I am so excited for my wine party tonight! Initially, I had planned on throwing a small dinner party because my dear mother sent me a package of soup that makes a LOT of soup. But for lots of reasons, the party was scheduled for the 24th, before the soup would arrive. NO problem, I don't have enough dishes anyways:-) Also, the 24th is when Sophie was supposed to get here, so it's a welcome party for her as well. (She ended up coming yesterday) I already like the teachers but don't know them all that well. Some of them just started last week and one started two days ago! SO, now I have at least ten people coming over to my little apartment for a lady's wine party! I bought two bottles of extremely cheap (and probably gross!) wine, and one bottle of Yellow Tail that was a bit more expensive. Another teacher is bringing another bottle. I have strawberries, moon pies (popular here), some type of good lookin bread and a random collection of mugs for the wine. This will be the greatest teacher party I have ever thrown......
Oh, don't forget the games I have lined up! Also, don't forget that I definitely don't have a voice right now!! This sickness has left me voiceless. Fred thought it was hilarious:-)
I'm so excited!!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Busan, Dead Sheep, Washing Machines and New Friends
If you would like to read a blog written by someone who has lived in South Korea for one month, you are in the RIGHT PLACE!! Friday marked my first full month here in Korea, and I can tell you, it really flew by! Multiply this by 11 and my contract is up! Just kidding, I don't think like that...all the time! :-)
Well, where do I start? I did not go to church last week. I was planning on going to Busan later in the day with some other foreign teachers, so I figured I would learn to ride the bus from people that have been here a long time. False. We took taxis:-) There were a lot of people I hadn't met yet so it was cool to be able to socialize with a LOT of westerners, some that have been here over a year. We went to this German beer hall and it was so funny to see all the Korean servers wearing lederhosen. There was a band from Bulgaria, I think, and that was almost as funny:-) They did have sausages and sauerkraut but I wouldn't call those sausages bratwurst! Maybe hot dogs, ha but they had plenty of fried food that was delicious! I must say, I have missed french fries (yeah you can find them here no problem but I haven't yet)! We had such a good time and watching the extremely drunk old Korean men dance with their coats like it's a lady/dance on the benches and be told over and over to get down/get really excited and sing along when the band sang popular Korean songs was really awesome! We continued on to another place in Busan called the Basement. It's a bar for westerners and it made me feel like I was back in America at a bar that a few Koreans were also visiting. I definitely had a dance off with a Korean guy. He definitely won! It was pretty hilarious! He had some sweet moves. We played dominoes and other people were playing connect 4. Overall, it was an awesome place with a super chill atmosphere! I met this cute Korean couple and sat with them for a little bit but had to leave before we exchanged contact info. A few of us went to another western bar and there were a bunch of foreigners (I'm assuming foreign teachers!) there as well! We were all celebrating Lunar New Year's aka celebrating having Monday off! I made some more Korean friends there but this time we did get each other's facebooks! Korean friends are a good idea whilst in Korea! The DJ there was supreme. We made our way back to our little myeon and as soon as I got home I remembered that I opened a tab at the Basement......and forgot to close it/get my card back. Nooo! I was bummed mostly because that meant I had to go BACK on my day off and I still didn't know how to do the whole bus thing!! I chickened out on Monday and decided I would be better off asking someone to go with me and help me out.
Thankfully, a new friend showed me the bus route. Talk about a crash course in Korean public transit! I had to take a taxi to the bus stop, bus to Busan, and 2 subway rides to get to the area! I never ever ever would have been able to do that on my own! We were both hungry and saw an ad for a restaurant called Pumpkins with a tag line, "Tasty Story." HA! We knew we had to go there! This place was pretty great. The tables each had couches as chairs and they still had Christmas decorations up ha. And EVERYTHING was pumpkin! We got this beef and veggie dish that was served in the pumpkin and had some sort of red sauce and melted cheese all over it. It was delicious, actually! Alright so we went to get my card and it was no problem to get it back, but a huge relief! We make it back to the bus station and there are so many people waiting for the last buses of the night. We decided to hop on the extremely full bus that was about to leave. By extremely full, I mean we stood at the VERY front of the bus the entire ride. I was standing right on the top of the step by the door ha. It was like a roller coaster ride! I think it's pretty common to stand on the buses like that. The funniest part came when we pulled up to our stop and there was a car with their hazards on right in the way of the bus! Wow, that made our driver mad. He starts honking like crazy and the car moved up just a little. So we get out and then as the bus driver is leaving, he starts letting the guy HAVE it!! He was just screaming at the driver of the car and I was just laughing so hard as we were walking away. I mean the car wasn't in the way at this point, the bus driver just wanted to make his anger known:-)
My first class of the day is with Sally, Sunny, Sue and a new arrival, Subin. Yes, Subin. I have several really fun stories from this class! I forgot about this last post but I just have to tell this story. Subin started coming to our class last week and was pretty shy her first class. I could tell she understood but she was kind of quiet. So at the end of her first class we were playing a game where the girls had to walk around a table and grab the flashcard when they heard it read (the story was being played on CD-the flashcards were strewn about a small table). Sally and Subin were the only ones that wanted to play and they seemed to be getting a little competitive. All of a sudden, one of the words on a certain flashcard was read and Subin scanned the table, spying it at the opposite end before Sally saw it. Subin literally dove onto the table and snatched the card!! Welcome to the class, Subin!! It was shocking and hysterical! I mean you just have to picture this reserved little girl who has barely spoken a word the entire class diving across a table like she was in full attack mode. It was awesome.
A few days ago in that same class, we were reading a story called Where is the Green Sheep?" It's pretty cute and one of the activities was drawing your favorite sheep from the story. First they each picked their favorites; Subin's was the blue sheep, Sue's was the red and Sunny and Sally had like 3 each haha. Everybody finished some cute drawings (except Sally who at this point had 10 favorites....) and I admired everybody's work. Then Sue handed me hers.
Well, where do I start? I did not go to church last week. I was planning on going to Busan later in the day with some other foreign teachers, so I figured I would learn to ride the bus from people that have been here a long time. False. We took taxis:-) There were a lot of people I hadn't met yet so it was cool to be able to socialize with a LOT of westerners, some that have been here over a year. We went to this German beer hall and it was so funny to see all the Korean servers wearing lederhosen. There was a band from Bulgaria, I think, and that was almost as funny:-) They did have sausages and sauerkraut but I wouldn't call those sausages bratwurst! Maybe hot dogs, ha but they had plenty of fried food that was delicious! I must say, I have missed french fries (yeah you can find them here no problem but I haven't yet)! We had such a good time and watching the extremely drunk old Korean men dance with their coats like it's a lady/dance on the benches and be told over and over to get down/get really excited and sing along when the band sang popular Korean songs was really awesome! We continued on to another place in Busan called the Basement. It's a bar for westerners and it made me feel like I was back in America at a bar that a few Koreans were also visiting. I definitely had a dance off with a Korean guy. He definitely won! It was pretty hilarious! He had some sweet moves. We played dominoes and other people were playing connect 4. Overall, it was an awesome place with a super chill atmosphere! I met this cute Korean couple and sat with them for a little bit but had to leave before we exchanged contact info. A few of us went to another western bar and there were a bunch of foreigners (I'm assuming foreign teachers!) there as well! We were all celebrating Lunar New Year's aka celebrating having Monday off! I made some more Korean friends there but this time we did get each other's facebooks! Korean friends are a good idea whilst in Korea! The DJ there was supreme. We made our way back to our little myeon and as soon as I got home I remembered that I opened a tab at the Basement......and forgot to close it/get my card back. Nooo! I was bummed mostly because that meant I had to go BACK on my day off and I still didn't know how to do the whole bus thing!! I chickened out on Monday and decided I would be better off asking someone to go with me and help me out.
Thankfully, a new friend showed me the bus route. Talk about a crash course in Korean public transit! I had to take a taxi to the bus stop, bus to Busan, and 2 subway rides to get to the area! I never ever ever would have been able to do that on my own! We were both hungry and saw an ad for a restaurant called Pumpkins with a tag line, "Tasty Story." HA! We knew we had to go there! This place was pretty great. The tables each had couches as chairs and they still had Christmas decorations up ha. And EVERYTHING was pumpkin! We got this beef and veggie dish that was served in the pumpkin and had some sort of red sauce and melted cheese all over it. It was delicious, actually! Alright so we went to get my card and it was no problem to get it back, but a huge relief! We make it back to the bus station and there are so many people waiting for the last buses of the night. We decided to hop on the extremely full bus that was about to leave. By extremely full, I mean we stood at the VERY front of the bus the entire ride. I was standing right on the top of the step by the door ha. It was like a roller coaster ride! I think it's pretty common to stand on the buses like that. The funniest part came when we pulled up to our stop and there was a car with their hazards on right in the way of the bus! Wow, that made our driver mad. He starts honking like crazy and the car moved up just a little. So we get out and then as the bus driver is leaving, he starts letting the guy HAVE it!! He was just screaming at the driver of the car and I was just laughing so hard as we were walking away. I mean the car wasn't in the way at this point, the bus driver just wanted to make his anger known:-)
My first class of the day is with Sally, Sunny, Sue and a new arrival, Subin. Yes, Subin. I have several really fun stories from this class! I forgot about this last post but I just have to tell this story. Subin started coming to our class last week and was pretty shy her first class. I could tell she understood but she was kind of quiet. So at the end of her first class we were playing a game where the girls had to walk around a table and grab the flashcard when they heard it read (the story was being played on CD-the flashcards were strewn about a small table). Sally and Subin were the only ones that wanted to play and they seemed to be getting a little competitive. All of a sudden, one of the words on a certain flashcard was read and Subin scanned the table, spying it at the opposite end before Sally saw it. Subin literally dove onto the table and snatched the card!! Welcome to the class, Subin!! It was shocking and hysterical! I mean you just have to picture this reserved little girl who has barely spoken a word the entire class diving across a table like she was in full attack mode. It was awesome.
