St. Joe to Suji-gu

And then there were two

2011-02-19T16:10:00.002+09:00

Maria and Jesse: lovely friends, deep thinkers, inspirational

One more palace visit

Showing the traditional Lunar New Years' bow

Students wore their hanbok to school for Seollal (Lunar New Year holiday)

Tteok bokki for reading club snack: guaranteed to be an orange, sticky mess. Good thing Tina wore her nicest white shirt for such an occasion

Jasmin...or a little Seollal doll?

Our last birthday party of the year... Sean went all out

Jasmin waited all year long for her birthday party. So of course, she was granted princess status for demonstrating such incredible patience

After her crowning, she was presented with a scepter and given reign over the kingdom of classroom two

My girls

Me, Kelly, and Pikachu

Reading club loves, Anthony and Rafael. Always, always, always happy

Last bibimbap day for lunch at school. Bittersweet.

Once a month for 18 months...what will I look forward to now for that one magical Wednesday in the third week of every month??!!

To my nine year olds: I will miss you beyond belief...I think we're actually family now

Joseph: You have made me smile so much, even though you're pretending to be too cool right here by not smiling

Tony: Can you be my little brother?

Rafael (on the right): "Britney Teacher is go home to USA, and then my no more looking?"

Translation: When Britney Teacher goes home, I won't see her anymore?

Verdict: If only it weren't true, Rafael...

So happy to celebrate with Ray...so proud of his progress throughout the year, what an incredibly special student :)

Weeks have been passing by. Slowly at first, and then with greater intensity.

Autumn...so long ago now. Christmas, over. Spring, just around the corner. All of the major events I had once stored away in my mind, small tokens of mental strength to help me pass the time when the days and weeks until Home seemed so distant. Birthdays...field trips...visits from family...holidays...vacations.

But as it turns out...I didn't even need to rely on those. I didn't need any assistance in passing the time...it passed all on its own, as I was busy living in the moment and finding myself fulfilled by the simple joys of the everyday.

And so I now find myself at a crossroads...as reality hits like a ton of bricks, on an innocent weekend day in mid-February...two more weeks.

The students know that in two weeks, "Britney Teacher is go home to USA." My family knows that in four weeks, they will be meeting me in the Minneapolis airport. Even the government knows that I'm on my way out...as I received an alert of my pending visa expiration in the mail the other week.

But a pending visa expiration, and a departure date now set in stone, present me with more than just nostalgia and reluctance to leave. I know I have to leave....and I accept all the terms that come with it...but how can I leave without properly thanking everyone here first?

How do you thank a group of squirming, giggling little boys and girls for fulfilling your life in the past year, when they can't even speak enough English to understand the word "fulfill"?

How do you thank someone for serving you a hundred meals, for greeting you by name every time you enter their restaurant, for remembering that you like extra hot pepper paste with your food?

How do you thank the nine year olds who brightened your day, every Monday-Wednesday- Friday for the past year, who seem to be more a part of your family than just your students?

How do you express gratitude to parents who speak limited English, for the incredible privilege of getting to know their children every day for 12 months?

All of this...pending...

Cebu Love

2011-02-02T22:13:00.013+09:00

Why not celebrate Christmas in an airport with a bountiful holiday feast?

It was a long journey to reach the Philippines...too much transportation and waiting to describe...and a horrible Christmas evening spent in the tiny international terminal of Busan's airport...while I was coming down with the flu. Cebu could NOT come quick enough

7-Eleven FAIL...the only "dining" option in the international terminal

Thankfully, there was better food waiting for us in Cebu

Lovely breakfast, lovely travel companion Maria

Lovely poolside setting

Octupos tree...not to be confused with an octopus

Mangoes- 1 kilo for PHP 80 ($1.80)

Jeepney: hop on, hand over your coins, and holler when you want off!

Beautiful decorations at a cathedral in Cebu

Lovely beach

Rickety, but riveting, mode of travel

Frosty, cheap, local. San Miguel.

Mangoes on the beach! Mangoes on the beach!

Looks like a rock- it's not. A delicious rice cake with shredded coconut inside, grilled on the street. Like a beef patty...except not.

Preparing for a "waterfall massage"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aftermath...amazing.

Cliff jumping

Incredible

Two months later, still dreaming of the Philippines...

Beautiful scenery, beautiful people...a kilo of mangoes for under $2

Colors, colors, colors...in trees and flowers, jeepneys and market stalls

A haircut for $3, a sparkling sea, and roosters roaming the streets

Papayas and pineapple for breakfast...pork in its every form

Open-air schools with courtyards, Catholic churches and cathedrals

Smiling faces in overcrowded cars, truck beds packed and stacked with passengers,

No GPS inside to direct them...no children in the backseats with eyes and thumbs glued to their cell phones...

A constant babble of Tagalog's local tongue, ongoing dialogue of horns and brakes and motors

Blue skies, sandals, and bliss.

I was fortunate enough to see the Philippines through the locals...Maria's tito and tita (aunt and uncle) and some of their wonderful and incredibly generous family friends. These Cebuanos are some of the kindest people I've ever met...so willing to engage in conversation, to ensure the most genuine experience of the city and its people, to make us feel welcome and like family. We were shuttled around by Maria's tito in his old blue truck, sometimes sitting out in the truck bed as he drove, enjoying the commotion that our whiter skin causes on the crowded streets around us. Scooters and jeepneys and bicycles whizzing around us, shouting out hellos, so close we could have reached out to pluck a mango from the passing trucks. We spent New Years' Eve with a wonderful Cebuano family...invited and welcomed into one oftheir beautiful homes to share in a feast with all their family...and then later to their hilltop mansion overlooking all the city, taking in a spectacular show of fireworks across the distant skyline at midnight. Amazing people!

Only one of the 7,000 + islands...and just a small sampling of Philippine culture...and only a handful of beaches visited...but enough kindness and generosity to stay with me for a lifetime...

Christmas, please!

2011-01-04T21:09:00.016+09:00

Kids weren't too eager to meet 'n' greet with Santa...and I don't blame them. He was all beard, no face! Creepy.

Enjoying some candy canes sent from Britney Teacher's mommy

I wished you a Merry Christmas

My ten little elves.

Magical gingerbread village on my classroom window...paper, glue, and glitter, oh my!

Please note the Kim Yu-Na gingerbread woman figure skating on the pond in the left corner...a hit with the Koreans, of course

Ten singing snowkids

Photo session by the Christmas tree

Merry Christmas! Love, Britney Teacher's class

Red Christmas dresses

Last day with a favorite student- goodbye, John- I will miss your electric-blue plastic glasses :(

Another Christmas away from home- no easier the second time around.

But still, it's debatable whose anticipation for Christmas was greater: the 5 year old students finishing their tenth month of intensive English immersion with the introduction of conjugating past-tense verbs...or the 24 year old teacher finishing her seventeenth month abroad and about ready to collapse from the sheer exhaustion of introducing the conjugation of past-tense verbs to said students.

Whew....Break. was. necessary.

I've never felt entitled to a vacation before this year's Christmas break from teaching (ahem- aside from the old high school whines over the injustice of never being granted the same warm weather, spring break getaways as my classmates. Boohoo indeed- those whines were merely in vain and merely out of obligation to fulfill my role of displaying teenage angst). To feel deserving of a break is a pleasurable state- knowing you've applied effort and persistence toward a goal or other definable end. To feel a sense of entitlement toward something more- a bit too self-indulgent, like an acceptance of complacency now that said goal has been achieved.

Nevertheless, I have to say again....Break. was. necessary.

Sometimes I forget that I am teaching children. Not the act of teaching in itself- one can never detach them self from the thorough presence and attentiveness necessary for such a job- but the reality of whom I am teaching. We can pound out workbook pages in a heartbeat, recite new vocabulary in the blink of an eye. We can recite vowel pairs and sound out double consonant blends and dutifully proclaim what the weather is like today. We learn English songs, pick fights with each other in English insults and retorts, and try to remember that "very many" is not a correct description of quantity for every single noun (once and for all, NO- we cannot be "very many happy!")

And somehow during those days of study...somewhere between the stacks of flash cards and rote memorization, the most important lesson of all got lost in the shuffle: we are just beginners. Only one person in the classroom is a day older than 7 years old (whether you're counting in English or Korean years!). The majority of the classroom, in fact, still needs assistance in blowing their nose and putting their shoes on the right feet. How could I have looked past their consistent habits of spilling milk as soon as the cup is handed to them...and their reactions of pouts and tears when a toy is taken from them...and their hugs and cuddles and sneaky ways of worming themselves into my heart, despite their most undesirable of behaviors displayed beforehand?!

They're still babies. We have packed them just about full to the brim with "English goodness" in the past ten months. Looking back on it...ten straight months of "work" with this class of kindergarten class alone...has not been work at all.

I deserved this Christmas break. But I was not entitled to it...this one was for the kids.

P.S. Chris, Crystal, Jamie, Jasmin, Jessica, John, Kelly, Ray, Sean, and Vicky all wish that you had a "very many happy" Christmas :)

Three years older?

2011-01-04T20:50:00.007+09:00

Near the entrance to Soyosan Mountain, north of Seoul

Beautiful fall colors!

Visiting the Icheon Ceramics Village- this is the ceramics "mascot"?

Still trying to figure this one out...

Icheon village kilns...the graffiti art also baffles me

Pots pots pots pots pots...I'm in heaven!

Ceramics 2010! Woo! Is that what a ceramics mascot would say?

Pottery in the lake. Um, sweet.

Icheon village in the background

Pottery...everywhere...in the streets...in the walls...I'm HAPPY!

Happy Birthday to me! Love, my friendly neighborhood Korean restaurant owner, Mr. Lee. He prepared this cupcake birthday cake just for me :)

Of course I had to blow out the candles...

Thank you, Mr. Lee! I love your food best.

November: my fifteenth month in Korea, and my 24th birthday.

Followed shortly by my 25th and 26th birthdays...

Puzzled?

One of my favorite questions, "Teacher, you are how many old?" actually merits a quite different response these days. After the first of the year, Koreans say that everyone has turned one year older. Add this to their belief that everyone is already one years old at birth, and you get some significant discrepancy of age between our two cultures. It was difficult enough to celebrate my second birthday abroad in Korea...so then simultaneously aging a few more years beyond my assumed age of "24" was just a bit much to handle!

But if nothing else, it's a fun riddle to puzzle people with back home: "Britney Teacher left the USA when she was 22 years old. She lived in Korea for 18 months. But, when she returned home to the USA, she was 26 years old. How can this be?"

Thankfully, I've had some good adventures and good friends to celebrate my (very many) birthdays with here. One such friend is Mr. Lee, owner of a Korean family restaurant near my school. My business there alone over the past year has likely helped him to steadily pay his monthly lease for the restaurant space- in other words, I love his food. He knows all the teachers at my school, both by name and by what we typically order ("Ahh, Brit-a-nee, dolsot bibimbap?" to me). Naturally, I went there for my birthday lunch- and he presented me with a cake made of chocolate cupcakes he had just unwrapped from their packages (think: Korean style Hostess cupcakes). He topped off the tower of cupcakes with candles, and then proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday" and watch me blow out the candles. Excellence...good food, good friends, and good wishes for my next few years of life (which apparently caught up with me pretty quickly, those next few years! ;)

Halloween! Happy...and other spirit week classics

2010-11-12T09:08:00.008+09:00

WOW what a super-scary classroom!

Lots o'staples in that there haunted house.

Easy costume idea for the child who wears glasses: tape black construction paper to one lens. Annnddd, pirate. Done.
Crazy Hair day. Fantastic.

Oh boy, isn't carving a pumpkin with ten 6-year olds a thing.

But, instant gratification. They held that pumpkin like champs.

Crazy Hair day awesome-ness.

Tina (and photo props to Nathan Teacher!)

Spiderweb props to Sue Haeg! (and Creative Kidstuff)

Halloween social time. Lets compare princess dresses.

A Dorothy. A pumpkin. And a traditional Korean man?

A Peter Pan and a Dorothy.

Halloween games in Big Gym awesome-ness.

spoooooooky entrance to LCI on Halloween morn...

and an equally-eerie, grammatically-incorrect banner to celebrate an English school Halloween.

Just one of my solid face-paint pictures. Pikachu, no big deal.

Ok, actually it WAS a big deal.

(and more photo props to Nathan Teacher!)

And a non-LCI Halloween, too: Where's Waldo? Somewhere in Seoul, perhaps?

One of my little Disney princesses.

And a little Power Ranger, too.

Ray with his quite-genius creation: Mommy pumpkin to hold the candy, and Baby pumpkin to hold the candy wrappers. Brilliant.

Oops, Waldo is in Suji.

And in the subway!

Never mind that we're well into the next holiday season...these Halloween memories are too great to forgo, despite their belated appearance.

Most of the pictures speak for themselves...but one in particular I hope can truly give you just a glimpse of the particular happiness I've experienced here.

Face-painting, LCI Halloween.

Britney Teacher as Dorothy, surrounded by awestruck, costumed little girls and boys, marveling over the painted artwork on their hands and faces.

Korean kids and painting pictures.

Two key components for absolute bliss.

Quite a memorable moment, of a handful experienced here, when I have stopped to think, "I am in my element." :)

Seoraksan, Take 2

2010-11-09T21:57:00.011+09:00

LET. ME. THROUGH.

Which is more captivating...the colors of the leaves, or the colors of the Korean hikers?

And GOOD MORNING, Korea...

View from our "campsite"

"Mountain traffic."

I have officially coined the phrase.

The inspiration? Hiking in Korea, of course.

Seoraksan National Park. One of the most popular mountains in Korea. Containing one of the highest peaks in Korea. One of the most beautiful sites for fall foliage.

And further: with myself as the witness, one of the most densely populated sites of foot traffic.

"Hey Korea, want to go hiking?

Oh...all 50 million of you?

Um, okay...the more the merrier!"

Disclaimer: this conversation did not actually take place.

Further disclaimer: "the more the merrier" does not actually apply to the activity of "mountain hiking."

This particular weekend trip to Seoraksan shall forever be imprinted in my mind as a mountain march of millions...but it was nevertheless memorable, gratifying, beautiful, invigorating, and containing all the essential elements of a good hike in Korea.

* The sharing of food with other Korean hikers.

But mostly, other Korean hikers sharing food with us.

You can always count on your fellow hikers to generously offer (and persist in offering) any or all of the following: dried squid, dried fish, a bite or two of kimchi, a can of beer, a paper cup of rice wine, or heck- even a shot of soju (liquor). This time around, we were graciously presented with a pot of mandu guk, a dumpling and noodle soup, that other campers at our campsite had just cooked up. Thankfully, Korean culture calls for us to accept such gifts, no matter the circumstances. Best mandu guk ever...and not just because we were the poor, pitiful foreigners without any cooking gear or hot food on the mountain. In return, we presented the kind cooks with my package of candy corn, brought to Korea by Sue Haeg just a few weeks prior. Was it difficult for me to give up? Absolutely- one can surely not find candy corn in Korea. But, I was willing to sacrifice such a treat for the sake of adhering to Korean culture.

