Quick post

Hello!!  Here's a quick post before I finish up packing...for the Philippines!!  I am sooooo excited and really in need of this break.  Maybe I'll update about December sometime.  Let's just say I have another new girl in my kindergarten class, and she acts like a two year old throwing temper tantrums.  Fun times.

I am headed for Bohol in the Philippines, which wasn't hit by the recent typhoon.  It will be in the 80's there and I am looking forward to staying in little huts on the beach, eating mangoes, seeing the chocolate hills...who knows what else.  Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

November in Korea

November was surprisingly warm for the most part.  There was about a week where it actually got cold, but other than that it hasn't been bad at all.  

Here's a picture from November 5th, when I went for a walk in shorts and a t-shirt because it was in the mid 70's.  All the Koreans were bundled up in their winter coats.

There was a lantern festival in Seoul going on for about three weeks in November.  It was over a kilometer of huge lanterns lit up on the river.  The first time I went to it we ended up walking along it during the day on our way to a main shopping area.  It didn't look as cool during the day, but at least it wasn't crowded at all.  

Then we attempted to walk back the same way along the river that evening, but there were so many people everywhere we could barely move much less walk around and see the lanterns.  We found an escape route and decided to just look at the lanterns from up on the street.  

It was still very beautiful!

Masses of people.  Notice the people lining the railing above as well, which is where we ended up.

The next weekend, Sam and Tyler ended up coming up to Seoul, so I went with them to the festival again.  It was a lot less crowded, so we actually walked along the river.  

This was probably my favorite lantern-a peacock that breathed fire!

Really pretty lanterns on interesting trees

Sam and I in front of a lotus lantern

We also got to paint our own lanterns!  I'm glad I went back for a second time!

On Thanksgiving I skyped with my family.  It was such a surreal feeling to see my relatives at my house and then walk outside to go to work...in South Korea.  Sometimes I forget how far away I actually am from home.  My coworkers and I ended up having a Thanksgiving potluck.  We didn't get to have any turkey though, since nobody has an oven in their apartment.  We did have some lentil dishes, potatoes, and plenty of pumpkin pie from Costco.  

Other than that, I have been going shopping in Seoul quite a bit.  I bought a winter coat (from Forever 21) and my favorite place lately seems to be Insadong, which is a souvenir shopping area.  One time when I went to Insadong there was a traditional drum and dance going on.  There were guys with twirly hats too!  Sam told me about seeing those kinds of hats and I really wanted to see them sometime.

Drum and dance in Insadong

Here's a couple of random pics from Suji, where I live.

This is the park on our way to school.  I jog through this park every morning on my way to work.

Here's the "river" (I think it's technically a stream) that runs through Suji.  It's also on the way to school.

This past weekend I went shopping (again) and started off at a huge flea market.  Christine ended up buying a really nice used coat for $5!  Meghan bought some orange candy slices that we all enjoyed immensely, since that type of candy is hard to find.  After that we ended up walking by a bunch of pet stores all in a row.  The animals were all crammed together in little cages, like about 15 baby bunnies in a little cage.  It was really sad.  Also, there were some strange animals in the cages that I would have never thought of as being a pet.  They had pigeons, chipmunks, and some sort of gopher-type animal.  Christine and I are planning on going there on our last day and letting the pigeons go.  But not really.  

Would you like a boom box?  This was at the flea market.

 

So many baby turtles!  They were cute.

Shoes-Dongdaemun

It's time to start planning for the Phillipines!  I can't believe Christmas break is coming up in three short weeks!  I am ready to relax on the beach:)

Halloween festivities

Korea doesn't really celebrate Halloween, but our school celebrated and had festivities the whole week.  Each day was something different, like PJ day, backwards day, crazy hair day, sports day, and then all the kids dressed up for Halloween on the Friday before Halloween.  

Yule on crazy hair day.  Awesome.

Anthony on crazy hair day with his little red hair clip that kept falling out.  He would get really upset every time it fell out and hand it to me saying, "Rachel teacher help-a me" with his sad eyes.  This picture was taken right after he cried because someone took his block.  