A few days ago in that same class, we were reading a story called Where is the Green Sheep?" It's pretty cute and one of the activities was drawing your favorite sheep from the story. First they each picked their favorites; Subin's was the blue sheep, Sue's was the red and Sunny and Sally had like 3 each haha. Everybody finished some cute drawings (except Sally who at this point had 10 favorites....) and I admired everybody's work. Then Sue handed me hers.
At first I wasn't sure what it was exactly until she gave me the simple explanation, "The blue sheep is dead." HAHA If you will notice, the red sheep is visiting the grave of the blue sheep and thinking about him as well. I laughed and laughed! I'm not sure if that somehow exposes evil feelings she has towards Subin (Subin had the blue sheep) but it was just hilarious. Sue was pretty quiet when we first started classes and always had this perplexed look on her face but she has really opened up. She is very smart, speaks a lot of English and talks a lot now! It's very cute. Thursday and Friday we were learning about crocodiles and alligators and she kept saying they were from Africa. When I asked if they had ever seen one, she pipes up, "NO, I don't go to Africa many times." hahaha thank you for many laughs, Sue. I feel you need to see how cute she is so
you can really appreciate her spunk:
Not the best picture of her but still :-)
The rest of our Korean teachers started at MBC OSS on Tuesday. I was excited to have Donna back (Dan ah actually) and it was exciting to meet the new ones. However, I am a little confused. I said something to one named Sally and she told me in very broken English that she doesn't actually speak English......um...isn't this an English academy? Ha so, yeah I'm not sure how that works at all. Actually, during class last week Jeniffer had to come in to my class and ask how to pronounce a couple words she was teaching. Hahaha, I guess that's how it works.
You know I will always have a story about my dear Fred:-) I was teaching colors this week to Fred and Aidan and that always ends in fun stories. Let me take you back to last year when I was in Cambodia. They had an English class every weeknight and the other interns and I sat in on it a couple times. One little girl, Thao always provided us with hilarious stories. Once, the teacher asked the class of girls, "Are you a boy?" And Thao, who I don't think had been paying that much attention, says very loudly, "YES I DO!" Another time, he asked, "How are you doing today?" Her answer, "Today is MONDAY!" She was always very severe with her pronunciation and the shape of her mouth when she said the most ridiculous things, and this story was one of mine and Karen's favorites. They were going over colors and silver was next. Of course, Thao wasn't paying that much attention so as everyone else says it correctly, she screws up her mouth and says, "FIIIILVEEEERRR." It was pretty amazing!! So that is a story Karen and I always bring up and laugh over even a year later. Well, how wonderful was it when Fred made a similar mistake this week! They were doing fine and then we got to purple and as he repeated me, he said, "FEEEERVEEER" almost as intense as Thao's filver!! Fred gives me so much joy:-) He knows it's purple now, but that memory will never leave me! I love language bloopers. I think I'm in the right business to hear many more of those! Oh actually I have another Fred story! I wanted them to be able to spell the colors too so we had been working on that. I made this little sheet with colored pictures and they had to spell the colors. We got to red, and all of a sudden Fred yells, "FRED!!" And I go over to see he added an f to "red" and was so amused that he can spell his name using "red!" I think he giggled for a good 2 minutes over that! So did I! Now every time he spells red, he goes F...r...e...d. Hehe
I decided I probably needed to wash some clothes or I would be going to work in interestingly smelling clothes. Joey had used the complicated washing machine once before so he showed me a few buttons to push. I was trying to wait til I had a clothes drying rack but I knew it would be a while til I decided to go back to Lotte Mart and get one! So I washed the much needed underwear and when they were done I had to think quick. I need a drying method. Whoever lived here before me put these little hooks up all around in very random spots. I also have a cord from the AC unit where I have my Cambodia flag tied. SO for a couple days, I had underwear and socks hanging up all over my apartment. Don't worry, I won't post the pictures:-) This week I wanted to wash my towels, but I felt like they should be washed with warm water. I had to improvise, so I just pushed random buttons and made sure it was with warm water. I had no idea what I was doing, but now they are clean! This is what I was working with:
The rest of our Korean teachers started at MBC OSS on Tuesday. I was excited to have Donna back (Dan ah actually) and it was exciting to meet the new ones. However, I am a little confused. I said something to one named Sally and she told me in very broken English that she doesn't actually speak English......um...isn't this an English academy? Ha so, yeah I'm not sure how that works at all. Actually, during class last week Jeniffer had to come in to my class and ask how to pronounce a couple words she was teaching. Hahaha, I guess that's how it works.
You know I will always have a story about my dear Fred:-) I was teaching colors this week to Fred and Aidan and that always ends in fun stories. Let me take you back to last year when I was in Cambodia. They had an English class every weeknight and the other interns and I sat in on it a couple times. One little girl, Thao always provided us with hilarious stories. Once, the teacher asked the class of girls, "Are you a boy?" And Thao, who I don't think had been paying that much attention, says very loudly, "YES I DO!" Another time, he asked, "How are you doing today?" Her answer, "Today is MONDAY!" She was always very severe with her pronunciation and the shape of her mouth when she said the most ridiculous things, and this story was one of mine and Karen's favorites. They were going over colors and silver was next. Of course, Thao wasn't paying that much attention so as everyone else says it correctly, she screws up her mouth and says, "FIIIILVEEEERRR." It was pretty amazing!! So that is a story Karen and I always bring up and laugh over even a year later. Well, how wonderful was it when Fred made a similar mistake this week! They were doing fine and then we got to purple and as he repeated me, he said, "FEEEERVEEER" almost as intense as Thao's filver!! Fred gives me so much joy:-) He knows it's purple now, but that memory will never leave me! I love language bloopers. I think I'm in the right business to hear many more of those! Oh actually I have another Fred story! I wanted them to be able to spell the colors too so we had been working on that. I made this little sheet with colored pictures and they had to spell the colors. We got to red, and all of a sudden Fred yells, "FRED!!" And I go over to see he added an f to "red" and was so amused that he can spell his name using "red!" I think he giggled for a good 2 minutes over that! So did I! Now every time he spells red, he goes F...r...e...d. Hehe
I decided I probably needed to wash some clothes or I would be going to work in interestingly smelling clothes. Joey had used the complicated washing machine once before so he showed me a few buttons to push. I was trying to wait til I had a clothes drying rack but I knew it would be a while til I decided to go back to Lotte Mart and get one! So I washed the much needed underwear and when they were done I had to think quick. I need a drying method. Whoever lived here before me put these little hooks up all around in very random spots. I also have a cord from the AC unit where I have my Cambodia flag tied. SO for a couple days, I had underwear and socks hanging up all over my apartment. Don't worry, I won't post the pictures:-) This week I wanted to wash my towels, but I felt like they should be washed with warm water. I had to improvise, so I just pushed random buttons and made sure it was with warm water. I had no idea what I was doing, but now they are clean! This is what I was working with:
NOT easy! I was just thankful my towels made it out alive.
Thursday night, I was walking back home after work and was waiting at the light to be able to cross. I had my headphones in and was in my own little world and then this young Korean lady pushing a stroller said, "Excuse me" and started talking to me in English. She said she taught English before she was married and she also said she wanted to be friends. YES! She lives basically across the street from MBC OSS and asked if I wanted to come over Friday for tea or coffee. I was so exhausted on Friday and not feeling great but figured tea would help and I probably wouldn't be there long. I really wanted to go over there and get to know her too. So when I get there she asks if I was hungry and I knew she wanted to make dinner for me. I was a bit hungry, too:-) Her daughter and I played and she cooked dinner and halfway taught me how to make it. Her daughter is 3 years old in Korean but I was thinking she looked awful young. Later she told me her daughter is 18 months old. Ha so, 3 years old or 18 months. Either one! Funny. The dinner was delicious and she packed up some kimchi and rice cakes for me to take home. She was so excited to have me over and I was really glad to have met this new friend named Tina! Her husband called to say he was off work and coming home, and she told me he was really nervous to meet me. He was pretty shy to try and talk to me and she kept throwing him under the bus, telling me "he can't watch your eyes, he's too shy and nervous!" ha and she would laugh at him when he attempted to speak English. Hehe Well then I told them it was my one month anniversary that day and he said he wanted to throw me a party...right then!! I was really enjoying myself but I was still tired and had to get up early Saturday for kindergarten orientation. But friends are important. So they broke out their soju and some type of plum syrup mixer and had some cheese and seaweed side dishes. We had such a good time just getting to know each other and hanging out. Tina was very clear, I can call her for anything I need or want! She's so sweet and her daughter is a bundle of fun! She's a real goofball and reminded me of my niece Isabelle. Here's Tina:
she's funny and very generous and helpful! I think she's gonna help me learn Korean. Yay! It was interesting when her husband came home; Tina and Eh Da (I have no idea how to Americanize her name so that'll be her daughter's name for now ha) both bowed and greeted him super formally. I knew that was a greeting here I just didn't realize even wives greet their husbands that way! Good culture lesson. I tried to get some funny videos of Eh Da but couldn't quite get the perfect video, so here's a picture.
This doesn't quite do her cuteness justice but it's ok for now.
