We "Lobe" our "Pramiry!"

A while back, Joe stated that he wanted a shout out in the blog.

I said he would have to do something cool to get one.

Well he did. He sent us a wicked awesome package full of candy, toothpaste, deodorant, plastic cutlery, and wet naps.

It was awesome!

Ed and I have eaten candy at least for two entire meals, then used the new toothpaste to brush our teeth.

PS: That's the picture of the chocolate bunny that he sent. Notice that he's working out. Are the candy companies now trying to say "If you eat our chocolate bunny who is wearing work out clothes you wont get fat?". Maybe not. But it is still kind of funny!!

PSS: Thanks to Robin and Ed, Grandma and Poppop, and Mom and Dad... your packages were equally loved and appreciated by all!! We even had a taco night with the stuff you sent Robin--HUGE hit here in Yeosu!!!

Going to the Doctor

So you know, back home when your sick, and your my age, you usually don't go to the doctor. Time, money, and well money are usually the reasons why we (okay I) don't go.

So this week I developed a sore throat, a cough, and yesterday a slight ear ache. Normally (back home) I probably wouldn't go to the doctor for another week or so, if I didn't get better that is.

But this is why I kind of like Korea. Socialized medicine. I like it at least for minor stuff (I've heard some horror stories about more serious conditions). But anyways, I sucked it up and went to the doctor today. I've been feeling overall better, and debating with myself if I should really go. I decided to go anyways, because at least he can tell me that I don't have Swine Flu, I mean H1V1293 or whatever its name is.

I walk in, hand over my cards, and get told to sit down (rather pointed in the general direction of the chairs). I wait no less that 10 minutes (in which the doctor sees the 5 people ahead of me). I get in to the office. Tell him I have a cough, sore throat and an ear ache. He puts on one of those old school mirror doctor hats, looks into my mouth, nose, and ear. Pronounces that I have a slight ear infection and points in the general direction of the door. This takes about 5 minutes, tops.

I pay my bill (4,000 won--a little less than $4) and go to the pharmacy to pick up my meds. I pay another 4,000 won for three days worth of some strong shizit. Hopefully I will be healthy in a few days time.

I left thinking to myself, "What took me so long to go?" The doctors here are no less scary, slightly even funnier (esp. if they wear the hats), and are usually much more fast. Plus I paid less than $8 total for something that would have at least cost me close to $50 back home.

I think in this case, it is much better to have a bit more power put into the government/heck even doctors rather than the insurance companies. Perhaps that might help solve some things...

Ahhh No Extra Class

Thats all.

No planning. No games. No students. FREE TIME after 5pm. What oh what will we do???

Birthday Fun!

As most of you know, it was Ed's birthday last weekend. He turned the big 28! He is officially in his late twenties--oh god! Hehe!

In Yeosu, besides Ed's birthday, there are also aboutr 5 other people who celebrate their big days, all with in the same week. So we got together and organized some birthday festivities instead of individual parties. Here is what we did:

Friday night: Yeosu Scavengar Hunt.

Some kind people put together a huge, but incredibly fun list of things that we had to find/do around Yeochun (Ed and my part of Yeosu). We had to dress up, come up with a team name, and cheer. Below is one of the more creative costumes: Mimes. Not so out of the ordinary in the states, but in Yeosu, well lets just say they got some looks!

Ed Love

Saturday: Ed and I organized a "Party Bus" to take us to the local K-League soccer team, the Chunnam Dragons in the next town over, Gwangyang. This party bus was not just any ordinary bus, but rather a Norea-bus. Yes, thats right my friends. You can sing and dance and do silly things (well most silly things) on this bus for pretty cheap. Probably less than $200 US. And we had it all night long.

Lindsay "Birthday Boy" singing

As usual, I can't really tell you what happened at the game (yes I drank and talked too much) but I do know we tied. I believe, everyone had a great time, despite our team's non-winning.

My friend Meghan bought us "couple t's" Yup thats New Kids on the Block.

Nikki and I at the stop off at the Gwangyang bar: String

This is the last I saw of Ed and Dave. They went over to the cheering section to cheer for the Dragons. You can find them by looking for the pink shirt. That's Dave.

I ended up moving away from the cheering section, and about 1/2 way through the 2nd half Ed calls me and says "Take a picture". I follow up with "What are you talking about?". He said "look over at the cheering section." And well I did. What did I see? About 5 shirtless white boys in the middle cheering. The next thing I know, they are on the big screen on the TV. I guess Koreans aren't really used to this type of fan fair.

