another one bites the dust...

this past week was just the grading week at the school and so all i had to do was teach after school classes, which meant a lot of free time to read and sit on facebook at work. it sounds awesome to get paid to do nothing...but really, it is just really boring. and with the absence of the kids...it was kind of lonely and sad. schools should never be open unless the students are there...

anyway, p. lee had a christmas celebration dinner on the 23rd for the faculty and the seniors came, so that provided for a bit of entertainment and a few photo opportunities. other than that, not too much excitement occurred during the week. i went to work on christmas eve and afterwards, turk and i went in to la festa and western dom for dinner and some last minute shopping. while searching for dinner, we found what can only be described as the mecca of all donkasseu places. (donkasseu is fried pork cutlet) they smothered the delicious, crispy, golden meat with gobs of REAL melted cheese. now, many of you probably would be disgusted at this description. but let me remind you that:
1. i am an american and meat and cheese are two staples in my diet.
2. i am in korea and meat and cheese are not staples is the diet here.
3. i haven't had real, unprocessed cheese in 4 months since i left america.
4. i am a southern american and deep fried goodness is part of who i am.
anyway...just know that it was the most delicious thing i have put in my mouth in a long time. i had a joygasm with each bite. after dinner, i was able to get a few final purchases and my own gift to myself - the amazing hood/scarf! it sounds anticlimactic, i know...but trust me...it's the most amazing invention ever.

christmas day was just like any other day in korea. it was strange for me. i am used to it being an important even in american culture, but koreans disregard it as just another day. i spent the morning opening my package from stephanie and cooking breakfast. i giggled with delight as i opened the wrapped gifts. some days i am curious as to whether or not i really am an adult or just an oversized toddler. after my morning in solitude, i ventured over to turks, where we exchanged gifts and watched random christmas movies (like rudolph and santa clause is coming to town - thanks steph!!!). it made the day a bit more christmasy. after that, we walked down through town, wandering in and out of random shops we had never been into before. it was more or less a day for exploration. we ended up walking all the way to la festa and had ari meet us there for dinner and a bit of meandering. afterwards, i went back to turk's for some hot chocolate (yah, i know...very adult of me) and another movie. then, it was back to my place, where i found eun pyo waiting for me with a cake and a clean apartment! it was...awesome! i invited turk and peter over to share in the tasty treat and we all stayed up much too late for our own good!

saturday rolled around with eun pyo oversleeping and missing his soccer game. after i cooked him breakfast and sent him on his way, i met up with turk and peter and we set out for western dome to buy tickets for sherlock holmes, which just came out in korea. we wasted the day in the area until the movie began by grabbing lunch and walking around and finally going to a game room where we playes scrabble and barrel of monkeys (seriously) for several hours. You have no idea how entertaining playing random board games can be when you are playing children's games as fully grown adults. after that, we went to the movie and then back home.

sunday was pretty spectacular. turk, peter, and i went into itaewon for some lunch and darts. we ended up at a turkish restaurant where we ate doner kebabs among other things i can't recall. after that, we visited the mosque where i actually went in to the women's prayer room. it was pretty interesting, although i felt like a second class citizen having to go to other rooms. it was still a humbling experience that i am glad i got. while walking back through the streets, i heard the call to prayer. after we got back to the main part of itaewon, it started snowing again. we stopped off at ankara picnic for kebabs (the best in korea) and went shopping. we stopped off at scrouge's for a snack and some darts for a few hours before heading off to dongdaemun for some more shopping. i was able to get a lot of things today and was actually quite thrilled with my haggling abilities. we headed home around seven and went out for some kimchi jiggae before heading home for the night.

monday was in itself not so bad. i slept until 2, which was AWESOME to say the least. i met up with turk around 4 and we went to costco to get supplies to have a taco night, which was super yummy! after that, we ended up playing this rpg board game that his step mom had sent him for christmas, called catan. it was pretty entertaining, to say the least. i said my goodbyes early and headed home.

today was by far the busiest day. turk, cathleen, and i made plans to visit grace in incheon. we met up with her in boopyung and walked through the underground shopping mall and to china town where we had lunch and wandered the streets a bit. we went to a chinese museum and played dress-up in all the random chinese and korean traditional clothes. after that, we walked along the pier and it began to snow again. we stopped in at an arcade where we shot guns and played air hockey and goofed off. after we had walked the entire length of the pier, we ended the night with a couple hours at a noraebang before we said our goodbyes and made the hour long trip back to baekseok.

all in all, my break hasn't been too crazy or exciting, but i think a relaxing vacation was just what i needed! i will save the big trip for the summer when it is actually warm enough for me to go outside!

if you only knew...

so, my first semester of teaching is officially over...and i breath out a sigh of relief. it wasn't as hard as i would have imagined, yet in so many ways, it was more difficult than i would ever have believed possible.

this week, i was swamped with work...between trying to get eight different finals written and final grades done, all i can say is that i was in need of a nap. but, i have gotten into a pretty good routine at work and i am almost able to get everything done while i am there which means i don't have too much to bring home at night.

as expected, most of my kids did amazingly, and i don't have a single F to report, which makes me pretty happy. with the coming of the end of term, i had to say goodbye to my students, which was actually really hard for me. each one of my students has a pretty special place in my heart, especially my seniors. i will admit my biases. i adore each and every one of them as much as i would if they were my own. their successes and their failures, their struggles, their joys, and their frustrations, i take to heart as if it were my own child's. i know i will miss them all when i have to say my final goodbyes at the end of the school year, and i know i will not be able to escape without tears flowing. sometimes i am too emotional for my own good.

this weekend, it was rather frigid. i can sense winter approaching and it seems to be ready to stay, so i am bunkering down for the long haul. the more the temperature diminishes, the less people see of me. i did end up making it out to sunny's after what i can only describe as the friday night ritual in which turk, ben, and i - and occasionally another co-worker or two - go to pizza school for a few slices and random discussions ranging from sports to america to the theory that p. lee might be a reptilian monster sent back from the future, hell bent on world domination (but that is a discussion for another day). sunny's was typical for a friday night. i conversed with all the regulars and even met a new teacher, fresh off the boat in ilsan. we talked about home and all the random food we missed, from crunch-wrap supremes to the crunchies at long john silvers. there was nothing we left out. we talked about author's and i got to share my love for hemingway with a few people, all the while wishing i could be half the literary genious i believe him to be.

i said my goodbye's early, a little after midnight, ready to leave the smoke-filled atmosphere of the bar for a more relaxed environment. i sat in my apartment until three in the morning, sipping on a bottle of wine until its contents had diminished into mere droplets clinging to the mouth of the bottle, all the while contemplating what i am doing with my life and dispelling the nagging sense of homesickness and emptiness that has been haunting me since my arrival.

saturday and sunday have both been pretty mundane. i called my mom and andy henson. both phone calls have been long overdue and both i regretted immediately after they were made. every time i call home, it is just a reminder of how much i want to be there with everyone. i spent the day cleaning and reading which is something i haven't really had too much time since i have been here. i quickly got irritated with the silence and found that i can listen to the point online, so i thank God for internet streaming radio. as much as i do love kpop, i do miss listening to music that has some sense of depth...and music that i actually understand what they are saying. i went once, only for a brief period, and that was to have dinner with turk...it was a kimchi jjiggae night...and it was well worth the excursion into the frigid night. i saved my most difficult call for sunday. i called cory for the second time since i have been in korea. out of everyone, it is the hardest to be away from him, my best friend in so many ways. we chatted about everything back home and about how thanksgiving was without me, about his new girlfriend and about our friends back home. it made me sad to think of all the things i was missing. cory and i have been together for so long that i never thought about what it would be like to not have him there until he wasn't. now, i long for the days when i would pop into his room and we would talk about the uneventful days of our lives or we would sit quietly together and watch the newest anime that he was into. to most people, that sounds lame, but i was content. cory was my closest companion and confidant, and the remembrance that we are apart stings each time i think about it.

after i hung up, i swept away a few silent tears, and got on with my day. i tried being productive, looking into jobs back home. i figure it is never too early to start, and i really want to get information on working on an indian reservation. i am taking this into serious consideration. i am also looking into international schools in south america, in case things don't pan out back home. i figure, i have an entire month ahead of me with no real tedious work in the mix, so i have made a promise to myself. i am going to start writing, for ME, again. i have been feeling rather uninspired lately and so i am going to search for inspiration. i am going to get out of seoul and into the country. i am going to search through art and poetry and writing and music and nature and humanity until i find something that makes me feel alive again...something that makes me want to create something from that life that i feel pulsing through my veins. that is the promise i have made to myself. hopefully i can keep it.

wait...where am i?

the days, as always, seem to be passing in a blur. i can't believe i am getting ready for finals week. my first semester of teaching is almost over. it feels like it just started yesterday! i am a week short of being here for four months already. i still feels like yesterday i was getting on a plane to a far away land where i knew only one person among millions.

school life here is far from dull. there isn't a week that goes by that the administration doesn't decide to do something rediculous and get my temper fired up. take, for example, two weeks ago during chapel where the pastor/principal (whom we have dubbed as p. lee aka the anti-christ) decided it was ok to start swearing from the pulpit during a sermon. the word kesa-ki (son of a bitch) is generally not a term that goes hand in hand with the word of God, where i come from. anyway, when all was said and done, i realized that there was no way in hell i was going to work for that man for longer than my contract required.