 

Winston on crazy hair day

This is our class pumpkin, So-So pumpkin.  The kids had fun cleaning out the pumpkin guts.  When I was starting to carve the pumpkin, I asked the kids what kind of face I should make.  Winston and Yule yelled out, 'so-so face!'  It is their favorite expression so far and they crack up every time they say it.  I think it's really funny, so I went along with it and made a so-so face.

The kids made witch hats for science that week.  I don't know what taping streamers onto hats has to do with science, but they had fun.

Amy in her lion costume.  She won the costume contest, not surprisingly.  She came into the classroom going, "rawr, rawr."  So cute!

My class on Halloween minus Sohee

Serry with her fancy umbrella

A power ranger, a fireman, and a transformer

The kids had fun trick-or-treating around the school and going in the playgym haunted house.  It's too bad they can't go trick-or-treating for real!  The Halloween parties outside of work were going on at the western bars, and some Koreans came dressed up as well.  The Korean women wore super short skirts of course, no different from what they normally wear.  

An update on Sohee:  This week her mom asked her if she would rather go to a regular Korean kindergarten, and she said no.  So her mom told her she had to stop hanging out in the hallway if she wanted to stay at LCI.  On Thursday I got the go-ahead to force her to stay in class, so I stood in front of the door for the first half an hour of class with Sohee screaming, crying and trying to get out.  After that she calmed down and stayed in class the whole day!!  I feel like we have made a breakthrough.  I met with her mom on Friday and she pretty much said that Sohee loves me so much, she just doesn't know how to show it and that Sohee has no idea why she hasn't been in class for the last two months.  I guess she asked her parents where I was from, and then said that Rachel teacher must miss her mommy and daddy a lot, just like she misses her parents during the day.  That's kind of cute:)  

Visiting Daejeon

The weekend before Halloween I went down to visit Sam and Tyler in Daejeon, all by myself!  I was really scared to ride the train alone, because I don't have the best history with getting on the correct train, but I made it and it was actually really simple!  I took the fast train there on Friday night after work, and the T.V. on the train said it was going 298 km/hour, which is pretty fast(about 185 miles/hour).  That night we just chilled out in Sam's amazing two-bedroom apartment.  I don't know what I would do with all that space!  I'm used to having just enough space to fit a yoga mat on the floor, but not enough space to actually do yoga.  Her school is treating her right!  The next day we went to Expo park, which was a bunch of futuristic buildings from some science fair back in 1993.

Expo park

A jumping picture with cucumbers growing overhead

A futuristic playground, surrounded by water.  And yes we played on it:)

Later we rode a ferris wheel in a little amusement park next to Expo park and got to see a nice view of Daejeon at night.  Then we went to this natural hot spring foot bath.  It was just randomly outside in the middle of the city, and very crowded with locals.  The locals made sure we knew to wash our feet before stepping into the hot water.  And when I say hot water, I mean burning hot water!  I had to keep taking my legs out of the water because I couldn't handle it, and the Koreans were just sitting there like it was no big deal.  It was a little chilly out too, so the rest of me was kind of cold and my feet were on fire.  But, afterwards my feet felt great when I put my shoes back on.  

We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant which was about what you would expect for a Mexican restaurant in Korea.  About halfway through our meal, a Korean rock band came in and started playing.  We went from some nice quiet Mexican music playing in the background to blaring electric guitars, so loud we couldn't hear each other.  Not really the venue for that kind of music, if you ask me, but it was amusing anyways. 

Korean rock band at The Cantina

We went walking around the downtown area after that.  It reminded me a lot of Hongdae, kind of like a smaller version of it.  We saw a woman handing something out, and since I love and am addicted to free handouts, I went up and asked for one.  Turns out they were lighters she was handing out, and she said something in Korean to me as she handed a couple lighters out to Koreans but not to me.  I assumed she said not for foreigners or something like that, so I was sad and walked away to catch up with Sam and Tyler.  Soon after I felt a tap on my shoulder from the woman and she gave both me and Tyler a lighter, saying the same thing she said before.  Thanks to Tyler, I know she was saying 'only for men,' as in the lighters were only for men.  I must have looked so sad not to get a lighter that she chased after me to give me one.  

