"IS THE 4TH OF JULY A BIG DEAL THERE?"

Haven't written in awhile. Guess I've just been doing more living, and less reflecting, which is a good thing I think.

Had a few noteworthy events in the last few weeks. Did a scavenger hunt a few weeks ago. It was organized by a few friends. There were probably like 10 teams consisting of about 5-7 members. There were a bunch of tasks we had to do around Seoul ranging from drinking soju with a stranger, to giving a stranger a piggy back ride, to getting a piercing somewhere other than ears. It was a pretty fun day that ended with us looking around desperately for a piercing shop. We found one, but it wasn't open. We talked to a guy that had a shop right next door and he called the people to come open it for us. While waiting we hung out with this guy named Mickey. He spoke pretty good English, and had this really cool, random place in this alley where as far as we could tell he smoked, drank, and worked on old motorcycles. We completed a few tasks while waiting at his shop, one being making a human pyramid with a Korean on top...

To make a long story short...we ended up getting picked up by one of Mickey's friends named Mr. No, to go to his piercing shop. So all 7 of us crammed into his friends Chrysler 300 that was all decked out in complete leather interior, TV's, and a rockin' sound system. And what, might you ask, was Mr. No rockin' out to? None other than The Backstreet Boys. Epic. Well 2 teammates ended up getting 6 piercings between the 2 of them. They couldn't be on ears so I'll let you imagine where the piercings went. After all that trouble we actually ended up only getting 3rd place. We were a little disappointed, but it was an awesome day!

The same day of the scavenger hunt was the start of the World Cup. I have never really gotten into the World Cup before, but it was impossible not to get excited while here. Everyone was into it. Almost all the restaurants around here have outdoor seating, so they all had TV's set up, and some even had projector screens. It was a really fun atmosphere to be a part of. Korea ended up playing 4 games before they got beat out. We had different, fun experiences for them all.

The first one was at 8:30pm on a Saturday. A bunch of us decided to go into an area of Seoul called COEX. As the cabs pulled up to drop us off all you could see were thousands of people on the street. It was pretty awesome. It was raining, but nobody really cared. Korea won that night, so it was super exciting. All of us bought Korea jersey's, and we got a lot of attention from people, being a bunch of foreigners cheering for Korea. We even made it on an online newspaper sight.

It was a pretty unbelievably fun time. Memorable night for sure.

The next game was on a Thursday night at 8:30. A bunch of us decided to go to the local park around here, that was showing it on a big screen. The park was packed so we tried to go to some of the local restaurants. They were all packed with tons of screens set up outside, so there were just tons of people in the street watching the game. Korea lost that game, but it was still exciting to be around so many people all cheering so hard for their team.

The next game was at 3:30am on a Tuesday/Wednesday morning. We watched that one at the movie theater here. It was pretty awesome. It was the first game that we could all actually sit down and watch from start to finish. It was a late night, but fun to watch.

The last game was at 11:00pm on a Saturday night. We went to City Hall in Seoul, which is the big place to watch it. It was raining again, and there were so many people we couldn't really see the screen. So we all decided to try and find a restaurant to sit down at and watch it. It took us probably 10 minutes to find any place where we could sit down. We finally found a place down a random side street. There were about 20 of us foreigners watching it with about 10 Koreans. They had a pretty good time with us. Koreans are really nice people, and are genuinely happy to share their culture with foreigners. They had fun cheering, and drink soju with all of us. It was a really good game, but unfortunately Korea lost, and that was the end of their World Cup run. I'm really happy I was able to be here during World Cup. I will for sure get into it a lot more in the future.

Watched a few of the American games too. A lot of them were on at 3:30am after Korea games. It made for some long nights, but it was worth it. Lots of fun!

Last weekend we went to a B-Boy competition. B-Boy is what the break dancers are called here. Korea is pretty well known for their B-Boys. I've never really seen anything like that in person. It's pretty amazing what those guys can do. They also had some cool martial arts, and other dance performances too. Fun, interesting time.

Well that is about it. We are all counting down the days till vacation. Eleven more teaching days....then Philippines here we come. I think there is a group of almost 15 of us going now. I'm sure it will be a pretty fun time. Can't hardly wait.

Hope everyone at home is doing well. Talk to you again soon...

"YOU CAN TELL BY HIS FACE THAT HE SUCKS."

Couple little things to report.

Did a 10k last weekend. It was just a fun one organized by another teacher here. I think there were about 20 of us running either a 10k or 5k. I did the 10k, but walked a few times. It was pretty hot out, but it was super fun. We ran around this lake park that I always run at. We got many stares as we all took off together. I think most of the Koreans thought we were crazy. The best part(besides the Sunday Funday that followed the run) was playing in the fountains after we were all finished. Great way to end a hot race.

Here's a pic in the fountain after the race...I'm way in the back, can only see half my face...fun time for sure!!!

It has been hard going to work as the weather has gotten nicer. I'm finding that I'm actually missing working at the pool. This is the first time in 6 years that I haven't spent my days at the pool. However, what is making the days bearable is that fact that we have a week off in July, and a bunch of us booked tickets to the Philippines last week!!! I've looked at a few pics and it looks beautiful. We are going to Borocay, which is a pretty popular place. We are all pretty darn excited. I think we have about 35 teaching days until we head out. Not that we're counting.

