"teacher, more seaweed please!"

Yes, this is a normal request from my 6 year old students at lunch. Seaweed with rice is one of our favorite meals! Honestly, I enjoy it...tastes like popcorn. Maybe my taste buds are already damaged. I'm just excited when meals are anything but moving sea creatures or dog soup! 

This past weekend was Christmas! It was a bit difficult being away from home. My mom and dad had two separate family gatherings at their house, so I got to Skype in and talk with my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. It was wonderful to see their faces and hear their voices! If only we could pass hugs and food through the computer monitor...

On Christmas Eve at school, we had a Christmas party with the kindergarten. I was in charge of the card making station...GLUE, COLORING, GLITTER....OH MY!!! After my bath in glitter, Santa Claus made an appearance and delivered gifts to all of the students. I really enjoyed the relaxed day with my students, and getting to see their creative side. 

enjoying the festivities with my class

Santa Claus giving gifts to my class! The boys got guns and legos!!!

After school, I raced up to Seoul to see the Nutcracker with Jackie! I have always wanted to go to the Nutcracker on Christmas Eve. This was even more special because it was performed by the Bolshoi Ballet (from Moscow, Russia) and choreographed by the controversial Yuri Grigorovich. What a dream come true. It was extremely beautiful, even bringing tears to my eyes during the most notable acts. 

Jackie and I after the ballet

In the temple of lights outside the theatre

On Christmas day I was quite sick. I had been for almost a week. Complaining aside, my apartment had been without heat for more than a week in this freezing cold weather. Once it was finally "fixed" for a day, it went out again this weekend...ugh! Therefore, I was bound to get sick since I was constantly shivering and covered in goosebumps. Since it was Christmas, I toughed it out and went over to my friend Daniel's for a wonderful Christmas dinner! We had chicken, potato salad, carrots, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, cake, and wine. It was a great meal, followed by dirty santa, then a game of movie charades. It ended up being a splendid Christmas with friends away from home! 

Christmas dinner

Me and my friend Tom enjoying dinner

This week is winter vacation!!! I am heading back up to Seoul to spend the week with Jackie and discover the city. We have plans to go visit the aquarium, soak our feet in a fish tank, get a massage, go to the ice bar, and just be tourist for the week. It should be a great week to enjoy our friendship and this new country...and no children!!! 

I like boring things.

I just had a wonderful day in Seoul. My original plans were to go to Seoul for a good lunch with a few of my friends from Seosan, then head right back home. Well, Jackie ended up meeting us for lunch and invited me to go see the Warhol exhibit at the Seoul Art Museum. Of course I decided to go, best decision of the day! My mind and body were in desperate need to escape the monotony of life in Seosan. For a few hours at the museum, my thoughts were completely absorbed in the simple, yet imaginative art by Andy Warhol.

A few of my favorites quotes of the day:

I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own.

I'm afraid that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses all of its meaning.

Isn't life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?

People need to be made more aware of the need to work at learning how to live because life is so quick and sometimes it goes away too quickly.

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

The world fascinates me.

I think everybody should like everybody.

Loving on Warhol, the Greatest

We have been hit with quite a bit of snow in Korea...ugh! As I slip and slide around in my snow boots, the women here continue to wear skirts, heels, and carry an umbrella (leading to hilarious wipe outs)...God bless them. They think they look good, but from my perspective, they have more of a resemblance to a circus clown trying to balance on a tight rope.

At work, we use special programs for our English classes and the lessons are all scripted, leading to very little lesson planning on my behalf! This week I was supposed to discuss the meaning and importance of Christmas. The book wanted me to tell the children about Jesus being born and that the holiday is to celebrate His birth. In class I asked the children if they knew who was born on Christmas and they responded with "Santa Clause!" and "Rudolph!"...ha! And that's where the lesson ended, sorry. The only reason why they even celebrate "Christmas" in Korea is to give gifts and have an excuse to be more like America. Most decorations and cards do not say "Merry Christmas", sometimes they say "Seasons Greetings", but usually they say "Happy New Year". Anyway, I was both surprised and excited that the lesson wanted me to discuss the meaning of Christmas. It almost saddens me to think that a school in Korea, a predominately buddhist country, wants me to discuss the importance of a Christian holiday. Whereas in the United States I could probably lose my job, and where some schools are now banning the Christmas tree. Ridiculous.

I have had about enough of the crying children everyday. Maybe I should just give in a try to be nice, but I will not be defeated by a few six year olds. They will learn to follow my rules, like it or not. I was obviously not cut out to teach small children-I miss my students back home!

