A trip around Korea

I'm back to Mokpo after a week and some of traveling around Korea. I went from Mokpo to Seoul to Hwacheon (and nearby) to Seoul to Cheongju to Muju to Busan to Gyeongju and back to Mokpo.

Seoul
Two Thursdays ago, in the morning, I left for Seoul. I had a dentist appointment to get to and I wanted to grab lunch with Tracey and her mom, who had flown in the night before. I got in a little before noon so I picked up Tracey's mom from her hotel and set off to meet Tracey and Andrew, who was also joining us. Tracey is taking Korean language classes so we were meeting her near Seoul National University. After lunch, Andrew and I headed to my dentist appointment, which was set up by Sara through her uncle, who is also a dentist in Korea. The office was incredible, a very classy environment. There were cookies and coffee around too. It felt more like a spa than a dentist clinic. While sitting, we realized it was also a dermatology center where you can get plastic surgery done, which explains the interior design. I went in because I thought I needed to get the rest of my root canal done but apparently it looks good so I'm not really sure what the deal is. There was a girl at the clinic was excellent English who is actually Korean American but there for the year working to gain experience. She translated everything for me. After setting my next appointment to get a crown, Andrew and I set out for Yuchon (near Hwacheon), which is where Maggie lives. Andrew, Katelyn, Adam, and I were planning on staying at the attached "guesthouse" Maggie's host family has and going to the Hwacheon Ice Festival the next day on Friday. We had to do a few transfers and a bit of running but we eventually got there. She really does live in the middle of nowhere. It's more rural than Goesan, and that's saying quite a bit. We got in a bit after 7pm and Maggie's host family was out of town but her host mom ordered some dinner for us. We just lounged about and enjoyed each other's company for the night. It was nice seeing them and just being around them.

Hwacheon/Yuchon
On Friday morning, the four of us ventured out to Hwacheon to get a head start on the ice festival. Maggie was going to join us later after her winter camp was done for the day. So the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival is apparently the fourth largest ice festival in the world so it was pretty big and cool; there were a lot of things to do too. There was a huge ice tunnel with Snow White and the Dwarves faces carved on the outside. We also went down an ice slide for kicks and giggles. Since it wasn't a weekend, it wasn't that busy either. There were a lot of people, don't get me wrong, but Maggie said it was a lot less because it was a Friday and not a Saturday or Sunday. The main attractions of the day started with ice fishing though. There was a tent labeled "Ice Fishing for Foreigners"--no lie. There was even a separate area sectioned off for foreigners to ice fish. We got our "poles", which looked more like fly swatters with fishing string attached and started fishing. The first catch was really exciting. I ended up catching two fish, which wasn't bad considering that we were only allowed to catch a maximum of three fish.

Maggie had met up with us by then. We all signed up to go barehand fishing, which is exactly what it sounds like. There's a huge pool of water where they dump fish and paying volunteers get a t-shirt and shorts to wear while they get into that pool to catch fish with their bare hands. When you catch a fish, you need to stuff it into your shirt because there's no where else to put it. It was SO cold. I can honestly say it is the coldest I have ever been in my life, thus far. I can't explain it other than it was paralyzing. The minute my feet hit the water, I knew it was going to be extremely painful...and it was. I'm not even quite sure how I did it but I ended up catching a fish. There were so many people in the water but I looked down and saw the fish moving around. I looked for something moving, I stuck in my hands and grabbed it. Behold, I caught a fish with my barehands. In the fourth picture, you can see me showing everyone my victory fish. I was really excited about that. I wouldn't do it again but I'm glad I at least did it once.

When we got out of the water, I couldn't feel my feet, literally. I was trying to put on the slippers I had worn to the pool but I could not control where my feet were going. Luckily, there was a tent all the volunteers go in afterwards with hot tubs to put our legs in to warm up. It took a while but I finally got circulation back in my feet. There is no way that experience was good for my health in any way; in fact, it is probably the opposite. Still, it needed to be done. After our insanity experience, we decided to get lunch. We could take our fish and grill it or get it done sashimi (raw) style. Andrew and Adam got one of their fish made into sashimi so I got my three fish grilled. They were pretty tasty. Lunch in itself was an interesting experience too. There was a drunk ajusshi who randomly walked over to our table and grabbed Andrew. He wanted him to take soju shots with him at his table. Sometime after this, I went to pick up one of my grilled fish and when I came back, the same ajusshi was at our table. he was feeding everyone raw minnow.

When I sat back down, of course he had to feed me one too. He picked up one by the tail and hand fed me a live minnow. That was...quite the experience, both the being hand fed by a ajusshi and eating a live minnow, that is. Apparently you're supposed to take the head in first. I don't remember much of it other than chomping down and swallowing haha. He gave us his business card and kept saying "Blue House", which is the equivalent of the White House in the US. We thought he was legit. We found out later, when Maggie showed the card to her homestay mom that he worked at a restaurant called the Blue House. Facepalm moment. After lunch, we decided which events we wanted to do since there was so much more we could have done. We decided on driving ATVs on the ice; yes, that's an actual event. Maggie and I got on the same ATV and Katelyn and Andrew got on the other. Adam took pictures for us. I drove around first a few times and then Maggie took the reins after me. No way this would fly in America. There were kids under 10 on these vehicles driving around without an adult. There was a sticker on the ATV that said "Under 16 not allowed" but looking around, I could see ATVs with two kids on them, whose combined age was under 16. Oh Korea.

After the ATV experience, Maggie, Katelyn, and I wanted to go ziplining. You get a pretty good view of the entire festival and you zipline over the frozen river where people are ice fishing.

We spent pretty much the entire day at the festival and we still didn't get to do everything. They weren't joking about it being the 4th largest ice festival in the world. We did want to check out the ice sculptures before we left though. It wasn't in the main part of the festival so we had to walk through town to get to it. The ice sculptures were incredible. There were ice replicas of famous statues and buildings around the world as well as funny figurines and whatnot.

I had a lot of fun; it's probably one of my favorite festivals so far. I will have to revisit Hwacheon in the spring too since I hear it's supposed to be beautiful when everything is growing again.

Seoul
On Saturday morning, January 12th, we all left in the morning to head back to Seoul. We met up with Liam and Jonathan at the hostel and Maggie and I went with them to a basketball game. Jonathan's birthday was Sunday so we were going to celebrate his birthday early. It was the Orions versus the Sakers. They're part of the Korean professional league but I felt like I was watching high school basketball again. I'm not trying to speak little of them but the level compared to the NBA is incomparable.

