A Wedding, A Countdown and 700+

So this last week has gone by fast. The countdown is closing in. It's already December! I remember thinking, Holy crap it't October, and now it's December. Time is flying and it feels amazing. My Christmas shopping is pretty much done. I have sent almost all my cards and presents out (hopefully they all make it). The post office here has never been an issue, but when I was in on Monday they were crazy! So busy and just plain crazy.

I watch Christmas movies at night and listen to Christmas music during the day. Some of the shops downtown are even putting up Christmas displays. We heard one store playing Christmas music and that was awesome. It felt like home, except it wasn't very cold.

I haven't broken out my winter coat yet. I have been wearing a fleece to work with a scarf and sometimes gloves. There are still leaves on trees. Currently in Daegu it is 39 degrees. And I have a 3 minute walk to work. I was told by our Korean grandmother at work thought that I need to wear a coat. She insisted on it. I just don't think it's that cold yet.

I have 2 weeks and 2 days left with my kids. It's exciting to be getting a new class, but at the same time it is a little terrifying. I like my classroom I don't want to move. I'm sure it will all work out though.

So I went to a Korean wedding on Saturday. It was really cool. Very different from the states. They have weddings at like wedding centers. Every wedding is pretty much the same. I only got to see the Western type of wedding, and it was interesting. They sequester the bride in a room for pictures first of all. When the wedding is supposed to start it does, it's a schedule constantly moving through the venue.

It is really fast too. The parents walk down the aisle then the groom, and then the bride. It's more a catwalk than an aisle. Then there was a lot of talking from the Father of the Bride. Laughing and crying. Then he said something and our table was lit up and everyone looked at us. Apparently he was thanking the teachers for coming (there were 4 of us foreign teachers there).

The father of the bride, had the groom doing pushups, downing a bottle of Soju and running up and down the aisle, maybe to show his worthiness. It was interesting. Then it was over, the ceremony. Next were pictures, everyone gets photographed. Everyone. It's a marathon.

After pictures was a buffet. Lots of interesting food. The bride and groom came out in traditional Korean wedding clothing. That was a really cool sight.

Truth be told I definitely almost cried. Gia looked amazing in her gown. Then I started thinking about Alicia, who's wedding I will not be seeing because I am in Korea. It made me really sad. But it was a good time all around.

Now it's back to work for 2 and a half weeks and then my mom and brother will be here. In case you missed it.

Christmas...Is Coming!

BTB Pie

So Thanksgiving was good. A few of the other teachers and I went to a place called Buy the Book for a lovely Thanksgiving feast. This is the same feast we had for Canadian Thanksgiving. It was delicious. Not the same as home, but it had a homey feel. This place is wonderful and the couple that owns it is great. Definitely going back for Christmas, I talked to Sandy and she said they would probably be open the whole week.

Vanilla Chai and
Christmas music
great way to relax.

It's getting colder here, but I still haven't broke out my coat yet. I just can't do it. It doesn't feel like winter. Maybe it's because I haven't seen snow yet, I don't know. The apartments in Korea, well mostly everything in Korea, is not insulated well, or at all for that matter. It doesn't matter how much you heat a place it ends up cold way too fast. I miss having a dryer.

So I think I missed this story from Busan last weekend. I wanted a cup of hot chocolate, and I asked Jayna if she had a tea kettle. She said yes, but she didn't use it often because it was so big. I asked if I could use it for hot chocolate. She gave me a funny look, said yes, but she normally just uses the microwave. OMG! I have forgotten about the modern convenience of a microwave. I use one at school but I don't have one in my apartment. Great moment.

I put up my Christmas tree, second hand of course. It came complete with tinsel, bows, and ornaments.    Would you believe that most of the ornaments are green and gold? Well I was pretty excited about that, since I can't have the normal mini Packer tree this year. The Christmas music is on my iPhone and the countdown is on.

A couple of teachers and I had our second Thanksgiving meal on Sunday night (it's not Thanksgiving unless you eat it twice) and Kaylee and I had to go pick up a Christmas present. I saw a cute pair of boots in a shop (mind you my feet are considered huge here, and I don't find shoes easily) so I went in to try them on. They are tan suede looking boots. I looked at them, asked how much, and saw they were made in Korea. I tried them on and bought them on the spot, not 5 minutes and I had a new pair of boots. Yay! Random but I'm good with that.

I took up crochet,
I had to find something productive to do.

I finally made a batch of popcorn on the stove without burning it! So excited. I miss normal air popped popcorn, this is the closest I can get for the time being.

I miss everyone so much. I can't wait to Skype my family for Christmas. It will be so amazing to see my grandparents. It's really hard not being able to just jump in the car and go see them. Being here has made me appreciate the little traditions. Thanksgiving in a bar, Black Friday with all the lines and ridiculousness, mom's pumpkin pie, grandma's scalloped potatoes. I am totally going to gain 10 lbs when I get back home.

Spicy, but delicious italian baked pasta from
Little Italia. So good.

28 days...

Thankful

Well it is almost Thanksgiving. So in the spirit of almost every person on Facebook, I am going to list the things I am thankful for. It could be very long, so I will try and prioritize and these are not in order of importance, by any means.

1. Skype. Without it I would be a mess. It lets me see my mom, my brother (when he surprisingly shows up on the screen), the dog, the neighbors, my aunt and uncle and my dad. It's a sanity saver.

2. Kleenex. What in the world would I do without my favorite tissue brand?

3. Mail. It is a very uplifting moment when I walk into school or a teacher walks into my classroom with a little hand written note from someone back home. Email is great, but mail is amazing.