This experience will definitely challenge me in many ways, and force me to be very patient. My patience is tested not just daily, but hourly. Mostly due to the combination of constantly spitting men, rancid nonchalant flatulence, loudly slurping noodles, and a general lack of logic in every common situation. I feel like I am constantly frustrated to my breaking point every day. I am trying to keep an open mind, but I find some things to just be rude and annoying.

Thankfully, my friend Tom is allowing me to borrow his guitar until I am able to buy one here. Unfortunately, due to my loud playing and singing, one of my friendly neighbors has decided to shut off my heat. Now I sit and shiver while playing my music as loud as possible with my new speakers just despite them. However, playing guitar in the evening while the snow is falling outside has brought some peace to my life.

A few things that make me smile everyday:

1. Every morning on my walk to work, I pass the same two old men walking in the opposite direction. They both light up with smiles when the see me and we exchange hellos full of excitement.

2. My giant hugs from Tess and Tyler every morning!

3. Loving messages (and packages) from home!

4. Inspiring music/lyrics on my ipod.

5. My students call me "sir" and say "yes sir" when I tell them to do things. I should correct them, but I love it and they make me giggle.


Miss you!

let it snow

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed your time with family! I apologize for the absence of an update. The past couple weeks have been difficult, but as I begin to reflect back I realize how much I am beginning to grow and get accustomed to life in Korea. 

A couple weekends ago I made the trip up to Seoul to visit Jackie. It was so great to be with a friend and have a "normal" weekend while trying to adjust to this new way of life. We ate some great food, shopped, and danced the night away. I am really looking forward to spending Christmas and winter break with her! 

I'm not quite sure on my feelings for being away from home for the holidays. Christmas decorations are now up all over the city, while Christmas music is played around the clock in every venue (even the bar on a saturday night). The intent is to bring cheer. Call me Scrooge, but I will be much more cheerful when it all goes away...

Anyway, I finally started my job! The school is run like a business, more so than a school. I will do my best to explain the set up and schedule at work. It's a bit of a challenge, because things are run much different than the normal school day for American kids.  The kindergarden students have class from 9:40-2:10. The largest class has 10 students which makes both learning and teaching extremely beneficial. I teach two of these classes in the morning, the classes are 80 minutes each. My morning students are 7 years old and full of energy. After my second class, I serve them lunch...ugh! This would be the low point of the day. On monday, tuesday, and friday, I teach a special science class right after lunch which provides me with no break at all! Then monday, wednesday, and friday afternoon I teach 4 different classes back to back until 5:30. Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach 2 different classes until 4. We have a staff meeting every tuesday at 6:20-8pm. So my days are exauhsting, but the work is fairly easy.

Here is the schedule for the life of a normal child in Korea: regular school during the day, tae-kwon-do lesson, then come to SLP for 80 minutes of English class, violin lessons, then whatever other crazy classes or lessons the parents make them do. It's no wonder I have at least a handful of my 7 year old crying every morning. My babies SOB if they don't get a perfect score on spelling tests, or if they don't win a stupid game. It's rather pathetic how much pressure is put on the little kids to do everything right and be at the top of the class. Yes, they are all baby Einstein's, but non of them get to be kids. (check out my pictures on facebook for some of their cute faces!). 

As I said before, appearance is everything in Korea. Going to the saunas is a big part of this and is a normal weekend activity for most families. I decided to have a little cultural experience last weekend and wanted to check out the saunas with my Korean friend Gabby. Spa etiquette: enter the women's room, strip down to nothing, then scrub every inch of yourself in the showers for a good 30 minutes before jumping into the communal baths. Being the only foreigner in a bathing room with 100's of naked Koreans, I definitely received my fare share of stares to last for a while. I just kept telling them they were jealous of my booty. Oh yeah, and only gang members have tattoos in Korea.  So, I was the white, big bootied, gangster for the day. No wonder they couldn't keep their eyes off me. The place also had a co-ed floor with sauna rooms. Simply slip into the gigantic white t-shirt and shorts supplied upon arrival and sauna hop. Each sauna was a different temperature, scent, and decor. My favorite was the large room made of geodes. It was the hottest room and completely psychedelic. Once I was transformed into a giant prune and had completely dehydrated myself we went out to dinner and re-hydrated. It was definitely an interesting experience to say the least. 

I am slowly getting into the grove of life here. I received my Alien Registration card this past week. This means I am reconnected with the world again via internet and cell phone! I have also joined a gym near my house. The owner of the gym loves me and constantly points at me and smiles, while nodding his head in favor of every time I life a weight. I am also meeting some really cool people that live in my area. It's so nice to be able to go out and grab some coffee and have a conversation with people in English! They are also able to make me laugh, which is indeed the best medicine. 

