 foreign teachers that we had when I started. We've been at nine foreign teachers for a while now, and it's kind of surprising that we're going to have one less. At any rate, it'll be exciting for a bit while the new teachers get accustomed to the school, and I only hope that they're a cool bunch. :o)

The excitement of these changes, and the weather (hopefully), will make the next few months fly by. We have a long weekend soon for the lunar new year as well, which will be great. We're planning on just staying in a hotel in Seoul since basically everyone in Korea will be traveling that weekend too.
I haven't signed a new contract, so it's not totally official yet, but I asked to change my second contract to 6 months instead of a year, and it seems like it's being approved (however reluctantly). While I'm hopeful about the upcoming changes in staff and such, they're also making me glad to have asked for a shorter contract. I'm still not sure what I'll do after it's over, but I feel optimistic that I'll find what's next on my life's agenda. I've been looking into applying to grad school somewhere to teach English as a second language. We'll see.

On another exciting note, the Lost season 6 premiere was the other day, and I was very excited for it. However, after watching it, I feel a little disappointed, but still very excited to see where it's going. It should be a great last season. I also got the Battlestar Galactica box set in the mail the other day, and I'm super psyched to watch it again. :o) Yes, I'm that kind of nerd, whatever. It's a good way to fill idle time.

Until next time.

Warmer air

2010-01-19T19:30:00.003+09:00

The weather today was great. While it was cloudy and gloomy all day, the temperature probably reached 40 degrees, and it makes me smile inside. The snow is slowly (or not so slowly) disappearing, and I'm glad. Today was really frustrating at work, but the "warm" weather made everything relatively ok. I shouldn't be surprised because it's been like this since I arrived almost a year ago, but the communication at my school is less than satisfactory for me. I don't want to say it's horrible because it could be much worse, but it definitely leaves something to be desired. I've always thought communication in the workplace is mandatory for a successful work environment, and it's been an exercise in patience and flexibility working at my school. Sometimes it just feels like the Korean staff have meetings and ask, "what else can we do right now?" and then they tell us about it. So in our staff meetings, we're barraged with deadlines and required activities (i.e. student evaluations and projects) that seemingly come out of nowhere. I wonder if it's possible to have student evaluation deadlines planned out in advanced, considering we need 4 afternoon evaluations per year and X amount of morning kinder evaluations per year. It's just frustrating being given information at the last possible moment.

On a much better note, we went to the Green Day show last night in Seoul, and it pretty much rocked my face off. It's been about six years since I saw them last, and it was a much needed fun evening. Stuart surprised me with tickets to their show, and I'm super thankful. It was a fun time.

Listening to: Skyscrapers--Ok Go

Waiting for Spring

2010-01-16T20:29:00.003+09:00

I feel like my vacation, while super amazing, was a taste of "freedom" that I am now hungry for. I haven't felt like this during my time here yet, so it's kind of frustrating feeling like I need a change, like I'm stuck. I admit that that's how I felt before I moved here about a year ago, and I'm afraid the feeling won't pass. Each week that passes since vacation it gets a little easier, but somehow the feelings keep surfacing. My plan is to try to wait it out, and see how things feel as time goes on. I think with the new school year coming in March (and classes and staff changing) and spring on its way, my need of change will be alleviated a bit.
While life here is still good, and I'm thankful for everything and everyone I have here, I'm homesick, and I want something new and exciting. I really miss hanging out with Tonya and being able to see my family whenever I want. At any rate, I don't want to make any hasty decisions regarding my new contract because I know that upon returning home, it wouldn't be long before I'd feel like this again. I just hope spring will bring feelings of renewal. Until then, I'll hang onto the kids and the good things and hope my homesickness goes away.

Listening to: Sympathy--Billy Talent

In This Moment

2010-01-05T18:55:00.004+09:00

Yesterday was our first day back at school after winter vacation, and while I didn't feel quite ready to let go of vacation and Cambodia's awesomeness, I got up bright and early determined to make it the best day I could. Upon looking out the window while picking out my clothes, I was presented with a vision that I haven't seen in almost a year: SNOW! And not just the typical Korean dusting, but REAL quantities of snow piling up on the ground and cars and everything. I was automatically a little giddy.
The walk to school was interesting, trying to find packed down snow to walk in as not to make my jeans wet to the knees by the time I arrived at school, and trying to fight the urge to lay down and make snow angels in the street, as not to make my entire back wet for school. I resisted the urges, and made it to school. Thankfully I brought my boots to Korea, and and extra pair of shoes to school. In addition to the excitement of being back at school after a week off, everyone was super excited about the quantity of snow building up outside and the possibility of a snow day.
The morning kinder students arrived late, but we had a full day of class with them. During lunch, though, we were informed that we wouldn't have our afternoon classes because of the snow. Sheer excitement shot through my bones.
I find it kind of humorous at the way Koreans are dealing with the snow. There aren't exactly tons of plows lined up waiting for snow like at home, so most of the roads are still 6 inches deep of slush and snow where cars haven't driven, and the sidewalks that have been cleared were done with a combination of shovels and dust pans.

The snow reminds me of home.

Listening to: Her Kiss--In This Moment

Hey Laday

2010-01-03T20:58:00.014+09:00

December 27, 2009~

Our flight was scheduled to leave for Siem Reap at 6:30pm, so we decided to leave for Incheon Airport at 2:30pm. I woke up around 11, and the time just inched along until it was time to leave. At about 2pm it started snowing, and we headed to the airport limousine at Seohyeon Station. We caught a cab and arrived just in time to catch the bus. The timing was great, and we hoped it would be a sign of things to come. Unfortunately, Korea isn't as equipped for snow fall as Minnesota is, and we ended up sitting on the bus for about 3 hours. The trip from Bundang to the airport usually takes about an hour, but with traffic inching along in snowy traffic, it took 3 hours to get there. At about 5:30pm we started worrying about making our flight. Fortunately, we arrived at the airport, ran around to get checked in, flew through the security checks, and just made our flight. Everyone was already sitting on the plane when we finally got on. However long it took us to get there, we made it, and there was definitely a sigh of relief.
The relief didn't last long for me because the anxiety of flying set in quite quickly. I was sitting in the window seat, looking out at the snow on the ground, and I think the combination of not liking flying and remembering the emotion of the last time I flew (going home for vacation in July) made me a little overwhelmed. After regaining my composure, and getting our plane deiced, we took off for Cambodia.
The flight was pretty easy. We flew about 6 hours, but because of the deicing and such, we arrived a couple hours later than we were scheduled to.
My first impression of Cambodia from the air was interesting. It was so dark. The only lights were a couple roads lined with yellow street lamps. Compared to the always electric Korea, Cambodia was black. When we stepped off the plane in Siem Reap, a wave of humid, 70 degree air hit my face, and I couldn't help but smile. It felt like summer. The airport was tiny, and surrounded with tropical plants. After getting our luggage, we walked out the front of the airport and hoped that our driver from our guesthouse would still be waiting for us after our delay. Standing there was a little man with a sign "Bou Savy Guesthouse: Stuart." I was so glad he was still there to pick us up. He said he had been waiting for a long time, but he greeted us with a smile, and we headed to his vehicle. In the parking lot, we arrived at his motorbike hooked up to a sort of carriage (tuk tuk), and we knew we weren't in Korea anymore.

The ride to the guesthouse was maybe 20 minutes long, and we drove down the road with the humid air in our faces. By the time we arrived to our guesthouse, my hair was curly and all messed up, but I was thankful for finally arriving. The bus ride, the flight, and the drive to the guesthouse was overall exhausting, and I was happy to be in Siem Reap to start vacation.
The guesthouse was down a little gravel alley off the main road, and we pulled up, and I had no idea what to expect. On the main road, there were tons of HUGE hotels built in a French style, and tons of little tiny buildings with signs in English, Korean, Chinese, and Cambodian. The Bou Savy Guesthouse was great. It was a red house surrounded by tropical plants and tile floors. It was like a little oasis behind its walls. Our room was minimal, but it had 2 comfy beds, a tv, fridge, bathroom, mirror, and a chair. It was about midnight, and we headed to bed so we could wake up bright and early for our tour of the Angkor temples in the morning.

December 28, 2009~

After a good night of sleep, we woke up around 8am to get ready for our trip to the temples. We went downstairs, and had breakfast under a little gazebo surrounded by tropical plants. Breakfast included a baguette with jam and butter, coffee, scrambled eggs, and pineapple and a banana. It was all delicious, and it was very relaxing to sip coffee in the shade in the hot weather.
The driver that met us the night before came to meet us, and we headed to the Angkor temples around 9am.

It was great to see the city in the light of day, and it was very different from what it looked like at night. As we sat in our tuk tuk pulling onto the main road from our alley, there were tons of motor bikes, tuk tuks, and people walking around. There was a very interesting mix of modern/western things (gas stations, cars, etc.) and things you'd expect to see in a less developed place (electric wires propped up by poles with a V-shaped support at the top and then running through the tropical trees, dirt roads, kids walking around in diapers, people selling things on the side of the road, etc.). This would prove to be one of the most interesting parts of Siem Reap for me. The juxtaposition of modern and traditional things was unlike anything I had ever seen before, and it was one of the most lovable things about Cambodia.

After riding to the Angkor Archaeological Park, we bought our tickets into the temple sites for $20. It was strange using US dollars again, but it was nice using money that I have been acquainted with. Cambodia uses both US dollars and the Cambodian riel. One thousand riel equals about 25 cents in US currency.
Our driver then took us to the entrance to Angkor Wat. Upon arriving, and even before we stepped out of the tuk tuk there were people trying to sell us books about the temples and Cambodia and hats and anything else you could think of. "Hey laday, you want a hat? It's very hot in there," I heard in an annoying voice (even more annoying than the Korean accent). It was a bit overwhelming being approached by so many people trying to sell us things. The Angkor complex was huge, and from where our driver dropped us off, there was a gravel parking lot to our left and a stone bridge/walk way leading over the moat to Angkor Wat. The weather was great, albeit hot as balls, and I was super excited to be out and about in Cambodia. There were tons of tourists at Angkor Wat, and it was very comforting to see so many different people. Compared to Korea, Cambodia is so diverse, especially in the tourist community. It was even more diverse than being at home in the US. It was also very awesome and comforting to be in a place where the majority of people spoke English (in addition to Cambodian or other languages) and have almost everything written in English as well as other languages. I knew the language difference here in Korea was a stress for me (especially when shopping and such), but I didn't realize the extent of it until I was in a place where I could confidently ask anyone anything in English and knew they'd most likely understand me. It was very comforting to say the least.

Ok, what to say about Angkor Wat...
It's hard to put the experience into words. We walked across the bridge to the temple and I had a sense of awe. We were seeing, feeling, and experiencing so much history and something that I had dreamed of seeing for years. The temple was very crowded with tourists, but it was beautiful. The stone blocks were a shadow of what I can only imagine was a breathe taking temple when it was built. It was very interesting to imagine what the temple looked like when it was new, with decorations, since there were only remnants of its original beauty left to see. The relief sculptures were beautiful, the entire building was enormous and deserving of respect devoid of the decorations.
After walking around Angkor Wat, we met our driver again and went to the Angkor Thom complex. The Angkor Thom complex included the Bayon temple (with tons of stone faces built into the towers) and many smaller temples and buildings. We wandered around taking pictures for a few hours. My favorite temple was in the Angkor Thom complex (I think), and it was almost empty of tourists. The temple was 3 tiers of stone temple, which we climbed to the top using very steep, worn stairs. The view was awesome. There was forest as far as you could see. I think I enjoyed it more because of the view and the fact that there were only like 3 other people there while we toured it.
After that temple, we went to Ta Prohm. This temple is probably the most famous (aside from Angkor Wat) because of its amazing trees. The temple was left the way it was found to show tourists the way all the temples looked before their restorations. It's interesting to see which parts were restorations and which were original, and in all honesty, it's very hard to tell most of the time. We hired a local man to give us a tour of Ta Prohm for $7, and he was very helpful. He explained that the trees were hollow and basically useless because of that. They couldn't be used for making anything because they were hollow, but they served their purpose at the temple. The trees grew on top of the temple stones and eventually grew into the stones, supporting the structures. If the trees were cut down, the structures would tumble as well. In addition to this purpose, the trees were huge and very beautiful. Their roots grew down the sides of the stone walls like pythons, and added an effect that wasn't at any of the other temples. While a lot of Ta Prohm was left the way it was found by the French, the juxtaposition of nature and stone buildings was deserving of awe. I guess Cambodia is a land of juxtaposition. The temple was great, and pretty much everything I had imagined it would be. Oh, and while we were at Angkor Wat, we saw our first monkey. There were monkeys wandering around all over the complex, and we even saw one get hit by a car...it was very interesting.

After wandering the temple complex for hours, we had our driver take us back to the guesthouse where we showered (because it was super hot and sweaty), and we headed to Pub Street for dinner. Pub Street was super interesting. There were tons of foreigners there, and there were all types of restaurants very eager to have you eat there.
We ate at a place called the Temple, and we had great seats facing the street so we could people watch and enjoy our meal.
It was a great, full day.

December 29, 2009~

After another great, relaxing breakfast, we were prepared for our tour of the floating village at Tonle Sap lake. Unfortunately, our tour was scheduled for the next day, so we had to come up with some plans for the day during breakfast. We asked our driver to take us to the Landmine Museum. The museum was pretty far north of Siem Reap by Banteay Srey. I knew that Cambodia had a history regarding war and such, but the museum was an insight into what the people of Cambodia have dealt with over the years in regards to that. Learning about landmines made me pretty sad. People can really be horrible sometimes, and it was kind of disheartening to learn about what my home country and other countries have been doing or not doing in regards to war. Landmines were created to specifically injure and not kill soldiers because an injured soldier costs more than a dead soldier. Unfortunately, landmines don't only effect soldiers, but common and innocent people as well.
After the landmine museum, we visited the Angkor Butterfly Center for $4, and it was really cool. Stuart really took to the butterfly environment, and there were cool displays of butterfly cocoons. The butterflies were just flying around the place, with nets keeping them in the area. There were tons of butterflies in Cambodia, and it was really cool to see them at this center.