4. Tylenol. So many headaches! Without it I would be a goner.

5. Mac and Cheese. It's a little flavor of home that tastes amazing no matter where you are.

6. Music. My apartment would be way too quiet if I had to turn it off.

7. Airplanes. My mom and brother are coming to see me for Christmas (in case you missed it in my last however many posts).

8. Toaster Oven. You can't cook everything on a stove, believe me. And I love that my muffins turned out last week. Next step, lasagna.

9. Other Foreigners. Without all the other foreigners both at my school and around Korea I would be SOL. It's nice knowing that there are people here who have your back and care.

10. My Family. (See I told you this was not in order of importance) I miss them so much. I'm thankful that my aunt will wrap my mom's birthday present and email me photos of Clay Matthews from the Packer game. I'm thankful that my grandparents pick up the phone when I Skype call them (they are selective with their caller ID, haha). I'm thankful that my uncle taught me to throw a decent punch, I don't want to test it, but I could. I'm thankful that I have a village.

11. My Mom. What? Did you think I was going to group her in with everyone else? She is the woman who taught me to be brave and strong and not to give up. She sends me penguin flashlights and mac and cheese and Thanksgiving decorations. She holds a squirming dog up to the webcam so that I can see him every once in a while. She goes above and beyond everyday and I could never say thank you enough.

Clay! And Other Lovely Stories

So this week was a good week. For Phonics this week my kids had ~ay words, and guess what word came up? Clay! Ahhh I had a field day, or several of them. The first day I mentioned that Clay could be a name as well as a normal word. Well this started a whole conversation, and by the end of the week I almost had the kids doing the Packer chant. It's a goal before I leave.

Wednesday is my favorite day of the week, because let's face it, kids singing English songs that they don't understand, while doing complex dance moves is adorable. I added a video so you guys can see my tiny humans and their silly music class.

This week they started construction on the building next to me. I think it was at one point a house. When I moved in, no one was there and it was a dump. So now it is a pile of ruble. So nice. I have started using my ear plugs so I can sleep on the weekends. I slept until 10:30 on Sunday. Good gravy!

I have finally found a decent bar to go to on Friday nights. It is downtown, which kind of sucks, but it is more homey than any other I have found. It is pretty chill and we were able to sit, have a drink, talk and pay a random Korean card game. Definitely felt more like a normal Friday night,

I got my Christmas decorations this week! So excited!!! I will not be putting them up until Thanksgiving, but I can handle that. I put up lights around my room in my apartment. It is so much nicer than my florescent overhead light.

It's getting cooler here. I haven't used my winter coat yet, but I know I will have to soon.  I am not looking forward to the dry, cold, snow lacking winter they keep telling me to expect here.

I have started to crochet again, or at least I am trying to. Could get interesting. I found some great yarn at the market, and I finally got my needles from GMarket. I ordered them all by myself from a half Korean website. Yay!

Guess what?! 42 days until my mom and brother get here! I am getting so excited. Making many, many lists and there is so much to do!

Miss you all! Leave me a question if there is something you want to know about Korea. 

Field Trips, Treats and News

So once again I am slipping in my blogger duties and haven't updated in a while. I am sorry! So here are the highlights, and a few pictures to make you even more jealous of the adorable kids I see everyday. Don't let the big brown eyes foul you, they are naughty kids.

So we had a field trip a week ago. We went to a park, which was actually really cool. The kids had a chance to harvest what we believe was a type of wheat. Definitely not the kind I am used to seeing, but I know it was not rice like everyone was saying. The kids were able to cut the stalks, and then use a machine to get all the usable grain off the stalk. The picture is pretty cute. She is one of my favorite students.

Kristen and Me

I have been hanging out with my friend Kristen, who is from WI. Amazing! Someone who understands that football is not just a sport, it's a way of life. Although when we first started talking I wasn't sure we could be friends, we both like Clay Matthews (my future husband).

Seomun Market, Daegu

I went to Busan last weekend. Took the train (for only the 2nd time since I have been in Korea) and caught the subway from there. I was met by my friend Jayna who came to Daegu when I first moved here, she was a life saver that weekend too. This weekend we were going to see a comedy show (and yes it was in English) and then a fireworks festival the next night.

The comedy show was amazing. The MC for the night was hilarious, watch the video below. There have always been lots of rumors and stereo types about foreigners in Korea and he sings about them to a T.

The next day was the fireworks festival. We woke up to down pour rain. Lovely. We well met up with some of Jayna's friends and completely soaked ourselves trying to get to the beach. It was a nice beach, I'm sure I would enjoy it when it's not a mud pit. We ended up hanging out in a coffee shop for a few hours waiting for the fireworks, but as it turned out the waves and rain had other plans. We were told (in Korean) that the fireworks were postponed to the next night.

While we weren't able to see the fireworks the trip was a lot of fun. We went out to dinner, went out for drinks and I met some really cool people. Hopefully I can head down to Busan a couple more times before Jayna leaves the ROK.

Look at my cute class

Halloween came next. Let me tell you, kids in costumes are adorable. Now we had a Halloween party (organized by my friend Kelly, and she did an awesome job) on Tuesday. The kids were so cute and had a ton of fun. The teachers dressed up too, more the foreign teachers than the Korean ones but it was cool anyway.

6 year old teacher costumes

It's finally the weekend again! And before I left school today I got some amazing news. We found out the dates for Christmas vacation and I will be off December 22-January 2. Good Golly Miss Molly hell has frozen over. None of the teachers saw that one coming. But that means that there are no complications with the best Christmas present ever (my mom and brother coming to the ROK). I even get a couple days to clean my apartment (yea I'm not buying that one either).

Well hope everyone is well. In other, unrelated Korea news I have turned in my resume and interest letter to AK. Who knows, in a year I might be hanging out in frigid Alaska with a real teaching job.

Spider hats!

Here is the lovely video from our comedy show, all about foreign English teachers. I died laughing.  

