Typical Day Schedule

I thought today I'd just give a general account of an average day in my school.

This is my Tuesday schedule...

7-7:30am: Wake up, shower, dress and have breakfast
8:30: Arrive at school, takes less than 5 minutes to walk over. Go up to the English Room and unlock the door, turn the computer on and settle in.
8:30-9:00: Prep time when students are in their homeroom classes doing... something.
9:00-9:45: 1st grade class 1-3 with Ms. K. Except today she is taking them and they are not coming to my class at all. So I am sitting here with free time. This is very typical. She says she is behind and I "don't need to worry" abou teaching them until June!
9:45-9:55: Class ends and students have a 10 minute passing period. Oh wait, they stay in the same class all day and its the teachers that move from room to room. Seems a long time to me... Anyway.
9:55-10:40: Class 1-1 with Mr. B. Here I stand next to the podium and read sentences out of the book, line by line, and then he translates them into Korean. Every now and then someone asks me a question about the USA to which Mr. B translates everything between Korean and English. We also from time to time watch US pop music videos or funny videos that are totally unrelated to English on the interent.
10:40-10:50: Another 10 minute passing period
10:50-11:35: Period 3, Class 3-3 with Mr. P. In this class I am soley responsible for making and teaching the lesson plan, slightly related to the book but presented however I want. Mr. P helps when I ask him to and is always engaged.
11:35-11:45: Another 10 minute passing period.
11:45-12:30: Period 4, Class 1-4 with Ms. K. Again I don't get to see them today. More free time.
12:30-1:30: Lunch in the school cafeteria. Costs 2800 won. I sit everyday with three other women teachers. Only one speaks English. No one says anything to me although lately I can hear my name being brought up and when I ask the English teacher to translate (what what?) she shruggs and keeps eating.
1:30-2:15: Period 5, no class. Free time.
2:15-2:25: 10 minute passing.
2:25-3:10: Period 6, class 3-5 with Mr. P. Another third grade class same as above. Although today I suspect their class might be cancelled so they can go to an assembly prepping them on the field trip they are taking tomorrow. We shall see. If so, free time.
3:10-3:35: Cleaning time. The students clean the school, half heartedly. I chat with the girls that come to see and talk to me in the English Room.
3:35-4:20: Period 7. Most of the time all the students go home now. I never have a class except on Tuesdays when I teach 10 "gifted" children. Its a nice small class where we mostly do talking or simple activities. I believe it is actually on for today. I haven't taught it in over a month.
4:30: Go home.
4:35-on... Watch TV, eat dinner, go for a walk...


Repeat.

New Year's and Basketball and Winter Camp

New Year's 2011

For New Year's this year I really wanted to do something "big." I decided going to Seoul was what I was looking for. Thus Jason, Scott, Amber, Brian and I hopped on the bus to Seoul Friday night, New Year's Eve, and headed for the Downtown City Hall district. Jason and I had only returned from Seoul to Wonju the day before. We were tired. But, I was determined to make it to the big city! When we got off the bus we decided dinner was a must, Mexican food was suggested and enthusiastically agreed upon. Brian new of an On the Border near Yonsei University so we headed that way.

