See Emily Play

3rd Thanksgiving in the ROK

2010-11-25T07:09:00.006-06:00

My third Turkey Day away from home was also my first day at my new job here in Korea. It was an experience, for sure.

This morning, I waited outside in the cold for an hour, because the poor guy they sent from my school to pick me up couldn't find the place. I didn't want to go inside, lest he should drive by and not see me. So I waited. And it was freezing. Then traffic was epic going back into Seoul, and it took us two solid hours to reach the school. God bless him, he had a can of coffee and a waffle for me to munch on in the car.

Once I finally got there, my day was filled with meeting kids, learning schedules, and observing classes. The schedule is similar to LCI, with Kindergarten in the morning and elementary in the afternoon. However, POLY switches classes every 40 minutes, during both times, and so I'll have two Kinder classes that I work with, rather than one. It also looks like I may be teaching a gym class, hahahaha.

The students were adorable, of course. I'm looking forward to getting to know them better. The first girl I met, Dorothy, was this tiny little thing I wanted to stick in my pocket, who made it her job to show me around the first floor. The school is split into two floors, with the bottom being 7 year olds and the top 6 year olds.

My co-workers, both foreign and Korean, are fantastic. Everyone is incredibly helpful and kind, and I'm excited about working with them.

They also invited me, as I mentioned before, to their Thanksgiving dinner tonight. The great thing about that, besides the dinner and the company, was that I got a sneak preview of where I'd be living. If we thought I'd lost weight before from walking everywhere, that will have been nothing compared to what will happen to me now. I live up what was described to me as a "treacherous hill," and that was no exaggeration. I'm a bit nervous for winter, and hope the snow is kept to a minimum this year.

These people really know how to keep the holiday traditional, even so far from home. Our spread was phenomenal:

I have to stay in a hotel tonight, as my apartment won't be vacated till tomorrow. It was suggested that I leave my big heavy bags at the school, so I brought just my carry-on and backpack. I was given a piece of paper with the hotel name, and caught a cab after dinner. I had no idea what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised to see that this hotel could be compared to a Comfort Suites. It's pretty fab, and I don't think I'll want to get out of bed in the morning :)

Even the toilet is fancy ;)

And just so you don't forget that there's a real person behind these posts, here's a fuzzy action shot of me, sitting here blogging:

Riveting, eh? :)

I wasn't feeling well after the dinner, so I stopped at the 7-11 and bought some water and a vitamin C drink. Now that you've been sufficiently updated, I'm going to hydrate and sleep. I've got another long day of learning ahead of me, so I need to be in tip-top shape!

PS - Epic weekend ahead, as well. Saturday is my "Welcome Back" party, and Sunday is Thanksgiving Dinner, part Two, with my dear Jukjeon friends.

Love you all!

Back in the ROK

2010-11-23T19:40:00.003-06:00

So it's been a while. I'm a lazy little blogger.

In an effort to keep everything current and fresh, I'll skip the rest of my Guatemala trip, and the Netherlands, and focus your attention on the here and now. I couldn't find a job in the States, and so moved back to South Korea to teach and make lots of money again :)

This time, I'll be living in Seoul, about an hour and a half from where I used to live. I'm working for POLY School, which is a major school around here, and so my job should be pretty safe.

I arrived Sunday evening, and am staying in Jukjeon until Thursday morning, when my school will pick me up and move me and my 100+ lbs of luggage to my new home. I've been staying with the Dish, who you may remember from previous Korea posts.

It's been great being back in Jukjeon. I stopped by the Paris Baguette where I used to get an Iced Cafe Latte every morning, and the husband-and-wife owners remembered me! They were so excited to see me, they gave me a free can of Cafe Mocha :)

Of course, I couldn't be here in the town without visiting LCI. It was wonderful to see all of the Korean staff, but my main purpose was to see my babies. It was a huge surprise for them, and they loved it. I was thrilled about seeing them again, and just wanted to squeeze them till their little heads popped off :) Unfortunately, only 4 of my Kinders were there. Others had left LCI, or were taking a break from English. Still, those 4 were enough for me.

Sally, Laura, Sun Q, and Becky. I don't know if you can see, but Sun Q and Becky are both missing their two front teeth :)

I stuck around to see the later Elementary kids too... And was proud that I could still tell the twins, Sunny and Michelle, apart:

But the two I really wanted to see were Erica and Lina. When I left, I had been teaching just the two of them for 2.5 hours, three days a week. It was a great class, because we were able to go off on tangents and discuss girlie things while still getting our work done. These girls have a huge part of my heart.

Erica and Lina. Erica is the girl who e-mailed me, when I told her I was coming back to Korea, and said "Teacher, don't eat pizza before you fly, or the plane will fall out of the sky." She's hilarious. I told them I'd give them my number, once I have it, and we'd go to Everland :)

It's been really great to be back in Jukjeon (in my old apartment, even!) and to see what has changed and what is still surviving. However, I'm really looking forward to checking out my new neighborhood, my new co-workers, and my new apartment. It seems like, at the very least, my new co-workers will be great. They've already invited me, via the director, to an American Thanksgiving dinner at one of their apartments on Thursday. So I think I'll be very happy there :)

I promise to be a diligent poster now that I'm back in the land of silly signs and funny Englishee phrases :)

Love you all!

Tikal Trip, Day 1

2010-04-12T20:25:00.007-06:00

This weekend I went on a fantastic tour that culminated in a visit to Tikal, one of the largest Mayan cities in the world. But before we got there, we did a lot of other sight-seeing around Guatemala!

On Friday, I was waiting outside my Guate-house at 3:35 am. It was dark, and a little scary. Then a big stray dog stopped and stared me down for three minutes. Then he barked at me. Then he walked away. Then I peed my pants :) The bus showed up at 3:50. We picked up two other people (both from the Netherlands), Cindy and Jasper (pronounced "Yasper"). Then we were on our way!

I was really counting on finishing up on sleep in the bus. However, this was not like the Korean buses I am so used to sleeping on. This was the bumpiest road trip I've ever taken. Remember my comment about the tuc-tucs in Antigua? Imagine that, but for at least 4 hours at a time. Ouch.

However, Guatemala is an extremely beautiful country... this is a view from the highway (when we were essentially stopped because of a terrible accident... one of at least 5 terrible accidents we saw on the road):

We stopped at Quiriguá, which is a smaller group of Mayan ruins. The really special thing about this place (besides the beautiful jungle setting) is that it's home to the tallest stone monuments the Mayans ever created! From what I read on the stones, most of these were constructed around 750 A.D.

It was also home to one of the tallest trees I've ever seen in my life:

There was also a great plaza area:

Cindy taught me how to spy birds in the trees... And I saw my first real hummingbird! He buzzed around our heads, and the noise was amazing. His movements were like a cartoon... it was fantastic!

I also liked this lizard:

It was super hot in Quirigua, so I was kind of glad that we just had an hour there. Our next stop was a coastal town called Puerto Barrios, where we had to wait a while for our boat to leave. Apparently, rather than have a fixed schedule, the boat leaves when there are 20 people on it :)

That's our boat, front left:

Then we cruised on the Caribbean Sea (ok, a bay on the Caribbean) to a little town called Livingston. Imagine Jamaica, but in Spanish. Our hotel was right on the water:

We had a great fishy lunch at Happy Fish... I'm sure glad I got used to shrimp with heads (camarones con cabezas?) in Korea:

We then took a look at the beach:

Then... we were bored. There wasn't much to Livingston. So we sat on the pier and read/studied Spanish/worked on a crossword. Then later we decided to go back into town (read: the one street with restaurants and shops) for dinner. We found a quaint little hostel with a restaurant.... and the menu was THE EXACT SAME as Happy Fish!! It was hilarious - they even had the "Happy Fish Plate Special." It was explained to us that this is related to Guatemala's tourism policies, and is a way of keeping competition to a minimum so everyone can benefit from visitors.

The one thing this place had that Happy Fish didn't was this guy:

He seemed to be the owner. And was hilarious. And told us lots of silly jokes. And made my gin-tonics strong. And when a scary homeless man kept wanting to fist-bump us, he sat down and pretended to be my boyfriend. And then gave me a free gin-tonic. We all loved him. He was the highlight of Livingston for us.

After dinner, we all went to bed. And slept quite well, after waking up so ridiculously early :)

More on Day 2 tomorrow - But First! A bonus picture!

Jasper is quite tall. But this picture of him attempting to sleep in the bus makes him look like a GIANT (notice the space between head and knee). So I love it:

What do the Dutch feed their children?!?!

Love you all!

Losing a Bet, Winning an Afternoon...

2010-04-06T19:43:00.008-06:00

So Pablo and I had a very intense bet about the movie Saw V. We bet a piece of pie about the distance the man and woman had to cut their arms in the saw-box. He won. So yesterday we went to Antigua for pie, travel booking, and more convent ruins.

First, we went to Cafe Condesa, which had excellent desserts and coffee. Here's Pablo with his giant tea and lemon pie:

And I had my first brownie a la mode in almost 2 years... Yum!

ps - the actual name of this in the menu was "La Revancha de Mayordomo" or "The Butler's Revenge." Ha!

This is the fountain in Cafe Condesa, similar to the one in El Parque Central:

Next we went to the travel agency so I could book a weekend trip to visit some Mayan ruins, cruise on the Rio Dulce and the Caribbean Bay, and sleep in the jungle :) Expect photos!
My itinerary:

Afterwards, we went to another old convent... Las Capuchinas, I believe. This was even more beautiful than the last one. And we took lots of silly pictures:

The garden was beautiful:

Apparently this building was (depending on who you ask) either the showers for the nuns or a form of punishment (think water torture) when they did something wrong:

I choose to believe it's a shower :)

Pablo, part monkey, shown here rocking the MegaDeth hand:

These were actually the tiny bedrooms:

They even had a couple of them done up so you could see what life was like for the nuns:

Pablo and I are very pious:

This is the fountain in the center of the main building:

This is a fountain that made me laugh:

I believe this is where they used to hold services... According to Pablo, they now hold fashion shows here:

All in all, it was a fantastic afternoon. Even though I lost the bet, I was happy to finally have some company to explore the city.

Love you all!

El Volcan Pacaya!

2010-04-02T19:40:00.008-06:00

I just got back from my night on the volcano... It was amazing! I went with another student in my school - an Dutch man named Peet (I call him SoloPeet because every time he introduces himself in Spanish, he emphasizes that his name is just Peet.)

Here's SoloPeet and I ready to tackle the trail:

The hike was a bit tough with a huge, overstuffed backpack, but I made it without taking advantage of the dozens of "Horse Taxis" available up the trail :)

When we reached the top the view was fantastic. Here's the peak of the volcano - it looks farther away than it actually is:

Can you see the old lava directly in front? That's from a 2004 eruption!

We could also see el Volcan Agua (the one I can see from Antigua) from there:

We set up camp with the rented tents. I had to help SoloPeet because apparently he's not too experienced with tent-building. When I got around to mine, I learned that one of my tent poles didn't have the elastic string in the middle... so it was basically 10 pieces of tent pole... anyways, it made it MUCH more difficult to pitch my tent, but I rocked it! I was really proud :)

Then our guide, Leonel, set about starting a fire. It took a little time, my packing list, and SoloPeet's copy of his passport, but he got it going strong!

We stood around the fire for a while, eating sandwiches, having a beer, and waiting for all the other groups to leave the volcano so we could walk over and see some lava! The whole time we were there, we could hear the "boom boom" from the volcano, about every 20 minutes or so... When it got dark, we could see the fire at the top (sorry, terrible quality):

Finally, we walked over to see the big lava rivers flowing down the side of the volcano. It was like nothing I've ever seen before.

The sound was wild, too - it had this almost watery, but thicker sort of noise... just amazing.

Afterwards, we all went to bed. It got extremely cold, windy, and wet during the night, and I kept hearing things scampering around my tent. So I maybe got an hour or two of sleep :)

The next morning, Pacaya was still gorgeous:

After breaking camp, we were all set to hike up right next to the lava flow... unfortunately, I was in bad shape - Terrible cough, upset stomach, etc. - so I couldn't make it up the trail :( However, SoloPeet took my camera and got the pictures I couldn't!

Here I am watching them hike up:

SoloPeet did great capturing the lava!

I was sad to have missed being that close, but I still had one of the most incredible experiences of my life :)

The view of Volcan Agua on the way down was amazing, too:

By the time we finally got back to Antigua, we were POOPED! Then, because of the Holy Week Processions today, our bus had to drop us off on the outskirts of the city. I then had to walk clear to the other side in order to catch a tuc-tuc back to Jocotenango.

My view in the tuc-tuc:

Tired and filthy Emily ready for sleep and shower!

I hope you enjoyed reading about this as much as I enjoyed doing it! Love you all!

Casa de Waffle, y Casa de Corea?!?!?!

2010-03-29T15:51:00.006-06:00

Sunday morning, shortly after I woke up, Claudia came to my room and asked if I wanted to go into Guatemala City for breakfast with the whole family. Of course I did, but when I asked her when we were leaving, she told me "Oh, 10 minutes." I knew I couldn't shower and be ready by then, so when I told her I'd need about 30 minutes she gave me a sad, "I don't think we can do that" look.

About 5 minutes later, Pablo came to my door and said "Emily, I need to shower, too. You can still come with us!" So I said, "Ok, we'll race... uno, dos, tres, VAMOS!"

By the time I had showered, blow dried, lotioned, and dressed, Pablo still had one sock and one shoe off. I WON!!! (PS - It only took 10 minutes, haha!)

Anyways, we hopped in the car and went to Guatemala City for a morning of eating, shopping, shopping, and driving! Since you can't actually be here with me, I took photos which, if you enlarge them on your computer and sit VERY close to the screen, might enable you to pretend you're here :)

Road to Guatemala - The twists!

The turns!

The... Waffle House??

PS - I kid you not, I also saw a place called Denny's, specializing in breakfast (desayuno), which was basically three picnic tables and a tent!

Claudia!

Pablo!

y Yo, tambien!

We went to a really delicious place for breakfast - I had a Mediterranean omelet and some weird black bean loaf. It was great!

Guillermo and Titi (ps - I had to go look up his name just now... shows how much I see Titi's husband, haha)

After breakfast we went to Guatemalan Sam's Club - PriceSmart!

Pablo and I had fun eating and drinking EVERY free sample we came across. We also had a swordfight with whiffle-ball bats. This family probably thinks when I said I was 27 years old, I meant 17. Or 12.

Today I got a pedicure. Titi's sister owns a salon, and did an excellent job, in spite of the fact that I haven't had a pedicure in more than 2 years (probably more like 4 or 5) and kept giggling and wincing like a baby :) (ps - I know the ladies are wondering.... it was about $11)

On the way to the bus, I finally passed the Korean restaurant!

The menu seems like it was taken straight from in front of a restaurant in Korea, except for the funny spellings and prices in Quetzales :)

I definitely need to eat there before I leave!

Love you all! Leave comments!

Coffee!

2010-03-27T14:49:00.005-06:00

So today started out a bit rotten. Last night, I was invited by Julio to go with him and Carina (his girlfriend) and some friends to the beach. I was very excited, even when he said we'd leave at 6 am. So at 5:45 this morning I rolled out of bed, packed a bag, and was ready to go. And I waited. And waited. Then I laid back down (with the light on and the door open) and must have fallen back to sleep. And they left without me.

I was disappointed, as I really wanted to see the ocean here. But then Claudia invited me to walk up to the coffee plantation near the house and have a cuppa and read a while. So I did, and it was great!

The coffee was fantastic, and they have a lot of tours you can do. Sometime this week I think I'll go back and do the canopy tour - where you take 7 different ziplines through the trees!

Then we came back to the house for lunch, which was delicious - I love how much guacamole we eat here! Now I'm just sitting - I was going to go into Antigua today, but I'm getting a pedicure there Monday, so I'll just wait to explore more until then :)

I forgot to include the photos of Antigua's Parque Central in my last post... It's very famous here, and many people go there just to hang out. And it's pretty. And has a naughty fountain.

That's the excitement for the weekend, folks. Hope you're enjoying the pictures and updates!

Love you all!

Antigua and a Convent

2010-03-25T20:53:00.010-06:00

Thursday morning was uneventful, thank goodness. Except for sweating my face off on the bus and having a complete mental block in my Spanish class, everything was normal :)

I went back to mi casa for lunch, and then decided to head back into Antigua to walk around and take photos (ps - I'm actually living in Jocotenango, which is basically Antigua's left arm... but I can't walk to the downtown area from here)

One of the first places I went was an old convent that had been destroyed by earthquakes. It was basically a big brick patio with some arched doorways and a fountain - but it's attached to a beautiful bright yellow church. Pictures:

I also discovered the Pillsbury Dough Boy's skanky cousin:

Do you see the arched bridge over the street in this photo?:

Apparently the nuns who lived in a convent down this road used to have to cross the street to go eat their meals. Every time they did, the men would gather and try to talk to them - eventually, some nuns started running away with the men - So the Mother Superior had this bridge built so the nuns couldn't interact with the men!