besides the crazy people i actually work for, the children are generally a joy, when they aren't being the typical student who doesn't do their homework or study for tests or come to class on time, that is. they are generally greatful for the smallest things you do for them, which is something different in comparison to a lot of students back home. i made a promise with my 7th graders that if they were all able to get a 100% on the last test that they took before finals, that i would let them watch a movie of their chosing and i would bring them each a snack. i did this primarily to motivate about 4 of the girls in class who never seem to study for the tests or try during class too often. anyway, you should have seen these kids. it was like someone finally lit a fire under their asses. in the end, they all ended up making perfect scores, so i followed through with my end of the bargain and let them watch twilight on thursday and friday and i brought them popcorn on friday. when i walked into the room, they were all astounded that i actually followed through with my promise. i have never been thanked so much in my life for making good on a promise.

one of the funniest thing i have seen so far though, has got to be what happened this thursday in my 8th grade class. turk teaches them the hour before me and we both had finished with our content for the semester, and the students had all been working really hard this semester, so we both decided to allow them to watch a movie (they all voted for twilight). as a side note - korean students - boys and girls - are all addicted to twilight and everything twilight related. it is actually pretty crazy. anyway, they were watching the scene right when bella and edward are about to kiss for the first time and the bell rang so i paused it and they all started screaming at me and begging to watch for 5 more minutes. i obliged after much pleading. right as it is about to happen, turk pops in the door and pauses it again which leads to another round of squeals of protest as only a room primarily full of 8th grade girls can deliver. he finally relented and as he unpaused it, the battery of the computer died! you should have seen the looks of utter horror on the faces of these children at the thought they would have to wait until the next day to finish the movie. feeling for the students' plight, turk and i plugged the laptop into an outlet in the teachers' office where half of the 8th grade class crowed around, with one of the students peering in from the glass just to watch the scene. it was sheer comedy watching these students from the teachers' perspectives.

the kids aren't always fun and games, of course. i actually have to be a teacher and so there are those moments when the kids aren't so adoreable. like when you are trying to teach them and they aren't paying attention or they are arguing with their classmates. we are all assigned a specific class as a 'homeroom' teacher. it was randomly decided that we would be assigned whichever class we taught after lunch. it was my luck to get 6th grade. these kids, while adorable, are exactly that, 6th graders. i never wanted to teach that age level because these kids drive even the most patient of people to their wit's end. you try playing games with them to review and they argue about teams. you try to get through a lesson, but it is always interupted with, 'teacher - she is looking at me funny!' or some random comment like that. it is enough to make me want to pull out my hair! i can't stand when people bicker and argue like that. anyway, they can be sweet and endearing, but we have decided that i have the worst homeroom out of everyone. it was a student in my homeroom that broke my hand, after all. and it was a student in my homeroom that first decided to tell everyone i was chubby. yes...i have officially been called chubby. for the first time in my life. albeit, it was by an undernourished stick of a korean girl, but i was called chubby nonetheless. it is a rediculous notion for me to take it to heart, i know. i am far from being a porker. but it is things like these that make me wonder if my homeroom is trying to kill me, or at least drive me to insanity.

anway, enough about school. my weekends have been pretty tame. i have just been trying to keep up with school and whatnot. last weekend, however, gus was in korea with his girlfriend, hanna, and so it was like a mini-high school reunion of sorts. last saturday, jun, gus, hanna, and i all got together, along with turk, and spent time together for the first time since high school. it was pretty great. we went to the war museum with jun acting as the tour guide, as always. he had to leave early due having to take a test the next day, but turk and i took gus and hanna to insadong for some tea. it was crazy cold out and we had actually seen the first snow of the year that morning, so hanna and gus decided they wanted to see a movie so we took them to yongsan which is where the closest imax was. they bought tickets and we hung out with them through dinner. i actually wasn't feeling that great, so i ended up excusing myself early. i ended up having a 24 hour flu, which was not awesome, so i will spare everyone details.

this past week, i was extremely busy, trying to get everything prepared for finals week. i have to give 2 extra finals on top of what most of the teachers are giving because i teach the french and spanish classes. by thursday, i was ready for a break, so i ended up getting a pizza with turk and ben and we hung out at turk's place and played xbox for a few hours. it was really relaxing and it reminded me of all the nights i would sit with cory while he played. i miss that more than anything, as lame as it sounds. in fact, there is nothing more i wish i could do right now than sit and watch cory play persona. i am going through withdrawel!

friday was pretty uneventful due to the fact that i was exhausted from the week and turk, jess, and i had plans to be in seoul early for a day of christmas shopping. i went to sunny's, but called in an early night. we got into itaewon saturday around 11 and got some shopping in before having lunch at a place called the maharaja, which is a little indian food place. it was not too bad and i actually got the first decent cup of coffee there since i have been in korea, so i was quite satisfied. after a bit more shopping we went to insadong to finish up with a few more purchases. i had intended to go to hongdae and dongdaemun, but i was pretty beat and ready to relax. we got home aroung 5:30, and i was content to sit and read for the rest of the evening. aroung 10:30, however, i got a call from jess, beckoning me to come to sunny's, which i obliged. before i went over, i messaged my buddy peter, who lives in my building, and told him to come by. i sat in sunny's with ari and jess and peter, chatting it up, until the realization that i hadn't eaten dinner suddenly made itself very clear with the distinct craving for a big mac coinciding. i talked jess and peter into making a mcdonald's trip, seeing as ari had left earlier. while waiting for the bus, i gave up (it was cold outside, after all) and started heading back to sunny's. jess decided to go home. as i am crossing the street, i see the bus i was waiting for, and peter and i quickly make a mad dash and catch it just in time. mcdonald's cravings are worth the two dollars in bus fares. we grabbed mcdonald's in la festa right after midnight and made the bus back to baekseok right before the buses shut down for the evening. we went back to sunny's, our purchases in hand. of course, i brought sunny back a big mac - an offering to my friend who let me bring in fast food instead of ordering food from him. i sat there until almost 3 a.m. with peter, just talking about home and about other random stuff. i slept in today for the first time since last week, and it felt awesome. but, now, i have to get ready to get back to the grind and start writing my finals!

a korean thanksgiving...and other adventures

ok, i left off with turk and i spending last saturday in a toilet museum, among other things. the next day, we decided to go into itaewon for some darts and lunch. we got there around 2. needless to say, i didn't get home until 2 the next morning...somehow with both grant and eun pyo both in tail. i really have to question how i end up getting into these types of situations.

anyway, another week rolled around at school. i got a lot accomplished. i planned out bothf my science classes for the rest of the semester. all i have to do is get a couple more tests created for them and write their finals! hooray! that just leaves me with american government to prep for. they are studying the constitution and the bill of rights, which means it is a piece of cake for me.

no week at school is complete without someone in administration doing something which makes me want to quit. the newest assenine thing is moving the time the students have chapel. they originally had it every monday after the last class. but, for some reason which is devoid of all logic, they have decided to move the time. they are cancelling every last class on mondays and hving chapel at that time. so, these kids are missing out on 1/5 of their class time. not only that, but they are refusing to give these students the 2 days they need to review for finals. considering the school's decision to mandate the midterm and final exam scores be 70% of a student's grade (they did this without the knowledge or consent of the teachers after we had already informed students about our personal grading scales) i believe taking this time away from students is a terrible idea. but then again, what else is new? i ended up getting into a pretty heated arguement about this with one of my supervisors because i feel like the students' education is the most important thing and the school is ignoring that fact. long story short, i am seriously looking into new jobs. i love my students, but this school is turning me into a very negative person, and that is something i am not ok with. since the beginning, it has done nothing but break my contract and lie to me and piss me off. i am throwing in the towel.

but, on to a more positive thing. THANKSGIVING! i was so sad to have to miss thanksgiving at home this year. the idea had me pretty down, although i tried not to show it too much. thanksgiving is just that one day of the year when nothing can go wrong for me. i love being able to spend the time cooking and being with me friends and family. this year i had to work, but sunny bought us a turkey and i helped him cook it after i got off of work. we were unable to obtain certain traditional side dishes like green bean casserole and stuffing, but we were able to put together a pretty yummy feast which was complete with pumpkin pie! mmmm!

i was pretty beat from being up late all week long doing things for school and preparing for thanksgiving stuff, so friday we stayed in ilsan. we went to dinner in la festa and walked around a bit before heading back to baekseok to sunny's for a cup of tea (in my case) and some darts and left-over pie (joygasm!). it was a pretty early night for me.

i got up early saturday to call home and then met up with turk and jess and ari at 10 for a day of shopping in dongdaemun. i love dongdaemun because i never pay what people ask for. for example, i found a cute bracelet for 15 dollars. i said it was too expensive and offered 8. she said no deal. she would discount for 10. i said no thanks. i could buy it somewhere else. she gave in and i paid 8. i win. haggling for me is like an extreme sport in which i refuse to lose.