Well that's about it. The weather has warmed up quite a bit, and even though it pretty hot during the day, it's worth it for the nights. Pretty much all the restaurants have seating on the sidewalks, so people basically sit outside all night drinking. It's a fun atmosphere. Oh and also, the World Cup starts this weekend. I usually don't get into that too much, but they go crazy for it here. Korea plays at 8 30pm on Saturday. They have a huge area in Seoul where they set up screens and such. Someone said about 100,000 people go to watch it there, so I think we are gonna try to check that out on Saturday. Should be a good time.

Okay well I hope this finds you well. Talk again later...

"I WOULD RATHER HAVE YOUR BUTT, AND MY BUTT CRACK."

Haven't written in awhile. Here's a couple quick updates:

Had sports day with our kinde kids and their parents a couple Sundays back. One of the most fun days I've had probably. We didn't really have to do anything but show up. There was a company that organized all the games and such. Games ranged from running races, to tug-of-war, to blowing up balloons, to other outlandish games. Let me tell you, these parents were not in it for the fun. They were there to win.

We started out with a race. Us teachers went first, so we were standing at the finish line when it was time for all the moms to go. Two wipe outs. One fairly epic one. This lady was running, running, running her little heart out. When it got to the finish line it was a tight race. She basically sorta accidentally dove for the finish line. Flat on the belly, arms out, face hitting dirt and bouncing a couple times. I wish there was a picture of our faces as we watched this, in what seemed like slow motion. We tried to keep our laughter in for a little, and I think we did pretty well, but soon it was just too much work and we laughed pretty much the rest of the day thinking about that fall. I think the woman was fine. She disappeared for the rest of the games until it came to prize time, and she won the runner-up prize of a medium bag of rice. Needless to say it was an awesome day, topped off with a yummy sam gyeop sal dinner with copious amounts of makali (rice wine). I'm fairly certain fun was had by all.

Here's a pic of one of the many games we played:

We had a long weekend for Buddha's Birthday last weekend. Emily, Chanelle, and I decided to take another Adventure Korea trip to Jeju Island. It is an island off the southern coast of Korea. It is sometimes called Korea's Hawaii since it is a volcanic island. We got there on Friday to pretty great weather. Went to a beach, and got to do a little swimming. The water was pretty cold, but it was fun to be able to swim in the clear, blue water, as I had never done that before. Even got to see a big group of dolphins swim by, jumping out of the water and everything.

On Saturday we went to hike up Mount Halla, which is a big dormant volcano. It was drizzling when we started. Kept raining harder and harder on the way up. We got 6k into the 8k up before they turned us around because of the rain. We were already drenched, which was good, because the trip down was basically like hiking down a stream. You literally had to jump from rock to rock, picking the ones that were sticking out above the rushing water. Kinda a bummer that we didn't get to make it to the top, but an adventure non the less.

Went to a Trick Art Museum, a Tea Museum, a Sex Museum, some caves where the Japanese kept weapons during WWII, and finished the trip off with popcorn and a beer at a Chinese acrobatics/motorbike show, which was amazing. They put I think 6 motorcycles in this little ball all going upside down, and this way and that. I don't think I breathed the whole time I was so nervous they were going to crash.

A pretty good trip for sure. I could have used at least a few more days on the island. I didn't realize how nice it was to get out of the city until we were on our way back.

Back to the grind now. We don't have another break until our week off in July. Don't know what we are going to do for that yet, but our goal is to try to plan that by this week, so I will keep you updated. Hope all is well for you. Talk to you again soon.

Caves

Trick Art Museum

The now infamous, with us at least, jumping photo.

"DE !@#$%& LICIOUS"

Yesterday when we finished classes we were all staying around late to get some stuff done. We had all been just sitting at our desks doing work when, from the corner, I hear our supervisor, a cute little Korean lady say, "Who wants beer?" We all just kind of laughed. She proceeded to whip out a 2L of beer from the fridge by her desk. We proceeded to have a couple glasses while we finished our work. It is also a really big deal here to have food while you are drinking. She felt really bad that we didn't have any side dishes so she found come cocoa pebbles somewhere and poured us each a cup of those. Nice way to finish off the hump day.

Last Sunday it was really nice out. Emily and I decided to go for a little walk to a park right by our apartments. There were some middle aged Korean gentlemen playing this game that is sort of like a mix between volleyball and soccer. We were sort of watching them/messing around on the workout equipment. Soon enough one guy comes walking over to us. He starts talking about something in Korean involving basketball and who knows what. He then grabbed my hand, and took Emily and I over to a bench by where they were playing. None of them spoke English except to tell us that they loved us and we were beautiful. They served us a drink called Makali (have no idea how to spell it in English), its a pretty good tasting rice wine. They also gave us a bowl of ramyeon and some other noodle stuff. I tried some of the noodle stuff, but didn't really like it. He then came with a couple lettuce leaves, loaded them up with the mystery noodle stuff and handed one to each of us. I think I would have been fine eating it had I not looked at Emily, who was basically gagging. Luckily no one was watching us eat it. She ended up being able to find a tissue in her purse and spit it in that. I had to get up and walk away for fear of spewing it everywhere. It's not so much the taste, but the fact that I have no idea what I'm eating that gets me. There was this really big white chunk in it that really grossed me out. I'll spare you the gory details. I did manage to swallow it all though. Just another interesting Sunday in Korea.

