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.