We still made the most of it and enjoyed ourselves. There wasn't much of a crowd, honestly. Most of the stadium was empty and we actually got there around halftime. I got a kick out of random things, like the fact that they use a video of the Lion King on the screen when telling the home team fans to scream.

It was a fun experience nonetheless.

Afterwards, we headed to Itaewon where we were going to meet Andrew and Adam for dinner. The four of us got a drink at an American style bar to kill some time. While in the bar, it felt like I was in America. There were almost no Koreans around and everyone was speaking English. It was like I walked out of Korea into America; it was odd. For dinner, Jonathan wanted Nigerian food so we went to a restaurant called Mama Africa (really, that's the name). Low and behold, the owner gave us his card and his name was John Nwosu. He's pretty much Jonathan's twin. At night, we went out in Hongade, per usual. We started at Bar Zen, then hit up Ho Bar, and ended the night earlier than usual (around 3am) at Taco Bell.

The next day, Andrew and I went to Jubilee church for service and then met up with Jonathan, Liam, and Maggie for American brunch afterwards at Suji's. It was a final farewell to each other and a celebration of Jonathan's birthday too. After brunch, Andrew and I headed to Cheongju to meet up with Anna.

Cheongju
Andrew, Katelyn, Anna, and I were planning on going skiing/snowboarding on Monday/Tuesday so Andrew and I were meeting Anna and spending the night in Cheonju with her at her grandparents so we could all head out together on Monday morning to the ski resort. We got in late afternoon on Sunday and got picked up by Anna and her uncle (who is really nice). Her grandparents are really sweet too. Her grandpa attempts to speak English but his vocabulary is limited so it was really endearing. After dinner, the three of us went to see Les Miserables again in theaters (since Anna hadn't watched it yet).

Muju
The ski resort: http://www.mdysresort.com/english/ski/slope_01.asp
The three of us headed out to Daejeon to then transfer and get to Muju around 9am. The plan was to get to the ski resort by noon, meet up with Katelyn, and do a day lift. We got in a little later than expected and had to check in so we actually decided on doing a night lift instead. We spent some time in our room until 2pm when we got our rentals, lift tickets, late lunch, etc. It was the first time Katelyn went snowboarding/skiing so she picked snowboarding to try. The three girls went boarding while Andrew went skiing. The three girls all rented clothing so we all looked like twins. It was pretty funny.

The night lift was actually really enjoyable. The powder was fresh and there weren't that many people. At first, it was hard for me to get used to snowboarding again and I kept falling. I picked it back up after the second run or so though. The next day was more of a struggle bus for all of us. Andrew got sick sometime during the night so was throwing up and having stomach problems. He only did one or two runs but sat out the rest of the day. I was less sore than I expected but the sun was out so the snow was melting and refreezing as ice. Every time I fell, it was extremely painful and my knees were taking a hit. When you watched people fall, no powder would fly out so you knew the powder wasn't very good. It was like falling on ice pretty much. Anna was teaching me to carve left and right so I kept falling on my knees and it sucked. At the end of the day, my knees were black and purple.

I also sprained my wrist from a hard fell on the icy mountain. That sucked. After lunch, we realized there were buses out of the resort to different cities so we all got our tickets and had to plan accordingly. There was only one bus time to Busan (4:30pm) so I had to peace out pretty early in the day. I passed out the entire bus ride. I was supposed to meet with Ben L and one of his students at the subway station to get dinner. I was going to spend the night at his student's house too.

Busan
I got into Busan, met with Ben and Suhyung, one of his university students and got some dinner. Suh (pronounced Sue) was really cool and she's really well traveled. She spent two years in France and a year in Japan. After we left Ben and got to her home, we ended up chatting until 1:30am. Her mom was really welcoming too and oddly, looks a bit like my mom. I realized it when her mom was trying to feed me fruit when I got to her home. I showed her a picture of my mom and even they agreed they had similar facial features. The next morning, we headed out to Ben's class at Busan National University, where I was going to guest teach his university class. There were only about 5 students in the class on time but Ben said most of his students usually showed up late. Based on the interest of the class, we talked about the gender norms in Korea and how the new female Korean president might or might not change any gender norms and stereotypes in Korea. For the second hour, we spent a lot of time talking about Korean dating expectations and how they differ from American dating culture. It was really interesting getting their perspectives because they are essentially our age and have good enough English skills to talk about complex issues. I learned a few things from them and I enjoyed meeting them. The students who were free got lunch with Ben and me before I headed out to Gyeongju.

Gyeongju/Golgulsa Temple
Temple stay: http://sunmudo.net/
I had to get to the temple to check in by 5pm so I left Busan around 2pm to give myself some buffer time for transfers and whatnot. After arriving in Gyeongju, I had to take a local bus about 45 minutes and walk about 10 minutes to get to the temple. I purposely picked this temple for my templestay experience because they practice sunmundo, a type of martial arts and I didn't want to just be cleaning and meditating all day. I figured I might as well do something cool. The templestay experience was...interesting. I can't say I liked it for sure because it was just so different from my normal life. There were aspects that you would expect: no technology, meditation, bowing, a simple diet, waking up early, etc. but there was much more than that. I stayed at the temple three days and two nights, which I think was enough for me. It actually felt like much longer. The facilities were really nice and seemed updated. There was heating in all the buildings so that wasn't a concern. My room had its own bathroom and it seemed like it was newly built or renovated. We woke up at 4am to make it to the 4:30am chanting/meditation daily ceremony. Afterwards, we would do more meditation (walking and stretching and whatnot) and then we would get breakfast. After breakfast, there was sunmundo training (but it felt more like yoga in the mornings) followed by 108 bows/tea time. Then we would get lunch and there would be archery or meditation (depending on the day of the week) and community work (aka cleaning) and then dinner. After dinner, there would be evening chanting followed by sunmundo training (more legit than the mornings) and then we would head back to our rooms to get ready for bed. I also got to see a sunmundo demonstration by the masters. There was usually some free time between these activities ranging from ten minutes to an hour. The things that stuck out the most were the 108 bows, the meditation, and the sunmundo training. I actually bowed 108 times. It was... repetitive. I was having a hard time because my knees were still banged up from snowboarding but I did it anyway. According to the website, there is a reason for 108 bows: "Why 108 bows? The 108 prostrations represent our basic mental sufferings. These sufferings arise through the meeting of the six sense organs. The eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind and the six sense objects; namely corresponding color, sound, smell, taste, touch and concept." The meditation was pretty hard actually. I mean, I definitely had some thoughts while I was doing it, but the hardest part was dealing with sitting with my legs crossed for so long. They were falling asleep and it hurt so much when I was trying to change positions. The sunmundo training was pretty cool. It was like Taekwondo in some ways but also differed a lot. I was impressed by how flexible the sunmundo masters were though. I did my templestay during an interesting time because there is a summer camp going on and there was also a visiting kids group so there were kids doing these things with me too. They were not taking it as serious as me and the other templestayers but it was kinda amusing having them around.