Wow, this may be the longest post yet! And I'm not even finished yet. I truly feel bad for anyone still reading! But....I'm going to keep writing:-) I am ALMOST done!! Saturday, Joey and I were to be introduced to parents at the Korean kindergarten's orientation. I feel like Monica is a proud mom who likes to show off her new kids. I'll take it:-) She called us up, said things about us in Korean that I hope were nice then handed us the microphone! Joey rambled about a few things and then handed it to me and I was so awkward ha. I was thinking, "I'm standing up here after you said who knows what about me and I don't speak Korea so...what am I supposed to do with this microphone?!" She had told Joey to say hello in Korean so I just said "Annyeong haseyo!" and handed the mike back to Monica and laughed very nervously as they giggled. Haha it was just weird and I felt sick and wanted to skype with friends back home! We had lunch with several kindergarten teachers and then Monica and Charlie went over some financial stuff with us. They told us how they were gonna save us money in spite of this new tax law and Monica also has ideas for us to teach an extra class or two to make a lot more money. Yes! She said she wants us to be millionaires, lol. I like where her head is at! As we were discussing all this, I brought up vacation time to see if I could have an extra day or two off, since summer vacation is about 4 days :-(
Good news:
I am going back to Cambodia at the end of July!! Yes, it's only for a week and that's a longer wait than I previously thought. But what really matters here is that I am going back:-) I am super stoked. I can't wait!!
Ohhh my gosh this post is way too long! It took me all day to get through it. I hope you didn't have such a hard time reading as I did writing haha I don't even know if I included everything I had hoped I would. I'm just tired now and don't feel like doing anything else with this:-) So I will leave you now and will sleep soundly. Hopefully this cold will go away so I can teach like a madwoman, aka, like myself.
Looking forward to her first payday (Feb 25, wooo!),
Min Chi
Thursday night, I was walking back home after work and was waiting at the light to be able to cross. I had my headphones in and was in my own little world and then this young Korean lady pushing a stroller said, "Excuse me" and started talking to me in English. She said she taught English before she was married and she also said she wanted to be friends. YES! She lives basically across the street from MBC OSS and asked if I wanted to come over Friday for tea or coffee. I was so exhausted on Friday and not feeling great but figured tea would help and I probably wouldn't be there long. I really wanted to go over there and get to know her too. So when I get there she asks if I was hungry and I knew she wanted to make dinner for me. I was a bit hungry, too:-) Her daughter and I played and she cooked dinner and halfway taught me how to make it. Her daughter is 3 years old in Korean but I was thinking she looked awful young. Later she told me her daughter is 18 months old. Ha so, 3 years old or 18 months. Either one! Funny. The dinner was delicious and she packed up some kimchi and rice cakes for me to take home. She was so excited to have me over and I was really glad to have met this new friend named Tina! Her husband called to say he was off work and coming home, and she told me he was really nervous to meet me. He was pretty shy to try and talk to me and she kept throwing him under the bus, telling me "he can't watch your eyes, he's too shy and nervous!" ha and she would laugh at him when he attempted to speak English. Hehe Well then I told them it was my one month anniversary that day and he said he wanted to throw me a party...right then!! I was really enjoying myself but I was still tired and had to get up early Saturday for kindergarten orientation. But friends are important. So they broke out their soju and some type of plum syrup mixer and had some cheese and seaweed side dishes. We had such a good time just getting to know each other and hanging out. Tina was very clear, I can call her for anything I need or want! She's so sweet and her daughter is a bundle of fun! She's a real goofball and reminded me of my niece Isabelle. Here's Tina:
she's funny and very generous and helpful! I think she's gonna help me learn Korean. Yay! It was interesting when her husband came home; Tina and Eh Da (I have no idea how to Americanize her name so that'll be her daughter's name for now ha) both bowed and greeted him super formally. I knew that was a greeting here I just didn't realize even wives greet their husbands that way! Good culture lesson. I tried to get some funny videos of Eh Da but couldn't quite get the perfect video, so here's a picture.
This doesn't quite do her cuteness justice but it's ok for now.
Wow, this may be the longest post yet! And I'm not even finished yet. I truly feel bad for anyone still reading! But....I'm going to keep writing:-) I am ALMOST done!! Saturday, Joey and I were to be introduced to parents at the Korean kindergarten's orientation. I feel like Monica is a proud mom who likes to show off her new kids. I'll take it:-) She called us up, said things about us in Korean that I hope were nice then handed us the microphone! Joey rambled about a few things and then handed it to me and I was so awkward ha. I was thinking, "I'm standing up here after you said who knows what about me and I don't speak Korea so...what am I supposed to do with this microphone?!" She had told Joey to say hello in Korean so I just said "Annyeong haseyo!" and handed the mike back to Monica and laughed very nervously as they giggled. Haha it was just weird and I felt sick and wanted to skype with friends back home! We had lunch with several kindergarten teachers and then Monica and Charlie went over some financial stuff with us. They told us how they were gonna save us money in spite of this new tax law and Monica also has ideas for us to teach an extra class or two to make a lot more money. Yes! She said she wants us to be millionaires, lol. I like where her head is at! As we were discussing all this, I brought up vacation time to see if I could have an extra day or two off, since summer vacation is about 4 days :-(
Good news:
I am going back to Cambodia at the end of July!! Yes, it's only for a week and that's a longer wait than I previously thought. But what really matters here is that I am going back:-) I am super stoked. I can't wait!!
Ohhh my gosh this post is way too long! It took me all day to get through it. I hope you didn't have such a hard time reading as I did writing haha I don't even know if I included everything I had hoped I would. I'm just tired now and don't feel like doing anything else with this:-) So I will leave you now and will sleep soundly. Hopefully this cold will go away so I can teach like a madwoman, aka, like myself.
Looking forward to her first payday (Feb 25, wooo!),
Min Chi
Friday, February 12, 2010
KPOP, dancing teachers and rulers
Hard to believe it's already the end of week 3! I really want to find an international church around here and was going to go last Sunday to a church in Gimhae. They start at 3:30 and are international, though they are mostly Vietnamese, Filipino, etc...not many Americans. That's ok I wanted to go and Jennifer helped me find the bus I needed to take to get there (her friend goes) so I was excited. But Sunday rolled around and the closer it got to when I needed to leave, the more afraid I became of trying out the bus thing!! All I knew was the bus number, I didn't know schedules, prices, return schedules, and a few more important tid bits. I hate to admit it, but I was too scared for that adventure so soon! There are a couple churches I want to visit though so I am just going to have to toughen up and get on a bus! We'll see what happens tomorrow:-) You can probably expect a ridiculous travel story in next week's blog!
This was a little bit of a rough week, mostly because it was GRAY, foggy and rainy all week. The sun forgot to come out for 4 days straight and even though it really attempted an appearance yesterday, it failed. I also had to be early all week because we had to teach extra classes for the kindergarten. The classes were for the same kids that we went to Gyeongju with, so it was fun to spend a little more time with them. We're really hoping most of them sign up for MBC OSS! Tuesday and Wednesday were to be cooking and music class days, then Thursday and Friday Joey and I were to co-teach storytelling. At first they said Joey would be running the cooking class but then Monday things changed (of course) and I was supposed to teach cooking class. Guess what we were cooking...ddukbokkie, a popular Korean dish. Then I heard we were going to be dividing the 2 classes into 4 teams, so that means 4 cooking classes back to back, each one lasting only 20 minutes!! I obviously wasn't teaching this alone, Jennifer teacher and I co-taught. It was a mess. 20 minutes is just not enough time! On top of that, these were all 7 and 8 year olds and they wanted them to be able to cut everything themselves! So we are rushing the lesson anyways and then it comes time for them to use the knives and we've got 7 year olds passing knives across the table and throwing things into the pot so the sauce is splattering. These kids didn't speak English for the most part so Jennifer would do most of the stuff then I would do a simple/quick version in English. The poor kids didn't even have time to eat their creations, we had to shuffle them out (trying to get their chef jackets and hats off took long enough by itself!) and try to clean up and set up for the next class that was already lined up at the door putting on the chef outfits! CHAOS!! We did that 4 times Tuesday and Wednesday. The storytelling classes were much easier because we didn't have to split them up and we still just had 20 minutes. We did the Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and I had a lot of fun with that:-)
Funny stories that make rainy days better:
Like I said, it was a bit of a rough week. I was a little down and moody but these few things gave me the laughs I really needed!
-The first day of cooking classes, Jennifer was trying to tell the kids to take off their cooking jackets but couldn't quite think of the words. Instead, she told a class of kindergartners, "Everybody take off your clothes!" I just busted out laughing so hard and she realized what she said and we laughed. The kids and their Korean teacher didn't understand what was so funny, but throughout the rest of the day/week we would think of that and laugh so hard! I guess she told Hannah (head teacher) because once when she was in there helping us out and it came to the point to get their jackets off, Jennifer and I looked at each other and started laughing, then Hannah laughed and said she heard the story etc... and we all laughed about that AGAIN. Maybe you just had to be there....but it was hilarious!