25 in Korea

Despite the ceaseless hustle and bustle of the city, things are moving pretty slow. I never thought I would say these words, but I am so ready for work to start. I have explored my city everyday now and have found some places I love. There is a hill a couple blocks away from my house that has different routes up, down, and around it. I decided to go for a run and see how many laps I could make. This "hill" was much steeper than it first appeared, I was exhausted just after reaching the top, but found a delightful little place on top of that hill. There is various outdoor exercise equipment up there. Has anyone seen Ellen's Hawaiian chair?!?! Well my favorite machine is much like that, only you stand on it. I was having way to much fun and giggling out of control all by myself. Because it was so much fun, I hardly realized what an abdominal workout I was actually getting and could barely sit up to get out of bed the next day. I will take pictures and possibly video next time I go just show you this spectacle. 

I am just about ready to make a sign that says "Freak American Girl-will smile and wave for 100 won" and post it in this window at Dunkin Donuts. I feel like a caged zoo animal. I sit at the window that faces out into the city center, so people are constantly walking by and stare at me the whole time like they have never seen a white girl in their city. This is not the same friendly, curious stare like I get in Africa either. It's more of a glare than a stare really. Sometimes for a quick thrill, I will wave at the passerby and make them extremely uncomfortable. As I watch people passing by in this busy downtown area, I feel even more out of place than for the mere fact of being the foreigner. Everyone is extremely attractive and dressed very fashionably. Here in Korea, appearance is everything. I don't have the desire or money to walk 30 minutes in heels and dress every time I come downtown. Therefore, I sit here in my  jeans, hoodie, and tennis shoes. Perhaps this is another reason why they stare. 

Yesterday we had a staff meeting at school. The school that I teach at is a private English academy, we have seven foreign teachers and ten Korean teachers. This makes the meetings twice as long because the principal does not speak English well, so everything has to be translated. His main concern for this meeting is that the students do not write very well, and we need to be checking their online homework more often. They are 6 years old!!! and his is concerned about their creative writing skills in their second language!!! are you kidding me?!?! (Culture briefing sidetrack-Koreans believe that the day a child is conceived life begins. When  baby is born, he/she is then 1 year old. Therefore, a 6 year old in Korea would be 5 years old in the US). How many 5 year olds do you know that can write a 5 paragraph creative essay, in a second language? I have to write a unit plan that includes brainstorming, outlining, revision, ect. for a kindergarten class. I am amazed by these students, their spelling and vocab list for last week was equivalent to that of a 6th grader in the United States. 

After our meeting the boss took us all to dinner. Since he makes the most money out of anyone else at the table, by Korean standards, he must pay for everyone there. That was only our first stop of the night. We proceeded to move on to bar #1, where the boss continued to buy for everyone there. Once he got bored at that bar, we moved on to a norebang. This is a karaoke room. We have our own room with many screens to sing along and dance to any sort of music you can think of-what a spectacle. Then after a few hours of singing we moved on to the next destination, and so on. Koreans don't mess around when soju is involved. 

Tonight and this weekend I am heading up to Seoul to go visit Jackie!!! I am super excited to see her and meet her friends. I am a bit nervous to make this adventure and tackle the Korean subway by myself. I would be scared of the subway by myself in the United States when everything is in English. I'm sure I will be fine and find my way to her eventually. 

Many of you have been asking for my address, here it is! This is the address to the school, but the best place to send things. There isn't much that I need, but anything would be appreciated. I would like game film/highlights on DVD from the basketball games. I would love to stay updated and watch both the girls and boys season, I will miss being there to cheer terribly! 

SLP Seosan Inst. 2 &3rd fl

Dong-sin BD, 276-4, Dongmun-dong, Seosan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea

T. +82-41-688-5008 F. +82-41-688-0501

South Korea

(must include all of that!)

Hope everyone is doing well! Miss you already!

Dunkin' Donuts...aka American Embassy

Just a little bit of home...dunkin donuts! It's on my way to the school, and has free internet! They also play an amazing mix of my favorite American 90's music. Boys II Men was full volume as I walked in the door :) So today I brought my computer so I could put up some demanded photos of my apartment.

here you go...

view from my roof (turn your head to the right)

thermostat (your guess is a good as mine)

closet

bathroom (turn head left)

kitchen (all of it, wall to wall, I'm standing in the entrance to the apt.)

laundry room (can't read the settings, scared to try it out)

entertainment area

sorry I couldn't figure out how to turn the images. Probably have to do that first but I didn't have time to figure that out right now. I'm on my way to the school, then hospital. I have to go get the results of my tests. The nurse probed into my arm with the needle like she was performing liposuction. She couldn't find a vein in my left are, so she switched to my right. I wanted to smack her. 