Playing Catchup

So it has been a couple weeks since my last post, sorry everyone. Obviously lots of things have happened, I mean when is something not happening here. So hopefully I can condense my thoughts and give you the basics. I miss the states, have I said that? I am sure I have, but guess what wonderful Internet world! My favorite people in the states are coming to visit me! That's right, it has been confirmed and there are seat assignments. I have the best family in the world, and I would know since I am 6500 miles away.

Ok onto other news. My students have been teaching me one Korean word a day during circle time. I have however bent the rules a bit and they taught me to count (one way) to ten one day. There are four different number systems in Korea and of course I am so confused. I am trying my best. So far they have taught me; 1-10, hello, sorry, goodbye, my family, wait, shoes, market (lol it's market and camera is camera), left turn, cheese, duck and 1-4(of these, so 2 of these). Very exciting stuff. And I have picked up (it's ok and how much is that) from my co-teacher. I am trying!

It's almost Halloween and since I am in Korea I went with something very Korean. It is basically pajama onsie, and it is a duck. I think the kids are going to get a kick out of it. I promise to post pictures of all the kids on Halloween, I think Princess is the trend this year. It will be an interesting day.

I met a new friend. She is from WI! Amazing! It is really nice to have someone outside of school that I can talk to. I love the girls at my school, but seriously you can only hang out with the same people so much. She is teaching at another hagwon in Daegu. It is such a breath of fresh air to talk to someone who is also a Packer fan and can actually talk football. Lovely change I must say.

This past weekend Kristen and I went and tackled Seomun Market. It is a traditional market in Daegu, and is absolutely huge. While we were walking from the subway people were on the streets selling things. We had stopped at one point and something moved out of the corner of my eye. There were live fish (they looked like tiny snakes) in this shallow metal bowl. Ahhh scared the crap out of me. We were looking for yarn (because I need a hobby, and why shouldn't I try to knit, or crochet) and believe it or not we found a person selling some, not an easy feat. Well I used my best Korean, and a calculator, to ask the woman how much the yarn was. She understood me! Hooray! Then when I said thank you and good bye she said "Thank you". Very cool.

I made it to the three month mark everyone. While sitting outside, having a drink in front of the local convenience store (because yes you can do that here) on Friday night I learned something new. I learned that none of the other teachers thought I was going to stay this long. One of them even said she thought about standing outside my door during Chuseok to check on me. I am proud to say I have made it. After being able to finally send money home I feel like I have accomplished something.

Last week as I was coming into school I was thinking how I hadn't gotten any snail mail in a while, and when I got to my desk there was a very pleasant surprise. I had a lovely card from my grandparents. It definitely made my day. I love getting notes and cards. And every single one of them gets put on my wall, anything to distract from the flowers on everything. I'm glad I didn't bring much pink clothing or I would need a new wardrobe.

Alright well I think that's it for now. Did I mention that my mom and my brother will be coming for Christmas? Only 64 days away! So excited! LALALALALA yea that's not even a little bit of how I am feeling.

Oh one more thing. My little kids in kindergarten have started repeating my little rhymes and things for how to write their numbers, and how to remember double vowel sounds. Progress!

Mom

I don't think anyone has a better mom than me. Sorry Auntie Sue. She sent me snack size cheez-its and cookies. A new Packer scarf, Halloween socks, dvd's my favorite sweaters, canned pineapple (mind you it's $4 a can here and in heavy syrup). And she sent me 4 cheese packets from Mac an cheese, even after the last time when she went to make some and all the cheese was gone.

Best mom ever.

Happy Chuseok

So it's another week down in Korea. It's been a really tough week. I have to say I have really been struggling here. I have been trying to fit in with the other teachers in my school and I have come to realize that other than being in Korea, we really have nothing in common. Now I can honestly say that two of the other teachers are amazing. They will let me cry on their shoulder any night of the week, but the rest are not as accepting. 

Two of the other foreign teachers just resigned their contracts. And they are just excited about it. I personally don't get it. I am here for a year and then I am getting the hell out. On the bright side, maybe, I have a game plan. I am going to take this as a learning experience. An experience to learn to cope. I am going to take whatever they throw at me, nod my head, agree to high heaven and then shake my fist when I get back to my apartment (or at least try). 

The plan is to survive until I can leave this country, get my license when I get back home and move to Colorado, finally. I should have moved there to begin with. 

Ok, back to the week. It was another week I survived. I am fairly certain I cried almost every night and a couple times at school. I think the Korean teachers think I am crazy, but I figure I will just deal with that. 

So I am practicing my Korean. I got a new student in my class, I am up to 9 now (in a room that shouldn't have more than 6). I had to add a couple more jobs to our classroom so now we have the job of "Word of the Day". One of my kids teaches me a Korean word each day. So far I have; cold, thank you, hello, and please down. Exciting stuff. 

I made mac and cheese with weird Korean cheese. It was interesting. Not the best thing ever, but I can make do with it. I also made some yummy grilled cheese. Found some semi-normal looking pancake mix at HomePlus so I made a little of that, even opened up my bag of chocolate chips and put a few in them. They weren't half bad. 

This lovely note was left by my land lady I believe. Now I put my trash (separated and everything) into plastic bags. But I got this note on my door (as did Kelly). I am not sure what it means, and we all know that I am not that accepting of Korean anything. I am sure there is a law about throwing garbage in a bag, and mine does go in a bag, so I have no idea what this means. Another day, another laughable moment in Korea. 

My friend Victoria and I have decided that Misoya (this cute Japanese restaurant  is going to be our new tradition. We go there almost every week and we have decided we will go there once a week for a yummy dinner. Making traditions in Korea, strange happenings. Normally we stay to eat, but this week we decided to leave the Koreans to their meal and have ours by ourselves as take out. 