We went to dinner again at Pub Street, and it was delicious.

December 30, 2009~

We woke up around 8am to get ready for our trip to Tonle Sap Lake and the floating village. Our van arrived around 10, and we were off with 2 other couples to our tour of the floating village at Tonle Sap Lake. The lake is interesting because it rises a lot during the wet season, and during the dry season, the floating village moves to the river part of the lake. I've never heard of a lake changing in size so drastically every year. The tour started with us driving to our boat and seeing a bunch of houses up on stilts. It was definitely a look at the more rural side of Cambodia. Siem Reap is comprised of about 90,000 people, so it's a city and has a city feel to it, but the country side was very interesting to experience as well. There were tons of rice fields with palm trees along the edges and little houses/huts on stilts along the road. The floating houses were overall very colorful, and I could only imagine what it would be like to grow up in a community based on the wet and dry season of the lake. There were kids swimming to little boats and from house to house, there were churches and schools floating along the river, and it was so amazing. It was just a totally different lifestyle than what I've ever been accustomed to. There was even a floating basketball court. What an amazing place.
After touring in our boat, we stopped at a crocodile and catfish farm where we held pythons. It was awesome! Then we went to a Tara boat and had lunch. The boat was 81 years old, and it felt a lot like the movie Ghost Ship--the old school type of cruise liner feel.
Overall, the tour was fabulous, and it was a great way to spend $27. Our tour guide was awesome, and it was a great look at another aspect of Cambodia. After the lake tour, we went to a tour of the Artisan Angkor complex in Siem Reap which is a place where local people are taught artistic techniques including carving, painting, and such things.

After the tour, we rested a bit and headed back to Pub Street for dinner and drinks, and then headed back to the guesthouse for the night.
December 31, 2009~

After yet another great breakfast at our guesthouse, we ventured to the Butterfly Garden restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was just on the other side of the Siem Reap river, and it was very beautiful. Like the Angkor Butterfly Center, there were nets surrounding the place to keep the butterflies in, but this place was a restaurant. We had a great lunch while enjoying the fluttering butterflies. While were were eating, there were a bunch of kids hanging out with covered baskets full of butterflies. They were so cute! It turns out the restaurant buys the butterflies from the local kids to promote local business and help the kids support their families. It was a great place to spend the morning.
After lunch, we walked around the markets for a while and enjoyed the sunny weather. We then went on a tour of a silk farm just outside of Siem Reap which was in connection with the Artisan Angkor complex. It was interesting to learn about how silk was made, and it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

After the tour, we went back to the guest house to rest before our new years excursion. Around 7pm we went out of our room, and the family running our guesthouse was having a great celebration for new years. There was tons of food and people celebrating, and it was great to be invited to spend New Years with their family. After eating a bit, we headed out to Pub Street to celebrate our own New Years. We had a few drinks a couple places, and ended up at a place called the Giddy Gecko (which was appropriate because there were TONS of geckos in Cambodia) where we smoked hookah and got to know the owner's parents who were there on vacation from Bahrain. There was some live music, and tons of people hanging out enjoying the New Year, and it was a great way to spend New Years. Around 1am we headed back to our guesthouse, and went to bed.

January 1, 2010~

We slept in on our last day in Siem Reap, and then decided to head to the children's hospital to give blood. In past days, we had seen a line of parents and kids lined up outside the hospital, and it turns out they give free check ups for kids, and they need tons of blood. It was the first time I had ever given blood, and we were the first 2 people to give blood at the hospital in 2010. The guy had a hard time finding my veins, which I expected, but it turned out well, and it was a great way to spend the morning.
After giving blood, we went out to eat and hung out at our guesthouse until we left for the airport in the evening. It was a very sad feeling to leave Siem Reap. The people are so happy and grateful for everything in spite of whatever they have or don't have. I would seriously move to Cambodia right now if I had a job there. It's a great place to visit, and I can only imagine living in a place like that all the time.
Around 9pm we left for the airport and our flight back to Korea left at 11:20pm.
The flight home was about 4 and a half hours, and it was nice and easy (although I didn't sleep at all).
We arrived back in Korea around 7am, and headed back to Bundang. I was sad to leave Cambodia, and I don't feel quite ready to head back to work yet, but it'll be nice to get back into the groove of working with the kids again. I already miss the diversity of Siem Reap.

Overall, the vacation was amazing, and I'd totally recommend going to Siem Reap. I hope the new year contines to be great, and I hope this blog accurately describes my experiences in Cambodia as I can.

Relief at Angkor Wat

Face at Bayon Temple

My favorite temple from the outside

Ta Prohm

Back to Reality

2010-01-02T20:04:00.006+09:00

Happy New Year!! 2010 will rock our faces off, I'm sure. :o)

Vacation was awesome, and it's a little more bitter than sweet to be back in Korea. First, there is still snow on the ground here, which I like because it's winter, but coming from a week in Cambodia (where it's about 75 degrees every day) is quite a shocker. I plan to write a lot more about my trip very soon, but it's too soon to have the experience synthesized in my brain, and I want to have it all mapped out in my head before I write about it.

In short, the trip was awesome, Cambodia rules, and here are some pictures to tide you over until I tackle the entire trip in blog form.

Watching: Project Runway

End of 2009

2009-12-26T23:54:00.003+09:00

We had Christmas celebration activities at school on Thursday, including Santa visits and gifts for the kids. Stuart and Don played Santa for the morning kinder kids, but I had to play Santa for the afternoon kinder kids. Our afternoon festivities began by playing a movie for the kids. Unfortunately, the scheduled movie was one of the Harry Potter movies, and the beginning was Voldamort's death or something, and 3 or 4 of the kids started crying. In an attempt to save the day, Amanda searched for a Christmas themed movie while I danced and sang for the kids. Rudolf was played, and all was well. Then, I dressed up in the Santa suit and gave out presents. I wish I had my camera because the whole thing was hilarious. My beard kept falling off because my ears are so damn small. haha! All and all it was a good time, I suppose.

Today, Stuart and I went into Seoul to the Seoul Museum of Art and saw the Andy Warhol exhibit. It was pretty rad. I've always been a fan of pop art. I even made my own rendition of Elvis pop art during high school (which I still love). There were tons of his pieces and some artifacts from his life (various certificates and books and such). The museum was really packed, and people lined up around the gallery like they were in line for a ride at an amusement park. It was strange, but pretty cool.

Cambodia in 14 hours! :o)

Listening to: Bomb--Band of Skulls

3 days

2009-12-21T22:22:00.004+09:00

Only 3 days until vacation. *sigh*
It's been about 5 months since I went home for vacation at the end of July, and it really feels like it's time for another vacation. This week will be a breeze. No school on Friday makes things WAY more manageable. I can't wait to write about all the adventures we'll have in Cambodia over vacation. I've been waiting to go to SE Asia since high school. It'll be great.

On another note, I finished downloading season 5 of Lost, and I'm super excited to watch it. Season 6 starts in February, and I'm SO ready to find out how this saga is going to end. Watching Lost since being in Korea has been interesting. I can understand some of what Sun and Jin say, and it's kind of exciting. Watching Lost makes me miss Tonya a lot. We used to sit and watch Lost religiously every week. How I wish she was here.

Lost is here.

Happy Holidays

2009-12-18T19:03:00.004+09:00

The holiday season has arrived in Korea. Christmas is definitely present here, but it's a little different than back home. There are lights, trees, and holiday decorations, but I feel like the attitude around the holidays is a bit different than at home. There doesn't seem to be the overwhelming presence of "politically correct" holiday wishes, there are more "Merry Christmas" signs and trees with crosses on the top of them than at home. It's also difficult to gauge at school who celebrates Christmas or any other holiday because while there's a large christian population in Korea, the Buddhist population is also quite large. It seems to be a unique mix of practices amongst the students at school. I am a little surprised that our Halloween celebration was a whole day thing while our holiday celebration is just an hour or so during the day. Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/whatever celebrations were always more prevalent than Halloween ones at home. Some schools don't even get a vacation. Thankfully, we have a week off beginning on Christmas.

Last weekend, we went into Seoul and checked out the Seoul Snow Jam set up in Gwanghwamun Square in downtown Seoul. The square is packed between tall business buildings and next to the main gate to the palaces. It was a pretty interesting site. In an attempt to gain recognition for Korea as a tourist-friendly place, and help increase interest in winter sports since Korea wants to host the Winter Olympics down the road. A 34 meter tall, 100 meter long snow jump was erected out of piping and tons of snow and ice in the square. This is the first time the Big Air competition was held in Asia, and the first time it was held in an urban area. Boarders from 10 countries competed, and Gian-Luca Cavigelli from Switzerland placed first in the competition. It was a pretty cool thing to see against the urban backdrop. (Here and here are some sites with more info. and this is Stuart's blog where he has some sweet pictures from the event.)

On a school-related note, we're learning about habitats in my morning kinder class. While we were learning about the plains habitat we were talking about animals that live there, and a bison came up in our flash cards. I asked the class if they knew what this animal was, and one of my students replied, "It's a monster." To which the rest of the class looked at him strangely and another student began to giggle uncontrollably. To which I began to laugh hysterically. It's so funny when the kids laugh. That happened on Wednesday, and today I asked them how to spell "bison," and the kid that told me it was a monster raised his hand. I called on him, and he spelled "m-o-n-s-t-e-r." :o) It was HILARIOUS!

My online linguistics class is done. It feels weird not having that extra commitment hanging over my head.

Listening to: How's It Going to Be--Third Eye Blind

Let the changes begin

2009-12-11T20:14:00.002+09:00

Today my morning kinder student Ella had her last day at LCI. She's moving to Canada on Wednesday, and her leaving was kind of sad for me. I made today kind of an unofficial party day for morning kinder, including a "spelling test" party (complete with ice cream), dinosaur making (and laughing at how they sort of collapsed and looked like they were going to the bathroom), and unexpected "Santa" gifts for the kids (we made stockings out of paper last week, and I put bracelets/necklaces and stickers in them). The kids seemed to have a good time with it all. When the end of the day came, I was struck with a sense of sadness that Ella was leaving. She's been my student since I started, and class will be very different without her. That being said, she looked happy leaving, and I know she'll have a great time learning English in Canada.
This whole experience makes me wonder how I'll feel when leaving my students for good. I wonder what I would feel like had I ended my career at LCI in February after my first contract. I think it'll be a sad day when I have to say goodbye to my students (especially morning kinder) when they graduate in a year or so. I guess having to see kids move on is just another first in my life.

Snow

2009-12-08T19:24:00.004+09:00

Winter in Korea is nothing like winter in Minnesota, and I didn't expect it to be. However, the lack of snow has left me feeling out of place. Somehow snow makes the cold weather like a million times more tolerable and beautiful. It snowed a couple weeks ago for the first time, and my excitement was busting out of my head! It was just flurries, but it was amazing. It snowed again this weekend, and it was the perfect opportunity to cozy up inside and feel "winter." It really made me miss the nights I had spent knitting or watching movies with Tonya on winter nights while it was snowing like balls outside. It snowed again today during lunch time. Walking home for lunch was never so exciting and beautiful. :o) None of the snow has stuck, and it's never been more than flurries, but it's exciting.

My morning kinder class will be changing pretty drastically after this week. One of my students that has been in my class since I started (and at LCI for a year before that) is moving to Canada after Friday, and another student, who has also been here since I started, is moving to a new house and a new school next week. The class will be very different without them, and there are already new additions coming to fill their places soon. Change is definitely on the menu. The student moving to Canada's mom asked me to write a letter to her new teacher about her overall performance, and I'm not quite sure what to write. I wrote a letter this evening, but it feels a lot like our evaluation comments we write for the kids every couple months. She's leaving Friday, so I don't have much time to figure it out, but it'll be fine I'm sure.
When I first started teaching my other student who is leaving next week, I noticed that she'd switch between writing left and right handed. The last 6 months or so, though, she's been writing left-handed. (There are 3 left-handed kids in my morning kinder class.) Today she asked me what hand I write with, and I had noticed she was writing with her right hand again. She told me that her mom told her to write with her right hand instead of her left. I couldn't help but feel like she was being forced to be something she's not (as trivial as handedness is), so I pointed out the other 2 left-handed students in our class. I remember my step-sisters' grandma telling us that when she was in elementary school they made her write right-handed instead of left because being left-handed was looked down upon. Is Korea still in 1950? Maybe when it comes to that.

Happy December

2009-12-01T18:45:00.002+09:00

It amazes me how time flies here. It's already December! In the spirit of December, I'm listening to some good old Christmas music. :o) I'm not much for Christmas music, but it seems appropriate (even if I don't listen to it again before Christmas).
Last week, I was thinking about where I was a year ago, and it was kind of strange to realize I was working at Best Buy in the good old MOA. Black Friday loveliness included leaving Thanksgiving in Litchfield early to drive to work in the afternoon, spending half an hour driving from the MOA exit to the parking lot, having to park across the mall on the top of the ramp in the snow (I'm pretty sure there was snow up there), working with all the crazed shoppers, and spending the evening at the Cantina in the mall after work with some co-workers. In addition to that, I was in the process of planning my trip to Korea. I think I was just starting the interview and visa processes, still unsure if it was going to work out, if I'd be working at Best Buy forever...Needless to say, the year has flown by.