So all in all, it was a good experience and I'm glad I did it. There were three foreigners who live at the temple and one additional one who has been there the past month as an English teacher for their camp. The three foreigners were all there to practice sunmundo since apparently it's THE sunmundo headquarters (in the world potentially). One had been there for 9 months and is planning on at least 2 years and another has been there for over a year. It was interesting talking to them and seeing how they wound up there. Both of the waygoooks I talked to started out with a two-day templestay and were really impressed by their experiences and decided that it was a life calling to do this. I was kinda shocked a bit when I was listening to them talk about it.

While it was... peaceful in the sense that there wasn't much craziness around me, it also felt surreal. One might argue the point is to feel uncomfortable and to come to peace with that discomfort but the daily routine just didn't sit quite right with me. To be clear, I didn't do a templestay because I'm doubting my Christian faith. I did a zen Buddhist templestay because I was curious and I wanted to see what it was like. I didn't come out more enlightened or at peace with myself. I came out just simply shocked at the contrast in lifestyle they have chosen to live. I'm not even talking about the monks at the temple but even thinking about the foreigners who live at the temple and practice sunmundo everyday. The moment I left the templestay and got to the bus station to take me back to downtown Gyeongju, I noticed the contrast. There were ajusshis smoking around me, traffic coming up and down the road, people on their phones, etc. The world was moving a heck of a lot faster than it was in the temple. Everything was really... zen (I didn't mean to use that word but I can't think of another way to put it). Yet, I felt like I was kind of just wasting time and my life away. I know it's not fair to say that because it is a lifestyle they choose to live and they are living their life the way they want but I just knew it wasn't for me. I felt like I knew the first day in. Before I went, I was a bit nervous about doing it by myself and worried that I would be lonely because of how quiet I expected it to be and so on. When I checked in, I found out I had a roommate who was staying the same days as me. She was really nice but spoke next to zero English. We ended up doing everything together since the schedule is the same for us. I'm really glad she was there. In a way, I got to be by myself because of the fact that she spoke no English but in another way, I had a companion to go through all these new experiences with and to do together.

So while I was doing the 108 bows, I thought about how sad it is that as a Christian, I claim I know the real truth yet it's a struggle for me to pray everyday and read the Bible and even share the gospel with others. Meanwhile, the way these monks live or even Muslims (in the way that they bow multiple times during the day) live their lives, they live our their faith. If nothing else, the templestay helped me examine my relationship with Christ all the more so.

Mokpo
I left Golgulsa around noon on Friday the 18th, after lunch to head back to Mokpo. I had to travel a bit over 7 hours because there are only buses to Seoul, Busan, and Daegu from Gyeongju. There is a bus to Gwangju but they only run two times a day and I wasn't willing to wait a few hours for that bus. I first went to Daegu and then went to Gwangju and then back to Mokpo. I got back to my homestay around 8pm. It felt really nice to get back, unpack, shower, and lay in my bed. It felt refreshing. Granted, the reason I came back was for a wedding, but I think I would've had the urge to come back at least for a few days, had that not been the case. On Saturday, I went with a bunch of teachers from my school to the school nurse's wedding. The school nurse likes to practice her English with me and she's pretty good at it so I go to her office and hang out with her every few days during the last semester. She was getting married in Gwangju so we headed out about an hour and a half beforehand. A lot of teachers were there and I even ran into the school chairman, my old vice principal, and my new principal. Three of my third year girls were invited to the wedding too so it was nice to see them. Unfortunately, one of the girls looked different when I saw it and I had the instant realization that she got double eyelid surgery sometime since I last saw her at the school festival. It was a bit unnerving for me for a few minutes when I first saw her. So much for my beauty lesson.

I don't think I'll ever really get Korean weddings. It was held in a wedding convention hall and though I've been to a Korean wedding already once, it still surprises me. There are multiple floors with different rooms so there are a few weddings going on at the same time. Each wedding takes an hour. The ceremony itself is only 30 minutes and then it's 30 minutes of pictures. Then immediately, they usher in the next wedding party. It's insane. The wedding convention center hosts maybe 20 weddings in a day at least (assuming there's 5 floors and they do weddings during the day for 4 hours). People don't even go to the ceremony; they go straight to the buffet reception on the other floor. There's this huge buffet of food in this huge reception hall and you get a meal ticket and go eat. I would say about 95% of the teachers didn't actually go to the wedding ceremony (or at least I didn't see them inside); they got there, saw the bride, said their hellos, and then headed to the reception buffet hall to eat. It's INSANE. What happened to weddings being parties? I definitely get that it's an American concept but Korean wedding culture is just so bizarre to me.

To go to the wedding, Mr. Lee (my coteacher) picked me up in front of my homestay apartment to go to the school to meet up with the other teachers heading to Gwangju. In the car ride, he told me that the English teachers had all met the day before and they wanted me to teach all the classes--that is, grades 1-3. That means I'd have 23 classes in total. I wasn't sure how to respond to that. All I know is that next semester will be an interesting one.

Since the wedding on Saturday, I've been bumming around my homestay today and probably tomorrow. I went on a run outside today since the weather was pretty nice (only 48 degrees Fahrenheit). The plan was to visit Amy T in Hwacheon this week since she's back from Taiwan but that's not a plan set in stone. My parents are coming to Korea on the 24th and we are headed out to Japan together on the 31st before heading to Hong Kong on February 4th. I might do a hanok stay sometime between now and when my parents get in but that's also up in the air. It's been a fun and somewhat eventful break thus far. I'm excited to see what else happens next.

And Like That, A Week Into 2013

Well, 2013 has already started to move faster than I'd like. It's already more than week in...

Highlights of the beginning of 2013:
New Years Eve: I trekked up to Seoul with some Mokpo crew. We met up with some people and got lunch and then we left for Bridget's gathering/pre-game. Bridget's cousin has an apartment in Seoul but he was traveling with his wife so he left it in Bridget's hands. There were some appetizers, wine, music, and good company.