Here's just a typical Antiguan street:

I'm inserting the funny story I previously posted here, as I deleted that post:
I was walking around Antigua, and encountered many people handing out flyers for various restaurants and hotels. Not so strange - we've all gotten these things before.

One guy handed me a flyer, then said "Where you from? De donde eres? Where you from?" (Really - all 3 sentences ran together) When I told him the US, he said "Ah, American! You want to buy some really good weed?"

Apparently selling pot suddenly overshadowed selling a dinner when he found out I was from the US. He didn't seem to believe me when I told him I didn't smoke, and then laughed at me when I continued to walk away.

Anyways, it made me laugh.

After walking around, I decided I wanted a beer. I went into a place that advertised it's rooftop patio, and ended up meeting some nice people. And took a picture:

Of course, they all left this morning to go home.

(ps - can you see the necklace I'm wearing in that picture? Eduardo, the guy who took me on his motorcycle, deals in handmade Guatemalan items (clothing, jewelry, etc). Anyways - he was at the house when I returned after lunch yesterday, and gave Carina and I necklaces from his new "shipment"... I love it!)

So now it's Friday. School was uneventful, and I have no idea what the weekend holds. I wish I lived close enough to go out on my own, but maybe it's for the best :) I just hope I'm not bored out of my mind this weekend. And if I am, I hope I get off my butt and go do something :)

Love you all!

I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet

2010-03-24T12:50:00.006-06:00

There was an earthquake today!! My first one ever!!

Ok, so it only lasted about 10 seconds, but according to a news article I found, it was a 4.7. So that's exciting, right? My coffee threatened to slosh off the table, and my stomach dropped to my knees. But then I was told I wasn't going to die (right then) so it was ok :) Shortly afterward, I bought a tostada from a woman carrying a big basket of the makings. It was delicious. And covered in guacamole. Yum.

Also, I took the bus to and from school ALL BY MYSELF today! I was still giggling this morning that the extent of the notifications people have of the buses is a man shouting and whistling "Antigua! Antigua!" I made it to school in under 30 minutes today, so we must have been walking slowly yesterday.

We had a lot of fun at MonoLoco last night. It was ladies night, and all the rum/gin/vodka based drinks were 3 Quetzales, or 37 cents. Also, I tried the nachos there. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that these nachos are THE BEST IN THE WORLD. I know what you're thinking: "Like anyone could ever know that, Emily..." But it's true. Es verdad. I have never tasted nachos that came close to the amazing flavor explosion that these babies held. Yum.

And I took photos!

Here are the girls:

From left to right: No idea, Gabriela (Claudia's friend), Me, Claudia (the daughter of the woman who owns the house where I'm staying), Carina (the girlfriend of Claudia's brother, Julio)

The boys:

From left to right: Julio (the son of the woman who owns the house), no idea, no idea.

The beer (excellent, I might add):

Also, I took some photos of my current home. It's really beautiful.

My room:

The living room (as seen from my room):

You see all that sunlight? That's because there's no roof over half the living room - it's open air! And you can see the rooms are situated around the living room. I want to live like this.

And here are two views from the roof (part of which is under construction, as they're building an entire apartment up there):

So you can imagine where I go every day (because I know you have nothing else to think about) I'm including some photos of my school.

The board:

FYI - If I know you, and you've done anything remotely interesting, or about which I can talk in Spanish, I have discussed you with mi profesora. This woman pretty much knows my entire life. Lo siento, pero necesito aprender!

The outside of my classroom:

The garden from my classroom:

In the background of this one, if you look closely, you can see the Volcano Agua. It overlooks the town. And it's huge. And after the earthquake today, I was very concerned that it would erupt. But apparently it's not active.

Turning left from the volcano, this is what I see:

And finally, the view that sometimes distracts me as I'm sitting in class:

And that, my friends, is a glimpse into the past 3 days :) A friend of mine pointed out that I've experienced a lot already, especially for being here such a short time, and he's right. So the next 3 1/2 weeks should be interesting!

Love you all!

Tuesday Morning

2010-03-23T10:16:00.002-06:00

Well, I solved the time issue and woke up at a decent hour today. I'm afraid I'm going to get very used to a balanced breakfast being set out for me every morning. I took the bus to school for the first time today. Maximo Nivel promised no more than a 20 minute commute... it took 40. I was a little late to school.

The bus was hilarious. No real bus stop sign, just a man shouting from behind the bus "ANTIGUA! ANTIGUA!" Also, all the buses are from the US - remember the big yellow bus you took to school? That's what I'm taking now! It felt very strange and nostalgic to be sitting in that dirty brown bench seat with my knees pressed against the seatback in front of me. Also, people enter the bus not only from the front door (which never closes) but from the emergency exit in the back!

There are no real stops (I think) - it just goes until it reaches the large handcraft market in Antigua. From there, it's about a 10 minute walk to my school.

Claudia (the daughter in the house I live in) told me last night over dinner that tonight she is taking me to MonoLoco, a pretty famous bar here in Antigua. She also made me try Gallo, the #1 Guatemalan beer. I was skeptical, as Koreans say Cass and Hite are good, and they taste like muddy horse pee... But Gallo is DELICIOSO!!!! I'm looking forward to nachos y cerveza at "Crazy Monkey" tonight, and I'll tell you all about it tomorrow!

Love you all!

Tuc-Tuc update

2010-03-22T17:08:00.001-06:00

Did I mention the streets here are all super-bumpy cobblestone? Just took my first tuc-tuc and feel like I got a mammogram. Ouch.

Guatemala!

2010-03-22T16:12:00.003-06:00

Ok, so I haven't posted since December. And I've left Korea a poor blogger. But let's not dwell in the past... I'm in Antigua, Guatemala, now - and I want to tell you all about it!

I left snowy Wichita at 7:40 Sunday morning. Take-off and landing were bumpy on both flights, but I made it to Guatemala City in one piece. After clearing immigration and customs, I walked outside to a large crowd, many of whom were holding signs. Unfortunately, my name wasn't on a single one.

The school had told me that someone would be there with a sign saying "Emily Weigand," but they were wrong. I began to feel a little panic-y, especially since my brilliant mind didn't think to bring along the school's address or phone number. A kindly shuttle driver was trying to help (and asking if I was single) while I watched a tiny girl playing with pieces of a broken Snapple bottle. Finally, a man showed up with my sign. Whew.

The drive was curvy and wild, and the panic returned when we passed the exit that said "Antigua" and continued on into mountains and nothing. All I could imagine was being sold into prostitution at knifepoint. Perhaps I should have gotten more sleep the night before.

We finally arrived in Antigua and he dropped me off at the beautiful home of Marta (who prefers to be called Titi). This was also confusing, as I had signed up to stay at the more dorm-style place instead of with a family... Today it was explained to me that the dorms are under construction. Titi and her family are extremely kind, and her home is beautiful. The living area is all open air, with hanging plants and soft, overstuffed couches. Around the outside of the living area are the bedrooms - kind of like lower-level apartments around a commons. My room is small and neat and I'm sure I'll make a mess of it in a few days :)

Anyways, Titi's brother Eduardo was visiting, and his English is quite good (Titi speaks none). He invited me to come into downtown Antigua to see the Holy Week Procession... on the back of his motorcycle. Again, I was nervous. But I figured if I survived airplanes and taxi-vans to nowhere, God wouldn't let me die on a motorcycle. So I went. It was great. Antigua is beautiful and old and a great place to walk around. Also, Eduardo seems to know everyone in the city, and everywhere we went he stopped and introduced me to another of his friends. (When we were leaving to go back, we ran into his girlfriend. She did not look amused to see me on the back of his bike. I wanted to point out to her that he's 60-something and I'm not interested.)

After dinner, I was very ready for bed. Also, I had to be at the school an hour early today for orientation. So I was sure to set my alarm so I could have time to shower and get ready. Except I forgot the time difference. When I was done getting around, the whole house was still black and quiet. I stressed again, thinking "I'm going to be late on my first day and won't have time to eat breakfast and this is horrible!" Then I remembered the flight attendant mentioning something about a time change. A quick Google check later, I realized I had another hour of sleep :)

The original plan for today was that the maid would take me to school and show me how to take the bus(it's much too far to walk). Unfortunately, today all the bus drivers decided to strike. No transportation into Guatemala City (where many people work), no transportation to nearby neighborhoods (where many children go to school), no public transportation anywhere! So Titi took me to school.

The school is beautiful. Again, all open air (with free coffee all day long!). My instructor is Nora, a sweet older woman who seems a bit judgemental of behaviors that don't follow strict Catholic guidelines :) After 3.5 grueling hours of forcing my brain to think in Spanish (with a small break in the middle to eat chuchitos ), Titi arrived to take me back to the house. We had an amazing lunch with some meat mixture (with cilantro), rice, homemade tortillas, and a yummy veggie mix. Then I went to my room to study Spanish. Instead I passed out. At 3, Titi woke me up to come back to the school where one of the directors gave me a mini walking tour of Antigua. Now I know where the best ice cream, wine, beer, and coffee are!

This catches you up to now, when I am sitting in the school using the computer because I'm not quite ready to go back to the house. Partly because it's good to be somewhere with lots of people, and partly because there are some English speakers here so I can rest my brain. Also, I am going to take a tuc-tuc (little three-wheeled taxi-thing) by myself, and am a bit nervous. But, like everything else I was nervous about, it'll be fine :)

Love you all! Promise I will try harder to keep this updated!

Snapshots

2009-12-21T06:55:00.004-06:00

Life's been pretty relaxed lately. School is the same as last year, so the stress I experienced a year ago with Festival and Christmas and Halloween and homesickness had been reduced by at least half, simply by virtue of familiarity.

There have been, however, some fun photos I've been able to snap lately, and wanted to share them with you!

First, the disturbing discovery I made outside the construction zone right next to my building... What are they unearthing over there?!

This is the whole crew at Thanksgiving dinner (at a Canadian bar in Seoul - the same one as last year)

It was just as delicious as before!

In our restroom (which is a public bathroom in the hallway) at school, these signs were recently posted - in both male and female restrooms:

Really? No fishing?!? What am I supposed to do during my lunch break?!

Speaking of strange signs, I think something must be lost in translation when it comes to the opposite of fast food:

This is a new restaurant here in Jukjeon, and I haven't gone in yet, for fear that it'll take hours!

Finally, at one of my favorite bars here, owned by the wildest Korean woman I know, was the ultimate Christmas tree topper:

I think I'll bring this tradition back to the US :)

Love you all!

My Very Talented Friend

2009-12-13T02:33:00.003-06:00

My friend Nancy, a great photographer, took time today to take some portraits of me (in the freezing December weather). She made me feel so beautiful, so I wanted to share her amazing talent with you. For now, if you click on "Spotlight" on this site, you can see some of what we did today. It was a lot of fun!

Love you all!

Post-Korea

2009-12-03T17:45:00.003-06:00

Ok, we need to move that video down so my silly face isn't the first thing people see here :)

It's taken months and many changes, but I finally have my plan for post-Korea! (Well, at least through September of 2010). So I thought I'd share it with you, so you guys could share in my excitement!

I'll be leaving Korea around February 28th. Ideally, I'd like to go somewhere tropical around here for a few days, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen. So at the earliest, I'll be home March 1, and the latest will be March 7.

On March 21, I fly to Guatemala for 4 weeks to study Spanish in La Antigua. I'm really looking forward to getting passably fluent in a second language! I come back home on April 17.

Around April 26 or so, I will fly to Miami to see my uncle and his family. Then on May 2 we will all fly to the Netherlands for my cousin's wedding! We return to Miami on May 17, so I should be back home around the 19th.

THEN I WILL BE HOME FOR A FEW MONTHS! I'll probably find some waitstaff job to get me by (Unless anyone at that point knows of some great temp work I could do!). My sister is getting married June 11, so that'll be the excitement for that month!

On August 24 I will fly to Peru for 4 weeks to get my TEFL/TESOL certification (teaching English to foreign learners). That program is over September 22, at which point I will hopefully find a job teaching in South America!

Ok, there you have it! I'm so excited for all of these plans I've finally made! I'm also happy to have something to look forward to when I leave here, as I'm really starting to get sad about leaving this life and these friends and my kids. But I think I've planned some decent distractions :)

Love you all!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2009-11-12T17:43:00.004-06:00

Last year they sang for you, this year they decided they wanted to talk to you... but most of them still started to sing... :)

Love you!

Halloween 2009

2009-11-05T05:53:00.006-06:00

Halloween came late this year, which made it awfully awkward to walk to school in full escaped convict get-up, including scary face paint... but it was still a great time! This year my classroom theme was Spiders, so here are some of my decorations:

My "Momma Spider"

My baby spiders - this web took about two hours to make. I can now sympathize with actual spiders :)

My classroom door - another labor of love :)

Our bulletin board:

And our giant black widow with scary-face eyes:

Here's our Jack-O-Lantern, the same one of the earlier post about cutting my hand:

There was a decoration contest, but we don't know the results yet... I'm not really counting on winning. At all. :)

I was in the haunted house again this year. I think we broke last year's record of crying... There were at least two kids in each class that cried, and quite a few kids wouldn't even go through. I call that a win.

My kids, of course, were adorable.

The boys (Philip, Sun Q, Andrew, Andy):

Sun Q's costume was probably the best one in the whole school. He even did his nails :)

The girls (Becky, Laura, Sally, Evelyn, Eileen):

Our whole class, scary and swine-flu-free!

And all of the LCI teachers:

As we did last year, we had a song contest as well. If you remember, last year's was a joke, and we bombed it. This year... well, see for yourself: (please forgive the talking at the beginning - We were ready to go but Evelyn HAD to tell me her story, which was cute...then we got interrupted right at the end because it was time for the judging)

And I found out at the end of the day... FIRST PLACE!!! My kids still don't know, but they're gonna flip when they find out. They were serious about practicing this year, and it paid off!

All in all, Halloween, even when celebrated four days late, is still my favorite holiday!

Though this post is ridiculously photo-filled, I had to include these two bonus pictures. First is the shirt Philip was wearing under his Taekwondo uniform the other day:

And today was yearbook photo day for the 7-year-olds who will be moving out of LCI in February. The kids all dressed up today (We didn't know about it, and Tyler and I were sent home to change, haha) and I just had to get a photo of Ben's class... I had to have a permanent image of Eric (one of my favorites, I teach his older brother) in his bright yellow bowtie and cummerbund!!!

Love you all! Leave comments!

The Philippines

2009-11-05T05:03:00.005-06:00

Gosh, this was a great decision. The weather was beautiful, the food was incredible, and the company was fantastic. It was exactly the mini-break I needed to bust my fall funk!

The front of my room:

Our view for every amazing meal we ate there:

The resort, as seen from this big concrete peninsula they constructed:

My awesome travel buddies, Ben and Emily (It's always a bit of a risk, being the third wheel to a married couple on an amazing vacation, but I couldn't have asked for better company!)

Me and Em, relaxed and happy:

This maybe added to the "relaxed" part:

And the whole vacation cost me way less than you'd imagine. If you get to the Philippines and need a great (cheap!) place to stay, check out the Cebu Marine Beach Resort... they were fantastic!

ps - I stopped taking pictures after the first night, and Emily hasn't posted theirs on facebook yet, so you may get a "part 2" once she decides to get them up there!

Love you all!

Catching up

2009-11-05T04:33:00.005-06:00

What a wild couple of weeks it's been! The last time I updated, we were about to head off for Tricia's big surprise. Well, unfortunately, she surprised us. With Swine Flu...

...or not. Tricia came to work on Friday feeling horrible and running a temperature of 101.8. They decided this was high enough to send her to the hospital to be checked out (our school is extremely concerned about swine flu - it's been popping up quite a bit in Korea). After arriving at the hospital in the morning, she was told she had to wait until 1:30 to even be checked for the Flu. When that time finally rolled around, the doctor decided to not even test her, because she had so many symptoms (cough and fever. That was it). He told her she had H1N1, gave her some Tamiflu, and sent her on her way.

She recovered quite quickly, so we're still not convinced it was The Pig Bug, but the school didn't want her to return until Tuesday, just in case. So we didn't get to go apple picking (which was her suprise) and when she came back Tuesday she had a wicked bad case of cabin fever and just wanted to work. Well, she got one day.

Also on Tuesday, I was pulled out of class around 11:15. Rachel told me that all my Kinders' parents were gathering in the first floor and were coming up to take their kids home. Apparently Philip was diagnosed with Swine Flu and the parents were extremely concerned and wanted to test and quarantine their kids (understandable, after Rachel also explained that lately quite a few children have been dying in Korea from this unmanageable virus). So my Kindergarten was shutting down until the following Monday. My first concern was that my kids were all going to miss Halloween on Friday, and I was so heartbroken for them!

Just after Kindergarten on Tuesday, we had a teachers' meeting in the office. Rachel told us that since the parents found out at least one LCI student had swine flu, they were yanking their kids out in droves. She said the best option for LCI was to just shut down the school until Monday. It was a shock, but probably the best business decision for them. The most reassuring part was that we would have Halloween the next Wednesday, so no students had to miss it!