On Monday I was trying to get my kinde kids to sit nicely in their seats. I've walked by when the Korean teacher Jina Teacher is in with them, and they are all sitting attentively. I know they can do it, they just don't do it for me. So I was trying to persuade them to sit the same way for me.

Me: You sit nicely for Jina Teacher. You should sit nicely for me too.

Kevin: Jina Teacher is scary. You are not.

Me(trying to make an angry face): I can be scary.

Kevin: No, Teacher. I think silly.

One of my favorite things is to sit and listen to these 5 and 6 year olds converse with each other in English. They are too funny. The Korean kinde teachers name is Julie. Those kids listen to her so well it's amazing. She is basically the enforcer. If a kid is really, super bad they get sent to Julie Teacher. So, whenever some one did something another kid didn't like they would always say, "I tell Julie Teacher", "I tell Julie Teacher". A few weeks ago I told them they could no longer say that, because it happened probably 5 times a class. I said I would be the one who would tell Julie teacher if she needed to be told something. After being somewhat confused as to who they should tell, they have pretty much gotten out of the habit of saying it now. I also taught them the word tattle tail, and that has been a tremendous help. This is the conversation I overheard this week.

Ray did something Jamie did not like

Jamie: I tell Jesus.

Ray: I tell God.

"DID YOU SAY READY FREDDY? YOU ARE THE PURPLE PEOPLE EATER."

Been awhile since I wrote, but not too much new to report. Went to the Cherry Blossom Festival last weekend. It was pretty cool. It looks like it's Christmas with all the white blossoms. We just basically walked along a road that was lined with the trees. It was neat.

Can't believe it's already almost May. I've been here 8 months now which is just crazy. Time sure is flying. Have a couple fun trips planned in the next couple months. We are going to Jeju Island on a long weekend in May. That should be a fun trip. Jeju is off the southern part of Korea. It's a volcanic island, and the highest peak is there. And we are going horseback riding! I'm also super pumped for the MudFestival in July. It's basically what the name implies. A weekend full of mud. Another teacher around here organized a couple bus loads of people to go down for one of the weekends. Can't hardly contain my excitement for that weekend.

As an aside...I have THE WEIRDEST dreams here. A few of us have commented on the fact that our dreams here are consistently really weird, and we remember them almost all the time. I think I'm gonna start writing them down or something. Wish there was actually a way to figure out what some of the mean...weirdest ever.

As I said not much new. Hope all is well with you. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting next time. Talk to you later...

"THEN THEY WOULD BE HAIRY...THAT'S EVEN WORSE THAN DIRTY."

Not much new here. I think the weather is finally going to warm up and stay warm. For probably the past couple months we've had really nice days, and then random snow the next day. It looks as though the nice weather might be here to stay this time though. I'm hoping to wake up tomorrow, and run outside for the first time since like October. Hopefully I can get myself out of bed. These days I actually have to set an alarm to make sure I'm awake by noon. O'well.

The warm weather is great. However, spring in Korea also brings along something called Yellow Dust. You can wikipedia it for more precise information, but basically it's sand that is blown south from some Mongolian desert. We've had a couple days with "yellow dust warnings". It makes the day really eery looking. It looks kind of like yellow fog everywhere. There is no sun, and it feels like near dusk the whole day. A lot more people wear masks on these days. It is just a really weird feeling day because it never really feels like day since it's sorta dark the whole day. Apart from that, the spring sure is welcome.

Tried live octopus a couple weeks ago. We had dinner with all the teachers from our school one Friday night. They all wanted to go drink more after dinner, so we went to another restaurant to get more drinks and eat live octopus. They cut the tentacles off the octopus, and then chop them into little pieces. All the pieces are still wiggling all around on the plate they bring you. I found one of the smallest pieces to try. It climbed up my chopstick as I dipped it in some sort of sauce. When you put it in your mouth you can feel all the little sucky things sticking to you. Some one once told me that like 1-2 people die from eating live octopus each year because they don't chew it enough and it suctions to their throat when they swallow it. I chewed and chewed my piece for awhile to be sure I didn't fall into that trap. It actually didn't taste like much. It tasted mostly like the sauce I dipped it in. It's just the still moving, and sucking your tongue that gets to you. Dog soup is next on the list;)

Here's a picture of my kinde class. We went on a field trip to a children's museum a couple weeks ago, and managed to get everyone in for a decent picture. They are sometime's a lot to handle, but I love them all. And they are usually all pretty happy, but they don't like to smile for pictures, ergo facto some kids looked pissed off in this picture. I really do enjoy attempting to teach them everyday though. They are fun.

"I'VE GOT A GOLDEN TICKET"

Howdy. I decided awhile ago that I wanted to try my hand at rugby. I had my first practice on Saturday, and it went pretty well. A few other friends from around here all went to the first practice to see what it was like, and I'm pretty sure we are all going back. I'm sure it will get harder, but it really wasn't as rough as I was expecting. I was pretty sore on Sunday though. I think it was just the fact that my body hasn't had to move like that for awhile. All I've been doing is mostly running, biking, and swimming on and off for the last 5 years, so it will take a bit to adjust to being physical again. I had an awesome time though, and can't wait for our practice this weekend. I have a few bruises, and thought I might have pulled my groin after inadvertently doing the splits at one point, but all in all pretty successful I think.