This weekend was Chuseok. It's the closest thing Koreans have to Thanksgiving. They make Songpeong and where Hanboks. We had a Chuseok celebration on Thursday. I got to wear a hanbok and we made songpeong. Definitely an interesting experience. The dresses are adorable. The kids looked so cute. Not a huge fan of songpeong. It is a rice cake like thing and there is sweet potato or sugar and sesame seeds inside. Too chewy for my taste. It is said that if you make pretty songpeong you will have pretty babies. It's good that I am not having babies, because mine were ugly. 

Sunday was the real Chuseok so to celebrate I added a couple new things to my apartment. A couple of foreigners were leaving Korea and I bought their dust buster and a side lamp. Yay! So excited to get rid of the dust in this apartment. 

Ok well this was another very long post and I apologize for all the complaining. Just keep reminding me I have an end game. I need a calendar in my apartment so I can check off the days. 

New gadgets

It's a win when you can find a cup of ice and
a mountain dew

A view I would kill for

Update. It's Monday and we are headed to Apsan Mountain to take some pictures. We were supposed to leave at 1:30pm. We didn't leave on time. Then it was decided we would take a bus. Seriously? I can hail a cab and I'm sure he knows what I am talking about. But no, a bus it is. So we are on our 2nd bus and hopefully this one will get us where we need to go before I toss my cookies from the awful driving. Here's hoping the "adventure" has value because this bus is going to make me hurl.

In other news, I figured out how to download movies. So on the bright side when I have had enough of Korea for the day I can go watch an American movie.

See that blue dot at the top, that's where we ended up. See that green blob in the left bottom corner? That's where we were supposed to be. Well it ended up being a fun adventure, nothing compared to a few stories I have heard from my mom (parking garage in Iceland) but the view was nice. We went up in a cable car and took some amazing shots. I will try and post them soon.

Typhoon Take 2

So I am going to try to make this one quick. I am supposed to be working on schedules, home letters and overviews for school. It's Sunday night and this is a recap of the week. Monday we were struck with a typhoon. This was an actual typhoon mind you. There was wind and rain and morning class was "optional" for my students. I got to sit there, and do some work. Did you know that you can actually get some work done when they give you prep time? Me either!

The week was pretty basic. Went to school, went home, ate dinner, read a book and went to sleep. Repeat. I did however start to get my first cold. It is going around the school and I knew it was coming. Friday at school I got to have a lovely discussion about my attitude during my afternoon class. After 20 minutes of my co-teacher telling me what I was doing (I still am not sure what she was saying) she told me to be more professional. I think changing my entire schedule with a smile on my face, 20 minutes into class is pretty professional. I ended up having the vice principle sitting in on my class and interrupting several times. My poor kids just stared at me like (Teacher, what is she saying?). It was an experience.

My amazing enchilada from BTB

This weekend was a Mexican theme at this place called Buy the Book. Yes, they sell books. If I didn't have my Nook that place would be dangerous for me. Saturday Victoria and I went over there to get some delicious mexican food. It was to die for. Sandie does an incredible job. They also carry some very sought after foreign foods. I bought 2 packages (not boxes) of Blueberry PopTarts. Oh my goodness, best PopTarts ever. I didn't eat them at home, but I am hungry for them here. They also carry some home brand medicines, so I got a couple of on the go cough syrup doses. Love that place.

This is my fried rice. Yummo

Today was a pretty good day. It was goregous here. About 77 degrees and plenty of sun. A few of the girls and I went to this amazing place called Hami Mami for breakfast. They are one of only a couple of places in Daegu that make American Breakfast. The french toast was so good! After our afternoon breakfast a couple of the teachers are in a Frisbee league, so we went to their game to watch them play. It was a lot of fun. I was dying for some fried rice (it's not common here, all the rice is steamed) so I did my best to make some. Not perfect, but it was good and a nice start to a new recipe.

Frisbee field and the "mountains" in
the background

I am starting to get antsy for my fall clothes. It's getting cooler here at night, and a girl can only wear the same sweatshirt so many times in a week. Probably going to have to make a run to Seoul after I get my fall clothes box to supplement my wardrobe.

I have been talking to my mom and my brother and it is still a possibility that they will be coming here for Christmas. I am really hoping they do. Every time the girls and I do something fun I make a mental note that they would love to see this. A girl can always hope right?

Victoria, in all her Chelsea
supporting glory

Next weekend is Cheusok. That is Korean Thanksgiving. So next weekend is a 5 day weekend. I couldn't find anyone who wanted to go to Japan with me (and I am not doing that alone) so hopefully there will be a few South Korea day trips in my future. Lots of Love everyone. I miss you all so much!

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/32019474089/when-im-skyping-with-my-best-friends-and-they-ask-me
    This lovely link basically explains my weekends here in Korea.

Great News and Football Madness

This is a lovely pizza from a place in downtown. You get to pick the shape of your pizza. This is a Kindergarten teachers best dream. I am definitely going back here.

This week was a bit interesting at work. Last week I was told I would have a new class starting on Thursday. Which meant I needed to prepare a schedule and a newsletter for the parent, of the one student I would be teaching. No big deal right? Wrong. I gave the schedule to my boss, who I guess gave the changes to my co-teacher (who is the sweetest person in the world) Gia. I didn't get them from Gia until Wednesday and we were headed to a field trip that morning. No time to fix anything. I got a phone call after my morning class from my boss. She wanted to know if the schedule was done. I told her no and I wouldn't be working on it until I got home that night because I had prep work for my morning class I had to do at school. She asked me repeatedly why I didn't get the information the day before. I was honest, I told her I was in Krista's class observing like she asked me to, so I was not on my floor. She got angry, and since I wouldn't argue she called my co-teacher to her office and yelled at her. Seriously? It's my bosses fault and my co-teacher didn't do anything.