I have been planted...time to bloom!

I can't thank you enough for the e-mails and messages! I am doing so well. I am all settled in to my cozy new apartment. I do not have an internet connection yet. I will reply to individual email and post pictures as soon as I get a connection set up.

My apartment is super small, but perfect for me! Luckily I have a separate "laundry room" with brand new washing machine. Really it's more like a small tiled closet with a drain. They do not use dryers in Korea! The other foreign teachers do not have this luxury. Most have to dry their clothes by stringing them all over the already small space. I am in desperate need of a tea kettle and mug. I am currently making coffee by boiling water in a frying pan and drinking out of a bowl. Meals that I have prepared at home are squid flavored ramen noodles. I don't know how to cook anything else, nor do I have the equipment to do so. My bathroom, or should I say shower with toilet and sink is a lovely shade of grandmother sea foam green. I shower over the toilet-I just consider it convenient. The food I have been eating here makes a taco bell fart seem like a warm summer breeze. Speaking of food, I ate a whole baby squid at lunch yesterday. The little guy was in my mystery seafood soup. Oh and my floor!!! It's heated! I would compare it to a padded lamenent floor-squishy and warm! My bed is tiny and hard. I have bruises on my hips from sleeping on it. I used my thermarest for padding, but unfortunately it is leaking air and flat within an hour. More with pictures...

I have been pretty bored, and so ready for school to start. Unfortunately, the school is shut down this week due to swine flu. This means more time for me to roam around my city and discover new things. I am at the school now getting ready to go to the hospital for my health check. I walk to school and that takes about 20 minutes. Everyday I have to pass a dunken donuts...temptation. I don't really have any other updates. I just sit around my apartment. Luckily I have cable TV that gets really outdated US shows. It snowed yesterday...

People In Every Direction-No Words Exchanged

I'm in South Korea!!! The flight was horrible, but getting to my current location has been so easy!

On my flight to Tokyo, I sat by a man about my dad's age named Mike. Mike gave me the most strange compliment I have ever received. About 7 hours into our flight, he turned to me like he had something serious to say but said, "you have one the best BLADDERS in the world". haha...I replied with "thank you?". If you know me well, you know I would muster up something more ridiculous to reciprocate latter on. Well it happened, I had a Samantha moment. As we were descending in to Tokyo, I looked out the window and yelped "Ew! there's snow!" Mike, said no way, I highly doubt there is snow...as I looked harder I said "Yeah, you're right, what looked like snow is definitely waves crashing into the shore!" idiot

When I arrived in Korea, a man picked me up to take me to the hotel. This is where the universal language of gestures begins to come in to play. I really needed a shower when I got to the hotel and didn't want to go through all my bags to find my shower stuff, and the hotel had 3 family size pump bottles in the bathroom...so why not just use those. To all of my students who complain about never using what they learn in the classroom in real life situations, here you go, scientific method application! I obviously cant read Korean. The 3 bottles became mystery bottles. The palm of my hand became my mini lab. I observed the consistency and smell of the contents of each of those bottles to determine which to use on my hair, in which order, and which to use on my body. I think my test was a success! Silky smooth hair today! I still hadn't eaten since the airplane and when the man came to pick up this morning I really needed coffee. Coffee is my drug, not afraid to admit it. I could not figure out how to get this very important need across to my driver. How do I explain that if I don't get my go-juice asap, I would spontaneously transform into a crazy lady. I finally got a cup before catching the 3 hour bus to Seosan. I was happy again with my coffee, but still hungry. Considering eating my hand.

I'm not in Kansas anymore. I've never even been to Kansas, but you get the analogy. This is going to be way more difficult than living in and backpacking through Africa. No worries, no hurries has become GO! GO! GO! I think I will learn to love it here despite that!

Tonight, I am staying in another, much nicer hotel actually in Seosan. So, I have made it to my city just not my apartment. I will move in tomorrow. I am getting ready to go to lunch with the principal from my school, then tonight a group of us are going out to dinner and getting drinks. Meeting people might not be as difficult as expected...lets just hope they are normal and decent!

Thank you for all the encouraging messages! Love you all, you will get me through this potential uneasy start to this journey!