Saturday, November 29, 2008

Korean Driving


My guess is that he took the corner too tightly.

This car has been sitting there for a couple of days....it was just left. Probably what happened is that the driver was drunk, crashed into the pole, cracked his head, got out and left the car in fear of being sent to jail for driving drunk....ahhhh Korea

Some pictures...

Okay, I've been really lazy in posting the pictures that we have. So I've created a couple of albums with some pictues of us and friends out and about Korea.

Here are the highlights:Odongdo Island

My food at Outback steakhouse

...and after

My bowling score...look closely, I scored the 22, Yoga Dan the 27, and John the bowler scored 99...we are awesome!!

Enjoy the pictures!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Top Ten Thanksgiving Thanks

This week in my masters course, we were given the opportunity to write about what we were thankful for. I thought I'd share what I wrote. Ed and I miss you all and love you all...we are thinking of you!

First of all, what a great opportunity you have given us to reflect on our lives and what we are thankful for. You are right, Staci, we rarely get the time to sit down and think about what helps make our lives special. I am thankful for many, many things. I feel that I now have the opportunity to appreciate things more so because I am living in another country. My move to Korea has affected every aspect of my life and well, I think that it has already made me better understand myself and who we are as human beings. So, because I have a feeling that I could ramble on and on about what I am thankful for, I wanted to present the information in a Top Ten list. Most of my list refers to what I’ve experienced here in Korea, but it relevant and it is now. I may make some jokes in this list, but my intent is all serious. So with out further delay, here is my

Top Ten Thanksgiving Thanks.

10. Care packages. No matter what age you are, they still are amazing. I am surprised at the generosity of my family and friends. It is not a cheap thing to send items from home to here, and it takes time and thought. Not only am I super excited to get care packages here, I am truly grateful because I know that it is more than just food and magazines that go into the box. They really make my day, week, and month.

9. Internet. The internet has made this whole experience so much easier to bear. I am able to talk to friends back on a regular basis. I am able to see pictures of home, friends, and their babies. Although I can’t be there physically, I feel that I am there mentally because of the internet. It has made my world a whole lot smaller and for that I am thankful.

8. Korean kindness. I have never in my life met a group of people who are more kind than Koreans. I feel that in America, I took for granted my ability to speak the language. I didn’t take the time to think how it was for someone who didn’t. In Korea, even if I appear to look confused, I receive help. In most cases, my helper does not speak a lick of English, but they will help me. I have been driven up mountains, given food, taken shopping, had food cooked for me (they even cut the food for me), and many more things. I think that if the world would treat each other a bit more like most of the Koreans have treated me, then we wouldn’t have as many problems as we do.

7. My students. My students are my joy. Many times they are my frustrations too. They take the time to help me with my Korean. They show me around my neighborhood. They smile and make me laugh, even if it telling me that I have ghost hair (I have no idea what that student meant, but it made me laugh). They are sometimes the first people I go to when I need help with anything Korean. If they were not such amazing workers, I don’t think my time here would be as valuable. Plus they have introduced me to K-pop for which I am forever thankful for (K-pop is Korean pop music—utterly ridiculous but strangely addicting).

6. My co-teachers. They make my job so much easier. I actually have it pretty well here. They come to every class, they translate, and they fix my Korean problems. They are my ultimate support system here at school.

5. My Korean Friends. This is about all my friends in Korea, western and Korean. They understand what life is like here. We are each others support systems, both for social and professional life. If I had not been so lucky to find such a wonderful group of friends, well I think this life would be a lot harder.

4. My American Friends. It is all about support, and my friends give me tons of it. I miss them terribly, but I am thankful that they keep in touch with me and post their pictures so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on too much.

3. My health and the health of my family. This has been a tough year for some of my family, but I am extremely thankful that everyone has pulled through and continues to be healthy and regain their health. I am lucky to have strong genes, but even luckier that my family does too.

2. I am thankful for my family. My entire family has given me nothing but support and love during this adventure. It has truly made me value them that much more. I know that initially they were worried, and so was I. Yet, as time goes on here in Korea, I am even more thankful because I know that they will always support me in what ever I decide to do, and well I couldn’t ask for anything better than that.

1. My husband. I would not be on this adventure if it were not for his constant support and assurances that everything will be alright. He is my strong hold and my best friend. I am very grateful that he accepts me for who I am, and pushes me to be better.