This year, I had "Thanksgiving dinner" with some friends at my friend David's apartment. The meal was as close to an actual Thanksgiving dinner as we could come. Turkey was hard to come by, and when we found it, it was about $70 for a smallish turkey. We settled for fried chicken from good old Chicken Mania (delicious!). We also had "garlic" bread from Paris Baguette, which was still not totally garlic-y, but more sweet. Koreans and their sweet tooth...
In addition to that, some people brought apple pie, deviled eggs, stuffing (which was delicious!), candied yams, and Stuart brought trusty old pizza :o) Over all, it was delicious and probably the food event of my week. However, I'm still jealous of all the delicious looking food that was had at the Dvorak/Kath Thanksgiving back home.
Although, Stuart and I went to an Italian place by Jeongja called Cafe Marianne on Friday, and that was pretty delicious. It certainly wasn't "real" Italian food, but it was good, and the "event wine" made it even better. We paid about $8 for unlimited house wine (they just kept bringing it). I guess last week was a good food week. The Italian food coupled with watching Angels and Demons (which takes place in Rome) made me really "homesick" for Italy. Perhaps I'll make a trip out there in the relatively near future. Summer vacation? We'll see.

On another note, we had teacher check-ups today at school. I guess our insurance company was offering the service for free, so most of us took up the offer. It was interesting for sure. First, I had a chest x-ray on a bus sitting out on the street in front of our school (strange). The guy giving the x-rays didn't speak very much English, so it was kind of funny when he was trying to tell us to take off our bras for the x-ray. Somehow Amanda picked up what he was trying to say, and it all worked out. It was still strange. Then, we headed to big play room and were measured (height and weight) and had our eyes checked. Back when I first came to LCI, the Korean staff was laughing because I guess my eyes are really good, and they did it again for this eye test. I suppose that's better than them laughing because I'm blind as a bat. :o) After the vision check, we had our stress test done. This was done by a guy taking a picture of our eye super close up, and then he analyzed the rings in our iris. I had never heard of anything like this, but I guess that my stress level is normal (I had one ring) and I'm stressed during the week but have no stress on the weekends. haha. I'm not sure how he came to that conclusion, but I'll take it. In addition to these tests, they tested our blood pressure with a mercurial measuring device. I wasn't aware people still used actual mercurial devices these days...then we had a urine and blood test. Overall, it was painless and easy, but strange being checked out at school. The whole medical situation is different here in Korea. Overall, there's like zero confidentiality. Even when I went to the Dr. for my back last month, people were all over the place, and there wasn't any real privacy or confidentiality. Whatever. I don't have anything to hide, but it's a little strange compared to at home.

Economic growth

2009-11-20T19:13:00.003+09:00

It's common knowledge that the world economy is going through a pitfall of sorts. It's evident in the job market back home, and everywhere else, but Korea seems to be managing these times with a great responsibility to its people.
My recruiter sent me a projection for the exchange rate in the next year done by Citi Group for a conference in New York, and it's looking quite lovely for the Korean won. The exchange rate was 1,165 KRW per US dollar on October 14th this year, and it's projected to be down to 1,050 KRW per US dollar by next September. That's good news for people like me transfering money home KRW. While life here will undoubtedly stay the same, I'll be making a little more in US dollars if the projection is correct.

I also came across this article which talks about how Korea's economic growth is surpassing the world's. According to the article, only two other developed countries, Australia and Poland, are seeing economic growth like Korea. While I'm not going to let my optimism get the best of me, I think it's fair to say I made a pretty good decision to stay here another year, at least in the financial sense.

63 Building and Everland

2009-11-15T20:15:00.003+09:00

Last night we made a trip to Yeouido to visit the 63 Building. It was pretty chilly, and the cold made it seem like we waited for the bus forever, but the 7007-1 eventually came. The bottom floor of the building is similar to a mall, and we bought our tickets to the Sky Cafe on the 60th floor and proceeded to the elevator. The glass elevator took us up to the 60th floor pretty quickly (thank goodness)...it was the longest elevator ride of my life! Once we got up there, the view was less scary and more amazing. The whole floor is set up as an art gallery, and the outside walls are all windows, so as you walk around the gallery, you can check out Seoul from 230 meters (approximately) up in the air. It was a pretty rad experience.

Today we ventured out to Everland. We caught the 1500-2 bus at Seohyeon Station, and it took us directly there (after like 30 stops along the way). Upon arriving, I noticed the Christmas theme immediately. There was Christmas music playing the whole time. "Everland, we love you!" came on too. First we ventured to the "American Adventure" part of the park and rode the Championship Rodeo ride. Everyone knows how Americans love rodeos! Then we wandered around to the Ferris Wheel and the "European Adventure" area. The park was pretty empty (probably because it was cold as balls), but it was nice. After doing a mystery mansion ride, we went to the Zoo-Topia. The Safari World attraction was really cool. We waited in line for maybe 15 minutes and got on a bus that drove into a caged area. Inside the area were tigers, lions, a liger, and bears just roaming around. It was pretty rad. After that we went to the Animal Wonder World (basically a zoo area) and the Friendly Monkey area. The baby monkeys were so cute!! By this point the sun was going down, and it was freezing, so we headed back to the entrance to head home.
While it was chilly and the big coaster was closed because of the wind, it was a really fun way to spend the day.

Hooters

2009-11-14T15:04:00.006+09:00

It was a co-worker's birthday on Friday, so we all went to Hooters in Gangnam to surprise him for dinner. He had no idea we'd all be waiting there with a big, fruity, whipped creamy cake from Paris Baguette. We sang happy birthday and the waitresses all came over and made him stand on a chair while they sang to him too.
There's a novelty to Hooters that is probably best expressed through some description of Florida back woods hillbillies drinking beer, eating chicken wings, and looking at dirty magazines. While it's not someplace I'd venture to often, it was a good evening. The chicken was super greasy (exactly the way I remember it from the time I want to Hooters in Acapulco), but it was pretty tasty. Oh, and Korean Hooters waitresses look a little like feminine boys.

November is almost over, and it's kind of nuts. Time is flying. Soon enough it'll be time for winter vacation and Cambodia! :o) We get 2 weeks of vacation time out of the year, and it's a little ridiculous to ask us to cut our vacation short by more than half. In all honesty, are we more likely to get sick going wherever we're going than we are sitting in our school? I mean about half our students have been sick...I'm pretty sure we've been exposed already.
Our flights are booked for Cambodia for December 27th. I'm really looking forward to the vacation and getting to explore Cambodia a bit. We're planning on staying in Siem Reap the whole time, but we'll see what happens. It should be a nice vacation.

Swine flu, renewing, and Lady Gaga

2009-11-04T19:10:00.002+09:00

The swine flu craze has hit the ceiling again here in Korea. A few months ago our school (and a whole bunch of others) shut down for a week to stop it from spreading in the schools. I'm pretty sure our director took a lot of heat for making that decision, and I know the school lost a lot of money during that week (even though the teachers weren't being paid). As time went by, you could still feel the concern in the air, but it wasn't critical. However, in the last couple weeks, more people started getting sick. I'm not sure if it's the flu or what, but it seems like about half our students are out sick or their parents pulled them out of school in fear that they'll get sick. Two of my classes last week didn't have any students, and my others were no more than half full. I guess the Korean government raised the awareness level for the flu in recent days, so the fear is as high as it's ever been. I know of some schools that are closing, and some that require everyone to wear masks in class to prevent spreading illness. It's a difficult situation for the schools to be in with a lot of considerations to make (parents' opinions and fears, monetary considerations, student well-being, etc.), but I wish the school would be consistent in how they deal with the fear. It seems crazy that we shut down months ago because one kid got sick, but now that many kids are sick (and one of the teachers), we're just changing out routine a little bit to limit exposure. Our kids won't be having classes all together until February, and we won't be teaching the other classes special activities until then either. I don't know, I just hope it works. People are freaking out, and it's stressful.

On another note, I signed my renewal contract today. It's pretty much official, and it's kind of a relief that I was able to make a decision (even if it was a tough, lengthy process). Part of me is a little apprehensive because I have no idea how I'll feel 3 months from now when my first contract is done, but I'm confident I'll be fine, even if I have to deal with a new bout of homesickness. I'm hoping this experience will give me some much needed practice at seeing things through and experiential longevity. I've had no problem making spontaneous decisions in the past, but it's another story when it comes to sticking to something for an extended period of time. I'm confident this will be a good experience, and I'll continue to make my post-college life eventful and fulfilling.

Lady Gaga just came on my ITunes (in shuffle), and it reminds me of one of my PK students. She was out of class for about a week because she was sick, and she came back this week. Upon arriving, he professed to me her new found love for Lady Gaga. I guess her sister loves her and has her album, and while she was home, she also developed an infatuation with her music. She has so much of an infatuation that she'll substitute names in stories we're reading out loud with "Lady Gaga." Instead of reading, "Moon had a bad night, and now she was having a bad day." She'll read, "Lady Gaga had a bad night, and now Lady Gaga was having a bad day." hahaha. It's hilarious to hear in class! We did an activity where the students had to write about what they wanted to find "around the corner," in connection with one of our stories where the character finds Spring just around the corner. This particular student wrote, "I went around the corner. There I found Lady Gaga." :o) Quite funny.
It's not so funny (more annoying) when she breaks out saying, "Lady Gaga, Lady Gaga, Lady Gaga...." over and over and over. What a goof.

Halloween

2009-11-01T22:55:00.003+09:00

Friday at school we had a Halloween party for our morning kinder classes. All the kids came to school in costumes, and most of the staff dressed up as well. I went to E Mart and got some fairy wings and a heart-antenna headband and wand on Thursday night and dressed up as a fairy. Although, most of the students asked if I was a butterfly.
We played pin the nose on the witch and some other Halloween games, carved jack-o-lanterns, and had a haunted house in the small playroom. All and all, I think the kids had a good time.
We had our Halloween party for the afternoon kinder kids on Thursday evening as well. There were some really cute witches, princesses, and tons of batmen and spidermen.

While a lot of the staff went to Hongdae or Itaewon for Halloween parties at the clubs, I had a pretty low-key night with a few teachers from school, playing cards and having some beer. It wasn't really a Halloween party (and I love Halloween), but it was a good time.

I've been weighing my options for after my contract is done here, and I think I've come to the conclusion to extend my contract with LCI another year. While listing the pros and cons wasn't very helpful, I've talked to a few people here about it, and LCI is a good job. I enjoy my job, it's super satisfying, and I'm enjoying my current lifestyle (especially since I've moved into my new, much bigger apartment). I've realized that I'm totally not sure where this road will take me, but I've also realized that I think I'll regret it if I run home now without figuring it out. I'm afraid of losing my connections at home with friends, but I'm confident our friendships will last if they're meant to. My choice to stay might be selfish in that I'm considering my own happiness and stability in my job satisfaction and such, but I think that's as good a reason to stay as any. Perhaps I'll feel differently once February comes around, I don't know. I have to make a decision, and I see myself being happiest staying at LCI for another year.

D Class Girls (3 princesses and a rainbow witch)

D Class boys (3 batmen and a warlock)

Stresses

2009-10-27T21:10:00.007+09:00

One of the teachers at my school moved home recently, and my school asked me if I wanted to move into her old apartment. It being about twice the size of my old place, I said "heck yes!" and have been moving in over the weekend. I didn't make the complete move until yesterday because the internet and TV weren't transferred over. I didn't realize (or want to realize) how addicted to the internet and TV I really am. Anyways, although there is a mountain of clothes staring at me and random stuff laying around everywhere, it feels go to be totally moved in here. The new building is a few blocks further from school, but it's nice to have a bigger place. Oh, and there is a whole wall of windows! Even though they pretty much look out to the next apartment building, I'm on the second floor, so there aren't bars, and it lets light in. I slept here last night, and this morning the sun actually woke me up. I can't tell you how long it's been since that's happened! haha. As Kevin put it, I was used to living in "the prison."
Unfortunately, the clothes are going to continue to stare at me for a few days, I think. While moving, I attempted to move the bed, which I had done a million times at my old place with no problems, and I pulled a muscle in my lower back. I have never felt anything like it before. It could be a lot worse, I think, but it's pretty uncomfortable and painful by the end of the day. Not to mention my new-found fear of moving because of it. It's only been a couple days, so it'll continue to get better pending any additional injuries.

I think I mentioned that my school asked me to extend my contract. They asked me again tonight if I had decided. I have to tell them this week what I've decided. I had hoped that I'd feel strongly one way or another by this decision point in my contract, but I'm finding that I go completely back and forth within the span of even a day. Last night I was sure I wanted to come home when I'm done, and later today I was sure I wanted to stay. I made a list of pros and cons either way, and unfortunately that has left me no closer to a decision. I guess I'll continue to weigh things out, and make a decision this week. I'm no good at making non-emotional, thought-out decisions....haha. Perhaps this is a great opportunity to gain a little skill in that area.

Me and my newest morning kinder student.

Just a smile :o)

Lists

2009-10-20T21:55:00.004+09:00

I've been thinking tonight about the places I've gone, and the things I've seen so far, and I compiled these lists.

Coolest places I've been (in no particular order)~
1. Pompeii
2. Assisi--especially the fortress overlooking the mountains
3. Duluth/Two Harbors area--Lake Superior and the cliffs around there are great
4. Teotihuacan: The Avenue of the Dead, Mexico City--Pyramids outside of Mexico City...full of history and awesomeness
5. Sistine Chapel--any sort of photo representation doesn't do it justice
6. Along the Mississippi in Minneapolis/St. Paul
7. Mountain (not sure which one) just north west of central Seoul--Amazing view of Seoul
8. Amalfi Coast, Italy--driving our bus around those edge of the cliff roads was an experience
9. Capri, Italy
10. Beach in Busan--City right up to the beach, pretty rad
11. Xochimilco, Mexico City--The colorful boats along the river were sweet
12. Galveston, TX
13. Taxco, Mexico--Mountain town
14. Seoraksan National Park, Sokcho, S Korea--Mountains never cease to amaze me, and the view from the cave in the mountain was awesome
15. The grotto at UST--timeless hang out and great place to go and think, right next to my library

(hopefully Cambodia will be added to this list very soon!)