after a day of shopping, we went to sinchon to beer o' clock for kevin's last hoorah before he leaves korea. the boys completed two of the ten shot challenges which i refuse to take part in, as always. there is a thing in this life called pure stupidity. i try to avoid that. i made it home around midnight and i attempted to go to sleep, but my night wasn't complete until i had been woken up at least 10 times by drunken phone calls from grant. some days, i hate my friends...lol

anyway, i have been a little under the weather and i somehow managed to sleep until 4 pm on sunday, when i was woken up by a phone call from eun pyo. i decided to get out of bed and do some things. it is now almost 6 pm and the only thing i have managed to accomplish is making an egg sandwhich and writing this blog. being unproductive for the win!

i will leave off with one last story which many of my buddies back home will find amusing.
so, this week, one of my students in ESL class asked me if i knew the movie, american pie. (i could already tell where this was going) i anwered that i did. she asked me if i knew the character, michelle. (i sighed to myself) i answered that i did. she yelled out, 'teacher, you are michelle!' and then she told me that i looked like her, but prettier (because all of my students believe that is they compliment me endlessly, i might give them a better grade or something i guess). moral of the story: no matter where i go, i will never escape the 'band camp girl' comparison. lol.

slacking...for the win!

i realize that ever since i broke my hand, i haven't updated this, and i apologize. keep in mind that i don't enjoy typing with one hand. once i have the use of both hands again, i fully intend to be more responsible in my postings. anyway, a lot has happened, and there are a lot of specific things i intend to dedicate full blogs to, but like i said, i don't intend to do all that work one-handed. so, for now, i am just going to get everyone up to date on the fact that i am still alive.

i left off the weekend i broke my hand. since then, i have spent a lot of time in mokdong with grant. one sunday, after spending an eventful evening of darts at beer o'clock in sinchon with kevin and grant, i was on the bus home and a random korean guy started talking to me. we made friendy-friends. his name is heemyung. anyway, long story short, i ended up going to an old italian film called 'la dolce vide' the next saturday with him at the cinema in jong-no sam ga. after that, we headed into sinchon to meet up with grant, kevin, and garth who were at a bar called 'woodstock.' there were two korean guys at a table next to us who we started talking to and somehow we all ended up going to a noraebang (karaoke room). after that, one of our new korean friends had to leave, but the other guy, who is a soccer player named eun pyo, decided to come back to mokdong with us and hang out. it was a crazy night, but that seems to be the norm for me these days. the next day was lookin' pretty rough for all of us so after grabbing lunch in sinchon at beer o'clock we all parted ways to get ready for the upcoming week.

the week at school started off pretty normally, but like clockwork, things quickly began to get rediculous. i don't even want to get into the details now...but let's just say the pastor at my school might be...the antichrist. the end of the week ended with the students missing the first two classes because he was telling the students they couldn't get into colleges without his signiture and that he was very powerful and that he could get them into any college in the world. they didn't need to take the sat or toefl tests as long as he deemed them worthy to sign over their transcripts. this guy is a nut case. he was also complaining about students who have left the school and telling lies about many of them...what a great pastor, right?

but, at least wednesday was ppeppero day (korean pocky) and many of my students brought me the yummy treats. i counted and i have 32 boxes of the stuff filling my cabinets...lol

anyway, on to the weekend. one of our korean friends, shin, was celebrating his 23rd bday and so he rented out a bar in sinchon (the barfly) and we got free drinks all night on saturday. so, naturally, grant, kevin, lynds, alexis, and i all showed up in full celebration mode. our buddy from the weekend before, eun pyo, showed up with his friend, soo hee (tiger), and things got silly, like always. we somehow all ended up in mokdong up until 6 am. the next day was sunday, and so the boys and i headed to itaewon to the wolfhound for lunch and darts. i left early (at 7) so i could meet sunny back in baekseok because i had promised him we would hang out. sunny took me to dinner and we had coffee outside next to a fire. it was actually pretty cool and reminded me of home, sitting around bonfires and drinking. after that we sat at a tea shop and listened to some live music until around midnight.

the next week at school, all hell broke loose. the pastor spent an entire morning telling the students they were all stupid and worthless, which pissed me off beyond belief. the shit this guy does is insane. needless to say, i wasn't surprised when the next evening, we walked in and witnessed an extremely pissed off korean mom going for this man's throat. it was...awesome. anyway, to make the parents happy with the school, they announced the students would be having a thanksgiving day performance on friday and each grade was to give a performance. we were notified wednesday night that we, the teachers, were supposed to perform too...oh joy! anyway, the event was really a lot of fun, and i have video of everything, so, hopefully you all will get to see it soon. the teachers decided to put on the WORST rendition of a play, ever...and to be honest, it was so bad, it was good.

friday, after classes, i had plans to meet up with eun pyo. he had texted and called all week and decided he wanted to visit me in ilsan, which i was more than happy about. tiger called me friday and asked me out for dinner as well, so both of the boys ended up in ilsan and we all went out to sunny's where i met up with turk and the usual crew. after i dominated in jenga and darts, we all came back to my place and played circle of death and downed a bottle of vodka and soju. afterwards, we said our goodnights.

eun pyo ended up staying in baekseok with me and we hung out until he had to go to work the next day - coaching little kids soccer. after that, i met up with turk at joe's sandwich for a bite before we walked around lake park and went to a toilet museum and a cactus museum - hey, don't judge us...weird shit is intriguing. after that, we walked around western dome, which is one of the big shopping districts in ilsan. we ran into a mob of screaming teenage girls all standing outside a tv station waiting to catch a glimpse of the boy pop band, shiney, and we joined in their commotion for a bit before we lost interest. while meandering through the streets, we came upon a group of break dancers giving a free performance. it was actually pretty cool, so we stopped and watched and turk got a pretty good video of it. around 6, we decided to head back to baekseok and part ways, which is where i am at right now...contemplating whether or not to go out tonight or just stay in...but the cold wind outside and my need to get some sleep is making me lean more towards staying in...i suppose i will let you know what i chose...next time!

broken hands and frozen dreams are on the menu

wow, so i have been a slacker and haven't posted in a while, so i will give a quick run down of the major events...

last week was pam's last week (miss you already girl!) so i spent quite a few nights with her at sunny's followed by a weekend in seoul. two saturday's ago started out simple enough...the friday night before i was out until 7 a.m. with random new korean friends so i was pretty beat, but i was still up for seeing something new. turk and i went on an adventure to the aquarium at the coex mall where i saw sharks and sea turtles and monkeys (yah...) and penguins and all the random animals that make the little girl inside of me tingle with glee...i am such a dork some days...anyway...we followed that with dinner in itaewon at the thai garden to celebrate our friend yoona's birthday. of course, no trip to itaewon is complete without a few drinks at the wolfhound.

following yoona's birthday drinks, turk and i had made plans with pam and a few other friends to hit up the casino where you drink and eat for free as long as you are gambling...and i do love free things...so we spent a few hours there. we left around 2 a.m. and i was up 50 bucks, so i was ready to keep on going, the way i do when i get in a mood. we all went back to itaewon where we ended up at the loft...a pretty typical 'club' where girls drink cheap, crappy drinks for free and guys try to grind on them...gross...but, once again, i do love free stuff...i was there until around 5 when i decided it was time for a nap. turk had already gone back to ilsan so i decided to save 20 bucks and catch a ride with grant back to his place in myoung-dong considering we all had plans to meet back in itaewon for sunday lunch and darts at the wolfhound. sunday morning came too early and the day was over much too quickly. i got back to ilsan between 10 and 11 and realized that the next week at school was going to be a rough one.

the week flew by relatively quickly and wednesday our boss informed us that friday we would not have international school and that we would be having a sports day instead. yay! here's the kicker...girl teachers had to play...boy teachers only had to ref! wait to go korea! i call sexual discrimination! lol

friday came and i was pumped. the little competitor in me came out and i was smack talkin' the other teams and working hard to keep my team's spirit up. i coached my kids on how to play kickball and we were victorious against the first team we played. while we were waiting to play the next team, i watched as joseph from 12th grade kicked a ball that nailed an ajuma square in the face...i realized then that sports day was a very dangerous day!

things were going well and the kids were having fun and i was having a blast spending the day with all of them and getting to be myself around them. after kickball was lunch, followed by some very painful 4 legged (3 people tied together) racing. then, it was time for the dodge ball competition, which koreans play with volley balls...this just reeks of a bad idea, right? anyway, everything was going well.i watched kids get hit in the face and saw glasses fly to the ground. i saw my boss get nailed right where it counts (best shot of the day) and i shared many laughs with my kids...up until i tried catching a ball thrown by joy in 6th grade...and hearing that gut wrenching *crunch!* that my hand made. i hoped i had just jammed my finger, so i tried to shake it off, and jumped back into the game. by the end of the day, when i realized my finger wasn't going back in place like it should have and my hand was swollen to the size of a baseball, i figured something was wrong, but still hoped for the best. i went back to the school and taught afternoon classes with a bag of ice on my hand. not willing to be deterred from finally seeing inglorious bastards, i ignored my throbbing hand and went off with turk and ari (the new teacher from australia who replaced pam) to western dom to catch the flick and then we spent the night at sunny's where everyone was convinced that my hand was broken or i at least had a dislocated finger.