Afterwards, we split up. I was part of the earlier group who wanted to make it out to Hongdae before midnight. We met up with another ETA group at Bar Zen and that's where we rang in 2013. Some of Tracey's Rice friends were also there; two of them were visiting Korea from America. A bit after midnight, we went to the club, Harlem. Around 2:30am or so, I saw some of Tracey's college friends so I knew she was around. I was told she wasn't feeling well (too many drinks too fast) so I went to the bathroom. I ended up switching on and off with Jaeyon throughout the night watching her, holding her hair in the bathroom, etc. Around 5:30am, the remaining ETAs (minus Jonathan, of course) decided to call it a night and head back to the hostel. I half walked, half carried Tracey back and by the time I showered and passed out, it was 6:30am. Definitely a more party-toned New Years Eve, to say the least.

New Years Day: We woke up around 11am (not bad for sleeping at 6:30am) and met up with a bunch of ETAs for American brunch in Itaewon. Afterwards, most people went their own way but a few of us (Nic, Liam, Lizzie, Tracey, and me) went to the Korean War Memorial Museum, which was pretty cool. Afterwards, Tracey and I had to meet up Payal and Anna because Payal's family was in town and she wanted to introduce me to them. We met them at a restaurant while they were eating dinner; soon afterwards, they headed out to Incheon because they had an early flight back to the States the next morning. After we met them, Tracey's Rice friends met up with us again and we went out to dinner with them. At this point, other people started diverging as well. Nic headed back to Gumi, Payal and Anna went to Payal's hotel to plan some travel stuff, two of Tracey's friends left for their respective homes in Korea (one is also a teacher in Korea). I went with Lizzie to her hostel to pick up my bags, which I had dropped off earlier that morning so I didn't have to carry it all day. Afterwards, we (Lizzie and I) met up with Tracey, Eric (one of Tracey's Rice friends), Payal, Anna, Jet, and Vlad (Jet's brother visiting from Japan). From there, we planned on staying up all night until 7am, when Eric would have to go to the airport and head back to America. Our first stop was to a bar; it was a chill bar where we sat around with our drinks and just chatted without any loud music blaring. From there we grabbed some drinks from a convenience store and hit up a 노래방 where we sang for a few hours. Eric introduced a new drink to us--soju and coffee. It's actually pretty tasty. At this point, it was around 4:30am and I was starting to get hungry so we hit up the Taco Bell. Unfortunately, chalupas were not on the menu so I stuck with a grand crunch supreme (yes, these are important details for this blog). It was delicious. Payal and Anna were tired and Payal wasn't feeling so hot so they headed back to their hotel. Tracey, Eric, and I were planning on going to a DVD 방 where we could watch a movie before heading to the airport but we ended up going to a cafe instead. There were a lot of people up and awake surprisingly. There were at least a few other groups in the cafe too. Seoul is definitely an interesting place with insomniacs. Around 7am, we headed back to Eric's hostel to pick up his stuff and then we hailed to Seoul Station where he would be able to take an express bus to the airport. From there, Tracey and I headed to Payal's hotel, where we were gonna pass out for a few hours. I ended up passing out around 7:30am or so and then waking up around 11:40am to make it out in time for checkout at noon. What an interesting two days of 2013.

January 2nd, 2013: I can't remember much of what we did--probably cause we didn't do much that day. Anna left really early, before I even woke up, because she needed to spend time with her grandparents. Payal, Tracey, and I went to Myeongdong 명동 and got some lunch. Then we sat and chatted in a cafe while waiting for Lizzie to find us. Payal had to leave for Busan to pack before going back to America. We shopped around and Sarah Joo joined us too. After dinner, I left with Sarah to stay at her aunt's place for the night. The plan was to meet up with Tracey the next morning to go to Daejeon and spend a day or two there. I was also planning on meeting up with my host family since they were in Daejeon hanging out with my host dad who's starting a new travel agency office there.

January 3rd, 2013: Sarah and I headed to Seoul station early in the morning and met up with Tracey to take the KTX to Daejeon. When we got there around 2pm, we met up with Jonathan and got a late lunch. Then they took us to Yuseong Spa where I got scrubbed head to toe by an ajumma for 16,000won. It was so worth it. I felt so clean afterwards. From there, Nina met up with us for dinner at a burger place. The day was really relaxing and I definitely felt like I was on vacation since all I did was eat, sit in a spa, and eat. I didn't get any more productive after dinner either. We went to the center of downtown and waited in line at this club/bar thing. We must've waited for an hour and change. We weren't even sure if we'd get in because they don't let foreigners in usually. This was THE bar though and Nina said they play 80s and 90s Korean music with a few other songs mixed in. She didn't sell it well but it was actually a lot of fun once we got in. The DJ plays some chill music in the background and every group has their own table or what not (like a restaurant set up). There is a huge dance floor in front of the DJ though. Then every 15-20 minutes, the DJ darkens the room and plays dancing music and almost everyone hits the dance floor. After another 20 minutes or so, he goes back to the chill music and people go back to their tables and eat, chat, etc. It was a good time. The Koreans were definitely getting into it. Around 3am, we all split and headed our ways. Tracey and I were staying at Sarah's homestay place for the night. She's got an interesting set up. She's one of the few ETAs who lives in a home and she lives on the first floor while the rest of her homestay family lives on the third floor. She has her own apartment, if you will. Even when Sarah asked her homestay mom if it was cool if we stayed with her, her mom told her to do whatever she wanted because it was her apartment.

January 4th, 2013: I ended up not meeting up with my host family in Deajeon because they were far away at a mountain and it was going to be a hassle to get to them. The three of us ate lunch with Sarah's homestay family, who are really cool. They're a very dynamic and funny family. I actually think I could fit in really well with their dynamic if they were my host family. The host mom is a hoot and jokes around with her daughters, etc. It's hilarious and crazy to watch. After lunch, Tracey headed back to Seoul and I went back to Mokpo. It was nice to get back to my room and bed after a week of hostels and staying in other peoples' homes.

January 5th, 2013: I bummed around. That's about most of it. There were only a few Mokpo people around and they were busy so I just hung out with my host family, which consisted of laying around, watching TV, watching movies on my laptop, etc. I definitely felt like I was on vacation.

January 6th, 2013: After lunch with my host family, I went to Gwangju to meet up with Jaeyon. I had to take a bus out of downtown to meet her closer to her homestay in Suwon. We walked around Lotte outlets and saw the movie, Life of Pi. It was a pretty decent movie--very philosophical and thought-provoking. Liam was going to join us for dinner since he had soccer camp until 4pm. We met him at U-Square and went to TGIF's for dinner. Yes, I realize it's very foreigner of us. Afterwards, Jaeyon had to go home to bake cookies for her winter camp the next day. Liam and I went back to Mokpo and grabbed a drink before heading home. It was nice to just kick back and chat.