Also, I would like to share a new hat we saw on the street--the sleeping bag hat!  If you look past the man trying to break all the blocks, there is a girl wearing a ridiculous looking poofy hat.  

Sleeping bag hat

Since the girl worked at that game, we passed her later that night.  I asked her (with Tyler's help) where she bought it, and she said she made it herself.  So I guess Sam and myself will not be sporting the sleeping bag hat fashion anytime soon, sadly.  

Sam and Tyler also introduced me to Pocari Sweat, which is a Japanese athletic drink kind of like gatorade, but it tastes like grapefruit.  It's pretty good, actually.  They had a block of real cheese in Sam's apartment as well (from Costco) and it was so amazing to have real cheese!  I ended up going to Costco later that week (one of my coworkers had her mom send their extra Costco card) and bought a large block of cheddar.  That block is almost gone now, since I couldn't stop eating it once I opened it.  It's funny how something so simple as cheese can be such a big deal in another country.  

I said bye to Sam and Tyler on Sunday and headed back to Seoul.  It was nice to see some familiar faces and share our different experiences.  And I traveled all by myself and didn't get lost!  :)

    

Children

I think it's about time I introduced my kindergarten class, since I have talked about some of them briefly already. I have the newest kids in the school, and I would say it's kind of an odd grouping of different personalities.  I am growing attached to them, even though some of them make me want to scream and walk out.  They all love me for some reason even though I feel like I am just yelling the whole day.  Sohee supposedly likes me a lot too, but I have a real hard time believing that.

I'll start off with the two boys who speak some English, Yule and Winston.

This is Yule, who lived in the US for three years.  He is picking up on things really fast and gets really excited about flashcards.  Without him and Winston, my class participation would be very low.  He is the kid who loves cleaning up just as much as playing.  He loves the expression so-so and likes to say he is so-so while laughing hysterically.  He is definitely one of my favorites.

Here's Winston, who lived in California for a year and went to Kindercare there.  His family went on trips around the US and saw Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Tetons, and more that I have forgotten.  It's neat to share something like that with the parents because I have gotten to write about my memories in Glacier and Winston's mom has shared pictures of them on their trips.  Winston is also really smart and is picking up things very fast.  Yule and Winston are the only ones who can figure out what day of the week it is.  Winston tries his hardest to tell me things that he is excited about, and I can usually figure out what he's saying.  Today I think he was telling me that Yule was coming over to his house after school.  They are best friends now, it is so cute!

Here's Anthony, who doesn't seem too interested in learning English.  He's a funny kid with a lot of energy.  Almost every time we go in the hall he asks, "playgym?"  It kinda breaks my heart to have to tell him no most of the time.  His first week at school he just sat there breaking all the crayons, so he has definitely come a long way from that.  Now he actually tries to do his work after he sees Yule and Winston playing because they are all done.  He likes to give me big hugs and he likes to grab on to my leg every time I try to stand up in big gym (which makes it difficult for me to run around with the kids haha).  And, he is so adorably uncoordinated, always tripping over his feet:)

This is Sohee, aka 'hallway girl' by the Korean staff.  She is literally never in the room and just roams the hallway all day.  This picture shows Sohee in one of her other favorite places, the doorway.  It really stressed me out the first few weeks that she wasn't staying in class, but I was told it wasn't responsibility and not to worry about it, the Korean staff will figure it out.  Well, it's been two months now and I see Sohee on average 10 minutes a day in class.  She cries every time they try to force her into the classroom.  Her mom tells me she actually really loves me, she just doesn't know how to show it.  

Here's Eileen, the girl who hits everyone including me.  It's been two months now, and she is still hitting, screaming and running around.  Her parents don't know what to tell me because they say she doesn't hit at home.  She also doesn't seem too interested in learning English, but if I think back to the beginning she has improved so much.  Even though I yell at her all the time for hitting and I take all of her stickers away from her everyday, she still gets so excited to see me.  She has started hugging and kissing me all the time which is weird.  

