GETTING COMFORTABLE

I finished up my first month of teaching last week.  I was a little stressed out not knowing really what to do for tests, but I think it all turned out fine.  I think my kids learned a bit from me so that's a relief.  I felt much more comfortable as this new month started so I'm pretty happy about that.  Still don't know if I'm doing everything the way I'm supposed to be doing everything, but I feel like I'm doing things right.  Let's hope so...

Had a pretty fun weekend.  Saw my first Korean sunrise, and I'm sure that won't be my last.  And no I did not wake early to see it so you do the math.  I continue to meet other foreign teachers in the area which is really fun.  I always find it interesting to look back at the beginnings of things and see how your friends change, and such, until you kind of figure out where you belong.  I'm in the midst of not knowing where I belong, but I don't mind being in limbo.  I'm just having fun meeting all kinds of different people.  And of course it helps having Emily here.  At least we can keep each other company.

Had my first noraebang experience on Saturday night/Sunday morning.  A noraebang is basically like karaoke, but you just rent a room for your group and pick the songs.  You know everyone one in the room with you so you don't have to be bashful.  I've had a sore throat for about the past week and the noraebang didn't help.  Too much rockin' out, so I could hardly talk on Sunday.  Well worth it though.  

I think I learn a couple more Korean words each week.  I want to try to take some classes sometime.  I've just picked up random words.  Such as the Korean words for...beer (that really isn't a random word, it's an essential word to know before traveling to any country), two, thank you, hello, good-bye (this one took me awhile because there are two versions, one if you are leaving and they are staying, and one if you are staying and they are leaving), chicken galbi, no, yes, really, fart, and that's about it.  

And now some observations...Korean people are very nice.  They (unlike a lot of Europeans) do not get frustrated at all when you don't speak the language.  They just smile and laugh.  If they do speak English they want to talk to you, and seldom do you take a walk when you don't pass someone who says "Hello", and then waves.  Koreans also seem to like to eat out a lot.  There are TONS of restaurants everywhere.  This is very different from Prague.  I think it is mostly because of the economy.  In Prague, people didn't have enough money to take their families out to eat.  But here people are eating out all the time.  That definitely does not bother me.  Oh and I almost forgot this little, lovely tidbit...Koreans are not afraid to insult you.  They are not really meaning to do it, they are just more open about things and don't really hold there tongue to save someone's feelings.  Basically you just have to have thick skin, and luckily mine is a bit thicker than thin.  Just a few examples: from my Korean co-teacher one day when I came in with just a t-shirt and jeans on- "You look like high school student...so young!", thanks?  From one of my students- "Teacher this looks like you...small head big body", hhmmm.  And then this one today after we talked about the seasons and I asked everyone about their favorite season and I said, "I like fall the best", "Oh why teacher...because you like to eat so you are fat?"   

Okay well I thought this was going to be a short blog, but I guess I had more to say than I thought.  I wish I could leave you with some wise words, but that's not really my style.  So I will just end with have fun, and be safe.

Talk to you next time...

LOVE BEING A TOURIST

Had quite the eventful weekend.  I was awake by 9am both Saturday and Sunday, which I am kind of sad to say is the earliest I've woken up since being here.  I'm not that sad to admit that though.  I've love sleeping.  

Anyways, Emily got here on Thursday so I went to see her after my school day.  It was so great to see her.  We went to dinner and I ordered for the fist time and was pretty proud of myself.  All I had to order was galbi and a beer, but still the first time ordering is sorta scary.  

On Friday we went out to eat with the director of our school and some of the Korean teachers.  We had galbi again which did not bother be in the least because I LOVE galbi.  I'm pretty sure I could eat it for dinner every day.  Its marinated pork that you cook right at your table, cut up in little pieces (they use scissors to cut things, I love it and hope to bring the trend back to the US), and then grab a lettuce leaf, some hot pepper bean paste, a piece of garlic, wrap it up and stuff it in your mouth.  DELICIOUS.  Later we met some other foreign teachers at a bar close my apartment.  There are quite a few foreign teachers teaching here in Guri at a bunch of different schools and I'm having a lot of fun meeting new people.  Everyone is super nice and laid back.

On Saturday morning Emily and I woke up and went into Seoul to visit one of the main palaces in Seoul: Gyeonbokgung.  

It was pretty neat to see.  Very different from anything I've ever seen on my other travels.  The palace was first built in the 1300's.  It was destroyed by the Japanese when they invaded in the 1500's, and wasn't rebuilt until the 1800's.  But then it was destroyed again in the early 1900's.  They have been constantly restoring it since about 1990.  It was a huge place with tons of different buildings.  We took a tour that showed us the main parts, it took about an hour.  This was the first really touristy thing I've done since being here and I loved it.  I don't mind being a tourist at all.