After school I realized, "Holy Cow! A 5-day weekend!" Ben, Emily2 and I, after much discussion, reserved tickets and a beach resort in the Philippines, to leave the next day :) We spent this surprise vacation basking in the sun on a beautiful white sand beach... it was fantastic. We called it our "voluntary quarantine."

On our return Monday, we got the update that the Korean Government is discussing shutting down all schools for at least a week. Rachel told us that the schools are doing their best to prevent this, but she wanted us to be prepared, just in case. I'm really impressed with how forthcoming she's been with us about everything, considering before now the business culture at LCI has been one of secrecy and misinformation.

Tuesday night we stayed late to get the school ready for Halloween. Wednesday was a blast, and multiple children cried in the haunted house again! So far the school is still open, and I have one of the only Kindergarten classes where everyone is showing up every day. I'm going to call that a good sign :)

Ok, this has ran long - picture posts to follow of the Philippines and Halloween!

Love you all!

...but I have to quickly add...

2009-11-03T07:17:00.004-06:00

...this funny story from today:

We were carving pumpkins for Halloween after lunch today with the Kinders. Actually, I was carving the pumpkin, and sternly reminding them to stay far away from me since I had a sharp knife... They were fascinated and kept telling me how strong I was, and that I needed to be careful...

Of course, I sliced my palm open with the blade.

After making sure that I was genuinely OK, my boys started pretend-sobbing about my injury. They were crying, "Why, Teacher?? You cut your hand!! I think Teacher's not OK!!" One boy in particular was hilarious:

In his most hysterical sob-voice, he wailed "TEEEEEEECHEERRRR!!!! Every day I say to you 'BE CAREFUL TEACHER! STAY AWAY FROM KNIVES TEACHER!' and every day you don't listen! Now you cut your hand teacher! Why you do that when I say 'BE CAREFUL' Teacher???"

I almost cut myself again because I was laughing so hard. I love these kids!

Love you all!

So much to say!

2009-11-03T07:04:00.003-06:00

...but no time to say it!

Suffice it to say, it's been a wild couple of weeks. Swine flu has reared it's ugly head and is keeping us all in suspense as to the status of our jobs... Halloween got canceled and rescheduled, and I took an extremely last minute trip to the Philippines!

More details soon, I promise!

Everland Halloween Festival

2009-10-22T06:39:00.005-06:00

Last year I was dying to go to Everland's Halloween celebration, but couldn't get anyone interested enough. This year, things are different. Two awesome ladies were just as excited as me to go experience all the Spook-tacular Magic of October in Everland!

It was as silly and magical and fantastic as I had expected! Of course, nothing was scary. It was just cuddly pumpkins and cute ghosts. And it was great.

The Dish and I, getting eaten by a giant pumpkin:

My awesome dates: Tricia and Emily (3):

It was a little too cool for a water ride, so Korean ingenuity kicked in - they covered each seat with these big velcro vinyl sheets!

Plus, Harry Potter even made an appearance!

In other news, we're still getting all geared up for Halloween in Kindergarten. The kids keep telling me that they've got these terrifying costumes planned so they can scare ME in the Haunted House (Eileen even told Tyler Teacher today that she was going to hide in the corner and trip him when he jumps out to scare her, hahaha).

Speaking of children saying awesome things, my kids constantly surprise me. Sun Q asked me the other day, "Teacher! Do you know what love is? Love is a very dangerous thing!" Also, while they were picking their seats on the mat for story time, three of the girls were fighting over who got to sit next to Sun Q. He looked up at me with this blushing grin and said, "I guess they all love me!" and shrugged his shoulders :)

And while we were writing about our favorite activities, Eileen asked me, "Teacher, how do you spell 'Servant of Evil'?" I almost fell over... A 7-year-old wants to spell Servant of Evil?! I asked her why she would want to spell that, and she said her cousin in Canada told her that was the name of the scary movie they liked... I told her "Let's just write 'scary movies.'"

That's the update for now. Please leave comments. I'm begging for them, people! And more updates soon - this weekend is The Dish's big surprise!!

Love you all!

Fall...again...

2009-10-12T07:49:00.006-06:00

I can't believe it's been over a year since I moved to Korea. It's certainly gone by too fast, and it's sort of blowing my mind that I only have about 4 months left...

It's fall in Korea, again... I will definitely miss how beautifully and gradually the seasons change here. We had Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) recently, so the kids wore their hanbok again:

The Class:

The Girls:

The Boys:

The girls showed me how they bow to their elders on Chuseok in return for money (I didn't have any to give them, haha)

And my most favorite student finally came back from being in Canada for nearly 3 months! I missed Eileen SO MUCH!

If you're bored, go check out last October's Chuseok post and look at how much they've changed in a year... they're getting so big!

We're also gearing up for Halloween again. You may remember last year's epic failure of a song... This year we're going for gold. We're singing a song called "Creeping Creeping" (to the tune of "Are You Sleeping") and they've mastered singing in a 4 part round, complete with choreography! Cross your fingers for us!

Also, with the change in weather came a deep-seated ache for football. Especially with the Favre drama. Lo and behold, I was able to watch the first battle between Favre's Vikings and Rodgers' Packers...IN A BAR! ON A BIG SCREEN TV! It felt like I was back in the States!

Other than that, life's been pretty routine here. I've just been having good fun with great friends:

And cleaning up after filthy kids :)

We've got some great things planned for the rest of October, though, so hopefully by November 1 I'll have some more blogging to do :) Next weekend we're going to Everland for their big Halloween extravaganza, then the weekend after we have a big surprise planned for The Dish (because we love her). Then it'll be Halloween, and I can promise great pictures from that day!

Love you all!

ps - if I'm not posting something you think I should be paying more attention to, let me know. Now that the novelty's worn off, I'm kind of at a loss!

Kenny G

2009-09-10T07:27:00.005-06:00

In my smartest class, there's a student named Kenny. His English is amazing, we discuss Harry Potter quite often, and he's a funny guy. For whatever reason, his name on the attendance sheet is actually Kenny G. I think this is because his last name begins with the Korean letter that could be K or G, and there was already another Kenny at the school.

Anyways, we sometimes call him Kenny G, just for fun.

I thought he knew about the "real" Kenny G already. Funny enough, he didn't. As I learned when we got our latest issue of Kids' Times, and the last article was a huge two-page, full color spread about Mr. Saxophone himself. Of course, Kenny was impressed enough to mention it again today.

"Teacher! I can't believe I'm named after the greatet sexicon player ever!"

I don't know what a sexicon player is, but I imagine it's something all boys aspire to be. Usually his English is impeccable, but we all make mistakes... and his was HILARIOUS!

Speaking of English, my friend Paul, another teacher here who also speaks Korean, was walking home last night, when a group of extremely soju-drunk Koreans walked out of a bar in front of him. He heard one of the men say to the women (in Korean) "Oh look, a foreigner. I speak English well!"

As Paul approached the man said, "Hello!" Paul replied, "Hello." After a pause, the man said enthusiastically, "Cafe Latte!"

Apparently his English IS great! What else could Paul do but say right back, "Cafe Latte!"

Love you all!

My kids are sweet... Mostly...

2009-09-08T08:49:00.004-06:00

My kindergarten class and I have become extremely close. We're like a little family. We know each other's quirks and pet peeves and how to irritate one another and how to make each other laugh, cry, or pull out hair. But mostly we love each other :)

Last Friday, we were coloring after lunch. My kids had rocked it out all week, and we had nothing to do but enjoy some music and coloring time (ps - they're particularly fond of Ghostbusters and Yellow Submarine). As we were coloring, Andy said, "I think Teacher is beautiful."

So sweet. Who doesn't love a spontaneous compliment?

Not to be out-done, the others started chiming in with "Teacher is an angel," and "Teacher is a beautiful angel," and "Teacher is a beautiful princess angel!" (Can you see why I love this job?!?!)

So I was basking in the warmth of the love of 8 six-year-olds when I got into the office after Kindergarten, when Sally popped her head in the west door of the teacher's room and shouted, "Teacher is beautiful!" Some of my co-workers were in the office and I could feel their envy when they all said, "Awwwww..."

10 seconds later, Sally opened the east door of the office and this time I heard her shout:

"JUST KIDDING!"

I think it's true that each of us has had quite an effect on our students, and you can see each Teacher's personality reflected in the atmosphere and behavior of their class... I just regret that I'm so damn funny! :)

Love you all!

Bali Photos

2009-09-03T08:04:00.006-06:00

I've become a terrible blogger. Have some pictures.

Hope you enjoyed them!
Love you all!

Bali Part One

2009-08-11T06:40:00.006-06:00

I've been too busy recovering from the most amazing vacation ever to post, but now I'm ready to relive some of the incredible moments from this fantastic time. (Please excuse any redundance in adjectives, as my vocabulary isn't large enough to come up with that many effusively positive words, haha)

So the vacation began, as they do nowdays, in the Incheon International Airport. It just so happened there were 6 of us that knew each other, all on the same flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, so the wait was far from boring :)

Waiting to board (and showing off my blonde locks, hee hee):

Our supervisor made us promise to wear our masks, so we wouldn't get swine flu (for more on why masks are ridiculous for preventing ANYTHING on flights, e-mail me), so here's our proof picture:

The flight to Kuala Lumpur was about 6 hours, but I was able to sleep a bit and read a lot. We had about 24 hours in KL, so Stacy, Steve, and I had booked an evening tour, including a Hindu Temple and a buffet dinner showcasing Malaysian and Indonesian food and talented dancers.

Statue in the temple:

The Petronas Towers, as seen from our restaurant (I was supposed to take another tour in the morning to visit these, but was too sleepy and living it up taking baths!)

Some of the dancing:

For the tour, we were picked up by a very excited and talkative Malaysian man. He taught us how to properly pronounce vowels and was constantly answering one or the other of his cell phones. Plural. I hadn't realized before we got there that in Malaysia they drive on the left side of the road. Actually, I didn't realize until I was trying to get in the front seat and the driver kept saying "You, front seat, you front seat!" (with me all the while thinking "THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO DO!") I realized my mistake when I saw the steering wheel right in front of the seat I was trying to sit in, hahaha.

After the tour, we were pooped, so we went back to our hotel and went to bed. This king-sized bed is part of the reason I missed my morning tour:

The next day I caught my flight to Bali... it was maybe another 2-3 hours. I was excited to see, when I exchanged my money, that their currency was way prettier than the US or Korea. The driver, Bagus, from our hotel in Jimbaran (The Puri Bambu), picked me up and kept apologizing for his bad English while I tried to talk to him.

When I got to the Puri Bambu, I sighed heavily, and was pretty sure I was in Eden. The reception area, the restaurant, all were open air. I had never before been anywhere where good weather was such a guarantee, they didn't even build walls! Our room was sparse, but nice, and had a great private patio in front:

The grounds near the pool:

I couldn't shake the feeling of peace and happiness that had sunk in. I knew already it was going to be a fantastic vacation. I went to the restaurant and had some dinner, brought a cocktail back to my patio, and waited with a smile for Audra to arrive.

That's all for tonight, folks. But enjoy this preview picture of part two:

Audra with Monkeys

Love you all!

A "Hold-You-Over" Post

2009-07-22T10:08:00.005-06:00

Leaving for Kuala Lumpur, Bali, and Singapore tomorrow!! (Ok, by tomorrow I mean "in 5 hours").. expect lots of pictures when I'm back!

I thought I'd give you all a little 3 minute video to hold you over... Playgym today (Sun Q had a lot of energy):

Also, there was a partial solar eclipse today... we got to see it, which was awesome. Afterwards, the kids were drawing on the board. Sun Q drew this... That's the Sun in back and the Moon in front, hahaha:

And for my little sister: Your name, which is impossible to find on ANYTHING, is being used in an ESL textbook!!

Love you all!

Fur?

2009-07-16T05:07:00.003-06:00

So the other day in one of my elementary classes, Grace (of the earlier "Relationship Advice" post) started rubbing the side of my calf. I was sitting next to her, and kind of in the middle of teaching, so I let it go. But she didn't stop. Finally I asked her, "You like rubbing my leg?" She said, "Yeah, it's fuzzy."

I hadn't shaved in a few days. This was primarily because I'm lazy and have never liked to shave my legs. But also because the last time I shaved, I put my foot up on the toilet lid for easier access, and the whole thing shattered. My foot ended up in the toilet bowl and the shards of lid cut up and bruised my leg. So I was a little gun-shy.

But I told her, "That's because I need to shave." (ps - my kids all know the "break the toilet" story) She kept doing it and said "Teacher, it kind of feels cool. But why do you have hair on your legs and I have, like, none?" I said, "Two reasons, Grace. A - because you're Korean. And B..." She cut in here with "I'm too young for hair on my legs!" So at least she understands that...

Anyways, today I wore shorts again. She asked if I had shaved, and I told her I had (just this morning, in fact!). She wanted to feel it and said, "Oh! It's so soft! But Teacher... I think it's better with a little fur on it."

I pretty much died laughing.

Love you all!

ps - this same girl today also started asking me all kinds of questions about my supervisor (Is she married? How old is she? Does she have kids?). Finally I said, "Why don't you just ask Rachel Teacher this stuff?" She said (almost shocked) "Because, Teacher, that's personal!!!" Hahahahaha

Mudfest

2009-07-14T08:01:00.004-06:00

We went to Mudfest last weekend. It's basically a big event at a beach that's famous for its mud. Apparently the mud has all sorts of beauty and health benefits... I will say my skin was incredibly soft the next day!

It was a blast, and the story is best told in picture form (pictures which I must credit to Nancy, as I took none):

This was definitely the most foreigners I've seen in one place in the year I've been here.

They had mudsinks with paintbrushes for application:

Being muddy is fun. They also had a mudslide, mud wrestling pit, and corndogs.

...and lots of booze...

I got my butt kicked in the wrestling pit... my students counted no fewer than 15 bruises on me (and those were just the visible ones!)... so by the end of the day, I was pretty darn sleepy.

Fortunately, there was plenty of room in our hotel for the 8 of us to sleep :)

The next day was crazy-windy and rainy, and we went to the beach for a little bit... until it started hailing on us! We managed to catch an early bus back home, with plenty of time to rest up for our week.

And I leave for Kuala Lumpur, Bali, and Singpore in 8 days!!! I, and my students, are so ready for a vacation!

Love you all!

We didn't start the fire...

2009-07-08T08:26:00.004-06:00

WE FOUND DIGGY TODAY!!!

Ok, maybe not happy news, as he was perfectly preserved at the bottom of our block-box, but at least we know his fate.

My kids were playing with the blocks after science today, and I guess this is the first time they've used them all in a while... All of a sudden Andy shouted,"TEACHER!! Diggy is here!" I thought he was kidding.

I realized finally by the look on his face that Diggy was actually there, so I walked over, bracing myself for the worst. But there was Diggy, our class beetle, lying just as complacently in Death as he had in Life at the bottom of the box. I had been making a paper "nest" for the paper "eagles" we had made in science, so I quickly decided that was Diggy's new resting place.

He now resides, looking very much the same as the old Diggy, in his nest on my bookshelf. Long live dead Diggy. :)

And now the reason for the post title...

We got out of work 30 minutes early today!! Usually a cause for celebration, this early release was for far more morbid reasons...

Rachel, my supervisor, came running into my class about 30 seconds before the bell rang and said "We're going home now!" Usually, the kids leave at 6:30 and the teachers leave at 7. We all thought maybe the bell was a little late and the bus drivers were growing impatient. How little we knew.

When we went into the office for our 30 minute prep time, we were informed that ALL of us were going home now. It seemed the building had caught fire.

I don't know if I've expounded on the lack of fire safety in our building, but suffice it to say that we have two fire exits: out the 4th floor window, or through the fire escape which has been blocked by a large heavy cabinet.

My heart definitely raced for a moment as I grabbed my purse and headed for the hallway. And saw all of our students waiting for the elevators. WHAT?!?! Elevators?! Umm, maybe this is only the US, but I remember always being told that, in case of a fire, you should use the stairs. Which we tried, but were denied.

Finally, they let us teachers go down the stairs. Once we reached the 1st floor it was pretty darn smokey, but we realized for most places in our building they were carrying on with business as usual. So we went to the restaurant on the corner for chicken and beer, a half an hour earlier than planned.

I'm sure everything is fine, and we will have work tomorrow (and they will probably withhold the half an hour's pay from us). But still, it was an exciting little distraction!

Love you all!