-In the middle of the week, I had a rough class with Fred and Aidan. Fred, who...whom?... I love dearly was being just plain bad. He refused to do any work and it was frustrating. I think a lot of it is because he just doesn't understand it. So I focused on Aidan and introduced a new word; ruler. Let me stop and say that I'm sure plenty of Koreans can say this word fantastically! But if you just think of all the letters in the word RULER that are jumbled in such a way, it's hard for Koreans! Maybe I'm a horrible person, but I laughed so hard when I heard they way he was saying it. Then he kept saying it over and over and over and I kept laughing! It was adorable! Don't worry, I was encouraging him through the laughter:-) And then, I took a video...I am AWFUL! I've watched this video over and over and even tried to send it out to a bunch of people. I guess it didn't work but I will post it right here, right now! In the video, he actually says it better than he had before. This was with great effort and concentration. Not sure why it cuts out the beginning, he's just saying, "It's a ruler." Enjoy:-) **I just watched it another 5 times and am in tears laughing. What a classic. I hope you love this as much as I do!!!**
-There's a kid named Denny who cracks me up. He's a little chubby in the tummy with almost a mullet and he's a bit of an instigator. He speaks alright English. He's also hilarious. They love computer games around here and this kid will come up behind you, make a sound like he's cocking a gun and then "shoots" and says, "HEADUH SHOT!!" (aka, head shot) It kills me (ohh a pun!)!
-I found a website called eatyourkimchi.com and they had this really funny video of them doing all the popular Korean dance moves. I liked the music so I spent one whole night youtubing Korean pop songs AND loving them. The next day at work, Joey was trying to find songs to teach for the music class and they kept suggesting American songs that were popular over here (ya know the song The Rose by Westlife? The one on Napoleon Dynamite? They love that one haha "Some say love, is like a river...") and he asked me to help him find some songs. He's not the best at Youtube and Google....yeah. So we were watching the video and Jennifer and Alice were also standing there and when Hannah heard the song, she came over too (guess it was a slow day haha). She wanted us to look up a Jennifer Lopez song so we rocked out to that for a little bit hah. I think I asked if they liked Super Junior (my new fave) and Hannah THE HEAD TEACHER starts doing the dance and singing Sorry Sorry. I was so uplifted by the next 20 minutes that the gloominess faded away each dance move she busted out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAWqnA8PdcY PLEASE WATCH THIS!! You must see the dance move to understand how hilarious it was when we all broke out in song and dance in the middle of the lobby. Joey is no fun so he walked away and let us have the computer and we continued to youtube every popular kpop song while Jennifer was laughing so hard she was in tears ON the floor. I thought she might pass out! Hannah said we should go clubbing soon and I think it was decided we at least have to do karaoke together! I definitely love these teachers!
-It was a good week for making Jennifer cry from laughing so hard. Apparently, they had a flawed placement system. The kids take a placement test and they decided that all the kids that put any lines for the matching section would be the second level class. (No markings on test=first level. Writing on test=third) They discovered on Wednesday, I believe it was, that the kids they placed in the level 2 class because of the lines on their test are actually way more suited for level 1! I guess a few of them had drawn lines from the word "apple" to the picture of a dog and other things that were completely wrong! Some had drawn lines from the actual written question to all the pictures! It was a pretty funny discovery and garnered some more needed laughs.
Well those were some of the stories that kept me laughing all week. As I mentioned earlier, Fred was uncooperative one day and that bummed me out a bit. I was trying to decide how to get him to do his work, still have fun and actually learn English. However, the next day he was completely different and he and Aidan were both proving they had remembered everything I've taught so far! We had a really, really good class that day and I was so pleased with Fred! They are extremely hyper boys who have to sit in countless classrooms all day long, but I'm glad they're learning English and are sometimes able to sit still, while also enjoying themselves and making it a little easier on me:-)
I thought Friday would be a slow and easy day because we were combining the classes and doing a cooking class and music class. 2 each and both at 40 minutes. It was definitely a slow morning but the older kids made SUCH a mess and were way too playful with the knives. Jennifer and I co-taught those cooking classes as well and she made my day when she held a knife to an older boy's throat and repeated what she had already told him to do like 3 times. Good thing it's the end of the week :-D (No children were seriously harmed during the cooking classes or the posting of this blog)
This weekend is the lunar New Years and a big holiday in Korea. I got chocolates and a pound cake from various teachers AND a 50 000 won bonus from Monica! The teachers were very grateful to her for that:-) It's Saturday and I haven't done a single thing yet today so I think I'm going to go outside and try to find something to do! The sun is finally out! I may be going to Busan tomorrow with some westerners I met so that should be fun.
The next update will be on my one month anniversary! I've already been here 3 weeks. It's just so weird! And I STILL haven't been able to use my brand new Keurig coffee maker...what a shame!!
Ah I know I'm forgetting something so I may add a couple smaller updates before the end of next week. Hopefully I'll be able to put up some videos I made but they've all been too big :-/ Oh and I left my camera at the school so I won't have any pictures of Busan! Oh well, next time!
Thanks for reading and don't forget to youtube some kpop and get lost in a world of boy bands!
A tired teacher
*Check out these guys for a laugh BUT also a catchy song haha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0PD3I1N1oE
This was a little bit of a rough week, mostly because it was GRAY, foggy and rainy all week. The sun forgot to come out for 4 days straight and even though it really attempted an appearance yesterday, it failed. I also had to be early all week because we had to teach extra classes for the kindergarten. The classes were for the same kids that we went to Gyeongju with, so it was fun to spend a little more time with them. We're really hoping most of them sign up for MBC OSS! Tuesday and Wednesday were to be cooking and music class days, then Thursday and Friday Joey and I were to co-teach storytelling. At first they said Joey would be running the cooking class but then Monday things changed (of course) and I was supposed to teach cooking class. Guess what we were cooking...ddukbokkie, a popular Korean dish. Then I heard we were going to be dividing the 2 classes into 4 teams, so that means 4 cooking classes back to back, each one lasting only 20 minutes!! I obviously wasn't teaching this alone, Jennifer teacher and I co-taught. It was a mess. 20 minutes is just not enough time! On top of that, these were all 7 and 8 year olds and they wanted them to be able to cut everything themselves! So we are rushing the lesson anyways and then it comes time for them to use the knives and we've got 7 year olds passing knives across the table and throwing things into the pot so the sauce is splattering. These kids didn't speak English for the most part so Jennifer would do most of the stuff then I would do a simple/quick version in English. The poor kids didn't even have time to eat their creations, we had to shuffle them out (trying to get their chef jackets and hats off took long enough by itself!) and try to clean up and set up for the next class that was already lined up at the door putting on the chef outfits! CHAOS!! We did that 4 times Tuesday and Wednesday. The storytelling classes were much easier because we didn't have to split them up and we still just had 20 minutes. We did the Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and I had a lot of fun with that:-)
Funny stories that make rainy days better:
Like I said, it was a bit of a rough week. I was a little down and moody but these few things gave me the laughs I really needed!
-The first day of cooking classes, Jennifer was trying to tell the kids to take off their cooking jackets but couldn't quite think of the words. Instead, she told a class of kindergartners, "Everybody take off your clothes!" I just busted out laughing so hard and she realized what she said and we laughed. The kids and their Korean teacher didn't understand what was so funny, but throughout the rest of the day/week we would think of that and laugh so hard! I guess she told Hannah (head teacher) because once when she was in there helping us out and it came to the point to get their jackets off, Jennifer and I looked at each other and started laughing, then Hannah laughed and said she heard the story etc... and we all laughed about that AGAIN. Maybe you just had to be there....but it was hilarious!
-In the middle of the week, I had a rough class with Fred and Aidan. Fred, who...whom?... I love dearly was being just plain bad. He refused to do any work and it was frustrating. I think a lot of it is because he just doesn't understand it. So I focused on Aidan and introduced a new word; ruler. Let me stop and say that I'm sure plenty of Koreans can say this word fantastically! But if you just think of all the letters in the word RULER that are jumbled in such a way, it's hard for Koreans! Maybe I'm a horrible person, but I laughed so hard when I heard they way he was saying it. Then he kept saying it over and over and over and I kept laughing! It was adorable! Don't worry, I was encouraging him through the laughter:-) And then, I took a video...I am AWFUL! I've watched this video over and over and even tried to send it out to a bunch of people. I guess it didn't work but I will post it right here, right now! In the video, he actually says it better than he had before. This was with great effort and concentration. Not sure why it cuts out the beginning, he's just saying, "It's a ruler." Enjoy:-) **I just watched it another 5 times and am in tears laughing. What a classic. I hope you love this as much as I do!!!**
-There's a kid named Denny who cracks me up. He's a little chubby in the tummy with almost a mullet and he's a bit of an instigator. He speaks alright English. He's also hilarious. They love computer games around here and this kid will come up behind you, make a sound like he's cocking a gun and then "shoots" and says, "HEADUH SHOT!!" (aka, head shot) It kills me (ohh a pun!)!
-I found a website called eatyourkimchi.com and they had this really funny video of them doing all the popular Korean dance moves. I liked the music so I spent one whole night youtubing Korean pop songs AND loving them. The next day at work, Joey was trying to find songs to teach for the music class and they kept suggesting American songs that were popular over here (ya know the song The Rose by Westlife? The one on Napoleon Dynamite? They love that one haha "Some say love, is like a river...") and he asked me to help him find some songs. He's not the best at Youtube and Google....yeah. So we were watching the video and Jennifer and Alice were also standing there and when Hannah heard the song, she came over too (guess it was a slow day haha). She wanted us to look up a Jennifer Lopez song so we rocked out to that for a little bit hah. I think I asked if they liked Super Junior (my new fave) and Hannah THE HEAD TEACHER starts doing the dance and singing Sorry Sorry. I was so uplifted by the next 20 minutes that the gloominess faded away each dance move she busted out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAWqnA8PdcY PLEASE WATCH THIS!! You must see the dance move to understand how hilarious it was when we all broke out in song and dance in the middle of the lobby. Joey is no fun so he walked away and let us have the computer and we continued to youtube every popular kpop song while Jennifer was laughing so hard she was in tears ON the floor. I thought she might pass out! Hannah said we should go clubbing soon and I think it was decided we at least have to do karaoke together! I definitely love these teachers!