*The brilliant displays of color

Not by the leaves and foliage...rather, by the Korean hikers. Nowhere else will you encounter so many label-crazy gearheads. Hardly a single hiker on the mountain sporting anything besides the most expensive, extreme, brand-name hiking gear, in the most extreme (and some might say obnoxious) colors. The splendid greens! The rich reds! The brilliant purples! The screaming chartreuse! The blaze orange! What to look at...the colors of the hikers, or the colors of the leaves?

* The running commentary of other hikers

Silence? On a mountain? Don't be silly- of course a mountain should be loud and boisterous!

I don't think I had a single original thought in my head all day long during the hike...my ears were constantly ringing with the greetings, calls, and conversation of those around me. Not to mention the commentary and exclamations directed at us foreigners making our way up the mountain...lots of it, surprisingly positive and encouraging! We accepted our fair share of high-fives, shoulders pats, and thumbs-ups. Although Maria and I caused perhaps the biggest stir in the mountain's history by wearing shorts on our way up the mountain, with the temperatures hovering around the 50s.

With every step, twist, and leap up the rocks, we heard:

"An-chuweo-yo?! An-chu-weo-yo?!"

Translation: "Not cold?! Not cold?!"

Other likely translation: "Not cold?! Shorts? Crazy!"

It was actually quite amusing for awhile to watch the chain reaction of successive hikers winding up the mountain trail, as word spread back further about the crazy American girls hiking in shorts just a ways down. But that, too, got old.

Although this sounds like a criticism of culture, I assure you: it is merely in jest and good humor. And sarcasm. How else can you possibly tolerate- and even enjoy- such an experience of wading through the crowds up a mountain, without a little good humor? :)

Fall fall fall...Finally

2010-10-13T23:02:00.018+09:00

Field trip with kindergarten to a farm...where Britney Teacher and Nathan Teacher really enjoyed the hay ride...maybe more than the kids?

Hay ride, wooo!!!

Feed the goats!

The students dug the fields for sweet potatoes- quite fun to see their pride in discovering even the tiniest, ugliest little sweet potato (Example A: Jamie, above)

He was quite the go-getter

Workin' the fields

Good thing you're wearing your mask, so that you don't breathe in the clean, fresh, country air. Makes sense.

Yes, she actually wore those pink bunny ears at school. All day long.

And no- it wasn't for Halloween.

Happy Birthday, Jamie! Cute as a button in his little bow tie

I love my Jamie :)

The birthday paparazzi- Mommy and Lily Teacher

Well, don't you look handsome in your little hankbok, Sean.
Vicky looked like a little American girl doll in her hanbok
Somebody put on their crabby pants this morning...
We made seongpyeon, traditional rice cakes for Chuseok.

Chris was very proud of his.

Making the seongpyeon: all you need are big blobs of glutinous rice and some red beans!
Vicky and Kelly in their hanboks, the traditional dress

" Teacher, my crown seongpyeon!"

Finished! Although not the most appetizing, when they've been made by 20 sticky, dirty, little hands...

Ray- so very stoic

Crystal- so very ghetto?

I have cute kids.

Finally- the cold and blustery autumn evening I have been awaiting for weeks now. The perfect autumn evening, in fact. Leaves swirling aimlessly in the wind. A chill that makes you stamp your feet as you impatiently wait at the bus stop and intersection. Rosy cheeks and cold skin upon entering a warm apartment. Good thing I was ill-prepared for such an unexpected autumnal arrival- I was caught in my Birkenstock sandals and little other protection from the biting wind. And yet, I had no problem embracing it. Fall, I love you.

Heat, goodbye- I have had quite enough of you. As a Minnesota denizen, I must experience the coldest, most testing of conditions again in order to thrive. Korea, I know you have that in you. Humidity, good riddance- I will not experience you in Korea again. There will not be another summer here...for me, at least. Henceforth, the cold is all I shall know...for here begins the stretch of my last four months in Korea, a stretch that will carry me through the winter until I leave this frigid peninsula for the equally frigid flatlands of Minnesota in early March (and I do hope for the extended Minnesota winter...I've got my eyes on the prize of squeezing in some Nordic skiing once I return- wait another year to ski again? I think not). How strange to think of my time left now as fitting into this neat little package of months that I can count on less than one hand...a neat little package of a single season. How has time arrived at such a point, yet again?

The fall thus far- or what we have referred to as the fall, despite the lack of autumnal weather- has passed me by in a whirlwind of new friends, new experiences, and even new emotions. Was I naive to think that all new, terrifying, and confusing emotions would surface within the first full year of living abroad? Absolutely. September and October...oh, what you have taught me and where you have brought me. I recently experienced, for truly the first time since being here, an utterly frustrating and defeating sense of annoyance and dislike for Korea: the masses of people, the sharing of personal space, the waiting in lines, the cultural taboos. I always knew it would be inevitable...and honestly, I've been feeling both happy and scared that it's taken so long to finally experience it. Happy...in the sense that I have wholeheartedly enjoyed discovering and experiencing and living "Korea." Scared...in the sense that I perhaps loved it too much, that it would keep sucking me in until I finally opened my eyes 5 years later, wondering where the time had gone. So I guess I feel grateful for these dissatisfied feelings...this is my gut, telling me that March is my time...to go on home.

Sue in Seoul

2010-10-02T20:04:00.008+09:00

Heaviest rainfall in Seoul in 104 years...and it didn't even dampen our spirits!
Demonstrating the public "exercise equipment" around the city...

What a pro!

I love this guy.

Lots of children at the palace were dressed in their hanboks, traditional Korean clothing

So crowded!

Gyeongbukgong Palace in Seoul on Chuseok day: lots of festivities!

Last meal in Korea: cheesy ramen. Literally, a bowl of ramen with a piece of processed cheese on top. Salty, spicy, and delicious....Sue is STILL talking about it, one week later...

Boguengsa Temple, Seoul

It's tradition: McDonald's iced coffee

Perfect day for a walk

She's got the Asian pose down!

Water break, hiking the mountain in Suji
Made it!
Like mother, like daughter...

New friend, my elementary student Christina
Jasmin loved Sue...and the special treats Sue gave my kinder students!
Asia. In a single picture.

Thirteen months after a tearful airport goodbye, a happy mother was reunited with her little bunny in Seoul!

Ten days in Korea...not nearly enough time to catch up from a years' worth of missed hugs and morning conversations over coffee and crossword puzzles...but nevertheless, perfect.

Couldn't have asked for anything better, celebrating the Chuseok holiday of giving thanks with one of the people I am most thankful for in life. What a surreal experience, walking my usual paths through the city with my mom beside me...how many times have I embarked down those paths before with the wish that someone from home could share them with me?

I could never have dreamed up such a bizarre scenario for myself at this point in life...drinking coffee at a Starbucks in the heart of Seoul on rainy fall days...hiking mountains far above the high-rise apartments that stretch like endless rows of dominoes across the land below...deciphering Korean menus and signs and subway maps as a second nature...spending my weekdays in a classroom, not as the student that I've been for 18 years but as a teacher.

Having my mom experience all of these with me last week have now made them so much more real...I haven't just been dreaming them up, living a fantasy life over here on the other side of the world! I guess in a strange sort if way, my mom's presence here has been a validation of these experiences...it is no longer just unfamiliar words and faces and places told in stories over skype and in email...it is all real, and familiar, and wonderful, because my mom has seen it for herself.

I wish I could better describe these feelings...I've realized that every day is still about processing and reflecting and trying, without much success, to verbalize the sights and sensations of this life in Korea. But I'm so incredibly happy to have at least been able to introduce my mom to it...when my dad visited last year, I was still in the process of adjusting to a daily routine, having been in Korea for less than two months, let alone being able to introduce him to my favorite foods and places and people. It's unbelievable to me how life has progressed in the course of time between my dad's visit last fall and my mom's visit this fall...

As I said earlier, my mom's visit was absolutely perfect. Just enjoying the time we had together exactly as we would have at home...idling over coffee in the morning, seeking out new streets and restaurants for lunch in the city...spending the most time possible outdoors, taking advantage of some beautiful fall weather by hiking and running and walking just about everywhere. And of course, indulging in the most excellent Korean ever...and maybe an iced coffee or two from McDonald's (truly, a rare indulgence, but one of the best a mother and daughter can share). One of the best experiences of the week: introducing her to all my students at school. For weeks and weeks, my students had been excitedly awaiting the arrival of "Britney Teacher's Mommy." Their interactions with her were absolutely priceless! Sue gained many new friends and received lots of special hugs that day at school! Again, how surreal to go about my daily routine in class with my mom sitting at the table alongside my tiny Korean kindergartners!!

Miss you so much, Mom...and happier than you'll ever know that I got to share a week with you here.

New Times

2010-09-09T01:08:00.003+09:00

Annyeung!
I have just begun a six-month extension of my contract in Suji, to end at the beginning of March next year. Old teachers leaving, new teachers arriving, new students and classes and schedules...the only constant has been the stubbornly hot and humid weather (seems like just yesterday I was complaining about the stubbornly cold and snowy weather of the unusually long Korean winter!) Needless to say, the past month has been a strange interlude of beginnings and endings...knowing that I was originally supposed to be leaving Korea around this time has been both a daunting and exciting experience of emotion. I'm very happy with my decision to stay a bit longer beyond my original contract- saying goodbye a few weeks ago to the teachers who were with me for the past year really drove that home...I would have harbored big regrets if I was joining them on the plane back to Minnesota.

At the same time, I was still along for the ride of experiencing their last month in Korea...their last favorite meals, last noraebong nights, last mornings of being greeted in the school lobby by dozens of miniature adoring fans, screaming their names and grabbing at their clothes (a.k.a the kindergarten students, fresh off their buses, relishing the sight of their beloved teachers for the first time that day). This certainly posed a major clash of emotion, nostalgia, confusion, and just about every other sort of powerful and overwhelming feeling you can experience while abroad...
I think I had them all covered for the entire month of August.

And now, I have been here one year (as of August 12th, not that I'm counting or anything). Just about nothing is as I thought it would be, one year ago. Just about everything is still uncertain...except for the most wonderful feelings in the world at school, seeing my students for the first time every morning (admittedly, I get just as excited as they do, as in the morning scenario described above) and having those moments when everything feels okay just because one of my little 6 year olds hugs my legs and says, "Bret-a-nee Teach-a" (I'm an easy sell- they don't even have to say anything along the lines of "I love you," or "You're the best"...just hearing them say my name in accented English is enough!)

Some of my classes have changed now for the new school term...I am still teaching science and reading/writing classes to my elementary students, but I am now also a social studies teacher. Interesting concept, teaching Korean students about the American meanings and connotations of words like "community" and "leader" and "suburb." Some of those concepts just don't quite translate the same into the context of Eastern society...but it has been interesting to reaquaint myself with the building blocks of American society again...

Especially when, to my suprise, our social studies textbook featured a photo of Minneapolis within the unit on "cities and suburbs"!! I gave my students extra reward stickers if they could tell me what was so special about the picture- a picture of Lake Calhoun in the foreground, with the downtown skyline in the background. A few of them ventured creative guesses: "This city has a sea surrounded by offices where the people work. The people move around the city on boats" (there were lots of canoes and kayakers in the particular picture). Um, no...that would be more along the lines of...Venice? Another only said, "It looks like a beautiful and very wonderful place to live!" (It did- and it does- and it is!)

But, lo and behold, one student finally noticed the caption that read "Minneapolis, Minnesota" and jumped out of his seat, screaming in excitement because he recalled that I am from there! I almost matched his excitement- seeing this picture of home and being able to tell my students, "That's my home! I live right near this lake in this city!" was such unexpected joy and nostalgia. Wow...it was definitely a wave of homesickness...but also cool to know that my students can have a little bit better of idea where I come from.

And next...Sue Haeg is set to arrive in Korea on Friday, September 17th!!!!! Can't wait- I have almost a week break from school for the Chuseok holiday and will be happily spending it all with my mom!!

July

2010-08-07T15:20:00.010+09:00

Chris Octopus- song contest attire

Vicky Octopus- song contest attire

Jamie Octopus

Enjoying the fruits of their labor- Britney Teacher brought them ice cream for all their hard work on the song contest!

Jessica's show-and-tell: "Britney Teacher and baby, same eyes!!"

WOW- sweet Power Rangers belt and sword, Jamie!! Hardly a show-and-tell day goes by without some kind of Power Rangers robot/sticker book/sword/car/transformer...

Don't even need to explain why Vicky is one of my favorites...can't you tell from the picture??!

Happy Birthday, John!!

Just about into their sixth month of English with me...I can't believe it!

Naturally the weather turned cloudy and cool as soon as we arrived at the beach, post-hike...but no complaints, the hiking weather was perfect!

After the hike, we encountered an interesting group gathered at the Buddhist temple at the base of the mountains. Turned out to be a "Miss Korea" pageant...quite an interesting place to hold a beauty pageant, yes?

The contestants...and the appropriate setting of an ancient Buddhist temple in the background?

View of the beach from our hotel across the street

The coast reminded me of Lake Superior...except, it's an ocean

Another weekend hiking trip, out on the east coast. For the first time ever in Korea, the weather cooperated during the hike- a miracle! We began with a bit of fog (around 4 am), but the sky quickly cleared up as the sun rose...and we were given the greatest gift of all while hiking, a clear view of the mountains and valleys around and below. Makes the effort of the hike feel much more worthwhile, if you can actually view something incredible from the peak. Korean hiking tends to provide views of fog, hazy pollution clouds, and gray rain clouds...so it was pretty exciting to have a blue sky this time!

The hike itself was one of the most difficult I've ever done- fairly vertical and requiring a fair amount of concentration, muscle, and dexterity. At many points on the climb, there were thick ropes with which to haul yourself up the rocky slope- not for the faint of heart!

After the hike: indulging in the typical post-hike bowls of makeoli rice wine and huge platters of green onion pancakes to share (sidenote- one thing I will definitely miss about Korea- meals being so communal. Food in the middle of the table, everyone poised and ready with chopsticks around the table. Such an engaging experience for a meal).

Aside from hiking...spent most of July in a state of disbelief that I have almost (on August 12th) been here for one year! And of course, also spent July teaching...among the notable events, a kindergarten song contest and yet another birthday party. I taught my students "Octopus's Garden"...and yes, Britney Teacher designed and made the super-cool octopus props that you see :)

The Ultimate Hike- Seoraksan Mountains

2010-06-30T22:19:00.008+09:00

Christine and I at one of the trail checkpoints: not actually feeling as happy and pleased with conditions as we look

This one was actually (obviously) taken after daylight broke, maybe around 5 am. Still feeling pumped up and good to go!!