saturday, i woke up, still not able to move my pinkey finger and to a black and blue hand. yoona and i had made plans to go shopping so i quickly got dressed to meet her. when she saw my hand, she insisted i see a docter...so, we went and she translated. a few xrays later, we found that my hand was broken. he put a temporary cast on it and gave me a perscription for some anti-inflamatories (apparently a broken hand doesn't give you the need for real pain meds...vicodin! stat!) and told me to come back wednesday when i will get a cast put on for the next 3 weeks...sigh...the best part is that workman's comp doesn't exist in this country so i get to pay for this all by myself! stupid korea! at least i have insurance...lol...anyway, i spent the day shopping with yoona and then grabbed jess and ari and headed to sunny's and then to la festa to a noraebang. i got in around 3 and headed to bed.

sunday, i was supposed to go to a soccer game with kevin and grant, but i was exhausted and overslept. i did a few things around the apartment and met up with them in shinchon around 6 at beer o'clock where we played darts and had dinner. we left around 11 and i got home around midnight...ready for another week at school.

monday rolled in with subarctic temperatures and siberian winds, only to find that the heat in my apartment wasn't working like it should. that evening, hockey came by from the school and got the maintenence guys to turn on my heat and he gave me the filler piece for my comforter. unfortunately the guys couldn't get the air conditioning vent to close, so i had freezing cold air blowing directly into my apartment from the outside. luckily today, david from school came by and got it shut, so hopefully tonight i won't die from hypothermia.

i hope that has just about got everyone caught up. i know this was long, so i will do a quick recap!
pam leaves :( , aussi new teacher (ari), aquarium, yoona's bday and casino night, sports day and broken hand, freezing apartment.

anyway, typing with one hand sucks, so this is all you are getting from me. until next time, much love!

beer pong = love in every language

so...this past week was pretty laid back. the kids had midterms so monday and tuesday were review days. wednesday and thursday, the kids took two tests that lasted an hour each and after that, they went home and we had time to work on stuff until the afternoon hagwon classes started. friday the kids only took one test and afterwards were sent home. afterwards we were notified that two of our students had diagnosed cases of swine flu and that the students would not have school on monday and tuesday and that we would only have the after school kids to deal with. in my head, i am doing a happy dance. i think, "SWEET!" apparently me taking pleasure out of my students' misfortune is not a good thing, but i think my conscience got over that really quickly and so i knew this weekend, i must celebrate! friday was giong to have to be my day for cleaning because my weekend schedule was full so i stayed in and cooked real foor for once instead of the random ramean or dumplings i throw together in a hurry. i ended up getting no cleaning done, but i like to blame it on the torrential downpour going on outside. rain makes me completely unproductive...all i ever want to do is curl up in a blanket with a cup of coffee and watch a movie...which is what i did.

saturday was the one year anniversary of the opening of sunny's bar, so we all planned a celebration and a beer pong tournament. i mean, beer pong screams 'class' no matter what country you are in and what better way to celebrate the opening of our good friend's bar? so, around seven, i met up with jess and we bought a cake and a bottle of wine and headed to sunny's where ben and turk were already there getting the grill ready to make some burgers (made of pork, mind you). pam showed up around nine with some new faces and we all quickly became friends. the beer pong tourney started at 11 with lynds and i up first against garth and grant. after a 45 minute game played on a grid iron table which made bouncing near impossible, we faced defeat. by the end of the tourney, turk and our new friend, josh were the beer pong champs. we celebrated with many pitchers of cheep beer and random korean dance moves. i left sunny's around 4:30 with the hopes to be alive the next morning in order to go to a concert that one of my student's mother is the composer of. (note: korean kids love to give their teachers free stuff...like tickets to concerts and random trinkets).

sunday, i had every intention of going with jenny to see the concert, but i was quickly distracted when pam called with offers of eating in itaewon. so, jenny, lynds, pam, kevin, our new friends min, grant, garth, and josh, and myself, of course, headed into itaewon in search of a tastey meal. to make a long story short, lunchh turned into drinking and playing darts at the wolfhound, until almost 9 at night, followed by more beer and empenadas...jenny and i got back home to baekseok after 11, never having actually reached our original destination.

monday morning came much too soon but because i didn't have classes to prep for, i enjoyed sleeping in a bit before heading to work...only to find that another student came down with the swine flu and that they were canceling ALL classes, including the afternoon classes, for the week. They were also canceling the school trip to sokcho. so, this week at work, all i have to do is sit here from 10 to 6...and i get paid to message people on facebook and goof off. all i can say is right now, life is GOOD. lol.

meanderings...

this past week was a long week. i was in a funk that i can't really describe, and i didn't feel too well, so i spent a lot of time at home. things here have just been piling up... the culmination of these events was when i discovered that my winter clothes that i had shipped to me have been in customs for over two weeks now and there is no sign of a release date. with winter quickly approaching, i am not exactly overjoyed with this information. also, news of the cards getting sweeped in the play-offs didn't help my mood. sigh...maybe next season...

by friday i realized that if i didn't get out i might have gone crazy, so i headed over to sunny's where sunny was overjoyed to see me after a week of my absence. i spent the evening in the typical fashion and competing in what could only be called extreme jenga in which i proudly was able to not knock down the tower while always attempting very risky move s. jenga is a serious sport to me these days.

saturday i was very excited to spend the day with jun lee. i met him in samseong, which is an hour and 15 minute subway ride. on the subway, i brought my hongul workbook and began my studies. it wasn't long after that a nice ajuma (old lady) sat next to me and took an interest in helping me with my pronunciation and studies. she was quite helpful and i enjoyed trying out my skills on her. she beamed whenever i got things right. i like to think she felt like she was able to teach a random migook (american) to read hongul and i think i might have made her proud. the older generation here is especially impressed when foreigners take an interest in their culture and make attempts to learn the language and writing because so often we waygooks (foreigners) just try to make others like us and don't take the time to embrace new cultures let alone respect them enough to try to learn them ourselves.

anyway, i met jun in samseong where we had lunch at a korean style pizza and pasta restaurant. we shared a sweet cranberry pizza (mmmmm) and chatted it up for a bit. i showed jun my hongul reading skills and he was very impressed and told me my pronunciation was really good, so that completely boosted my confidence!

we left the restaurant and went to an underground mall which are very common in korea. jun was excited to tell me it was the largest underground mall in the world and we walked around a bit, stopping in shops every now and then. he took me into the national kimchi museum where he excitedly talked about kimchi and i joked a little about koreans' obsession with the stuff. kimchi is basically a type of fermented cabbage and there are tons of different ways to prepare it. koreans litterally have it with every meal. it is the national food. if you ask one of the little kids at the school what their favorite food is, almost every time, the response is KIMCHI! while at the museum, we saw an american guy there with a korean girl who was excitedly telling him about kimchi as well. the american and i shared little laughs and that little 'i understand' smile and nod before heading off in opposite directions with our respectful companions.

after we left the museum, we stopped for coffee and more wandering. i got mildly annoyed at all the stares throughout the day. i just want to scream at people. yes, i am an american. yes, i am with a korean. no, i am not going to teach you english. no, i am not going to do a trick. i am not an exhibit in a freak show. please, don't stare. even jun noticed the stares and commented after a group of guys were blatently eyeing me down. they don't even try to hide stares in this country. sigh...just one more thing about korean culture i will have to learn to deal with, i suppose.

after coffee, we went to a movie. i was totally hoping to go to a random korean movie, but we ended up going to see Surrogates, the newest bruce willis flick considering our only other options were Fame and Final Destination. it wasn't a bad film, but it was no reservoir dogs, that's for sure. i am itching for inglorious bastards to be showing here. it is supposed to be here withing a few weeks *joy*!

after the film, we walked a bit outside and enjoyed the crisp evening. we ended up traveling to walk along the han river, which is supposed to be really beautiful at night. because neither of us were really familiar with the area, we ended up not really sure where we were and discovered a really nice, secluded park where we could overlook the river and the city. the view was spectacular! we sat for a while, but realized it was getting late and had to make the last train back to baekseok. we stopped quickly for a bite to eat at an outside shop where we had dumplings and oodong noodles (yum!) and afterwards, we had ice cream and sat together until i absolutely had to go.

on the ride back, i pulled out my korean workbook and once again, a helpful ajuma gladly began to help me with my studies. the train ride passed quickly and when i got home, it was almost midnight, so i decided to call it a night and turned in.

the next day (today), i slept in and met turk for lunch. afterwards we went grocery shopping and i showed him my discovery of the dollar store on top of e-mart. when i got home, i cleaned my apartment a bit and wasted some time. all in all, it was a very unproductive weekend, but just what i needed to help me get out of the funk i have been in for the past few days. i am still not completely over things, but hopefully i will be back to my old self soon. at least this week is midterms week for the kids so i don't have too much work to do. and, the week after that, we have a three day week and a two day field trip to sokcho where we are playing games and sports with the kids. i am actually kind of looking forward to it, considering lately (especially over this past week) i have been getting really close to the students, a few of the 12th graders in particular. i really love being able to talk to them and help them with things. this past week has especially encouraged me to start my masters in counceling. i feel like i really m making a difference. these kids need someone to listen to them and it feels good knowing they feel comfortable and trust me enough to come to me when they need to talk to someone.