So there is my list. I know I still rambled a bit, but I feel that this experience has made me value what I have that much more. So I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Don't Worry

I purposely put the picture of the beagle on the previous post to get a rise out of my parents. I have since gotten, in less than 24 hours may I remind you, the comment attached to the previous post and this email.

"All he said was you cant eat me!"

Don't worry guys! I'd only eat dogs I don't know. And I would like to point out that I still have no idea what I ate, but it was delicious, so I don't care if was dog. You would feel the same way if you tried it!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Great Food


You may or may not know but to us Westerners, it takes a while to find foods that we like enough to eat. For both Ed and I, most of the food seems the same. They have very little variety in our minds (but in a way they have total variety--we just don't know where to look). So eating here can be pretty adventurous at times, especially when we just go into a restaurant and point to something on the wall (many restaurants list what they make on the wall and you point).

So there is this one restaurant by our house that Ed and I have been secretly dying to try. Every time we walk by this place, the most delicious smells waif out at us. Smells that we haven't smelled before in Korea. Good smells.

So last Thursday, Ed and I braved the unknown and went in. I should probably tell you that we had no idea what kind of food it was; we knew that it smelled delicious and we wanted it. So we pointed at someone else's meal and the owners brought it to us.

It was delicious!! Although I had no idea what I was eating, I actually said to Ed,as we were discussing what it could be, "I don't care if it is dog, tripe, or other gross things that I would never eat in the States. I want more of this." Anyways, Ed and I chowed down on this mystery meat from heaven, and tried to ask what it was that we were eating. The owner said something like Ori Bulgogi (something meat). We still had no idea what it was, but like I said, we didn't (and don't) care.

Well fast forward to Saturday when we met up with one of our Korean friends, Bobby. Ed asked him what Ori Bulgogi was, and straight faced Bobby said "Dog. Many people don't like the smell, but it is good." Huh! Okay, so now I am personally psyched because not only did I eat dog, but I kind of loved it. Yet, we weren't convinced because the name for dog is not Ori Bulgogi but something like Geagogi.

Sunday Ed met up with his co-teacher and asked the same thing. He got "Dog"...but there was something fishy about the way his co-teacher was saying it. After a few confusing minutes Ed found out why. Apparently they (Bobby and co-teacher) were saying 'Duck'. I guess the Korean's have a hard time with the 'g' 'ck' endings. Either way, whether we ate dog or duck, I'm going back.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Museon Middle School Festival

For weeks now my school has been preparing for their Festival. And for weeks I had no real idea what this festival would entail, or my role (if any) in it. I had gotten tidbits from the students, "We play games, then sing in the afternoon". I had gotten tidbits from other teachers, "Just wait. It will blow your mind." Well, friends, while it didn't blow my mind it was certainly interesting. Here are ten things you need to know about Korean Festivals:

10. The students get to show off their art work. And some of it, let me tell you, was pretty amazing. I only took pictures of the pictures because they were the funniest. Candy will rot your teeth. Its universal. I have no idea but the art work is just plain awesome. Melamine=death, basically. The Koreans are super worried about Melamine and as a consequence, we get this picture warning us not to eat certain products. Again I don't know. I took it because there was a blonde person in the picture.

9. The games. The students were right. They play games and all types of games in the morning. I was roped into reading true/false questions and riddles (why riddles of all things??The kids had no idea because the co-teacher picked wicked hard ones). Then they have field day type activities. I watched a few. It would never work (but should) in America. This is Tug O War...but with no rope. Quite effective. This looks like Tug O War, but Crystal (my co-teacher) said it was called Motorcycle. Basically they hop around on one foot trying to knock the other team down. And Musical Chairs. But you can beat the girl/boy who wins, and I mean hit.

8. Lunch. We had Bi Bim Bab. Rice with veggies and some meat. You make it yourself. I left out fish, mushrooms, peppers, and kimchi. It was WONDERFUL.

7. Ahhh the Festival. This is where it gets fun. Every school has a talent contest for their students. My school was no exception. It went on for 5 hours. I only had to endure 2 thank god. Here are the highlights:

6. Costumes. They had a whole group of these kids dressed up in animal costumes. They made them dance to a kids song.

5. Wondergirls. If I hear one more "Nobody" or "I need your Love" I'm going to kill a Korean child. About 70% of the groups danced to these songs. All the same dance. Even the boys. The "Nobody" song and video are actually pretty good...but not 1,000 times. Yes I can do the dance too. (I'm trying to find out who sings "I need your Love.")