Today we got up early and went to Caribbean Bay with one of our co-workers and her boyfriend.  Caribbean Bay is this big water park south of Seoul.  It was so much fun.  Some of the slides were actually a bit scary.  The park has kind of a pirate them and was really neat.  One thing I noticed was that Koreans really love their life jackets.  Almost everyone was wearing a life jacket even though the water was about 3 feet deep at the most.  It was pretty funny.  We spent a lot of time in the wave pool which was awesome.  And the lazy river was the coolest I have every been on, granted I haven't been on many lazy rivers.  But there was one part that went inside and it supposed to be kind of like a cave and it was dark and stuff.  I loved it.  The weather was pretty nice, but the lines weren't too long since it is getting towards the end of the season.  I had tons of fun and will probably go back again next summer.  

It was a pretty great weekend.  I'm looking forward to getting a good nights sleep to start the week fresh.  Teaching continues to go pretty well.  Some classes are definitely more challenging than others, but I'm having a lot of fun with my kids.  

Hope things are well with you...

Laters

HELLO

I think I am feeling more comfortable with teaching.  I'm in the middle of week three and things are going pretty well as far as I know.  Tests are next week so I guess we will see if my kids have learned anything from me.  

I'm really enjoying my kinde kids.  Although they are now getting more comfortable with me and school so their true personalities are shining through.  Some that I thought were just so innocent and sweet no longer seem so innocent and sweet.  They are however, incredibly cute.  If they are ever acting up all I really have to do is start singing BINGO(you know There was a farmer had a dog) and then they get really into the song and start to behave.  Last week the mother of my one kids named Justin decided she didn't like the name Justin so he got a new name.  He is now Dario.  It took me a little getting used to.  Justin to Dario is a bit of a stretch, but I've got it down now.  Today Jamie, my one girl, showed her finger to me.  It had something on it.  I said, "What is that?"  She just shrugged so I looked closer, and what was it?  A bugger.  I think about 15 minutes of each class is devoted to telling kids to get their finger out of their nose and get a kleenex.  

I celebrated my birthday Korean style on Saturday.  That means we didn't go to the bar until about midnight and then didn't return until around 5am.  I had a lot of fun though, and luckily I could sleep in on Sunday morning.  I've had a lot of good birthdays in the past few years.  I started my first day of college on my 19th.  I ran my first triathlon on my 21st.  I found out I was going to spend the winter in Steamboat Springs, CO on my 23rd.  This one might top the list though.  I never thought I would spend my 24th birthday in Korea.  I'm so very glad I did though.  If you would have asked me 10 years ago what my life would be like at 24 this is not how I would have imagined it, and I couldn't be happier.

As far as big news goes...Emily gets here tomorrow!!!!! If you don't know Emily is one of my BEST friends from home.  After I signed up to come here she decided she maybe wanted to try it out too.  We ended up getting placed in the same school!  I am super, duper, very, really, very excited.  I thought I was an okay solo traveler but have since realized otherwise.  I just don't really like experiencing things by myself.  To me its a lot more meaningful when you have someone to share experiences with.  I already have our weekend planned out.  Can't wait!

I think that is all I have.  Oh, I joined the gym.  It feels good to work out again.  I still think I want to try and train for a running race.  Don't know if I want to do a full marathon but we will see.  I am encouraged by that fact that I didn't rule it out completely the first five minutes of stepping on a treadmill again.  We will see what happens...

I hope all is well with you.  Oh yeah, and I am so glad the Hawkeyes won.  I think being so far removed would have made me even more upset if they had lost to ISU.  It just made my bday weekend that much better knowing they had beat up on the Cyclones.

Na Zdravi.

Talk to you later...

RANDOM TIDBITS

As nothing of too great a consequence has happened in the last week since I've written I guess I will just write about some random little stuff that seems to happen all the time.

- Last Friday the nice lady at the convenience store laughed as I walked through the doors.  I'm not positive about what she was laughing at but I'm pretty sure she was laughing about the fact I had been there everyday after school to buy a water and an egg and ham sandwich.  It didn't discourage me one bit though...I've still been there everyday since.

- Tried bangers and mash for the first time.  No it isn't a Korean dish.  I went to an amazing Irish Pub with some fellow teachers.  I will definitely be eating there again.  FYI: bangers and mash= sausages on top of mashed potatoes with gravy dumped all over it, its even better than it sounds.