Here's Amy, who is the easy favorite because she is so darn cute.  She knew some English coming in (I'm assuming from her parents) so she is doing pretty well in class.  She likes to go under the table during playtime and say, "It's housh!"  as in house:)

And here's Serry, a funny, merry little kid.  She's always singing and jumping around.  She is also very interested in learning English and tries most of the time.  She makes the best faces and makes me laugh a lot.  I hope she can pick up more English soon so I can hear what she has to say!

So there's my class as of now.  I am getting a new student tomorrow and then two more sometime this month.  I am not excited to have ten students in my already crowded little classroom.  Plus, Eileen's going to hit the new students which isn't going to be fun for anyone.  Let's hope the new students know at least a little bit of English already!

  

     

 

Catching Up

I realize I haven't been very good at keeping up with this blog.  I was worried that would happen, so now I will play catch up and hopefully stay on top of things from now on.  It's kind of the same as my teaching job here, always playing catch up and never having a chance to get ahead on work.  Anyways, I'll probably make this into a couple of different posts otherwise it would be way too long.

A few weeks ago we had our first school field trip.  We were going to go to a farm and dig up sweet potatoes, but it rained the day before so that was cancelled.  We ended up going on a short hike up a mountain close to school, and the kids had a blast.  Anthony, my most uncoordinated kid, fell multiple times as to be expected.  He trips over his own feet anyways, so add in rocks and roots and it's a bad combination.

My kindergarten class minus Sohee

Sohee, otherwise known as 'hallway girl,' absolutely did not want to be in the picture.  She wouldn't stay on the bench, so our director picked her up and placed her on my lap, where she immediately began to cry and try to get away.  So we took pictures without her.  

A few weekends ago I had my second casino experience of my life.  We went to a casino in Seoul that is only for foreigners because I guess Koreans tend to have really bad gambling problems so they aren't allowed in there.  We had to show our passports and everything, because I guess I could be a Korean posing as a blonde American trying to sneak in.  When we walked in the casino it was really quiet, much more quiet than Black Bear in MN.  After losing 3,000 won right away at the slots, I decided that gambling is stupid and I didn't want to lose any more money.  My coworkers played roulette for a long time, and some of them won a bit of money but others lost a lot.  I can see why it would be fun to gamble, if you win.  

On the subway to the casino, I remember it was really packed and we had a long ways to go.  So, a couple of my coworkers and I decided to sing 'The ants go marching' to pass the time.  We got up to four or five in the song when an older man turned around and said, "Be quiet!" very angrily.  I guess it really isn't acceptable to be loud on public transportation here.  

The kid's birthdays are really big here.  The parents bring in a whole spread of food and cake and we take a half an hour to eat it all.  Sohee's birthday was a few weeks ago, and it was literally the longest she has stayed in class.  But of course she ended up going out in the hallway towards the end of her birthday celebration, after her mom left.  Her mom was really nice and apologized for Sohee always being in the hallway.  I don't think she should apologize, it's her money that she's throwing away every month.  

The happy birthday girl

My students also started getting homework a few weeks ago.  The first few times they were so excited to see my reaction that I would hear, "Rachel teacher, Rachel teacher, Rachel TEACHER!!!" coming from my classroom in the morning because they wanted to show me their homework.  I guess my student Amy loves her homework so much that she almost started crying when she finished her worksheet so her mom had to go online to print off more for her.  I wonder when homework will stop being fun and exciting...

Anyways, I tried cooked larvae for the first time at the nearby galbi place.  It actually wasn't too bad, I had a few of them just to try and figure out the taste.  It was really rich, and I thought it almost had the flavor of corn on the cob which was really weird.  Alright, that's enough for this post:)

Seoraksan

So I have a bit to catch up on...two weekends ago was our long weekend (our last day off for over two months) and I went to Seoraksan with three of my coworkers.  It's a national park in Sokcho, in northeast South Korea.  We went through this company called Adventure Korea, so it was all planned out for us which was really nice.  The first day we got there we had a choice of an intense three hour hike, a less intense two hour hike, or take the cable car up the mountain and then have about a 20-minute hike after that.  Also, if you chose the cable car you would have time to take a second hike to a waterfall...so we did that one:)  The cable car was fast and got us up there in a few minutes.  