After a few subway changes we emerged from underground, only to wander around for 15 minutes or so, until finally using an iphone to locate exactly where the restaurant was. It was already 10pm by then and they just barely squeezed us in, they closed at 10:30! We ate delicious Mexican food, tacos and enchiladas, mmmhh so good! We also got margaritas and good beer! No soju or cheap beer for us! It was great! The drinks were weak though, and left me wanting more, but alas were kicked out. We also needed to get to our final destination. That required a quick ride on the subway and we emerged in Downtown, right near the skating ring Jason and I had walked by numerous times recently with my family just days before. I knew right were we were! The crowds were huge and before we entered them we stopped at a convenience store to buy some cheap beer. Amber said she needed so liquid courage if we were going to stand in a huge mob in the freezing cold. We pushed our way in and only had to wait about 15 minutes before midnight. We were on the edge of a crowd filled with thousands and could barely see a glimpse of the stage show and hear the music that occupied the main festivities for the day. At midnight we cheered and could hear people shooting roman candle fireworks around us. On the outskirts only a few went off next to us, but some ash managed to get in our eyes to which I screamed "oww! my eye!" Although Amber tried to get us to leave right away, fearing the mob would move, we didn't want to. But then suddenly we were forced to move along. The mob was lurching forward, a mass wave of people moving as one, without the ability to stop or change direction. Our little group was pushed along, with Amber and Brian in the front, we all tried to hold on to each other and not get lost. If you were to fall, you would have been trampled! Amber was getting pretty freaked out at this, squeaking out "I told you we were gonna die! I told you to leave! I told you this was a bad idea!" For the rest of us, while a tiny bit scary, the mob wave was more fun than anything! And we managed not to spill our beers. We did see some little kids in strollers, their parents standing around them to guard them from the wave, and wondered why there were out there, as it was definitely dangerous for small ones. The rest of the night Brian couldn't let Amber live down her quasi-hysterical cries, or my "my eye!" He poked fun at how we were being big babies!

After that our group split up a bit and Jason and I ended up in a sit down pub with Brian. I really didn't want to go to sleep that night. We had no hotel, but were planning to stay in a jimjilbang. Although jimjilbang's are nice, I hate sleeping in them and get really hot and uncomfortable. Brian agreed but was contemplating sleeping because he had planned to stay in Seoul for the day. Jason was just tired. But I decided I would make it all night and be on the first subway at 5:30am headed towards the bus terminal, then on the 6am bus to Wonju! That's when things started running again. And you know what? We did it! We made it all night! We stayed at the first bar for a long time, just chatting and having a few drinks, it was really nice and relaxing. Then we headed to a hooka bar where we payed way too much for some "nachos" and cheap beer. But the hooka tasted good and the atmosphere was pretty hippy and relaxed. Somehow we made it all last until 5am when we tugged back out into the cold to find the subway. Slipping and with teeth chattering, we made it on a second wind! The second we were on the bus to Wonju, we all slept. We woke up briefly to say bye to Brian, got home and crawled into bed to sleep the day away. Was it worth it? For sure! Were my sleep patterns screwed up for days, of course.


Winter Camp 

For the first week of January I was teaching at an Immersion Winter Camp at a different school than Sangji. The camp was for middle school and elementry students from all over Wonju. I was one of 12 English teachers located in Wonju chosen to teach at it. There were six classes of each grade and I was with the second highest level of middle schoolers. Although I was dreading camp originally, I enjoyed it. At first I was super nervous because I'd had to turn in lesson plans and supply lists just the week before my parents arrived to visit. I was given no warning and had to created 12 lessons from scratch in just a few days. With help and advise from friends, and luckily no teaching in December, just sitting at my desk, I somehow finished them all. Yet when the camp started I was really able to get a sense of my students abilities, which was super high, and their enthusiasim for English, which was also high. I lucked out majorly and got a class of 11 students, boys and girls, with high ability and the strong ability to try and speak. They were perhaps too loud and talkative at sometimes, but I am getting better at controlling them. They were an extremely fun class to teach! As the week went on they became more outgoing and I was able to challenge them more and more. I'm not sure how much they really "learned" that could be measured on a test, but I hope the English immersion gave them some confidence and the time to practice speaking, something Korean kids NEVER get to do in class, unless it is with a foreign English teacher. In their English classes with their Korean teachers, all they do is bookwork and test prep. I was happy at the end of the week when one student remarked "wow its weird to see Korean writing again!" as he was handed an evaluation sheet. All week he read in English, which is an accomplishment in itself for teaching in Korea. Many students, perhaps just flattering me, perhaps sincere, said they were so sad English camp was over, that they would miss me, that I was the best teacher they'd ever had, that they wanted me to come teach at their schools! I just laughed and said thank you. I gave the students my email address in case they wanted to keep talking to me, and one boy, my favorite, has been emailing me since then! He is so cute and sends super sweet messages about playing with his neieces, or what movies he's seen, I hope we continue to be in contact! I think its harmless good practice for him.