-It was a good week for making Jennifer cry from laughing so hard. Apparently, they had a flawed placement system. The kids take a placement test and they decided that all the kids that put any lines for the matching section would be the second level class. (No markings on test=first level. Writing on test=third) They discovered on Wednesday, I believe it was, that the kids they placed in the level 2 class because of the lines on their test are actually way more suited for level 1! I guess a few of them had drawn lines from the word "apple" to the picture of a dog and other things that were completely wrong! Some had drawn lines from the actual written question to all the pictures! It was a pretty funny discovery and garnered some more needed laughs.
Well those were some of the stories that kept me laughing all week. As I mentioned earlier, Fred was uncooperative one day and that bummed me out a bit. I was trying to decide how to get him to do his work, still have fun and actually learn English. However, the next day he was completely different and he and Aidan were both proving they had remembered everything I've taught so far! We had a really, really good class that day and I was so pleased with Fred! They are extremely hyper boys who have to sit in countless classrooms all day long, but I'm glad they're learning English and are sometimes able to sit still, while also enjoying themselves and making it a little easier on me:-)
I thought Friday would be a slow and easy day because we were combining the classes and doing a cooking class and music class. 2 each and both at 40 minutes. It was definitely a slow morning but the older kids made SUCH a mess and were way too playful with the knives. Jennifer and I co-taught those cooking classes as well and she made my day when she held a knife to an older boy's throat and repeated what she had already told him to do like 3 times. Good thing it's the end of the week :-D (No children were seriously harmed during the cooking classes or the posting of this blog)
This weekend is the lunar New Years and a big holiday in Korea. I got chocolates and a pound cake from various teachers AND a 50 000 won bonus from Monica! The teachers were very grateful to her for that:-) It's Saturday and I haven't done a single thing yet today so I think I'm going to go outside and try to find something to do! The sun is finally out! I may be going to Busan tomorrow with some westerners I met so that should be fun.
The next update will be on my one month anniversary! I've already been here 3 weeks. It's just so weird! And I STILL haven't been able to use my brand new Keurig coffee maker...what a shame!!
Ah I know I'm forgetting something so I may add a couple smaller updates before the end of next week. Hopefully I'll be able to put up some videos I made but they've all been too big :-/ Oh and I left my camera at the school so I won't have any pictures of Busan! Oh well, next time!
Thanks for reading and don't forget to youtube some kpop and get lost in a world of boy bands!
A tired teacher
*Check out these guys for a laugh BUT also a catchy song haha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0PD3I1N1oE
Friday, February 5, 2010
Learning Korean, eating "chicken," and being content
Well folks, here we are at the end of week 2. On the one hand, it seems like I just got here and these two weeks have flown by! On the other hand, I've already done so much, learned a lot, met so many kids that I feel I've been here forever! Either way, I'm still having a great time. I have a touch of that pesty common cold that also likes to travel the world, but it's not that bad. Maybe I should wear one of those masks that people here wear! Some of them are so trendy. I think I would wear one with whiskers.
Monday was a bit of an overwhelming day. It marked the beginning of our February classes, which are not free but are still sample/promo classes. Some of the kids signed up for February have already signed up for the school but not all of them. I went to work at ten like I'm supposed to and sat around til around 11 playing on facebook and whatever, while the Korean teachers had a meeting and planned things, etc, as usual! It's not a problem, it's just one of the dilemmas of having foreign staff members. When they came in to tell us what we should be teaching for the next week+ two months we were basically drowned in information and books and planners and papers and stuff in Korean that I don't even know why they gave us!! On the schedule, I had four classes but since all the students signed up for my early class are only signed up for March, I only have three classes for this month! I just sat for a minute and stared at all the books that I had been given for only three classes! Once I got into the books and saw how easy it would be, my head stopped swimming just a little. I mean there are lesson planners and all kinds of help you could need. I was looking forward to find out which students from last week were gonna be back. I was extremely pleased to find out Fred was in my second class!! He was one of my favorites from the first week.
He's the one on the right here. The other one is Aidan. I hadn't met him before but he's truly adorable as well! This class is supposed to have more kids but for some reason they aren't coming! I'm ok with that because these boys are great. My last class also had a few of my kids from last week until a few of them were moved to another class. I still have a very smart student I had last week and she was the only one in the class without an English name. She wanted one and named her Lori :-) I thought it would be so fun and comforting to have students named after my best friends! I can't wait to name more students. Ha! She really loves her name a lot too.
Every once in a while there's an outdoor market set up next to the school. I wanted to go for a while now but I can't really figure out when they do it. I thought it would just be on Saturdays but then they had it on a Tuesday night or something and then on Thursday. Who knows! So I went Thursday night cause I really wanted some fresh fruits and veggies. It's the kind of place you barter but I wasn't planning on doing that since it would be almost impossible at this point! They had everything at this place. Clothes, all kinds of veggies, fruits, pancake type things, stuff I was too afraid to try, and a whole lot of fish! I mean just chillin and I swear some of it was eel. The whole eel. Lots of them. I couldn't decide what I wanted and I didn't really know how it worked. They have baskets or bags of stuff sittin out with something written in Korean and the price. One vendor made was laughin at me cause I was standing there tryin to decide if I wanted the apples or strawberries. For those of you who know me, I take forEVER to make decisions and I also do this thing with my mouth when I'm thinking. Just like, move it from side to side or something. I dunno. He was pretty hearty and jolly and thought I was amusing so we had a good laugh. See, laughing gaps all kinds of barriers!! So I thought I would test my Korean ordering skills with him. Turns out they just put the entire basket of displayed fruit, etc into a bag and the price is for all that! I'm talkin, I got a large bowl/basket of fresh strawberries for 5000 won. That's really good. Anyways, the guy asked if I spoke Korean ( I only knew cause I recognized "Hanguk"). I wish I did. Once I speak more Korean I'm gonna go back and talk to all those vendors! PS-those were the best strawberries I've ever had.
One day this week Aidan didn't come to class. I was still planning to teach the lesson to Fred but somehow he was able to distract me the entire 40 minutes by teaching ME! He was trying so hard to tell me something about his mother but I didn't understand. He taught me so much Korean that day though, so did the next class! I can now write and say LION in Korean:-) Success!! haha
I love it here and I love teaching but I'm constantly reminded that this is not the last stop for me. I have a calling, I have a purpose and I'm eager to get to that work. I've had a lot of opportunities to talk about Remember Nhu and why I was in Cambodia and what I plan to do. I went to church with Jennifer, one of the Korean teachers, and talked to her friend a lot that afternoon. I've just been reminded a lot of Cambodia, my girls and the work I know I was meant for, and I am so ready to jump in and be a part of the fight against trafficking. I know this is a part of that though, because I do have to pay off my loans and just because I'm not there yet (Kosovo, Cambodia, wherever) doesn't mean I'm not able to be involved. I've been on the lookout for any signs of brothels or trafficking but haven't seen anything. Apparently, this town changes at night. Joey was out really late and told me that it's almost like a red light district when the sun goes down! I was so sad to hear that. He said everything advertised is for the "juicy bars" and I've definitely heard of those. There are even the people standing outside trying to pull you in to their bar. Sounds like a red light district to me. Even though that reality was hard to hear, I realized I'm in the perfect spot. I can do something! I'm going to be searching for organizations around here to get involved with. There is no way I will stand back and be just another passive foreigner laughing that there are "juicy bars" in our myeon (town). I just pray that the Lord will show me where I can go, where I am needed here.
We were invited to go to Gyeongju (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyeongju) with the kindergartners on Friday. We had some sweet buses and lots and lots of kids! I think the kinder teachers are adorable (just think Hello Kitty and lots of giggling and silly dancing) and was glad I could spend a day as a tourist with these people. It took us about an hour and a half to get there and we saw the King's Tombs on the way. Pretty cool although they just look like big mounds or hills ha. It was a beautiful day and really cool to see this historical place. The kids were fun (I'm basically a celebrity amongst the entire kindergarten so...gotta love it hahaha) AND I was given a Korean name!! Just call me,
Min Chi (pronounced MIHN chee)
I stayed most of the day with one class who kind of claimed me OR held me hostage. Whichever. But ho
w can you resist these faces? That's my hand they're holding/breaking. Well blah blah it was a great day and I was so exhausted but still had to teach my last class! We made it back to the Academy around 4:45 and it was enough time to catch Fred, Aidan, and another kid named Harry playing before they went home. The genuine happiness they displayed at seeing me really gives me so much joy. Have I told you how much I love being "Erica Teacher?" :-) Even though I was exhausted, Lori and Jeffrey's class went smoothly and quickly. They're very smart.
Ok. The "chicken" story! I've kind of let some dirty dishes pile up in the sink and I didn't feel like washing anything before I cooked and ate, and actually I didn't feel like waiting to eat while I cooked! I've seen this chicken wing place that is between my school and my apartment and decided I should try it. It's all takeout so I knew I wouldn't have to try to explain I want it to go. It was actually more expensive than I had expected but they man was already talkin to me and showing me a menu and trying to explain things so I didn't want to be rude! I wanted this one and ordered it but he kept pointing to another one saying it was "yummy yummy" and gesturing and making noises and a face to tell me the one I wanted was spicy! I couldn't help but laugh. I decided to go ahead and get it. DUMB! I love spicy food, but I felt like my lips were on fire, my nose was a waterfall, and my tongue was twice the size! On top of that, I'm pretty sure there were marshmallows in it and not the broccoli and carrots that were pictured! I kept eating though, determined to work through the pain! Then, I came across something creepy. Now most of the wings looked like chicken, tasted like chicken, I was pretty sure it was chicken especially since it was a chicken restaurant!! But there were three specific "wings" that were....just not chicken. I couldn't even look at them anymore. I had to hide them! For your viewing pleasure I will post the picture I took! This is not for those with weak stomachs...