January 7th-9th (today), 2013: So the original plan was to meet up with Kathy on Monday and go snowboarding and hang out until Wednesday. I tried to reach her on Sunday night but she wasn't responding so I figured something might be wrong. She Kakaoed me on Monday morning saying she had gotten sick and had to go to the hospital. So my plans fell through on that. I ended up hanging out around my homestay. I've pretty much been the definition of a bum. I stay in my PJs a lot of the day and watch movies. I feel like it's not that bad though since it is vacation and I'm allowed to do this for a few days. It's not like this is going to be the rest of my vacation so I might as well make the most of it. I've met up with a few Mokpo kids and even gone to piano academy.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Seoul in the morning to make it to lunch with Tracey and her mom (who's visiting Korea for 10 days) and to a dentist appointment. Afterwards, I'm heading up to Hwacheon with a few other ETAs to go to the Hwacheon Ice Festival and visit Maggie. Then I'm gonna go back to Seoul on Saturday for a basketball game and a night of raging for Jonathan's birthday. On Sunday, I'm gonna go to Cheongju to stay with Anna for the night before we go snowboarding on Monday and Tuesday. Next Wednesday, I'll be in Busan and helping in Ben's Busan University's English class. Then I'll head off to Gyeongju for a temple stay in Golgulsa (it's a martial arts Buddhist temple, holler). Then I'll be back in Mokpo on the 18th to make it to the nurse's wedding on the 19th. It's gonna be a busy week and a half starting tomorrow. I'm excited. I'm sure I'll have a lot to blog about next time around.

Other random things: people keep getting engaged. Serena got engaged to Cole. It happened the day before Christmas, I think. I talked to her about it yesterday on webcam and she seems happy so I'm happy for her.

Goodbye 2012

I'm tired and have to wake up in 4 hours to get to the bus station and sit on a bus for a little less than 5 hours. I'll be ringing in 2013 in Seoul with some ETAs and two friends from college who are visiting relatives on their break (Andrew Lee and Ben Park). Yet, I figured I should have one last post before the new year.

There's a lot to say and I don't have the energy to say all of it but it's been a heck of a year. From graduating college to coming to Korea, it's easy to say that time flies by when only a few months ago only seemed like yesterday. It's hard to capture that fleeting memory though, hard to place it in its correct time and place.

2012 will be a year I will always remember. It was a year of milestones for me. A year of new chapters, which require ending of previous chapters. I became newly single at the beginning of this year, after being in a relationship for a little less than 4 years. I graduated from the great University of Michigan. I went to Kenya and got a taste of entrepreneurship work. I decided to pack up my life for a year and move to South Korea to teach English. I lost two grandparents in a span of two weeks. It's been quite the year.

Now, I don't want to be cliche and make absolutely enormous new year resolutions that I won't keep. I'll try to keep it simple. Every year, I never make any resolutions or pacts to myself. I figure I should try this year.

My 2013 New Year Resolutions:
1. Pray more often.
2. Read the Bible at least for 5 minutes a day. Baby steps.
3. Write down at least 3 things I am thankful for pe r day. (I already bought a small notebook that I will carry around in my bag for this!)
4. Smile and laugh more (I know this is vague but this is the best I've got).
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I'm ready for 2013. Let's hope it's also a year of many milestones. Cheers.

Christmas and All That Jazz

Sitting in Cafe Mama (my local coffee shop) sipping on my Vanillacafe Latte and I am at peace, at this moment. I figured it was time for another update and a lot has happened.

Three weekends ago, on December 8th, I traveled to Busan for Kathy's birthday. Her birthday was on Sunday but her host family had plans for her so we were going to celebrate on Saturday. I met up with her and a bunch of the Busan girls to grab lunch at an Indian restaurant. It was the first time I had Indian food since arriving in Korea and it was glorious. It was so delicious. Kathy said she didn't want to make a big deal out of her birthday so it was pretty low key. The goal was just to spend time with friends. She left at night but I left Busan Sunday evening after hitting up Costco. I had to buy popcorn and candy for my students. I was planning on throwing a popcorn party, of sorts, for my good classes. I was gonna give mini candy canes out too.
When I got back to Mokpo, I felt a little queasy but I thought it was the bus ride. It was pretty late but I missed dinner so I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich. When I woke up Monday morning, I still felt nauseous but didn't think too much about it. I tried to stomach some cereal and then headed to school. I had a stomachache all day and had to teach through two classes. I headed home immediately when I was done. That's when the sickness really hit. I think I had a stomach virus or got food poisoning because...well...it was coming out of both ends. I'll leave it at that. I stayed in fetal position in my bed all day and eventually passed out around 9pm. I pretty much hibernated. I woke up at 7am the next day since I still had to go to school and teach. I was told by several teachers that I looked pale and ill so it was quite obvious that I was sick. After my classes, I again went home and curled up in bed. I tried to stomach some porridge my host mom made but I didn't get too far into the bowl. The only thing I could really stomach for a few days was water. On Thursday, I had my first real dose of solid food. I got some apples down. I was so happy. Feeling sick just sucks and you aren't in the mood to do anything but sleep it off while your body fights it off.

That Thursday, the 13th, Katelyn and Andrew M came into Mokpo to visit. They both had the week off for exams so they were visiting. Since I was teaching, I only got to see them at night but four of us (Katelyn, Andrew M, Liam, and me) ended up going to 노래방 (noraebang which is karakoke). Let me just say that Andrew and Liam are great singers. They sure do a banging rendition of Ricky Martin's "She Bangs." Just saying.

The weekend of the 15th I stayed in Mokpo. The week leading up to it was the week of final exams so I figured my host family would do something fun since my host brother was now done with finals. I was wrong. They are homebodies and as much as I love them, they don't do very much. I also realized I hadn't spent much time in Mokpo and I wouldn't be spending a lot of time in Mokpo once winter vacation hit. It was nice resting up a bit, I suppose.