I really enjoyed the English camp in the end. It was such a huge change from my usual school where the classes are huge, I only see kids for 45 minutes each week, I have no supplies, very little support... at camp I could request any supplies I needed for craft time, science time... every teacher also was assigned a Teaching Assistant. The Assistant's were all Korean university students who are studying to become English teachers. My Assistant was awesome! She obviously spoke Korean, but also English, fluently! And she's only 22! She was way more help than any of my usual teachers. She also was awesome in that she would only speak English to the students, when they would ask her something in Korean, she would say, speak to me in English. I could always rely on  her and felt I had the backup I needed and thought I would get when I first came here. Camp was also great because all the native English teachers could talk and bounce ideas off of each other. Every day also included an awesome snack for teachers and students, from pizza to hamburgers to kimbab! We also got done at 1pm everyday and got to go home! We taught four hours in the morning and were finished. It was so nice to have a slow lunch afterward, I'd either go home and take a nap or eat out with Brian and Amber and still be home by 3pm to relax and plan for the next day. I enjoyed making difficult lessons that I knew the kids would listen to. That week Jason was also at a winter camp, but at an elementry school that doesn't usually have any native teachers, he had a really similiar experience. We were so down in the dumps after everyone leaving after the holidays that our camps were an awesome pick me up and reminder that teaching can be fun and rewarding and challenging all in one, you just need the proper support and motivation!


Basketball

The orginizers of the English camp also paid for all the teachers to go out to dinner twice, norebang, and go to a basketball game. Wonju has a team that plays for them in the national leauge. They have a nice basketball stadium in Wonju too. Basketball here is played exactly the same as in the US. So we got to go to a game one Wednesday night! We had front row seats and enjoyed watching Wonju beat Seoul! Both centors, for Seoul and Wonju, were big black guys, probably from the US, while the rest of the team was Korean. They were pretty good! (I didn't think the centers were that great though.) The Wonju coach even got a technical during the game and was kicked out! Unlike in the US though, he didn't kick and scream, he just quietly left after arguing over a call. It is not right to show those kinds of emotions in Korea, you would be shamed and loose face, so he kept them in.

The highlight of the game was the halftime show. Earlier they had told us that one of us might be choosen to paly the game at the half time show and win a prize. I had casually mentioned to one of the organizers that I played basketball in high school. Thus when I arrived at the game she handed me my ticket and said "you are playing the halftime show!!" I was so shocked and just started laughing! Should have kept my mouth shut. I had told Amber earlier too, I would never volunteer for something like that!" Karma got me. Never say never! I was nervous and a little worried I would have any idea what to do because I can't understand Korean. Luckily when it was time to go down to the court for the competition, the Korean girl, Ashley, was there to translate! I was against two super not athletic Korean high school girls, haha! We had to run from the base line to half court, put on a wig, place a rubber ball between our legs, jump with it between our legs to the basket and then shoot. So that's what I did! It was great! I shot the ball twice and then made it! I won!! Yay! For my prize I got two tickets to a shabu shabu buffet resturant, not too shabby! I also got interviewed and broadcast on the giant TVs! They warned me this would happen! After I said my name and that I was from the US they asked who my favorite player was, luckily Ashely had told me a name to say, otherwise I would have been clueless! The interview was a little rushed so I don't know quite what I did or said but it was a silly and fun experience! How lucky am I. Later that night Jason also won a free pizza from dominos, delieverd on the spot to our seats. He did this by dancing well during the cheering time, we were copying the cheerleaders moves and she picked up out of the crowd to win. I've decided we need to go to more basketball games.

Field Trip and Outlet Mall Shopping

Last week all the native English teachers of Wonju were taken on a (mandatory) field trip. We got to miss school for this and it ate away part of our weekend. A bus of 40 of us, plus about six Korean coteachers, traveled down south to Gyeongju. There we saw the anicent mounded tombs of the Kings of the Silla dynasty. We also got to do some hangji paper crafts. (Although our Korean instructors kept taking the crafts away from us as if we weren't doing it correctly, I felt like I was the kind in first grade who is bad at art and their teachers wants them to know it.) On the second day we go to see a famous old buddha statue and some temples. After that we headed down to an island that is south of Busan. There we took an exciting ferry trip to a botanical garden and saw these huge, impressive rock cliffs that composed the smaller islands in the area. There was a definite (and appreciated) temperature change between the snow in Wonju and the bright plants growing on the island! We didn't want to leave!