Hmmmm.....I was just happily eating the super spicy food and I picked this piece up, stopped, and thought..."oh no....."
But thankfully I did NOT vomit last night nor did I dream of the bones coming alive and attacking me in the middle of the night. Two things I was worried about before I went to bed!
WHEW! That is one long post! I hope a few of you made it to the end! I always have so much to say:-) I will leave you with something I just learned.
Instead of saying "good luck" or something like that, people say "FIGHTING!" With a sweet fist pump. Jennifer was just over here and saw I was working on my TEFL certification (still) and said, "Fighting!" It was pretty awesome. "Good luck" is just hoping things go your way however much you put into it or don't. But "fighting," that means you work hard, you overcome adversity, you actually fight for what you want.
So my friends, thank you for reading and for putting up with the picture to the left. There are lots of picture on facebook so check that out. As always, I'm fighting the fight and will continue to fight for justice. There's no luck when it comes to justice in this world. That is something we have to fight hard for and it's not going to be easy. It's going to be a continuous fight that takes all our manpower, strength, passion, emotion, LOVE. Fight for what you believe in. Don't leave it up to luck.
Always FIGHTING,
Passionate Min Chi
Monday was a bit of an overwhelming day. It marked the beginning of our February classes, which are not free but are still sample/promo classes. Some of the kids signed up for February have already signed up for the school but not all of them. I went to work at ten like I'm supposed to and sat around til around 11 playing on facebook and whatever, while the Korean teachers had a meeting and planned things, etc, as usual! It's not a problem, it's just one of the dilemmas of having foreign staff members. When they came in to tell us what we should be teaching for the next week+ two months we were basically drowned in information and books and planners and papers and stuff in Korean that I don't even know why they gave us!! On the schedule, I had four classes but since all the students signed up for my early class are only signed up for March, I only have three classes for this month! I just sat for a minute and stared at all the books that I had been given for only three classes! Once I got into the books and saw how easy it would be, my head stopped swimming just a little. I mean there are lesson planners and all kinds of help you could need. I was looking forward to find out which students from last week were gonna be back. I was extremely pleased to find out Fred was in my second class!! He was one of my favorites from the first week.
He's the one on the right here. The other one is Aidan. I hadn't met him before but he's truly adorable as well! This class is supposed to have more kids but for some reason they aren't coming! I'm ok with that because these boys are great. My last class also had a few of my kids from last week until a few of them were moved to another class. I still have a very smart student I had last week and she was the only one in the class without an English name. She wanted one and named her Lori :-) I thought it would be so fun and comforting to have students named after my best friends! I can't wait to name more students. Ha! She really loves her name a lot too.Every once in a while there's an outdoor market set up next to the school. I wanted to go for a while now but I can't really figure out when they do it. I thought it would just be on Saturdays but then they had it on a Tuesday night or something and then on Thursday. Who knows! So I went Thursday night cause I really wanted some fresh fruits and veggies. It's the kind of place you barter but I wasn't planning on doing that since it would be almost impossible at this point! They had everything at this place. Clothes, all kinds of veggies, fruits, pancake type things, stuff I was too afraid to try, and a whole lot of fish! I mean just chillin and I swear some of it was eel. The whole eel. Lots of them. I couldn't decide what I wanted and I didn't really know how it worked. They have baskets or bags of stuff sittin out with something written in Korean and the price. One vendor made was laughin at me cause I was standing there tryin to decide if I wanted the apples or strawberries. For those of you who know me, I take forEVER to make decisions and I also do this thing with my mouth when I'm thinking. Just like, move it from side to side or something. I dunno. He was pretty hearty and jolly and thought I was amusing so we had a good laugh. See, laughing gaps all kinds of barriers!! So I thought I would test my Korean ordering skills with him. Turns out they just put the entire basket of displayed fruit, etc into a bag and the price is for all that! I'm talkin, I got a large bowl/basket of fresh strawberries for 5000 won. That's really good. Anyways, the guy asked if I spoke Korean ( I only knew cause I recognized "Hanguk"). I wish I did. Once I speak more Korean I'm gonna go back and talk to all those vendors! PS-those were the best strawberries I've ever had.
One day this week Aidan didn't come to class. I was still planning to teach the lesson to Fred but somehow he was able to distract me the entire 40 minutes by teaching ME! He was trying so hard to tell me something about his mother but I didn't understand. He taught me so much Korean that day though, so did the next class! I can now write and say LION in Korean:-) Success!! haha
I love it here and I love teaching but I'm constantly reminded that this is not the last stop for me. I have a calling, I have a purpose and I'm eager to get to that work. I've had a lot of opportunities to talk about Remember Nhu and why I was in Cambodia and what I plan to do. I went to church with Jennifer, one of the Korean teachers, and talked to her friend a lot that afternoon. I've just been reminded a lot of Cambodia, my girls and the work I know I was meant for, and I am so ready to jump in and be a part of the fight against trafficking. I know this is a part of that though, because I do have to pay off my loans and just because I'm not there yet (Kosovo, Cambodia, wherever) doesn't mean I'm not able to be involved. I've been on the lookout for any signs of brothels or trafficking but haven't seen anything. Apparently, this town changes at night. Joey was out really late and told me that it's almost like a red light district when the sun goes down! I was so sad to hear that. He said everything advertised is for the "juicy bars" and I've definitely heard of those. There are even the people standing outside trying to pull you in to their bar. Sounds like a red light district to me. Even though that reality was hard to hear, I realized I'm in the perfect spot. I can do something! I'm going to be searching for organizations around here to get involved with. There is no way I will stand back and be just another passive foreigner laughing that there are "juicy bars" in our myeon (town). I just pray that the Lord will show me where I can go, where I am needed here.
We were invited to go to Gyeongju (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyeongju) with the kindergartners on Friday. We had some sweet buses and lots and lots of kids! I think the kinder teachers are adorable (just think Hello Kitty and lots of giggling and silly dancing) and was glad I could spend a day as a tourist with these people. It took us about an hour and a half to get there and we saw the King's Tombs on the way. Pretty cool although they just look like big mounds or hills ha. It was a beautiful day and really cool to see this historical place. The kids were fun (I'm basically a celebrity amongst the entire kindergarten so...gotta love it hahaha) AND I was given a Korean name!! Just call me,
Min Chi (pronounced MIHN chee)
I stayed most of the day with one class who kind of claimed me OR held me hostage. Whichever. But ho
w can you resist these faces? That's my hand they're holding/breaking. Well blah blah it was a great day and I was so exhausted but still had to teach my last class! We made it back to the Academy around 4:45 and it was enough time to catch Fred, Aidan, and another kid named Harry playing before they went home. The genuine happiness they displayed at seeing me really gives me so much joy. Have I told you how much I love being "Erica Teacher?" :-) Even though I was exhausted, Lori and Jeffrey's class went smoothly and quickly. They're very smart.Ok. The "chicken" story! I've kind of let some dirty dishes pile up in the sink and I didn't feel like washing anything before I cooked and ate, and actually I didn't feel like waiting to eat while I cooked! I've seen this chicken wing place that is between my school and my apartment and decided I should try it. It's all takeout so I knew I wouldn't have to try to explain I want it to go. It was actually more expensive than I had expected but they man was already talkin to me and showing me a menu and trying to explain things so I didn't want to be rude! I wanted this one and ordered it but he kept pointing to another one saying it was "yummy yummy" and gesturing and making noises and a face to tell me the one I wanted was spicy! I couldn't help but laugh. I decided to go ahead and get it. DUMB! I love spicy food, but I felt like my lips were on fire, my nose was a waterfall, and my tongue was twice the size! On top of that, I'm pretty sure there were marshmallows in it and not the broccoli and carrots that were pictured! I kept eating though, determined to work through the pain! Then, I came across something creepy. Now most of the wings looked like chicken, tasted like chicken, I was pretty sure it was chicken especially since it was a chicken restaurant!! But there were three specific "wings" that were....just not chicken. I couldn't even look at them anymore. I had to hide them! For your viewing pleasure I will post the picture I took! This is not for those with weak stomachs...
Hmmmm.....I was just happily eating the super spicy food and I picked this piece up, stopped, and thought..."oh no....."But thankfully I did NOT vomit last night nor did I dream of the bones coming alive and attacking me in the middle of the night. Two things I was worried about before I went to bed!
WHEW! That is one long post! I hope a few of you made it to the end! I always have so much to say:-) I will leave you with something I just learned.
Instead of saying "good luck" or something like that, people say "FIGHTING!" With a sweet fist pump. Jennifer was just over here and saw I was working on my TEFL certification (still) and said, "Fighting!" It was pretty awesome. "Good luck" is just hoping things go your way however much you put into it or don't. But "fighting," that means you work hard, you overcome adversity, you actually fight for what you want.
So my friends, thank you for reading and for putting up with the picture to the left. There are lots of picture on facebook so check that out. As always, I'm fighting the fight and will continue to fight for justice. There's no luck when it comes to justice in this world. That is something we have to fight hard for and it's not going to be easy. It's going to be a continuous fight that takes all our manpower, strength, passion, emotion, LOVE. Fight for what you believe in. Don't leave it up to luck.