Jeju Island! (Korea's Hawaii)

2009-06-30T06:13:00.006-06:00

I had an amazing weekend trip to Jeju Island last weekend. It was so exciting and tiring and fantastic, and I know you're dying to see pictures :)

We left EARLY Saturday morning (after about 4 hours of sleep)... Here's Jordan and I waiting in Gimpo Airport (as the name suggests, it's basically Incheon International's lesser second cousin):

We made it to our hotel (definitely hasn't been updated since the 70's, but it was a good location) and, after some Chinese food, we were ready to hit the beach! We took a back walkway from the Hyatt hotel (NOT our hotel, haha) and this is the view that greeted us:

We had a fantastic afternoon on the beach. The waves were pretty intense - the ocean kicked my butt and knocked my face in the sand a couple times, hahaha. Then I got in some good beach-reading and a beach-nap :)

After heading back to the hotel for a shower, we headed north to Jeju's Loveland. This is a park devoted entirely to fairly graphic sexual statues. I can't post many (or any) of the pictures on here, because I'm fairly certain this is a family blog :) But I can give this little preview of a bench I saw there:

...And if you want to get more of an idea what I spent Saturday night ogling, just GoogleImage "Jeju Loveland" :)

The next morning (or what felt like that night) we got up at 3:15 am to go hike Jeju's Seongsan Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak). This is an old volcano with a huge crater on top, that eventually formed a landbridge to Jeju Island, and is purported to have the best view of sunrise on Jeju.

Unfortunately, we wouldn't know about that. Here was our view:

It was FOGGY!!! A bit disappointing after booking it up this volcano at 4:30 in the morning to be sure we wouldn't miss sunrise! Here's proof of how wet it was up there and how early we got up - Me, soggy and sleepy:

But so you can see what we missed, here's a couple pictures of the mountain without a cloud cover:

After the volcano, we took a bus to visit some old lava tubes. These are places where, thousands of years ago, hot lava flowed through underground on its way to the volcano. It was pretty cool to see (and fortunately, cold inside, as we had to walk about a mile and a half from the bus stop to get there, haha), but we weren't allowed to take photos.

Our next stop was a waterfall right on the ocean. Apparently it was discovered by a Chinese man who was sent to collect "the elixir of life" from its waters... it was beautiful, and I made sure to soak my toes in it, just in case :)

Proof I was there (and still damp - what a wet, misty day!)

The inscription left by the Chinese man:

The waves over here were awesome... the sound alone made me want to move near the ocean:

Can you see the Ghost Ship in the distance?

After the waterfall, we were exhausted. We made it back to the hotel (yay late checkout!) for a nap, shower, and time to pack. After such a busy 48 hours (with little to no sleep) we were ready to be back in our own beds.

And, in just a few short weeks, I'll be traveling again! Kuala Lumpur, Bali, and Singapore! Can't wait!

Bonus pics:

The crazy-high and extremely frightening ride we rode at Lotte World a couple weekends ago:

Our (former) class pet, Diggy - A beetle we raised from a larva...who recently escaped. I've got the whole school on lookout, but I'm afraid he won't be returned alive. So

IN MEMORIAM
KIM HYUN DIGGY
A GOOD BEETLE
HE LOVED HIS BANANA JELLY

Love you all!

The Teacher is Learning...

2009-06-24T09:11:00.003-06:00

....LEARNING HOW TO RIDE A BIKE!!!

The other week, I rode a bike for the first time in almost 20 years!!! My friends taught me how, and I'm happy to say I picked it right up (in spite of the beers with dinner and my long skirt!)

Thanks to the Dish for taking this picture, Tyler for teaching me (well, pushing me), and Stacy for the bike.

Love you all!

Momma's Library...

2009-06-21T07:29:00.006-06:00

A while back, my incredibly thoughtful mother sent over a bunch of books she had picked up for my Kinders. They weren't reading so well yet, so I used them as our story-time books. The other day, during playtime, they suddenly remembered they were on the shelf, and 8 of my 9 students chose to sit and read rather than run around and play. It was awesome.

Getting settled in with their books:

Sun Q found something funny in his:

Andrew wanted Becky's book, I think :)

Laura and Evelyn chose to read together:

Sally was helping Eileen with a word:

Sun Q, deeply engrossed in "Scruffy":

Also, a few weeks ago, we took a pretty fun field trip to a car museum - there were old cars from all over the world there. We also ran into some Korean high schoolers who were so impressed with my Kinders' level of English they had to ask them if they were actually from Korea :)

On the bus with Jordan Teacher's class:

Posing with a kind of creepy statue - see how Eileen looks really uncomfortable on the bench with the plastic woman, hahaha:

And posing in front of an equally creepy Doc from Back To The Future:

Ok, people - this is 3 recent blog updates. Get those comments on here, and let me know that I'm not just doing this to kill some time on a Sunday night :)

Love you all!!

An Unwelcome Break From Routine

2009-06-18T18:17:00.003-06:00

So, something out of the ordinary finally happened :)

Last night I was in bed reading, telling myself "Ok, this is the last chapter for tonight, you've got to go to bed, Emily!" Around 1:30, my neighbor-across-the-hall's daughter started screaming and crying. This is a fairly common occurence. She's a noisy child, and I was pretty certain last summer that her parents sent her into the hall early Saturday mornings with a hammer and told her "Hit everything that will be loud."

So I waited for her to stop. She didn't. Just kept screaming "MOMMY!" in Korean, and I could tell she was in the hallway. My ovaries kicked in, and I opened my door to see what was going on. I found this 3-year-old girl standing in her doorway, red-faced, tears and snot streaming down, crying for her mother.

I started with "Shhhhh, shhhh" and still expected to see one of her parents behind her. Nothing. And she stared at me with her big eyes and said something in Korean about her mommy. All I could say in Korean was "It's ok, it's ok" and then pantomimed her going back to sleep. I tried "Mommy, where?" in Korean, but of course I had no idea what the response was. To this poor thing's credit, she quieted down while I was out there... But I could see it was a fragile calm.

Finally (maybe 10 minutes later?) her parents came in from outside. They saw the hall light on and ran up the stairs. When they saw their daughter and me in the hall, they exclaimed a very Korean "OH!" and the girl started bawling again. The dad just smiled at me, and they all went inside. Apparently Mommy and Daddy had stepped out (for a beer? a smoke? some soju?), and she woke up.

It was strange and frustrating. This also was after the evening I spent at the coffee shop trying to figure out why it sounded like someone was throwing bricks onto the awning over the patio. We learned it was cat litter. Someone was cleaning out their cat box and just launching the kitty-cakes out of their window.

What the heck, Korea? I realize you are used to being in very close proximity to others and their living habits, but is there no apartment etiquette at all?

Love you all!

Random Thoughts...

2009-06-17T04:54:00.004-06:00

Life has become fairly routine here, so there hasn't been a lot of blog updating. I thought I'd share with you some of the things I appreciate from this life I'm living:

- I love my kids. I found myself watching them in playgym today and already getting sad about leaving them in February. They are so fun and unpredictable and smart and adaptive, and I feel so incredibly lucky to have gotten to know them this well.

- I love everyone else's kids too. I'm kind of the fun aunt in the hallway, playing and joking and teaching them "Freeze!" and "Gimme five, up high, down low, too slow!"

- A while back another student said hello to me in the hallway. Evelyn (one of my kinders) pulled me down to whisper in my ear, "Everyone knows Emily Teacher!" It made me smile.

- A few weeks ago I was on my way to the coffee shop and a child yelled "Emily Teacher!!" on the sidewalk. I said hello and smiled and waved, and realized I had no idea who she was. It was pretty ego-boosting :)

- I love the coffee shop patio. Jordan and Tyler were going all the time, so one day I brought my book with me and went down there. It's heaven. Coffee and fresh air and comfy seats and reading. I've gone through books like water since that day.

- I love that I'm teaching the older students. They ask such intelligent questions and love to learn more and more about any topic. I love when that light comes on, and they connect something we discuss to a previous conversation.

- I love that my Kinders are learning so much. We have a class beetle named "Diggy" who we raised from a wee larva :) Today Sun Q decided, on his own during playtime, that he was going to make a book. He called it "Diggy's Day." Each page had an illustration of one of Diggy's activities, which were "Diggy is sleeping. Diggy is waking up. Diggy is eating banana jelly now. Diggy is climbing." I was so impressed!

- They're also maturing socially and emotionally. Laura, who used to cry every morning because she didn't want to talk in front of the class, is now volunteering to go first for our morning questions! Evelyn, who used to be a huge diva-brat and is now only a minor diva-brat, takes my teasing about her whining with a smile, and is trying not to be so bossy. Philip, who was so competitive and always talking about being first, now says "We're the winners! Just kidding, everyone's a winner!"

- I love Korean baseball. Even though I'm pretty sure I'm a bad-luck-charm, as any team I root for loses unexpectedly whenever I show up to a game, it's such a fun time!

- I'm getting a little sad, as all the people I began this journey with will be gone by the end of August. But I'm also excited for something different, some bit of change.

- Also sad is the fact that I won't see my family until Christmas, and even then I won't get there till Christmas Day at the earliest. I was just thinking about Halloween this year, and how I hope I'm in the haunted house again, and realized that'll be two Halloweens away from home. Far away from home. It made me feel a little disoriented.

- I'm excited to do some more traveling. On the 27th Jordan and I are going to Jeju Island (Korea's Hawaii) for the weekend. I'm really looking forward to some beach time! Also, at the end of July, I'm meeting Audra in Bali. On the way, I'm stopping in Kuala Lumpur to squeeze in some sight seeing, then I'm going to Singapore for a few days on the way back. I think, by the time I leave here, I'll have most of Southeast Asia covered :)

- I like being alone. This is extremely surprising to me, as I've always NEEDED to be in the company of others to feel like I'm having fun. But I like living alone. I like taking little walks alone. I still love people, and WANT to be around them to have fun, but I really like my own company as well :)

- I have no idea what's going to come after this, but I'm comfortably back in "wait-and-see" mode. I like it here. I don't think I'm ready to jump into a career yet, so I'll just sit back and see what kinds of opportunities are available after this!

I feel like there are so many more anecdotes I could be sharing, but of course none are coming to mind right now. I'll try to find some fun pictures to share, since I just bombarded you with words :)

Love you all! (and leave comments, dammit! I'm so much more motivated to post when there is a lot going on in the comments section!)

Kindy Cuteness

2009-06-04T05:18:00.007-06:00

I'm still not quite in blog-mode, so I thought I'd make good on my promise of updates and share a couple of adorable videos I've taken recently.

The first is a song the Kinders had to learn for "Open Class." Open Class is when the mothers get to come into the classroom for 40 minutes and watch a well-rehearsed and generally well-acted production of our normal, day-to-day activities. It was sort of like a smaller-scale Festival. The song they had to learn was "In a Cabin, In a Wood"... we never sing this song, except for Open Class. If it was a REAL day, you'd find them singing Ghostbusters :)

The second video is from art today. We had to make chickens. It was a mess. But the kids were so cute and having so much fun, I had to record it.

Ok, it felt good to blog a little. Maybe this will whet my appetite for more updating :)

Love you all!

I'm a huge slacker...

2009-06-02T08:23:00.001-06:00

... I know. New blogs coming soon, I promise!

For now the news is (and I think I posted it once on here, but can't remember) that I won't be home in August. I'll be back for a visit at Christmas, but I extended my contract through February of 2010.

Love you all!

Relationship Advice...

2009-04-21T06:38:00.003-06:00

...from a 9 year old. In her second language:

"I think if you like someone, you should just see them a lot and make sure you do things once. Fight once. Eat once. Play once. Then if you still love them, you can marry them."

At this point her classmates balked at the idea of fighting. "Fight once?! You don't want to fight once with people you love!"

To which she replied, "It's like fighting with your friends or family. You still love them. But you have to know how he fights. If you never fight, then you get married and if he's very bad when he fights, then you won't know until it's too late. But if you fight once first, and he's very bad when he fights, then you just dump him and get a new boyfriend."

At this point I had to ask the class, now deeply invested in this discussion and far more opinionated about it than I ever could have anticipated, "How does a person just find a new boyfriend?"

From one of the boys in the class, "You have to just make him love you. Wear a lot of makeup and be a little mean to him. Then go find a book called '100 Ways to Find a Boyfriend' and read it. There's probably a book like that, right?"

I love my job. I love my students (yes, this is the highest level class at school). I love the way their brains work (enough to write all this down while still trying to teach, haha).

And I love you all!

Sports in Korea

2009-04-14T06:11:00.005-06:00

Two posts in one night?!! Can you handle it?!?!

So I've been lucky enough to go to two sporting events in Korea recently, and I'd like to share the proof with you here.

First, I went to a World Cup qualifying match between South Korea and North Korea. Stacy invited me to go with her and Eric, and the first thought I had was "Holy Cow, how can I pass this up?!" It was a school-night, so we didn't make it there until half-time, but that was plenty of time to watch SoKo score the one and only goal of the game!! Yay Democracy!

The World Cup Stadium in Seoul:

It was so noisy here... We kept trying to pick up the chants, but the closest we got was "Hey, Puerto Rico!" (I later found out it's actually "Dae Han Min Guk" which means "Republic of Korea!")

The field:

Us loving being there:

The final score:

Also, on easter weekend I got to go to my first baseball game in Korea: LG Twins vs Doosan Bears. Talk about another noisy venue... The fans never stopped! Each side had all these intense cheers and the stadium wasn't even moderately calm at any point! I will definitely be going to more of these!

The stadium:

Some Doosan Bears fans:

Proof that I was there:

The score: (the Bears were winning, for the record)

So, in short, I'm enjoying the fact that it's finally great weather again here...

OH! PS - I'm not sure I've announced this here yet, but I've decided to go ahead and extend another 6 months, so I'm in Korea until the end of February, 2010. I'll be back in ICT for a week in August, but otherwise you all need to start booking tickets to come visit :)

Love you all!

Easter in Korea

2009-04-14T05:14:00.004-06:00

Happy Easter everyone!! You've all heard the Good News, right? :)

I had a fantatic Easter... it wasn't Ham and Cheesy Potatoes with the family, but it was Brunch with some damn fine people :)

Catherine, Trish (the Dish), Andrew and I went into Seoul for a fancy champagne brunch at the Hilton Millenium Hotel... It was amazing!

And Catherine came prepared with little candy-filled plastic eggs and fun fuzzy ears for all of us to wear:

We stayed there for about three hours gorging ourselves on shrimp, scallops, duck, chicken, beef, and BREAD PUDDING!!! (my first bread pudding in over 8 months)... Then we went walking around Namdaemun Market and buying up some fun Korean-ized shirts (I got one that says "Can the It-Bag Change Your Life?"). It was a very happy Easter! I hope everyone at home had a great Easter, too!

Fun Bonus Pictures:
I have to have a diagram of the human body with parts labeled as part of my "required classroom decoration." Well I didn't want it to be boring (or hard), so here's what Brett, Jordan, and I came up with:

And here's my smartest class posing in front of it:

And for Michele - This is what a Korean Girl Scout Uniform looks like:

Love you all!

Happy Birthday Breea!

2009-04-06T09:54:00.003-06:00

For my best friend in the whole wide world...

I love you so much. I'm glad you were born!

(ps - I swear they're saying "Breea")

For your viewing pleasure...

2009-03-30T06:19:00.009-06:00

... I've got some time to occupy, and some music to listen to, so here are some photos for you to enjoy!

We had a fun field trip to see a three-man show of The Emperor's New Clothes. The actor actually came out in his boxers with a fake rubber butt and neon-orange bandaids over his nipples. Anyway, it was so hot in there, my kids were exhausted by the end of it... so here they are, pretending to sleep:

I mentioned the Mongolian Cultural Village in the last blog (I think)... Well we had as much fun in the 3 hours getting there as we did in the 15 minutes of actually being there!

A sign we found in some special Korean monument area:

Pretty sure #2 is "No Yawning." #4 is definitely "Do Not Take A Chipmunk's Temperature Rectally." and #7 could only mean "Do Not Burn Jim and Huck's Raft."

The quintessential Mongolian warrior:

Apparently dinosaurs were a huge problem for the Mongolians...

I can totally see why.

They also had to deal with impaled wolves attacking their sheep:

They had about 8 of these typical Mongolian huts, or gels, set up. They were all the same. Here's one:

And here's the mobile version:

At the end of this trip, all I really wanted was a good coffee can...

I also went to Everland yesterday. If you've been with this blog from the very beginning, you'll remember that in my first post, I wrote about how absolutely thrilled I was to be living so close to Korea's largest amusement park. Well, 8 months in, I finally made it! AND IT WAS AWESOME!

Anyways, here are some highlights from that adventure:

Those familiar with drug-slang will appreciate this sign. It certainly cracked me up! (Disclaimer: I do not engage in recreational drug use!)

And those familiar with WICHITA will LOVE that this exists here:

Finally, those who loved Elvis when he was in his look-like-an-Asian phase, this one's for you:

Apparently, it's ok to feed the monkeys here:

Also, their monkeys are trained electricians:

They teach you all kinds of fun facts about monkeys at Everland:

But my favorite part was the fantastic "photo spot" they had set up in front of their wooden coaster (steepest one in the world, in fact!). They even told you where to place your feet!

Really classic picture, eh? Captures the moment! :)

I hope you enjoyed this photo tour... Now I can slack for a month! :)

Love you all!