One of the "highlights" of the trip was our loding for the first night. All off our meals and lodgings were paid for by the Wonju Office of Education, which was ridiculously nice of them. The first night though, our bus pulls up in front of some traditional looking Korean homes. The owners come out to greet us and we realize we are staying there. Thinking there must be more to the complex than we initially saw no one is concerned. Until we realize that all 40 of us will be staying in only four rooms. Each room has only four floor mats. And while they did have ondol heating, the walls were made of paper and the doors didn't close all the way. It was cold. People were unhappy, especially the boys, who outnumbered the girls and had 12 people in one room! It didn't turn out too bad for me, I was surprisingly able to sleep, although many people had problems. Amber and I shared a spot on the floor. You were supposed to use the mat to cover your body and keep in the warm air, which we did. Some of the boys also didn't realize this and were freezing all night. The problem with that is that it left no padding for you to sleep on, you just slept on the hard wood floor. Needless to say my shoulder, hip and back were quite stiff.

The shock the first night also continued when we found out where dinner would be. We were initially told we were going to a resturant. But this was not true. Instead we had dinner at the loding complex, in the middle of the square the four buildings created. Outside. In the freezing cold. They set up tables and chairs for us and built a big campfire in the middle of them all. It was warm if you stood right next to it, but no where else. We had sam gip sal for dinner. When I saw it was freezing I mean it. Literally there was ice forming on the lettuce they set out which had recently been washed. All in all the night turned out pretty fun though, as everyone stood around talking for hours because it got dark so early. I felt like we were camping.

The next night we staying in a beautiful hotel with a bay view. We had a balcony with chairs and two double beds. We wanted to stay longer but sadly didn't get much time there. That night there were no bars near the hotel and while some people took taxis into town, a group of us decided to be really Korean sit and drink in front of the Family Mart. We bought wine and candy inside and used the plastic chairs outfront. We had a really good time just relaxing and talking, sipping our wine and chomping on mentos. The weather was beautiful, cold but not freezing.

Earlier that day we had also stopped at a POW museum, located on the site of where a POW camp was created during the Korean War. North Korean and Chinese soldiers were brought to the camp when they were captured. The museum was huge with lots of lifesized diaramas and rebuilt structures. It was a little strange but I learned things about the Korean War that I didn't know and may not have known without visiting the camp.

The trip was fun but a lot of time was spent on the bus, we were glad to get home. Checking my email Saturday night I noticed a message from two of our friends from orientation in August, Janine and Ben. They live in Sokcho, high up the coast, but were coming down near Wonju to do some shopping at a near by outlet mall in Yeoju. They are married and thinking of staying in Korea for two years so they bought a cheap car. They invited Jason, Scott and I to join them for the day. We happily agreed!

On Sunday morning they picked us up (which was glorious, no taxi or bus this time!) and thanks to Scott's excellent navigation skills made it on the highway to Yeoju. They shockingly don't have a GPS in the car (it seems like everyone in Korea does!) but they make it around okay, although we did get a lost a few times. The outlet mall was huge and definitely wasn't bargain shopping. It was filled with designer labels from Gucci to the Gap, and had two Starbucks! It was a pretty place with lots of Christmas decorations. We visited most of the stores in the place, Ben was intent on finding shoes that fit him (size 12 is huge here and he ended up not finding any!) and I was looking for a down jacket since everyone keeps telling me I "need" to buy one! After two trips to Starbucks and lunch at a revolving sushi bar we called it quits. Right before we left we did pop into the Nike store where at the last minute I found a great down jacket, comfortbable and warm but still kind of cute! (I think I might look like a marshmellow.)

The day was lots of fun and it was great to talk with old friends, now that we've been here for four months we all have new things to talk about. Last time we saw them we were saying "good luck" this time we were talking about coming up to Sokcho to stay with them in their two bedroom apartment.

