Last Weekend in June

I can't believe June has flown by. Now that my time in Korea has passed the "honeymoon" stage, looks like the "homesick" stage is next. Hopefully, with all of your support, you won't let me know too much of what is going on in your lives. It seems to make me miss home a little...so, all I really want to know is how you are and what you have been up to.

Now that I have this blog, I have been making it a point to document things that I observe (on my Itouch) so I can update you all in a more entertaining/speedy way, without forgetting.

In recognition of baseball season, I've come to the observation that many more Koreans know about Seattle that I thought. Well, maybe that's not the case, but I have been seeing a handful (probably around 3) men around the city wearing Mariner's caps. It's quite shocking. Saw a man running down the sidewalk a few weeks ago, a guy at the Lotte Giants game, and a guy on the subway...all sporting the hat. I'm not really sure if they are particularly interested in the Mariner's though. I met a guy at a bar who was wearing a Cleveland Indians cap and I asked him if he liked that baseball team. His response was...."I bought this cap because when I drink, my face gets red, like the Indian." Sooooo...I guess they buy things because its resembles them?

Just a random, pointless thing that I saw while in a taxi...you know those stickers that look like gun shot holes...people put them on their cars.. ya, well, apparently they are in Korea as well. Hmm...maybe they were from Rochester and moved to Korea.

On a different note, I experienced 2 new things this weekend.

Friday, we had a dinner meeting with my teachers. I was a little bummed because, one, this was the first meeting without my friend Alice, and second, we found out Thursday afternoon so a lot of the younger teachers could not make it. I had already made plans so I was debating if I wanted to even go. Now that we don't have volleyball it's strange going to eat after school....we're not celebrating anything. And, guess what my co-teachers (well influenced heavily by the Principal) wanted to go....raw fish (sashimi) of course. By now, all of the teachers know that I'm not a huge seafood fan. As the side dishes were coming out, if they seemed more western, Brandon (4-2 teacher) would slide them in front of me. The evening progressed and the soju and beer were being poured..(OH MY GOSH I JUST DELETED EVERYTHING I JUST WROTE, THANK YOU FOR THE UNDO BUTTON)...sorry, I was asked if I wanted to try the RAW FISH. I said, "on ee yo"...no thanks. But then I got to thinking...I should just try it. I eat it cooked. So yes, my friends and family, Jin tried raw fish, three pieces on separate occasions, dipped HEAVILY into a mixture of soy sauce and wasabi and wrapped up in a leaf. My lovely co-workers were more than willing to pour me a few more glasses of "meck ju" to watch me down some "Korean tradional" food. My evening concluded with my Principal asking me to rate all of the men according to....how good of a man they were..haha. Oops, I forgot to put my Principal first..they got a nice laugh out of that. Oh how I appreciate and love those akward moments with my school...

On Saturday, my fellow foreign neighbors and I were invited to our "Den Mother's" baby's first birthday. Little Eu Joon turned one and it's a very very big deal in the Korean culture. First birthdays are huge here. She rented out a room at the W Party, which is a huge wedding banquet hall with tons of rooms and a huge buffet that the whole place eats from. They had everything you could think of eating. We tried to sit at a table where we wouldn't stand out too much. It was me, my friend Diana (Korean Canadian) and Christine (the only white girl)... They offered free booze so we were happy we were seated away from the crowd. YeJin (my Den Mother) and Kevin (my tutoring student) were dressed up in traditional Korean clothing and so was little baby Eu Joon. They looked so nice. We were asked to choose an item that we predicted the baby would choose as his future career. He sits on this little throne with all these items in front of him and he picks an item that they claim will be his future. He chose a computer mouse, but I thought he'd go for the ball. They also had this CRAZY MC. She was dancing and singing and running around screaming. It was definitely an experience I won't forget!




Ahh..June. Can't believe you've come and gone.

Activity Genius

Did you all know that I am brilliant at finding activities for my students? Well, I am. Guess where my new place to find games for my students is at...? Bridal and Baby Shower websites. I have been using games from there to play with my kids. It's quite entertaining. And no, I don't dress them up in bridal gowns made out of toilet paper. That would be quite fun though. In Korea, they might find that wasteful.