Tracey and I were in for a real treat the following Monday. The school chairman took us out to lunch. He really likes us. When we first got to the school, we gave him gifts and apparently we are the first ETAs to buy him a gift. Since then, he's been real good to us. It's a big deal because he's the big boss, if you will. Most teachers have never been in the same room with him, spoke to him, let alone be treated to lunch by him. Mr. Cho, one of my English co-teachers has been teaching at the school for 30 years and has never had a conversation with him. I have been here for a few months and he invited me and Tracey to lunch. We went to Hotel Hyundai right outside of Mokpo and it was real nice. It was a buffet style lunch and the place was pretty swanky. You could tell he wasn't messing around. Even when I told Mr. Cho where I was going since I was leaving school early to go to lunch, he mentioned that it was a nice place. Tracey and I planned accordingly and got him Christmas gifts to bring to the lunch. We conversed with him some at lunch and he's an accomplished person. He did his undergrad in Japan at a really good university (one of the top in Japan) in complete Japanese. He also got some post-doctorate degrees in America in complete English. He studied in Arizona (I think?) and at Boston University. He's really impressive. The following week, I was pulled out of my class by the Vice Principal. The chairman had given him a gift to give me. He got me and Tracey a winter hat from Mountain Hardwear and the price tag was still on it (40,000 won). It's really nice and I feel spoiled because the chairman knows who we are.

The week of the 10th and the 17th were the last weeks with my classes. It was weird because the first and second years had exams and then there were random days where I wouldn't teach classes. There was no school on the 19th because of the Presidential election and some of the third years were going on a field trip on some days. It was just weird. It was sad to say goodbye to my third years because they have been my favorite classes, for the most part. Compared to my second years, the third graders are angels. They're a lot more mature and attentive in class. I gave all my classes my Kakao ID and email address. Since giving it out, I've actually gotten a few kids who have added me and chatted with me. It's actually quite endearing. I wrote cards to some of my third years who I like and have interacted with. A lot of them were touched with the hand-written letters and wrote me back. It was sweet. Actually one of my girls sent me a Kakao message and asked where I was this past Monday since I wasn't in school. She said she baked me a sweet potato muffin as a present but ate it since I wasn't there. I found it pretty funny--the eating part but it was a sweet gesture.
For my club class students, I kicked it up a notch. I bought fried chicken for my Advanced class on Wednesday and my Thursday club class. I was going to buy chicken for my Tuesday club class but they were all closed for the Presidential Election (which was on Wednesday) so I ended up just popping them popcorn. They didn't complain about it. I'll definitely miss my club class students. Because it's a much smaller group of kids, I've gotten to know each of them individually and teach more effectively, I think. I'll miss them.

On the 19th, school was closed for the Presidential election. 박근혜 won. She's the first female President Korea has had so it's kinda a big deal but she didn't win because of her gender. Her father was the President before and he was really controversial because a lot of policies he put into place were a bit harsh but during his time in office, Korea's economy really boomed. She's a member of the current ruling party (majority). The province I live in, Jeollanam-do is super liberal compared to the rest of Korea so everyone in my city/area was pretty depressed about her winning. My host mom kept saying "어떻게?!" at the television when they were covering the election and 박근혜 was ahead. 어떻게 is like asking how or what do I do. When I went into school the next day, Mr. Cho said, "We lost." A lot of my kids were depressed about the results too. I don't know enough to say much about the results though.

My last day of teaching for this year was on the 21st. I brought in cookies and chocolate for all the teachers in the school. I also got individual gifts for the Principal, Vice Principal, the nurse who practices her English with me, and my English co-teachers. I think they were received well so I got some brownie points for that. I still have to go in for the school festival tomorrow (27th) so I'll see everyone one last time before the new year.

After classes and chapel on the 21st, my last day, I headed to 오송 (Osong) for Jaeyeon's Christmakkah party. She was having a weekend party of sorts to celebrate the holidays and the end of teaching. There were about 10 of us there and it was REALLY NICE. It was at her real dad's apartment (he's working in Korea). To sum up the weekend, we baked, ate a lot of sweets and junk food, watched movies, bummed around, chatted, built 정 with each other, and slept. Jay made a bunch of holiday decorations and put them around the apartment so it looked really nice too. There was snow on the ground and it was snowing during the weekend so it just added to the feeling of Christmas. The fact that Christmas was approaching didn't really hit me until I was at Jay's place. It just felt nice. Tracey and I planned on leaving on Sunday to head back to Mokpo but we enjoyed ourselves so much we stayed until Monday. There's not much to say about the weekend but I just had a really good time. I bummed out and relaxed. I haven't really had a chance to just chill out in a while in an environment that I feel completely safe to be myself in. While I love my host family and everything, I still feel like I need to be in the living room with them at times and hang out. At Jay's, everyone was American and I didn't have to pretend to do anything. Teaching was over so I didn't have to lesson plan. Part of the expectations of the party was to literally just bum around. I sat in my PJs almost all the day. We took a walk around the lake near her dad's apartment in the morning to get out of the apartment but otherwise, we just relaxed. I did a lot of baking and cooking. I helped with the sugar cookies and tacos. We played Cards Against Humanity, which is like Apples to Apples but for adults. I ate a lot of sweets. We went out on Friday night for chicken and beer. I watched at least 5 movies over the course of the weekend. I lounged and chatted with other ETAs. It was so nice. Jay's dad is also really great. He speaks perfect English and is just really chill. He watched Harold and Kumar Christmas and Bridesmaids with us. He seems like a really cool dad. I didn't want to come back to Mokpo after being at her place. It was depressing to leave actually. That's an indication of how good of a time I had.