Wonju Apartment Tour

I'm sure I've said it before, but I am so fortunate to live in such a wonderful apartment this year! As part of my contract my school provides me with housing, they pay the rent, I pay the utility bills. Although I don't have air conditioning, I do have awesome floor heating called ondol. I turned part of the floor heating on last night to see how it worked and the place got very warm, very quickly!

Here is a quick tour of my place: 

View of the kitchen. Nice big sink, medium sized refrigerator, lots of space.The door on the left leads to the storage/trash room. The door on the right is the bathroom.

View opposite the kitchen. You can see the dining table, couch, ottoman, TV, the door to the second bedroom/office is on the left, and the glass doors in the center lead to the patio/washing area.

Another view of the living space. To the right is the front door/entryway.

View when standing next to the dining room table. The cabinet in the entry way is for your shoes. The door leads to the bedroom. 

Bathroom. No tub but enough space. The floor is submerged and tiled.

The view of my street (it was raining). My apartment building is the gray one on the right, its only 2 years old. I'm on the second floor out of three, on the right, you can see my patio windows. 

For contrast, a glimpse of what Jason's apartment looks like. He's on the 11th floor and its nearer the river. Yet only 15 minutes from mine. (Ok this isn't really his apartment, his are actually to the left, but close enough, they all look the same.) 

Lazy day at school...

So as I've said, next week is midterms, so the students are mostly in study mode this week. Which means that today, while I would usually teach six classes, I only taught one class. And then actually when I went to that class my coteacher asked the students "who wants to talk with Madeline teacher?" -- only about 10 of them raised their hand. So he said, "okay, you guys can go to the English Zone and talk with her while the rest of us stay here and study from the book." They were so excited!!!! We went down to the English Zone, put our chairs in a circle and just talked. This is probably one of the highest level classes at Sangji, it is third grade class, and they girls were very excited to talk with me and ask questions. I love hanging out with the students, that's how I learn the most about Korea! They told me they wanted to be a nurse, a hairdresser, a social worker, an accountant, one jokingly said a professional taekwondo artist! They asked me to bring in my makeup to show them (I've never thought how I do my makeup was anything special, but since they are not allowed to wear makeup, and really wish they could, they were so interested!) Two of the girls also asked me "teacher, hair, touch?" so I said "you want to touch my hair? I think it feels the same as yours." And they said "YES!!" and bouth came up to tentatively touch a few strands. They screamed with delight "OOOHHHHHH" and ran back to their seats! What a celebrity I am! The other students also asked for advise on how to get better at English, one student asked specifically how she could become better at grammar because she is good at speaking, usually things are reversed. I felt so lame answering them, I didn't know what to say! I told them to keep talking with me and said if they want to practice grammar they should write to me and gave them my email. I need to come up with some better advise. I'm not sure they quite understood what I was saying the whole time either... but I really do think those are good ways to improve, better than if you just sit and try to memorize! I tried to convey that I think they should study for a half hour and then take a break instead of just sitting and sitting and sitting like I know they do! One student who writes me notes a lot told me she spent three hours writing me a note last night!! She wanted it to be perfect so I'm pretty sure she looked up everything in the dictionary! Her note was great, I wish I could convey to her that for a 14 year old her writing is better than some American children. Maybe I should ask if I can start an English club at school, that might be a fun alternative to classtime, it would mean less students, and only those really interested...

Last night Jason and I also experienced our first Korean bathhouse, or jimjilbang. Our sweet tooths got the best of us again and we hit up Ti Amo for another yogurt smoothie (soooo good). That brought us to Scott's neighborhood. While we were eating he called and asked if we'd like to join him at the jimjilbang since there is one very close to Ti Amo. It is called "bo sock sa u na" and is actually the landmark we give the taxi drives to take us from Sangji to Ti Amo (to get home we always just have the taxi drivers take us to the front of Sangji, its easier than if we tried to give them our addresses!) Scott is an experienced patron of the jimjilbang, having studied abroad in Korea last summer, and was a great guide for us novices.

