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!