When we got back on Christmas Eve from 오송, I headed home first. I was in desperate need of a run because of all the junk I put into my body during the weekend so I went to the gym. It felt like I was sweating out sugar. I remember even getting a headache when I was at Jay's from all the sugar. Around 6pm, my host family went out for a Christmas dinner. We went to a buffet place, like VIPS (a fancy steakhouse buffet chain in Korea). It was really nice. When we went home, my entire host family sat around the living room. I bought them all gifts so I gave them out. I think my host mom saw the gifts in my room and told the family because they also had gifts for me. The way I hear it is that Christmas in Korea is more of a couples holiday though and they don't really do gifts unless you're dating so I was surprised. My host parents got me a really nice scarf. My host sisters got me hiking socks (which I was actually really excited for because they're warm and I'll need them for Nepal), and my host brother got me chocolates. I got my host parents some vitamins, perfume for my host sisters, and a Heat jersey for my host brother. My host family also got a Christmas cake. After we ate cake, I met up with the Mokpo crew + 2 out of town guests.
The original plan was to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with the Mokpo gang. I think something got lost in translation though since everyone was peacing out early on Christmas day. We spent the night in a love motel near the fountain area and just hung out. We played Cards Against Humanity, went out to a bar, watched a movie on TV, etc. While it was nice to be with friends and other ETAs during Christmas, it just didn't really like Christmas. To be honest, I think I had such a good time at Jay's that everyone after that was kind of disappointing. Waking up on the floor of a love motel on Christmas didn't feel as Christmas-y as waking up on the floor of a decorated apartment smelling of cookies and hot chocolate. There were so many comparisons I was making unconsciously. A real apartment with a kitchen compared to a love motel; baking our own cookies, brownies, hot chocolate, etc compared to eating out at a restaurant; holiday decorations around the room compared to white walls or random sensuous pictures hanging on the walls; etc. I could go on but it just felt completely different. People were leaving too, which kinda sucked. Robyn had to peace out at 7am to eat breakfast with her host family before heading to Incheon to catch her plane back to America. Sara left around 9am to go to church with her host family. Annie didn't come at all since she was teaching both days. Lizzie left around 10:30am. That left me, Tracey, Liam, Nina, and Ben L afterwards. We went to get brunch at Cafe Lemontable and then separated. It was kinda depressing. I went back home, baked brownies with my host sisters, painted my nails, and just bummed. Around 6pm, I headed to Tracey's apartment. Her host sister was putting on a Christmas party. When we went in, there were a bunch of people. Her host parents had left the apartment for the party and there were like 40 high schoolers in the apartment. Even the youngest host sister who's in fifth grade elementary school had some friends over. I was there for not even 5 minutes before Tracey's host sister asked me if I knew how to make pasta. I said I did and before I knew it, I was pulled into the kitchen cooking four boxes of pasta. I made pasta in tomato sauce, pasta in pesto sauce, pasta in Alfredo sauce, gnocchi in tomato sauce, and gnocchi in Alfredo sauce. I was cooking up a storm. I actually think I spent most of the party in the kitchen. >.< It wasn't too bad though. After I was done, I ate and hung out. Her host sisters were kind enough to buy cheese for me--real cheese, mind you. It was the good kind too. I also got some wine so all in all, it was successful. I had a good time at her party. That felt more Christmas-like so at least Christmas ended positively.

Tomorrow is my school festival and I'm doing a dance with Tracey. It...should be interesting. I'm hoping the kids laugh. It's pretty comical. I was inspired by Evolution of Dance on youtube and decided to make my own version of that. I made a mashup of some random songs and Tracey and I are "battling" on stage. We are just taking turns dancing to different songs. It should be funny, or entertaining at best.

Flying By

Last weekend, I went to Daegu with Tracey for Taylor and Cameron's Surprise Birthday Party. It was going to be an weekend event, of sorts, which launched with a Surprise dinner at TGI Friday's at 9pm. Tracey and I weren't really lucky with tickets. We left school around 3pm (after our classes) but next available ticket to Gwangju wasn't until a bit after 4pm. When we got to Gwangju, we couldn't get a bus to Daegu until about 7pm and it's about a three and a half hour drive so we knew we wouldn't make it. Regardless, we could participate in the after dinner festivities and we wanted to see Cameron and wish him a happy birthday. It was nice to see so many other ETAs around too and I could tell that Cameron was touched we traveled so far to celebrate with him.

The hostel we stayed at was right in the downtown area where we hung out all weekend so it was really nice. We went to Club Egg after TGIF's and at first, they said they didn't let foreigners in. We were appalled, especially the Daegu crew because they have go pretty often. Apparently they said that foreigners have too much fun. No lie. Then some people stayed to talk with them and they let us in but some of us weren't happy about it; why would we go in your business, purchase drink, and support you, when you told us we couldn't go in? Well, the girls got in for free so I was fine with it. The boys had to pay 20,000won cover though. It was actually a pretty fun night and I didn't get back to the hostel until around 3:30am.

On Saturday morning, I got up around 9am (I can never sleep for long periods of time in a hostel) and headed out with Tracey and Sara J to meet Cameron at the center of downtown (some stage). Then Jayeon, Stephanie, and Jessica met up with us and we all got lunch together at a sandwich place. Jayeon, Stephanie, and Jessica had to leave during our meal to catch their bus back but Cameron, Tracey, Sara, and I hung out all day together. We took photobooth pictures together, shopped around, walked about, etc. It was actually really nice. We went to the herb street and stopped by the museum too. There was a handson part of the museum where we did some tai chi and put on hanboks and stuff too. It was actually a pretty entertaining day.

Thomas joined us at the museum and then we met up with Jonathan, Adam, and Soon at Coldstones. Adam and Soon left after 5 minutes but it was nice to see them. Then we went out for Korean BBQ dinner, followed by a trip to the bar and then to the club, Old School. There are a few things to note about the bar and Old School. The bar we went to, Thursday Night, was RACHED. Long story short, there was this pair, a Korean chick, and an Indian guy going at it in public. It was disturbing and gross. Of course Jet and Thomas had to be very obvious about it and were taking pictures with flash on and such. Old School itself was an experience too. It was really ghetto when we went before military curfew at 2am (as defined by Cameron and Jet).
On Sunday, Tracey and I met up with Ashley to go to Costco. I picked up some popcorn (I'm gonna show a movie and give popcorn to my good classes for the last week) for my kids and Tracey got some hot cocoa and peppermint candy canes for her kids. Then we headed back to Mokpo. It was actually the earliest we've ever left a city to go back to Mokpo on a Sunday (we left around 2pm). My overall impression of Daegu was really positive. There are parts of downtown that kind of remind me of Minneapolis. The sidewalks and stores were really cute and reminded me of Nicollet Mall and random other places when I was working there.

So this week has been really relaxed because I've been playing a bomb game with both my second years and third years. I'm doing an English review game for my second years as their finals are next Monday and Tuesday. My third years have been done with finals for two weeks now and they're ready to leave middle school/not learn anything new, so I'm doing a fun bomb game for them. There's a lot of random questions about me, America, and things they've learned in the class in there. They seem to be enjoying it. It's a bit sad to think that my classes are finishing up. It really has flown by and I wonder if any of my kids have learned anything. The good thing is I'm past my burnout mode. I think I was just having an off week. I mean, I'm still struggling with thinking I'm not teaching anything to anyone but I feel a lot better overall.

Today, after my classes, at 3pm, there is a sports day for the teachers. All the middle school teachers and high school teachers are getting together in the gym and competing on two teams. There's volleyball, kickball, tug-of-war, and a three-legged race. I'm on the tug-of-war team (they signed me up) and Tracey's doing volleyball (duh since she played in college). It's supposed to be three hours. Afterwards, all the teachers will eat dinner together in the cafeteria. It should be fun and 정 building.