4. OMG. Inapproprate dancing. There are no pictures because I felt uncomforatable taking them. It is okay for 12-15 year olds to shake what their mama gave them in TIGHT mini skirts and dance like hookers. Fortunately, only 1 out of 30 acts can actually shake it like Beyonce, so watching the others weren't soo bad. But one was enough. My friends say that the belly dancers at their elementary school were pretty inappropriate as well. But its okay I guess in Korea.

3. Boys dressing up as girls and doing girl dancing. (Small problem...I tried to load a video of it, but it didn't work. Its 9:00 at night here now and I'm not going to fool around with it anymore...hopefully by the end of the week I'll get it up).

2.Ki Bi Bo (rock paper siccors) where the kids can actually hit each other off the head. No matter that they were using 'silly hammers'. Those kids were whacking each other. Hard. Oh and no teacher supervision either.

1. NO CLASSES! I didn't have to teach. Reason to celebrate right there!

Pepero Day


November 11. What does it mean to you? Most likely you will think of Veterans day. It is an important holiday for us Americans, and with good reason.

Wouldn't you know, it is an important holiday here too. Except it has nothing to do with life or death (although some school age children think so). It is Pepero Day. What is a Pepero? It is a cookie. Not really a cookie, but rather a long pretzel like cookie covered in chocolate. Sound good? They are. It is easy to eat two or three packs in one sitting.

Okay back to why they celebrate a cookie. They celebrate the Pepero because it is shaped like a number 1, and what better day for companies to market their cookie to make the day 11/11 Pepero day (get it--its like 5 Pepero sticks). One legend says that it all started in Busan when middle school girls (go figure) exchanged the little sticks with their friends so that they could become "tall and slender like a Pepero". Either way it is similar to Valentine's Day. You give it to your friends, lovers, and teachers that you like. They get really fancy with their decorations and gift giving. Needless to say, Ed and I only got some from our extra class students, who we made sure knew that we expected them or else failing grades. Like Valentine's Day, it was stupid, but exciting at the same time. Hopefully next year I get more boxes. I already scarfed down my two.

sorry I couldn't figure out how to get the images smaller...so your stuck with super huge Peperos...

Coming Up

Alright, alright. I know. There have been no posts in over a week. Don't worry Ed and I are still alive. I'm sorry, but I have been very busy! Masters, school, and partying does take up an enormous amount of time I would like to have you know!

Anyways, I do have a list of things that I want to write about as soon as I have a moment to sit in front of the computer for several more hours to edit pictures. Here is what I'm planning on writing about:
1. Pepero Day
2. Health Care
3. Museon Festival
4. Volleyball
5. Things my kids say.

All of these will be up soon. I'm not promising anything, as I can't seem to make myself sit down and really write and edit photos, but I do promise to give you guys some more posts. And soon...

Thursday, November 6, 2008

So Mr. President...



First of all, watching and participating (kind of) in an Election on the other side of the world is pretty interesting. We get all the highlights...no need to watch a bazillion TV commercials saying "Vote for me! Not the other guy! He's stupid!" (although some of them can be entertaining). I know when it is worth it to watch SNL. I get to hear the best parts of the speeches. And until my scheduled changed, I could watch them live with all of you, of course on free pirated streaming.

Fascinating enough, Korea has been pretty interested in our election too. For the record, almost all the Koreans that I talked to wanted Obama to win. They have felt out of touch with "Bushey" and so Obama was/is a good change for them.

Our high school girls have been pretty interested in the election. And by interested I mean that they were predicting that Obama would win and were happy about it. They thought that his 'new FTA' policy would help them out.

Okay so now to the funny part. Last night they wanted to talk about the elections, so being Miss Full of Correct Political Information, I said 'Okay'. As it turns out, I might have inadvertently scared the crap out of them.

Background Info: It is very difficult to explain that N. Americans don't really understand Korea (we don't) and that because of our misunderstandings, we think that Korea is scary (especially that crazy little monkey man to the north). The Korean perception is while the crazy little monkey man is indeed crazy, they still want to be reunited. Think of it as an East Germany/West Germany thing. Policies, ideals, and economy are very different, so reunification on that end is impossible. But to get back with family members and to go take pictures of their homeland with out getting shot is important enough.