We really grew to love our headlamps...

START TIME: 2:30 am

The first hints of light, around 4:30 am

Daylight beginning to break...a little bit eerie, but still so serene

FLOWERS?! Lillies and lilacs?! I had almost forgotten what real flowers look like, growing in a real nature setting

First major checkpoint: sky still looks okay, don't be fooled! This was just before the rain began...the rain that lasted the entire day....

Beginning the looong descent, through the deep valleys and river gorge...so beautiful!

Check out the clock, documenting our finish time: 1:07 pm!! Feels like it should be bedtime, though...

Drink some traditional makeoli (Korean rice wine) after hiking for 12 hours? Okay.

Beautiful mountainside Buddhist temple, just inside the entrance of the national park

Of course you have to sit at the picnic tables after your hike to drink soju (vodka) and makeoli (rice wine) and eat seafood pancakes...it's what all the Koreans do!

The official entrance to the national park

Leaving the park...goodbye, Seoraksan! I'll see you again, promise.

FINISHED! Wet, exhausted, and perhaps a bit delirious. Do we look like we've been hiking for 12 hours in the rain??

Namsan Beach in Sokcho, the coastal town that's closest to Seoraksan National Park. Right across the street from our motel!

Cheesy Ramen: disgusting, I know. But I'll chalk it up to the likely salt deficiency from so much exercise and sweating while hiking the day before. I therefore remove all personal responsibility of actually ordering and devouring it!

A new friend on the beach: this Korean man and his wife entertained us for an hour, with their animated interactions and attempts at English...and their little picnic of Soju (vodka), bottles of Starbucks Frappuccinos, and pigs' feet (which we immediately identified as such and proceeded to bury in the sand when they weren't looking)

On the beach before going home

"The Ultimate Seoraksan Hike." That was the name of the weekend hiking trip sponsored by Discovery Korea, a travel and culture group for young foreigners (read: English teachers) in Korea. A fourteen hour hike on one of the highest peaks in South Korea, climbing roughly 5,000 feet of rugged elevation.

A bit daunting, I'll admit, for someone who grew up in the flat state of farm country...where the highest elevation is perhaps Lutsen "Mountain" ski area. And a bit deterring for someone with quite unpredictable leg problems, but quite predictable dependence on physical therapy. Furthermore, the hike was scheduled to begin at about 3 am, as soon as our bus arrived in the Seoraksan Mountains (which lie about 3 hours east of Seoul, right near the coast). Brushing those doubts and uncertainties (and rationale?) aside, I commited myself to the weekend hike, along with Christine. I was definitely anticipating a challenge!

And I was right...although not as much a physical challenge, as a mental one...which was just about the opposite of what I had been expecting. Beginning the hike at 2:30 am, literally stepping off the bus into the pitch-black, rural nighttime and strapping on our hiking shoes and packs, turned out to be exhilarating and energizing. I was on an adrenaline rush for a good 3 hours, just because we had started hiking at such a ridiculous and unreasonable time...trekking up the rugged slope, climbing over rocks and roots, with only the controlled light of our headlamps...feeling the mountain breeze, cool and refreshing...every so often, reaching a break in the forest that offered nothing beyond the ink-blue sky, dark silhouettes of trees, and the rising fog. I felt almost giddy with the excitement of what we were embarking upon, and what we were embarking toward...the ultimate peak, the ultimate view, the ultimate sense of accomplishment. And, I think, giddy with the experience of just being back in nature...so far from Seoul...the unexpected scent of crisp morning air (clean! pure! good for you!), of lillies and lilacs framing the trails, of damp leaves and earth. Adrenaline rush! I felt like I could have sprinted up that whole mountain...for the first few hours, at least...

Because of course, the tables began to turn around hour 4, at about 6:30 am. The mountain breeze turned sharp, penetrating even through the thick brush of the trails. The sky darkened, threatened rain. Our bodies started to drag, unsure of what we were putting them through. It actually felt oddly similar to the experience of jet-lag: being exhausted, sleep-deprived, unsure of the time, and place, and what meal you should be eating. Was I feeling sick? Hungry? Sleepy? Deprivedof electrolytes? Overwhelmed by the elevation? I had no idea- but I knew we had to just keep going.

We reached our first major checkpoint about an hour later, a small shelter between two mountain passes. The view was spectacular- endless mountain peaks, shrouded in fog. We took a rehydrate/refuel break inside, intending to head back out shortly in order to make our second major checkpoint on by 9:30 am...which was crucial to our plans for the rest of the day- if we didn't reach this checkpoint by the allotted time, there was no way we could make up enough time to complete the full 14 hour hike that day....and I know that none of us were willing to concede to anything less than 14 hours! Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas...it began pouring, as we were inside the shelter, the kind of hard, biting rain that hits you like sharp pellets. In other words, not quite ideal for hiking.

We set back out after an extended (and increasingly dismayed and downtrodden) break, intending to survey the trails and keep a check on the weather as we headed in the right direction. It was a rough hour and a half of steep downhill, all jagged, slippery rock. Our quads burning, our attire soaked, and our attitudes similarly dampened, we stopped at our next checkpoint. Eating what felt like my sixth "meal" of the day (and it was only 9 am!), we made a mutual decision to forgo the full 14 hour route and instead opt for the "next best" route that would still take us about 11 hours in full. It would have been very risky, and not very smart, to go for the full 14 hours...the trails could very well have become washed out, and un-hikable, by the time we reached the additional trails...and that was not a risk we could afford to take at this point. Besides, it was so rainy and foggy, what would be the point of reaching that high peak and then not even being able to see anything from it??

We were all feeling pretty down about the fact that we couldn't complete what we had set out to do...to be honest, I was feeling devastated. I had been preparing myself for this challenge, and it just felt as though we had been cheated out of it, despite our best efforts. I think the fact that I truly, and surprisingly, felt physically able to do the full hike was the hardest thing to face...I just kept thinking, "My legs don't always feel this good while hiking or exercising! I have to take advantage of it!"

But, it turned out that we still had our work cut out for us on the way down, for the next 5 hours of the hike. Many, many more kilometers of slippery rocks, cliffs, and wooden stairways, built into the sides of the mountains. The upside- it was beautiful. It was miles and miles of a deep valley, with rising cliffs on either side and the clearest, purest looking mountain spring running directly through it. The rain made the greens of the trees and brush pop. The fog was settling around the tops of the cliffs and distant peaks. Around a curve, every so often, we'd happen upon waterfalls and pools of water...making us wish enviously that it was 90 degrees and sunny, so that we could indulge in these swimming pools.

Finishing the hike at about 2:30 pm was a pretty surreal feeling...for the last hour or so, it had felt endless. Just turn after turn of the same cliffs, the same distant peaks, the same rocks and pools of waters. Someone had even began humming, "this is the hike that never ends...and it goes on and on, my friends..." We were drenched with rain and sweat, smeared with dirt, trucking along with shaky legs from the miles of steep downhill, certainly feeling the effects of the all-nighter we had been forced to pull in anticipation of the early morning start time. Altogether, the hike lasted about 12 hours...not quite as impressive as a 14 hour hike...but pretty darn close. And was I stronger because of the experience? Absolutely- physically and mentally. Was I still on a hiking high and adrenaline rush, 12 hours later:? Absolutely not- but I was already looking forward to the next possible opportunity for a 3 am hike!!

(Which will actually be next weekend- sort of- I'm signed up for a 10 hour hike, through the same travel program. Start time, 4:30 am, just in time for the sunrise!)

Summer summer summer

2010-06-24T08:12:00.006+09:00

A summer day in Seoul: Gwangwhamun Plaza

The closest to a pool you'll get in Seoul...

One of the best meals in Pohang (and in Korea?): Bibim Mandu

Lovely day for the beach...and the steel mill

Don't worry about the cow in the birthing position...what an appealing advertisement for a beef galbi restaurant Shauna and I: excited for the clams on the grill!

Hands-down, in the Top 5 Meals. Ever.

Fireworks are sold right on the beach in Pohang...

...And we bought some!

Yes, my eyes are closed- but it's because I'm so excited by Tom N Toms coffee right on the beach!! The beach...wish we had one of these in Suji!

Sure you want to swim in the steel mill water????

Successful beach weekend with good friends!!

Happy Birthday, Vicky! Had to include this one- she looked so cute in her white birthday dress!

Summer in Seoul, 2010-

It's been a month now of unbearable humidity and overwhelming World Cup fever- quite a lethal combination for a crowded city of 13 million. Seoul is just beginning to recover from Korea's recent elimination from the World Cup last weekend...I have never witnessed such excitement for soccer, and such a showing of national pride, as I did in the past few weeks of Korea's run in the World Cup. It was so exciting to be in the midst of it! Every storefront bursting with overstocked "Fight Korea!" merchandise, blasting the Korea fight song, random rallies and cheers of fans on streetcorners, students arriving to school each day in miniature red jerseys and blinking red devil horns...unforgettable!

One night, I set out with the idea of watching Korea's upcoming game while working out, on the TVs at the gym. As soon as I stepped out of my apartment, with the start of the game drawing near, I noticed something strange: the streets were absolutely deserted. The city was silent! No students walking home from school, lingering on the sidewalks in front of the street food stands...no families out for their late evening walk, towing toddlers in strollers with them...no businessmen stepping off of the buses carting them home from Seoul. Even the street vendors were curiously absent...the fruit truck woman with her $15 watermelons, the old man in the sock truck (literally, he sells hundreds of colors of socks), even the tteok boki truck, usually the most popular hangout at night for Suji-ans wandering the streets! I continued my walk to the gym, soon discovering where the whole city had retreated to...answer: any and every available TV screen in the surrounding area. I saw auto mechanics crowded around an outdoor set in their garage, sitting on crates and passing around bottles of soju (Korean vodka). Groups of teenagers packed into coffee shops with giant overhead projectors showcasing the awaited match. And then, spontaneous occurrences of actual life on the streets, outside of the draw of the television screens: young boys running down the streets with their friends, wearing Pak Ji-Sung masks (the most popular player on the Korean team, and their captain- the Koreans are CRAZY about him!), yelling the Korean cheer in excitement and anticipation: "Dae-han minguk!" (clap-clap-clap-clap-clap)" Finally, I reached the gym...only to find that it had closed down for the night, because of the game. It was official: the whole city, and very likely the whole country, had shut down in order to watch the game...and more importantly, to show their national pride in supporting Korea. Pretty sure that wouldn't happen in America...especially not for soccer!!

Aside from the World Cup frenzy, summer has been passing by with weeks of humidity and weekends spent trying to escape the heat and craziness of the city. Two weeks ago, I went down south to a city called Pohang, which is right on the southeastern coast of Korea. It was such an incredible change of pace from Seoul, being so far removed from the Westernization and overpopulation of the big city. We spent two amazing days on the beach, which is just a stone's throw away from the downtown area of the city...and were blessed with surprisingly pleasant, sunny weather! Quite the opposite of our recent weekend in Busan! Highlight of the weekend: eating grilled clams at a beachside restaurant...they even made the Top 5 of my favorite meals abroad, ever...and that's quite an impressive feat :)

On to experience what else Korea has to offer for the summer...and to hopefully take advantage of the weather before rainy season hits in mid-July!!

Field Trip Fun!

2010-06-04T20:16:00.008+09:00

SO excited to be riding on a "big" bus...oh, and for the field trip, too

Everyone was lovin' the bus...

Of course the kids were decked out in their sun gear, Korean style

What a happy camper, always willing to smile for me

Don't worry about this group of schoolkids, just trying to show up our obnoxious yellow LCI sweatsuits with their REAL suits...

BFFs. Nice high-waisted pants, Kelly!

Just me and My Favorite...

Don't look too happy to be on that sheep, Ray

Smile and say, "kimchi!"

Don't worry about the wandering student in the rose gardens...he's one of mine!

Looking a bit space-age, Kelly

Jasmin showing off her kimbap lunch

Every student unpacked their little cartoon character tupperware full of homemade gimbap and fruit...and then they shared it with Britney Teacher, yum! I think John made this face at me because I asked for one of his kimbap rolls, and he didn't respond...so I just took one anyway...and I don't think that made him happy. Oops.

Jessica- beautiful!

Vicky!

Hannah, one of Shauna Teacher's students- what a visor!

The park area in the zoo where we picnicked- it was beautiful with the surrounding mountains

Keeping track of 100 tiny Korean kindergartners in a huge zoo- IMPOSSIBLE

Hello, class

A bit tired and crabby after a long day in the sun...ALL of us

Goodbye, zoo!

The Field Trip...equivalent to Christmas, for students and teachers alike. There is no greater joy than the experience of shepherding your children around a new environment, outside of the classroom...especially when that experience is accompanied by sunny blue skies and blissful 70 degree weather. Two weeks ago, we took our May kindergarten field trip to the Seoul Zoo and Children's Park. The day began with discoveries of simple joys, namely, the experience of riding on a "big bus" (coach bus), rather than trucking to te field trip site in the tiny 10-passenger LCI vans that typically serve as the school buses for LCI. I think the students were much more excited at the prospect of the big bus than they were about the zoo experience awaiting them later in the day. I have never observed such utter enthusiasm for reclining seats, window curtains, and large, tinted windows!

The bus ride was about 30 minutes long...and I spent the majority of that time squatting happily in the aisle of the bus, caught like a spectator in a fast-paced tennis match as I tried to keep up with the banter and broken English flying fast between my students on either side of me. Of course, there were requests to sing our recent song contest song, the always-popular "12 Months in a Year" (literally, a song which details the exact 12 months in the year).

I also learned a fair amount of Korean words on the bus ride...apparently, being set free from the English classroom provides the tempting (and somewhat daring) opportunity to teach the teacher Korean. The more outgoing students usually first throw out a Korean word once they have initiated a conversation with you (if you can even call it a "conversation," given that it's a 5 year old, and given that said 5 year old is in their 4 month of English), as if to test the waters for how teacher will react. Will she lap up the new knowledge of Korean vocabulary excitedly? Or will she choose to berate the student for speaking Korean, regardless of the classroom borders? I admit I'm a bit choosy with my reactions...I am definitely guilty of sometimes egging the children on to teach me Korean words here and there. In my defense, though, I have to say I've gained a vocabulary of quite useful words that are more applicable to teaching ESL (and kindergarten students, which is an even more difficult experience!) than you'd expect (my all-time favorite being ko pi, the word for bloody nose...because a kindergarten ko pi is an inevitable daily occurrence). Plus, there's no better medicine for when you're feeling down than to hear one of your students say, in a tiny, high-pitched voice, while sitting in your lap: "Teacher! Teacher! Banana in Korean is BA-NA-NA!" (And there's your Korean fruit lesson of the day: banana in Korean is banana, kiwi in Korean is kiwi, and mango in Korean is mango. Good to know, yes?)