Cable car up the mountain

Then when we got off the cable car it was about a 15-minute walk up some stairs to get to almost the top.

View from almost the top

It was a popular place up there

After that, you could choose to climb to the very top of the mountain.  It was very steep and had built in hand/foot holds, so it was like rock climbing without ropes.  It was scary because it was so crowded, and only one person could use the foot/hand holds at a time.  

Rock climbing up the mountain

The scary climb was worth it though because the view from the very top was amazing.  

Top of the mountain

The waterfall was cool too, I'll put more pictures up on facebook...sometime.  The second day we had a choice of an 11-hour hike or go hang out at the beach.  I chose the beach while my 3 coworkers went on the hike.  It was a little bit too cold to go swimming, but a few people on the trip and I jumped in anyways.  I met and hung out with some really awesome people.  We hiked up to a temple that was close to the beach and had a great view of the city, the mountains, and the beach.

On the way up to the temple

The view of the beach from the temple

Something that I noticed while relaxing on the beach is that a lot of Koreans were all bundled up.  They were walking down the beach with winter coats and winter hats on, while we were suntanning in tanks and going swimming.  It really wasn't that cold out!

The next day we went for a hike straight from our hotel, up a mountain to a waterfall.  It was a very beautiful, relaxing hike.  At the beginning there was a place to get drinkable mineral water.  It gets filtered coming up through the rocks.  It's called Osaek Yaksu, or five-color mineral water, and it tasted like I was licking an old iron pipe.  It was also carbonated for some reason which was strange.  It's supposedly good for different illnesses...I'm not so sure about that haha.  Anyways, that was a really fun weekend and I really want to go back to Seoraksan, maybe tackle the big hike next time:)

 

One Month Down

I've been in South Korea for over a month now...it's so crazy!  It feels like so long ago that I arrived here, almost like a distant memory.  Things have definitely calmed down a lot, I'm getting in the swing of things at work and I'm better at managing my time there so I don't have to stay late very often.  I'm really enjoying my second grade classes in the afternoon because there are some real characters in there, and I can actually have a conversation with them:)  We have a field trip this Friday for Kindergarten, so I'm really excited for that.  We're going to go to a farm, but that's pretty much all that I know.  

Besides work, I went to a beach two weekends ago.  We headed off to Muuido, which is a little island off of Incheon.  We had to take a bus to Incheon (the airport in Seoul), transfer to another bus, take a ferry to the island, and then take another bus to the beach on the other side of the island.  It was definitely worth the trip!  We stayed in little huts on the beach, and crammed five people in each hut.

The hut we rented out for the night

It was warm out but cloudy the first day, and we went swimming right when we got there.  Getting to the water was a hike, it probably took about 20 minutes to reach the water by walking over the mud flats.  The tide goes out so far during the day and leaves a wide expanse of mud to walk through, full of tiny crabs.  That night we made a fire on the beach and all the foreigners staying in the other huts came and joined our fire.  The second day was sunny and hot, and I got really sunburned.  We all had spicy instant noodle bowls for breakfast, and it was a surprisingly delicious breakfast.  An older Korean man tried to offer me some of his kimchi to add to my noodles, but I thought it was spicy enough haha.  

A family out exploring the mud flats

Last week one of my students (Amy) had a birthday, but nobody told me so I didn't bring my camera.  Birthdays are a big deal here.  Amy's mom brought in this delicious raspberry cream cake, clementines, bananas, juice boxes, and a cup full of candy for all the kids.  We finished up the cake really fast, and Amy got presents from her classmates to open at home.  I guess she was so excited about her presents that she couldn't go to sleep that night!  Last week was when I also went into Seoul all by myself.  I thought that it was about time that I rode the bus by myself here to see if I could do it, and it went just fine.  I just went to Myong-dong (to Forever 21 lol) to buy a coat.  I discovered that I should just have my camera on me at all times because there's always something that I want to capture.  For example, I walked by this fancy looking store, and there were three mannequins outside.  There was something about the mannequins that made me take a second look--they looked so real but looked plastic at the same time.  Then one of them blinked!  What a strange job that would be.  They were doing a really good job looking like mannequins though, I don't think I could stand perfectly still like that.  