This is the field trip I was talking about. We went to an Embroidery Museum. It was actually pretty cool. My kids behaved really well, and although I had no idea what was going on, the teacher's got complimented with how much they helped the kids with making the book project. Fun times.

My new class started and dang, it's going to be a lot of work. She is with me for 2 and a half hours two days a week. She has great English skills but her grammar is lacking. It's going to be tough to fill that amount of time.

Friday was another football game. I have no idea what I am going to do when the games are on at 2am here. I guess I will just have to wait and see. Maybe I will sleep in short napping increments. Anyway, I had Mom Kakao me whenever there was a big play. That was definitely nice, since I can sneak to my phone to at least read the score. I spent lunch watching the rest of the game via Facetime with mom, who lovingly help her phone by the TV. And I would like to add that my future husband (Clay Matthews) made 3.5 sacks in the game. Yay!

This is Michael. He was saying Hi to my mom while she was
letting me watch football through Skype. 

I found out that we are getting the Tuesday between Chuseok and Foundation day off. So we will have 5 days! Saturday through Wednesday at the beginning of October. Where can take my camera and go get lost? It's one of about two chances I will have to travel here in Korea and I want to make it count. If you have any ideas let me know.

I left my hair down on Friday at school and a few of the Korean teachers asked me if I changed my hair. Why yes I did, it's not kick ass hot outside and my hair didn't look like crap this morning so I pulled out my straightener. And I was trying to hide the bar logo on the back of my Packer shirt. Lol

Well there is another Typhoon supposed to hit Korea on Monday and Tuesday. It's not expected to miss this side of the country either, supposed to move right through the middle. Lets hope I buy a flashlight before this one. Stock up the water!

I will keep everyone updated on my lovely typhoon adventures!

Fall is Coming!

I am finally able to sleep with my windows open! One night I actually had to roll over and find the heavy quilt that the school gave me to warm myself up. It was a very nice feeling. I am ready to start wearing sweaters and jeans, leggings and boots. Well I would be excited if I had packed any of those clothing items. Hopefully I can convince my mom to go digging through my disaster of a bedroom I left and find a few items.

I am starting to get tired of going out every weekend thing. Some of the girls go out on Friday and Saturday nights. I don't know how they do it. I am exhausted by the end of the week and I just want to curl up with a good book. I am starting to understand however the appeal. I go home after work, make dinner, try to catch an American TV show online if I am lucky and then I just want to veg. It's not like I can rent a movie, or hang out on someones couch or anything.

Some of the girls do sports like Frisbee, and others go the gym (which wouldn't be a bad idea for me) but it is definitely a change for me. I am used to having someone to talk to pretty much all the time. Or somewhere to go and hang out. Life here is lesson plans, teaching materials and weekends to go out. I need to make plans to get out my camera and just get on a train and go. Why not? What do I have to lose? So I get lost in Korea, I have a phone for a reason, right? Maybe that should be the plan next weekend, go get lost. Or maybe Victoria and I will visit her cousin on the Air Force base. I am pretty sure it's the same one my Great-Uncle was at. That would be amazing.

I made French Toast for dinner tonight. I finally gave in and bought maple syrup. It was so expensive. I was downtown this weekend and on Sunday I got a case for my iPhone. It is very pretty and pink. While I was down there I went to see if one of the cosmetic stores carries my favorite lip balm. They do, and guess what? The lip balm I love from home ($3) is 9,000 Won here! Holy moses! I knew it would be bad, but damn. Sorry.

Yesterday was Packer Monday, since that's when it's on in Korea. And although we didn't win, it was wonderful to get to watch the game on Skype with my family. I felt like I was at home. It was probably the best Skype date (other than my birthday) since I have been in Korea.

I made another package of my Mac and Cheese from home. Damn that stuff is good. I am very sad that I only have one left. I really should hide it from myself or I might just eat it. It needs to be an emergency stash because you can't get Kraft in Korea. At least not unless you pay an arm and a leg, or live on a US base.

Well this post was a bit scattered. Sorry everyone. Just some thoughts that popped into my head. With everything that has been going on here it's hard to keep the blog up to date. I think I need to start taking notes as things happen and then I can write a post later. Anyway, I miss everyone. Hope all is well in the states.

P.S. My friend Alicia got her R.N. license last Friday. And Jamie had her baby yesterday. Seriously, I am missing so much back home. I wish I was able to fly back just to see them all.

Paychecks, Cell Phones, Typhoons and Packages

So there was this thing, called a Typhoon that blew through Korea last week. Thankfully the city of Daegu did not get much. We had rain and wind, but nothing too major. Although I did see where the wind took out a sign on a building, taking the rebar and concrete with it, thus landing on about five cars in a parking lot. It definitely cooled the city down a bit so that was nice. Apparently most large weather fronts don't affect Daegu the same as the rest of Korea because we are surrounded by "mountains".

After the Typhoon was a Tropical Storm. The tropical storm actually gave us more rain that the typhoon. I survived both, unscathed. That was definitely a relief. I even got to wear my rain boots once. Great times. My umbrella is broken though, so I think it's time to invest in a good one, not the $1 one I had before.

I got a wonderful package in the mail on Monday. Good grief, it was like a Christmas miracle, but pretty much everything from home is a miracle if you get it in Korea. There was so much stuff in there! There were; packets of cheese, bacon  beans, a magazine, a Kempo medallion (I totally cried when I opened that), a movie, lots of snacks (many of which I have put into a container so I don't eat them all at once), Packer chocolate, taco seasoning, gravy mix. Seriously, awesome mail.