Best food and drink (once again no particular order)~
1. Neopolitan pizza in Naples
2. Capricosa pizza in Rome
3. The Vito and Jimmy Johns
4. Fogo de Chao--if only for the experience
5. The veal meal at Bernardi in Rome--great "home" cooking
6. Tacos in Mexico City--some taco place...haha...totally awesome
7. Watermelon on the beach in Acapulco
8. Espresso in Rome
9. Papa John's pineapple pizza

Garden Field Trip

2009-10-16T19:26:00.002+09:00

On Wednesday we took a trip to a botanical garden about 15 minutes from school. The weather was perfect. The previous day started out sunny, about 65 degrees, and then we had thunderstorms in the afternoon/evening, so there was concern that it'd be chilly and wet during the field trip. However, the sun was shining, and it was probably a nice 65 degrees. Our classes were paired up and each group had a guide from the gardens to show us around. The tour was in Korean, but our guide taught the kids about different kinds of seeds and plants, bugs, and other such things. There was an insect house where the kids got to check out bug wings under a microscope. They were pretty psyched on that. There was also the biggest beetle I've ever seen (a stag beetle, I think), and the lady was just holding it up and the kids were really into it. At one point she dropped it, and I kind of freaked, but it was a slow "little bugger."
After the tour, we had time to hang out with the kids, take them through a hedge maze, and take pictures. (Koreans love photo ops.) All and all, it was a good field trip.

On another note, the school asked me if I wanted to renew my contract today. I told them I wanted to think about it and get back to them. I'm not sure what I want to do yet.

Fighter Jets

2009-10-12T19:21:00.002+09:00

Today during the afternoon classes a series of fighter jets flew REALLY low just to the (I think) west of our school. It wasn't that strange until the like 6th group of three jets flew by. My afternoon class was freaking out because it was so loud. Even my Korean co-teacher went to the window to check out what was going on. The jets were so low, it seemed like they would have to dodge the tall apartment buildings by Jeongja if they got too close.
One of my students was saying things like, "I think we're going to die." While another student said, "Teacher, it's thunder in the sun." (It was sunny.)
I googled it to see what was up, and the word on the street (eslcafe.com) is that there's an air show going on soon, and they're practicing for that.
"Osan Airshow is on 21st Oct. Featuring A-10 Thunderbolt, F-16, F-4, TA-50 and the USAF aerobatic team Air Force Chunderbirds."

Yesterday I went into Seoul and visited Seoul Grand Park and the Seoul Zoo. We took the subway over there (about an hour, I think), and upon arriving, we took the sky lift (essentially a chair lift not for skiing). The sky lift went from the entrance of the park to the entrance to the zoo. Then we bought our tickets into the zoo (about $2.50) and then took another sky lift from the entrance of the zoo to the back of the zoo. We made our way from the back to the front, missing about half of the zoo because it was a big circle. It was just like any other zoo, I suppose, but they had animals like the "North American raccoon" and skunks in addition to the regular elephants and giraffes. All and all, it was a pretty good way to spend the Sunday.

On another note, a girl I know here is selling her few month old camera, and I'm totally going to buy it :o) It's perfect. I don't have to do any actual camera shopping, and she has a familiar buyer. I'm psyched to have a camera again!

Oh, and I want to chop my hair off.

Fall has arrived!

2009-10-10T20:21:00.004+09:00

Tonight I went to E-Mart with another teacher and two of the Korean teachers from LCI to advertise for our school. The Korean staff handed out LCI literature and talked to potential students' parents while Melissa and I painted kids' hands. We painted bears, rabbits, a variety of hearts, and shooting rainbow stars. It was painless (even though it took up my Saturday afternoon), and I got to paint and see kids smile, so it was fine.

Stuart and I decided to travel to Cambodia during our winter vacation (Dec 25th-Jan 3rd). We researched online and found some sweet guest houses to stay in that were about $5/night. The flights are pretty spendy, but it's to be expected during the holiday season. We went to Seohyeon (a couple subway stops away from home) to book our flights with a travel agent who gave us price quotes, but the agency wasn't open. :( I hope HOPE there are still seats available from Seoul to Siem Reap for those prices when we go check on Monday when they're open. I'm getting excited for vacation (although it's about 2 months away), and it'd be a bummer if we couldn't find a reasonable flight. *crosses fingers*

The weather here has been great! It's about 65 degrees during the day, and it's a lovely cool release from the humid summer weather. I write about this laughing inside because from what I've heard, the weather back home is about 30 degrees with snow on the ground. (Suckers!) If the weather could stay like this all year round, it'd be perfect, and I'd be unconditionally happy.

Picnic and Syntax

2009-09-29T19:19:00.004+09:00

Last week we had a school picnic at Bundang Central Park. It's always great to get to spend time with the kids not in the classroom, just having fun. We played various games and relay races with our classes, the school divided into two teams. We played tug-o-war, and the teachers had to demonstrate how it was done. So the teams of teachers were on each side of the rope, spread across this field in the park. The tiny Korean lunch ladies (who until recently were known as "lunch lady" followed by a number) joined our teams, and the game was on. Unfortunately, we had to "play" 3 times to determine a winner...tug-o-war is harder work than you'd think (especially when it's the middle of the day and the sun is beating down on you). Regardless of the strain involved in playing, it was enjoyable. The kids were psyched up, and they got to play next.
After our games, we had lunch (kimbap) with our classes in the shade. While the lunch at picnics is always questionable, afterwards we got to play around with our kids for a while--some unstructured fun. :o) Some kids chased pigeons for a while, and after a bit a game of tag ensued. Basically the game consisted of about 50 kids chasing a teacher around this field until they were caught and passed the kids off onto another teacher by yelling, "Get (insert name) Teacher!!" And all the kids would automatically turn in their tracks and head for that teacher. It was pretty fun :o)

On another note, my linguistics class is going pretty well, I think. The homework is pretty rough sometimes, in the sense that the concepts are really difficult to understand from the book, and I have to re-read everything a couple times to have any kind of sustainable grasp on it. Syntax has never been so difficult for me. While I feel like I'm retaining some of the information, like I think about the sentence structure when I write or read anything now...it's difficult to put my innate knowledge of English into mathematical rules of phrase structures. Luckily, the next chapter is on semantics, and so far it's seeming to be a bit easier to maintain a hold of understanding on. It reminds me of my philosophy classes I've taken, determining the truth value of a statement and such. I'm sure this means a ton to anyone reading this :o) I'm just putting it out there.

This week is a 3 day work week for us at LCI because this weekend is the Korean Thanksgiving (Chuseok). We were supposed to have a seminar Thursday morning about curriculum changes and such, but we convinced the staff to let us do it Wednesday night instead. Even though I don't have any plans as of now, a four day weekend is definitely a welcome thing. Sleeping in will be glorious!!

(The picture is of the kids turning from me to Stuart teacher during the game of tag at the picnic. Thanks for the sweet picture, Stuart!)

Weekend in Busan

2009-09-20T21:39:00.004+09:00

We had a staff dinner on Friday at a local BBQ place. Delicious as always, and free :o) all the teachers and staff at LCI had dinner together. I was planning on going on a temple stay this weekend with some ladies from work, but during dinner a couple of my co-workers invited me to come to Busan with them. The plan was very last minute, so much so that when we went to get bus tickets (for the last bus at 10), they didn't have enough for all of us. Stuart, Jason, and I decided since we didn't get bus tickets, we were going to take the KTX (train) to Busan in the morning. We booked the train tickets for 5:30am on Saturday, and as a result, didn't go to bed Friday night. We went to Seoul Station (where the train left from) at about 1am, and hung out there with all the homeless and late-night Koreans until our train left for Busan.

The wait was quite long, but once the train came, our weekend was on. We arrived in Busan at about 8:30am Saturday, and took the bus to our motel. Jason had been to Busan a few times, so he knew how to get around Korea's second largest city. We stayed in a love motel for pretty cheap. After showering and such, we headed to the beach to meet up with Forrest and his friend Livy. We spent the day at Haeundae beach (a couple blocks from our motel). I got pretty sunburned, but it was nice weather, and a great chance to spend time at the beach before winter. It might very well be my last ocean beach experience in Korea.
We swam in the ocean, and chilled on the beach all day. I really wish Minnesota was along an ocean...the ocean is amazing!

Stuart and I on the beach.

Saturday night we went to the fish market and had dinner. Basically we picked out live sea creatures from a vendor, and they took them upstairs and cooked them for us for dinner. We had king crab, snapper, and some various clams. We also got a squid...which was served still moving! I swallowed my guts and ate some. It tasted the same as regular squid, just moving and sucking in my mouth...
This morning we went to the Busan Aquarium. The aquarium was pretty big, and had tons of sea animals. There were tons of sharks, and they had a huge octopus. It was a good way to spend the morning before heading back to Seoul.

All and all, the weekend was spontaneous and pretty fun :o)

Busan from the roof of our motel.

Recognition and Korea v. Australia

2009-09-07T21:03:00.004+09:00

Until this month, I had been the only teacher at my school to teach an afternoon kindergarten class. Being the only one teaching a class like this, left me with little comparison to know how I was doing. However, a couple weeks ago, my co-teacher told me that our school has a good reputation for our afternoon kinder program (according to the parents talking), so that was good enough recognition for me. It was hard to judge how well I was doing because no one else was teaching the same type of class, and I couldn't compare myself to anyone else in any way.
Today, the director at our school wanted to see me after work. I went into his office, and he told me that our school has a really good reputation for our afternoon kinder program, so he was giving me a bonus as thanks for bringing all these new kids into our school. I was super surprised, and thankful that my work was being recognized by the director of our school. I'm glad there are new families interested in sending their kids to our school, and I'm glad I could be part of setting up our good reputation. :o)

My afternoon kinder class until this month--one student went to morning kinder, one student moved, and I got 2 new students within the last couple weeks.

On Saturday I went to the national soccer game Korea vs. Australia. It was all the best Korean players versus all the best Australian players. It was super fun! The games I've gone to thus far have been the FC Seoul team vs. other Korean teams, but this game was the national team, and it was super exciting. The stadium was way more packed than usual, and there were tons of non-Koreans there. Korea beat Australia 3 to 1, and it was a good game. I'm starting to really like soccer. I liked it before, but I had never seen it played professionally. It's a fun game. :o) And the crowd was great!

Here's a a picture of the teams on the field during the national anthems and a video of the Korean flag being "lowered" after the Korean national anthem, before the game.

Morphology and brain function

2009-09-01T21:50:00.004+09:00

My online class has been going well. The material continues to be very interesting. I'm finding myself amazed at how similar all (I'm not sure if there are exceptions) languages are. In our assignments, we're supposed to "decode" the rules of morphology of languages like Zulu, Dutch, and Michoacan Aztec by looking at a few nouns and verbs and how they're related to their roots. While I'm sure these assignments don't even scratch the surface of the complexity of language, it's rather amazing to see how similar they are processing-wise once you realize what the system entails.
I just happened to come upon a show on the National Geographic channel (my favorite channel back home!!) that was about the genetics of humanity. In the experiment, they took about 100 people from the streets of New York and decoded their DNA with the expectation to find all the genetic variations of humanity. While the sample size was considerably smaller than one would hope for in an experiment, it was an interesting show. They profiled a few of the people, and looked at their known heritage, and then traced their DNA back thousands of years and looked at the similarities. In the end, the participants were told to stand on their continents of origin according to their known heritage (their most recent DNA additions--European, Asian, African, etc). The further back in the DNA profiles they went, the more the groups came together. First, the American groups (the ones that traveled the furthest) rejoined the Middle East group, which consisted of Asians, Europeans, and Middle Easterners. From there, their DNA was joined into one big group in Africa (back like 80,000 years or something).
First of all, I wasn't surprised by the findings of this experiment. However, my reaction to the findings and the visual presentation of the findings was awesome. Despite everyone's cultural and perceived differences today, everyone is genetically almost the same. Race doesn't exist beyond our minds--genetically there is no difference. It was so inspirational, and yet so disheartening that so few people think that everyone is the same at the basics.
What does this show have to do with my class? :o) Well, during the show they briefly touched on the origin of human language. While the circumstances and exact timing of the emergence of language skills is unknown (and will probably remain so), it seemed incredibly relevant to my class.
We're reading about language and brain function right now, and it's amazing how little we know about the brain shows that people are so similar in how they process language. It makes me wonder if it's possible for people to develop and evolve separately to process language differently. Right now, it seems that language is processed in the brain the same no matter which language you speak or where you live. Would a separation of language development processes cause a separation amongst the human race? Language ability (whatever language is utilized) seems to be (and is said by some to be) the differing factor between humans and animals. Could humans evolve into separate groups based on language processing? I had never thought about it before. Language is so paramount to humanity.

On another note, I went to another soccer game this weekend. It was fun, even though Seoul lost to Ulsan. Another teacher from my school (Stuart), my friend Hyun, and I all wore purple shirts...(neither of the teams was purple). It was a fun night.

World Cup Stadium stands during the game.

Hyun, Stuart, and I in purple.

The end of August

2009-08-24T21:44:00.004+09:00

This week has been good. I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things at school. Since before vacation, our schedule has been kind of weird. The week off for swine flu, then our planned vacation lead to a deviation from the monthly schedule I've been following since I got here. Last week I started planning my August big tests and September lesson and homework plans, so it feels normal again. Some of my classes are going to change in September because the students took placement tests, and some of them are being moved around. I know 2 of my PK (2:40) students are going to a different class and 1 of my textbook level students is moving classes. While this will be a change, they're all moving up a level, so it's good to know they're excelling. I got a new student in my morning kinder class last week, so we're all adjusting to the new class dynamic. It feels a little like the first couple weeks of class back in March when everyone was more stressed out and trying to find their place in the classroom. Fortunately, things are starting to mellow out this week. However, I'm getting another new morning kinder student soon, and hopefully the transition will be as easy as this one is proving to be. My morning kinder class will be six boys and three girls when the newest student arrives, so it'll be an interesting balance.

Stuart's picture: Me, Andy, Tara, Jessica, Amanda, Hyun, and Stuart at the Seoul Racecourse Park--horse racing.

