FAVORITE CONVERSATION TO DATE

The following exchange took place in my class today.  We are learning about countries.  It is between me and one of my students whom I really like named Yumi.  She is probably around 10 years old.

Yumi: Teacher what country are you from?

Me: I am from the USA.

Yumi: Oh, not Canada.

Me: No, the USA.

Yumi: Oh, I thought Canada.

Me: Nope, USA.

Yumi: No, Canada.

Me: No, USA.  Not Canada.

Yumi: Oh, so you should diet.  You are fat.

Me (laughing): What?

Yumi: You are from America so you are fat so need diet.

Me: Is everyone from America fat?

Yumi: Yes, there is so much food so just eat, eat, eat.  So you are fat.

Me (still laughing): Is everyone from Canada fat.

Yumi: No, no, no teacher.  Canada very big, but just one person.

Me: Canada is a big country, but not very many people live there?

Yumi: Yes.

(a few minutes later after sort of changing the subject)

Yumi:  Teacher are you Ms or Mrs?

Me: Ms.

Yumi: So you don't have wife...I mean you don't have husband?

Me: No.

Yumi: Do you have boyfriend?

(it is actually the second time I have been asked by a student if I am married or not, or if I had a boyfriend...the first time the girl told me I could marry her dad.)

Me: No.

Yumi:  I think no one like you because you are fat.

Me (while laughing): Yumi, that really isn't a very nice thing to say.

I'm still trying to understand if it is a good thing that she first thought I was from Canada because apparently Canadians aren't fat...only Americans.  So maybe it is a good thing that she didn't call me fat until she found out I was from the USA?

AS IT STANDS

So this is gonna be a real quick post because I'm trying to reach my goal of getting into bed before the AM.  I would really like to change my routine of going to bed around 2am and sleeping till about 11 30am.  It feels much nicer to get a few things done before I go into work.  

Things continue to go really well.  I had an awesome school day today.  The kids were great and I had some good conversations with a few of them.  For example...Elvin my little kinde kid, who was recently given a perm and now looks 20 years older, told me about how him and his dad will go ski jumping once it snows.  He said he has been skiing since he was one.  I then asked him if he knew what snowboarding was, and I told him that I snowboarded.  He said that he also snowboards, and he loves the snow.  And this all happened in English.  I loved it.  It was amazing.

Then in one of my older classes, I would say the kids are probably around 11 and 12, I told this one cute, little chubby girl Cindy to stop speaking Korean(she was talking with the only boy in the class Philip).  She then said, "But wait Teacher, very important um my friend loves someone and I am helping her."  I asked if her friend loved Philip?  "No she loves boy um same as Philip.  I am asking about buying something." "I see so your friend wants to buy something for the boy she loves so you had to ask Philip about what to buy."   Cindy- "Yes Teacher, very important."

Here are a few pics of my kinde kids.  Dario is my favorite.  Everyday I come to school I am greeted with, "Hello Meredith Teacher, how are you today?"  Then he usually comes and climbs on me at my desk and messes with stuff, but I love him so much.  Elvin just makes me laugh, especially his perm.  And today he whipped out some chapstick and put it on like lip stick, blotted on a tissue and everything.  Then Jamie is just super smart.  The other day I had them coloring a worksheet and she corrected me about the appropriate colors we were to be using.  I didn't read the directions and just told them to color whatever they wanted.  "No Teacher, color the big W black, and the little w pink."  Nothing like being corrected by a 5 year old, and a 5 year old correcting you by reading and speaking in a foreign language that is your native tongue is even better.

Dario- I want to take him home

Elvin- PERM

Jamie with her cookie

JUST ANOTHER WHITE GIRL IN A SEA OF KOREANS

"Where am I?", and "What am I doing?"

These two questions seem to pop into my head a lot here.  I will be walking down the street, and those two questions will just come out of no where.  "Where am I?".  I know exactly where I am when I wonder where I am.  I'm in Korea.  I'm in Guri.  I'm in Topyeongdong.  And I know exactly what I'm doing when I wonder what I'm doing.  I'm teaching English to cute, little Korean kids.  I'm living my early twenties the way they should be lived (in my opinion at least).  I'm having a blast.  It isn't a bad thing that I wonder these things.  I think I'm still kind of in awe of where my life has taken me.  I don't think I really believe it's all real.  I can't actually get my whole self to understand that I am in Korea, teaching English to little kids.  I'm alright with that though.  I don't think I would mind if I lived most of my life not really believing that I'm actually doing what I'm doing.  Seems like an interesting way to live.  