Happy Spring!

2009-03-28T00:40:00.002-06:00

It's officially spring, and Wichita's getting hit with a snow/ice storm right now. And Korea got cold. I went from wearing a coat every day to sleeping with the window open, back to wearing a coat every day! Make up your mind, Nature!

I'm almost at 8 months in Korea now, which is a little unnerving. I thought for sure by this point in my stay I'd have everything figured out - what I was doing with my life, what comes next, etc etc. But it seems that my feelings on these subjects keep changing with work-stress, missing family, having fun out here, wanting to travel more... So I still have no idea. Luckily I've got a few more months to decide!

Because my time here is (or could be, maybe) running short, my friend Catherine and I decided to live every weekend here like it's our last. We've gone on ferry rides, explored caves, been to a Mongolian village, and next weekend I'll be out catching (and eating!) fresh snow crabs! It's been a blast!

We have a week vacation at the end of July and I've decided (yay! I made at least one decision!) that I will be spending it lounging alone on a secluded beach in Bali. All the research I've done has led me to believe I may not be returning from that Paradise, hahaha... it's so beautiful!

The kids at school are great. Kindergarten is harder this year, so everyone's stressed, but they're figuring out our new rhythm... Elementary is awesome, the kids are so smart. Plus they love me. One girl wrote an essay about how great Emily Teacher is, because "she's funny, but when the class needs to be serious, she makes us serious, and she always explains everything carefully until we understand." What better compliment can a teacher ask for!?!?

That's all I've got, for now. I just wanted to get a bit of an update on here, since the blog was getting stale... I'll post again when something exciting happens, hahaha.

Love you all!

My Brilliant New Students

2009-03-10T06:11:00.004-06:00

I haven't blogged in a while. Work has been extremely stressful with the class changes and schedule changes... I sunk into a funk for a minute or two, but I think I'm pulling through... Expect multiple updates in the near future :)

I have new students. I wasn't excited about it, but they're amazing. I now teach the two highest levels at LCI. These kids are so smart, it blows my mind. Now, instead of teaching my afternoon classes about the months of the year and how to spell "donkey," I'm teaching voice and vivid details and declarative and interrogatory sentences and LOVING IT!

Today, in my afternoon class, we were discussing the nature of friendship, and how it can take many forms. We had also discussed poetry, and different kinds of poems. I decided to give them 5-7 minutes to write at least a 12-line poem, in any form, about friendship. The results were astounding. I decided I had to share them with all of you...

The following are excerpts from poems about friendship written in under 7 minutes by 10-11 year olds (in their second language):

"She brags until I say
'What a show off;
You brag too much
Just say the word you need
to say.'
Just don't have a mouth full of brags.
But remember this word
in case of something:
'You are my friend, my best friend...'"

Friend is
who worry
and sad
and happy
with me.

Friend is
person that
know each
others' mind

Friend can't
change with
a jewelry
or a treasure.

This one I just had to take a photo of - it was too awesome:

And finally, from my smart-ass genius in the class (with whom I can have lengthy discussions about all things Harry Potter):

"Dragon Friendship"
A dragon sees another
They really like each other
they have some fun
they become dumb
but they always stick together

Together they fly
They always float by
and burn up some grass
eat up some lambs

Together they go
to get a nacho
but they always stick together.

Aren't you blown away too?!?! I'm really looking forward to getting more and more out of them. My head supervisor was also extremely impressed, and wants to post them on the lobby display board!! All this because I needed to kill a couple minutes! :)

That's all I've got for today - I need to finish watching the first episode of this latest season of Grey's Anatomy :)

But first - check out this cool effect my camera does: I can make the moon sparkle!

And we had a b-day yesterday in Kindergarten... Here is my class, all big and old as a 7-2 class now. And that's Philip in the middle, top row. You'll hear lots more about him soon. Philip, the cause of my tension headache...

Love you all!!

Read Jordan's Blog.

2009-03-02T18:06:00.001-06:00

I've been extremely busy, so I haven't posted about my new classes yet, but Jordan has an awesome post about our Valentine's Day relaxation. So if you're dying for some Korea updates, look to the right and click on "Jordan's Blog."

Love you all!

Festival - Finally!

2009-02-19T05:23:00.008-06:00

Ah, Festival is over. Whew. We made it.

Of course, the night before, I only got about 4 hours of sleep (I guess I was too excited for my directorial debut, haha) - so the intense, insane chaos that was Festival was made even more nutty by the invasion of about seven liters of caffiene in my bloodstream, haha.

But enough about me. The KIDS WERE AWESOME!!! They did such a good job with both the skit and the song, and looked amazingly adorable. I got to do a speech at the end about each of my kids, and couldn't say enough about how much my class rocks!
Prepare yourself for a tidal wave of cute:

Their first performance was with two other classes, ringing bells and beating drums to some song called "Entry of the Gladiators."

Waiting in the back like little almond Hershey's Kisses:

Doing their thing on stage:

After this, we had to get them changed for the Wizard of Oz skit - LCI was smart enough to have the parents dress them in white shirts and tights to facilitate the costume changes:

And here are my scarecrows, Andrew and Ryan:

My Tin Men...er, People, Jenny and Sun Q:

The Lions, Eileen and Andy (PS, Eileen has an absolute inability to have her eyes open and looking at the camera in any picture, ever):

And two Dorothys and a female Wizard, Laura, Evelyn, and Sally:

The whole gang, just before they went onstage:

After they did an incredible job on their skit, they had to quick-change for our song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. A note on these costumes: I intentionally picked the most ridiculous costumes I could find in the book, and was the only teacher who didn't have her costumes switched behind her back.

The directors apparently felt like some of the classes didn't have flashy enough outfits, and changed at least one class's darling costumes to what looked like a Pimps 'n' Hos party, complete with zebra fur hearts on the boys' bottoms and booty-shorts and fishnet hose for the girls. The teacher didn't know about the change until her kids were getting dressed before their song.

Anyways, I hope my boys can forgive me for this:

The final performance was just the kids in blue jeans singing a song in Korean about how much they love their parents (it's an adorable song that gets stuck in my head regularly, even though I don't know the words):

Sadly, I didn't get to stick around and meet my kids' parents, as I was ordered to return to school ASAP after the last song to cover afternoon classes... I have to say, I was disappointed to not have that opportunity. But I was still damn proud of my kids!

That night, Angie and I drug our exhausted butts to Gangnam to shop and eat Indian food and drink wine. We deserved it, after two months of chaos preparing for this one day. It's not the first time my job has stressed me out this much, and I'm sure it won't be the last, but my kiddies make it all seem worth it.

And in the Gangnam subway station, I found this shirt, and knew everything was going to be ok :)

Love you all!

I'm Awesome!

2009-02-04T06:54:00.002-06:00

Today, I got back the weekly report from Andrew. His mom (the one who sent chocolate, so when I am "feeling distasteful, just eat chocolate and said 'Fine.'") has been asking me whether it's hard to teach children all day long, and has been making sure I'm ok. I've been trying to reassure her that the kids are good, and that her son seems to enjoy school as well.

Today she told me:

"I'm sure Andrew enjoys LCI. He says everyday that LCI is fun place to study, and lunch is very delicious at LCI. But whenever you tired of teaching children, just make punishment, and make children think you awesome!"

HA! I'm fairly certain I introduced the word "awesome" to her vocabulary (since I often use that adjective to describe her son and his progress), and I love the way she's incorporating it! Hooray for bonus English lessons!

Love you all!

Beijing - Day 3 P.M (Pearl Market, Forbidden City, Wang fu xing Street)

2009-02-02T04:29:00.013-06:00

Sorry - I realize it's been way more than a day between Beijing blogs - but I had to have my weekend!

Day 3's lunch was a buffet - still more delicious Chinese food! After lunch we went to the pearl market (opened up just for our tour group) to learn about cultivating pearls. We learned that all of the pearls at the Government-sanctioned pearl markets come from oysters harvested from Kunming Lake at the Summer Palace! Pretty cool origins for a pearl! We also learned the secret tricks for testing the authenticity of a pearl - swindlers and phonies beware!

The woman who was teaching us about pearls then selected an oyster from a large tank. She showed us that it had 6 rings, meaning it was 6 years old (like a tree!), and said they generally harvest oysters that are around 15-20 years old. Before she cracked it open to show us the jewelry inside, she had us guess how many pearls were in there. Immediately I thought "One. That's the way the cartoons show it - one beautiful pearl on a pretty pillow of oyster." But obviously that wasn't the answer, seeing as how she was having us guess.

Being a smartass, I said "Ooh! Maybe 22, then each of us on the tour can have one!" Well, lo and behold, when she opened it up, there were over 20 pearls inside.

And not nearly as pretty as the cartoons - but, for being such a good guesser, the woman popped two of the pearls right out of the oyster and gave them to me as a prize!!! I now own pearls taken straight out of an oyster that grew at the Summer Palace in Beijing!!

After the excitement of the pearl market, we were off to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was the home of all Chinese emperors from the early 1400's to around the 1920's... Which means it's only been open to the public for a little over 80 years.

We started at the North Gate:

The buildings inside were pretty incredible:

I'm really irritated with myself, because I can't remember the name of this Hall - but it was burned, and a rebuild was attempted, but it burned one more time, so they just left it as-is, and I thought it was a pretty amazing picture:

This is the main Throne Hall - I think it's called the Hall of Supreme Harmony...

Eventually (and feeling like you'd need two full days to see everything in the Forbidden City), we made it to the South Gate:

Outside of the South Gate you can see the dizzyingly high walls surrounding the City:

At the South Gate, we met David who was going to show us to Wang Fu Xing Street (a fairly famous snack and shopping street). After a bit of a walk, we saw what seemed like an endless line of red lanterns hanging above dozens of snack booths. I got pretty excited, because I've been pleasantly surprised with the street food here in Korea - then David warned us not to eat anything...

I couldn't figure out why, till we got closer:

Yep, those are starfish in the foreground. And I actually saw someone eating one.

Some delicious crab:

And they have all kinds of "food" on a stick -

Millipede:

Scorpion:

Cricket?

Seahorse:

Apparently, the only thing palatable was the cake:

And unfortunately, it was on the same menu as the Dog Meat Pot :)

After spending most of the evening on Wang Fu Xing, and trying some less exotic street food (candied hawthornes on a stick, eggy squid balls, sprout wraps, and kebab-esque sandwiches), we cabbed it back to the hotel and prepared for our massages. David had made the necessary phone calls to set up massages in our hotel room! I was looking forward to it...

Unfortunately, it was more of a shiatsu-style massage (which means a lot of hitting) and they didn't even have us strip down or anything. It was the kind of massage that I'm pretty sure I could have gotten from my little brother... but it was only about $40 for an hour and a half, plus foot massage. Afterwards, we were ready to call it a night and pass out.

Day 4 was basically a get-out-of-town day, and a get-home-and-rest-before-teaching-tomorrow day :) And it was much needed, after such a busy weekend!

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my awesome vacation - especially because I won't be getting another one until July :( (except maybe a Tuesday in May.) I'll be doing a whole post of just random photos for the fun of it tomorrow - so you have one last thing to look forward to!

Love you all!

Beijing - Day 3 A.M. (Tian'anmen Square, Hutong Tour, and Summer Palace)

2009-01-29T06:57:00.011-06:00

I was just going through photos and realized that day 3 was pretty huge, so I'm breaking it up a bit... First, the morning:

We went to Tian'anmen Square at 8:30 in the morning. Our guide, David, told us that he'd never been there when it was so peaceful and empty. He attributed it to the fact that it was New Year's day. It was kind of incredible to see such a vast expanse of empty concrete:

My brain kept flashing back to the image of the young man stopping the line of tanks in 1989. David also touched on that incident, and let us know about the differing accounts of how many died - depending on who you ask (foreigners who were there at the time, the Chinese government, the Chinese Red Cross, etc) the number fluctuates between 200 soldiers killed and thousands of civilians killed. It was unnerving to imagine bodies and blood filling that empty square.

The only major interruption in the flatness was a 10-story monument in the middle:

This has an inscription of Mao's handwriting which says "Eternal Glory to the People's Heroes," referring to those who fought for Mao's New China.

There is also the Chinese flag on an enormous flagpole, guarded sunup to sundown by three guards - two at the base, one pacing all around.

And here is the Man himself, Chairman Mao, whose huge picture graces the front of one of the initial gates between Tian'anmen and the Forbidden City.

His body is still on display at a mausoleum at the square, but it wasn't open that day. He had requested to be cremated, but the people wanted to believe in his eternal life, so they have his body displayed in a crystal coffin.

After the Square, we were off to a traditional Hutong. Hutongs are neigborhoods of small alleys built around a courtyard. There used to be about 6,000 in Beijing, but the government has torn them down to the point where there are only about 1,000 left. We got a chance to visit one in the coolest possible way - via rickshaw!

Here is our driver, Artie (R.D.... Rickshaw Driver...)

After we saw a bit of the Hutong,

Artie let me drive the rickshaw! This is the picture he snapped just before I ran right into him:

He decided it was time to take over again, so I let him drive and filmed a bit of the Hutong to share with you!

After our rickshaw tour, we went down an especially narrow alley to visit a family in their Hutong home.

This woman and her husband have lived in the Hutong for over 50 years. They were incredibly generous to share their home with us, and the woman never stopped smiling the whole time. She got a kick out of us trying to say "Happy New Year" in Chinese:

We learned that most of these homes are now basically "welfare housing" for low-income families... and most don't have a private toilet - they use the public toilets located around the Hutong.

Robin (our guide for this mini-tour) also taught us about a popular pastime in the Hutong neighborhoods: Cricket Fighting. Apparently they take their cricket fighting seriously... they have all the tools for catching, feeding, poop-scooping, and aggravating their crickets! The family was kind enough to let Robin show off their tools:

I think I'm going to start Cricket Fighting League in Korea... Maybe someone can get something going back home, too :)

After the Hutong we traveled to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was originally built for a woman affectionately referred to as the Dragon Lady. This woman was a Concubine of an emperor who sucessfully arranged for both her son and her nephew to become emperors of China (their "rule" was really just a face - she was always the "power behind the throne," as the Chinese say). She also killed her own three-month-old daughter, who was beloved by the Emperor, and framed the Empress, leading to the Empress's being cast out of the Forbidden City. Quite an ambitious gal!

A prime example of her hunger for power is in the statues in front of one of the throne buildings at the Palace:

Dragon (representing the Emperor):

Phoenix (representing the Empress):

Now ordinarily, the Dragon is on the inside, closest to the doors (because the Emperor is the most important), and the Phoenix on the outside. She had the statues switched around at the Summer Palace, to show HER influence over the throne. Quite a rise to power for a former Concubine!

The Palace grounds also hold the Longest Corridor in the World - which is covered with over 14,000 paintings. Pretty amazing:

The Palace itself is really beautiful - it sits on a 2.2 square kilometer manmade lake (Kunming Lake), which was mostly frozen over when we were there (and some CRAZY people were actually out walking on it!)

Ok, that's enough for today. I'm extremely tired, and I think you have enough pictures to look at :) But remember Kunming Lake - it comes back in our story in Day 3, Part Two!

Bonus pics for today:

Our tour guide, David (an awesome guy!) and me finally gaining a little control over the rickshaw (with Artie's help):

Love you all!

Beijing - Day 2

2009-01-28T05:35:00.009-06:00

Did you love Day 1? Were you unable to sleep last night, fantasizing about Day 2?? Well, friends - that's a lot of pressure :)

Day 2 began with a fairly delicious buffet breakfast at the hotel - It was a combo of Chinese and Western food, so I had an omelette and fried rice (which, PS, is delicious!).

After breakfast, we went to a Jade factory. We learned about different grades of jade (based on hardness, color, etc) and how to properly point a jade cabbage to ensure money would be flowing into your home (and how to sabotage your neighbors by pointing THEIR cabbage at YOUR house, mwahaha). We also got to see a man carving jade and a woman polishing a piece (these are the assigned gender roles for jade manufacture - our guide said it's because the polishing is the most important, and women are more patient and detail-oriented...)

We left the jade factory and headed to the pinnacle of the entire tour - the GREAT WALL OF CHINA!

Here, you can see the Wall, far in the distance, winding over the mountain (from the bus):

From the base:

All dressed up, and a LONG way to go:

The Chinese say that once you climb the Great Wall, you become a Hero. Every Chinese person we mentioned the Wall to said, "Oh, you are hero now!" After climbing to the "Hero Point," I can TOTALLY understand why. Holy cow. The steps vary from a 4" rise to a 12" rise... Some of the shorter people on our tour were climbing steps that came up to their knees! And it's STEEP! I remain in awe of the Chinese soldiers hundreds of years ago who had to climb these steps every day...