On another note, I spent last weekend going out in Bundang and Seoul celebrating some of the teachers' contracts ending. It was nice to get to hang out with all the new teachers outside of school and get out and just have a good time. I've spent far too much time alone in my apartment the last few months. We went to the Seoul Racecourse Park to watch the horse races on Saturday. While it was interesting seeing literally thousands of people placing bets and marking their strategies on pages sprawled out on the floor in front of them, gambling isn't really my thing. It was a good time, though, celebrating Andy's 5 year anniversary of being cancer free.

The last bit of news comes in the form of continuing education. I started my online class (Introduction to Linguistics) today, and it might be the sheer novelty of it, but I'm super excited to be studying and learning new things again, especially things so applicable to my job. It's just really interesting.

Becoming a "planner"

2009-08-10T19:43:00.004+09:00

In light of my feelings about vacation and my life in Korea, I've made a few decisions lately. Yesterday, I went to an English service at a church close to where I live. I went with my friend Hyun, and I have to say it was the best experience I've had in a long time. While I'm not sure exactly what the values of the church are, it seems like an alright place to go for now. We went out to lunch with some of the other new-comers and some others from the church, and it was great. The English community is made up of both Koreans and foreigners (largely English teachers, but some others who live in the area as well). The community was very welcoming, and they have volunteer opportunities to teach English to orphans and N Korean refugees on the weekends, so I'm pretty excited to go back next weekend. I'm pretty interested in doing some volunteer work, and maybe some Bible study or something. If anything else, it seems like a good place to meet new positive people.

On another note, I decided to register to take an online class through SCSU this fall. In order to do the masters program (pretty much anywhere) for teaching English as a second language, an introduction to linguistics is required. Since it's an undergraduate course, I can just take it online, even if I don't end up doing the graduate program there. The whole graduate program is offered online, but I'm not sure I want to dive into the graduate classes right away, and I'd have to take the GRE very soon to be accepted into the program. So! taking the linguistics class seems like a good way to satisfy my need to keep learning, and perhaps get me on track for doing the graduate program when my contract is up here. I'm pretty excited about it all :o)

A sweet dream

2009-08-03T06:36:00.007+09:00

If I had to sum up my vacation home in one word, it would have to be "surreal." I arrived in Minneapolis on the 25th and left for Korea again at 5am on the 31st. Upon arriving, in the airport, I immediately noticed a couple things. The first thing was the strange feeling knowing that everyone around me could understand what I'm saying. You don't realize how much you take communication for granted when you have it at your disposal. Even saying "thank you" and "I'd like that" at restaurants had new meaning. In addition to that, I realized how accustomed I had become to being in a homogeneous society. It took a couple days for me to be used to being around diversity again. In Korea, it's almost always 99% Korean people and 1% westerners.
After these initial observations, my vacation began. Seeing everyone again was rather amazing. While I knew that it had been about 6 months since I'd seen them, I felt like I never left.
I spent most of my time with friends, hanging out, singing karaoke, going to the zoo, going to the mall, etc. I played disc golf for the first time, and it was great. While playing, I totally found a button on the ground :o)

I think the biggest thing I got out of my vacation, outside of getting to spend some quality time with the people I love, is the realization that my life here in Korea is lacking. While my professional life is pretty awesome, my personal life is less than satisfactory. Before my vacation, I could feel the unbalance, but I wasn't sure what I was missing. Being home gave me a point of reference as to what I want my personal life to be like here in Korea. With this new reference, I feel optimistic that I'll be able to make the necessary changes here to bring my professional and personal lives in balance. For as long as I can remember, my personal life has been my focus, and I was able to build my life around that balance. However, upon creating my professional life here in Korea, I moved into a new realm, and I didn't account for balancing the two aspects.

Ideas for creating balance:
1. Smile as much as possible.
2. Say yes to joining activities whenever invited, no matter how tired or anti-social I feel.
3. Be thankful for everyone and everything.
4. Do "touristy" things.
5. Get out of my apartment after work, for whatever reason, even if it's just a walk.
6. Open up to new people.
7. Laugh, laugh, laugh.

Todd and I after our marshmallow fight

Me, Jeremy, Jake, Steve, and Kev

Kevin, Me, and Tonya

Tonya and I at the Twins game

Power Revival and Vacation

2009-07-21T13:04:00.005+09:00

Last weekend I went to church camp with my friend Hyun. It was a strange experience being the only non-Korean person there. There were about 300 people from his church there to worship and hear the messages from speakers over the weekend. Hyun translated most of what people said to me, so I'm super thankful for that! Being there surrounded by the Korean language and culture made me want to learn more while I'm here. I can't really communicate in Korean, but I'd definitely like to after this weekend.
I met some really cool people from his church. Although everyone was shy to meet and talk to me in English at first, they started opening up after a little while, and it was good. It was a great experience being surrounded by so many positive people for the weekend, and I haven't been that happy in a while.
My Korean was definitely a novelty to everyone there :o) We had chicken one night, and they had some extra for the group, but we had to ask for it. So, my group had me go up and ask for more in Korean because they would be impressed and not turn me down. :D So, I went up to the guy at the front of the group and asked for more, "hana ma juseo." And we got the chicken. Success!

:o) It was a great weekend overall, and I'm glad I got to experience it.

On another note, it's good to be teaching again. I'm really looking forward to vacation next week, but it's nice to be back in class with the kids.

I'll be heading home on Saturday here and arrive in Minneapolis on Saturday there for a week of vacation at home. Hopefully it'll prove to be an awesome, much needed vacation. :o)

Me and Hyun's choir

Me and Hyun

Bitter sweet

2009-07-13T18:57:00.003+09:00

So, I decided to come home to MN for my vacation the last week in July. One of my friends was going to come visit, but he couldn't last minute. I didn't make other plans with people who are traveling during that time, so I decided to come home.
That's all fine and dandy, I'm looking forward to spending the 5 days or so hanging out with people back home. But! today after work we had a meeting, and I guess some kids around here are getting swine flu. Because one kid at my school got it, we have the whole next week off. That would normally be great news, except it's such short notice, and I have to work for four days before my scheduled vacation the last week in July.
I want to come home now...3 weeks vacation is SO much better than one...
*sigh*
I just don't know what I'll do for a week without work with such short notice.
We'll see.

On a different note, I spent last weekend in Boryeong at Mud Festival with some friends. It was great to get to spend time at the beach and just hang out with people again. I haven't been doing very much as far as extra-work activities, and it was a nice vacation.
We left Friday night, and after a couple hours of bus mis-communication, we left around midnight and arrived on the west coast of Korea around 3am. After another hour or so of confusion (the person who organized the buses and hotels wasn't very organized) we made it to our little love motel around 4am. I shared a room with my friends Hyun, Seon, and a fellow teacher named Forrest.
On Saturday, we slept in and went to the beach around noon. It was cloudy and kind of gloomy, but it was still nice. We set up a little tent that another teacher brought and hung out on the beach, swimming, getting muddy (which is supposed to be good for your skin), and having a good time. It was a little strange being in a place with so many foreigners. I'd say 80% of the people there were either teachers or military foreigners and their Korean friends.
There was live music, mud slides and pools, and of course the ocean :o)
It was kind of shocking going swimming in such salty water. I don't remember the last time I went swimming in an ocean, it's usually fresh lake water for me. It was really fun.
Around 5pm it started raining, so we went back to the motel, and got ready for dinner. After dinner, some of us napped, and around 9pm we went back to the beach (in the rain) and saw fireworks. They were really cool, I usually don't think fireworks are anything amazing, but these were pretty good. Part of their amazingness might have been that we were watching them in the rain...I've never done that before.
After drying off, we went to noraebang (karaoke) for the rest of the night.
The next day, people started heading back to Seoul, and we were waiting for our bus to leave at 4pm, but there was a typhoon in the area, so we decided to leave earlier by train. That was the first time I'd been in a typhoon (which amounts to basically large amounts of rain and wind), and the first time I'd ridden on a passenger train across country.
Typhoon and mis-communications aside, it was a good vacation.

From the motel at night and during the day.

Seon, me, Jason, Hyun, and Alex on the beach.

Jason, Seon, Alex, me, and Hyun muddy on the beach.

Silly and random is sometimes the best way to be

2009-07-03T20:19:00.003+09:00

So, for anyone who might not know, for the last couple years I've been finding buttons randomly on the street. I was just thinking about it and how much value I've put on finding them. It's the silliest thing ever, well maybe not EVER, but it's silly. I know. Somehow finding buttons makes me feel like I'm supposed to be there at that moment to find them.

I have my favorites.
A few weeks into being in Korea, I went to the Olympic Park in Seoul with a couple fellow teachers. We were walking around the ENORMOUS park, and we decided to stop and take some pictures. I stopped, looked down, and at my feet was a beautiful brown button.
That was the moment I knew I was where I was supposed to be, and I think it may have been the moment those teachers knew I was strange...haha.

Besides that one, it was always humorous when Tonya and Whitney would put their stray buttons in my purse or strategically placed in my bedroom back at The Colony.
Thanks for indulging my weirdness. :o)

So far, I have a collection back home that's probably up to about thirty, and my collection in Korea is up to 7....that's about 1.4 buttons per month I've been here--not bad.
Here's to finding new buttons.

Military people make me nervous in general

2009-06-27T22:50:00.005+09:00

I'm no expert on Korean relations, but I went to the Korean War Memorial today, and I can't help but think about the Korean war in light of recent events. I have to admit that I didn't know anything about the Korean war before I today. I knew it happened in the 1950's, but other than that, it was some distant thing for me.
After visiting the museum and memorial today, I feel like I have a new understanding of the past events. According to the memorial, and my history buff friend, the Korean war was a product of different ideologies. Before WWII, Japan occupied Korea, and had control of it's government. Visiting the Korean prison a few months back gave me a new perspective on all the turmoil that went on with that. But after WWII, Russia freed the north, and the US freed the south from Japan, since we were allies in WWII. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," I guess. Because of that seemingly good liberation, the two halves of Korea started developing different ideologies and beliefs about how government should be run. In 1950 Russian controlled North Korea tried to enforce their communist beliefs on South Korea by invading. After three days, North Korea occupied Seoul. North Korea, at one point, occupied all of S Korea except for the Busan region in the south. The US, being the nosey-know-it-alls we are, wouldn't have that, especially in the midst of the Cold War against communism. After some time, the US and UN (including more nations than I realized were involved) intervened, and they pushed the N Koreans and Russians back almost to the Chinese border. I guess the US wanted to invade China, but the war brought them to a stalemate in 1953 around the 38th parallel, which now divides north and south Korea. After some time in a stalemate, an armistace was settled between the north and the south. No peace treaty was signed.

Fifty years later, the north is threatening the south again. I can't help but feel like it's simply a different in ideologies. "Simply." As far as I can tell, the Korean people consider the north Koreans to be their brothers, but it seems their parents have let them down. Their differences have torn them apart, not unlike brothers in a family with parents with differing beliefs. The USA and Russia have let Korea down, it seems to me. Because no peace treaty was signed during the Korean War, it is still technically going on. If N Korea chooses to wage war on the south, it's still part of that conflict. I just hope that N Korea's allies 50 years ago have a change of heart in reference to the global community. Nuclear bombs are no laughing matter, and ideology should not be the defining factor in alliances when concerning a nuclear conflict.

I don't know what's going to happen with North Korea's threats, and I don't know if Korea will ever be reunited again, but it seems like their differences are a stupid reason to start a war. Who am I kidding, I don't think there's really a good reason to start a war...
Korea should take a look at its circumstances and ask if it's ready to liberate itself from it's Mother Russia and Father USA. Korea should be made a member of the global community, on its own merits, and ideology should be the least of concerns. Obviously, someone has been lead astray, and individuals shouldn't have to suffer because of pride and political mistakes. Think of your people, Korea.

Going to the War Memorial was an interesting experience.

This statue was of a South Korean brother meeting his North Korean brother on the battlefield, experiencing guilt, grief, and remorse at their conflict. The underlying dome represents Korea divided because of their ideologies. Inside the dome was a mosaic of battle and the nations that participated in the war.

Teacher picnic and Canny Village

2009-06-18T19:09:00.004+09:00

Some fellow teachers and I at our company outing

The restaurant

,
This week has just flown by! Last weekend we had a company picnic with the teachers and Korean staff at my school. It was nice to get to spend time outside of school with the people I work with everyday. First, we took a bus to a mountain about and hour from our school to do some hiking. On the way up the mountain, as we were driving our huge bus around a curve, I was thinking "if someone was coming from the other direction and didn't slow down, we'd totally have an accident," since our bus took up both lanes going around the curves. About a 20 seconds after that thought entered my mind, as we were finishing the curve, exactly that happened. A car came from the other direction, didn't slow down, and hit our bus right outside my window. It wasn't a very bad accident. The car's mirror was just bent in (like it was designed to do in such circumstances) and the front of their car was scuffed up a bit. Despite the relative harmlessness of the accident, our bus driver and the woman driving the other car proceeded to stand outside fighting. I couldn't hear what they were saying, and I wouldn't have understood it even if I did, but they were pretty animated and angry. We sat on the bus for about half an hour as traffic backed up in both directions, people got out of their cars to see what was going on, and the drivers continued to fight. Eventually the police showed up, took pictures, and had us move the bus up so cars could get around us. It seemed a little ridiculous. The other car stayed on the curve, so staff from our school got out and were directing traffic through the vehicle maze.

As the police were finishing up their jobs on the scene, they were standing outside my window. They started to walk back to their vehicle, away from our bus driver, and the bus driver proceeded to grab one of the officers by the arm and jerk him around. It was shocking to see. I couldn't believe that he was getting away with treating an officer like that. If something like that happened at home, the bus driver would either be roughed up or arrested himself. It goes to show the difference between American police and Korean police, I guess. From what I hear, the police here are pretty tame, and it's not a rare occurrence for Korean police officers to be beat up when they're trying to make an arrest or stop a situation. It was an interesting thing to see, to say the least.

After the accident business was taken care of, we made the rest of the drive up the mountain and did some hiking. I think it's fair to say that while all the old temples and fortresses and stuff are interesting and rather beautiful, once you've seen one, you've seen them all. We saw a building from the 1600s, and it looked just about the same as every other we've come across on hikes.