hooray for random korean holidays!

let me just start by saying that this past weekend was chuseok weekend in korea. chuseok is a traditional korean holiday used to signify the end of the planting season and the harvest of crops. they compare it to american thanksgiving, but it is slightly different. they enjoy feasts with rice cakes and give thanks to their diety and ancestors.

so, what did all of that mean for me? a five day holiday, that's what! and what better way to spend the holiday than relaxing and catching up on some much needed sleep!

wednesday night, we went to la festa and had hawaiian bbq...mmm...and headed back for a night at sunny's.

thursday we slept in and i shopped a bit. i met jess and turk and we picked up some cocktails and jenga and had a game night at turk's. around 10 we went out to sunny's and met up with doug and jody, a couple of jess' friends, and we decided to head out to la festa for another night of drinks and random shennanigans.

friday was jess' birthday so we ended up in seoul at a palace and we walked around for a bit before we all decided we were too tired from the past few late nights and we headed back. once we were home, i decided it was time to spruce up my ghetto apartment. if i am going to be here for 11 more months, i can no longer stare at plain white walls and hard floor! so, i went to emart and bought some throw pillows and candles and random little things. start off small is my motto. i got a call from turk saying yoona was making dinner and that i should head over and so i did, for some yummy chicken curry! afterwards we ended up once again in la festa with jess, howard, and a guy named mike whom we had met the same night i met the argentinians, and one of mike's friends. we spent a few hours there but we were all pretty wiped out so we called it an early night and went back to baeksok.

they next day was chuseok and i invited everyone over for breakfast. afterwards, yoona, turk, and i decided on going to itaewon to look for some wedding ducks and some board games. i am officially instituting game night here! we walked around for a bit and ended up at the wolfhound for lunch. all i can say is it is an irish pub in the middle of korea. to me, it was like a beacon of light shining out rays of hope for a tastey meal! and man, did this place deliver! i have decided this is my favorite place in the world to eat at this moment in my life. i seriously think my mouth had a mini joy-gasm each time i bit into my entree. after a while we headed back due to the fact that we were all still completely exhausted. we got back around 7:30 and i was in bed by 9 for the first night since i have been in korea.

sunday i decided i was gonna have a lazy day and i chilled at my place and watched movies and cleaned up my apartment. it was the first day i didn't spend running around, so it was a nice change of pace to relax. the night before, i got a call from emilio and he asked me to meet him in la festa around 7. i got there at quarter past and he wasn't there so i phoned turk to meet me for dinner. around 7:30, emilio showed up and so we all had a couple drinks and went to dinner before emilio had to head back to where his group is performing now. walking home with turk was really nice. i really love being able to talk to him. i couldn't have asked for a better twin! i was able to whine to him about all my boy problems and he didn't get annoyed even once at me! have i mentioned that i love my twin? he's the kind of person i could spill my heart out to and not even think twice about it. it is fantastic!

monday rolled around and i met up with the girls (grace, jenny, and jess) for a shopping day in dongdaemun. it was fantastic! this place is a girl's heaven! i didn't find the resale shop, so i will have to ask ivan at school where it is! after that, we wandered about and had lunch followed by ice cream and then a tea shop! although, in true american fashion, i myself ordered a coffee. i did however try the teas the girls were drinking and found that i quite liked them! these british girls are going to turn me into a tea drinker, one of these days! while wandering about, grace taught us some new korean phrases. i am up to around 15 these days...impressive, i know!

after tea, it was getting dark and we all had a lot of work to get done so we headed to the subway to get the train home. all in all, this was a fantastic weekend. the best part in it was when i discovered that i can now fit in my size 1 jeans!!! hooray! so, by all accounts, i have lost about 10 pounds since coming here. only a few more pounds (about an inch) and i will be back into my favorite jeans which are a zero! here's hoping! by the time i leave korea, i hope to be back to the same size i was when i started going to semo almost 5 years ago! wish me luck!

it's ok...i'm with the band

ok so a lot has happened since my last blog and i suppose i should start where all stories start...at the beginning.

school has been going by in a blur, and apart from the random rediculous things some of the litter children do, it is becoming a routine fixture in my life. the smaller children in the english school hagwon are a riot though. i have learned a lot about koreans from spending time with these tiny human-esque creatures. the funniest story i think i have about them comes from earlier this week. jenny had lost her voice and asked me to cover one of her classes for her. in this class there is a little girl named jinee, who is rather...er...affectionate towards me. everytime i see her she hugs me and buries her head into my stomach. in class, jinee immediately came up to me for what i assumed would be a typical 'jinee hug.' well, i was wrong. she wrapped her tiny little korean arms around me and buried her head into my stomach, and then she did the weirdest thing ever...she started rubbing my butt. i quickly pulled away from the hug and told her not to do that. i felt really awkward and embarrassed, and she was confused as to what she had done wrong, which confused the heck out of me. was this a type of normal behavior that i was unaccustomed to? well, apparrently it is! seriously. i told the story to one of the korean staff at the school and she informed me that it is a comforting gesture. korean parents often pat their children on the butt to comfort them, so jinee apparently was trying to comfort me. it's kind of funny, because where i come from, we call that being groped.

anyway, on to the rest of the story. i was supposed to go to sokcho this weekend with lee, but he got sick and cancelled, which was ok because by friday, i was completely worn out and ready for some destressing. i had no intention of going out until jenny called and asked me to come to dinner with everyone from work. after dinner, we all decided to head to sunny's but not until after ben and i took a much needed trip to costco for some 'pre-gaming' supplies. we spent a few hours at sunny's partaking in our normal friday night...er...escapades. after several pitchers of beer and shots of soju, one of us got it into our heads to go to a karaoke room, and so the adventure began. with half of us blitzed out of our minds, we went in search for a noraebang where we enjoyed more drinks and we able to sing off key to our hearts' content.

we finished at the noraebang around 2 in the morning and went back to my place to pick up some bedding for her guests and then we all returned to turk's for a few more drinks and hang out for the night. i ended up not really getting home until around 8 the next morning.

as soon as i got home i took a shower to wash away the smell of cigarettes and stale beer that i had aquired and tried to sit down and be productive, but it wasn't long after that i got a call from yoona asking me if i wanted to do lunch. i headed to yoona's where we decided to head to western dom to have a girly day and do some shopping. we got back around 6 and met up with turk for dinner and to decide our plans for the evening.

we were trying to figure out what to do and we were not really feeling sunny's when yoona suggested we head to la festa. it sounded like a plan, and so off we went. we walked to la festa which is about a 30 minute walk from baeksok station where we live and we went to a bar called frog and toad and had a couple margaritas and met a canadian guy named mike. i was feeling a bit tired, due to the lack of sleep from the night before and asked yoona if she would go with me to pick up a coffee. on the was down the street to get the coffee, we passed a restaurant with a group of guys eating and i noticed them looking and yoona and me. on the way back to the bar, i noticed them again and so i waved and said 'hola!' they responded excitedly in spanish and were thrilled to have us join them. we talked for a bit and found they were all from argentina. they asked if we liked tango dancing and music and when i responded that i loved it, they told me that they were the band from fever tango, the performance group that was performing that weekend in la festa! i immediately texted jenny to let her know what she was missing out on and continued to have random conversation with them all in spanish when yoona and i realized we needed to get back to turk. i invited them all to come back to the bar with us and so they did and we ended up spending the whole evening with them at the bar above.

it was a fantastic night and what was even better was the fact that emilio, the double bass player, decided that he fancied me and wanted me to come to the performance the next night. well, you had to make reservations and the tickets were almost 100,000 won (about 100 american dollars) and so i told him we wouldn't be able to. he told me not to worry and that he would call me the next day and he would get me in. at the end of the night when we all said our goodbyes, i didn't honestly expect him to come through. i got in around 3 in the morning and completely crashed.

the next day, i woke up after noon with david at my door bringing me a muffin in hopes i had a mop to borrow. jenny called me not even 5 minutes after that asking if i wanted to get lunch and catch up, so i took a shower and headed out the door. we talked for a bit and turk and yoona joined us and we were trying to figure out what to do for the evening when i got a phone call from emilio from the night before! i couldn't believe it! he told me he really wanted me to come to the show and that i had 5 tickets waiting for me at the door. so, the four of us headed back down to la festa to enjoy a night of amazing latin music and tango dancing. we got to the center where the show was being performed and walked up to the counter and informed the woman that emilio had left us tickets, and she immediately knew who we were and showed us to our seats. we sat in the 6th row, so it was actually pretty cool. i figured he would get us the generic seating tickets, but it seems like he pulled some strings and got us some pretty good seats!

afterwards, we went to dinner and emilio called me again to ask me how i liked the show. he had to do a phot shoot and go to a party for the cast after the show, but he asked me if i could meet him for dinner monday night. i told him i would love to, so apparently now i have a dinner date tomorrow night with an argentinian musician. i absolutely love how random my life has become now that i am in korea.

I think to myself, it's a beautiful night, and I know everything is gonna be alright...