Thanks to our friend Paul, I have a close up!

Meg and I

Back on the Party Bus

And after the game we got some food. This is Ed and our friend Helen feeding each other. Yup!

Overall we had an AWESOME birthday weekend. We finally got to do something fun and great for one of our birthdays (and include our friends). I think we've started a trend of Birthday weekends. I know I wouldn't have traded the weekend for anything. And I'm sure that Ed wouldn't either. All we were missing was Family!! So next year, you all need to take your vacations in April. Its a fun time to be in Yeosu!

Principal Visit

Wednesday, the Principal came to visit our apartment.

I guess the district wanted all principals to check out their native speakers living conditions to make sure we weren't swimming in a big pile of poo or something.

I was pretty nervous. You know, because first impressions count and all. And the Principal here is like God. Seriously.

So anyways, Mr. Ju (my co-teacher) and Principal came over right after school.
This is the summary of our meeting:

We enter into the apartment.
Principal gives me some orange juice as a present.
Mr. Ju says that it is dark in here. I turn on some lights.
Principal gestures to the frigde. He wants me to open it.
I open it.
He comments on the lack of kimchi in the fridge. (there was none).
Principal points to the microwave.
Asks if it is the schools or if I bought it.
I said it was the school.
Principal says "Whiskey?".
I say "No whiskey, do you want vodka or soju?"
He wants me to show him the vodka and the soju.
Principal asks how many bottles of vodka we drink in a month.
I nervously giggle, and say this bottle is special. Maybe it would take a couple of months to drink (wink wink).
Principal glances around the apartment.
Principal and Mr. Ju leave.

The whole exchange took less than three minutes. I guess we passed the apartment inspection.

Korean Field Trip!

Last Tuesday, my school had a "school picnic day". This basically required the students to get themselves to a local mountain (Go Rock--I'm sure thats not the real name or spelling of the mountain name, but that is what I say and I'm understood by Koreans), hiking the mountain, then eating lunch.

I have to admit, I really, really LOVE school field trips.

Gone are the headaches.

Gone is the worrying that I would loose a child.

Gone is any planning on my end.

I just had to show up at 10:00 (yes I got to sleep way in!), hike the mountain, and eat lunch. Just like the kids. Except I got to have beer and soju at the end of the hike, and hopefully they don't.

I hiked with mainly the girls. And let me tell you, Korean middle school girls, for the most part, are a bunch of wimps. They made it about 5 minutes into the hike before they started whining and passing out from exertion. Really. I'm not lying. These girls couldn't handle it. It was kind of funny.

They even wrote dialogues about it in English class this week. For example they said:

Student A: "What did you do on Tuesday?

Student B: "I went hiking."

Student A: "Was it fun."

Student B: "No it wasn't. It was very not fun. Hiking bad."

Give 'em a computer and they can go all day. Ask them to walk up hill a little ways, and they riot. I guess they are not that different from any other teenager in the world right?

April...the busiest month!

This month has been pretty busy. This weekend alone we are going to a soccer game, participated in a scavengar hunt, and hopefully some relaxing!

Will post more, with pictures when we finish all the fun!

Happy April!!

Ahhh English Class!!! Wow! Time is going fast. Ed and I have been here for over 7 months...and it feels like it has just flown by!

Not much to write about. We've been busy working. Our extra night classes have started up again. We have a pretty decent group of girls this time around. We are still getting to know them, and some are still pretty shy to speak, but they all seem like they are going to do pretty well.

We've just been hanging out in Yeosu, playing soccer, hiking and enjoying the beautiful scenery! The weather has started to change, and well we have some great flowers coming out. Ed went on a fishing trip last weekend and I've gone a few hikes around Yeosu to see the 'beautiful Azeleas' (One of Yeosu's claim to fame). Its been really nice just to be able to get outside-ya know?

On a fun note, I've actually finally set up a E-Pal system with Deb Wallace (my old 8th grade reading teacher). My students are excited to write to America and hope to hear back from their epals! I had some pretty funny emails. One group of boys wants an American girlfriend. They supplied a phone number and everything. They even asked to meet up in 5 years because thats when they "are going to America." By far the funniest question was the one written by a group of girls. They wrote "Do you also have pimples on the face? We’re anxious about it because when we watch TV there are no Americans who have pimples." Ahhh the power of TV. Anyways so here are some pictures of the hike and my students!

The beautiful chemical plant in the background! Great....