On the teaching front...Our kinde classes got changed up at the beginning of March, so I now have 8 kids in my class instead of 5. Those 3 extra kids sure do make a difference. I really didn't have to discipline much with my other class, but things can get kind of out of control with 8 kids, if none of them are listening to you. I had to lay down more structured rules today. They now get one warning for bad behavior, and then they have to sit against the wall in the "thinking chair". After that they have to go sit in the hallway. Then, if they are really bad, they have to go see Julie Teacher. She is their Korean Teacher who has some sort of power over those children. All she has to do is say their name and these kids snap to attention. I was very happy that the kids all seemed to understand that I meant business, and I only had to put one kid in the "thinking chair"today. We will see how they do tomorrow...

Other classes are going well. There is maybe only one class that I just don't really like at all. One annoying girl just kinda gets them all riled up. And there is another girl that is not my favorite. Her name is Ann. She doesn't like the way I say her name, and yells at me almost everyday. "My name not Ann." I guess I emphasize the A too much. She wants it short. Ann. I guess I say something like Ayann. I don't know, maybe it's my Iowa drawl. I think she uses it as an excuse not to answer the question though because she doesn't usually know what's going on. So her way of covering is by yelling at me that I said her name wrong. I now make a point to say her name extremely short. She didn't yell at me today, so that's a plus.

The other day I walked into one of my classes, and it was really cold in the classroom. I said, "burr, it's cold in here." I of course couldn't stop there. I had to keep going with the claps, and knee slaps, and stomps saying, "there must be some Toros in the atmosphere, I said burr, it's cold in here, there must be some Toros in the atmosphere."(It's from a movie, if you don't have a clue what I'm saying) None of them had any clue what I was doing, but I got a good laugh out of the one of the girls, Sandy. At least I amuse myself.

Not much else to report. Things are good. The weather is mostly starting to warm up. We did get a couple inches of wet, slushy snow last week, but then it was back up to the mid-fifties over the weekend.

Hope this finds you well. Talk to you again soon...

'THEY SLEPT IN THE WOODS!?"

Went on an awesome trip last weekend. Emily, Chanelle, a co-worker friend, and I went on an Adventure Korea trip to Geomundo/Baekdo. Adventure Korea is a company that offers a bunch of different day and weekend trips all around Korea. Since we had a three day weekend we decided to take a trip with them.

We went to Geomundo/Baekdo. This is basically a group of around 100 islands off the southern part of Korea. We left on Friday night at about midnight. We drove through the night on a charter bus. It was probably one of the worst bus rides ever. I sat in the worst possible seat...second to the back row. The smallest amount of leg room on the bus, and then my seat partner was taking up half my seat, I think I was right by a heater because I was sweating non stop, and my seat partner took her shoes off and had the WORST feet odor ever. I think I got maybe a total of 45 minutes of sleep.

We arrived at some little southern port city at about 6:30am. We had about an hour to wander around until we caught the 8am ferry to Geomundo, the island we were staying on. I've only been on one ferry in my life I'm pretty sure, at least I only remember one ferry ride. I think it was maybe a 20 minute ride down in Gulf Shores, Alabama to Dauphin island. So, I didn't really know what to expect from this ferry ride. Well as is turned out the waves were pretty big, and a bunch of people on our trip got sick. We were rocking around so much. We sat on the second floor. When you looked out the window it basically went from seeing only sky to seeing only waves, and back and forth and back and forth. If I hadn't been so completely exhausted I probably would have gotten somewhat sick too, but luckily I felt alright.

We got to the island and checked into our hotel. I'm pretty sure the proprietor of the hotel/motel we stayed at was a witch. We all agreed. A good which though. We wanted to get a picture with her before we left, but she shot us down because she thought her hair wasn't good enough or something. We got to our room and of course no beds, but rather mats on the floor, and no hot water till 5pm. We had lunch, went on a little hike to a British cemetery and the beach, took a nap, ate dinner, and went to bed. We were all pretty tired, and there wasn't much at all to do on the island.

The next morning Emily and Chanelle went to breakfast as I tried to squeeze a few extra minutes of sleep in. When they got back they said that three people from our group were missing. They hadn't returned after our little hike. We were catching a 10am ferry to go around to see all the other islands, so we were all discussing where these people could have gone. There was a pretty much full on search and rescue going on, with announcements being made over loud speakers, and our guides sorta freaking out. Well about 10 minutes before we set sail our guide says, "They found them, they are over there." He points across to the other island that is connected to the one we stayed on by a bridge. So the three people get dropped off by the ferry via police car. We all thought they just maybe decided to get a different hotel or something. Nope. They went hiking, got lost, and ended up sleeping in the woods. WHAT?! Yeah, that's what we were thinking too. It was a pretty cold and rainy night. I don't know what made them just give up. We were on a pretty small island. They sorta looked like people who might get lost out in the woods and spend the night though.

So we went on a nice sight-seeing ferry ride to see all the little islands, and then came back to have lunch, and go on about a 4 hour hike to a light house. It was a beautiful day. The hike was pretty awesome. Amazing views. I even got a little tan going on my nose and cheeks. We ended the hike back at the beach. The water was pretty cold, but we put our feet in anyways. It felt pretty nice after a decent hike.