Then this last weekend I took it kind of easy.  I was sick, the same as everyone else at LCI.  I think we're all probably going to get sick at the same time all year, that's just kind of the way it goes in the schools.  On Saturday we went to a soccer game in Seoul at the world cup stadium.  There were special tickets for foreigners, so we got a free hot dog and free tall beer with our ticket (just for being a foreigner).  I like the way they do sporting events over here because you can just bring in your own food and drinks and nobody cares.  Also, they don't jack the prices way up on food and drinks in the stadium; they just charge normal prices.

 Me and Meghan at the game

After the game we went out to a really nice bar in Jukjeon for one of our coworker's husband's birthday.  I found out that playing pool here is free, so I played quite a few games.  I mean, it's free so why not?  Then on Sunday I actually went for a little jog along the river.  I plan to exercise a lot here (starting now) and get in shape so I can tackle these crazy mountains!  Sunday night I went to a neighboring city, Suwon, to a bar called The Big Chill.  It was open mic night and one of our coworkers was performing.  We also did a poker run there, where we had to hike up to this fortress and find the four stations to pick a card from (and then pick the last card at the bar) and then the people with the best hand and the worst hand get a prize.  It was fun and really beautiful walking along the fortress with a view of the whole city.  I definitely want to go back to Suwon.  

Here's a random pic I thought I would share; this is LCI, the school where I work.  We're on the 6th floor and we only have an indoor play gym, which is really kind of sad for the kids I think.  

 LCI Kids Club.  We eat lunch out on the roof which is pretty sweet.

Observation of the day (from Saturday):  Don't try to take a picture of a cute box of baby bunnies in the subway station.  I attempted this, and an old woman grabbed a hold of my camera and pushed me forcefully away.  Lesson learned.  

This weekend coming up is a long weekend so we get Monday off, and I'm going to Seoraksan with a few of my coworkers to go hiking and maybe to the beach one last time.  I'm really excited!!  Three more days of work!  Oh yeah and I'm planning on getting a flikr account to add more pictures, I just haven't gotten around to it.  So I do have more pictures to share, it's just taking me a while lol.  I will try to post again soon!

Chuseok Holiday

Last Friday we celebrated Chuseok at school.  All the kindergartners showed up in their hanbok, the traditional Korean clothing.  They looked so cute!  Then they all made some Songpyeon, which is like a rice cake, and I believe they put raisins inside.  I didn't get to try any of those, but I tried some from the grocery store and they were pretty tasty.

My kindergartners for Chuseok

During playtime the boys always play with blocks and make really intricate bikes or 'water guns'--these guys are creative!  Just thought I'd share a pic of that too:

They're all working together and not fighting!  Yay!

On Saturday I toured parts of Seoul with Meghan.  We first went to Myeong-dong, which is a shopping area.  I will go back there once I get paid, and maybe only go there once or twice this year haha.  Then we went to Namdaemun market which was a very large outdoor market that went on and on.  I bought a slice of cantelope on a stick...yum!  

Namdaemun market

After that we went to the Namsangol Hanok Village, which is a preserved village from a long time ago.  It was neat to see how people used to live.  There was also a Chuseok celebration going on, so there was a woman performing a traditional dance on the stage.

I was too tall for the entryways!

Then we met up with some people near Ewha women's university and had squid galbi which was delicious.

Squid galbi (closest), chicken galbi, and pork galbi

On Sunday one of my coworkers had a movie marathon so we all just chilled out the whole day.  Then on Monday I climbed Suji mountain (someone told me it's called brothers mountain i think) and it was a lot easier than the previous mountain we climbed.  It still had some difficult parts but it only took about an hour to climb.  

On top of Suji mountain

That night, we went out to Hongdae for one of my coworker's 30th birthday.  We had to all dress in black like we were going to a funeral because it was a "Death to her twenties" party.  And now back to work, but at least this week is only a three day work week:)