This week was a bit interesting. I got paid, FINALLY! And looking at my bank account was so cool. I was a MillionWonair. Seriously too many digits in the account and it's not that much money. But it means that next month I can go open a CitiBank account here and finally send some money home. Hopefully there shouldn't be too many issues.

I tried to get a new cell phone this week. Apparently, in Korea, you can only activate a phone a few days a week. The first day I went in, they didn't have the Iphone (which I wanted because I can pay for unlimited data). The next day I went in, thinking I could get my phone. Turns out, at 8:30pm on a Friday night the "network" is already turned off and no activations until Monday. I was a bit ticked off and I am sure the Koreans were thinking "We let this foreigner teach kids" (While I was walking down the street shaking my fist in the air). Lovely times Korea.

I made my Mac and Cheese that night, it was amazing. The best food I have made since I have been here. Well the happiness was lost of Friday. I went to heat up the leftovers and wouldn't you know it, I dropped the container on the floor. Ugh great lunch. I was pretty sad that I lost my Mac and Cheese. That is a precious commodity.

We went on a field trip on Friday and holy moly. I was laughing so hard I was crying. It was hilarious. Koreans over act everything. I knew this, but I hadn't prepared myself to see it in person. We saw Peter Pan, and of course it was in Korean. So I was dying of laughter at something I didn't understand. They had American songs (that were not really appropriate for the play) and the acting was crazy. Definitely an interesting experience.

Friday night was also the welcome dinner for the foreign teachers at my school. It was interesting but I left hungry. We were only allowed to order certain things and no one was ordering more. Oh Korea.

Guess what everyone. I found Downy at the store. So I did a load of laundry (which is still drying) but I am hopeful that it will make my clothes look and feel better. I miss the dryer. This is taking forever.

*Cell Phone Update Monday* Apparently the activation system was not working and I would have to come back tomorrow. That made it three trips to the cell phone store. If this happened in the US I would call the company and find a new one, unfortunately I don't speak Korean and I have no idea which store to try.

After the lovely experience with my cell phone I was sitting in my apartment and my internet just stopped working. Of course there is nothing I can do about this either because I have no idea who the land lady is. Lovely, lovely day. You win again Korea. On the bright side, I get to go back to the states eventually, while Korea will still be Korea.

First world problems.

*UPDATE* My new Iphone works! Ahhhhh It's a Christmas Miracle!

Flexibility on the Fly

This week was interesting. I was told that we were not writing Homeletters for our students we were doing Progress Reports. Did they have a date when they were due? Not really, since conferences hadn't been decided yet. When I asked my ESL 1 co-teacher about what she needed from me she told me 2 Homeletters, Overview and the Schedule. That would be fine and dandy if we were supposed to write Homeletters for afternoon class (they are only for morning kids). This system is as convoluted as the idea that memorization is learning. Oh wait, that is their education system.

Anyway, it was a bit of a stressful week at school and to top it off I started to get sick. I had a headache and sinus issues from about Weds to Saturday. I wore my glasses to school for the first time on Thursday and you would have thought I had two heads with the way my kids were looking at me. And of course, because I apparently looked like crap Korean teacher after Korean teacher asked me if I was sick. I politely replied "Just a little". Nothing serious, I just wanted the weekend to be here.

There was a building here when I left for school on Friday.
 When I came back this is what I found. 

During my first time being sick a lovely construction crew decided it was time to knock down the building across from my apartment. Did you know that here in Korea they start work at 6:30am? Me either. So starting Weds I was woken up with pounding and demolition at 6:30am. Did you also know that construction crews do not take off the weekend? They start at 7am, so hey at least I got to sleep in a little, right?

This was what I woke up to
on Saturday.

So amazing. 

This was the week of delicious food.  I made Macaroni and Cheese from scratch. I know! Holy cow! It turned out so good. All I used, since I didn't have many groceries, was milk, butter, cheddar cheese and noodles. I swear it was like Noodles & Company sent me the Mac&Cheese from the kitchen. So amazing. Now I must say, it does not compare to Kraft, because really, what Mac and Cheese could compare to nuclear colored cheese.

Gun Mandu! So yummy

I was also introduced to "gun-mandu" this week. It means fried dumpling, I believe. It was amazing. The only downside to finding this delicious food is that it is fried (which is okay for the moment since I am missing the state fair and I wanted fried food) and it is convenient. It is not far from school and my apartment  which could be bad.

The last thing that I thought was just hilarious was being confronted on Friday about my feet. Now the rules in Korea are that you need to keep your toes covered, at least when you are at school. So everyday (in the hot and humid summer) I have to wear socks and closed toed shoes at school. Normally I wouldn't complain about this (in fall and winter) but it's summer. It's hot and my feet sweat. It's required that I wear socks and closed toed shoes, fine. Here is the best part. Apparently, my feet stink (who knew) and the children can smell them. My Korean co-teacher asked me on Friday if I changed my socks everyday. Yes, I do, is that seriously a question? We went back and forth and she finally said that the children thought something smelled. I was a little bit shocked, but I know confrontation isn't easy for Sue. Sue said she wasn't trying to make me uncomfortable or angry and I said I was neither. There just isn't anything I can do about it. At home, in the summer, I walk around barefoot or wear flip flops and sandals everywhere. My feet sweat, and then they stink. If I have to wear socks and shoes in the summer that's what happens. There is nothing I can do. I think she was a little taken aback by my lack of caring. Oh well, it's not like I am going to get Botox in my feet to make the crazy Koreans happy.



Another eventful week under my belt. I have been here more than a month now and with all the connections I have made I feel like I have been here longer. These ladies have definitely become a little bit of a family here. Strange.

300 and Bills!