It turned out that our day at the zoo was just as exciting and eventful- if not more!- than our bus ride there. Was it difficult to shepherd 10 equally energetic and curious children around crowds of other schools at the zoo? Absolutely. Was it worth it, to observe how my students act outside of the classroom, and to see the pure happiness on their faces when they saw the monkey cage or the guinea pig cage (yes, really) for the first time? Absolutely.

We finished off the day with a picnic lunch in the parks and gardens within the zoo. It was a beautiful setting, feeling surrounded by not only real grass and trees and open spaces, but also by the mountains looming in the distance. Each student dutifully unpacked their lunchbox stocked full with homemade kimbap (rice and vegetables, wrapped in seaweed) in little cartoon character-imprinted Tupperware. Some of the best kimbap I've had yet...because of course, every student shared their kimbap with teacher!

And also one of the best memories I have of teaching, and of Korea, yet...once again, The Field Trip pulls through.

Busan!

2010-05-28T09:14:00.009+09:00

This one's for you, Mom: the Korean version of road trip McDonald's iced coffees: a little McCafe at 6 am, ready to board the train for Busan!

Tom n Toms Coffee: one of the most popular coffee chains in Korea. Of course, Britney and Christine had to take a picture to represent their favorite Toms (Haeg and Grotjohn, respectivel)

And don't worry about the third coffee picture of the weekend, representing the Midwest with a little Caribou Coffee! I've seen a few Caribous in Seoul, plus this one in Busan. Starbucks, to be expected...but Caribou? Strange.

Near the port in Busan- the only beautiful weather of the weekend!

Saturday: rain, all day long. This was supposed to be our Beach Day...

Awkward, not only because I'm wearing a rain jacket at the beach...but also because I had realized a split second prior to this shot that if I don't make the Asian peace sign in a picture these days, I don't know what to do with my hands. Guess I'll have to work on this before I come home. A beautiful Buddhist temple along the coast that we visited on Sunday- decorated with thousands upon thousands of colorful lanterns

Sunday = what else, pouring rain. But ridiculously overpriced, neon yellow rain ponchos bought on the street saved the day!

Nothing completes a cold, rainy day like a boiling hot pot of kimchi jjigae! A red stew made with kimchi, red pepper paste, onions, tofu, egg, pork, rice cakes, and more

The long-awaited long weekend celebration of Buddha's Birthday in Busan- a weekend of rain, naturally.

The journey down there was slow, but of course the day of travel was marked by sunny, cloudless blue skies and soaring temperatures. We had opted for the normal (read: slow) train ride down south, given that we made our travel plans a bit late in the game and had once again forgotten the many other million Koreans also making travel plans during this important holiday weekend (one of only two national holidays during the year in which most Koreans are granted a day off from work). KTX high-speed train: booked. Bus: highly dangerous option, considering the number of cars to be expected on the roads at any given time, at any given place in Korea, throughout the holiday weekend. Truly, the normally 4-hour long bus ride could (and has actually been rumored to) turn into a journey of double the time, due to heavy traffic. The "normal" train was quite the experience: we had all been picturing a spacious car that would grant us a leisurely ride of a few hours, in which we would marvel over the scenery of the Korean countryside and engage in deep conversations. Quite the opposite: we learned very quickly that the "normal" train is a very popular means of transportation for those people who don't have a strong preference for comfort, personal hygiene, and luxuries while traveling. In other words, the railways sell not only reserved seat tickets, but also an almost-unlimited number of "standing room only" tickets...because there's just that many people in Korea!

We were squeezed like sardines into our train car- me squished against the window next to an older Korean man who was sitting a bit too close for comfort (although to give him the benefit of the doubt, he had quite a few elbows, backs, and other body parts in dangerously close proximity to himself, given his more vulnerable position in the aisle seat). The aisles were positively crammed with people- the young and the old, sitting and standing, some reading intensely, others chatting rapidly on their cell phones, and still others staring out the windows aimlessly the entire 4.5 hour trip (or at least, as much of the window as they could see, which was probably not a significant amount). You can imagine the stale, stuffy air of that train car...too many people, too many smells, and too much time spent wishing I was anywhere but in that train car.

Needless to say, we were incredibly happy to be free of the train, 4.5 hours later as we rolled into Busan station. We noticed the difference in landscape, atmosphere, and the population, as soon as we stepped outside of the station. It felt like a much different pace from Seoul- slower, more relaxed, more carefree. True, Busan is the second-largest city in Korea, but it just seemed so much freer of the constant stimulation that plagues Seoul at all hours of the day and night. The city was certainly packed with foreigners, though- it seemed as though every foreign teacher in all of Korea had made the trek to this coastal city for the holiday weekend.

The one downside of the weekend? Oh, well that would just be the rain that started on Saturday morning and did not stop...did not even let up...for the entire weekend. When we arrived in Busan on Friday afternoon, the weather was perfect. We naively planned a beach day for tomorrow, dismissing the forecast for "a chance of rain, with overcast skies," truly believing that since we had put so much effort into our journey south (and had endured such atrocities on the train ride), of course the weather would turn out to be just beautiful, in our favor. Still, we managed to see a lot of the city- a huge fish and seafood market (even though I've been to a few in Korea now, those never get old!), a huge ferris wheel overlooking the ocean (just another impressive feat of me conquering my fear of heights, no big deal), and visiting some beautiful Buddhist temples (decorated in amazing colors for the holiday). The best was the temple along the coast that we visited on Sunday (see my pictures above): it was breathtaking, built upon the rocks and cliffs of the coast, so vibrant and peaceful at the same time, almost like a dream because of the dreary, blurry, rainy weather. Some 2,000 won ($1.50 US) neon yellow rain ponchos saved our lives that day!

Very good trip, even despite the rain...an amazing time with amazing friends, Shauna and Christine! :)

Happy Birthday, Buddha! (and other May celebrations)

2010-05-07T06:56:00.005+09:00

Topgol Park in Seoul, near the site of the Lantern Festival and parade for Buddha's Birthday

The lanterns hung in the park were mesmerizing!

And the sunny, blue skies definitely added a bit of beauty...

Lanterns are hung like this in many streets, temples, and parks across Korea in anticipation of Buddha's Birthday They looked like bright balloons against the sky...

I couldn't stop taking pictures!

We painted little wooden Buddha magnets at the Lantern festival

My Buddha...wish I could have sat there for hours, painting more!

Temple food: rice and vegetables, wrapped in a lotus leaf

Lotus leaf-wrapped rice: you were not as delicious as I'd hoped you'd be

The hub of the lantern festival: Jogyesa Temple and shrine

It was packed with tourists and worshippers...and of course, paper lanterns

Walking under a tent of paper lanterns!

Lanterns on display, made by Buddhists from around the world. This one was my favorite!

Lantern parade: miles and miles, thousands upon thousands of lanterns and people

Buddhist monks carrying their lanterns

Lantern floats from around the world

Most of them were Buddhism/peace/unity related...but there were definitely a few wild cards in there. Umm...promotion of safe syringe usage??

It can't be an Asian parade without the giant dragon head!! I kind of feel like my life is complete, now that I've seen one of these with my own eyes!!
Again...not too sure what this float was trying to promote...

And in other birthday celebrations...Happy Birthday, Kindergarten Chris!!

The birthday boy, looking his best!!

What a month of celebrations! Korea in May has been pretty good to me so far...one more kindergarten birthday already, the onset of steady warm weather, anticipation of upcoming vacations, and 3 major holidays...can't complain!

Wednesday, May 5th was Children's Day, a national holiday that granted us a day off from school. It was absolutely perfect- sunny and 70s, a day meant for laying around in the park (a.k.a. the small grassy patch in between high-rises), eating bibimbap for lunch, and just feeling thankful for the opportunity to be in Korea, teaching the most adorable children in the entire world. I kept hoping I'd see some of my students around Suji that day...you'd think that's virtually impossible, given the vast population of Suji, but it has happened before...and it's just about the greatest feeling you can have as a teacher :)

It also made me happy to see so many children out with their families that day, just enjoying the sunshine (well, enjoying the sunshine in their long pants, shirts, hats, scarves, gloves, and sun umbrellas) and the freedom of the day. Children here aren't really given that freedom to be children any given day of the week, with their strict schedules of education and extracurriculars...attending both Korean and English school from 8-7 pm every day, plus often having school on Saturdays, doesn't leave the average Korean child much time for fun and games. This day reminded me of how many more freedoms children in the U.S. have...I don't think my students would even believe me if I told them that many American children go right home after school to just watch TV, drink pop, and play video games. I realize that these may all be biased observations of Korean children and education, given that I've only been teaching at a private English school here, but it still makes me thankful for the freedom I was given as a child to just be a child, enjoying spontaneity and free time and individuality. That doesn't seem to exist here for children!

Children's Day this month was followed closely by another great holiday (at least according to me): Teachers' Day! Celebrating the value and accomplishments of teachers everywhere in Korea by giving flowers, gifts, cards, and lots of hugs...what a novel concept! :) I received homemade cards from all my kindergartners and from many of my elementary students...all of which said, in some form or another, "Britney Teacher, thank you. I love you." And since the parents at my ritzy private school love to compete and try to outdo each other with spending money on their children and their children's teachers, I also received a collection of expensive gifts: Chanel eyeshadow and lipstick, earrings, roses, brand-name bath and beauty products, and more. Other teachers received everything from cologne and perfume to Coach bags, Swarovski crystal necklaces, and fancy leather wallets. Not a bad day for any of us!

And just after Teachers' Day was the Lantern Festival, marking the celebrated week of Buddha's Birthday. The actual holiday is on Friday, May 21st this year, but the Sunday prior is the huge, international celebration representing Buddhist culture from around Asia: Korea, China, Japan, Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka. The celebration was held in Seoul, in a Buddhist-influenced neighborhoods surrounding a prominent temple. The weather was warm, the skies were clear and sunny, and the streets were absolutely packed with people and paper lanterns. Seeing all the bright-colored lanterns strung above the streets and across the temples is a sight I'll never forget...perhaps one of the most beautiful and enchanting sites I've ever seen. I couldn't take enough pictures of them all!!

The lantern parade commenced in the evening, as soon as dusk fell around 7 pm...and it continued for over two and a half hours...with the continuous marching of thousands upon thousands of people. I heard that more than 100,000 people partake in this parade...and I can't even fathom the number of paper lanterns present! There were lanterns of all shapes, sizes, and colors...and huge floats of paper lanterns pushed along by Buddhists, in the likeness of giant Buddhas and elephants and dragons. Every single float was amazing, seeing them glow against the backdrop of crowded streets and sidewalks, hearing the steady beat of drums as traditional Korean dancers and muscians marched along...with the occasional lull in clamor and celebration, as a troup of Buddhist monks would pass by in their identical robes, silently carrying their lanterns and prayer beads. The whole scene was mesmerizing, magical, and incredibly peaceful...feeling the positive energy of the Buddhist parade participants reflected back in the crowds lining the streets...and knowing that all of these hundreds of thousands of people were present for a single cause of celebration. It was a beautiful, truly collective celebration...and I felt so fortunate to have been witness to it. Definitely one of the most memorable experiences in Korea!

I'll finish celebrating Buddha's Birthday this weekend, taking advantage of our long weekend off from school by traveling by train to the southern city of Busan! Very excited- haven't been that far south in Korea yet. The celebrations and perks of May continue...

Bibimbap on Teachers' Day...wouldn't have it any other way!!

Spotted: YELLOW DUST. Where: ALL OVER EVERYTHING!

See that dust-like coating on the car? Now imagine that in your pores...and in your nasal cavity...and in your lungs. Welcome to Korea in the height of yellow dust season!

Spring Weekends

2010-05-02T22:25:00.014+09:00

Christine and I on the peak of the mountain in Suji

A hiker surveying the city below...

On the peak...being Korean

High rises, high rises, high rises

Oriental Medicine and Herb Market...need some hooves?

Bags and bags of loose tea

Twigs, berries, leaves, roots...and who knows what else??

Exactly what it looks like...a big ol' bin of chicken feet for sale

And here's the rest of the chicken! Octopus-in-a-bag Twigs? Cinnamon sticks? So many kindergarten birthdays...promise, I do actually teach sometimes...

Perfect picture. Thank you, Jamie :) Happy birthday, Julianna!

Pottery in Insadong, in Seoul...my guilty pleasure. I could look at this pottery all day, any day.. Tea store in Insadong

Beautiful trees in Suji

Lots of blossoms! Warm weather, sunny skies, cherry blossoms...can it really be spring in Suji?!

Street food...bacon-wrapped hot dogs. Any takers?

7-Eleven snacks...packaged corn sampler?

One of my favorite galbi restaurants...that's spicy pork and tteok (rice cakes) cooking on the grill at our table So many little dishes on the table!

This is kindergarten Sean. We celebrated his birthday last week, even though he had just gotten sick (in the classroom, all over the floor, in front of the table with the cake and all the food) minutes earlier. The Korean staff stuck a party hat on him and made him take birthday pictures, even though he was crying...some of their logic, I will just never understand!

The Birthday Boy is still not looking too happy...would you be?!

Britney Teacher's class

FINALLY- writing this on Sunday night, at my desk that faces the lone windows in my apartment...windows that are FINALLY open to let in a warm spring night's breeze. And it only took until May 1st!

Today was absolutely beautiful...sunny and 72 degrees, with just enough of a breeze. I hated having to waste some of that precious time outdoors by making the hour-long trek into Seoul by bus for church...but this time was very much redeemed by the afternoon I spent hiking with Christine! We returned to a mountain in Suji, just blocks behind our school, that we had climbed back in the fall. It felt pretty surreal to be returning six months later with the same intent of enjoying beautiful weather while scaling the peak. How was that six months ago?! Where has the time gone between then and now?!

The trails were hopping with Koreans decked out in their full hiking gear...visor, face mask, handkerchief around the neck, dri-fit shirt, vest, hiking boots, hiking backpack, and even hiking poles. Many hikers were even toting along their dogs...fluffy little lap dogs who are generally dressed up in obnoxious sweaters and hairbows...certainly dogs that should not be scaling mountains! Every hiker carried a backpack, no doubt stuffed with mageoli (Korean rice wine), gimbap (rolls of seaweed stuffed with rice, spam, pickled radish, cucumber, and more), and dried squid to gnaw on at the rest points (rest points which include, but are not limited to, the following: exercise equipment, hula hoops, dumbbells, and even mirrors- for reapplying makeup, obviously). This is Korean hiking culture, in a nutshell.