For the past hour now, I have been sitting on the ledge by the window in my apartment feeling the cool early autumn night's breeze blowing through the curtain. I have been listening to the random conversations of passers-by down below and occasionally I am beginning to hear familiar sounds and recognizing words here and there. This feeling is comforting yet I sometimes wonder what these Koreans would think if they were to know there was some random American girl listening in on their conversations.

I can't believe I have already been here a month. It seems like just yesterday I was saying goodbye to friends and family and getting onto a plane headed to a strange and exotic destination where the culture and language were completely alien to me.

By now, I already have my routine just about structured and am settling in quite nicely. I can navigate myself around Ilsan pretty easily and have learned to take the busses and subway like an old pro. I don't notice that people gawk at me when I pass by and I don't flinch when the 'ajimas' slam into me in the streets. All in all, I have become acclimated to the Korean culture quite well. I haven't used my air conditioner since the first week, but then again, the humidity levels in Missouri prepared me quite well. I haven't starved to death although my diet does consist of a large amount of kimchi and rice so I have lost a bit of weight (still not quite into the skinny jeans yet). I have taken a liking to the soju and can even tolorate the crappy, stale, watery beer on a nightly basis. Last night, I even discovered a liking for a drink called macali (I have no idea how to spell it, but it sounds like broccoli) which is hard to explain. It is like a creamy beer that can be flavored several ways.

This past week, I have spent every night over at Sunny's. It sounds like a horrible idea, but it actually keeps me on task. I bring random things to work on from school like grading and I sit back and enjoy a Cass or glass of wine and chat with Sunny or one of the waitresses (usually Stella) and whoever shows up. Ben has been trying to teach me how to play pool. My skills are definitely lacking but I am very slowly progressing. This nightly event keeps me from getting too homesick considering the fact that I have never had to live on my own. I have also been finding things to get involved in while I am here. I am really looking forward to joining a yoga class and Yoona and I have our Sunday night get togethers where we have coffee and I am teaching her Spanish and we are going to start cooking dinners together afterwards. We are also talking about starting a jogging routine a couple of nights a week just to help stay in shape and also to give us another reason to hang out and chat about random nonsense. The more involved I am getting here, the more I love it here. As long as people at home send me Miracle Whip, I think I will be quite happy here for the rest of my stay.

The best feeling I have had so far in my time here I got the other night when I was walking and ran into someone I knew! I was so excited to be able to recognize people in the streets! And I notice myself doing it more often. Just tonight, while walking home from Yoona's, I ran into Stella and she introduced me to her family. It sounds stupid to get worked up about recognizing someone, but when you are in a city full of strangers, it feels good to recognize faces. It makes the city feel a little less cold and distant and helps it feel a little more like home. It's strange to be able to think of Korea as home, but in a lot of ways, I already do feel like I have made a home for myself in this remote corner of the world.

While I feel like I have carved out a place to call my own in Korea, I still long for America in a way I think only American's from small towns long for their home. Of all the things I miss, the thing I miss most is that small town feel with sprawling yards and meadows and fields in the country and woods as far as the eye can see. I miss going on random drives down old dirt roads to clear my head. I miss quiet evenings out at Knob Lick Tower, watching the sun set and the stars come out at night, feeling the cool, quiet breeze caress your face and breathing in the fresh smell of the world around you. It was so relaxing and every time I went there, I felt at peace. Here there are no dirt roads to drive on, no grassy fields, no crickets chirping, no quiet breezes rustling through the trees, no stars to see at night. What I miss the most, what I yearn for after only a month, what I can feel calling my name, is the quiet American country town that I have called home for almost my entire life. Although I am grateful for my time here and I am loving every minute of my experience, in my heart, I have discovered where my home will always be. I always knew coming to Korea would be a great adventure and I hoped to gain a lot from it, but the one thing I never expected to realize was how much I loved my country and how much I loved my home. If I get nothing else out of my time here (which I know is impossible considering I have already gained so much) it is the new found appreciation for my home in the States.

boys will be boys no matter what country you are in...

so, i have been in korea for a little more than three weeks now...and i have come to realize that no matter where you are in the world, no matter how different the country and culture may seem, people are all basically the same.

most of my free time here i have spent with jenny. she is like my rock. i am so independant in so many ways, but i have never really had to be on my own. i have always had someone around to do everything with. i used to make my roommates do simple things like go to the grocery store with me at home. i used the phrase 'we do things as a family' more times than i can recall. so jenny has taken the place of many friends back home and i don't know what i would do without her. we get on so well. at the same time, she is a bit more outgoing than me. she reminds me of me, before last fall when i sort of shut down to the outside world. she is the type of person who can meet a stranger and can go out with that person in the same night. i miss being able to do that, and i envy her greatly. i myself am more timid of these types of situations these days, never quite sure of how i will fit in and afraid of being socially awkward.

but, i have been making great improvements. i have been tryin to open myself back up to people and it is a slow process, but i think it is getting easier. just this week, i went out to sunny's with ben from work and we talked for hours. i found it is really easy for me to talk to him. i mostly just listened. i just seem entranced most of the time when he speaks to me. he has a lot of interesting perspectives. i feel more like myself when i am with him mostly because it feels like i am hanging out with one of the guys back home. i don't feel any pressure to be proper or anything. it's not like i am trying to impress him, so things are just easy and casual. it is the same way as when i am talking to turk. i guess no matter where i am in life i will always find it easier to be around guys.

at the same time i am trying to open up, i am still dealing with living on my own. it is one of the hardest things for me. just the other night, ben, turk, and i spent the evening at sunny's and when we are all going home and parting ways, it was hard for me to have to go straight and watch everyone else turn right. it is still difficult for me to go to bed at night without someone to talk to while i fall asleep. it's things like that that make me miss cory so much. i had a conversation with my mom today and she said that cory's mom and her are in a class together and mentioned that cory missed me a lot and i honestly cried. but then again, he is the one i cried the most when i said goodbye to. we have lived together for so long that it is hard being without him now. in a lot of ways he was my best friend. i mean, stephanie is my best girl, and i don't even consider her my friend. she is family...my sister more than anything. but cory was the one who i could crawl into bed with if i had a bad dream or who i would pester when i was lonely or had a bad day and he would be the one to tell me everything was gonna be ok. it is hard not to get to talk to him every day.

i spent the evening tonight with jenny and yoona, drinking sangrias and talking random crap about life in general. i believe it will become our sunday tradition from now on. we spent a large portion of the evening ranting about guys and why they are such idiots, which made me start thinking about the random idiot guys in my life.

one thing i have noticed with the guys here is that if you meet them and are nice to them, they assume you want to hook up with them, which is extremely frustrating for me. i came here with absolutely no interest or intention of finding someone. and for the most part, that is still the same. sure, i have found people attractive, but at the end of the night, i am quite content to go home alone. but the boys here think that if you pay them an ounce of attention, you must want to date them or sleep with them. it's hard for me because i naturally gravitate towards guys for friends and it is hard to explain to these guys that i don't want anything more than friendship so i end up just being annoyed with most of them. that's why i love turk and ben so much! i love that both of them can carry on a conversation with me and not think that i am in love with them and it can just be relaxed and casual and we can all just be ourselves!

and it is extremely difficult to explain to people that i am single and ok with that fact. when i explain to people that i don't have a boyfriend here and that i am not looking for one, they assume that i must have someone back home waiting for me. that in itself is a strange situation. i technically don't. but at the same time, i do. it is kind of funny. when i decided to take the job in korea, not one, not even two...but three of the most important people in my life begged me not to go. two of them went as far as to propose. it's one of those times when you think about whether or not they are asking because they truly love you or because they are just scared of losing you. obviously, i chose korea, but i told each of them if they still felt the same in a year when i came home, we would talk, knowing that within a year, they would have all but forgotten me. american boys will never change. two of them only speak to me when i message them and the other got a girlfriend right after i left. that goes to show, american boys only want what they can't have. if you give them the chance of getting it, they don't want it anymore. it's like a child and a shiny new toy.

i guess no matter where you are in life, there will always be a guy around who will lift you up, just to dissappoint you in the end. but at the same time, there will always be those guys that are your best mates that make everything better when that random guy does bring you down.

so, it's like i said before, i have realized while in korea, boys will be boys...no matter what country you are in.

apparently, i have a job here...

so, i came to korea for a job and i suppose i should explain a little about what i actually do with most of my time here. the school i work for is an international school called korea international christian school. the school is technically 3 schools in 1. there is the international school from 10 until 2:30, and then there is the esl school and the english school. the international school is grades 6-12 and has a standard american curriculum. there are after school courses available for the international students who want to take things like french or spanish or sat prep which is between 3 and 6. the esl school coincides with the international school during the day and it is basically just for students to learn english so they can take the toefl test. then there is the english school between 3 and 6 and it is basically 1st - 5th grade basic english courses with science and math. it is a christian school, so it is extremely conservative, which is a little different for me. luckily most of the other teachers are westerners and a bit more liberal, like myself. we do have to attend chapel services on mondays between 2:30 and 3:00, but it's all in korean so we don't have any idea what is going on. we mostly just sit there and look pretty and make sure the kids aren't goofing off or texting during the sermon (kids are kids anywhere).