After the hike, we got back on the bus and drove to have dinner. We ate dinner at this restaurant that was literally on a creek. There were these metal platforms with rugs on them for us to sit on, and then in the middle of each table was a grill for the Korean barbecue. Korean barbecue is always delicious! The whole atmosphere was very relaxing and overall a good way to spend the Saturday afternoon. On the way home, we realized our bus had karaoke on it, so some teachers and I sang on the way home. It made the ride a lot shorter for us, but probably a lot longer for everyone else :o)

Today we went on a field trip with our morning kinder classes to a place called Canny Village. We had no idea what it would be like before we got there, but it ended up being pretty cool for the kids. The whole place was designed to educate kids about recycling and picking up garbage to take care of the environment. Everything was in Korean, but I think the kids had fun, so it was fun for me too. It was really nice outside today, and we got to have lunch outside on the patio of Canny Village, so it was a good day. I don't get much time to be outside, and if I do it's during the evening or night, so it was nice to get to spend time in the sunshine.

D Class lining up to go into Canny Village

Me with the Canny guy :)

The last blog-worthy thing for today is the inevitable invasion of childhood afflictions. Over the last couple months, kids in our school have been getting chicken pox. This really doesn't effect me since I had it as a kid, but despite our best efforts to enforce hand washing and such, the last case was in my class a couple weeks ago. As soon as that was behind us, I got pink eye. Luckily, I think I'm the only one that got it, the only one I know of, and it's been taken care of. This week, however, our school had a pretty significant outbreak of lice. Now, I'm not sure how schools handle lice back home these days, but I remember when I was in elementary school and people got it, they'd be checked and taken out of school right away, as not to spread it to anyone else. The way we're dealing with it here is strange. As soon as more than one person had it, all the kids were checked, but instead of telling their parents right away and taking them out of class, we just kept track of who had it. In light of how long it took to get rid of the chicken pox germs, this whole lice thing is rather daunting. I do not want lice. I haven't had it since 1991! I know this is all part of the awesomeness that comes with working with kids, but it seems like the way Koreans deal with illness and the like leaves something to be desired. Maybe that's my cultural bias speaking, I don't know. I just know that lice isn't fun, and parents and the school should be concerned about it spreading.

Swine flu, new teachers, and pink eye

2009-06-09T20:35:00.003+09:00

The Korean view on swine flu is amazing. There are new teachers coming to my school soon to replace the teachers who have been here a year (about half of them), and upon their arrival they have to remain in their apartments under quarantine for five days to make sure they don't have swine flu. Ok, I get the concern; they don't want people to get sick here, whatever, but is it necessary to quarantine just foreigners? One of the other teachers asked one of the Korean teachers about this today, and the Korean teacher responded by saying that only foreigners had to be quarantined because Koreans eat kimchi. Like kimchi makes one immune to the flu...it was the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a long time. I know a lot of companies here and in Japan have policies now that tell their employees here that they can't travel at all outside the country, for fear of spreading the flu. I get not wanting to make more people sick, but I don't understand the logic behind thinking only foreigners are likely to catch it or bring it with them. Koreans are just as likely to catch it; kimchi is what it is, but it's no anti-flu.

Beyond that, I feel sorry for the new teachers. They have to arrive in a foreign country only to be forced to stay in their apartments in isolation for five days. In addition to that, they won't have time to observe any of us to get a feel for the system at our school. What kind of welcoming policy is that?! I was alone in my apartment only for the weekend after my arrival, and it was quite long enough. Although I was free to come and go as I pleased, I didn't know where I was, and what's worse, I couldn't read anything to know where I was or how to get back to where I came from. That was enough to keep me in my apartment for the weekend. I can't imagine being forced to stay there for five days...

I know things will be fine, and this whole swine flu thing will blow over eventually, but it's a little ridiculous now. I hope that among all the flu weirdness the new teachers are able to feel welcome as possible. Oh! Another girl from MN is coming to my school soon through my recruiter. She'll make three of us from MN that worked with Don. There's also a guy at my school who's been here a couple months longer than me who's from Wisonsin, so the midwest is representing here in Korea (at least Bundang). :o)

On another note, I got pink eye somehow...but I went to the eye doctor today and got eye drops, so hopefully it'll clear up soon. I haven't had pink eye in about 12 years! It's a little strange. The eye doctor told me I had beautiful eyes as he was blaring that light into them during the exam...I forget that blue eyes are uncommon here because they're pretty common among teachers at my school.

Today, I wore my hair back in a bun/ponytail, and one of my students told me my hair was Korean. Haha. He said I just had to color it black, and I'd be Korean. What a cutie.

Until next time.

Weather, a new camera, and curiosity

2009-06-08T19:28:00.003+09:00

The weather here is very different from back home. When I got here, it was Winter, and it was chilly to cold, like a much milder version of home, but I still had to wear my coat at night. The season changes are where the differences are mostly. While it's clearly not Winter here anymore, the change from Winter to Spring, and now to Summer, is very gradual. I guess I'm used to weather where anything goes most of the time, and seasonal changes are marked by 40 degree weather one day followed by 80 degree days without warning. It's so much more gradual here. It's almost Summer, and it's completely snuck up on me. :o) No complaining here! It's nice, although it's getting pretty muggy and humid. From what I understand, it'll only get worse. At least it's somewhat predictable.

I bought a new camera last weekend, so the pictures will be flowing again. :o) I also think I caught pink eye...seriously, I haven't had that since I was like 8 years old. Today in one of my afternoon classes, one of the girls came up to me while I was teaching and asked, "Teacher, have you been crying?" because my eyes were red. :o) As much as the whole eye thing sucks, it was cute.

Last week in my oldest class, one of the girls was looking at a book I have about Ruby Bridges going to school during desegregation in the US in the 1960s. There's a picture of Ruby going into school with protesters standing in the background, and my student came up to me and asked something like, "why are all those people so angry?" So I tried explaining to her about desegregation and stuff in the US. She's quickly becoming one of my favorite students--her curiosity is amazing. It was a little surprising that she didn't understand prejudice when I explained it, even in simple terms, she kept asking, "but why would they not want her to go to school?" Korea is very homogeneous, so I can see how people here could think both ways. I guess I just assumed that because everyone is so similar here, they feel prejudice towards people who are different, say more than someone who lives amongst many different types of people.

One time I was out to eat with Hyun and Amanda, and there was a little kid at the next table (probably about 4), and she asked her parents something in Korean. Hyun laughed and explained that she asked her parents why we (Amanda and I) were in their country, and why didn't we just stay in our own country.

My student was really curious about the whole segregation subject, and then today we were in the library, and I showed her a book that was about Ruby Bridges but written for older kids, that had real pictures of Ruby and her teacher and stuff. She almost looked amazed that the pictures were really of Ruby Bridges.
I just love when the kids are interested in something like that; their curiosity is one of the things that keep me going.

승리서울 (Victory Seoul)

2009-05-31T00:58:00.004+09:00

Today I went to my first professional soccer game with a couple teachers I work with and my friend Hyun. We went to the game at the World Cup Stadium in Seoul and saw FC Seoul v. Kwangju. It was super fun and very entertaining, and the stadium was really nice.
Here's the link to the FC Seoul website: http://www.fcseoul.com/eng/index_eng.jsp

In other news, I've been studying the Korean alphabet a bit (a couple hours total), and I'm able to read a little bit here and there. The alphabet is pretty easy, but the big challenge comes when I sound out words and they amount to nothing more than unrepresentative sounds. However! when I was practicing, I got a can of lemonade from the convenience store, and decided to sound out what it said on the can (레모네이드)...it says lemonade! :o) I was pretty excited.

A Little Creepy

2009-05-25T23:51:00.002+09:00

I'm not normally one to jump on the fear-bandwagon, but the last couple days have been a lot of weird news here in Korea.

First, Korea's ex-president killed himself this weekend. According to one of my Korean friends, he was one of the best presidents here, all for human rights and such. He was being charged by the new government for bribery, and I guess the stress was too much for him to handle, so he walked off a cliff. There are vigils and memorials and such all over Seoul and S. Korea, and my friend is pretty broken up about it, so it seems like a big deal.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/05/117_45576.html

Second, the Swine Flu has officially come to Korea. While it's been in Japan for a couple weeks now, there haven't been reports of it here until recently. The Swine Flu part of it isn't want creeps me out, but the fact that there is a building of foreign teachers exposed to the virus who are being kept under quarantine. According to the blogs from the people in quarantine and other news websites, Koreans exposed to the virus are allowed to go home and be under quarantine, while the foreigners are being kept together in hospitals and other locations.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/05/117_45651.html

That website has info and links to blogs and stuff by the foreigners in quarantine.

Lastly, apparently, North Korea just did a nuclear test. While my life hasn't been directly effected, it's a little creepy having it happen so close by a nation that's expressed "less than friendly" feelings towards both the US and S. Korea.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8066861.stm

Just a little creepy.

My Second Favorite Class

2009-05-21T18:56:00.002+09:00

On Thursdays I teach art to morning kinder F Class for special activity time. Usually I teach different classes what's called Kids Excel (which is basically library time with computer stories and songs). F Class only has five students, five little crazy boys, and they've managed to hold a special place in my heart.
One of the students has told me that he wants to be an artist, and he loves art, which was really cool to hear. But today, he said something that amazed me. We were lining up after lunch to go to the classroom for art, and he was sitting down on the bench. He looks at me and says, "Teacher, it's my dream to do art." At first I didn't understand him, or that's what I thought he said, but it was so uncharacteristic of a 7 year old that I thought I misunderstood him. In short, that moment made my day :o)
I hope he gets to fulfill his dream.

May Picnic and New Green Day

2009-05-19T20:06:00.003+09:00

Cool Sarah in my sunglasses

Today we had our May picnic with LCI. We went to a "park" that was more of a tourist site for the tombs of an old king and his queen about 30 minutes from Bundang. It was nice to have a day with the morning kinder to just have fun. We spend so much time getting through our book work, practicing, forming behavior, and it was great to be able to get out and have fun with the kids. We played some structured games with them (relay games and such), and I think they had fun doing that. However, they spent so much time waiting for their turn, that they seemed to have more fun playing in the sand. We also didn't get to tour the site very much.

The kids keep amazing me, however much I feel like my experience here is becoming "just a job" at times. On the way home, I was sitting by one of my students on the bus, and we had a blast using our new vocabulary we learned the week before about illness and injury. During class, whenever I would ask the kids how they felt when they had a stomachache or headache, they would reply, "I feel excited and happy. No LCI!" haha...
So, on the bus, my student was saying things like, "when teacher has a broken arm, she feels excited and happy!" It was fun to just laugh and goof around with the students. We all work so hard.

On a worse note, I had my camera in my purse under my desk, and some of the kids like to hide under my desk before class. Well, some time between the picnic and my afternoon classes, my camera got stepped on and messed up. It's dead. :(
I think it might be the lack of sleep I had last night, but I felt so irritated by it. It was the first moment that I thought I needed a break. It's ok now, but it still sucks. There probably won't be any new pictures for a while...

On an unrelated, happy note, Green Day came out with their new album last week. It's a lot like their last one (American Idiot), but it's got some political lyrics, and I like it. Their American Idiot album (2004) was basically the soundtrack to my first year of college, and I was sort of hoping that their new album could be the soundtrack to my first year out of college. We'll see. It's good so far. I only wish I could be home during July to see them in concert!
:o)

D Class lining up for the picnic (minus Jihee...she has the chicken pox)

Among the statues at the park

A moment of optimism

2009-05-13T21:54:00.002+09:00

We were talking about robots in one of my classes this week, and determining whether statements were fact or opinions. One of the statements said, "man is not able to travel to Mars." Upon reading this statement, one of my students said, "teacher, I think this one is opinion, right?" I read the statement and explained to her that it was a fact because man had never been to Mars, only robots have. She proceeded to explain that she thought it was an opinion because "man has rockets to go to Mars." In this moment, I couldn't help but smile. It filled me with such optimism that she holds such possibilities in her mind. I suppose that's what childhood is all about. I told her that while man has rockets, man hasn't been to Mars yet, so it's still a fact, but someday it could be a false statement.

I guess I feel myself forgetting such endless possibilities as I get older, and it makes me happy to see the possibilities flowing through my kids.

It was a moment of optimism.

Asian Dust

2009-05-11T19:07:00.003+09:00

So I've been experiencing quite the allergies as of late, and I didn't really think about it being weird (despite the fact that I never really had allergies back home) until today when leaving my apartment I noticed what looked like yellow chalk dust on the sidewalk. It is raining today, so some of the pollen and yellow dust came out of the air...

....it's no wonder my lungs and head are doing weird things these days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Dust

That's a link about the Asian dust...I wasn't aware of it until being here, so I'm assuming many people reading this aren't aware either. It's pretty rad.

Go Twins

2009-05-07T20:40:00.005+09:00

The teachers and I doing a play for the kids for Children's Day (we were lambs).

The mountains from the cave.

The river bed and the mountains.

Day by day, week by week, the months are passing. It's almost been three months since I left MN and came here to Korea, and I continue to feel a weird relationship with time. Being busy with school and such makes the time pass so fast--I'm 25% done with my contract. At the same time, I feel like I've just arrived here. There's so much I haven't seen and experienced. It may be the most bizarre thing I've ever felt. That being said, I embark on the task of remembering why I'm here.

I feel like I've been forgetting why I decided to come here in the first place, and ultimately wondering if I knew why I decided to come at all. Until recently, I feel like I've thought of the job first, the kids first, but now I'm starting to settle in (I'm not sure how else to explain it) and I find myself looking forward to the weekends more than the weeks. I still love the kids, and I love the job, but I think it's only natural to progress to the point where it's a job and not my life. I'm not really sure.