We were supposed to leave the next morning on the 10am ferry. That night was rainy and super windy. I forgot to mention that along with the witch that ran the place, we were also pretty sure that the place was haunted. So that night when it was raining and windy the windows and doors were rattling a bunch. Apparently I was the only person who was waking up and hearing these things, but I finally had enough at about 4am. I thought the window in the bathroom was cracked open a bit which was make it rattle. After laying awake for about 15 minutes I finally got the courage up to go into the bathroom to shut it. I left the door to the bedroom open though, so Emily and Chanelle could hear me scream in case I got shut in the bathroom by some ghost and needed help getting out.

Anyways, when we signed up for the trip there was a little disclaimer at the end saying that in case of bad weather we might have to stay on the island an extra day blah, blah, blah. I didn't take it seriously at all. I thought it was just something they had to put on there for whatever. Well, we got up to catch the 10am ferry after hearing the wind howling all night. They said they waves were too big. We were supposed to come back at 11:30 to check again. 11:30 turned into 2pm, which then turned into 3:15. They then told us that the ferry was not going to go out that day because the wind and waves were too bad. None of us could believe that we were actually stuck on this island. There were about 50 people on this trip, and we all had to call the directors of our schools telling them that we wouldn't be able to make it into work the next day because we were stuck on an island. Really the worst part was the fact that the only thing they had to eat on the island was fish. I'm not a big fan of fish. I basically ate rice, potato chips, and cookies all weekend.

We finally made it out the next morning. After a decently calm 2 hour ferry ride, and another 6 hour bus ride we made it back to work for our night classes. Luckily our directors and supervisor are super nice. They weren't mad at all. They were more worried about our safety.

As usual, the weekend was an adventure for sure. It was a really great weekend though. We had a lot of laughs. It was really nice to get out of the city for awhile, but it was also pretty much just as nice to get back to the city, where you know where you can get things you need, like pizza, easily. The island really was pretty beautiful though. Definitely unlike any landscape I have ever seen. It's good to be back, but I'll be ready for our next adventure after I catch up with a little R&R this weekend. Here are some pics from the weekend...enjoy.

"TEACHER YOU ARE ROMEO AND JULIET AND DIE, DIE"

Last Friday I made my all time favorite little student, Ray, cry. It was not at all on purpose. He was offering me a cherry tomato that he had brought for snack. He just kept putting it in my face. I said, "No thanks, Ray. I don't like tomatoes." This was at the end of the day, so I was busy putting shoes, and coats, and book bags on. I was sorta running around making sure every one had everything they needed and Ray kept punching me in the stomach. He sometimes does that so I ignored it for awhile, but then they turned into really hard punches and I said, "Ray, stop that hurts." I then looked at him and he had tears in his eyes. "Ray are you mad at me?" He just shook his head yes. "Why, Ray?" Then in the most heartbroken, sad voice, while trying so hard to hold back tears, "You don't like tomatoes." I felt so bad. I told him I would eat one. He didn't want to give me one anymore though. So I just gave him a hug, told him I was sorry, and thankfully he forgot about it by Monday.

Today one of my students asked me if I knew what son of a bitch means. Yes, I speak English. I know bad words in English. I think he thought he might be able to stump me with that one.

Some words are hard to define to students. Today we had the word cool. How do you define cool other than saying, you know...it's cool. Cool. It's undefinable. I think cool just is. To define cool would be like taking the coolness out of it.

Last week I had one of my classes write a diary about 10 things they want to do in their life and why. It mostly turned into 10 things I want and why. Most diaries were full of things like I want MP3 because I want MP3. There were a few gems though. For example, Jenna, one of my favs, wrote...I want a baby brother because I want to tell man what to do.

Going on a trip down south this weekend. Hopefully I'll have some cool pictures to post from that. Other than that, I hope everyone is doing well. Talk to you again soon...

"TEACHER, YOUR NOSE IS CRAZY I THINK."

6 Month Anniversary Today!!!!

What have I learned? Not much Korean that's for sure. I did, however, decide I wanted to learn Spanish, so I now have a weekly Spanish lesson with a friend here. Sometimes I don't understand my logic...why not learn Spanish while in Korea?...but I find it best not to question.

What else have I learned? Let's see...I still haven't learned to always pull the knob out of my faucet after finishing a shower. I sprayed myself in the face just last night. It's actually a bit scary when you thinking you're turning your faucet on only to get sprayed in the face.

I have not learned where all my hair comes from. I could pull two handfuls of hair out of my head each day, and pretty much do, and there is still hair all over my floor, and still tons of it on my head. I don't know how I don't go bald when I lose so much hair. I'm not complaining though, I don't want to go bald. I just don't understand where it all come from.

I have not learned how to get myself out of bed before I actually NEED to get out of bed. I don't think I will ever understand people who just wake up before they actually have to, and actually get out of bed and get ready for the day. The only time I tell myself, Ok you need to wake up and start the day now, is if the clock reads like 2:30pm. Otherwise I stay in bed until the last possible minute. I will never wake up with time to spare.

I still haven't learned what it is I want to do with my life, well as far as making a living goes. I know lots of stuff I want to do, I just don't know how I'm can make money doing them.

I have learned how to live without TV. I could have lived without it before. I had friends who doubted that, but now I can prove it. I just watched it because it was convenient and easy. I'm fine without having it on.

My body has pretty much become accustomed to the food here too. This past weekend I basically ate Western food the whole weekend, and had an upset stomach. I really think it was because I was lacking on my kimchi intake.