For only 6000 won you have access to the baths and the sauna. Apparently some jimjilbang's are very elaberate, but this one was a little smaller. Still the 6000 won gets you in the door, a locker, a sweatsuit to wear, access to three sauna rooms, all at different temperatures, access to the communal baths (seperated by gender) and best of all if you want to make a night of it, they are 24 hours so you can stay in them all night! There are dim rooms for you to sleep in on pull out mats, water coolers and even a big flat screen TV! Inside a small shop also sells a variety of simple snacks and drinks, plus some clothes and underwear.

The three of us got changed and met again in the sauna rooms, which are not divided by sex. First we started in the 42 degrees celcius room. The room was very pretty, with different colored stones covering the walls and ceiling in a mosaic style, hidden on the walls were the shapes of animals and plants. This room was a perfect temperature, definitely warm but comfortable. We laid on a bead of little beads that perfectly comformed to our backs. I pretended I was in an ancient cavern.

The next room was a 82 degrees C, which is about 160 degrees F. This room had mats covering boards to lay on. It was so hot. Scott told us the Korean way was to last 15 minutes. I only made it to 8 but he and Jason stayed in for the entire 15. I was sweaty when I got out but the two of them were worse, they were red and looked like they'd been working out! We then went in the cool room which was around 30 degrees C. In that room there was a large tarp that covered small, unpolished rocks. After we stopped sweating it started to feel pretty average in the room so we switched back to the first one. Our bodies had left sweat marks on the tarp, eww. We made sure to keep drinking water every time we switched rooms since our bodies were letting it all out.

Finally we decided to head out. We told Scott we would pass on the baths this time and he seemed a little dissapointed. But it being my first time and all, and it being very cold outside, I didn't want to strip down or have wet hair for the taxi ride home. Jason told me later that the last he saw of Scott he had decided to check out the baths on his own. I quickly changed in the locker rooms, which were empty. Suddenly the doors to the baths opened a six year old Korean girl appeared, totally naked. She was followed by her younger brother, also nude, but covering himself. Maybe he knew he was really in the girls side and was a little bashful? Then came their Mom, in the flesh. She just walked around the locker room like it was nothing. I tried not to stare. As I made my way outside I realized she was browsing through the racks of cloths for sale, still totally nude!!!!

All in all my first jimjilbang experience was really fun! I will definitely be going back, especially when it gets colder out because it really warms you up.

The rest of the week has consited of school days with little work. Answering emails. Cooking. Eating sweets (Jason and I decided we have to cut back because we're gaining back the weight we lost.) We also realized the fall TV season had started so we had to download How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang, NCIS, Vampire Diaries and Smallville. Yep, those are my shows of choice. It doesn't feel like we are so far away when we can download shows, put them on a USB drive, plug the drive into the DVD player and watch everything on the TV. We are totally caught up with the US! (And my goodness, VD is as thrilling as ever! Smallville is finally in its last season too!)

This weekend we might head out to Seoul, we have a lot to explore there. Plus my Dad informed me that they just opened a Taco Bell and we are SO excited to check it out! Read about it in this great article I found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/24/AR2010092402715.html

Busy so far!

The last few weeks have been so busy! I can barely keep up on my blogs! I'm ready to do more exploring of Wonju and the Gangwon-do area, but I'm still trying to settle into the routine of teaching, living in Korea, etc. I need to come up with some kind of reward system for my classes other than just giving out candy all the time. So I think I'm gonna do some kind of "money" system where you can cash in money for a prize at the end of the month. Maybe this will work? The kids just talk so much and there are so many of them!