It's been about a month since my last post, and I have quite a bit to talk about I guess, so here it goes. Back in mid-April some teachers and I went to Seoul for the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was cool to see new parts of Seoul, but there were more Cherry Blossoms in my neighborhood here in Bundang. The most amazing part was seeing the enormous quantities of people flooding through the buses and subways. I have never seen so many people in my life.
On this same day I met some new friends, other teachers from other areas, and a couple Korean friends of friends. It's nice to meet new people and develop sort of a community here. That's one of the best parts about my co-workers, we're all pretty fun-loving and easy-going, so it makes for a good time on the weekends--which is way better than spending all my time alone. :o)

In other news, I got a Korean cell phone a couple weeks ago. I get random texts from strangers sometimes (in Korean) and it's funny because I have no idea what they say. One of them was asking how I did on my math test (according to my friend Hyun)....it's just one of the small things that make life interesting.

Last weekend we had Friday off for Children's Day. It's sort of amazing that I haven't heard of Children's Day until I moved here (I guess we have it back home, it's just not really celebrated)--it just seems like children should be celebrated formally by everyone. I spent the weekend with Amanda (another teacher) and Hyun in Sokcho on the east coast of Korea. It was good to get out of my apartment and away from school for a bit. Sokcho is between the mountains of Seoraksan National Park and the Sea of Japan, so it was beautiful. I got sick on Friday night, and am still fighting what appears to be a head cold, but explored Sokcho a bit and ventured into the Seoraksan Park. That weekend was also Buddha's birthday celebration, so there were tons of people there. We climbed a mountain up to a cave, and the mountains never cease to amaze me. Maybe it's because I haven't ever seen anything like them, but the mountains are beautiful here, especially on the east coast.

On Children's Day (Tuesday) a bunch of teachers and friends went to a professional baseball game in Seoul. We saw the Doosan Bears play the LG Twins. I wore my MN Twins shirt, and the logo was almost the same as LG's :o) so I fit right in. LG killed Doosan, but it was fun to spend the day outside at the ball field.

Once again, in conclusion, things are going well. I miss people from home a lot, but I still feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and that keeps me feeling strangely optimistic.

Oh, I feel like I should be at Valleyfair this time of year :o) Considering I've been there 3 of the last 4 summers, I guess it's not that strange. I got Josh (my brother) to work there last summer, and Kayla (my sister) is going to work there this summer, so I feel like I've done well for them. Oh! My picture is in the handbook this summer I guess...now that I'm not working there anymore, I'm part of Valleyfair history...:o)

Until next time.
:o)

Hyun, Amanda, and I in Sokcho.

Me and Buddha.

Mountain climbing is becoming a weekly habit

2009-04-05T23:17:00.004+09:00

So it's been quite a while since my last post, and I apologize to those who are anxiously awaiting my latest update :p

School is going well. We just finished up our first month of classes, and it's been a good period of adjustment and getting into the groove of teaching. The last week of March was pretty stressful. I had to write my first "big tests," which are basically unit tests that the older afternoon classes have at the end of every month. It was fairly painless, I just didn't want to mess it up. I was also observed on the 30th by the director of my school (Mr. Kim). I wasn't too worried about being observed just because I know I haven't been flying completely solo this entire month, and if I was doing something horribly wrong they probably would have told me already. I was just a little nervous about being watched. They had a couple good tips for keeping my class in line, and over all I feel like the observation was helpful; I got some tips and a boost of confidence in what I've been doing this last month. Through all the stresses of my job, I'm finding a lot of joy as well. The kids are both challenging and really inspiring. I've been getting notes from the students like, "Crystal teacher, I love you, from Sarah" (That one was written in Korean and I had to have it translated). Also, one day after class, one of my morning kinder students started yelling "TEACHER! TEACHER!" and I turned around and he yelled, "I LOVE YOU!" and did that heart-shaped thing with his hands, and I did it back, and he blew me a kiss down the hallway. And one of my afternoon kinder students told his mom that his teacher was blond and had blue eyes and was beautiful like a princess, so she came to school to see me. And the last "makes you smile" moment was one of my textbook level students wrote "Crystal teacher is skinny." when her spelling word was "skinny." It's these moments that let me know that I'm leaving an impression on these kids.

Last weekend some teachers and I went to the Seodaemun Prison Museum and climbed a mountain (one that I cannot remember the name of for the life of me). It was interesting to learn about Korea's history, but the museum was very biased, and almost seemed like a joke at times. It may just be cultural differences, but the screaming mannequins simulating the Japanese torturing Korean patriots was a little much. I understand that the Koreans are angry that their patriots were tortured and killed in this prison throughout the last century, but the museum was very anti-Japan, and I would have liked it more if it was less biased and more informative. After the museum, we hiked up to a Buddhist temple on a mountain nearby. It was tough, walking up tons of stairs and a killer incline, but the view was worth it. Seoul is beautiful from up there.

During the last week I've started to miss things from back home, namely driving. I miss driving to the MOA for work, or St. Paul for school, or even just down the road to go to Target for dish soap. I mostly miss driving because I miss singing in my car. Now that I don't drive, I rarely sing, and it's something I didn't realize I was going to miss. I'll just have to get over my fear of neighbors hearing me sing in the shower, and make my shower my new car? We'll see :o)

This weekend was fun too. I went to dinner and a movie with one of my co-workers and one of her friends on Friday. It was fun to get to know them more and just have a night out that was reminiscent of home. We saw Bride Wars (which was alright...) and it was nice to sit in a dark theater that wasn't playing Garfield in Korean.
Today (Sunday) I went to Seoul with Amanda and Alyssa (co-workers) and we met up with some Korean university students who run their own tour business called "Seoul Mate." They were running a tour around Independence Gate, which unfortunately for Amanda and I, included the Seodaemun Prison Museum. We skipped the prison tour and met up with them afterward, and we all hiked up another mountain right in that area. It was cool to see the mountain we hiked up the weekend before from the other peak. When we were towards the top of the mountain, we sat down and played a Korean board game (which I can't recall the name of). It was a good experience, playing this game on the top of the mountain with Koreans excited to share their culture with us. Once the game was done, we finished the hike up to the top of the mountain. It was amazing: in front of us was a woman who was hiking up the mountain with a small child in front of her and a baby strapped to her back, and one of the girls in our group was wearing heels...that's hardcore. After reaching the top, we headed down the other side, and saw some Buddhist temples. It was a good day.

I guess if I had to sum up all the time I've spent between my last post and now, I'd have to say things are going well, and I really like my job and the kids and I'm excited to settle in all the way here. A couple of the girls we work with are fostering dogs from a shelter around here, and Amanda and I were thinking of fostering starting maybe the end of May. I want to be sure it's what I want to do, but I think it'll be nice to have a pet to take care of and spend time with. It's kind of lonely living alone in my tiny apartment.

Well, that's all for now. I hope this satisfies your curiosity :o)

p.s. From what I've heard, most South Koreans aren't too worried about what's going on in N. Korea these days...they say warnings and stuff are pretty usual. It's still a weird feeling having N. Korea right to the north.

The bricks in the prison yard.

Me and Seoul (on the first mountain we climbed)

Our group this weekend after playing the board game on the mountain.

Believing is seeing when your imagination is running the show

2009-03-12T18:57:00.004+09:00

It's been a while since my last post, and I feel like I owe anyone reading this, and myself, some bloggy expression. (I'm pretty sure "bloggy" isn't really a word.)

It's almost the end of the first full week of classes, and I'd say that I'm torn between having no prevailing emotion and having absolute happiness as the only thing running through my veins. I sit here typing, asking myself if that's really possible, and I'm not sure I know how to express it any other way. I hate not being able to find the words to put an experience into some tangible thing for people to share, pass around, chew on, etc. I guess I'll just talk about my classes.

My morning kinder class is growing on me. They're super cute, and really sweet. They are also six year old hellions set to hyper-drive. :o) Although my instincts tell me that's just how six year old kids are supposed to act, I have a feeling that after the next couple weeks, we'll all fall into a groove and I'll get used to it all. We had a birthday party for the twins in my class (Jimin and Jihee), and their mom brought treats and we took pictures with the class. It was a lot of fun for the kids, and ample ammunition for their excitement engines. My days are split among moments like that (fun, laughing, happy ones) and the countering "please sit down," "please listen to teacher," "please don't hit him with your shoes," and the classic "please don't put your butt in his face." I find myself feeling increasingly stressed out as the week goes on, and I worry that I turn into that teacher that is crabby and doesn't smile enough when I feel like that. I absolutely don't want to be that kind of teacher, and while I'm concerned when I get stressed, I think that I'll figure it all out--some sort of balance will happen eventually.

My PK class is going pretty well as well. The kids in that class are around seven years old, and they just graduated from the morning kinder classes at LCI last month. They're really smart (they all are really), and I enjoy teaching them because you can see things clicking in their heads.

My textbook class (the nine year old class) is so smart too. They love telling stories related to the things we are talking about. I can't help but think of myself when I was a student when I'm around them. "What kind of student was I?" and then I feel myself getting annoyed by the girl that has every answer and has some sort of story or correction for every comment made by anyone...yah, I think that was me... :o) at least in elementary school. I'd just like to say thanks to all my teachers for having the patience to deal with that sort of attention-craving, know-it-all attitude.

My afternoon kinder class is adorable. While I was feeling stressed this week with my morning kinder kids, my afternoon kinder kids proved to be very uplifting and balancing. The afternoon kinder kids (Tues. and Thurs. afternoons) barely know English, but somehow we communicate. They're so full of energy and happy to be at school, it's rather amazing. On Tuesday my Korean co-teacher told me that a couple of the kids from this class told their parents that they were having a fun time in my class and they were excited to learn English. Like, their parents took the time to call LCI and tell us about their kids being excited to learn English in my class. I didn't think the sort of feeling that I got when I heard that existed. This has to be the reason I'm here, the reason the stress and aggravation is tolerable. I hope I can keep these kids excited about learning English :o)

On a non-school related note, last weekend was fun. I spent Friday night just hanging out in my apartment, and on Saturday some of the teachers and I went to Yuldong Park here in Bundang. The park was a short bus ride away, and it had a lot of trails and playgrounds for people to walk and ride their bikes on. There was also a small lake. On one side of the lake was a 45 meter tall platform for bungee jumping. I think there were eight of us that day, and we all took the plunge. I never really felt against jumping, you know, when people are like "have you ever been bungee jumping?" and most people are either "heck yes I have" or "there is no way I'd ever go!" Well, I didn't really feel either way about it, but I figured I should do it as a bonding thing with the other teachers, and honestly, when will I have the chance to do it again? You only live once, right?
It was a good time. Later that night, we went to Itaewon in Seoul, which is the military area, so there were lots of Americans around. It was kind of weird, being around so many Americans, but it was good to just hang out and relax with the other teachers.

Well, I hope this blog serves some sort of need for satisfaction (mostly within myself), and that it gives anyone reading an update on my life here in Korea. :o) Thanks for reading!

(The bungee crew.)

Hello D Class

2009-03-04T19:09:00.003+09:00

Today was a great day. After about two and a half weeks of preparation, the first day of the new school year has finally arrived. I feel like there is so much to write about, meeting the kids, teaching my first full day to my own classes, etc. However, I don't feel like I've thought enough about the experience to synthesize any sort of coherent story to tell those reading this.

I just wanted to let everyone know that it went well, and I will most likely write more about it later. :o)

(My classroom.)

A Fun Weekend

2009-03-02T08:00:00.003+09:00

This week went well. On Thursday was the kinder graduation ceremony, and on Friday we took the students to see a movie. Although it was cool to see the movie (Garfield) in Korean, I guess it wasn't a very good movie. Almost all the teachers were dozing off while the kids were mildly entertained. After the movie, the kids in my class were saying things like, "no, that was scary, I don't like it." Regardless of the movie, it was good to get out of the school and have a fun day with the kids.

On Saturday (my birthday), I took the subway into Seoul with Amanda and Forrest (the other new teachers), and we explored a bit. We didn't really have a plan going into the day, but it turned out to be a pretty good day. We ended up at the Lotte Mall where there's a park called Lotte World. I guess it's Seoul's version of Disney world. Half the park was inside the mall, and there was a tram that takes people to the other half that's in the middle of the lake outside the mall. It seemed a bit small to be "Disneyland-esque" but it seemed fun. After walking around the area a bit and catching some lunch (which was the first time I've used a fork since my arrival), we headed towards Olympic Park.

Along the road leading up to the park are sculptures and flags of many nations that participated in the '88 olympics. At the end of the road was Peace Park, which included a plaza where people were rollerblading, walking, biking and taking pictures. In the middle of the plaza was a huge structure that had the Olympic rings on it. Inside of the structure was the peace flame with the Seoul Peace Declaration. It was cool because along the outside of the plaza were the flags of the nations that participated in the Olympics (again). Outside of the plaza, people could rent bikes or hop on a trolley that gives you a tour of the huge park. We opted to just walk around the park. It was amazing how many women were wearing high heels in the park, like they just decided to go for a stroll with their heels...I couldn't fathom thinking that would be a good idea.

In the park was an art museum and a sculpture garden, which reminded me of the sculpture garden in Minneapolis, interactive art and such. There were trails that went up and over the hills and around the stadiums in the park, leading to a huge field where tons of people were playing with their kids, flying kites, walking, and just enjoying the nice weather. I don't think the weather could have been better.

After our explorations came to an end, we made our way back to Bundang and headed over to one of the teacher's apartments for a little party. One thing I must say I've really enjoyed here in Korea is the snack selection. :o) All of the crackers and chips and other such snacks are amazingly good here--I'm not sure what it is, but I love them. The day of exploration and festivities proved to be an excellent day, and a great birthday.

(The picture is of the flags from behind Peace Plaza at Olympic Park.)

Crossing the Threshold

2009-02-25T18:22:00.003+09:00

Today was a day of picking up pace in this new direction. I feel like I've been changing direction for a while now, planning this trip and such, but until today, I didn't really feel like I've been moving in another direction (this is all really abstract, I know).