Always FIGHTING,
Passionate Min Chi
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Gimhae for you-First impressions!
Alright, I have a lot of entries to smush into one for this first week! I will try not to make it ten pages but...don't hold your breath or anything:-)
So Charlie told us we could rest until 1pm on Friday and then he would pick us up so we could meet the Korean English teachers. Rest sounded so wonderful at that moment! I will admit, being in the small apartment for the first time and realizing it was my home for the next year was a bit shocking. It just seemed so small, cold, sterile and dirty. I know, sterile and dirty don't seem right but sterile as in just...white and lonely and dirty as in, old and...dirty. Haha There wasn't much here furnishings-wise and I had just been telling Joey that sometimes a "furnished apartment" can mean a plate, mug, pot and bed! Well, at least we got the dishes part! My bed is a mat. On the floor. I was a little saddened about that at first but very quickly realized that when there are people in the world sleeping in the mud and dirt, why in the world should I be sad about a nice mat on a warm floor? There are plenty of people in Asia who have these kind of beds and I am trying to be as Korean as possible, after all:-) After the initial shock wore off it didn't take too long to fall in love with my little place. Here's a look of me trying to move stuff in! ^
One of the first culture lessons I learned through my Korean dictionary/phrasebook was that Koreans ask "Have you eaten?" as a greeting. Wellll I wish I had learned this before I got here because when Charlie came to pick us up Friday afternoon, he of course asked us if we had eaten. We said we hadn't and were hungry and I wondered why he seemed confused at that answer!! I think it was the next day when I found and told Joey my discovery and we had a good laugh over that. BUT, he did take us to a delicious noodle house which is super close to my apartment and is cheap! Now this was my first dining experience in Korea and it was so cool. There was a platform type floor with all the small tables and you take your shoes off and sit on the floor at the table. Not every place here is like that but most of them are, and that's how we eat at the school too. The noodle house was the first time I tried kimchi (aside from some type of kimchi soup back in Chinatown) and I have had it every day since then! It's quite the popular side dish here, served with every meal. After the noodle house, we finally went to meet the Korean English teachers. They are so sweet and we had our first little meeting where we all introduced ourselves and they explained that the school opens in March and we would be teaching sample lessons starting Saturday, the next day...wait.....what?!
Surprise! What a shocker! The building isn't even all the way finished yet! It's absolutely beautiful with so many windows and really cute wallpaper all over. They told us we would be teaching 4 mini classes THE NEXT DAY! We got to pick which one we wanted to help with, storytelling or cooking. I totally jumped on the storytelling bandwagon and didn't even feel like a jerk. We did some prepping that day and discussing what we were gonna do the next day and they let us set up the computer room so we could write our poor suffering families! Yeah I hadn't yet called or written home. My dad got me an international calling card before I left but when I was on my flight to Japan I pulled it out and saw that you can only call from the US to anywhere!! I had absolutely no way of contacting my poor parents when I got in and I felt so terrible about that. I just prayed SO hard that they would know I was ok! Sorry about that :-)
The first day of teaching went by smoothly and we met parents and talked to kids and taught fun (quick) classes and bonded with the teachers and bosses over lunch at a super nice traditional Korean restaurant in the mountains. By bonded, I mean they went over all their funny stories of the day in Korean and Joey and I sat in the middle trying not to fall asleep! It was a great day overall though! We did a little exploring on Sunday and walked to one of the seemingly many "downtown" areas of Jangyu. It's pretty awesome here! There's so much to see, so much to do!
First Week of Classes
Then came the sample classes! Monday morning came and I was preparing for the two afternoon classes for 9 and 10 year olds. It's a good thing ICS majors at Nyack get taught to be flexible and learn all about going with the flow because while we were eating lunch our director added a kindergarten class...at 2 o'clock...to go to 3 o'clock! It was already 12:30 or 1 so we ran back downstairs and next door to MBC OSS and got to work. Joey and I were supposed to co teach that one. Then we were told that the kindergarten class was just put on the schedule for all week! No problem, turns out they were really adorable:-)
I did get very frustrated with the school one day because we had talked to Hannah, the head teacher, about what we were gonna teach the kinder class the next day. That night and the next morning we planned our lesson and I even had the room set up for everything and then, bam! We were supposed to teach something completely different. Oh, and that week's planner thing we were supposed to make for Hannah? Yeah they made one and gave it to us. I started feelin super irritated until I realized they were just as flustered and rushed as I was, and probably way more. They were runnin around like crazy and so stressed and pressured. So, I let that slide:-) They did a really great job this past week. I know there were a lot of setbacks (wait, which kid is missing?...) and they felt pressure from Monica, the director, to be completely awesome and impress lots of parents. I think the week actually went very well! Lots of students are already signed up. Good news! Without them, I'd be jobless:-D
Even though they were all so busy, the teachers and Charlie helped so much to settle us in. I was able to use the school's internet but really wanted to Skype so I was close to impatient about getting internet in my apartment! Charlie went out and got us some sweet cell phones in the middle of the week and I felt a little more like myself...isn't that terrible? Haha, I don't have any reason to expect a phone call or anything but I realized I was carrying it around like I do my phone at home! One day I had it sitting beside me at the desk at work and it was time to go eat lunch so I grabbed it like I actually use it. Psh. Probably not a good sign. Ha! Then Charlie got us internet and came over while the guy installed it. I showed him pictures of my family and friends and we talked about Cambodia and my "daughter" over there. He's been to Cambodia! He's a very nice, wonderful man. The kindergarten had a music festival that night so we hurried over after our internet was finished. Let me just tell you, it was so cute. Just picture a bunch of little Korean kids singing badly and playing Korean instruments while all the parents wave from the audience and take pictures and run up and give high fives and thumbs up as soon as their kids are finished. It was basically amazing. Oh wait, here's a little help picturing it...
There was another music festival the next night and Monica brought us to the front and said stuff about us in Korean then handed us a microphone. Haha it was so awkward and I had no idea what to say so I did an awkward bow, a little weird wave and said thank you in Korean AND English...just in case.
Well I have one or two more stories then I will dismiss you:-) So I tried to use the bathroom that's on the same floor as the little library and I'm preeetty sure it was straight out of Elf. I felt like a giant in a tiny land! First, I hit my head on a metal bar trying to get into one stall. So I go to the next one and realize the door probably wouldn't close unless my knees didn't exist. Well as I was attempting to escape from there, the door flew open and hit the sink and I was actually laughing out loud at that point. I decided to use the handicap one, which I think is actually the "adult" one. Good to know! But definitely made for a good story.
This has been such a long post and I won't even try to tell every single story and detail because there is truly so much that is different and amazing. While I was on my extremely long and eventful yet boring flight I kept going between "This is the coolest thing I've ever done" and "This is the DUMBEST thing I've ever done, what am I doing?!?!" That was before I met these kids, and my co-workers, and Monica my Oma (my director, my Korean mother!). I'm having a wonderful time and I look forward to so many adventures! I will tell you one more story because I'm terribly proud. Tonight I went to a yummy dumpling stand and I ordered in Korean!! I greeted, ordered, thanked, and said my goodbyes all in Korean. Yay!! I still have so much to learn though! But with that I leave you and your tired eyes. Thanks for reading! More stories to come, you can count on that!
"Erica Teacher"
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Turbulence, yapping pups and evil flight attendants
Annyong haseyo! I realize it's taken me a long time to update you all but I'm having to use the school's computers and internet for right now so I don't have a long time to play around before classes (yes, I am already teaching!). Let me start with the trip stories.
One valuable lesson I learned: ALWAYS have a travel buddy on long flights so you have a shoulder to sleep on!! I had 3 flights total; one from Charlotte to Detroit, Detroit to Tokyo and Tokyo to Busan. I didn't have anyone sitting next to me for the first flight and thought that was a good start to the journey. I did, however, have a complete spaz sitting in front of me! I think I may have laughed out loud once because when the air turned on really high the first time he freaked out and almost jumped out of his seat to turn it off and he quickly fixed his hair. It was hilarious. That was before we even took off! I slept most of that flight which was nice but I could almost feel his spaz-tastic energy the whole time. I had a 1 or 2 hour layover in detroit and I made sure not to sit at all. There were so many people waiting for that flight so I knew it was going to be crowded. Brad, my recruiter, had told me the other foreign teacher going to my school may be on that flight with me so I was looking out for anyone that looked like an adventerous spirit/teacher type. Everytime I saw a single guy I would either think, "oh please be him" or "oh please DON'T be him!!" Ha, lame for sure. The flight was delayed a little cause they were cleaning and catering so we were all waiting there forever and there was one guy standing near me, probably 25ish and I was kinda hoping he was the other teacher haha. We started talking and joking around and he kinda calmed my nerves even though we were joking that I was probably headed to my death since everything was so uncertain! He's actually in the airforce and was headed back to Japan for another 2 years. He had a middle seat while I had an aisle seat and he kept saying he wanted to trade. Let me just tell you how much I wish I would have traded!!