for most of my day, i teach older students, so i am pretty much still in my element when it comes to teaching. the little kids at the end of the day are usually a lot of fun though, so i don't mind. they basically need to be there to be speaking in english so anything can be educational to them. i spend most of my time with the kids playing games and singing songs and making them repeat a lot of pronunciation.

like i said, the day school is the international school and i teach a lot of random things. i have a 6th grade reading class, a 7th grade life sciences class, an 8th grade space and earth science class, an esl grammar class, and 12th grade american history. as for why i am teaching so much science, the Lord only knows. i usually have no idea what i am talking about, so i have found that as long as i act excited about the class, the kids really like it. i personally think science is boring, but i fake it pretty well. my first day, i made the kids explain to me why i should care about science, and they had a really fun time with it. i spend most of the time in those classes breaking the concepts down into relavent things. i was teaching the scientific method to the 7th graders and my example was getting a date for friday night. so, identify the problem - daniel needs a date for friday night. do background research (eliminate bad choices) - rita has a boyfriend so he can't ask her. form a hypothesis - daniel will ask emma out on a date...i went through every step and acted it out and the kids just ate it up and had so much fun. the next day, i asked them who could tell me the steps of the scientific method and they could! they all told me they remembered because of the examples i gave them. it felt good to know that they actually learned something from me.

my favorite class to teach is the 12th grade american history class though. i love the content obviously, and i know it really well, so i don't have to prep that much for class. i teach it a lot like a college class where we just have a lot of discussion and the kids take notes, but the kids all really like it because i explain it in a really basic way and we discuss everything together, it isn't just me lecturing all day. i spend most of the time asking them questions and making them work it out through discussion. i gave them a pop quiz on friday and they were ready to have a nervous breakdown. if there is one thing about asians it is that they take school very seriously and stress a lot about grades. i told them to just relax and to think about what we had discussed during the week and they would do fine. when they had finished the quiz, we discussed what was on it and they were all amazed that they knew the material i had quizzed them on. one of the students, john, made a comment that all week it just felt like we talked and had conversations all hour. he was shocked to find out that what he felt like was this really relaxed conversation was him really learning the main points of the first chapter in the book! i graded the quizzes during my planning period and found that all the students did extremely well, so i was ecstatic!

there really isn't anything more pleasing than knowing your teaching is effective. i just kept thinking, 'wow, they really learned something!' i was on cloud nine friday after grading those quizzes. hopefully the rest of the year will be as rewarding!

one thing that i really am not a fan of is the fact that there is no technology whatsoever in the classrooms. i get a dry erase board and some markers and that's it. but, it think i am becoming a better teacher for it. it requires me to know the material. i can't rely on a power point or a video to entertain the kids. i am the entertainment and so far, i have been putting on a pretty good show. at the end of the day, i am utterly exhausted, but at the same time i am extremely satisfied. i know it sounds rediculous, but it's true. i absolutely love my job and wouldn't trade it for the world!

other than my job, there are a few things i wouldn't mind giving up here in korea. i'm not the biggest fan of the food. i can dig the bbq, but i miss american food more than anything. it's not that the food is bad. there is just only so much rice and kimchee a girl can eat, you know? so on my facebook, i started compiling a list of all the random stuff i can't get here in hopes that my friends and family back home (yah, that's you guys - the readers) can randomly send me so i don't starve to death...

another thing i could do without is the freaking electricity difference. they run on direct current here rather than alternating current like in the states, so appliances are a pain. i have to plug my stuff into a converter and then into a plug. the problem there is that i have to remember to flip the switch on the converter to the right setting or else i will fry whatever i am using. and, of course, being the retard that i am, i forgot to flip the converter switch before plugging in my chi hair straightener (steph, don't tell chelle, she would probably kill me for commiting such a horrendous crime!). i literally cried for like 20 minutes over that. so, thanks to stupid direct current, i blew up my 150 dollar hair straightener that has been like my child for the last 3 years. and now, for the next year, i am going to have rediculously wavy, frizzy, bad hair.

the most rediculous thing i could do without in korea is what is simply called "the squatter." it's pretty self explanitory if you think about it. i encountered it for the first time at the hospital when i had to go for my health check so i could apply for my alien registration card. so, the nurse gave me my cup and pointed to the bathroom to do my thing. when i went into the stall, the look on my face can only be described as completely puzzled. apparently western style toilets are not very common in most public places, with the exception of western public places like starbucks and mcdonalds. i hadn't really had to use a public restroom since i have been in korea so this was my first encounter. needless to say, it wasn't an encounter in which i was too thrilled about getting acquainted with. 'the squatter' is basically a porcelain bowl in the floor with normal toilet functions that you have to hover or 'squat' over to do your...er...business. so here i am in this stall in 3 inch heals and dress slacks thinking to myself...'how the hell do i do this without peeing on myself?' i seriously contemplated the physics of what i needed to accomplish for at least a minute. i'm pretty sure it was fairly rediculous. the entire time i was balancing and i was utterly terrified that i was going to fall over resulting in the most rediculous scenario possible. after all was said and done, and i made my peace the 'the squatter' i decided that we would never really be able to be friends. i figure 'the squatter' and i will be like those people who met once at a party and it was really awkward and we never hit it off so we just decided to try to avoid one another.

so, i will leave you all with the most rediculous mental image possible - 'the squatter.' enjoy! i know i will probably be laughing at it for years to come.

the perils of public transportation...

ok, so in korea, especially in cities like seoul, public transportation -whether it is a bus, a taxi, or the subway - is the most convenient form of getting places. as you all know, this isn't really common where i am from. it is more common for people to drive their tractor to town that to take a taxi. thus, i am not all that familiar with the...er...*joys* of things such as riding on a subway. so, i would like to spend a few moments sharing the grand experiences i have had so far journeying on the metro in seoul.

my first time taking the metro was a little confusing. people explained it to me, but it was like they were trying to explain it in korean or something...oh, wait...anyway, the first time i road the metro, i got the pleasure of learning how all the drunk old men in the country apparently will always be on the same train as you. first, they stare...then they wave - i think to check to make sure you are alive and not an illusion - then...they love to come up and invade every tiny inch of personal space you can claim on the metro and speak gibberish which is apparently their best attempt at english, bless their hearts. and, no matter how hard you try to convey the fact that you don't understand, after about ten minutes of smiling and nodding politely, they continue to insist on carrying on a conversation with you. my favorite part about this is that they don't really understand the western concept of personal space. my first time on the metro, this crazy old drunk guy was trying to talk to me and he actually started feeling my hair. needless to say, i was very creeped out...

the most important lesson i learned about public transportation i learned today during a trip into seoul. i got an urge to get some english books and so i learned about a huge bookstore with a wide selection of books in english. the place is called kyobo and it is in gwanghwamun. so, jenny, turk, and i set out on our weekend excursion to find this place. we got to gwanghwamun and decided it would be best to stop at a foreign tourist information kiosk where they explained to us that the bookstore was underground (btw, that is really common here) in the basement of the large building with the flowers painted across it. we then found the place easily and we all happily purchased these children's workbooks on learning hongul so we can work on our korean. it is kind of humorous if you think about it. i am a 24 year old working on a workbook that is basically meant for a 5 year old. how much dorkier can i get, right? anyway, i also purchased a copy of le petite prince and another french book for my french class to translate.

after we had all made our purchases, we decided to go to youngsan, where there is a huge mall (i-mall) and electronics store. as we headed into the subway, we realized the train was about to leave so jenny, turk, and i rush towards the closing doors rather than wait for the next train to arrive...bad move in retrospect! jenny and turk made it through the doors, but the moment i pop in, the doors close on me and i got stuck! it was rediculous! jenny and turk frantically try pulling me through and after a few seconds i was free...or so i thought! my bag was caught in the door! after a few seconds of pulling, turk jerked my bag free, but by this time everyone in the car is staring at me and jenny and i are laughing hysterically at the fact that the subway tried to eat me! in my head, the scene looked even more rediculous because i pictured the doors painted with teeth and the windows painted with eyes so it really did look like the train monster was eating me - insert *nom nom* noises here...

so, what did we learn? always wait for the next train...otherwise, you the subway will eat you. seriously.

korea...the land of the baby backpacks...

ok, so every culture has their odd querks, right? and americans aren't any different. for example, jenny thought i was absolutely insane when i told her i didn't eat oreos without dunking them in milk (until i made her try it). but koreans have some of the strangest habits. before i delve too deeply, let me at least turn this into a compliment sandwich of sorts. so, koreans can be the nicest people, and they are always trying to be helpful. however, koreans don't mind openly picking their noses in public. but their grooming and attention to detail is immaculate (end compliment sandwich).

like i said, they have some weird habits (note the middle comment in the compliment sandwich). but one of the strangest habits of all is what i like to call the baby backpack. parents in america carry their babies in their arms or in carseats or strollers and a few people are taking on the trend of the sling that hangs in front of them. in korea, they wear their infants like they would a backpack. seriously. i mentioned the strangeness of this to jun, and he acted like i was crazy. 'how else are you going to make sure your baby isn't getting into things while you are busy?!' was his response. he actually thought it was some bizarre idea to do anything else with your child than to wear them like an accessory you carry books in!

ok, i thought kiddie leashes were cruel and unusual punishment, but these things are weird. and to make matters even stranger, people roll their dogs around in mini baby carriages. ok, any culture that carries children around like luggage and strolls their pets around has some issues!