Today was a nice day thought because I got to go to my second school, the one I teach at on Friday's only. It is technically still in Wonju but it is a 40 minute bus ride from my place. The first 20 of which we pass through the main town of Wonju, the last 20 we are in rural Wonju, were there are farms, rice paddies and very few homes. It was beautiful up in the hills! So green and lush! It was also very gray and raining off and on all day. This second middle school, which I visit on Friday's only, is called JiJeong. It was so cute!! There are only 15 students in grade three, 10 in grade two and five in grade one! That's less students in the entire school than in one normal class at Sangji Girls!!! This made it so super easy to teach them. We basically just talked and I was able to have every student introduce themselves to me. They were like a dream school! I can't believe they staff eight teachers and a principle just to teach 30 kids! The school had to be larger at home time, it was two stories, but they only used three classrooms, one for each grade. I wonder about its fate in years to come... Anyhow, I only had to teach three classes (most days at Sangji I have five, yesterday I had six, which was killer) and all of the teachers are really relaxed. Plus the principle just came and hung out with them all day in the office!

It was a little strange to me, but a lot of the women teachers were giving themselves a "natural manicure" they said. One teacher sat on the side pounding down these bright pink flowers into a pulp. Then they put the pulp on their fingernails!! They left the pulp there for a long time, then washed it off and their nails had this yellow/pink-ish tint to them, thus natural manicure. I asked if this was healthy for their names or something (because I didn't think it looked that great...) but they said no, just for the color! I'm guessing it was some kind of traditional practice, and they didn't take it too seriously, but serious enough.

Like I said I had six classes yesterday, didn't get home until 6pm and then went to a beginning Korean class at the Library at 6:30. The class is free so we figure we need to take advantage, especially since that was one of my goals when I came to Korea! (Now that I'm here I'm realizing how hard it will be to learn since I know NOTHING.) The class was helpful, more on reading the alphabet and sounds. I can read the alphabet but the sounds are really difficult. There are sounds like "eo" and then just "o" or "u" or of "uu" -- all different vowel sounds but super similar! Better do my homework...

Last Saturday was a fun break from everything though! Jason and I made plans to meet up with Scott and Brian in the Lotte Cinema area for dinner and drinks. We managed to find Scott but Brian who was taking a bus in from his place outside of town was no where to be seen. We decided to head towards Scott's area of town where he knew of a famous chicken dish we could try. Of course right when we got to the restaurant Brian called to tell us he was in town. He and Scott managed to meet while Jason and I held down the table at the restaurant. The chicken was really delicious, you cooked it on a large hot plate in the middle of the table with lots of vegetables, but I thought it was so spicy! Everyone else seemed to have a fine time eating it but I was sniffing and my eyes were watering throughout. I kept eating because underneath the spicy it was really good!

After that Scott took us to a gelato shop where we got dessert. It was super cute (and I didn't know gelato was in Korea!) Then we headed to Scott's apartment to check it out (very nice and new! we are all so lucky!) We met his neighbor who is a 20 something Korean girl studying to be an English teacher. We all decided to get drinks at a local place. We were required to order food with our apple soju pitcher, so we went with fruit. Good thing Scott's neighbor (Chi) could read the menu, because we didn't even know fruit was an option because there was no picture! We didn't want to have to get more meat. And the fruit was delicious, all very high quality and sweet. Also in Korea, cherry tomatoes are considered fruits and come on things like fruit platters. (After all they are fruits.) The apple soju was super sweet and tasty!

We wandered over to a batting cage that Scott had been eying and he and Jason swung a few rounds. It was a cool little batting cage right in the middle of town! Scott definitely lives in the newer and hipper part of town as compared to where Jason and I live. It was a nice change from traditional restaurants and older streets! Our last decision of the night was to go norae bang (karaoke!!) It was awesome and ridiculously cheap! 15, 000 won for one hour, flat rate! (So, less than $15 split between five people.) The place was really nice, the room was huge and the song selection was fun and modern! I definitely am hooked and want to go again and again and again!

A fun Saturday night led to a boring Sunday of... lesson planning! I'll be glad when I have the hang of lesson planning because right now it takes me a long time. Hello Sunday. Wednesday was a small "orientation" at the main education office for all EPIK teachers in Wonju. It was pretty short but they did pay for a great dinner for all of us. It was tofu soap with beef and a raw egg cracked on top. I've had it before in Lancaster (of all places!) and its delicious (but, ready for it, spicy!! I was dying again!) After that Brian, Scott, Jason and our friend Amber decided to go out for some beers because it was still early. Three pitchers later Jason, Brian and I were still going strong! Beer is so cheap and we were having such a great time talking we didn't want to stop! We finally called it quits around 10pm so Brian could make his bus home and we could get some sleep.

