"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