The drama on the 13 1/2 hour flight was absolutely ridiculous. First of all, I sit down and there's a dog just yapping away somewhere close...of COURSE they are sitting right behind me with the dog UNDER my seat! And then, to top it off, none other than the spaz comes to sit in the seat beside me. It's comical now but not so much right then. When we finally took off (late), the dog lady takes out the dog and put it on her lap. Well everyone around them is thankful because the dog stopped barking and is happy...until the really really awful flight attendants freaked out and start this huge, 12 hours long fight. Lectures were involved, fingers in faces, tears (on not only the lady's part but a flight attendant too!!), and unity among passengers who thought this was all ridiculous. We all preferred she keep the dog on her lap instead of a loud annoying barking!! On top of that situation WE DIDN'T HAVE A MOVIE!! Our screen was broken!! The front and the back of the plane had movies, TV shows, etc...but not us. Anytime the FAs (flight attendants from here on out) were serving anything they would either be rolling their eyes at people, basically yelling at people, and just very obviously irritated and seriously just mean. There was one nice FA who was on the dog lady's side and that got her in trouble!! She was yelled at by the head FA and was the one who ended up in tears. So of course we had the head FA visit our section and lecture the dog lady (she wasn't the first to lecture her...poor lady was crying:-/) and instead of talking quietly and only involving the two ladies with the dog, she is talking SO loud and kept pushing on my seat!! I was actually sleeping soundly until she came around. But my nice little row (the spaz guy was really nice when he was talking, then there was a Thai lady and her American husband going back to Thailand to visit family. The spaz was going to Vietnam to visit family) and the row behind us complained a lot to her because of that plus the movie thing so we got free drinks:-) Actually, we demanded free drinks. Anyways, it got a little better but I did tell my air force buddy that he can absolutely have my seat if he wanted it about halfway through the flight! I also got a $50 travel coupon because of our lack of entertainment situation! Sweet. Can't wait to go to Cambodia for $50 cheaper:-) There were so many things the FAs did that I would tell you about but it would take too long. Just know, they were MEAN!
Wellll I was so relieved when the long flight was over. I was getting so bored even though so much was going on! We got in late and I was concerned that I may not make my Busan flight since I had to go through mini customs in Japan. I went through as quickly as possible and made it in enough time, even though they were gonna leave early! I began to scan the passengers for Joseph again (fellow teacher) but was so tired, nothing really mattered but getting on the plane and sleeping again! They served sushi that was shaped like an ice cream cone for dinner and I thought that was pretty awesome. I could not keep my eyes open for that flight and was hoping I would be awake enough to attempt to communicate with "Chally" (wasn't sure who he was at the time but I knew, whoever he was, he was meeting me at the airport!). We go to Busan and had to take a bus to the terminal and it was so cold!! After going through a customs-type thing and an xray I was finally at baggage claim and once I started collecting my huge suitcases I had a lot of Korean eyes on me. I know they were thinking, ohhh no, another stupid American moving in! Haha! But then the guy I was pretty sure was Joseph came up to me and asked if I was the awesome, popular, amazing, Erica Jane. Ok, he didn't ask it that way exactly but I understood what he meant. We got all our stuff and found the "Way out" (not the exit, it's the "way out" here hehe). We found Chally, who is actually CHARLIE HAH! I guess he didn't know how to spell his American name. He and his wife were waiting for us with signs and when they saw all our bags they said, "oh...ohhh." And we had to call a taxi for Joseph and Charlie! His wife and I went in their car (which is INCREDIBLE, as is basically everything in Korea). We couldn't say much to either of them but his wife speaks NO English but wanted to talk to me so I got out my Korean book and was able to say a few things to her. We connected:-) She's my Korean mother! She took me to my "one room" which is what they call our apartments.
Ok, that's basically the end of the TRAVEL part of the first week so I am going to post this and go teach my kindergarten class! There are so many more stories to come and I cannot wait to tell them!!
~Teacher Jane~
One valuable lesson I learned: ALWAYS have a travel buddy on long flights so you have a shoulder to sleep on!! I had 3 flights total; one from Charlotte to Detroit, Detroit to Tokyo and Tokyo to Busan. I didn't have anyone sitting next to me for the first flight and thought that was a good start to the journey. I did, however, have a complete spaz sitting in front of me! I think I may have laughed out loud once because when the air turned on really high the first time he freaked out and almost jumped out of his seat to turn it off and he quickly fixed his hair. It was hilarious. That was before we even took off! I slept most of that flight which was nice but I could almost feel his spaz-tastic energy the whole time. I had a 1 or 2 hour layover in detroit and I made sure not to sit at all. There were so many people waiting for that flight so I knew it was going to be crowded. Brad, my recruiter, had told me the other foreign teacher going to my school may be on that flight with me so I was looking out for anyone that looked like an adventerous spirit/teacher type. Everytime I saw a single guy I would either think, "oh please be him" or "oh please DON'T be him!!" Ha, lame for sure. The flight was delayed a little cause they were cleaning and catering so we were all waiting there forever and there was one guy standing near me, probably 25ish and I was kinda hoping he was the other teacher haha. We started talking and joking around and he kinda calmed my nerves even though we were joking that I was probably headed to my death since everything was so uncertain! He's actually in the airforce and was headed back to Japan for another 2 years. He had a middle seat while I had an aisle seat and he kept saying he wanted to trade. Let me just tell you how much I wish I would have traded!!
The drama on the 13 1/2 hour flight was absolutely ridiculous. First of all, I sit down and there's a dog just yapping away somewhere close...of COURSE they are sitting right behind me with the dog UNDER my seat! And then, to top it off, none other than the spaz comes to sit in the seat beside me. It's comical now but not so much right then. When we finally took off (late), the dog lady takes out the dog and put it on her lap. Well everyone around them is thankful because the dog stopped barking and is happy...until the really really awful flight attendants freaked out and start this huge, 12 hours long fight. Lectures were involved, fingers in faces, tears (on not only the lady's part but a flight attendant too!!), and unity among passengers who thought this was all ridiculous. We all preferred she keep the dog on her lap instead of a loud annoying barking!! On top of that situation WE DIDN'T HAVE A MOVIE!! Our screen was broken!! The front and the back of the plane had movies, TV shows, etc...but not us. Anytime the FAs (flight attendants from here on out) were serving anything they would either be rolling their eyes at people, basically yelling at people, and just very obviously irritated and seriously just mean. There was one nice FA who was on the dog lady's side and that got her in trouble!! She was yelled at by the head FA and was the one who ended up in tears. So of course we had the head FA visit our section and lecture the dog lady (she wasn't the first to lecture her...poor lady was crying:-/) and instead of talking quietly and only involving the two ladies with the dog, she is talking SO loud and kept pushing on my seat!! I was actually sleeping soundly until she came around. But my nice little row (the spaz guy was really nice when he was talking, then there was a Thai lady and her American husband going back to Thailand to visit family. The spaz was going to Vietnam to visit family) and the row behind us complained a lot to her because of that plus the movie thing so we got free drinks:-) Actually, we demanded free drinks. Anyways, it got a little better but I did tell my air force buddy that he can absolutely have my seat if he wanted it about halfway through the flight! I also got a $50 travel coupon because of our lack of entertainment situation! Sweet. Can't wait to go to Cambodia for $50 cheaper:-) There were so many things the FAs did that I would tell you about but it would take too long. Just know, they were MEAN!
Wellll I was so relieved when the long flight was over. I was getting so bored even though so much was going on! We got in late and I was concerned that I may not make my Busan flight since I had to go through mini customs in Japan. I went through as quickly as possible and made it in enough time, even though they were gonna leave early! I began to scan the passengers for Joseph again (fellow teacher) but was so tired, nothing really mattered but getting on the plane and sleeping again! They served sushi that was shaped like an ice cream cone for dinner and I thought that was pretty awesome. I could not keep my eyes open for that flight and was hoping I would be awake enough to attempt to communicate with "Chally" (wasn't sure who he was at the time but I knew, whoever he was, he was meeting me at the airport!). We go to Busan and had to take a bus to the terminal and it was so cold!! After going through a customs-type thing and an xray I was finally at baggage claim and once I started collecting my huge suitcases I had a lot of Korean eyes on me. I know they were thinking, ohhh no, another stupid American moving in! Haha! But then the guy I was pretty sure was Joseph came up to me and asked if I was the awesome, popular, amazing, Erica Jane. Ok, he didn't ask it that way exactly but I understood what he meant. We got all our stuff and found the "Way out" (not the exit, it's the "way out" here hehe). We found Chally, who is actually CHARLIE HAH! I guess he didn't know how to spell his American name. He and his wife were waiting for us with signs and when they saw all our bags they said, "oh...ohhh." And we had to call a taxi for Joseph and Charlie! His wife and I went in their car (which is INCREDIBLE, as is basically everything in Korea). We couldn't say much to either of them but his wife speaks NO English but wanted to talk to me so I got out my Korean book and was able to say a few things to her. We connected:-) She's my Korean mother! She took me to my "one room" which is what they call our apartments.
Ok, that's basically the end of the TRAVEL part of the first week so I am going to post this and go teach my kindergarten class! There are so many more stories to come and I cannot wait to tell them!!
~Teacher Jane~
Friday, January 15, 2010
And heeere we gooo!!
Alright, here it is! Well, I finally got my visa issuance number last week and learned that I had to go ASAP for an interview with the Korean consulate in Atlanta. I was able to schedule an interview for Wednesday and someone covered my shift at work. The interview was, well, weird and hilarious. Ha! It went well and I met a few others who will be leaving soon for Korea as well. I wrote my recruiter when I left and he quickly wrote back to tell me that the school wants me there JANUARY 21ST!! That means, yes, I'm leaving January 20th. That's THIS Wednesday. It's really crazy, exciting, and a little scary. I got my passport in the mail today with my new WORK VISA in it and I also received my itinerary today. I am definitely leaving January 2oth at 9:43am! Super awesome. Well that's that for now! I'll be updating FROM KOREA soon!
Erica Jane
Erica Jane
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