And then there was Christine and I...in our college t-shirts and tennis shoes. We passed many hikers who, after doing a double-take at seeing foreigners climbing the mountain beside them, were eager to offer their lone words of English to us: "Hello! Nice to meet you! Hiking!" It was very cool, though, to see the crowds of families out hiking together on a weekend afternoon...would you see this at home, teenage children trekking along after their parents up a mountain in the middle of a Sunday afternoon? Grandmothers and grandfathers, decked out in their North Face gear and head scarves, strolling up a mountain peak? Definitely not. I love this part of their culture, the love and respect for the mountains that surround and define their country. It puts many values into perspective...the importance of good, old-fashioned exercise outside, the appreciation for nature (no matter how scarce it is, in a city like Seoul), and the focus on hiking as a family activity. Never mind that just about every Korean man would qualify as a smoker...and that they tend to drink their soju (Korean rice vodka) like fish...at least they still value and promote hiking as a healthy cultural activity!

Sitting on the peak of the mountain, Christine and I were again reminded of the enormity of the city we've been living in for the past 8 months...surveying the land below is like viewing a tiny model of a city packed to the brim with high-rise apartments and buildings. Mountain, mountain, stretch of high-rises...mountain, mountain, stretch of high-rises...no diversity of landscape or lapse in this pattern, as far as the eye can see. I still can't even fathom the number of people living within the city of Seoul, and especially within its outer limits like Suji. Amazing!

On Saturday, we went to the Oriental Herb and Medicine Market in Seoul...I had been there in the winter but wanted to experience it again when it was actually bearable weather to be outside and linger around the curious stalls of unknown roots, herbs, and animal parts. This market was much kinder to us as foreigners than the last fish market...many questions of our origin, such as one man asking, "Where you make in?" We were confused until he continued, "Me, make in Korea. You, where make in?" Ahhh...translation: where are we from? I bought some loose green tea (nokcha) from a nice vendor who told me, "Miguk, beautiful!" (American, beautiful!) This was one of the few things I could recognize by reading the Korean signs. Probably best not to experiment in buying at a place like this...considering that 75% of the goods were unidentifiable to us, and 20% of the goods were clearly the intenstines or various body parts of animals that should never be eaten or used for medicinal purposes (by American standards, at least): dried frog, butchered dog parts (recognizable by the paws still intact on the legs), chicken intenstines, pig hooves, silkworm larvae...lots of good pictures, though!

Field trips and fish markets

2010-04-23T08:13:00.014+09:00

Reunited with two of my former kindergarten students, Kate and Julie. I miss being their teacher!

Kindergarten field trip to the car museum. Jamie looks thrilled to be there!

But Chris, as usual, had a smile the whole day!

Hello, Vicky!
Julianna

John Chris and Jamie

Britney Teacher's class

Field trip buddies: Vicky and Jamie
Everyone hold hands with your buddy!

SO excited to go into the car museum!

A big ol' tub of fermenting shrimp, at the Noryanjin Fish Market in Seoul

And a big ol' pile of bloody fish...don't worry, you can select the bloody fish of your choice and pick it right up off the dirty floor yourself!

Stall after stall of fish and seafood...dead and alive

Clams, oysters, and shells for sale?

Unidentifiable sealife...

This octopus crawled right over the edge of the tub and slipped onto the floor right in front of us...!!

Giant octopus tentacles and squid-on-a-string!

You can select the live seafood of your choice, watch them chop it up, and then have it prepared in the kitchens and restaurants right behind the fish stalls...we weren't quite that adventurous, though! Why yes, I'd like to buy a whole octopus...

Inside the market

This woman wanted us to either: a)take a picture of her holding the crab, b) buy the crab from her, c) have us hold the crab, or d) throw the crab in our faces to scare us! (we actually had that happen- with some quite close encounters- at many of the fish stalls)

Business deals

You'll see this all over Seoul, little camps of old men and women selling produce....and dried fish...and roots...and other unidentifiable goods

You know you're getting close to the fish market when...the streets become lined with stalls of dried fish on a string!So I have this problem called "Bibimbap Addiction." I guess it's a healthy addiction, though??

Caught a few of the spring cherry blossoms!

Beautiful cherry blossoms!

Eating one of my favorite street foods, a "goldfish cookie." It's like a little Eggo waffle, made in a fish-shaped mold and filled with sweet red beqan paste. You can buy a bag of them, hot off the street, for 1,000 won (about 80 cents)

All-you-can-eat galbi restaurant for London Teacher's birthday: you pick the meats and vegetables you want from a big "buffet," and then cook them all on your table's grill

LCI Teachers (plus London's mom, who was visiting for her birthday!)
Can you find me?? :)

Just grabbing some drinks (at the local 7-Eleven)...and drinking them on the streets...before luxury noraebong!

Showing more Korean love in the subway!

Time is continuing to fly...with every monthly paycheck now comes the shock that yet another 4 weeks have somehow passed...and the realization that our time here has now become a countdown.

Don't be fooled, though...time isn't flying because of the warm, enjoyable spring weather that encourages outdoor activities and exploration...quite the contrary. A few warmer, "springlike" days here and there, but for the most part, overcast skies and North Face jackets only.

I'm starting to feel the pressure that my days are numbered...and it kills me to know that there's still so much of Korea (let alone so much of Seoul) to still discover and explore. Lately I've also been quite worried about the inevitable, gloomy end to my days on the Korean diet...what will I do without my spicy red foods for all meals? Darren was asking me the other day what restaurants I'm excited to eat at when I come home...and absolutely nothing came to mind. I don't want any food from home! (no offense, Mom...please still feed me when I come home). Shauna, Christine and I have quite literally become addicted to bibimbap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibimbap), particularly the bibimbap from our favorite little Korean restaurant near school. The owners there, an older Korean couple, know us by name and love, love, love when we come in (which in recent months, has been just about every day). He even knows that Shauna doesn't like mushrooms in her bibimbap...and he will take care to serve it mushroom-less to her each time! I can't bear the thought of never being able to eat his bibimbap again!!

I've come to the recent conclusion that I love my new kindergarten students and am officially attached to them. We had a field trip to a car museum last week, and it was absolutely a blast to see them so excited and willing to explore every last exhibit. They amaze me every day- I just can't believe what personality they already have at this age! I find myself writing more and more about them every week, in the weekly reports to their parents...I feel like a proud parent myself, wanting to document their every clever comment and impressive feat. I can already tell that my last days with them are going to be extremely difficult...not looking forward to that much.

Like the fish market pictures above? Just say the words, and I will gladly send you the more detailed, much-too-disgusting-for-this-blog pictures of slimy, squirmy, unidentifiable sea creatures there. The whole set-up of the market was just insane- row after row of open tanks, buckets, and bins, filled to the brim with splashing sea life, in a giant warehouse. Fish, squid, octopi, shrimp, eels...anything under the sea that you can imagine. And perhaps the most frightening, forward Korean fishmongers that you can imagine! To three American girls, it felt like a giant funhouse...exciting, suspenseful, and disturbingly scary! We felt very much the outsiders, being the only non-Koreans in the entire market, and very obviously just tourists. Every single fishmonger at every single stall definitely attempted one or more of the following with us: a) hold up an octopus for us to look at, and then pretend to throw it in our faces when we actually got close enough to see, b) ask us if we were from Los Angeles (no), New York City, (nope), or Texas (ha!), c) or honestly try to sell us a live eel or whole octopus carcass. Um....did we really look like we were likely to buy an octopus carcass??

Frankly, I'm surprised we made it out of that market alive...intact...and not dripping wet from the splashing tanks, the octopi trying to escape from their tubs, or the fresh blood coating the warehouse floor. Lovely. Next time, not wearing my nicest pair of suede shoes...

This is just a short entry...hopefully more to come soon...but it's pretty late at night, and I have a big day of yet another kindergarten birthday tomorrow! Life is tough these days :)

April

2010-04-13T23:30:00.006+09:00

Christine and I at a "Luxury Noraebong" place, for London Teacher's birthday celebration last weekend. Apparently, "luxury" looks like someone's living room!

At the Luxury Noraebong, you take off your shoes and put on these slippers (typical of Korean houses and buildings)- however, they didn't want us foreigners wearing these slippers, so they made us go barefoot. The floors were all glass, with lights and flowers inside. Every door you see is a private noraebong room!

One of my recent meals at lunch: bibim mando. It looks like spaghetti- but don't be fooled! Those are noodles with a spicy hot pepper paste, plus mando (dumplings) and carrots, cucumber, radish, lettuce, and seaweed on the side. You mix it all together... a lot like bibimbap, my favorite Korean meal!

Kindergartner Ray, displaying a coloring sheet designed by Britney Teacher. What fun, phonics and coloring at the same time!!

I love Jamie- I take many pictures of him!

My new kinder class, gathered together for Kelly's birthday!

Me and the birthday girl- don't look too excited, Kelly!

The Post-Brunch meal on Easter, courtesy of Starbucks...

Smiley Egg-in-a-cup, handed out by cute Korean kids dressed in animal costumes. Made my day!!

Of COURSE the eggs would have little bows...just like any Korean baby/girl/woman

Umm, can I take you home with me, please??

Easter chick...I think he gave me all 3 of his Easter gift bags

Naturally, I was partial to the cute little pink bunny...

And this little bunny, too

Look, it's an Easter monkey!

Walked home from the gym just a little while ago...a typical Tuesday night in Suji at 10 pm, with groups of high school students finally walking home, arm-in-arm, still in their school uniform blazers and pleated skirts. Koreans in twos and threes stopping at the food trucks on the streets, huddling inside the plastic sheet "walls" suspended outside the truck to sip their cups of soup broth and nibble on unidentifiable skewered meats and fish sausages (not truly unidentifiable, except to the foreign passerby; the skewers are actually called eomuk, and are a mixture of fish, sugar, starch, and salt that are kneaded, fried, and then soaked in the soup broth before eating). I have watched Koreans consume this "warm and filling snack" (according to one of my guidebooks) all winter long here while walking to and from the gym. Enough, already- where is spring and all its warm weather that doesn't require warm and filling streetside snacks??

Today it snowed. Nothing stuck on the ground, but the sight of thick flurries from our 6th floor classroom windows was enough to make every student, and myself, groan in disgust. Yesterday, it reached the low 60s! The poor cherry blossoms of Korea barely even peaked outside before shriveling up and dying...although I'd like to think they are just huddling back inside, waiting to fully peak and burst with color once the weather truly turns to spring...

The new kinders are finally showing some progress...I've noticed such a difference in the atmosphere of our classroom even within the past few weeks. There's so much more English communication! I'm even hearing full sentences every now and then...granted, those sentences are basically all the same and don't extend beyond the standard, "May I go to the bathroom, please?" But nevertheless...it's exciting to be communicating more thoroughly with these kids! Right now we're reviewing the family members and are about to emark upon the potentially hazardous lesson of The Pronouns (I'm actually a bit frightened to tackle this one). We just celebrated our first classroom birthday last week. Kelly, the birthday girl, showed up to school in a pink princess dress and pink furry crown (which she kept on all day, of course). She also distributed hand-written notes to every student (in honor of her birthday?) and to myself, which read: "Britney Teacher, I love you. No go to hospital. Love Kelly" (in reference, I'm assuming, to my illness and doctor visits of the past few weeks).

Easter also came and passed in Korea with noticeably less concern and consumerism than Christmas had. For a country in which 30% of the population is Christian...you would never have known that it was Holy Week or Easter Sunday. Not that I needed the consumerism and social hype of Easter to be happy (I got all that in a package from my mom, anyways!)...but it was definitely a bit sad. Shauna, Christine and I ventured into the nearby foreign district of Seoul, called Itaewon, following our respective Easter Sunday masses (mine at the International Catholic Church, theirs at the International Lutheran Chuch)...hoping, hoping, hoping to find a respectable Easter brunch option somewhere within the streets of Russian nightclubs, Turkish kebab stands, and bad Mexican restaurants. No such luck...we ended up eating at a "Western" place we usually go out to on Saturday nights, indulging in an overly-priced meal of processed eggs, processed cheese, and a lone Bratwurst on the side of the plate (which apparently qualified as "side of sausage.") Not sure which was more depressing...the fact that I was eating processed eggs, cheese, and Bratwurst on Easter Sunday, or the fact that I was eating Easter brunch within the same bar/restaurant we usually spend our Saturday nights in!!

After "brunch" we hightailed it to the nearby Starbucks...feeling guilty and ashamed of our addiction to a coffee chain we'd all never step foot in at home...feeling guilty and ashamed about spending more money on overpriced Western food and beverages...but feeling just a little happier when sitting down to spend the afternoon with the good friends of a latte and a scone :)
Earlier, when walking into Itaewon from our churches, we had also encountered a streetside situation that made us feel much happier and more thankful: a group of the most adorable, peanut-sized Korean children, dressed up in animal costumes, shyly handing out homemade Easter gift bags to every passerby. Well, that was pretty much my ultimate dream fulfilled right there- I could have scooped up and carried home every last one of those kids (who, by the way, were not only dressed in bunny and chick costumes in honor of Easter...we also spotted a mountain goat, a dalmation, a monkey, and a few cows!). That unexpected encounter brightened our Easter day so much that the later consumption of processed eggs and Bratwurst didn't even matter...at least not too much :)

Wanted: Spring!

2010-04-13T22:36:00.006+09:00

LG Twins baseball stadium in Seoul!!

Korean baseball game snacks sold outside the stadium: seaweed & rice kimbap, dixie cups of dried squid and octopus, hardboiled eggs, and flattened dried pollack

Korean baseball fans...typical scene, take off your shoes before sitting on the picnic blanket at the baseball stadium...

Cheerleaders dancing on top of the walls...pretty sure this will not be seen at the new Twins stadium in MN!!

The stadium was PACKED with red, white and blue for the LG Twins!

Their uniforms even look similar to the MN Twins...weird

Oh you know...just a typical Korean man enjoying a can of Cass beer in his business suit at the baseball game...

The stadium! Makes me excited for MN outdoor baseball!

Outdoor baseball stadium, I love you!!

More snacks and goodies sold outside the stadium, beer and squid and such. Yummy...

Baseball game: LG Twins vs. the Doosan Bears

Jamie: you make me happy :)

Kelly...I think she does her own hair every morning

Vicky: such a little sweetheart

That's a super-stylish little twisty-bun you've got on the top of your head, Jessica! Not to mention the "earrings" she made from little stickers I had given out...she's a bit of an "individual" in my class... Chris, making his "surprised!" face...we had just been reviewing emotions and expressions, and the students loved to show me the "surprised!" face best of all!

Britney Teacher's little spring frogs, on the windows of my clasroom

Britney Teacher also made ladybugs for her walls...wow, what a creative and hands-on teacher!! :) My classroom is all ready for spring...now we just have to wait on the WEATHER!