Well let's see...what next.  I joined a boxing gym.  I've always kind of wanted to do boxing as a workout.  I've heard it's a great workout.  I don't think I want to actually box people.  I don't think I would like that very much.  I like to think I'm pretty tough, but I'm pretty sure one shot to the head would have me cowering in the corner.  Plus I think I would feel bad hitting someone else.  I am enjoying the workout.  And I feel kinda tough punching the bags.  

I've noticed that I mostly talk about the weekends in my blogs, but that is mostly because the best things happen on the weekends.  I pretty much live for the weekends (I know I'm not alone in that).  I haven't enjoyed Fridays this much since high school.  I love it.  

I am enjoying teaching, most of the time that is.  I only really hate one class.  And some of the classes I didn't like at first I now enjoy a lot.  I think every week gets a little easier, and I figure the kids out a little more.  For the most part the weeks are pretty much the same so I don't have tons to say about them.  Here are just a couple of teaching stories I can think of...

One of my little nugget kinde kids, Elvin, toots quite a bit.  Maybe several times a day.  Well last week as I was helping them clean up the toys they had thrown all over the room (they have play time everyday just before I teach them for 80 minutes, for some reason it seems like my class is the only one who have toys strewn all over the room), I was bent over picking up a toy and Elvin came and stuck his butt right in my face and farted.  As I am not necessarily the most mature person I know, I tried my best to sternly tell him not to do that while suppressing my laughter.  It ended up being something like, "Elvin don't do that, bahahahaaha."

I am continually amazed by how much English my little kinde kids pick up.  All of a sudden last week Dario just wanted to tell me stories the whole class.  Every two minutes I would hear, "Teacher, Teacher."  I would say, "What?", and then it takes him about five seconds to start because he is thinking so hard about what he wants to say.  Most of the story ends up being told using hand gestures and noises, but I love it.  Dario is definitely my favorite even though he never listens, is usually flopping around on the floor, and I have to wrestle with him to keep him from running out the door and visiting other classes.  

There is only one child that I pretty much detest.  I can't stand the kid.  He really is a nasty child.  I've heard a really good way to get bad kids to behave is to make fun of them, so I'm trying that out this week.  I will let you know how it goes.  And if you think that is mean then you have never had to teach, and discipline children who do not speak your language. Disciplining is especially hard when the kids don't know what you are saying.

Well that is about all I have I think.  I hope everyone is doing well.  I'm have a pretty awesome time here.  I do miss you all, and I love hearing from you.  Have fun, and be safe.

Na Zdravi

YOUR FATHER ASIAN?

Had an amazing three day weekend!  We didn't have school on Friday because Saturday was a holiday called Chuseok.  People kind of say its like Thanksgiving, but basically families get together, children bow to their elders, they eat food and play some games.  It is supposed to be about honoring ancestors and such, but like most holidays it is just mainly about getting together and eating.  We did get a great gift of Nivea lotion, and chapstick, and toothpaste from our directors.  And I received some towels from one of my students so that was fun.

The highlight of the weekend was definitely the hiking trip we took to Bukhansan on Saturday.  Bukhansan is a national park just north of Seoul.  It has three different peaks.  I've never really been hiking very much, and I had never before hiked up a mountain.  However, hiking is pretty popular here since the country is mostly covered with mountains, not huge ones but obviously much bigger than anything you find in Iowa.  Anyways...it was AWESOME!!!!!  The whole hike took us 7 hours.  I'll put some pictures at the end of this post, but the pics in no way do it justice.  I don't really know how to describe the hike but I guess I will do my best...

We started out at about 11am.  It was pretty easy to start out with.  We were following some stair paths, and kind of a road.  For about the first quarter of the way up there were a lot of little restaurants where people could stop and take a break.  They had tables and blankets set up all among the rocks.  It was really neat. 