It has been a week, some kind of week. I learned this week that schedules, home letters and the over view are due next Friday. This may seem like a long time, but I have two schedules to make, 8 home letters to write and the over view may get interesting. I haven't known my kids long and now I have to write home about each child's progress. I haven't seen any progress! And one of my students doesn't have any idea what I am saying. I sound like a broke English record.

I know that it's my job to teach the children English, but good grief, it's not an easy job when there are three kids speaking Korean, three are horsing around and the other two are half listening. I don't know how we make any progress at all.

I had a lovely meeting with my Korean co-teacher for my afternoon class. She had a half hours worth of critique of me. I tried my best to smile, agree, and professionally explain why I made the choices I did. I love the two kids in my afternoon class. They have great English skills. I am very impressed. Conversation is pretty easy with them, and I hope that continues. They are lovely girls.              

I went to E-Mart this week. And guess what! I got a toaster oven! Best day ever. I have been using it to toast my bagels from Costco. Such a wonderful convenience.  I am hoping to make cookies, muffins, and definitely lasagna at some point. I also found a metal colander, so I am able to steam vegetables. Ahhh the little things. I don't think I have ever been so excited to eat broccoli and carrots.  I almost feel spoiled, which is definitely a change.

Here is my kick-ass toaster oven. It has bagel inside it. So amazing!

I made my first laundry oops this week. I washed my navy blue sheets and didn't check to see if anything else was in the washer. There was, of course, a white towel, a white wash cloth and two white socks. Lovely day. Oh well. None of the white things were very important and now they are a lovely baby blue color.

Several of us went to the pool on Saturday. That was a treat. It is nice to get out of the apartment and see some of the people we normally just see at the bars. The craziest thing was happening at the pool though, these random Korean men (very tan and in speedo's, not cute either) were taking women and putting them on a inner tube, then throwing them across the pool, each time landing on their head. One of the people we were with called them "Daegu Airlines". Not a flight I wanted to take. The did however try to grab each one of the girls in our group.*Guess what Uncle Dennis. I did not get on the inner tube, even when one of the guys grabbed my wrist, I was prepared to get out of the hold, confidence*

Guess what everyone! My blog made it to 300+ views. Very exciting stuff.

I miss home very much, but I am starting to feel more comfortable here. I didn't see any scary cats this week, so that's a win. I don't think I will ever get used to the feeling of clothes that are hung up to dry. It is just not comfortable.

I got my first bills this week. We are thinking one is electric and the other in internet. I am still not sure, so I am going to take them to school on Monday so Sue can help me translate. Kelly, my neighbor and co-worker, gave me a Korean book so I can try and learn to at least read a little bit. I am going to make a real effort to learn, at least that way I can figure out what a menu and the signs say.

Well not too much else. Guess we will have to see how this week goes. Wish me luck with all my schedules. Parent teacher conferences are coming up soon too. That should be interesting.

 This is absolutely the most delicious breakfast I can think of. That is homemade strawberry jam. Sent all the way from home. I have been rationing it, it's the highlight of my fridge. 

 This is how you make mashed potatoes without a potato masher. You remove all the potatoes and smash them with a fork, then put them back in the pan.

 They were delicious. 

These are my wonderful carrots, for the little market down the alley. 1000 won for a whole bag. Score! 

This was my dinner Sunday night. Spaghetti (with chicken in the sauce) and steamed carrots. Apparently I wanted orange foods and didn't know it.

Foreigner Gifts and Birthday Boxes

Thursday:

So I was told that these random acts of kindness (the random broom, milk, rice cake) are called foreigner gifts. So cute. Today my lovely Korean Grandmother gave me extra grape juice. And I got the broom that she told me I could have yesterday. Such a wonderful woman.

I also got my bank account today. Yay! I feel like a person again. It was very funny when I went to the bank. After I got my bank account I wanted to exchange some of my US dollars to Korean Won, since I was there. Well the man got a little confused with the exchange rate. He tried to give me 20,000 Won for my $180. I was very nice, and he felt awful. He was so nice "I'm so sorry!" On and on...

I tried Mandu today. It is a dumpling, with I believe Kimchi inside. It was actually very good. Luisana will have to show me where to get it, because I must have it again.

This is Mandu. It is a yummy steamed dumpling. 

Saturday:

OMG! It's my birthday, or it was my birthday. Started the day off right. Talked to Mom, Sue and Lynnae while they were at happy hour. Definitely a lot of fun. I got a large assortment of things in my wonderful birthday box. I am so excited to eat the jam. I can't decide if I want to eat it with a spoon, or savor it. That will be tricky. We will have to see how this plays out. Anyway back to business.

Look at all my awesome birthday box surprises! I put the Driver penant up right away.

The girls and I left for the KTX at about 9:15am. Our train left at about 10am, since it was a little late. It was a pretty fast train ride. And not a bad price either. Since there were 4 of us we were able to get a family pack, which meant we had a table, and it was less expensive. We arrived in Seoul and immediately decided that food was first, then shopping. Very important. We looked for a good place to have my birthday lunch and decided on California Pizza Kitchen, nothing Korean about that. It was very yummy.

Kaylee and me on the KTX.

After lunch we needed to shop, since that was the point of the trip. Most of these girls have been in Korea several months and they needed new essentials. The basics (even though we got a little carried away). We shopped and shopped and shopped. It was a sprint, no marathon for us, we were on a time limit. After shopping concluded we headed to a little chain restaurant in Korea call Pho Bay. It had some really good noodles and friend rice. As we made our way back to Daegu we were sitting on the train (minding our own business) laughing a bit maybe, come on it's my birthday. We were shushed on the train. It's not polite to be loud. This in turn made everything twice as funny.