Needless to say, I needed a break halfway up... here's the view from my sitting-on-the-stairs position:

And once at the "top" (they are sweet to call it the top - it's not, but it's still incredibly high) the view of the stairs I just cried and panted my way up :)

And the view of what I could have continued on, if I didn't love being able to stand without falling down :)

But at least I made it this far:

And now have proof that, at least in China, I am a HERO:

The descent was only slightly easier (I'd like to give a shout-out to my friend, Gravity!), and on the way down I passed an Indian man, using the handrail to pull himself up each of the crazy stairs, and with every step nearly-shouting "Oh God Mercy! Oh God Mercy!" My sentiments exactly.

Still, I wouldn't change a thing. I have climbed the Great Wall of China. And it was amazing.

After the Great Wall we went to a Cloisonne factory and learned how they make incredibly intricate copper pots and vases, and ate lunch upstairs from the factory. Chinese food again... and again, delicious. We also got to try a traditional Chinese liquor... Once I was finished coughing I decided it wasn't that bad :)

The Ming Tombs were the next stop on our tour. These are the burial sites of the 13 Ming Dynasty Emperors and their 23-some-odd Empresses and Concubines. Chinese history is full of scandals and intrigue related to Concubines (I capitalize because I believe in their importance) - I was totally enthralled by how much sway they held over Emperors and matters of state.

Anyways, we visited the Changling tomb, the largest of the Ming Tombs. They had a map of all the 13 tombs and their names - this was my favorite (Fantasy Island, anyone?)

Also - at the bottom you can see the "Feizi Tomb" - Feizi means Concubine... they're all lumped in there together, I guess.

This is a giant statue of Yong Le (the man who is buried here) in the Hall of Emminent Favour at the tomb - This guy is the brains behind the Forbidden City and the move of the Capital to Beijing... Very deserving of a giant statue!

This is a view of the Soul Tower - from here, the souls of the Emporer and Empress ascended into Heaven:

Inside the Soul Tower, there is a large monument on which is inscribed something about the "great acheivements of Yong Le." Behind the monument, you can sort of see the man-made mountain under which the bodies are buried:

And here is Jordan, trying desperately to warm her toes in the sun (it stayed about 30 degrees the whole time we were in Beijing):

And me being friendly with one of the Tomb guards:

All the officers of the law wore those awesome hats - I wanted one so bad!

To continue our FULL day, we went to a silk shop to learn how exactly that fabulous fabric is made. We got to see just how they extract the silkworms from their cocoons and strech the fibers out:

Then we got to help strech a little bundle of silk fibers out to make part of a silk quilt!

We learned about the durability and hypoallergenic properties of silk, and browsed a giant silk fabric warehouse... it was pretty interesting! (PS - they also showed us what 5-year-old silkworms look like - Google it, it's disgusting!)

On our way to dinner, we were lucky enough to pass by the two amazing buildings Beijing built for the Olympics (and which were the subject of a pretty interesting Discovery Channel show!)

Here's the Bird's Nest (which is also the largest steel building in the world):

And the Water Cube (the bubbles change color at night!):

Dinner was... er... interesting... this was our menu:

Just kidding! That was our room service menu in the hotel!

Dinner was more Chinese food (still amazing!) and afterwards, Jordan and I were totally pooped and ready to hit the sack. We relaxed in our hotel room, watched Rush Hour 1 and 3, and were out by 10:30.

Until the sound of a million gunshots shook us awake.

Fortunately, I realized what night it was and checked the clock. Sure enough, it was midnight. Lunar New Year. AKA Chinese New Year. In the birthplace of Fireworks.

Jordan and I clamored out of bed and stood freezing in the window, watching our 360 degree fireworks show (thanks to the perfect reflections on the building across the street)... It was pretty incredible to be in China, watching how the locals celebrate Chinese New Year... Happy 2009, China!

The fireworks went on and on for days - we were still hearing them when we caught our taxi to the airport - but that night, we were only able to watch about 20 minutes before exhaustion overtook us and we climbed back into our beds, visions of sparklers dancing in our heads :)

Bonus Pics for today: Jordan and I doing some light renovations to the Changling Tomb grounds, and the view from the Soul Tower:

Hope you're loving reading about this adventure as much as I loved living it (and am loving sharing it)!!

Love you all!

Beijing, China - Day 1

2009-01-27T05:47:00.010-06:00

I'm back from my amazing trip to China, and am so excited to share everything with you!! We did a ton of incredible things, and the mere thought of blogging about them all is giving me arthritis :) so I've decided to break it up into each day's activities, so to save my fingers and your eyes. Be sure to check back for tomorrow's news!

We started our journey by meeting at 5:30 Saturday morning. It was a frigid walk to the bus stop, and as we waited on the (late) bus to arrive, the sky decided to testify to the cold by dropping thousands of giant snowflakes on our heads...

But if you know me, you know snow makes me happy :)

This was our view at the airport:

But nothing could stop us from being excited about our adventure!

We arrived in Beijing around 11:30 (delayed because of snow) and were met by our tour guide, David. The 22 of us on the tour piled onto a big (heated) bus and were off to our first stop - the Peking Duck Restaurant!

All of the restaurants we ate at served food in a very familial style - tons of dishes piled up on a lazy susan for everyone to rotate and share. At first I liked this dining concept, then I realized the sweet and sour chicken was ALWAYS gone before I got seconds! I decided I'd rather just have my own order :)

This is our server teaching us how to roll a traditional duck-rollup with some weird dumpling-type wrap, veggies, and sauce:

I got to try the first one!

Then I rolled my own - and was the only one at the table who could imitate the actual rollup using only my chopsticks! I think this speaks to my Mexican restaurant background :)

Our next stop was the Temple of Heaven. This temple was built during the Ming dynasty to offer sacrifices to Heaven. It was a really beautiful place.

Me looking scholarly under a 300+ year old Chinese Scholar tree:

Click on this picture and read the inscription about the door - pretty fun history here :)

This is the room where they filled cows' bellies with water, then killed them... the idea was that a well-hydrated sacrificial cow would bring much rain to the area:

Can you read it? Me either...

If you look in the upper right-hand corner, you'll see that I stood where Nixon did before me... And many other world leaders:

Our next stop was a traditional tea-house:

We got to taste all kinds of different teas (my favorite was the oolong with ginseng - if you find any back home, try it!) including hand-rolled teas and a special tea that, when brewed, blooms!

We also learned how to properly hold our teacups to be real ladies (bring on the jokes, CJ):

Our last stop before dinner was a Chinese circus show called "Flying Acrobat Show." This show involved amazing acrobatic feats and actual (well-trained) cockatiels and parrots flying around... A pretty stellar show (during which I started dozing off, which more accurately reflects how totally exhausted I was than how yawn-inducing the show was... because it wasn't. It was awesome.). They didn't allow photography so I only have this picture of the building outside:

And this of Jordan and I being confused when we lost our tour guide for a moment:

Then we had dinner (Chinese food again!)... A word about Chinese food in China - it's EXTREMELY similar to Chinese food in America!!! Way more similar than Chinese food in Korea (which seems to have missed the mark)... And it's delicious... even after 5 straight meals of it!

After dinner, Jordan and I dragged our weary bones up to our hotel room and went to sleep - anxiously awaiting the 7:00 am wake-up call so we could prepare for GREAT WALL day!

That's all for Day 1. Be sure to stay tuned for the continuing adventure! In the meantime, here's some bonus pics for you!

The Puppet Palace where I was hoping we'd be eating:

Loving the bus ride:

And the traditional Chinese door-knocker... it was on all the doors at the ancient buildings we went to. I want one. It tells potential visitors, "If you're knocking on this door, it better be good! Otherwise I'll eat your knuckles!"

Love you all!

My Doppelganger

2009-01-20T05:24:00.003-06:00

As I was getting ready to leave the other night, all bundled up in my peacoat and new floppy red hat (Thanks Mom!), one of my co-workers said to me, "You look like Paddington Bear right now." Pretty funny, right?

Just so happens today as I was walking by another teacher's class, right there in the window was a Paddington Bear doll!! I haven't seen this guy since I was 8 years old!

And as it turns out, Brett was right.

January Update

2009-01-16T06:12:00.013-06:00

What a month already! It started out fab - my birthday was the 4th. We had dinner and drinks in Gangnam on that Saturday, then went for ice cream on my actual b-day... Lots of ice cream.

We started with a cow-shaped ice cream cake:

After the 6 of us devoured that, we turned to my new favorite dessert: Ice Cream Fondue!

And after all of THAT, we were missing some good ol' American Pepto Bismol, haha!

School has been exciting. The Kindergarteners have been busy being forced to memorize lines and songs for Festival, the big end-of-the-year program LCI puts on every year. After two re-writes, I finally got my script for a modified version of The Wizard of Oz approved for the skit portion of the show. And the kids will be singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for the song portion... I'm gonna Kansas-ize them yet!!

The re-writes were ordered because I had apparently made the skit too "easy" for my students - it was explained to me that the directors and parents expect a lot out of my class, as they are very smart. I think they forget that, though they're brilliant (of course!), they're FIVE YEARS OLD! Now, they are reciting lines like "Your heart beats about 100,000 times a day, and keeps all the blood flowing through your body," and "Your intestines (a fancy word for guts) help your body get energy from the food you eat." The amazing thing is that we just gave the kids the script and recordings (me reciting the lines slowly) on Christmas Eve, and most of my kids have most of their lines memorized!!!

A few parents were a bit concerned however. I got a note back in a weekly report from Andrew's mom that I just have to share:

I tried to reassure her in the next report that the kids are all very intelligent and that, since we're practicing so much in school, I don't feel they'll have much of a problem with it. This is the note I got back (along with some delicious chocolate!):

This is part of what makes my job so awesome :)

In other often-overlooked-job-perks news:

One of my darling elementary girls (10 years old) gave me this today (the shell is from the Philippenes, where she went when she was 8):

Talk about a boost to my day!

Also, here in Korea there are often silly uses of English. In fact, I recently bought a sweatshirt that says "always hear white & clean." There are so many instances of this that are just HILARIOUS! Once example of this is a pencil case that one of my 8 year olds had today:

Between this, more chocolate from other students, the seashell, it was a pretty perfect day! Especially since it started with this:

Beautiful, sweet, clean (but actually probably polluted) snow!

On a more personal note -

I'm going to China on January 24th for the Lunar New Year! Jordan (a teacher/friend/produce-partner) and I will be heading to Beijing for 4 days, on a tour that already has all of our meals, activities, airfare, and hotel taken care of! Talk about a low-stress vacation! It's going to be pretty cold there, but I still think it will be a blast (and interesting to see what's been obviously updated for the Olympics!)

I've been working out more. There's a church about 5 minutes from my door that has a gym that's only $20/month. I feel pretty good about it. I've also been trying to eat better. I steamed my first chicken breast the other night, with some broccoli and onion, and it was AMAZING. I didn't know something so healthy could be so delicious! :) In fact, my supervisor asked me earlier this week if I'd lost weight since I came here... that was pretty flattering (and motivating!).

I've also been trying to figure out what's next. I promised myself I wouldn't do that until I'd been here 6 months, but with three co-workers leaving at the end of February, the concept of "life after Korea" has been on my mind a bit more. Boston has a pretty awesome progam where you can earn your Master's in Education in just a year, and get a lot of hands-on experience. It's actually a Teacher Residency model that Obama's trying to push towards in more school systems (Boston is one of only 3 districts in the country that do anything like this). And I've also considered spending a month in Costa Rica to get my TEFL certification... So many options!!!

Anyways, that's the up-to-now update. I hope it's enough to keep the angry masses at bay for a little while (MOM!)... :)

Love you all!

Vacation! (A very long post)

2009-01-02T09:54:00.006-06:00

I've slacked on my posting - mostly because it's been a wonderful holiday break and I haven't been inclined to sit at a computer! Rick got here on Sunday the 21st after spending the night in Houston, and we've been busy until today, when he got back on a plane to go home.

First, Christmas. My students WON THE SONG CONTEST!!! That's right, first place! They were sooo excited! (As was I!) They even got to do an encore performance! Then they got to watch a pretty awesome magician (he had fire and birds! it was great!) and a pretty crappy Santa (apparently Santa is incredibly old and a little grumpy).

Here are my munchkins sitting nicely in their line:

And Sun Q looking a bit frightened of Santa (or maybe just disappointed):

After we built up the anticipation of presents from Santa all day, we tortured the kids further by not allowing them to open the presents until they got home. So I don't know what they got. But I DO know what I got! My kinders' mothers all got together and bought me an ARMANI SCARF!!! It's probably the most expensive accessory I've ever owned! I didn't even wear it for a week because I was afraid of hurting it :)

The next day was Christmas, so about 7 of us got together for Christmas dinner. Here's a little photo of part of our spread (post-plate-filling, of course):

We had Chicken and Noodles, mashed potatoes, Stove Top stuffing, stove-top green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, salad, rolls, and two pies! It was great to feel a little American again! After dinner we drank wine and played Charades. It was a blast.

(Slightly complaining sidenote: I assume most of you who read this are people who love and care about me, so I have to include this - It was a nice dinner IN SPITE of the fact that one of my co-workers, someone I would have previously called a friend, decided Christmas Eve was the right time to pull me aside and tell me what a horrible, controlling, cutthroat, inconsiderate person I am. Basically that I do whatever it takes to be the best and be on top and I don't care who I step on or hurt in the process. I hope that when you read this you're as surprised as I was, because I certainly think that person couldn't have been further off the mark. Anyways, needed to share that, if only to get some sympathy!)

Friday morning Rick and I left bright and early to go to Taiwan! It was an amazing trip. Our itinerary was the ideal combination of "get-up-and-go-see-things" and "kick-back-and-relax." We got to eat amazing food, see an incredible Zoo and museum, and get the most wonderful massages! We also got to bathe nude with strangers in outdoor hot springs baths! (I don't have pictures of that one, hee hee)

These guys at the Mongolian BBQ can do wonders with a grill and two sticks:

Here's me and Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world (we went to the top!):

In front of the famous Flower Clock at Yangmingshan National Park:

And we ate at a bizarrely themed restaurant called The Modern Toilet - here's my entree and Rick's dessert:

The weather in Taiwan was beautiful, so I was a little sad to leave. But it was also nice to be back home. (It no longer seems strange to call this little box I live in "home.")

We had a pretty low-key New Year's Eve, then went into Seoul on the first to go see "Jump," a comedy-martial arts performance. It was hilarious! The best part, though, was that Rick was chosen to go up on stage with the actors! The schtick was that he was supposed to be facing off against one of the actors, doing whatever the actor does. For example, the actor kicked, then Rick kicked. Then the actor did this forward roll, backward roll into a handstand crazy move, clearly designed so the audience member couldn't do it. The awesome part was that Rick was able to do the exact same thing!! The audience AND the actors were all very impressed! He got a big applause for his stage debut!

We had to get up early again today to get him to the airport. I just checked and his plane is finally somewhere over the US. I was very happy to have a little piece of home here for the holidays... it was much needed :)

Finally, my birthday is Sunday, so instead of a regular ice cream Sunday date, we'll be getting an ice cream cake :) Also, it's looking like a bunch of us will go into Seoul for dinner on Saturday. So happy birthday to me! :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful, love-filled Christmas and a very safe and satisfying New Year's!

Love you all!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

2008-12-18T03:45:00.005-06:00

It's less than a week until LCI's Christmas celebration, and we've been preparing like mad!

Apparently, on Christmas Eve (our last day of classes before vacation), the kids will be visited by not only Santa Claus, but also a magician!! I'm so excited!! ... I mean... THE KIDS are so excited!! Also, I've been asked to help emcee the Christmas festival, so it'll be fun to sort of have a front row seat to all the thrills of Christmas!

I also got my bulletin board all ready for Christmas - it's a smorgasbord of snowflakes and snowmen and stockings and children's faces... And I love it :)

Here's a closeup of some of the silly snowflake faces:

And some of my older classes have been helping me make snowflakes for the window:

But the most important part of our Christmas festivities is the song contest. Many of you will remember the spooky ghost song we performed for Halloween... Well, the kids didn't bring their "A" game, and we didn't win any prizes. They were disappointed, and I've been trying to turn that disappointment into motivation to do better this time around.

It's been a fight on many fronts (and not neccessarily with the kids), but we've decided on "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." I'm pretty sure they sing it "Good timings we bring to you and your cats" but it sounds almost right :)

Without further adieu, here's Emily Teacher's 6-1 class spreading some Christmas Cheer:

You gotta love 'em. I do. They're my little monkeys.

Love you all!!

Feeling Better

2008-12-13T21:00:00.002-06:00

The doctor said I should be back at 100% in the next three days, so woo hoo! And I'm certainly feeling more alive than before.

I want to thank all my friends and family for leaving comments, and letting me know how much you all care. It's been great reading them, and really warms my heart to know I've got so many people who take the three seconds to post a little "Hi Emily" comment on the blog!

Oh... wait...

:) Love you all!

I'm Sick :(

2008-12-10T22:54:00.002-06:00

Some of you may remember the Milk School post of long ago, where I mentioned that I just wasn't germ-phobic anymore... Well, maybe I should be.