Okay so I may have gotten a whole bunch of girls worried because I sort of maybe said that because of crazy little monkey man, tough actions will be taken (per Obama's no tolerance 'policy'). So on their own, they might think that America might bomb Korea. I did not supply that theory--they truly came to that conclusion themselves!! I tried to tell them that we (being America) have bigger worries than Korea, which we do. And that Obama is a man of piece not war. But with the whole translation, English as their second language thing, it might not have gotten across 100%. Ed is on DAMAGE CONTROL tonight!!

While the rest of Korea celebrates Obama's win (this means new FTA agreements-which means you all will be driving Samsungs soon) there is a strong possibility that there is a small group of high school girls in Yeosu preparing for the next Korean invasion. So Mr. President to be, please don't bomb Korea.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Happy Halloween!!


Boo!

Okay so Ed and I are kind of bad English Conversation Teachers. Instead of conversation, we decided that we were going to have a Halloween party on Friday with our high school Korean conversation students. They do not celebrate Halloween here...so we thought it would be a fun conversational and cultural experience for them. It turned out to be one of my best Halloween experiences ever. I don't know if they were more excited for the food we brought them (American cookies) or for the masks they made. We even had a few dress up. It was actually pretty cool. Even though they are high school students, it was like experiencing Halloween with little kids. I couldn't get enough of them; they were hilarious; it reminded me of why I love Halloween. Here are some pictures of them. Now remember--they really DON'T celebrate Halloween, so any costume you see is completely unexpected and extra wonderful.

This is what Ed does to students who do not listen! Abby and Starr. Abby was a little too excited for Halloween. She decided to be everything. Amira and Jane. Korean Husband and Wife. Abby again. This time she has turned her school uniform around. She kind of was the highlight of the night. Anyone want a Korean exchange student?? She would be wonderful!!! The real reason they were there...food.

Scary Lemon... Me in one of the 'costumes'. Ed and I in a 'couple shot'... and

Isn't this the cutest picture ever?? Totally explains Halloween Korean style.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

10 Reasons Why I Love UNESCO Weekends

Last weekend Ed and I participated in a UNESCO weekend. UNESCO stands for United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organization. Here are 10 reasons why I had a great time:

10. The welcome committee. When we pulled up to the camp, they all had signs with our names on them and sayings like "I love you! Edward Look Here!" It was wonderful.

9.The view. We were in Dam Yang which is like the bamboo capital of Korea. It was actually pretty unbelievable. This is sunrise--yes the kids had morning exercise. We could sleep in.

8. New Friends. There were Chinese, Nepalese, Gambian (?), and Tanzanian. Not only did they make great food...but the Nepalese also can play a mean game of flip cup!! I want to go to Nepal.

7. International food festival. Yes, we had to make 'foreign food'. We joined the Quebec team and made donuts. The kids were covered in flour and sugar. The other food was WONDERFUL. The American team made fajitas..I stole three (I was only supposed to have one...shhhh don't tell.)

6.This new game is called something in Korean. I forgot its real name. I call it kick volleyball. The rules are the same as volley ball, except you kick it over a small net. It is amazing. And easily addicting.

5. Super Korean Children. They put on an Tae Kwon Do demonstration for us. Yes they propped the kids up on shoulders to do crazy kick moves. They also did some pretty fancy double dutch moves. It was almost the highlight of the weekend.


4.Old friends. Here is our friends Ellen (blonde) and Nikki (brunette). Ed and I actually hang out with Nikki and her husband Kerry quite often. Ellen we only see once and a while...they are very cool.

3. Burning our Friendship. In a grand display of fireworks (yes we were only like 10 yards aways, the Korean camp set fire to our friendship. I guess it was supposed to be a symbolic 'nice' thing. Most of us took it as a 'What the hell? They're burning our friendship...do we mean that little to them??' type thing. It was also pretty funny and amazing.

2.SANG WON. This was one of Ed's 'kids' for the weekend. He was amazing. And still is. He bought us snacks for the ride home. We bought him a key-chain whistle. He emails and texts us everyday. We try to email him back. But when we ask "What are you doing this weekend?" and he responds with "I plan on studying until 10:00pm on Saturday." what else do you really have to say??

1.This 'carpentry' shirt. I love Korean shirts...and trust me, I am trying to find them for you all back home.