I have learned that working with kids is exhausting, hilarious, frustrating, fun, annoying, etc., etc. Sometimes you feel that your talking to brink walls, and then you feel like you are talking to sponges. I have learned that its pretty amazing to sit down with kids and have conversations with them. You never know what they are going to say. Emotions run rampant when working with kids, for them and us.

Well I gotta get going to Spanish. I have much more, but maybe I'll save that for a later post.

Hope you all are doing well. Laters...

"I THINK WE NEED TO CHANGE THE SONG."

"YOU THINK SO, OR YOU KNOW SO?"

"I THINK SO."

That conversation right there is basically what teaching at a hagwon, private school, in Korea is all about. Never knowing exactly if you know exactly what is going on, never being able to get much of a straight answer out of anyone, then when you think you've gotten the answer, you get a different answer 20 minutes later.

I'm not meaning to complain. I'm a pretty easy going person, so the constant changing of plans doesn't really bother me. It's just fun to observe, and only slightly frustrating.

Teaching is an experience. Teaching English is another experience. Teaching English in another country is another experience, and teaching English in Korea is a whole other experience.

The other day one of my classes had to to write down their favorite fruit, and five reasons why they like that fruit, in complete sentences. This class is supposedly supposed to be in the second to the highest level at our school. Here is what Brian wrote:

My best fruit is pineapple, Because is so good. So so good. So so so good. So so so so good. It's yummy

Last Friday I had an annoying thing happen, but it was turned into one of the funniest things all with the help of a cute, little, sarcastic 6 year old. I had just started my kinde class for the day. We had finished asking everyone how they were, and why they were in that mood, and we were working on weather. Then our supervisor(whom I do really love, but that day she just really urked me) opened the door and asked my kids why they didn't have any books out. I don't know why she asked them, and not me. They didn't know what to say, so they just sort of looked from her to me. She then asked them if they know everything so they don't need books. The answer Ray gave was just priceless. Here's how it went down...keep in mind these kids are 6 Korean age, so probably 5, and in their first year of learning English, and also keep in mind Ray is a super cute kid who wears loose leggings and a fleece zip up everyday.

Supervisor: Why don't you have any books out?

no one answers because they don't know what to say...I mumble something about we are about to once we finish with the weather and such...she says something about them needing to finish their phonics books...I say something about yes we are going to do phonics we are just finishing the daily intro crap...she then turns to the kids:

Supervisor: Do you already know everything, so you don't need any books?

Ray: Yes, thousand thousand hundred know everything.

Supervisor: I'm sorry I don't understand.

I am super thankful for my school though. Schools that don't have a pretty solid reputation shut down somewhat often around here. I know two people who had to leave because their school shut down, and I know another three people who have till the end of February to find a job or leave the country because their school just shut down. It is somewhat luck of the draw when you come over here to work at a school. I'm super happy to be teaching at a good school, with a pretty good reputation.

That's about all. I think I'm going snowboarding again this weekend so I'm looking forward to that. Other than that not much new or exciting. I'm anxious for the weather to get warmer. There's much more to do when it's warm out.

Peace out...keep on keepin' on.

"THAT? NO, THAT'S NOT A MONSTER...THAT'S AN ANGEL."

Downsides of living in a small space:

- no kitchen table, no where to eat meals besides the cluttered 2x2.5 fo0t table that serves as my desk

-no where to stack the random crap I accumulate except on that same 2x2.5 foot table

-no counter top to prepare meals, all the preparation takes place on my washer, whose top is slightly rounded, making things like slicing pieces of cheese slightly more difficult

- a nasty stench in one part of the place stinks up the whole place

Upsides of living in a small space:

- less to clean

- keep things cleaner since a few things out of place makes things seem even more cluttered

- can hear the music coming from the computer no matter where you are

- doesn't take too long to heat, or cool, the place

- never have to be afraid that someone, or something, scary is hiding in another room because you only have one room, there is no where for them to be, so you pretty much know your always safe from scary entities

Just finished reading another awesome Paulo Coehlo book. It's called The Fifth Mountain, and I highly recommend it.

If you have never listened to Griffin House you should check him out. I have three of his albums, just recently downloaded one, and he is awesome. I've been listening to him on repeat for about a week now.

I'd like to tell the person who decided to have like 3 free songs on iTunes each weeks that he, or she, is not only a gentleman, but also a scholar. I love the free songs.

Watched The Big Lebowski, while drinking White Russians, for the first time last Friday. Don't know why it took me so long to do either.

Felt bad this week after getting angry at Dario and making him sit against the wall while the rest of us played a game. Right after telling them not to touch, or blow on the flashcards that I was setting up to play a game of memory what did he do? Blew them all over. I made him sit against the wall and watch us play. At the time I thought it was appropriate, but later I realized that not only is a a 5 year old boy, ergo facto he hardly has the ability to pay attention and heed warnings, but I expected him to be able to do it in another language. He did deserve it though. That kid never listens. Why is it that I love him so much? I don't know.

Hope all is well with you. Talk to you later.

A child can always teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires.

- Paulo Coehlo, The Fifth Mountain

"HAHA FOUR CHEESEBURGERS!! IT'S OK...WE'RE NOT DRIVING."