Today the activity I chose for my 5th grade activity class was a big hit. Too bad they were SUPER loud. Most of the teachers I've talked to this week have come to the conclusion that there must be a full moon out. They are excessively loud and we can't figure it out. Anyway, I first had the students stand in a line as they came into class. I clipped them each with 2 paper clips and had them sit at a table. I stuck a post it on our stage with the group numbers and told them if they spoke Korean, I would take away one of their clips. Then I had 4 baskets of items that they already knew...gave each table a basket to look at for 3 minutes and then took it away from them. They were to memorize all of the objects.. Do these games sound familiar? Then, had them write down the words and make a sentence for each word. I put all of the words on the white board and counted everyone's points. I went through a basket to see who was missing what. After that we added to their total points, points for each sentence that was correct. At the very end we subtracted the total clips I pulled off their shirts... Ahh.. Feels good to have a successful day. Anyone want to hire me?

So the next few weeks have a bunch of fun stuff going on. I've been invited to play in a volleyball tournament tomorrow at Gwangalli Beach. It should be fun. Tomorrow...I'm going to lay low. I have no money. I am going to start looking for vacations though. Southeast Asia...not quite sure where to go yet. I think I'm on my mine too...sad. Anyone back home wanna come meet up in some country??? End of July there is a Mud Festival where you drink and run around in fields and fields of mud. It's supposed to be epic and a must do before you leave Korea. I'm trying to get some people together to go around the 18th.

Hope all is well!

A Month Has Gone By

Hello Everyone!

I'm changing my style a little bit. It's been difficult for me to bust out e-mails on a consistent basis, so I've decided to build my own blog. This way, you guys can view what's been going on with my life at your own time and not have to stare at my long e-mails. You'll be able to log on and look at this whenever.

I feel like it's been a month since I've updated you all. Has it? The last few weeks have been busy as always. Oh my gosh, I just checked my last e-mail, and it has been a month since I've filled you in on my life here. Ooops. Sorry! Hopefully with the blog I'll be able to update it more often, making you happy, and making it easier on my memory.

Since last month...there have been a lot of things that went on...never a dull moment.

The week that I wrote you last was a very volleyball involved week. I believe I played 4 out of the five days during the week and also on Sunday. This was the week of May 11th.

I was invited with another co-worker of mine (Alice 5-2 Teacher) to the nurse at our school's (Tracey) house. She lives in an area called Namcheon. The apartment complex she lives in is massive. It's surrounding a middle and elementary school and the shops/restaurants on the bottom floor are super trendy. She took us out to a really yummy Italian restaurant first and then invited us over for coffee and dessert at her place. Oh my gosh, she had such a nice place. Hardwood floors of course, 3 Kimchi refridgerators, 2 regular refridgerators, a real stove, a dishwasher, about 5 rooms, and most of those had little sun rooms connected to them...the cabinets were all a rich cherry and there was crown molding everywhere. It was top notch. Anyway...by far the best apartment I've seen in Korea.

Wednesday the 13th we had our normal practice game against another school...can't remember which one. Then on Friday my co-teacher asked me at the last minute if I wanted to practice volleyball with him at another school. Of course I would...duh. But I didn't have clothes so he rushed me home after school so I could change and then we were off. I figured we would be meeting the other male teachers for a typical practice game with another school, but OH NO...I was going to be practicing with my co-teacher's CLUB volleyball team. I got there and recognized a handful of the men from our previous games...and it was a little awkward, because they did not know I was coming. This was an intense volleyball day. We were actually practicing...I felt like I was back in high school or at a camp or something. Drill after drill. It was fun and I was rewarded with a yummy fish soup dinner (that's sarcasm at its finest).

The following week was...what students...BUSY! Monday volleyball, Tuesday I started tutoring (I'll get to that in a minute), Wednesday was my Open Class and our first volleyball tournament, Thursday tutoring again, Friday Women's volleyball tourney, Saturday shopping on Texas Street, and Sunday more.....you guessed it, volleyball..at the beach.

Tutoring. My den mother YeJin, who I think I've mentioned before, has a husband that is really involved in working with foreigners and wanted to learn more Business English that he could use at work. She asked me if I would be interested in tutoring him, so we met up and talked about what he wanted to learn and that was the start of some extra income for me. We meet every Tuesday and Thursday in her office for an hour. I get paid 20,000 won per hour and so far it's been pretty good. His English is pretty good already, he is just not very confident and doesn't exactly know what order to put his words in.