- It seems as though whenever I am living my most sedentary lifestyle is when I get these grand ideas about pushing my physical limits.  I haven't joined the gym here yet.  And its in the same building as my school.  I just haven't taken the time to ask a Korean teacher at my school to come with me and help me.  However, that did not stop me from deciding the other night that I wanted to run a marathon.  It probably has to do with the fact that I am far removed from my last run, and there is really no chance of going for a run tomorrow since I don't belong to the gym and there are no parks around so my mind just thinks, "Hells yeah I wanna train for a marathon." I actually started looking up training plans.  I still think I want to do this.  We will see what I think after I actually join the gym and start working out again.  I will keep you posted.

- Started teaching my kinde class this week.  I only have three kids.  Jamie- girl, about 5 years old, very smart, can read English, outside of the classroom acts all sweet and quiet, inside the classroom screams all the time and pushes the boys around.  Elvin- boy probably around age 4, very very cute, not quite as advanced as Jamie, doesn't like to repeat things even though I ask him to 10 times, really only likes to play duck, duck, goose.  Justin- boy, about 4 years old probably, also very very cute, joined the class yesterday, does not know English at all, does not really understand that I don't know Korean, but starting to kind of pick things up even after just two days.

- Got yelled at, well not yelled but I guess sternly talked to, by some Korean gentlemen as I was walking into my apartment.  I have no idea what he was trying to tell me.  I just kept walking and looking back and he said something twice and was kind of pointing towards my building.  I went into my room really fast and locked it and then stood there in the entryway, actually I don't have an entryway its just one room, anyways, I stood there for literally five minutes trying to understand what he saying to me.  Did I do something wrong?  Did I leave my hot water heater running and take all the hot water?  No.  Did I leave my gas stove on and burn the place down?  No.  Did I leave my air con on all day(like it would matter to him if I did)?  No.  Did I throw my trash in the wrong place this morning?  I don't think so, I put it by other people's trash on the side of the street.  Is he my neighbor and I'm playing my music too loud?  I don't think so.  Has he seen me open my door and seen that I have about 15 empty water bottles lined up because I don't know what they do for recycling and I keep forgetting to ask someone and this somehow offends him?  I really have no idea what he was saying to me, but I'm pretty sure I haven't done anything wrong.  Hopefully I don't see him again anytime soon.  Although for all I know he could have been offering me a free meal at the restaurant around the corner.  I don't think that was it, but you never know...

- Was watching a game show on TV the other day and I was like, "Man these questions are so easy, I could win this thing."  I then realized that all the questions were being asked to Koreans, in English, and they had to answer in English.  I proceeded to give them props.

- In my kinde class today we were playing memory.  So I had my little kiddos, all three of them, around me with the memory cards.  Then Elvin tooted.  And of course I laughed.  Toots are funny and they are especially funny when they come from 4 year olds.  Then everyone was laughing and I said, "Elvin was that you?"  What does he do?  He points to the classroom over and says, "No, them."  Kids learn fast.  He knew how do blame it on someone else even though he's only 4 and totally out of his element.  He could blame his toot on someone else, in a different language.  I was impressed.

- Learned to stay far away from the soju (as the guide book calls it, the local "firewater") after being here for less than a week and a half.  I will spare you the details, but let's just say it took me a day and a half to recover from that one.

- For as long as I can remember I've wanted a moped.  I now want one even more.  They are all over the place here.  I'm especially jealous when I'm walking and sweating my arse off and there they go with the wind in their hair, whizzing down the street, swerving in and out of cars.  UUGGH.  I want a moped.

- Couldn't understand why I was so much more interested in the story we were reading in one of my classes than any of my students.  Then I realized it was because the story was about aliens and space, and I just eat that stuff up.  Love it.  I guess they aren't as enthusiastic about it.  O'well.

Well I think those are all of the thoughts I can think of right now.  I will let you know how I'm feeling about the marathon thing when I actually start working out again.

I hope all is going well for you and yours.  

Talk to you again soon...  

...AND IT BEGINS...

So...I finally have internet.  YAY!  Sorry I haven't updated the blog or responded to emails and such, but I am very happy to report that I now have internet in my apartment.  I'm actually very, super happy.  I have no idea how we ever lived without it.  Now on to the important stuff...