I know I've been falling very behind in my blogging, but I can only blame it on the more tempting opportunities to experience everything Korean possible in these last five months...that and the fact that I've also been sick for the past few weeks! I'm pretty convinced my illness was the result of a combination of wonderful factors, including the delightful springtime phenomenon of "yellow dust." Basically, dust storms from China and Mongolia kick up intense clouds of dry soil particles which then collect a variety of harmful pollutants, including (but not limited to) the following: sulfur, soot, ash, carbon monoxide, mercury, chromium, arsenic, lead, zinc, and other carcinogens. But wait- the fun doesn't stop there! Also accompanying this airborne dust might be viruses, bacteria, fungi, pesticides, antibiotics, asbestos, herbicides, plastic ingredients, combustion products, and hormone-mimicking phthalates. Yellow dust has been found to aggravate asthma and cause sore throats and respiratory infections in "otherwise healthy people."

Not sure if I qualify as "otherwise healthy people," given my history of strange illnesses, but I'm pretty convinced that yellow dust has been a factor in keeping me sick these days...

Bridget: still sure you want to come visit Korea, bearing in mind all the wonderful pollutants floating around here? :D

Our Korean staff at school had informed us in the past few weeks that the government had issued a "yellow dust warning." I read in the Korean Times online that the entire Korean peninsula had experienced "its worst case of yellow dust ever recorded."

Well, excellent. Not only is Korea experiencing a much colder and snowier spring than usual, but it's also enjoying the effects of the worst case of yellow dust ever! Which leads me to my next point...

April: Snow. Wind. Temps in the 40s. And outdoor baseball. Is it Minnesota, 2010?

Sadly, it is KOREA! While Korea has been welcoming springtime torrents of yellow dust and snow flurries, Minnesota has been basking in 70 degree spring temperatures and actually enjoying (rather than freezing and suffering, while enjoying) the opening-day festivities of the Twins stadium and outdoor baseball season?

Rewind to last weekend: Britney is in Seoul, watching the LG Twins (truly, their name is the Twins...just to add to the irony here) take on the Doosan Bears. Outdoor stadium in Seoul. Temperatures hovering in the high 40s, wanting and waiting to dip back down into the 30s. Windy, cloudy, overcast, threatening rain. Many layers, and even wool socks, necessary.

Rewind to Monday in Minnesota: NOT freezing, as expected for MN in mid-April. NOT snowing, as expected for MN in mid-April. NOT even sleeting, or hailing, or blowing dangerously cold gusts of winds, also as expected for MN in mid-April.

Despite the difference in weather...and temperature...and airborne pollutants...at least both of our Twins won their games!

Seven Months

2010-03-20T14:13:00.007+09:00

Don't worry about the snow in March...not like it should be Spring or anything

At least it makes the sewage stream look a bit omre picturesque

Walking to work in the snow and slush is tons of fun!!

Street food in Myeongdong...I'd love to actually see someone walking around gnawing on one of those two-foot long octopus legs...

Sure, these LOOK like french fries...but chances are, they're some type of dried squid or processed fish sausage. Koreans LOVE their processed fish sausage!

Myeongdong shopping district: so busy on a Sunday afternoon!

Too bad these animal ears aren't even costumes...Korean women truly wear them as hair accessories. It's kind of maddening, actually...seeing 20-something women walking around Seoul wearing furry Bunny ears

My favorite street food, Tteok Bokki- chewy, spicy, stir-fried rice cakes

Dolsot Bibimbap (a hot pot of mixed rice, vegetables, meat, and egg), at our favorite restaurant in the food court of a nearby department store. You mix everything inside with your chopsticks so that it cooks together...and the pot is SO hot that they have to serve it in these wooden holders This is Aaron, from one of my elementary classes. He's got a pretty exceptional Asian mullet haircut...although you can't see it as well here because I made him put my hair clip in his hair From my 4:00 class: Annika, Tony, Jack, Aaron...I love this class!!

Two of my new kinder students: Vicky and Jasmine

Ray and Kelly, new kinders

Julianna- such a sweetheart :) And yes, that is a giant cloth bear head on the side of her headband... Seoul, on a Sunday afternoon...

One of the few (or only?) Starbucks with the logo not written in English. If you sound out the Korean translation, it would sound like: "Suh-ta-puk-suh"

Adjusting to the new students, classes, and school routine has kept me pretty well occupied for the past few weeks...so much so that another big milestone came and passed without my acknowledgement. It's called "I've Been in Korea for 7 Months"! And this milestone is only more important than the Halfway Point of last month because it signifies that downward slope toward the end of the year (I believe those were actually my mom's words...)

I have pretty mixed feelings about this point in time. Yes, the whole experience so far has been a rollercoaster of emotions and mixed feelings, of highs and lows. And I'm sure that my feelings and attitude about Korea will continue to change right down to the last few weeks here in August. But as of right now, it gives me a stomachache to even think about leaving in 5 months. Of course, I've already become so attached to my new students...and I'm still having difficulty letting go of my old ones! It already makes me so sad to think that I'll never see them again...or that once I get home, I won't be Britney Teacher anymore...I'll be Ms. Haeg! That's just too strange to think about :)

I am trying to just enjoy every day...it has been an exciting past few weeks, meeting so many new students and beginning to teach new classes. I'm teaching the same level of science as last term, and it feels pretty good to know that I've already taught the whole textbook before and feel very confident in what I'm teaching. Never, ever thought I'd enjoy teaching science so much! It's also been a new experience teaching a high-level 5th grade reading class...these kids are wickedly smart and have better vocabularies than most native English-speaking adults. I've had to learn to adjust my language dramatically when teaching this new class...I can speak in full sentences and have actual conversations with them!

About my new kindergarten class...let's just say that they're a work in progress! They're still allowed to speak Korean to each other and in the classroom for now...and then by the first week in April, the "No Speaking Korean!" rules will be fully enforced. That should be interesting...considering that they are only now equipped with the very basics of English communication. What are they supposed to do until their vocabularies expand more, just say "hello" and "goodbye" to each other all day long?? Yesterday, one of my girls said to me, "May I have some milk, please?"....and I almost died, I was so happy. That was one of my first moments of success with these students, as I had been teaching that expression every day during milk time for the past few weeks. Proof that they are truly learning something with me!!

Wishing it was Springtime here...there has been some great Minnesota-esque weather lately, such as snowstorms in March. I'm thinking that must be because there are so many Minnesota teachers at our school!! Apparently Korea is usually in much higher temps and having nicer weather by now...but considering that this was the year of the most snow in more than 100 years, the outlook doesn't seem too promising for Spring anytime soon...hmm guess there are many parts of MN staying with me :)

Last Days and Oh...Canada

2010-03-04T22:08:00.006+09:00

This was the scene we encountered at 4:30 am, Monday for the USA vs. Canada gold medal game. Main level of a bar in Seoul = PACKED. We took a cab into Seoul at 4 am in order to arrive at this bar in time...oops, forgot that most people would have already been there after partying all night long. That was an odd feeling, cabbing into Seoul at a time of night we'd normally be returning home from Seoul...

Upper level of the same bar = EVEN MORE PACKED

The crowds were CRAZY! The bar is Canadian-owned, so there was definitely more Canadian than US representation. There was no room to move, to cheer, even to breathe...

Not looking too fresh at 4:30 am...but excited about the crowd for the game!

Canada + the US, after the game...at a much quieter, less-populated bar. Time is now about 8 am...still much too early to be at a bar in Seoul. I felt an odd urge to stand and sing with the Canadian teachers when watching Team Canada receive their gold medals...maybe because I knew Tom Haeg would have been belting out "Oh, Canada!" if he was watching at home??

MN girls: clearly, we acted too soon...

Team USA: Bloody Marys & Gold Medal Hockey at 5 am. What could be better??

I swear we were sad after the US lost...but you can't really tell here because we are sleep-deprived and only have thoughts of a big breakfast at the nearby "American" diner!

Everland...the magical Asian amusement park!

Like the Asian version of the Middway at the State Fair??

Ashley was a little sad...this was my last day teaching my kinder class

Tattoo Parlor: drawing hearts on each other, duh. That's what we do in kindergarten

Alex and his car

Ashley

Irene...don't you just want to hug her??

Last show-and-tell with my kinder class: a duck, a Pokemon card, and Alan grinning mischieviously in the background

In kindergarten, when we're not giving each other heart tattoos, we like to brush our teeth with the toy blocks Or, we like to "drive" the toy box around...

Alan, I will miss you so much :(

Last pics with them...it was hard not to take about a million pictures

Alan was so sad this last day...he didn't want to be in any pictures because he was "sad for Britney Teacher"

Tried to do some final group shots, courtesy of Christine Teacher...

My little babies!! So grown-up and on their way to becoming big 7-2 kindergarten students, with a new teacher...

Friday marked the last day of Fall term at school...6 months with the same kindergarten and elementary classes...and now 6 more months with all new classes. It's been such a rollercoaster of emotions lately, dealing with the stress of Festival preparation, and then the overwhelming pride and excitement of Festival, and then the bittersweet last days with my kinder class. Friday was one of my most difficult days here...I couldn't believe how attached I felt to this class. I could barely even bring myself to announce that they'd be starting new classes with a new teacher in the following weeks...I didn't want to admit it to them, let alone to myself! So of course, I took a million pictures of them in the last week and implemented many "fun days" with hour-long playtime sessions and lots of coloring, singing, and stickers. Here was one of my favorite moments on my last day...Irene pretending to give me a manicure with a dolphin-shaped squirt gun, during playtime.

When I asked how all my students were feeling that day, while writing their names and drawing their faces on the board in the morning, many of them said, "I am very sad because Britney Teacher Wednesday, noooo..." Translation: because Britney Teacher will no longer be their kindergarten teacher, beginning next Wednesday, March 3, upon the start of the new school term. All day, Alan wouldn't leave my side. While walking in the hall for bathroom break, or to play in the Big Gym, he just hung on to me and buried his face in my shirt. It made me so sad...I kept tearing up when he would cling to me and then look up at me with those big eyes. By the end of the day, zipping their jackets and hugging them for the last time before sending them to their bus lines, I pretty much lost it...and I joined Shauna Teacher in the bathroom to cry. No judging me for this...these students are so important to me...they have been like my best friends, every day, for the past 6 months. You'd grow pretty attached to them, too....

After teaching a few days this week with my new kinder class, I'm still undecided about which would be more difficult: leaving Korea right now and never seeing my old kinders again, or seeing them every day at school while knowing that I'm no longer their teacher. They seem so old and grown-up to me now...when did that happen?! And compared to my new class of little ones...WOW. What a difference a year of English can make!!

My new class: 5 girls and 5 boys, all little peanuts that weigh next to nothing and speak no English. Their names: Jessica, Jasmin, John, Jamie, Julianna, Ray, Chris, Kelly, Vicky, and Sean. The girl names Jasmin was originally named Britney (same-same as teacher!), but her mom ended up changing her name so it wouldn't be confusing in the classroom. I had been so excited to have a little Britney...but in all honesty, my classroom is a confusing enough place right now without a Britney Teacher AND a Britney Student!

It was quite strange interacting with these kids on the first day. They all looked so scared and so vulnerable...and so uncommunicative. I was afraid that I'd have a silent classroom all day- that it would just be me, blabbering away in English to a brick wall of students. It ended up being a day of complete chaos- no big tantrums or criers in my room, but lots of confusion and helplessness on everyone's part. My big goal for the day was to have them remember me as "Britney Teacher, " and not as "Son-saeng-nim," which is the Korean word for teacher. Three days in, we're still working on that one. Our other lessons have included the introduction of letters A, B, and C...as well as far too many trips outside the classroom to familiarize the students with the location of the bathroom (and even more importantly...the location of the girls bathroom vs. the boys bathroom).

It's kind of lonely, being in a classroom full of students who cannot communicate in the least with you. I want to be able to speak with them! I miss the English babble of my old students...their broken English and poorly-structured sentences...and their newfound abilities to express themselves and thus pick fights with each other. But, I feel certain that in due time, my new kinders will be expressing their own poor English grammar...and I look forward to that day!!

K-Pop Krazy!

2010-03-04T19:53:00.006+09:00

K-Pop group "Super Junior"

K-pop group Girls' Generation

K-pop group T-ara

Yes- they truly perform with those animal ears and mittens on

Watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nG9-W1pqgg

Now watch this video:

That should give you an idea of the popularity of K-Pop (Korean Pop) here...it is literally the genre of choice for everyone from 5 year old boys and girls, to teenagers, to my 30-something Korean supervisors at school, to the middle-aged women grooving to it at the gym while working out beside me. K-Pop is Korea's contemporary culture at its best! (and that's sort of a joke). It's pretty comparable to bubblegum pop in the US, such as all the boy bands of the 90s, but it's much more clean-cut and just...cutesy. You won't see any Britney Spears imitators here...these singers are totally wholesome in their lyrics, their dance routines, and their stage outfits (think: Mickey Mouse ears, big hair bows, ruffled skirts, and even furry animal gloves). And that's what really struck me about it, after seeing my own kindergarten girls imitate K-Pop singers for so long...that kind of thing is okay here, because it's not Britney Spears. It's not risque, or suggestive, or a blatant display of poor role models for entire populations (if you're not convinced, check out this clip... pretty sure we would NEVER see a girl group in America dressed like this for a Christmas performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aF797hHtiE)

So even though I am somewhat ashamed to admit to my obsession with K-Pop, just know that I also blame it completely on the effects of living abroad. When in Rome...right??

Here are some of my other favorite K-pop songs...

Girl's Generation, with the creatively-titled song, "Gee"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7mPqycQ0tQ&feature=fvst

Super Junior, one of the premier boy bands in Korea. There are posters, keychains, mugs, etc. of them at every tourist shop here. Their song is called "Sorry." Watch the video, and then you will understand why every time someone says "I'm sorry" in my classroom, at least 5 students start to chant, "sorry sorry sorry sorry, nicka-nicka-nicka-nicka!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAWqnA8PdcY&feature=fvst

2NE1 (pronounced like 21), with "I Don't Care." This song was EVERYWHERE when I first arrived in Korea...every cell phone ringtone, every soundtrack in every store... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xduaDvFWKd0

ENJOY!!!!!!

Festival Miracles...and other milestones

2010-02-21T19:28:00.008+09:00

NOW it's more like spring in Suji...because Festival is OVER!

I know these look disgusting (as I think most Korean food does...), but they're acutally delicious dumplings called Mandu, with seasome soy sauce to dip them in. After a hard days' work at Festival, we needed to refuel with some Mandu at our favorite Korean restaurant!

Me with Lucy, my head supervisor

Flowers from my students' parents after the performance!

Just before their last big performance of the day, their instrumental Korean piece

This kid wasn't too happy about his costume

This class looked like a bunch of pirates...