 The second quarter of the way up was a little bit harder.  There were more rocks and it was a little steeper.  At one point we realized we were not going in the correct direction to get to the peak, but luckily this girl who could speak English saw us looking at the signs kind of confused and helped direct us the right way.  Probably about half-way up we stopped next to a wall built during the Joseon dynasty to eat lunch.  

After that the trail got a little harder and a little steeper.  We started going the wrong way again, but a nice Korean man told us to follow him.  We lost him in no time but managed to stay on the right trail.  I felt like it was the trail that never ended.  Finally we managed to get out of the trees and we were able to see the peak we were headed for.  Then the trail started to get a little hairy.  

At this point I was not really scared.  I didn't get nervous until the top.  Anyways, you basically had to pull yourself up, or climb down, some steep, slippery rocks using a cable that was staked into the rocks.  This whole trip made me very thankful for my hiking shoes I bought before I left.  Especially for the Gryptonite soles.  The trail was also pretty crowded, so you would often have to find some way move over for people or have people move over for you while trying to hold on to a cable for dear life.  

Then when we got nearer to the top we had to go up a bunch of stairs.  This was by far the worst part of the hike.  After hiking for about 4 hours trying to lift my legs up stairs was darn hard.  After the stairs came some more cables and steep, slippery rocks.  At this point I started to get a little nervous.  We were almost to the top so the place was pretty packed.  At times there were probably like 20 people all lined up pulling themselves up the rock and if one of them slipped you are all going down.  I started to have some irrational thoughts at this point, such as, what if we get to the top and this mountain decides it doesn't want to be a mountain anymore and just decides to start tumbling down.  That would really suck.  I managed to keep these thoughts to myself, as I knew it would do no good to mention them to my hiking mates, who I'm pretty sure were also a bit freaked out.  At one point Emily said she might start to hyperventilate so I knew I shouldn't tell her about my fear that the mountain was going to collapse, she was just trying to make it up without slipping to her death.  

But alas, we all made it to the top unscathed, and let me tell you it was quite a view.  To one side you can see the entire city of Seoul, it is amazing to see it like that.  Other than that you are basically looking down on a sea of green mountains.  It truly was pretty darn breathtaking.  We sat and rested at the top for awhile just taking it all in.  It was beautiful.  The way down wasn't too bad.  We took the shorter, more direct way down.  We didn't realize we had taken the long, meandering way up but I'm very happy for that.  If we had taken the hard way up I don't think I really would have enjoyed that.  I now know to take the easy, long way up and then the shorter way down.  We finally made it back down to the bottom and enjoyed a mug of the most refreshing beer I'd ever tasted.  As we finished our beer we got to see an almost full moon come up behind one of the peaks.  It was by far the coolest thing I've done since being here and I can't wait to go hiking again.  

Oh and I almost forgot...the reason this post is called Your Father Asian? is because I was asked that on the hike.  This nice Korean man started talking to us when we were stopped for a little break on the way down.  He asked where we were from, what we were doing here, and such.  Then he asked me if my father was Asian.  He said I kind of looked a little Asian with my dark hair and such.  Never gotten that one before, but Krista and Emily thought it was pretty funny.  It was just one of the many good quotes that came out in this adventure.  I will list some of them just so I can look back and remember them.  If you don't think they are funny that is fine.  I won't mention who said them just in case those individuals don't want to claim they said them.  By the way this hiking trip was made up of Krista, Emily, 3 of Krista's friends from her school, and me.  If you think you can pick out the culprits of these quotes feel free to guess.  Once again you may not care at all, but I want a record so this is mainly for my benefit.

"My shoes are too slippery for this SHIT...I'm done."- said when we were probably only halfway up

"If I die my parents will be really mad at you guys."

-in the middle of hoisting ourselves up a steep rock 

"Oh, bee, bee.  Don't freak out.  Don't freak out."

"I won't, but will you?"

"Your father Asian?"

"I thought I was going to die three times today."

And the mantra for the day...for a couple of us at least..."Hardcore Parkour!"

Here are some pics from the day...they do not do it justice at all.  Simply amazing.

The one on the right is the one we climbed to the top of

Seoul

Just hanging out at the top

Looking down on all the people who are still on their way up

B E A Utilful

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...