Now for the details...I taught my first full day of morning kinder today, and it makes me really psyched to settle into my own room and get the kids into the routine of being in my class. My day was fairly successful, no horrible mistakes or failures, although it was obvious the kids were testing my boundaries. I would expect nothing less, so all in all the day went well. Yesterday I taught the verbal portion of the morning (after playtime), and I had the kids sit on their mat (each room has a mat for the kids to sit on the floor instead of at the table) while we read a story and talked about it. During the story, some of the kids were goofing around, and I asked them to find their seats on the mat. One of the kids sat in his spot, looked up at me, and said, "Teacher, I want to see you angry. Are you angry yet?" I was surprised at his honesty about testing me, and I couldn't help but laugh a little.

Yesterday, my co-teacher (her name is Junah) told me that I'll be having a full class schedule. That means that I'll be teaching 4 different classes: my morning kinder class(M-F), my 2:30 PK class (M-F), my 4:00 9 year old class (MWF), and my 4:00 afternoon kinder class (TTH). I'll be teaching every day Monday through Friday from 9:30am-6:00pm. I'm glad they think I can handle it, but I was sort of looking forward to having a little extra prep time in the afternoons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It'll be fine, it's just a little added stress and planning that I have to work my way through.

Together, feeling the work beginning at school, feeling anxious about my first full day of teaching today, and feeling like I'm finally leaving home behind, digging in here and such, last night proved to be peppered with mixed emotions. For the first time since I've been here, I didn't like living alone. I spent some time writing and I put in a good, happy movie, and fell asleep, so it was alright in the end. Today is ending on a good note as well--my first day of teaching alone went well (no one was lost and nothing started on fire), and I feel a mix of hope and relief. Tomorrow is the kinder graduation, and on Friday we're going to see Garfield in the theater with the school, so it should be a laid back, happy ending to the week. Oh, one of the teachers is having a "plaid party" at his apartment on Saturday that's acting as a going away-welcome to Korea-happy birthday party (I hear they're going to bring a Korean cake and soju).

This is my school from across the street--notice the cross on the roof--those things are EVERYWHERE here...and they're often neon red at night...weird.

My First Weekend in Korea

2009-02-22T12:09:00.002+09:00

Although I was here last weekend, I think it's only appropriate that this weekend is the first weekend I've spent in Korea, since I was basically in a coma during the first one. That being said, I feel like I've done a lot in the last couple days.

On Friday--one of my co-workers showed me around the area. We were putting up missing dog signs because the dog she was fostering for a shelter ran away. She also showed me Lotte Mart, which is basically a three-story version of Walmart or Super Target. After shopping for some things, we went to a bar called Dublins with some other co-workers. This bar is the typical "foreigners' bar," frequented by mostly English speaking non-Koreans. I'd say it's like any bar in the States, however, it was good to get out and spend some time with the teachers. After the bar, we went to a karaoke place that was downstairs. Karaoke is different in Korea because it doesn't take place in a bar with everyone watching. You basically rent a room with your group of friends and inside said room is a screen, seating, microphones, and you can order snacks and drinks. It was a good experience, but I still prefer singing Bohemian Rhapsody with Tonya at Tailgaters or the Depot.

On Saturday--I decided to clean and rearrange my tiny apartment. I'm not sure why, but dust just accumulates in massive amounts very quickly around here, so I gave it a good cleaning and moved the furniture as best I could (the couch really puts a damper on moving options since it takes up 1/3 of the room). I think it was successful. Afterwards, I went with Tara again, to put up signs and look for her dog Copper. We walked the other way this time, so I got to see more of our area. The apartments amaze me here: there are just tons and tons and tons of them. Imagine 100 cedar riverside-style apartments in clumps all over the city. Another thing that was really cool to see was the way the city is laid out. Seongnam City (where I live) was a planned city, so inside these clusters of apartments are parks for kids and people to walk through. In some of the parks are even work-out machines that people can just use whenever they feel like working out in the park. That was probably the weirdest thing I saw yesterday.
We ended up walking to another HUGE shopping place called E-Mart. Again, think of a super duper Walmart or Target. Somehow, however, no matter how big the shopping center, we were unable to find a calendar. After we walked back home from E-Mart (which is about a 20-25 minute walk), we met up with another teacher and had dinner with one of the new teachers. We ate at a place near Samsung Plaza--very tastey (see picture). I'm excited that the new teachers are here now--that means I'm no longer the newest newbie :o)

Overall, this weekend has been really good for getting to know parts of Seongnam City and my co-workers. I'm starting to feel more at home here.

About a Week

2009-02-18T18:17:00.003+09:00

I've been in Korea for almost a week now, and I feel like I've done more for my career than I have in my entire life thus far. I have spent the last 3 days shadowing current teachers' classes. The classes are set up in blocks of 3 different time periods. The first is the morning kinder classes from 9:30-2:30--this is the main class for the day. Consisting of about 10 6 year old kids, each day in this class (no matter which one) proves to be non-stop excitement and laughter. I worked with most of the kids that will be in my class (that starts the first week of March) yesterday, and they're all adorable little hellions to be sure. I get to teach them the first 2 hours tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll learn more about them then. The second block of classes is from 2:30-4:00pm, and these kids are either afternoon kinder kids (that go to public school but come to LCI for extra English training), or post-kinder kids. What's amazing about all of these kids is the amount of work they take on. Each child goes to school (LCI or public school) from the standard 9:00-2:30 time frame, but in addition--some kids do activities before school (tae kwon do or ballet), and most of them continue school after 2:30 (English intensive programs like LCI or other activities). It seems nuts that these kids have so much work during the day and then they all have loads of homework everyday, plus activities after school, and they need every jam-packed minute of every one of these days to be normal or average in Korea. It just seems that if a child took on the same load in the US, they'd be the super duper smart, super awesome kid that graduates when they're 16. That's just how it is I suppose.

Today I had to write my first lesson schedule for March--just for my MWF 4-6pm class. It took me almost 2 hours to finish it, and I'm still not sure if it's all in place. Although, I got the books for the class, and I'm super psyched to begin teaching these kids. They're so smart, and I think it'll be amazing to be part of them learning everything LCI has planned for them. I think this feeling of excitement is why I want to be a teacher.

On a different note: I think some of the other teachers are going to show me around this weekend. I guess there's a store called E-Mart that is similar to Walmart--just floors of tons of stuff to buy...I'm not a shopping enthusiast by any means, in fact, I'd almost 100% of the time prefer to do something else...but it'll be nice to know more of this place than the 2 block span between my apartment and my school, and I need to buy some stuff :o)

Everything's starting to roll, and I like it.

(The above picture is of the distance between my apartment--which is just to the left of the shot--and my school--which is in the 2nd and 4th floors of that white building on the right.)

Anyong ha se yo

2009-02-16T18:24:00.003+09:00

Well, the first couple days here have been interesting. I've gone from super excited upon arrival, to worried and doubting myself, to absolutely psyched to begin teaching. I had all of Saturday and Sunday to chill and sleep off a lot of the time difference. I went to bed on Saturday at 5pm and woke up at 7am on Sunday. Then on Sunday I went to bed at about 1pm (yes, one hour after noon) and slept until about 6am this morning. I hope that most of the time weirdness is over and that whole aspect of my existence will only get easier and easier from now on.

Today was my first day at my school. My school is about a block from my apartment, which is awesome. LCI Kids Club-Bundang inhabits the 2nd and 4th floors of the Shin-Il plaza building (which looks a lot like all the other buildings in the area). I got to meet the Korean staff and co-teachers, the American and Canadian teachers, and some of the students. I shadowed one of the kindergarten classes this morning, and I couldn't be more excited to get started with my own class. After talking to the other teachers, I'm glad I have this buffer time between when I arrived in Korea and when I start teaching. Many of the current teachers arrived on a Monday and had to start teaching their classes on the next day...I think I would go nuts if that were the case for me. I have shadowing for the next 9 days or so, and then I'll start teaching my own classes the first week in March. I'll be teaching a kindergarten class (mine will be second year-6 year olds) in the morning from 9:30-2:30pm. In the afternoon I'll have 2 classes of what would be 1st graders in the US, except they spend the first part of their day at public school somewhere else and come to LCI to learn English.

All and all today was a great day, and I'm psyched to start teaching.

Oh, they totally have Law and Order: SVU on tv here...haha...you can't escape that show anywhere.

Traveling

2009-02-14T11:08:00.003+09:00

The move has been made. I left yesterday from Minneapolis for Tokyo at 1pm, and the trip was fairly pleasant...as pleasant as being crammed in a big metal tube with hundreds of strangers 30,000 feet above the ground can be. The plane was the biggest plane I've ever been in--a Boeing 747-400: there was an upstairs on the plane (which just amazes me).

As we took off from Minneapolis, I looked out the window, and saw Tonya's target. Did you know it has a big target painted on the top of it?! I just thought it was rather appropriate to see, since I was leaving my best friend, and she was probably in that building at that moment. Just a thought.

I had an aisle seat, which rocked, because I didn't have to climb over everyone to go to the bathroom or move around. I shared my row with an overweight priest that lives and works in Japan who went home to go to a funeral, but luckily for everyone involved, no one sat in the seat between us. It was nice to have a little extra room during the 11 hour flight.

I thought it was cool that our flight went over Canada, Alaska, and then followed the coast of Russia and China down to Japan. I suppose it has something to do with the curvature of the earth. It was really cool looking outside and seeing old meandering rivers in the Alaskan mountains. You could see old ox bow sections of the river that had been cut off, and it was really cool. The best and weirdest part of the flight was the fact that as we were flying west, the sun was chasing us. It was crazy because we left the Cities at 1pm, and it looked like it was about 1pm the entire flight until we got to Japan. I guess it makes sense, but to think about it and experience it are entirely different things.

The worst part of the flight was not being able to sleep worth anything. By the time I got to Tokyo, I was exhausted, but I had to make the 3 hour flight to Seoul. The Tokyo airport was huge, but I managed to find my gate without any problems. However, once we were all ready to go, we had some mechanical problems and had to wait about an hour for the mechanics to fix whatever was wrong. It sucked waiting there, but it sucked even worse knowing there was a mechanical problem. When we took off, the landing gear was making all kinds of weird noises, and my already present flight anxiety was just out of this world. Luckily the guy sitting next to me was friendly. He was an American from Michigan stationed in Seoul, and he was on his way back to the base after leave. As we were taking off he turned to me and said, "My name is Tyler, you know, just in case you're the last person I ever talk to." And I'm sure I was sharing his sentiment. Despite the noises, we made it to Seoul at about midnight here: that meant I was awake and traveling for about 24 hours.

One Week Notice

2009-02-06T06:03:00.002+09:00

Well, the wheels have been turning quite a lot lately. I had my interview with the Korean Consulate General yesterday, and it went well. It was a short interview, mainly consisting of questions like "what are your impressions of Korea?" and "how do you think you'll like teaching in Korea?" They're going to send my passport back with my visa in a couple days, and then I'll be ready to go.

I also got my itinerary for my trip. My flight leaves from the Cities on February 12th (1 week from now) at 1pm for Tokyo, which should take about 17 hours. From Tokyo, it'll take about 3 hours to fly to Seoul. Then, the work begins. Everything is ready to go--I still have to finish moving my stuff to Litchfield and put the finishing touches on packing, but all the paperwork is finally done. I'm really psyched that this is really happening, and I have tons of optimism and idealism to keep pushing me along. I really hope that I'm prepared to do the best I can do for myself and my school and the kids. I know it will be a great experience, and I'm just nervous and anxious to get started.

Two Weeks to Go

2009-01-31T05:35:00.002+09:00

I'm sitting here on my couch at my apartment. The walls are empty, there are boxes lined up everywhere, and the image of my calendar is imprinted on my mind. I have two weeks before my planned departure date to Korea. I don't think it's ever felt so real, and I have a feeling it'll only get more and more real until it's my new reality.

I sent my last round of paperwork to the Korean Consulate General in Chicago, and they called me today to set up a web cam interview for Wednesday. So assuming I don't say anything stupid at the interview that makes them not want to give me a visa, I'll be ready to go once I get my passport back from the consulate. The school works through a travel agent who will book my flight (probably on the 12th of Feb.) and I'll get my itinerary from my recruiter. I'm getting really excited to be done with all the paperwork that I've had to do for the last couple months, and even more excited to start teaching.

Although I'm super excited to embark on this chapter of my life, I'm nervous too, and I find myself questioning my ability to perform as a teacher for these kids. That being said, I have confidence that I'll be able to be the teacher that these kids will need and the school will require me to be. It's just a little scary--jumping into such a career in a foreign country. Overall, I'm more excited than any negative form of that emotion; it's just a time of change and with change comes a mix of emotions.

Oh, has anyone ever done a web cam interview? :) I have no idea how this is going to work, but I'm sure I can mess around with it until it works before my interview.

Passport photos and consulate check lists

2009-01-17T04:33:00.003+09:00

The beat goes on. I finally got all my grades back. After the last one came in, I went to St. Thomas to get copies of my transcripts and a letter of graduation to send to the school in Korea. After some waiting around, browsing the stacks at Barnes and Noble, drinking a lot of coffee, I got the call that the registrar office had my transcripts and letter of graduation ready to go. They had to review my degree requirements before issuing the letter because the degrees were not posted officially yet. That was all the day that we got like 4 inches of snow, so it took me about 2 hours to get home from school. I decided to wait until the next day to get the apostille certificates for my letter of graduation and criminal background check.

The next day, I went out into the cold and made my way up to the MN Secretary of State office in St. Paul to get the aposille certificates. I took a number and waited in the office for the certificates. After my number was called, I brought my documents up to the desk, and the woman processing the requests told me that I could only get an apostille certificate for the background check because it was notarized and the letter of graduation wasn't. So I got the certificate for the check, and then drove back to St. Thomas to get the letter of graduation notarized. It all worked out, it just took a lot of driving and time.

After I got all the documents together, I went to FedEx and mailed it all to the school in Korea. I had no idea it costs so much to send .25 lbs. to Korea. At any rate, my funds are low, but my hopes are high. I'm glad things are finally moving again, and I'm just enjoying my time I have left here with the people I care about.