My Boys (Alan, Tony, Zackary), preparing for their instrumental piece in front of the audience

This is Samuel from London's class...he was probably the only kindergarten boy who enjoyed being dressed in lime green ruffles and sequins

Seriously- look at these costumes! Some of them just had absolutely nothing to do with the story or speech or song that the students were performing! Ridiculous!

Shauna's class: Hoony and Andrew. Check out their spangled bellbottoms pants and sequined shirts! Jack, from my reading club...part of the pirate (?) class!

Christine's class: shiny, electric-blue tuxedo jackets, sequined bow ties, and top hats. That's normal for a 6 year old...only in Asia

This is Judy, from the 5-year old class. I think she loved her costume!

The 5-year old class, excited to go onstage!

All my little animals, ready to perform!

The tiny backstage room was so crowded, and sabsolutely chaotic!

Alex is ready to be a little frog!

Sara's part was a little old whale...but her costume looked more like a bug!

Zackary, the perfect little lion

Julie, in her fish costume (which actually looked more like a dinosaur, or maybe a lizard?)

Tony in his mouse costume, getting ready backstage!

Irene in her bunny costume- I think I was the proudest of her for Festival. Six months ago, she couldn't even tell you a letter of the alphabet...but she memorized all her lines and delivered them perfectly!

My class onstage, performing our story, "Where Have You Been?"

My class onstage, during the last chords of our song, "I Will"
They were such great performers!

And finally...it's OVER!!

On Saturday, LCI Kids Club, Suji School hosted its 8th Annual Festival...and I have to say, that despite the complaining (on the teachers' part) and stress (on everyone's part) for the past few months, it was an absolutely exciting, successful, and unforgettable day. I never could have imagined just how proud of my students I'd feel on this day...I felt like the happiest teacher in the world! Seeing them arrive backstage, ready for the day ahead with the biggest smiles on their faces, bouncing off the walls with excitement...getting them in a line just before going onstage, with each one tugging on my shirt to repeat their lines to me one last time...kneeling in front of the stage, mouthing the words along with them, beaming when each student completed a verse...leading them offstage proudly, feeling so excited to congratulate them and see the look of accomplishment clearly written across their faces...and then seeing their parents afterward, unable to stop smiling and bearing flowers for their children and for me.

I think this was one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had...I know that sounds trivial to label a kindergarten song-and-dance performance as "the most rewarding experience," but it's true! Even now, the next day, I just feel so proud and happy for my students. I think we all gained a lot of confidence in our abilities through this experience...my students and myself, and all the other teachers. I really thought the school was CRAZY when they first introduced the plan for Festival, a few months back...and I do still think they're a bit crazy, after witnessing so many weeks of frustration and criticism and impossibly high standards for the students...but now I think that a lot of the struggle and necessary effort was such an incredible learning experience for everyone involved. It really made me realize how far my students have come in the past 6 months. When I first started teaching them, they were 5 year olds with just half a year of English experience. They could only say things like "My bathroom, please!" accompanied with lots of whining. Now look at them- they can sing a whole song in English (and a Beatles song, at that), accompanied by choreographed movements...and can recite verses of English stories in front of an auditorium full of people! I actually had tears in my eyes at a few points during the day...and not just tears of frustration, like I'd had during Festival practice the past two months...!

I hate that I have to think about this, but I also hope that the students received all the congratulations and happiness from their families that I felt for them after their performance...as I've definitely noticed, and dealt with before, their parents are truly the toughest critics. Just one day before Festival, I had a student's mother call the school to express her concern over my students' overall pronunciation of their lines for the Festival story. She just wanted to make sure that our class would be as good as, and hopefully better than, all the other kindergarten classes, pronunciation-wise.

I know that this is the structure of their education system, that their standards are sky-high even for the youngest children...but it still made me sad that the parents can't simply tell their children to "have fun" on Festival Day. I can't help but compare that to a similar scenario back home...when we had Christmas concerts and Spring concerts in elementary school, weren't we just given a hug, a kiss, and a "good luck, have fun!" before hopping onstage? I made sure to tell each of my students, individually, before they went onstage, the same thing...with a few rounds of "congratulations" and "great job" afterward!

I never thought I'd be sad that Festival Season is over...but its completion signals the end of the school term, and thus the changing of classes. The 7-year old kinders "graduated" to elementary school on Saturday (Korean students don't officially start school until 1st grade), so they'll no longer be part of the big kindergarten family. And my class will move on to the 7-year old classes...so I'll most likely no longer be teaching them. We haven't found out officially yet, but it's most likely that I'll be teaching a fresh batch of 6 year olds (without any prior English experience) starting in just a week. I'm very sad that I will no longer be teaching my kindergarten class...I said this onstage during Festival, when us teachers had to introduce ourselves and offer comments about our classes, and I really believe it...that coming to school every day for the past 6 months, with the anticipation of teaching my kinders, has been like getting to see my best friends everyday. They're the ones who could instantly put me in a good mood with just a smile or an excited shout of "Britney Teacher!" There were really just a few days in those 6 months that I felt truly enraged or frustrated with them. I feel so attached to them- they're my little babies, and I'll be so sad to see them move on without me.

And finally, the other big milestone...6 months down, 6 months to go in South Korea! It's official- the half-year mark has passed. That was such a strange feeling, counting such major events and times off my calendar of time in Korea. Halloween and Thanksgiving, check. Christmas preparation and Christmas vacatuion, check. Darren coming to visit, check. Festival, check. And now the Six-Month Mark, check. I just have a feeling that soon will be spring, and then the months will just roll by from there...

It's Festival Season...

2010-02-10T15:26:00.004+09:00

Here are some of the props I made my students for our Festival story. My right arm almost fell off from coloring so much. Thank God for lamination machines...these pictures wouldn't stand a chance otherwise with a bunch of wild kindergartners

Alan: his part is a "little old bee, in a pink apple tree, drinking honey and tea." Like his new hairstyle? It's pretty trendy...he just grew out his perm, and I'm pretty sure that now his mom straightens his hair every morning before school.

Alex: he is a "little old frog, sitting on a great big log in this big blue pond!"

Alice: nope, she's actuallyt NOT singing "She's Got the Whole World in her Hands"- ha! Her part is a "little old cat" who has been "Around the world." Pretty cute!

Tony: this is the little boy who recently told me the name of every planet in the solar system, according to their respective distance from the Sun.

Irene: "little old bunny, little old bunny, why do you run?" I'm still amazed that she learned all her lines! She likes to try to get me to speak Korean, just so that she can say, "Teacher! No speaking Kor-eeeee-an!!"

Benjamin and Julia, two of my kindergarten reading club students. They each have to memorize a speech for Festival. Benjamin's speech is about Napoleon Bonaparte, and Julia's is about Macchu Picchu. A bit advanced for a couple of 7 year olds??

Julia: she's very giggly :)

More reading club students: Belle and Claire

This is Belle. I'm pretty sure that she is me, in the 6 year old, little Korean girl form. She is quiet and shy, loves to read, and is very smart- but she has the cutest little smile and laugh- and the most stylish little red boots. Claire and Clara Belle and Jenny: reading club snack, processed peanut butter filled white-bread pockets. Yum!

This is Woon. He says all of his 'o' sounds like 'ooooooo.' When he sees me draw something, he always says, "oooo, very goooood!" He pronounces his name "oon," without the 'w.' Koreans can't say the 'w' if it's followed by the 'oo.' For instance- they can't say "wood"...it's kind of funny to have them all repeat a word like that at once!

Alice is excited because she got cute new bangs? Or because she is Girl #1 in love with Zackary?

Ashley: Girl #2 who is in love with Zackary

Irene: only girl who is NOT in love with Zackary- although probably just because she doesn't even know what's going on half the time...

And here is Zackary...the object of affection in Classroom 2

Sara: the first girl to fall in love with Zackary. Although I'm not so sure he feels the same??

Suji: The ice has thawed on the sewage stream, the ground has turned soft and muddy, and the stores are setting up their spring displays. Even the days are finally getting longer. This can only mean one thing in Suji...Festival Season is here.

Festival Season: the only time of year in which you can both love and hate your kindergartners at the same time. True, they test your patience every day of the year...but the days during Festival Season feel like the longest days with the least amount of patience to test. It becomes a grueling journey to the finish, the much-anticipated Festival event on Saturday, February 20th, in which the students showcase all they have learned in the past year. The event will be attended by such prominent and honorable guests as Mommy, Daddy, Grandmother, and Grandfather. Since before Christmas break, all the kindergarten students have been practicing their songs, stories, plays, and speeches every day- with their parents at home, and countless times during the school day. There have been fights and tantrums, tears and bloody noses (unrelated to the festival practice, actually- but those two things incidents seem to always coincide in the worst possible way).

One day in the future, Festival Season will be over, and classes will resume as normal. Kindergarteners will have playtime again...students will only have 4 hours of homework each night, instead of 4 hours + 2 hours Festival practice...and the teachers will hopefully regain their sanity.

Eyes on the prize, eyes on the prize...

In all honesty, though, it has been a very interesting experience to prepare for the Festival Season. I've spent a lot of time drawing and coloring props for my story, leading verses of our song over and over until my voice has gone hoarse, and practicing dance moves. But I think it will all pay off! I'm so proud of my students for memorizing their lines and putting so much effort into their parts. I can't wait to see them up on the stage, in their costumes, trying to do their best for Mommy and Daddy and Grandmother and Grandfather! :)

Aside from the stresses of Festival Season, it's been nice to experience some warmer, more pleasant weather here latel. One of my kindergarten students came to school on Monday morning with an interesting story about a winter activity from the day before: apparently, "Mommy skate, then this" (motion of falling on floor, face plant) and "teeth, no!" Translation: Irene's mommy fell while her family was skating, and she knocked her front teeth out! All the little girls in class were giving Irene hugs because Irene said she was sad for mommy's teeth. That was cute, but kind of overkill...sometimes all these little girls are just too much!

I've had 6 girls and 4 boys the past few months (and usually just 3 boys, because one is absent a lot). That's A LOT of pink, and princesses, and pouting. And apparently, the warmer spring-like weather has also brought out some feelings of love in my classroom...all of the girls have been "secretly" fighting over one of my boys, Zackary. It's not really so secret, though...they won't leave him alone! It's been a bit difficult to fashion a seating chart in which NO girl in love with Zackary is sitting next to him...plus, love triangles don't mix well with Festival Season. I'll keep you updated on this exciting drama in Classroom Two...

You know you've been in Korea a long time, when...

2010-01-25T20:57:00.007+09:00

Dinner after a long weeks' work- tteok boki and gimbap. A convenient, traditional, and cheap eat in Suji!

Mmmm tteok boki...squishy rice cakes stir-fried in a spicy sauce. Don't they look appetizing??

Namsan Mtn. Tower in Seoul- visited there with Lindsey, a friend who's teaching in Seoul. Beautiful at night! On the top of Namsan Mtn.
Namsan at night

They LOOK fake...but nope, they are definitely real...and definitely for sale at the market

My best guess: frog carcasses? Sold for some possible medicinal purpose?

These snow pics are a bit overdue- but here is Suji after the snowfall, Korea's heaviest snowfall in 103 years!
My street: nothing MN hasn't seen before...but a pretty shocking scene for Korea
Stepping out of my apartment....SNOW!!

...you are about to work on a Saturday, and you eat Korean street food for dinner.

What a strange week...about to call it an early bedtime on a Friday night (which isn't actually so odd here, considering how exhausted I am by the end of each week), but also preparing for another day of school tomorrow. Making up a recent snow day (see pics above) by working a Saturday. That can really do a number on your work mentality, beginning the week on Monday while bearing in mind that you will only have one day's rest for the next 13 work days. My only solace was my guilty pleasure Korean street food that Shauna and I treated ourselves to after school...feeling MUCH too tired to even consider cooking dinner (although at 2,000Won, or less than $2 each, you'd hardly consider these foods to be a "treat")

The first picture is tteok boki, which is technically a big mess of soft, squishy rice cakes in a sweet and spicy sauce. They sound disgusting, are impossible to chew, and hardly look appealing when you see them all lumped together in a heap of bright orange sauce...but they're also delicious. I can't even believe I'm admitting to loving them right now...I think that's a sure sign that I've definitely been in Korea awhile, because they're one of those foods that foreigners don't quite understand the appeal to, and initially gag at the sight of (and aren't afraid to say out loud, "this is seriously FOOD? And people seriously LIKE this?"). I feel like there's a lot of Korean food like this...food that looks, sounds, and smells pretty unappetizing...food that I initially swore I'd never try, or like, and especially not crave. But here I am, feeding my tired body exactly what it doesn't need, but what every other Korean is feeding themselves...salt, sugar, spicy red sauce, and most importantly, some form of rice.

My other latest- and believe me, surprising- craving is gimbap (shown in the second picture avove, with the tteok boki). I like to call it the Poor Man's Sushi...and if you tried it, too, you'd probably agree. Koreans are obsessed with it- they sell it at every convenience store, gas station, traditional restaurant. My students bring it for snacks. Families carry it in their backpacks while hiking. It's like a giant sushi roll- rice wrapped in sheets of salty dried seaweed ("gim" means seaweed, and bap means rice...put the two together and you've got gimbap!) Unlike fancy sushi, however, gimbap can be filled with some or all of the following: cucumber, pickled cucumber, yellow radish, pickled radish, cabbage, pickled cabbage, sprouts, spam, bulgogi (thin marinated beef strips), tuna, and even cheese. Honestly, I don't really want to know all that is in my gimbap...

And I posted a few other pictures here for your viewing delight of the fine delicacies of Korean culture...whole pigs' heads and frog carcass, which I really hope were sold at a market in Seoul for medicinal purposes only, and not for purpose of cuisine.

Hangul and Haircuts

2010-01-16T21:39:00.007+09:00

Two weeks back from Christmas break, and I'm feeling ready for another vacation...
Even those first two snow days right after break turned out to be not-so-lucky...we have to make them up by working a Saturday. With that 6-day workweek looming in the near future, and the recent removal of kindergarten playtime at school (in order to schedule more practice time for the big school pageant coming up in February), I'm already feeling pretty overwhelmed and exhausted at the idea of getting through the next few weeks. Otherwise, it hasn't been too exciting here lately...aside from the heaviest snowfall that Korea has seen in 103 years, no big deal! And the freezing temps lately (though not as cold as MN, as I know a lot of you would be quick to point out). Namu-chuwa-yo! ("It's so cold!")

I've been trying to study my Korean just about every day, writing down all the characters of the alphabet (called Hangul) whenever I can and sounding out the words on signs and stores everywhere I go. When Christine and I first learned the alphabet (one Sunday at Starbucks after church- because you can't expect to learn Korean without the atmosphere of an expensive American coffee chain), it was like a whole new world opened up to us...we were literally walking down the street, stopping at every storefront and street sign to sound out the characters...and then jumping up and down in excitement when we actually recognized a word. It has opened up an unbelievable new world of possibilities (we can read menus! make sure we're getting on the right bus!