Tuesday, mid-morning, I was suddenly hit with a horrible sore throat and body aches. I stuck it out, and came home and crashed (after laying on my hot floor and shivering violently... my guess was fever). Wednesday was no better, so I asked my supervisor to make me a doctor's appointment. Over lunch Wednesday I went to an ENT specialist just up the road. He told me I had a fever, so my floor-lying was justified :) He also said I had pharyngitis (I think that's what he said), which is, according to Wikipedia, a sore throat. Hmm. That's what I came in for.

Anyhow, he said it was "pretty serious" and he prescribed a drug cocktail and full rest. Of course, full rest meant I went back to work and finished Kindergarten and taught my first two elementary classes. Steve was kind enough to take over my third class, so I could come home and fully rest.

I woke up this morning feeling WAY worse than before. The throat pain has spread to my ears, and no amount of Aleve is alleviating the pain. So I tried to call in to work. Unfortunately, today was a parents meeting at the school. My supervisor said they didn't have enough coordinators to cover my class in the morning. I found out later she meant "The parents will be walking around, and we want to make sure there's a white face in the classroom." So after crying to my mom on the phone, I went to work.

I guess I must look exactly how I feel, because as soon as I walked into the classroom Ryan said "Teacher, what?!?!" And I responded "What, what?" To which he said "Um Teacher NO beautiful..." That's the broken English way of saying HOLY CRAP YOU LOOK LIKE HELL!

Anyways, they let me leave at lunchtime, thank God. So now it's off to bed until tomorrow morning.

Thanks for letting me rant! Love you all!

I Love My Kinders' Parents

2008-12-08T08:13:00.004-06:00

So every week we send home weekly reports to the Kindergarteners' parents telling them about how fabulous their child was that week, and ostensibly keeping them updated on their learning and behavior. Most of the parents write notes back, generally about the weather and how it is important to "keep away from catching cold, especially because homesickness is much harder when you are ill."

Today, I got two of the best parent responses yet.

First, Ryan's mother wrote about Ryan's "My Book Report" homework. This is a notebook in which the child has to pick a sentence from a book they read, write the sentence and draw a little illustration about it. Ryan's drawings aren't the best, but the kid is trying.

His mother wrote (and this is a loose paraphrasing): "Ryan doesn't do the drawing very well. But every time he expects compliment. So then I must become a liar. But I don't think the pictures in his "My Book Report" are very good. Do you agree? :) "

I about died laughing at this!!!

Then, we have Sun Q. He is my ornery little S**T who should be in trouble all the time, but he's just so darn funny. This is the kid who purposely folded the front cover of his workbook back and wrote some other student's name, just to trick me.

Recently, he handed me this folded up note, and very sweetly said "I love you Teacher." I fully expected to open the note to find a drawing of me as a princess, or some little sweet note (as the girls often tend to give me). However, I found as I tried to unfold it that the little monkey had glued it shut!!! It was too funny, and I had to write a note about it in his Weekly Report (especially since I think his mother has a good sense of humor).

She wrote back to me "I asked Sun Q why he give the note glued shut - he just laugh and say it was all his idea. I guess he have same funny as me. I hope it did not hurt you too bad!" and she drew a little funny face.

No, Sun Q's mom. I wasn't hurt. Rather, I was thrilled to have more blog-fodder!

Love you all!

It's snowing!

2008-12-07T04:30:00.003-06:00

...and it's beautiful!

Cole and I went for our weekly Sunday Ice Cream Dinner and as we were walking it began to snow. Just little flakes at first, but they quickly became huge cotton-balls falling all around us. It was gorgeous.

I thought about catching them on my tongue, then remembered that pollution in Seoul is a wee bit higher than Kansas. So it probably wouldn't have been the healthiest thing to do :)

In any case, I hope it sticks.

Love you all!

Thanksgiving in Korea

2008-12-02T07:08:00.003-06:00

It seems like I'm always posting about holidays the month after... Which seems odd, especially since I'm living in the future. But I actually have an excuse this time - I didn't celebrate Thanksgiving until the Saturday after.

Last Saturday there was a big Thanksgiving buffet at a Canadian bar in Gangnam (in Seoul). It ended up being pretty good, even though they kept running out of mashed potatoes. But I got all the other basics: turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie.

This is Angie and I celebrating the pie:

Angie, Catherine, and I - all grateful that only God-fearing Christians celebrate Thanksgiving:

This is our assigned "Thanksgiving Family"

They even played the horrific Cowboys/Seahawks game from Thanksgiving day!

Not gonna lie - as much as I hate the Cowboys and was disgusted by the game, it felt AMAZING to be watching football again!

The only drawback to Thanksgiving in Korea (besides not celebrating with my family) was that I missed out on the regular "post-holiday reunion" that I usually have with my best friends at Old Chicago. Well, they let me know I was missed, and that I was with them in spirit (and on paper) -

If you look closely, there's an exact likeness of me on that notebook paper. They are artists and scholars!

Love you all!

These Kids Belong in a Museum!

2008-11-25T05:14:00.005-06:00

... because they're so darn well-behaved.

In yet another example of Korean kids not being CHILDREN, we took them on a field trip to a history museum. It seems that everything must be inappropriately educational here (as a testament to the value of education here, check out this story in the Wall Street Journal about how almost all of Seoul was shut down for college entrance exam day recently).

I didn't get to go through the museum with them, as I was pulled aside to help some other teachers as we assisted 130 five-year-olds with making antique-type prints, so I'm still not sure what the museum was about... but I'm sure it was great!

Here's my little kiddies looking bored before they even got to go into the museum:

To make the prints, we first spread black ink all over a metal image (I sure did get a few splatters on my jeans)

Then you place the paper, and beat it with a stuffed sock:

After all that excitement, my kids had to sit on the floor for what I think was about 45 minutes... doing nothing... But I was really impressed with how well-behaved they were! They each ended up with 23 stickers for the day for being so good (a typical good day is about 13 stickers). I love my little mini-adults!

Also, on Sunday I had the opportunity to go to my first wedding here! One of our supervisors (and one of my favorite Koreans) Katie got married this weekend... It was certainly a bit different than what I'm used to, especially the fact that the whole thing from start of the ceremony to end of the reception (really, just lunch after the wedding) took only about 2 hours! It was a good time, though, and she looked beautiful!

That's it for now. It's been a little slow around here. Rick's coming to visit on December 20th, and we'll be going to Taiwan the day after Christmas, so I've been too excited for that to be exciting now :)

Oh, and I may be going to a "traditional" Thanksgiving buffet in Seoul on Saturday!! Cross your fingers that there's no kimchi in the stuffing!!

Love you all!

BILLY JOEL!!!!

2008-11-15T23:55:00.005-06:00

Last night was awesome. I saw Billy Joel live at Olympic Park in Seoul. Wow. He put on a hell of a show, and I'm so glad I got the opportunity to see such an amazing singer and songwriter.

This sign identified the show as a "Super Concert"

Me, Catherine, and Angie - all super-pumped to be here!

The sold-out show before Billy came on:

He opened with Angry Young Man... I filmed a bit of this, then gave it up because I wanted to focus on the AWESOMENESS ON THE STAGE!

Billy rocking out:

He played Piano Man as one of his encore songs. What was awesome was that, for this song, they had the words up on the giant screens - it was like a massive noraebang!

After the show, Catherine and Angie and I decided we were going to get backstage and meet him. At a concert in the States, this would have been nearly impossible due to security. In Korea, they are extremely accomodating.

We ended up at a back door of the stadium, where Catherine just said "Umm, Billy Joel?" No one asked for ticket stubs, wristbands, or any proof that we belonged there. We were directed to a VIP lounge where a bunch of well-dressed Koreans were milling about, and given free scones, muffins, and juice. We were hoping this was maybe some kind of meet and greet, but alas, never got to see Billy. However, we felt his presence in the scones :)

Love you all!

Steve's Birthday - For Cindi :)

2008-11-14T09:16:00.004-06:00

We celebrated Steve's 25th birthday last weekend... For a quarter-of-a-century, he still has that youthful glow, hahaha.

I wanted to post some pictures so Cindi (Steve's mom) could see that we're taking good care of her boy:

Steve and his good friend Cole at dinner (we went to an awesome galbi place):

Then we hit up a makgeolli house - Steve's favorite Korean beverage:

Here's the whole group out celebrating the fact that Steve is alive:

The next day, Steve was a little partied-out:

Happy Birthday, man... and I hope you enjoy the pics, Cindi!

Happy Birthday Momma!!!!

2008-11-12T10:05:00.005-06:00

I love you. Soooooo much... I would not be the incredible, beautiful, amazing woman I am today (hahaha) without your influence, genes, and guidance. You are the strongest woman I know, and I hope you're around at least 31 more years (that's your age, right? 31?? wink wink)...

My kinders were excited that it's your birthday, so they wanted to give you a special treat:

I love you, Momma. Thank you for everything you are, were, and always will be. I couldn't have done anything without you.

ps - The proper spelling of your name was the special bonus question on all of my elementary spelling tests today... For the record, no one got it right... Kind of like in America! (but I think they got closer than Americans... Most kids spelled it "Jalane" or "Jalain"... One girl said "So we're smarter than America?!?!" hahahha)

Pepero Day - and fun pictures

2008-11-11T08:12:00.005-06:00

Today was Pepero Day in Korea. It's pretty much the most blatantly commercial holiday I've ever heard of. Pepero is a candy, often a sort of chocolate-dipped pretzel or a waffle-cookie-tube filled with chocolate. Because 11/11 resembles five Pepero sticks, November eleventh is National Pepero Day.

I've basically been eating chocolate all day long!

Here's a photo of my PK-12 class (my smartest class) enjoying their Peperos:

All of the kids were on a crazy sugar-buzz all day.

Also, yesterday in my IC-3 class, while I was signing homework sheets, my pen ran out of ink. I said "Oh no! My pen is dying!" When I came back to class after the break, this is what I found on my wall:

Needless to say, it took quite a while for me to stop laughing... I even had the other teachers come in, and everyone got a kick out of it. Shows how important spacing is when writing :) (and how you can be a 25 year old woman in charge of small children, and still have an adolescent sense of humor!)

Finally, Friday was Sun Q's birthday. Another huge birthday feast, so I'll spare you more of the same pictures, but I had to share this one. This was during the "cut the cake with Teacher" time, and Sun Q and I were conspiring to just eat the whole thing and not share it with everyone. Love this pic:

Love you all! Keep the comments coming... there are a few people that I'm wondering if they still read the blog... (UNCLE CJ!...AHEM...)

Halloween Pictures - And my 50th Blog Post!!

2008-11-09T03:34:00.007-06:00

Ok, yes, Halloween is over. But I just had to share the awesome pictures from school. The kids were so cute in their costumes!

And the Haunted House was an incredible success. We had at least 20 kindergarteners cry, and at least 15 elementary kids cry. It may sound dark and demented, but we counted that as positive feedback :)

We send weekly reports home with the kinders, and sometimes their parents write back to us. Many parents were telling stories about how their kids couldn't sleep on Friday because they were still so scared! My students are awesome though - their parents said they were scared, but after Emily Teacher explained how it was fake, they were ok. One mother said, "Eileen told me she was frightened, but after you held her in your arms she was calm." So sweet!

And now, without further adieu:

Our ghost decorations:

Ryan thought Emily Teacher's zombie groan was hilarous:

Sun Q and his mother made his snail costume together - I loved it!

The boys:

The girls:

This may have been part of the reason the Haunted House was so scary...

Brett was actually going for kids' jugulars with this mask!

Danielle's awesome Bride of Frankenstein hair:

The lobby at LCI was all decked out:

Song contest:

We didn't win the song contest or the classroom decorating contest, but I did win $40 for best costume! We went out to Itaewon after school for Halloween, and no fewer than 10 Koreans asked if they could take my picture. Guess I'm a pretty believable Zombie Pirate :)

Me and Kung Fu Panda Stacy:

"Change has come to America!"

2008-11-05T10:12:00.003-06:00

We won!!!

By "we" I mean the USA. Our entire teaching staff today was hooked to minute by minute updates of the race... and the moment Danielle said "CNN has called it for Obama!!!" I got goosebumps... This country is primed for the kind of change Obama's been proposing for years, and thank God we now have the right person in a position to push for that...

I stood in a blizzard for 3 hours to hear Barack Obama speak in El Dorado, Kansas. I cold-called voters during the primaries to get out caucus and voting information. I caucused during yet another blizzard to show my support for and belief in this man. And yet, I still didn't fully realize how AFFECTED I would be by the announcement that Barack Obama will be President. I think the right word is elated... maybe ecstatic... euphoric? Yes. All of these.

Of course, there was some celebrating after work...

Please raise your glasses with us to toast a new chapter in America's history... Here's to you, Barack Obama... And to you, Voting Public... You have been heard.

This life I live...

2008-11-03T07:05:00.005-06:00

As foreign as this country is, I'm becoming awfully accustomed to the way I live here. I'm in a suburb of Seoul, and yet I can walk to the next town over in only 20 minutes (along a river, no less). My friends all live very near me, so it's easy to spend an evening at someone else's house.

Just tonight, I realized I was out of water. I walked down to the end of my block and got a bottle of water, a fresh-baked loaf of walnut bread, and a little honey castella (sweet loaf) for breakfast, all for under $5 (and about 15 minutes round trip).

Everything I need is 10 minutes or less from my front door. Bakeries, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, work, friends, stickers for my students - all of these things are just a walk away.

There's a food stand on my way home from work where we sometimes get what we've affectionately nicknamed "Dollar Dinner." You get your choice of three fried items (squid, shrimp, rice, mandu, potato, etc) with a spicy rice-ball sauce called ddokboki on top. It's a decent little meal, and only costs a buck. The lady there recognizes us already, and remembers that I'm the white kid who likes to go light on the spicy sauce, and that Stacy likes hers served up normally. It's charming to be remembered.

Granted, the major attractions and nightlife of Seoul take a little trek on either the bus or the subway, but I think that keeps me out of trouble. :) (ok, out of too much trouble)

At home I lived very near a shopping area called New Market Square, that has restaurants, shops, and a Wal-Mart (what else do you need, right?). But I think the fact that there was no one else out walking made it seem so much farther. Here, you see children running around until at least 10:00 at night, and families are just finishing their dinner around then.

Yes, I think I'm becoming quite fond of this way of life...

Love you all!

ps - Halloween update soon. It was a smashing success, and I have the photos to prove it :)

A day in the life...

2008-10-28T05:11:00.013-06:00

WARNING: This blog contains video and images of unedited adorable-ness which may not be suitable for those whose biological clocks are too tightly wound.

I thought, since Halloween is approaching and when it's over, so is the fun (haha), that I'd give you all a little glimpse into what I do in Kindergarten every day (for now).

First, we do Feelings. I ask each child how they are feeling today, and you've seen some of the silly responses. Then, we do the date, weather, and show-and-tell. This takes 30-40 minutes. Then they get a bathroom break and playtime.

Laura is always doing something creative - she's got an incredible mind:

Sally generally does whatever her friends are doing, but today she was trying to draw my camera exactly right:

And Andrew plays with the blocks:

During playtime I do homework check. Yes, 5-year-olds have homework. About three pages a night. After playtime, we work out of their books:

As a reward for being forced to sit still and do bookwork, they get 15 minutes in playgym. Playgym is awesome! It's got a trampoline, slide, tunnels, etc etc.

And so you can have an idea what playgym sounds like:

After playgym, it's back to their seats for more "don't act like a 5-year-old" time:

And now, they have to learn songs for Halloween. So shortly before lunch time we practice one:
First, a pic of the scary ghost masks they made -

Here's our song "Skin and Bones" (be sure to listen for the trademark Korean Whine from two children towards the end)

After lunch, we either do art, science, educational games, or math, depending on the day. Then we practice their other Halloween song before going home:

And there you have it. Kindergarten. It's a blast!

Love you all!

On display...

2008-10-22T07:30:00.002-06:00

I teach children. Small children. Sometimes I forget just how young they are, because for the most part they are brilliant. Amazing. Little sponges who thirstily suck up any bit of knowledge I can provide. But they are children. And children don't have the same sense of boundaries as adults...

I've realized, in my kindergarten class, that my body is barely mine anymore. At any given point in a day, I've got children poking me, prodding me, hugging me, holding my hand, kissing me, tugging on me... and even, at times, grabbing my chest. The funniest was when they started beating on my butt and saying "Teacher, drum!" They were so proud of themselves. But this is childhood, they're just in it for the fun.

They're so honest too. Once, I was reading a story that gave instructions to find certain things: "Find something blue" or "Find something soft." Of course, at "Find something big" three or four of them pointed to my thighs and rear and said "Emily Teacher, this big!" HA!

The honesty doesn't stop in kindergarten. Yesterday, during an adjective-activity where my older elementary class had to write a story using "huge" and "heavy" I was informed that I was huge and heavy. But only my bottom half, not my top. They said it's because I'm American, and American's are fat because they eat too much meat and fat.

Sometimes they're not so nice. Today one of my elementary kids said "Emily Teacher is dung." Apparently he didn't realize that it was the same in English as it is in Korean. He was pretty surprised when he found himself out in the hallway.