Went snowboarding again last weekend with a co-worker of mine. It was fabulous! A lot of the ski resorts have free buses that leave from Seoul early in the morning, which is great. We narrowly missed going to "who knows where in Korea". We hopped on a bus after asking the bus driver if they were going to Oak Valley, which is where we wanted to go. He said yes, but I don't think he understood us. We got on the bus, and then they started asking for money for tickets. We thought it was free so we were a bit confused. Luckily the guy in the seat next to us knew English and asked where we wanted to go. They said we were on the wrong bus, and they didn't know where the right bus was. Luckily we were early, and eventually found the bus after running around confused for about 20 minutes. It was a great day of snowboarding though. Well worth the confusion. I'm hoping to go again in a couple weeks!!

Moving on...

I've decided 2010 is gonna be a pretty great year for me. I have some things I want to accomplish, and I think I'll be able to keep up with my new year's resolutions. I'm not going to elaborate on those resolutions because I read in a magazine awhile ago that you shouldn't blab about your goals too much. You then start thinking that you've already accomplished these things by telling so many people about them, and never really do. So, only a select few know my mantra for 2010, and its gonna stay that way.

It's exciting to think that at this time a year ago I had no idea I would be teaching English in Korea. It sort of crossed my mind, but I never thought seriously about it at this point last year. It just makes me wonder where I will be at this time next year. I have plenty of ideas about where I think I want to be. I'm never short of ideas. I call these ideas my "things". I know at least a couple, or a few, people who roll their eyes every time I say, "Wanna here my new thing?" Don't worry, it doesn't bother me when people roll their eyes. Sometimes I accomplish these "things", and sometimes I don't. Either way, I'm sometimes happy with even just thinking about accomplishing them, that's one step closer than never thinking about trying new, different, exciting, and maybe scary "things".

There are just too many things I want to do...I can't help but come up with new "things". I'm a bit greedy, and always want more. Here's the current list of To Do's. Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to cross a few off in the next year. Commence the rolling of the eyes...

in no particular order (maybe)

1. sail around the world in a yacht

2. learn Spanish

3. climb Mount Kilimanjaro

4. learn how to white water kayak

5. learn how to rock climb

6. complete an Ironman triathlon

7. learn to love running

8. travel to India, Egypt, South Africa, Russia, Turkey, Croatia, Thailand, Israel, Saudi Arabia...

9. road trip up the Pacific coast

10. climb up Machu Picchu

11. learn how to take awesome pictures

12. learn how to do some sort of trick on my snowboard

13. chase tornadoes in that awesome tornado chasing vehicle

14. read many, many books

15. complete the Ironman in Kona

16. learn Russian

17. learn Arabic

18. learn how to mountain bike

19. complete an Xterra triathlon

20. run a marathon

21. go heli-snowboarding in Alaska

To Be Continued I'm sure...

So here's to 2010. Here's to my mantra of 2010. And here's to whatever happens...

"I'VE NEVER PLAYED ORGANIZED SPORTS, I JUST HAVE REALLY GOOD INDIVIDUAL SKILLS."

Not really too much new to report. Things have gotten pretty routine now. I am trying to wake up early to work out, but I only succeeded once last week. It's really sad, but I find it really hard to get out of bed before noon. I know that's bad. I'm trying to work on it, but when I don't start teaching until 1:20pm it's easy to just stay up late, and sleep in. Then I just work out after work. Must try to motivate myself better. We'll see what happens.

Our classes got switched around a lot after Christmas. Only once of my classes stayed the same. Otherwise I have new kids in all the others. So far I really like all new classes. I don't have any really annoying kids, and most of them are pretty good, and participate well, and seem to be motivated. Who knows how I will feel about them after I've had them longer. I've found that the classes I really like at first turn bad, and vice versa. I think I got lucky this time though. All my classes seem pretty good.

Also, my kinde class has gone from 2-3-2-1-2-3-4, and now we have 5!!!!!!! It is so much nicer having more kids. They are so much better behaved when its not just 2-3 kids. They stay in their seats better, and are much more motivated because they want to make sure they have the most stickers. It's amazing how brilliantly kids will behave for a sticker. I like all my kids too. There is only one who is a bit annoying. His name is Yun. The first couple days all he would say is, "What, what, what, what, what, what?" Over and over. It was funny at first, and then it just got really annoying. He is no longer allowed to say what. Now, he must say, "Excuse me?" His new thing to repeat all the time now is, "Go, go bed. Santa no coming. Go, go bed." I think his mom must yell at him to go to bed in English every night or something. I asked him if he liked going to bed, and he said no. So I'm assuming he gets yelled at every night to go to bed. He says, "Go, go bed," probably about 6 times every class. I tell him to stop all the time, but he doesn't listen. So today he was doing something he wasn't supposed to be or something, and I said, "Yun, go, go bed. Go, go bed." All the other kids cracked up, and Yun actually started to pay attention a little better.

A couple things that show you've been in Korea for a decent amount of time...

1. Everytime you turn on a faucet you flinch a little, thinking the shower head might spray you in the face. My bathroom is my shower. I have to pull a knob out on the faucet to turn my shower head on, and the shower head is right above the sink. This is how the bathrooms work in Korea. As a result, if you forget to push the knob back in after taking a shower, the next time you turn your faucet on, the shower instead turns on and you get all wet. I've actually only done it maybe 3-4 times. The first time was the worst. I thought my bathroom was falling apart or something, so it took me a couple seconds to realize what was happening, and shut the water off. Now, I understand, and I can dodge the water before it even hits me. None the less, I still sort of flinch every time I turn on my bathroom faucet.