An open class is a class in which your co-workers, vice principal, and principal come in and observe a class of yours. I was able to choose the class I wanted, the lesson I wanted to teach, and what day and period it was going to take place. These are completely staged and rehearsed. The reason for these classes is a bit foggy, but the education board is trying to reward teachers that perform well in these open classes with a pay raise for the following year. It is ridiculous to me. First of all, we have been in Korea for 4 months and many of us have not figured out if we will be here for next year or not, we would get about 100,000 won extra a pay check which is not that much, and it does not reflect an every day class situation because they are staged. My lesson was performed directly out of the book...nothing special. It's over and done with but definitely a stressful time for myself and my co-worker. Oh ya, by the way, my English room is COMPLETELY finished. Pictures will come shortly...I'm still trying to figure out how this blogging stuff works.


These are some pictures of me teacher during the open class.


The volleyball tournament for the Men went well, but the news isn't as great for the Women. That Wednesday we had the Men's playoffs and we ended up winning so we were scheduled to play the following Wednesday for the Semis and Finals. For a mini celebration...dinner and drinks. The Women played on Friday and we got our butts kicked. But that was predictable. It was very fun though.

As most of you probably already heard...the Ex-President of South Korea committed suicide...I believe the last week in May. I read the stories and so many people in Korea were devasted. I think a lot of Koreans cried that weekend.

Ahh Texas Street. If you've heard anything about this infamous area, you would think that it would be a great place to tour. Not so much. Texas Street is a famous area where there is a mixture of Chinese and Russians. Yup, Russians. I went with a few friends (always go with others) and checked out the area. COMPLETELY SKETCHY. Russian prostitutes and everything. Not a good place to go...especially at night, but I'd recommend not going in the day either. I went because it was supposed to have some "foreigner" shopping...but that was not the case.

The following week....last week in May was every changing thanks to Korea being Dynamic. Our volleyball tournament was cancelled due to the death of the President and we just practiced against other schools all week. I believe this week we played at a girl's high school. We watched them after our game, and they were AMAZING! One observation about Korean Women's sports...they all cut their hair really short (I think it's forced) so sometimes they don't even look like women. In rememberance of the President we ate duck and drank Soju that Friday.

On Thursday the "young" co-workers and I went out to celebrate my friend Alice's last few weeks at school. I'm bummed. She's such a great person and I usually hang out with her at school. Anyway, we went out for Sam Gip Sum (pork) and drinking...and Noraebang. It was fun and sad...

Monday the 1st, Alilce took me into Seomyeon (pronounced (hard O sound) Some Yawn)...the big city near my place, and we went out for dinner at a Shabu Shabu restaurant and shopping for "indoor summer shoes". I needed new shoes for school that were open toed because it's really hot now days and my feet were sweating and stinking..you know. Shabu Shabu is real yummy. It's not a traditional Korean dish...its inspiration comes from Japan. You dip thin slices of beef into hot broth...and dip the beef into sauce, and then you put the sauce dipped beef into a leaf of lettuce...that is with a small ball of rice...and a few seasame seeds. It's delicious.

Tuesday, my co-workers put together a huge ceremony for the opening of the English room...and a celebration for the library and science rooms that were also remodeled. It was boring.

The rest of the week was more volleyball practice and then on Friday we had our Semi-Finals and Final tournament. We were really scared because Beomil Elementary School has a "SUPERSTAR" on their team. Well, well, not so much a superstar...we beat them and moved on to the final round. In fact, I actually defended a few of his hits and suprised some people. We lost in the final match...boo. Our school got a tiny trophy and then we went out for drinks and dinner...again.

Last week I helped celebrate a friends' birthday. We went to a Western style bar called the Fuzzy Navel and the bartenders put on a flaring show for us. It was amazing and I have a video to show you all! It's great.

This last Friday was pretty busy. I had a co-teacher training day with the EPIK group. There were around 300 hundred native and Korean teachers there. It was pretty easy but I think I would have rather of been at school. It was Alice's last last last day and I wanted to say goodbye. But...instead we said goodbye a better way. The "young"sters at school went out for a Lotte Giants baseball game. One of Alice's students' dads works for the team and got us some great tickets. It was a perfect farwell outing.



Soo...for the last few days I've been hanging out at the beach playing a little volleyball and working on my tan for the summer. The weather has been weird but we're managing to get some pretty beautiful days. My friend Dara leaves this week for Canada and then Hawaii so I'll be saying goodbye, yet again, to another friend. Boo.

Well...your eyes are probably sore by now. I'll be getting better at this so hopefully you'll see more updates, which in turn will allow less reading, but more frequently.

Love you all!