The only problem is that we don't understand about 99% of what we read...but that's a minor detail right now, I'm still basking in my glory of learning the whole alphabet. I've started on some basic verbs and conjugations, plus some useful vocabulary like the days of the week and how to say "puppy" and "shark" (the latter of which is useful only if you have a boyfriend who is a really big fan of sharks- good thing I do). I'm so much more in-tune with what I hear around me now...and what I see all around me! While I'm working out, I'll read and repeat all the Korean words printed on the elliptical or stairmaster, or try to read any street signs I can see out the windows.

It's so tempting to ask my students for new Korean words, or to sound out something for them to check my pronunciation...but since they're not allowed to speak any Korean in school, even during their breaks, it's not a good idea to. That's why I really wish I could start a Korean class now, or get a tutor...but it just doesn't seem possible, with the long hours at school everyday. I feel like I barely have enough time to get home, make dinner, and get to the gym...trying to fit in a Korean class at night would be pretty tough. I do think it's helpful, though, to have some understanding of the language while teaching, and that it would have been much more helpful to have had an understanding from the very beginning. Most public school contracts here for foreign teachers include basic Korean classes or tutors...wish we just had that! I can really see now why my students pronounce words and sounds the way they do, or why their sentences always seem myseteriously devoid of a subject and articles. For example, my kinders will say something like, "My book get, please," when trying to express that they will go get their book. We'd say it, "May I get my book?" but in Korean, they reverse the order and drop the subject and articles.

Sorry if that sounds confusing- it helps me to really think it out, and then write it out, to fully understand how the language works...so that little explanation was just as much for me as it was for you :)

To Mom and Bridget: I learned how to read and speak Korean this year. What did you learn? Oh wait, doesn't matter, I win.

And one more thing: I got my hair cut for the first time here last week, and it was quite a disaster. Other teachers had gone to this salon, so I thought I'd be fairly safe with it...but apparently my insistence that they only cut "little, little bit" was lost in translation...to mean "little hair," as in, "cut it very short!"

Not what I had intended...but I guess I know for next time to NOT use the phrase "little, little bit" when describing a haircut.

A Hong Kong Christmas

2010-01-05T09:38:00.012+09:00

There's Hong Kong! You can see both pensisulas- Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula

This is the tram that brought us to the top of Victoria's Peak, up on a mountain overlooking the whole city and both peninsulas. It's the steepest incline by a tram anywhere in the world! (basically vertical at some points...just a bit scary)

This is very representative of our time in HK (for Christine and I, at least): it didn't quite feel like Christmas until we had our first gingerbread latte from Starbucks!

At Hong Kong Disneyland, with a few of the "elves." Disney was all decked out in holiday lights, decorations, and costumes

You have NO idea how happy it made Darren to find cotton candy ("candy floss") at Ngong Pong village on the top of the mountain, when we were visiting Big Buddha. After nearly 2 weeks in Asia, he was ready for some American junk food again!!

Po Lin Monastery, also up on the mountain near Big Buddha. This monastery was so enchanting...incense burning all around it, surrounded by palm trees and bright, beautiful flowers...it was so incredible and peaceful

The entrance to the Po Lin Monastery...it was so foggy up there on the mountain

Statues surrounding the Big Buddha

Big Buddha: the world's largest bronze Buddha...one of the most incredible sights I've ever seen

These stairs led up to the Big Buddha. That's Ngong Ping village in the background

The fog kept rolling in and out...when we first got up there, we could barely even see the outline of the Buddha. But within 20 minutes, the fog had completely cleared for a few minutes. So foggy...

In the cable car, heading up the mountains to Big Buddha. Notice the gingerbread man...he accompanied Darren on his travels as a special request from a kindergarten teacher at his school, to take pics of the gingerbread man around Asia to show her class :)

Cable cars climbing up the mountains...over the water...

We opted for the "crystal cabin"- the new glass-bottomed cable cars. So cool...not even that scary!!

Everywhere in the city, there were beautiful Christmas decorations, lights, and trees set up

A temple on the side of the road in HK

Enjoying our Dim Sum experience: Dim Sum is like Chinese tapas, or appetizers that they eat with tea. We had jasmine tea and some of the following (which don't sound too appetizing but were actually pretty good): barbecued pork buns, steamed pork buns, glutinous rice with meat and vegetables wrapped in a lotus leaf, scallop and crab rice balls, egg and mango rice ball, shrimp and pork buns

So Darren accidentally ordered chicken claws as one Dim Sum choice...I had thought he was just being adventurous when I heard him ask the waiter for them!!

The exterior of the Jumbo Restaurant- all kinds of cool dragons and beautiful Chinese designs

The Jumbo Floating Restaurant

We took a boat like these ones out around the harbor to get to the Jumbo Restaurant

Another view from the top of Victoria's Peak...this was the closest I could get to the edge!

Waiting for our little boat to carry us out to Jumbo

No big deal, just doing some stretches on the pier at Repulse Bay beach...I'm actually demonstrating the "windmill" exercises my Grandma Helen used to do! Repulse Bay: there were some pretty crazy (and expensive-looking) apartments overlooking the bay behind us Repulse Bay beach: a bit too chilly for swimming though....

Statues for sale at Stanley Market

The view from our balconies at the Maryknoll House in Stanley: beautiful!

View from our rooms and balconies- Stanley bay- it was covered in fog every morning

Darren, me, Molly, and Molly's roommate Amy- just getting some snacks (and Guinness?) from our beloved 7-Eleven Merry Christmas from Hong Kong!!!

Molly, Christine, and I- the crazy, chaotic streets of HK

At some points, you could narely even see the sky because every inch of space around you was people, buildings, traffic, or signs...it felt kind of claustraphobic

We got these Santa hats for free at the airport...so obviously, we had to put them to good use

Down by the bay...Stanley Bay

The pier down at Stanley Bay

Best friends- Asian reunion!

(and yes, we had just gotten Starbucks...naturally)

Lunch down by Stanley Bay

Stanley Bay Beach- the only sunny day!

Stanley Bay Beach

Boats in Stanley Bay

Beautiful church for Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve

Just arrived in HK on Christmas Eve! Hong Kong Disney

Dumbo ride at Disney

Christine and I with the Big Buddha

It's nice that I actually have the time, so soon after this trip, to write this: we're on our second snow day from school! We woke up Monday morning to a snowstorm brewing outside...and panic brewing across all of Seoul, as the city struggled to get moving in about six inches of snow. It was so peaceful to watch the snow falling from inside my top-floor apartment...and to stay in my pajamas and drink tea, instead of diving back into the work routine. Happy Extended Christmas Vacation to us! Apparently this is the most snow that Korea has seen in 103 years...I think the total right now is around 12 inches (so not too impressive by MN standards, but record-breaking by Korean standards!). Until the snow melts somewhat, there's no way for them to clear off the roads here...they don't have snow plows or anything like it, since they're not accustomed to getting more than just a dusting of snow at a time! Right now I'm waiting to hear if the school will open for afternoon elementary classes...I'm crossing my fingers that it doesn't, even though I am excited to see my students again...it's just so nice to go a bit longer without the stress and responsibilities again!

Got back from Hong Kong on Dec.31, just in time to ring in the new year with our Korean taxi driver as he drove us back to Suji. He had initially asked if we were from Canada, and when we corrected him and said the US, he got very excited and said, "Oh USA, yes! Number one! Number one!" and then, "Canada, number two! Number two!) :D When we got back to Suji, we dumped our bags in our apartments and then bundled up for a nice, cold, midnight walk to McDonalds (by this point, I was too tired and weary from traveling to fight Darren's insistence that we eat American fast food). We enjoyed a fancy feast of McChicken sandwiches, fries, and milkshakes while discussing our respective New Years' resolutions...who would have ever thought??

Hong Kong was pretty amazing- like a huge, chaotic, and incredibly diverse mix of old and new, East and West. I felt like I didn't even know what nationality everyone around me was...there were Chinese, and British, and Chinese who spoke with British accents, and Taiwanese, and Filipinos, and Africans, and Australians, and Indians...much more of an international city than I had realized. One of the strangest sights, which my friend had warned us about, was seeing the hundreds (maybe even thousands) of Filipino women lining the sidewalks and public spaces on Christmas and on Sunday. These women represent a majority of domestic workers (i.e. nannies, servants, housekeepers) who don't have any other place to go on their days off, since they live at their house of employment...so on those holidays and Sundays, they literally take over the city and sit out on the sidewalks and in parks, as though they're tail-gating for some big event. We initially thought they were staking out spots for some Christmas parade, seeing them sitting there in groups, huddled on blankets while drinking Boonesfarm wine (seriously), eating from big tupperwares of Filipino food, playing cards, and even facebooking on mini laptops (also, seriously). They were so many of them, it was such a crazy sight!

Our first hostel in Hong Kong was a bit...sketchy. It was in what seemed to be a Little India community, on one of the busiest streets in all of HK (called the "Golden Mile"). It was incredibly overwhelming to step outside the hostel building and just be immediately swept away in a tide of millions of people. Navigating the subways was about the same, especially around Christmas- so packed with people! We ended up forgoing our second night in the hostel and opting for "The Maryknoll Option" instead- staying at the Markynoll Guesthouse down south in Stanley, with Molly (best friend from college who's teaching as a Maryknoll volunteer in mainland China for the year- we had planned to meet up in HK). The Maryknoll house was a like a big, beautiful oasis, compared to that first hostel- situated up on the highest hill overlooking Stanley Bay, surrounded by greenery and palm trees, rooms with balconies...it was so peaceful! We basically had the place to ourselves- aside from a few of the Maryknoll brothers and priests who live or visit there.

It was so great to see Molly again! Even though we had talked about Asian reunions when we were both dreaming of Asia and applying for teaching jobs last year, I still wasn't certain that we'd actually end up seeing each other. Molly took us to a beautiful church for Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve- it was so packed full of people that we had to sit on the back lawn, watching the service on a big screen. It was very magical, with the high-rises and lights of the city twinkling in the background, and the sounds of the mass, and of Christmas carols, filling the night air. Other than at mass, though, it just didn't quite feel like Christmas...maybe if I had been in Korea, in the place I now know as "home," it would have felt more like Christmas. But there in Hong Kong, even with some of the people I love, it just wasn't Christmas because it wasn't Minnesota...

This entry will have to be cut short now- just found out that I have to head in to school for afternoon elementary classes! I guess 1.5 snow days is nothing to complain about...

Happy New Year!!!

Santa Clause is Coming to Suji!

2009-12-18T22:52:00.011+09:00

Sweet little Alice :)

Across the street from my apartment: this is what you see

Looking down the street of my apartment...

My apartment is on this street...

There it is!

Zackary- one of my favorites!

This is what happens when you give a swine flu mask to a kindergartener...

(It reminds me of that book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." I should write a children's book called "If You Give a Kinder a Swine Flu Mask")

I don't even know the words to explain this child- Alan. He just cracks me up every two seconds of every day! He's definitely a class clown, but so sweet and loving. He interrupts me every other second because he gets so excited to share his thoughts: "Britney Teacher! Teacher! Britney Teacher! My this, yes! My house, this yes!" (translation: "At my house, I have this, too!") He just loves to be involved in every single happening within the classroom :)

Julie, becoming a bit more photogenic! She really loves to be in pictures!

This is Jack. He's a 7-1 kinder, meaning that he's 7 years old and in his first year of English. He's in my afternoon reading club (only in Korea do you have a reading club for kindergarten students!) He's absolutely adorable- always pushing those big glasses back up on his nose. Don't be fooled, though- he's quite the troublemaker!!

Irene: I had to bribe her with an extra Hello Kitty sticker to make her be in this photo!

Gingerbread village on my classroom window...

Merry Christmas, from Classroom Two!!

It's a pretty crowded classroom, with one teacher, ten students, Santa Clause, and eight reindeer!

"Christmas Tree," aka garland stapled to the wall

I made a stocking for each student and hung them by the "fireplace"

Of course, Irene needed to get in on the Pikachu hat action...

Alan, modeling the Pikachu hat

Ashley wore this hat to school one day. Once I realized it was for real, I absolutely had to document it...

Busy, busy times at school to prepare for Christmas! Song contest this week- my students didn't completely drop the ball, as predicted, but I wouldn't exactly say they did well... :) I think I ended up destroying my vocal cords while practicing that stupid song ("Jolly Old St. Nicholas") with them, over and over again. I could barely talk, let alone lead them in song, by Wednesday! Now it's Friday, and I still can't raise my voice much- these song contests are just torture for me!!

My kinders keep asking me, "How many sleeps til Christmas? How many sleeps til Santa Clause?" They are very excited for "Christmas" at LCI (Monday the 21st). In preparation for "Christmas," we had to do an important activity ahead of time. It was called "Write Down Three Things That You Want for Christmas, and Then "Santa Clause" Will Deliver Them to School (And Don't Worry, Money is Not an Issue)." What fun! The kids wrote down their Christmas wishes on construction paper trees, and then took them home to show Mommy and Daddy. By the end of this week, there was a large, accumulating pile of wrapped presents, all set to go for the kinders next week. And I don't mean little wrapped gifts- these all look like HUGE presents!

My students basically all wrote down the same thing:

The girls...

"For Christmas, I want:"

1. Princess doll

2. Pokemon doll

3. Ice cream maker

The boys...

"For Christmas, I want:"

1. Pokemon cards

2. Pokemon doll

3. Ice Cream maker

I have no idea what this ice cream maker is, but apparently it's very popular amongst the 6-7 year old Korean population. The Pokemon cards and Pikachu doll requests didn't surprise me in the least- they are all Pokemon obsessed here (see photos above...) We have at least two students bring in Pokemon cards for show-and-tell every week. And I have been drawing quite a few "Happy Pikachu faces" when we do "How are you today?" faces on the board every morning.

I did have a few students defy the norm, though: new student Julie requested "princess clothes," Zackary asked for a teddy bear, and spoiled little Alex asked me, "Teacher, how do you spell diamond?" I asked him why he wanted a diamond for Christmas. He said, "Teacher, diamonds are very many money!"

Yes, Alex, I know. But why do YOU know that, as a 6 year old child?

In other kinder classes, students were requesting both endearing and outrageously absurd gifts for Christmas. One of Shauna Teacher's students expressed his desire for an umbrella. Another of her students wrote down "a Christmas decorations-making kit." Many of Gina Teacher's 7 year old students wanted a Hello Kitty computer and Hello Kitty cell phone (don't be fooled by the Hello Kitty label- these are actually real computers and cell phones- that these 7 year olds will most likely get!) Most of Steve Teacher's students just wanted "ice cream" (that's the kind of answer that makes you just want to hug them, because it's such an innocent, little kid wish...not so much with the diamond request).

It's beginning to look a lot like a commercial Christmas....