2. You don't feel like your meal is complete unless you have at least a couple bites of kimchi. When I first got here I didn't mind kimchi. I didn't think it was too bad. Now, I all but love it. I really look forward to having a piece when I sit down to eat. I definitely think it's an acquired taste, but I really, really enjoy it now.

Well, I think that's about all folks. Until next time...keep it real.

My apartment building

Looking down my street

This is looking left at the end of my street. My school is at the end of this street.

My bathroom

"DENTER. YOU KNOW LIKE SOMEONE WHO PUTS A DENT IN A CAR. THAT'S THE DENTER."

Where to start, where to start. There have been lots of random goings on since my last post so I guess I'll just go right into it...

Today was our first day back to classes after 9 days off for Christmas, and...it was a SNOW DAY!!!!!!! I think we maybe got 7 inches. One of our co-workers whose been here awhile said he's never seen this much snow in Seoul. Yay!! We only had our kinde classes, and the elementary classes for the afternoon were cancelled. It was an excellent start to the New Year!!! I'm very glad God invented snow days because I think they are some of my favorite days ever.

I guess I should fill ya in on what I did during our Christmas break huh?

• On Dec. 19th we had a Christmas party at school for the kinde kids and their parents. We sort of did a lesson in the classroom to show off their English, decorated bags, decorated a cake, and each class also sang a couple Christmas carols. It all went pretty smoothly, and to top the day off all the kids were dressed in their Halloween costumes. Since our Halloween party was cancelled because of the swine flu back in October they decided to make it a Christmas/wear your Halloween costume party. It was pretty funny to see them all up there singing Christmas carols in witch and spiderman outfits.

• On Christmas Eve day a few of us did a little shopping at COEX Mall. It is this huge, underground maze of a mall. I don't think any of us bought much, as our main purpose for going to the mall was to eat dinner at the Mexican restaurant there. So it was Christmas Eve, and we were a few Americans eating Mexican food in Korea, and it was awesome! After dinner we headed to Myeongdong to check out the shops there, and eventually go to the midnight mass at the Catholic Cathedral there. Well at 11pm we decided to head to the Cathedral to see if there was any kind of line or anything. Of course there was, and it was a long one. We waited outside for about an hour, and missed getting into the Cathedral by probably 200ish people. So they shuffled us into an auditorium that had a big screen set up to watch the service. It was still pretty cool to experience midnight mass even though it was all in Korean. We did get a shoutout at the end of the homily when he said, "I would like to extend a welcome to our foreign friends. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!"

• We got up early on the 25th to go skiiing/snowboarding at Vivaldi Park. It was so much fun!!! I was a little nervous that I might have forgotten how to snowboard, but it all came back when I strapped in. It felt so awesome to be back on the snow. I really can't describe it. I love snowboarding so much, and besides being with family, I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate Christmas. Emily tried out skiing for the first time, and did pretty well. It was fun trying to help her learn to ski by pulling from the few things I could remember from my one ski lesson last year. As long as your remember pizza and french fries your good right? As this is Korea, the place was pretty packed, but actually not as bad as I was expecting. On one of the harder runs I had the whole thing to myself for a couple runs. Ahhhh. No way to put into words how exhilarating, yet peaceful that is. I wish I could do that everyday. After we got back later that night we headed over to a friend's apartment for a "white elephant" gift exchange. I got some candles that I'm super happy about. Now I have something to combat that smell that creeps out of my bathroom every once and a while. Refer to earlier post if you don't understand what I'm talking about. I was also pretty proud of the gift I thought to bring...a huge package of toilet paper and some beef jerky. The person who got that should count themselves pretty lucky.

• Emily and I spent the rest of the week doing some touristy things in Seoul. We visited:

~Namdaemun Market- bunch of different shops selling a bunch of different, random things, such as, ginseng, tea, hats, socks, coats, food, etc.

~Cheonggyecheon Stream-stream through Seoul, it was paved over after the Korean War, but now its a really pretty stream to walk along with lights and such

~National Museum of Korean- I think it's the biggest museum in Asia, that's what I heard at least, had some cool exhibits, lots of pottery, some Buddha statues

~Deoksugung Palace- not as big as the first palace I visited but pretty cool none the less, built in the 1500's, some buildings were added on in the late 1800's and were made to look like western arcitucture so it was neat to see that mix, its neat to see these old palaces surrounded by new skyscrapers

~Seoul Plaza- right outside the palace area, some exhibits were set up there, Seoul is the World Design Capital for 2010 so they had a cool display, and there was a cool display about the Korean Base in Antarctica, that stuff was really cool to see, however, I was pretty freezing and reading about people living in Antarctica just made me feel even colder

• For New Year's Emily and I headed into Seoul to check out the festivities near Insadong. There were tons and tons of people there, as well as tons and tons of cops everywhere. They closed the street down and had a stage where some people performed. I think there was a pretty famous K-Pop Group. We recognized the song but didn't catch the groups name. The teenage boys around us were pretty excited though so we think they might have been a big deal. They had a countdown, then rang a bell 33 times while some drum group was performing. Then people started shooting off Roman candle fireworks everywhere. We bought some from a guy on the street and joined in on the fun. It was pretty crazy. Fireworks everywhere. A sight to see for sure!

All in all it was a pretty darn good break. I missed being with family, but it was really nice to have a good group here to celebrate the holidays with. I hope everyone had a good Christmas, and here's to 2010!!!! Make it a good one!!!! Talk to ya later.