My favorite, though, is Angela. For some reason she has fixated on my stomach. Not because she thinks it's big or huge or heavy (she's made that clear), but because it makes her laugh to say "Emily Teacher stomach." She uses it all the time. "How are you feeling today, Angela?" "I'm feeling.... {here she gets this mildly evil grin}...Emily Teacher's stomach!!!" Once she was hungry...for Emily Teacher's stomach. Whenever she has stickers to give me, they get stuck on my stomach. We're learning about toys now, and her favorite toy is Emily Teacher's stomach. It's hilarious, and only a little frightening :)

Love you all!

First Halloween Art Project

2008-10-19T05:02:00.002-06:00

The kids and I have finished our first decoration for Halloween - and it turned out awesome!!

That's our Ghostly Graveyard. Pretty cool, eh?

This is also my first posted photo from my new camera! Last weekend we went to the TechnoMart in Seoul. It's basically a gadget-head's Heaven. Each floor is dedicated to a different electronic something-or-other, and you can negotiate for better prices! I must say, Stacy and I make quite a team... We talked the price down, and got an extra battery and leather carrying case for my new green camera!

I also just heard that Billy Joel is coming to Korea... I'm gonna see the Piano Man in Seoul- How awesome is that?!?! (which is affordable now that it looks like I won't be doing any traveling over Christmas, unless anyone wants to meet me in Taiwan... any takers?)

Sorry it's been so long since I posted - it's just been kinda boring around here!

Love you all!

Yes, I'm white.

2008-10-12T08:25:00.003-06:00

Stacy (via her friend back home) pointed me to this very astute blog called "Stuff White People Like."

I've read all 111 posts, and am now fully convinced that yes, I am white. Very white. Even more white than I previously realized.

Please friends. Especially if you think you're special and none of it will apply to you, read this blog.

You're White.

Birthdays and Halloween and Aliens

2008-10-07T06:48:00.002-06:00

We had another birthday today. You guys are probably getting sick of seeing birthday photos, but I'm like a proud momma when it comes to these kids, so here:

Laura, in all her birthday cuteness:

The "Cut the first slice with the teacher" tradition:

You'll notice I've gotten a haircut here, but still need to get some color action before the blonde highlights start at my ears

And of course, the silly group photo:

Pay attention to a couple of things going on in this photo;

First, the food. I'm happy to report we're back to huge birthday spreads, this one including fried chicken, melon-on-a-stick, the damned Capri Sun, rice cakes, rice balls, strawberry cake from Tous Les Jours, and of course, cookies and treat boxes with crayons, coloring books, and stickers for the kids to take home.

Second, my children are goofy. As if their faces weren't evidence enough, take a look at the whiteboard behind us. Every day, I ask their feelings. Under the "A" in happy you'll see I had students feeling Christmas, Halloween, Seal-Elephant, Double-U ("W"), and Kathleen said she was feeling Laura, so I had to try to replicate Laura's hairdo on a smileyface. I love these kids.

It was appropriate that Laura was feeling Halloween today, given that my favorite holiday is fast approaching. LCI has a big celebration every year, and we just recieved our assignments for H-DAY. I was one of the lucky 4 that will be responsible for the haunted house in the playgym (think McDonald's PlayPlace). Steve, Tyler, Brett and I have already been brainstorming how best to make sure we scare the pee out of these little monsters. My goal is that every child leave in tears... . muwahahahahahahhahaha!!!!

And finally - I recieved my Alien Registration Card today!!! I'm officially an Alien. I think these means I can get free college now, hahaha. And also, I have to set up my first Korean bank account, which apparently takes about an hour, so us newbies will be fighting over precious bank time during our lunch hours this week.

That's it for now. Love reading everyone's comments. It's amazing to see how many people read this blog - we've got 'em from as far north as Wisconsin (Hi Cindi!), covering the Midwest (Hi almost everyone else!), and clear down to Florida (Hi Uncle Audie and Jonas and Aunt Adrianna!)! Not to mention another teacher near my town here posted a comment about stumbling across my blog - so it's a networking tool now too!

Love you all!

Back to Muuido

2008-10-05T05:51:00.007-06:00

We had to have one last beach weekend before fall came in full force, so we went back (for me) to Muuido - It was beautiful!

Here's the group, excited to get on the road!

You should know almost everyone in that picture - The Korean in the yellow is Tyler's girlfriend, Juri.

I love this picture because it looks like it's from a photo booth:

The crew at dinner on the beach:

We first ordered some sushi (but not like the sushi at home):

And I couldn't handle it. So we also got some samgyeopsal:

And Tyler found an eyeball in his soup:

And ate it.

Here is another interesting soup discovery:

And after all that fun, making the hot journey home on the ferry:

Of course, just going to the beach wasn't enough, so on Saturday we went to this really delicious Italian place in Gangnam. They had a wine buffet too, so for a minute I felt like an American again... at an Italian place... in Korea... :)

Afterwards, Stacy and I found a little bar and made some new Korean friends (who took us to the noraebang too - second time was just as fun!)

But the best part was the decoration in the bar:

Really - it's like Kansas is everywhere here!

Love you all!

Birthday Thursday!

2008-10-02T18:39:00.005-06:00

Happy birthday Callie!!!!!!

I called her from the future to tell her, but I needed something more public :) In one of my advanced classes I was teaching them how to write a friendly letter - I always put an example on the board. And this time, I took a picture of that example to share with my sister:

(ps - the kids know about my dog now, and when it was their turn to write their letters, a couple wrote to Chachi, hahaha)

It was also Kathleen's birthday in my Kindergarten class. Her cake ended up being a big rice cake, and was pretty difficult to cut - notice the strain in our faces:

And no birthday is complete without a funny face picture of the whole class:

Last - Eileen has this little pencil box that turns into a keyboard - she spend half the morning singing (and "playing") Happy Birthday to Kathleen - SO CUTE! I'm just sad I only caught the last little bit:

Love you all!

Live music (and soup fun)

2008-09-29T06:24:00.006-06:00

Remember the field of flowers I posted about earlier? Well, in a matter of about 48 hours it was transformed into a party zone - here was the new view out of my classroom window:

The music started around 6:00, which was horrible because it made the last 50 minutes of class (for all of us whose windows face that field) totally worthless - the kids couldn't stay away from the window. The rumor was that the Wondergirls were going to be there (they of the earworms "I'm so Hot" and "T-t-t-t-tell me").

So since I'm here for the cultural experience as well as the teaching, Stacy, Steve, Tyler and I decided to go check it out after school. But first, as is Tyler's obsession, we had to get some samgyeopsal and soju:

The concert/festival/whatev was really fun - I'm still not sure what it was for, but it was a good time :)

The next day, Jordan and I met for lunch. Often food is served with some kind of soup. It's always an adventure, particularly when the soup is opaque and you go digging around at the bottom for veggies - needless to say, Jordan and I were both done with the soup after this gem:

For the record, that's not such an unusual sight here :)

Love you all!

Milk School!

2008-09-28T17:15:00.006-06:00

Every day at around 11:00 one of the Korean staff comes by our classrooms with little cups of milk for the kids. Inevitably, one or two children will say "Teacher, my no milk," at which point the milk-deliverer will plead with the child in Korean until they finally take a half-cup.

In an apparent effort to make milk seem fun and delicious, we took a field trip on Friday to Milk School!

The school got us there (about an hour-long ride) in a pretty fancy bus. The kids were pumped to go see the cows.

Of course, organizing over 100 kindergarteners is no easy task, but being super-teachers, we were able to handle ourselves and them quite well :)

They got to take a tractor ride:

And milk a cow:

At one point during the cow-milking presentation, the guide asked the kids a question in Korean, to which all of my students responded by chanting "EmilyTeacher! EmilyTeacher! EmilyTeacher!" This was extremely frightening. I didn't know if he just asked who they wanted to sacrifice to the cow, or who was the coolest teacher :) I found out later that he asked "Which teacher do you think would be the best at milking the cow?" Apparently my kids know I'm from Kansas :)

But really, this was my first time milking a cow:

Then we went to this room where the kids got to make and eat homemade ice cream!

It was at this point when I realized I really don't care much about germs anymore. I had at least 6 different kids feeding me ice cream out of bowls over which they had sneezed, coughed, and not-washed-their-hands-after-milking-cows. Which now sounds disgusting, but at the time, it was just my kids showing me they love me :)

After lunch (SIDENOTE: Lunch was ridiculous. The kids all packed a lunch, and HOLY COW. I remember in gradeschool, when your mom packed a lunch, it was a sandwich, small bag of chips, maybe an apple, and Capri Sun (if you were really lucky, it was a can of soda). These kids had boxes and boxes of food: Gimbap, fruit, chocolates, sandwiches, veggies, two drinks, etc etc. It was nuts)

Ok - anyways, after lunch, they got to bottle feed baby cows and give some hay and grains to grown-up cows (the stink was horrible at this barn!)

Then we left, and I and most of my kids fell asleep on the bus ride home. No rest for the weary, though, as we had to immediately run upstairs and start teaching our afternoon classes. LCI showed us some appreciation and delivered iced coffees to us as we were teaching. It was a really nice gesture, and delicious coffee.

Ok, much more to blog about - soup adventures and live music and Itaewon - STAY TUNED!!!

Love you all!

Fun pictures

2008-09-23T07:48:00.002-06:00

So I did my first bulletin board ever... Just stapling these things up made me really want to pursue teaching (again... yes, family and friends, go ahead with the jokes) when I come home...

The kids made the leaves and the pumpkins - Too cute!

Also, they made trees which I put on the window to accent the view:

Finally - Remember when I was whining about being sickly? Well, thanks to the wonders of Korean medicine, and the fact that you just have to go to the corner pharmacy and tell them your symptoms to get drugs, I feel much better!

Now Tyler and Steve are feeling the same yucks I had... And being male, they won't just go get the dang medicine!

Love you all!

Beau-ti-bul

2008-09-22T17:47:00.002-06:00

I feel like I need to get something else posted STAT so you're not all left with just a whiny post!

So here you are, a comment on Korea:

This is an extremely image-obsessed culture. Rarely will you see a woman over 20 without perfect hair, makeup, stylish clothes (usually a short skirt) and at least 2 inch heels. Another teacher told me that all their sunscreen has whitening agents in it to maintain their milky skin. And even one of our former supervisors, as she was leaving, talked about how she was leaving the care and control of LCI to supervisors who were "Much more beau-ti-bul and will get more students because they are so beau-ti-bul."

So the other day a bunch of us had to get yet ANOTHER set of passport photos taken. Apparently the 12 I got in the States wasn't enough :) We went to E-mart, the local two story superstore, to get them done. They told us one hour. At Kinko's it took me about three minutes to get my pics, so I thought this was strange.

Anyhow, after an hour (well, more, because SIDEBAR: we saw the horror flick "Mirrors") we picked up what turned out to be the most airbrushed passport photos I've ever seen! I look like a mannequin with nary a flaw in my skin. I even think they reddened my lips a little and brightened my eyes! And we got 6 pics for only $8. So I have two extra photos to send as my headshot in my America's Next Top Model application, hahahahha.

Anyways, anytime I want to feel pretty, I'll just go to E-mart and have some pictures done. It beats two-inch heels anytime!

Kind of a whiny post...

2008-09-20T03:22:00.002-06:00

It's very rainy today... I actually heard thunder for the first time here. A bunch of us trekked to Butterfinger Pancakes and it was an extremely damp excursion. Also, I'm feeling sickly today, so I didn't get to eat all of my $13 breakfast.

And first thing this morning, I found out that my Grandma Rosie (dad's mom) died - I wasn't particularly close to her but she was the only one of the WHOLE Weigand family who made an effort to show me she cared that I was alive. So I'm fairly upset that I can't go to the service and say goodbye.

Also, selfishly, I'm upset that I won't get to go and see my dad. It's pretty much the only way I'd get to see him. Now it'll probably be HIS funeral when I see him next. I'm not even sure he knows I'm in South Korea...

So yeah, kind of a whiny post.

Medical test and Noraebang

2008-09-15T05:04:00.005-06:00

Last Wednesday I had the most efficient physical ever (no offense, Dr. Kready). In order to get your Alien Registration Card (a requirement to live here) you have to have a medical examination. So Steve and I got picked up at 7:30 am and ushered to the hospital by one of our Korean staff members.

Basically, we entered a main waiting room with about 10 numbered side-rooms all around. We went through eye-tests and hearing tests and blood tests and chest x-rays, each in a different room. At the conclusion of each test we were simply told "Now go to room 5" and we had no idea what kinds of poking and prodding the next room held! It was so exciting! :)

The really weird part was the pee-in-a-cup part. I was basically handed a Dixie Cup and three test tubes and told to go in the cup, then fill each tube. And of course, the restroom was OUTSIDE of the main room through the hospital corridor. It was very strange to be carrying three test tubes of urine.

As a special bonus, LCI treated us to Burger King at the hospital. My first crossian'wich in months!

On Friday, I FINALLY went to my first noraebang. It's basically a place with lots of little karaoke rooms that you can rent out with your friends, which Steve, Tyler, Catherine and I did. Oh my gosh it was a blast. In fact, I still don't have my voice back all the way (although the butchering of my voice allowed me to sing a very convincing Janis Joplin at the end of the night). I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Also, the one open field in Jukjeon is now afire with the most beautiful bright orange and pink flowers. So this is the image I get to, from, and out my window of school:

Keep the comments coming! Love you all!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

2008-09-12T23:12:00.001-06:00

I want to use a little of this highly coveted blog space to announce that

BREEA BACON HAS PASSED THE BAR EXAM!!!!

Which of course, is no surprise.

Great job, Ricecake. I love you!

The Hanbok

2008-09-11T17:27:00.007-06:00

This weekend is Chuseok. My understanding is it's similar to Thanksgiving, but the focus is Kimchi, the harvest moon, and family, instead of turkey, football, and family :)

Yesterday, as a special pre-Chuseok event, all of the Kindergarteners wore Hanbok - the traditional Korean clothing. It was probably the CUTEST I've seen them:

We also got to make songpyon (I probably butchered that spelling) yesterday. It's basically a riceball with raisins or sugar/sesame seeds in the middle. One of the bus teachers came in and taught us all how to do it. She doesn't speak a lot of English, so the kids were really got a kick out of speaking Korean to EmilyTeacher. At one point they were telling me "Teacher, say {insert Korean phrase here}" and the bus teacher looked at me and said "Um, you say 'I am a monkey.'" How funny are my kids?!?!?!

The two big ones on the left are mine:

The bus teacher told me if I make a beautiful songpyon, I will have a beautiful daughter. Hopefully that doesn't mean "within the next year." :)

Speaking of kids, yesterday in one of my elementary classes I taught them the concept of having a big head. Every day they say they are happy because they love EmilyTeacher and love that class, etc etc, so I told them they were going to give me a big head.
Later, we were learning how to compare with adjectives, using -er and -est, so I stood with two other kids and we talked about who was taller, tallest, smallest, etc. Then I had to slip in "EmilyTeacher is smartest." The kids got a chuckle. However, I think THEY are the smartest, because after break I came back to the room to find THIS note on my whiteboard:

HA!

Ok, I have much more to blog about, but I have to go to work. So next time, I'll tell you all about the crazy medical exam I had to have in order to get my Alien Registration Card!

Love you all!

And Mom said let there be food...

2008-09-08T09:15:00.002-06:00

So, most of you who read this blog know me well... And if you do, you know that I love to cook! (You don't get a Renaissance derriere like mine unless you have a certain "joie de FOOD!")

Anyways, I haven't been able to much entertain my culinary creativity since I've been here, mostly owing to the fact that there's not quite the variety that I'm used to working with at the grocery store.

Well, Momma took care of that. Sunday, I went to Songtan (where an Air Force Base is) to pick up 3 of the 6 boxes that my mom sent me. I now have the most beautifully filled cabinets in Jukjeon (at least, in my building...or in my kitchen...)

I was so excited to put the food to good use today. So tonight I fried a little bacon in the pan (not too crispy, just enough to cook it and get the juices flowing), cooked some lemon-pepper and garlic seasoned chicken in the bacon grease, and added both chicken and bacon to an Olive Oil and Garlic flavored Pasta-Roni with a small can of peas. It was THE BEST MEAL EVER!!!!

Seriously, I forgot how much cooking makes me come alive. I had a perma-grin all night long. And a most satisfied palate.

Thanks, Momma!!!

And to everyone else, my address is posted on this blog - come on now :)

HA!

Love you all!!!

Excuse me while I cry

2008-09-04T06:53:00.004-06:00

Please ignore the picture of my drama kids in the post below. They are no longer MY drama kids.

As a result of some issues that have nothing to do with me, I don't get to have my drama class anymore. My most favorite class is now in other hands. Very capable, beautiful, creative hands that will do a great job.... just not mine.

Now I have another science class. The kids are great and smart and I like them a lot, but they're not my drama children.

I am sad.