with exception to the baby backpack issue, being in korea is a lot like being at home, with more asians at least. oh, and the fact that i can't read menus or street signs. or carry on a conversation with the people who stare at me on the public transportation like i am some kind of foreigner (oh wait...).

at times, it is kind of like being on spring break. this thursday was claire's last night so we all went over to sunny's for one last hoorah. of course we ended up being out til all hours of the morning drinking glasses of cheap wine and bad korean beer and of course the night wasn't complete without a few shots of jose cuervo...ugh...(btw, it is impossible to find limes in korea...sigh).

after monday and tuesday, and then thursday nights' outings, i was ready to lay low friday. although jun had invited me out into seoul, i was ready for a relaxing night in. and then saturday came...

saturday turk, jenny, and i made plans to take the seoul bus tour, so we headed into seoul around 11 and were there by noon (gotta love how long the subway takes). keigh had invited us all to meet up to celebrate a friend's graduation from university later that evening, so we ended up visiting only a few of the places on the tour, but all of which were amazing and i have a few pics posted of them on my facebook page. we took the subway to meet keigh in sinchon and while we were waiting, i ended up meeting and befriending a guy named roman, who was from caracas (venezuela) but who grew up in LA and was in the US army stationed over here. he was waiting to meet a friend who turned out to be the funniest korean kid i have ever met. his name is taesu but he goes by mr. t. they ended up hanging out with our group all night. we went to on the border for dinner and due to the inexistance of limes, i had a lemon margarita...let me tell ya, it did in a pinch, but when i get home, the first thing i am hitting is el tap for a pitcher of real margaritas!

after dinner, we headed to a soju bar where we downed shots of soju like it was water and taught our newly aquired korean friends (taesu invited them along) our western drinking games. from there we went to a bar in hongdai because jenny and i got it into our heads that we wanted to go "clubbing" so we could dance. let me just say that these korean guys can dance! it was amazing! we ended up not leaving until after 4 am and i didn't get in until almost 5. (do you see how i can compare it to spring break yet?)

the next day, due to our late evening, jenny and i ditched our plans for lake park and instead headed back into seoul to itaewon to find an english bookstore and to spend the day in the foreign district. after perusing down the crowded streets for most of the day, the lack of sleep from the night before got to me and i decided to call it a day and headed back to ilsan.

once we got back, i headed to emart for the most essential purchase of my time here...a coffee pot. i am going to need it if i keep having nights like these, especially with school officially starting in the morning!

'I would walk 500 miles'

Since I have arrived, I feel like I have done nothing but walk. It is what people do here. I don't mind the walking. I actually quite enjoy it. What I don't enjoy is the 100 degree weather I am diong it in, or how gross I feel by the time I get wherever I am going!

On Monday, Turk and I went to school together and met up with Jenny on the way. When we arrived, we found we had a new teacher, David, and 2 more were comming within the next two weeks or so. It's the first week of the international school (which is the first 5 classes of the day) and the students will be on a religious retreat for the week so all we have to teach is the afternoon school which is the English classes for the little kids. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we don't have to arrive until 2, so Jenny and I make plans to do a bit of wandering and have lunch Tuesday morning.

Monday night we all go out for a goodbye dinner for Claire since Tuesday is her last day. We had a type of Korean pork barbeque and fried kimchi and it was actually quite good. Then, Turk, Ben, and I went to a local pub which is conveniently located right across the street from my apartment. The place is called Sonny's after the guy that owns it. It's kind of a dive place but it's super laid back with couches as seating. Sonny is actually a really rad guy and he makes some really great food from what I hear so I am all in for the place.

While at the pub I made friends with a couple American guys, Howard and Jeremy. Jeremy was from Kansas City so I was stoked to find a fellow Missourian and we chatted about how things were back at home for a bit.

The next day was my birthday so Jenny came by my apartment and she brought a cookies and cream cheesecake from Paris Baguette for Turk and me which we decided to take to the school and share with everyone so it was like a real office birthday party. Jenny and I spent the afternoon walking around the shops in search for her sister a birthday present. Around lunchtime we were in search for a place to stop and grab a bite. As we passed by shops with things we couldn't identify and had no clue how to order since neither one of us can read the hongul yet, I commented on how I longed for a nice sandwich shop. Jenny mentioned she had spotted one in between her apartment and mine and so the decision was unanimous! The place was called Sand Day and it was like a little sandwich/coffee bistro. All I can say is that it was the most delicious sandwich I had eaten in forever! After almost a week of Korean meals, I was craving a good old western sandwich and I couldn't have asked for a better place to find! Sand Day has officially become my sanctuary in case of a lunch crisis!

From Sand Day we walked to the school, which takes about 45 minutes. On the way, David ran into us and we walked a bit together until he gave up in the heat and decided to catch a bus. I am actually quite proud that I have taken to walking so much. At the school we found that Claire and Pamela had also gotten Turk and me a cake and so we decided to have one that afternoon and save the other for the next day. I only had one class to teach that afternoon and so I got almost all of my unit plans for my day classes done. In between classes, a group of the children came into the teachers' office and told me happy birthday and one of the little girls gave me a charm for my cell phone. It was really sweet.

After school, Jenny and I walked back to our apartments to freshen up and then to Sonny's for the evening. Turk, Ben, and David also showed up. We drank a few tall glasses of Cass (a common Korean beer) and Sonny gave me a flaming shot of Bacardi 151 (it was a birthday shot, he insisted) and we played pool and hung out. We met half a dozen other foreign teachers like ourselves that night and Howard from the night before was there as well. All in all it was a pretty spectacular birthday.

Tonight I am going to have to quit procrastinating and go to E-Mart and pick up an external microphone so I can Skype home. I also need to phone Lee to see what he is doing this weekend because Jenny and I are making plans to do the Seoul tour on Saturday.

running water, palaces, parks, and more!

well, i finally made it...and it already seams like it will be a grand adventure.
the thirteen and a half hour plane ride wasn't too bad. i had a window seat with an empty seat next to me so i had plenty of space to sprawl out. from what i can tell from the two meals they served on the plane, korean foods have their ups and downs. i definitely recommend the bebimpab, but stay away from the seaweed soup!

once i arrived at the airport and got through customs and collected my bags, i met hokey, a guy from the school along with another new teacher that had been on my flight named turk. turk and i are both soc. studies ed majors and come to find out we have the exact same bday! year and all! after about a 30 minute ride from incheon to ilsan, we arrive at the school and meet the principal and a few teachers and take a tour of the school. after that i am taken to my apartment to freshen up and unpack a bit before a few teachers and i go out for a traditional korean bbq meal.
here's where the fun part starts...i got to my apartment to realize my water hasn't been turned on yet! and it can't be fixed until the next day. luckily ben (another teacher) offered to let me use his shower. after dinner and a shower, i went home and unpacked and hit the sack.

the next morning i got ready for school without water and was picked up again by hokey. we headed off to the school for lunch, planning, and afternoon classes. from what it seems, i will be teaching 9 different 40 minute classes per day - an american history, an american government, a world history course, a reading course, an earth science course, and elementary grammar, english, french, and spanish courses...

after work, turk and i went to the e-mart (like wal-mart) and costco in search of supplies. both stores are within 3 blocks of my apartment, which i am greatful for since i have to carry everything back. we were stoked about getting a hot dog and coke for 2,000 won (about 2 bucks american) before we headed back.

once i arrived home i was thrilled to find out i had running water...until i popped into the shower to find i had no hot water. after my cold shower i phoned lee to ask when he wanted to meet up the next day and spent the rest of the evening cleaning and rearranging.

the next day was saturday and so i slept in and relaxed until it was time to meet lee at the subway station. it was so good to see a familiar face! he came to my apartment and got the staff to fix my hot water, making him my permanent hero! i am pretty sure that after all he has done for me by the end of this year i will owe him my first born! i would be lost without him! anyway, we took the subway to the old part of seoul and visited the last emperor's palace, which was amazing! unfortunatley i forgot my camera, but it only cost about 3.00 american currancy to get in, which means i am definately going to have to take another trip with my camera! we also visited the korean folk museum before stopping off for some traditional korean chicken. we walked along the streets catching up and joking. lee took me to walk along a sacred stream that is quite famous in korea although i can't remember its name; only that the translation is something like blue chicken stream. we took the subway back to my place and spent the evening looking at photos and videos and chatting and before we knew it, it was midnight and lee had missed the last train home! we ended up going to a 24 hour convenience store around the block and picking up some ramen and some breakfast materials and headed back to my place.

in the morning after i made lee breakfast and we said our goodbyes, i got ready for my afternoon with turk and jenny (folks from the school). we decided today was the day we were walking to the lake park that ilsan is known for. after about a 45 minute walk, we arrived and quickly found why everyone went there. it was completely gorgeous! we walked around for a few hours before heading back. i took turk and jenny to the costco since i am the only one in the group with a membership and they picked up a few things while i picked up a few free samples (i heart costco!). after that i headed home for a cool shower and to nurture the growing sunburn i picked up from my afternoon in the park. tonight, i am turning in early to be rested for my first full day at the school, and i can't wait!