This is a service button at the restaurant. You push it when you need help or assistance. This way the waiter didn't bother us until we needed him. Genius 

We arrived back in Daegu and Christine decided that an adventure on the bus was very important. So we got on the bus, where we got in trouble because we were not fast enough. Surprise, surprise. I guess it was the day to learn the cultural customs. Made it back to my apartment where I ran around like a crazy person trying to get ready to go out for the night.

When we finally all got together (we lost Victoria before we even left because she was trying to meet us at the wrong place, my fault of course). So I set out to have a "STELLA!" moment and we did eventually find each other. We made our way downtown where lots of fun followed. We were bar hopping for a while *gasp*. But after the bar hopping was when the real fun began. That fun was called Noribang.

The whole gang (at least for this night) 

During Noribang, you and your friends rent a karaoke room and you can sing any songs you want. It was amazing. We were belting out Michael Jackson, N'SYNC, Katy Perry and many many more. It was a blast. The next morning not such a party. I was so tired. I started my birthday at 7am and it ended around 3:30am the next morning. I was just a little bit tired. Thankfully a lovely Christine was making french toast and I was invited. Delicious.

Oh Noribang. You are my new best friend. 

Well another adventure chronicled. Many more to go.

ARC!

It has been almost a week since my last post. The rest of summer break went pretty well. The three girls who went to Jeju came back on Friday and Luisana and Victoria came back from Japan very late on Thursday night. I did in fact venture out of my apartment. Saturday was a lot of fun. Kaylee, Krista and I went to a hotel pool. It was definitely an experience. The pool was a little expensive, but I can understand that. There aren't a lot of nice public pools here. When we got into the pool area we tried to move 3 free chairs together so we could sit by each other. We were yelled at by a Korean patron that that was not allowed. Then a lifeguard came and told us it wasn't allowed. We tried to explain we wanted to sit together and he brought us chairs. We then did our very best actions and convinced him to let us use the lounge chairs.

After the lounge chairs we got warm (it was like a 100 degrees outside). We went into the pool. We were told we needed caps. Swim caps! We all had our hair in buns and we weren't really planning to swim. So we did our best to convey that. We were told 3 different times that we needed swim caps. It's very true, everyone wears them here. The pool was an experience. The children were able to use any floaty they wanted. There were no rules on that front. It was strange. We got some nice color though, so I don't look Korean at all. Every Korean at the pool was very pale. Most covered up.

Saturday night was a lot of fun. I was out with the girls and we had dinner at this great little place. The food was wonderful but we learned our lesson, salad before drinking is not the best plan. We went out to a couple of different places. I met several new people. I feel so much more confident. I am feeling more comfortable with everything, and when I went home (at a very late/early hour) I took the taxi by myself and got home in one lovely piece.

Monday was the first day back to school. We had a teacher prep day, which definitely helped. I felt a lot better after I was able to get a lot of my books ready and my classroom feels more like my own. I was sitting in my classroom and Sarah Teacher (she is a Korean co-teacher) came in and told me my Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday class was now Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Yay! One good thing is that I was expecting something to come up. The class went pretty well. It was the first time I had met one of the students because she was in the states for the few weeks I was here prior to break.

I got my awesome birthday package from my mom. As soon as they delivered it I ripped off the label(so I couldn't read what was inside) and put it on my desk. I also got a cute note from my grandparents, which I ripped open and then cried. I miss them so much. It is so different to want to see them and not be able to. It's easy to see them when they are two hours away, now they are two days of travel away.

Tuesday was a good day. My first day with my kindergarten class all by myself. It was a little interesting. Some things went better than others. My Korean co-teacher Sue (and yes, she is super helpful and makes me feels amazing just like my amazing Aunt Sue) told me that there were a few things I need to improve. Mrs. Lee only yelled at me once, and that was because I didn't realize that I had paperwork that I needed. It was all good though, no skin off my back.

After work a couple of the girls went to Costco. Definitely a good idea. I got some soup (since I can't have Grandma's tomato soup) some chicken, granola bars, bagels, pineapple. The basics that will last me a while. Yummy. I made food for lunch on Wednesday (chicken, noodles and pesto sauce).

Wednesday was the best day yet. I was about to start my morning class and one of the older teacher aides (who reminds me so much of grandma) came in and asked if I wanted to try the snack of the day. I tried it (because why no, I'm in Korea) and it was so delicious. I was told it was a rice cake, I don't care what that purple piece of bread like substance was, it was delicious. Then while I was sitting in Luisana's classroom the same woman asked me if I wanted to take home a broom and dust pan for my apartment. I said yes (because why would I insult the lovely woman). Then she brought me milk. Now I am not sure if I will actually drink it, because I have yet to drink milk in Korea, I don't know why, I am just hesitant, but she is so nice!

Then the day got even better. I got my ARC card! I did a dance, and hugged the Korean lay who gave it to me. Seriously, I could not be happier at the moment. This card is like having a golden ticket. I can open a bank account, go to the doctor, basically I am a person again. Haha good times.

 This is Galbi. It's from a different place downtown. It was good, just trying to get used to the beef.

 This is random side dishes that were given to us when we ordered a drink downtown. The back bowl has bean sprouts, the middle bowl has boiled potatoes and the front bowl has something that tastes like a sweet chip (not a fan).

 I got desperate for buttery mashed potatoes, and I don't have butter. So the potatoes from my care package did the trick 

 This is the purple, possibly rice cake, from Wednesday. So delicious. 

 This is the view from our illegal lounge chairs at the pool. 

This is what a Korean key board looks like. My grandpa was wondering, so this seemed nice to show everyone. To answer the oncoming question, no the Korean keys do no correspond to the English letter. Strange. 

Well I am signing off for the moment. Christine, Kaylee and I are hopefully going to Seoul on Saturday (just for the day) to do some shopping (I don't need to shop much). But why not spend my birthday in Seoul.