Tonight I was finally able to laze around and do nothing! Tomorrow we are all supposed to be meeting again for the Wondu International Tatoo Festival (its a music festival! its NOT about tatoos people get on their skin! haha.)

Folk Village, Mask Dancing and Survival Korean

It's already Tuesday afternoon here in Korea! Just a week ago I was home enjoying the last taco lunch and pizza dinner I would get for many months. Currently my diet had developed a pattern, as dictated by the dorm food I eat morning, lunch and dinner. It's actually really good, with the never changing staples being white sticky rice, kimchi and some kind of fruit. I've also discovered a very good cold latte drink you can buy from the vending machine, its only about $1. It tastes more like a chocolate milkshake than coffee!

Today we are in lecture all day learning how to teach English in Korea. This is day two of three of lecture. We rotate through classes such as "Active English," "English Fever," "Classroom Management," "Multiple Intelligences," etc. There are four classes a day for 3 days. Plus "Survival Korean" every night. Survival Korean is like an extreme crash course in how to read the alphabet and say basic words. Jason and I were practicing our reading skills last night (we found some signs written in Korean with English translation below so we knew when we were pronouncing things correctly or incorrectly). The language is actually pretty easy to read... well, easy in the sense that once you memorize the vowels and consenets and understand how they combine you could pronounce street signs, texts, etc. Still of course, you don't know what they mean. I'll write more about this later. I still only know how to say hello and thank you, but I'm getting there.

Sunday was a great day! Long and super hot and humid, but tons of fun! We were taken on an all day exercion! We went to a traditional Korean folk village on the outskirts of Seoul. Our tour guide spoke English and had lived in Chicago for 20 years, of which he was very proud and told us some of the history of Korean living; we learned about their air conditioning, their heated floors (ingenious!), farming, storing food, seperate homes for men and women. We also saw a great performance of traditional Korean music. The performers used drums and chimbals, but also wore brightly colored costumes, did amazing turning flips and had these long coords on their hats with ribbon on the end. When they moved their heads in precise ways, the ribbon ripped around them as well making patters (similiar to ribbon dancing) but it was all done with a motion of the head! We also so tight rope walking and a traditional wedding ceremony. At lunch we tried Korean sausage. We didn't like it at all. One of the English people said it was like black porrige, whatever that is.

After that we went to a nearby center for the arts. There we got to learn traditional Korean drumming! It was so fun, we all got individual drums and learned a sequence form a song. It was very cool and everyone loved it. It got us really pumped up which was especially good because we were all drenched in sweat (in our matching EPIK tshirts). Then we learned traditional mask dancing. Our teacher was very funny. We put long plastic gloves over our hands to dance with. Our teacher explained how you would do the dance at a party with your entire village and you would seek out the person you desired during the dance, and then end up in front of them at its end. They would either reject or accept you. Jason was an amazing dancer and everyone loved watching him because he was so funny! He was chosen first as one of the top three male dancers, and then again made it all the way to the top of the class! Our friend from UCI, Scott was chosen as number one male dancer, and Jason was number two!! (From a peer vote!) It was great! Both Scott and Jason were so excited while dancing that they slipped and fell. I think that had something to do with why they got the top vote. LOL.

Lastly we watched a performance called Breakout, featuring both comedy at breakdancing. It was to showcase the modern after we'd just seen so much traditional dance.

Well, its time for class!

Departure Looming

Well, tomorrow should be a long day. Up at 5:30 am Wednesday, pick up Jason and McDonalds on the way to LAX with Mom and Dad, teary goodbye, moments of panic and doubt, moments of elated excitement, moments of wondering why I packed two suitcases, a backpack (stuffed with a smaller bag and a purse), my laptop bag AND a briefcase. Time travel, arrive in Seoul at 6:35 pm Thursday night (about 3 am Cali time.)

I will be in touch as soon as I have internet, which I hope means in the dorms we are placed in for orientation.

Wish us luck!