I moved into my apartment last Friday night, after spending about a week and a half in a motel (its referred to as the Love Motel by all the foreign teachers here).  My apartment, my home for the next year, is nice.  And by nice I mean pretty cozy.  And by cozy I mean pretty small.  But I'm fine with that.  Less area to clean I guess.  I will try to post some pictures.  Basically my bed is to the right of my door, then I have a desk and a closet type thing.  Then there is the kitchen/washroom.  I have a little gas stove, a sink, some cupboards, and then the washing machine.  There's just enough room to stand and cook.  The bathroom is in the back corner.  I will try to explain how the bathroom works but a picture will probably explain it better.  What you have is a toilet, a sink, and a removable shower head on the wall.  So the whole bathroom is the shower.  Everything gets wet (learned that the hard way when I forgot to remove my toilet paper from the bathroom the first time I showered) and there is a drain on the floor.  It sounds a bit inconvenient but I get more and more comfortable with every shower.  All in all the apartment is pretty good.  I put pictures up, and of course the Iowa football poster from the fair, and it is feeling more like home all the time.  

As far as teaching goes...I had one week of observation which went pretty well.  I started to think, "Hey this isn't so bad and it looks pretty fun."  Then I sat down to write out lesson plans and I realized I really had no idea what I was doing.  Now, after almost a week of teaching, I think I kind of know what I'm going, but I have no idea if what I'm doing is what I'm supposed to be doing.  The lessons are pretty much laid out for you, but they don't want you to bring the teacher book with you to class so we have folders we write the lesson plans in and then take those to class.  The part that is confusing is the fact that there are like 5 different books for each class, and there are two teachers for each class and we each teach for 40 minutes so you have to figure out who is teaching what part and so on.  It's just a bit overwhelming when it's all thrown at you at once.  But as I said, I think I've somewhat figured out what I'm doing, I just don't know if it is what I'm supposed to be doing.  

I teach one kinde class for 80 minutes everyday.  Right now there are only two kids in the class.  They are both really cute, and they can speak a little English.  I don't know if I will get more kinde kids or if I will only have two.  I guess we'll see.  Anyways, after kinde I teach elementary kids.  On Monday, Wednesday, Friday I teach three classes of beginning elementary.  Each class is forty minutes long.  Then I teach one 40 minute class of more advanced elementary.  I really like that class because they are pretty good and you can actually have conversations with them.  Then I have a class of older elementary kids.  I'm not a huge fan of that class.  Then on Tuesdays and Thursdays after my kinde class I have an 80 minute class with 5 girls who are awesome.  I think they are all about 9 years old and they are amazing.  They seem almost fluent and they are just fun to talk with.  Then I have another older elementary class for 40 minutes, and I finish the day with an hour long class with 4 middle school girls.  I have to push them quite a bit to get them to talk but their English is pretty good.  For the most part teaching is going really well.  The kids are all pretty good and pretty fun to be around.  I'm enjoying it so far.  I just hope I can get everything figured out so I know for sure I'm doing all the lessons right and such.  

Other than that...I still love the food.  Especially galbi, which is the Korean BBQ.  Oh man it is so good.  I haven't been into Seoul again, but I'm sure I will this weekend.  I might go to an amusement park on Saturday.  That should be fun.  I'm looking forward to just relaxing a bit this weekend.  Teaching gets pretty tiring.  I tried learning some Korean from a book I found in my apartment.  I learned a few words but its pretty tough.  I may look into taking some Korean lessons soon.  There is definitely a lot less English around than I thought.  Not many people here speak it, or they are just too embarrassed to try.  The people are very nice though.  Very willing to help you whenever they can.  

I'm having a pretty good time so far.  All the teachers at my school are very nice and helpful.  I went to dinner with some people last night and they wouldn't let me pay for anything.  I had an awesome dinner and a few beers all for free.  They really want you to feel welcomed and comfortable so that's nice.

That is about all I have.  I will try to put some pictures up so you can see my apartment and such.

Oh I almost forgot...due to my unfortunate inability to come up with lies on the spot I have a nice young Korean Jehovah Witness man wanting to come to my apartment and talk about the bible with me.  He, and his mom who didn't speak English but just nodded and smiled, stopped me right outside my apartment a couple days ago so I couldn't lie to him about where I lived and for some reason couldn't even lie to him about when a good time to come and talk to me about the bible would be.  So he stopped over tonight, again with his mom, but I told him I was getting in the shower and meeting a friend (only a half lie because I really was about to get in the shower) and I'm sure he will just keep dropping by every night until we talk about the bible.  Any advice on how to get rid of him would be much appreciated.  It's not that I don't like talking about the bible, I just don't want this young Korean Jehovah's Witness man coming to my apartment everyday wanting to talk about the bible.  I'm just too honest for my own good.  I just felt bad lying to him because he was so nice and he was talking about God.  It's hard lying to someone pushing God.

Anyways...I will be updating much more often now that I have internet.  I love hearing from everyone back home too, so keep the comments and emails coming.

Laters...