Tomorrow morning (at like 6am), I'm heading to Busan for Kathy's birthday. She wanted to spend time with people and she picked Busan so I'll be heading over there to spend the day with her. I still can't believe break is coming up soon. My time in Korea has flown by. Wow.

Burn Out

I am done. I think I'm at the burn out period. I am a little less than a month away from break and I have been teaching for three months. These kids and their actions are taking a toll on me. There hasn't been a single event that has caused me to feel this way. It's just more of a buildup that has occurred. I realized it didn't take me long to adjust. I didn't stop to really figure out how I was dealing with everything. It's catching up to me now, and hitting me like a brick. I can't really explain how I'm feeling, but I'm going through a trough for sure.

I don't feel like I'm teaching these kids anything. I'll teach them someone one class and they forget it by the next class. Even worse, I'll teach something one period and they won't listen or pay attention and they will ask questions about what I taught them that same period. Examples: I told them they cannot start sentences with conjunctions (and, but, because, or) one day. The next class, people were at the board and were starting their sentences with "Because...". I turned to the class and asked what I taught them last class. No one responded. I asked them if they could start sentences with "And, But, Because, Or" and they all said yes. UGH. Another example: I taught them a lesson on Thanksgiving and then had them make turkey hands. While I was walking around, I saw a student turn to her neighbor and ask (in Korean), what Thanksgiving was. DOUBLE UGH. I even have an example from today. I taught a lesson on giving compliments. During the activity, a student wasn't writing a compliment (comic compliments) so I pointed to the paper and told him to write a compliment. He turned to his neighbor and asked what a compliment was. I wanted to just die right there. It's frustrating because I'm not teaching them complex things, just trying to improve their current abilities. They know what conjunctions and compliments are. This is all just frustrating.

It doesn't help that I taught at Andrew Moncada's school this past Saturday. His school had a Saturday English camp and he needed 3 more teachers so Katelyn, Tracey, and I taught alongside him. We rotated through four classes. He teaches at an all-boys high school in Iksan. His kids were ANGELS. It was so nice to have students pay attention, listen to directions, and pretty much grasp what I'm trying to say or convey to them. It was so nice and such a sharp contrast to my kids. In a way, I really wish I had decided to put down high school as a preference when I was filling out my preference sheet (although I probably wouldn't have gotten it since I didn't get anything else either) but still. Teaching middle school is really hard. I'm realizing it now. I get there are pros and cons to each and a lot of students sleep in high school and have no energy, but the tradeoffs seem really enticing right now. My kids are just taking their toll on me.

Onto an update of Korea adventures...

Two weeks ago, I tried 홍어, which is skatefish that ferments in its own pee. Tracey's school was having a celebration dinner for the teachers because school rankings came out and her high school is ranked first in our province, Jeollanamdo, and ranked third in all of Korea. It's quite a feat. All the high school teachers went out for a dinner, paid for by the school. Even though I'm at the middle school, I was invited and allowed to go because the Principal likes me, apparently. It doesn't taste like a lot at first but after a long time spent chewing, the ammonia hits your nose. It's not pleasant but it's something I wanted to do before I leave Korea.

That weekend of November 16th, I went to Seoul and met up with almost all of the ETAs. Tracey and I went into Seoul a little later on Friday because there was a radio show that was recording her students that Friday. I went to see it in her school library after my classes and the kids were really impressive. One of her students, Jean, did a rap and he was REALLY good. I actually played basketball with him one time and he's really into rap. His English was really good and I was impressed. Anyway, after the radio show recording, we left for Seoul. The KAEC office was hosting an ETA Thanksgiving dinner for all of us on Saturday night. It was really nice of them. The food was good but I think I set myself up for failure because I was looking forward to green bean casserole and mac and cheese. Those are my two favorite things from a Thanksgiving meal and both were missing from the dinner, unfortunately. There was turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce though. Overall, I shouldn't complain because it was a very nice dinner and it was great of the Fulbright office to do it for us. The Ambassador was present and so were other Embassy officials.

After the dinner at the National Folk Museum, a bunch of us headed over to the Cheonggyecheon Stream for the Seoul Lantern Festival. It reminded me of the Jinju Lantern Festival but not as extravagant or large.

The week after coming back from Seoul (last week) was when I started feeling a bit dissatisfied being here. I'm not sure if it was because I was so tired. I went out both Friday and Saturday night in Seoul. On Friday night, we didn't get back to the hostel until 4am and on Saturday night, I got back around 2am. On the other hand, I'm just feeling like the kids don't want to be here. It's a bit of everything. Regardless, I did a lesson on Thanksgiving for my students. I do want to hit upon one story: I was putting up turkey hands that students had made in some of the classroom I teach in before lunch. After lunch (about an hour later), I walked by the classroom and saw that all the drawings were torn down. During lunch, students (usually the boys) will invade a classroom and use the computer to play games and watch videos. So, when I went into the classroom, a bunch of students were still around on the computer and messing around. I asked who tore my drawings down. The students were all looking at me and not saying anything. There were some kids pointing at a kid (I think just to pick on him) but I was not having it. I just walked away. I went back to my desk pretty disappointed. I had spent time putting up the drawings. About ten minutes later, two of my students came to my room and had a bunch of the drawings in their hands. They had gone through the trash to collect them. I was still angry with them so I told them I didn't want them but I wanted them to go back up on the wall. I handed them my stapler and off they went. About five minutes later, they came back. I went into the room and it was chaotic. They had just stapled the drawings around the back wall randomly, everywhere, in every direction. There were about three of my boy students putting them up. I looked at them and shook my head. I told them I wanted them next to one another, in an organized fashion. I was standing at the front of the room watching them and it was actually pretty funny. One of the students ripped a part of the paper but then immediately covered it up with his hand. I found it so funny. He didn't mean to rip the paper but once he realized he did, it was very obvious he wished he had not done so. I actually started laughing and told him it was okay. It actually cheered me up some, the fact that they put the pictures back up. There is some hope that the kids care.

This weekend, I went to Iksan with Tracey late on Friday night for Andrew's camp (as mentioned earlier). After we finished the camp at 3pm, the four of us went to downtown Iksan where Andrew and Katelyn showed us around. We went to CGV and watched the last Twilight movie. I haven't read the books and have only seen the first Twilight (Freshman year of college with Aubrey and the twins because Aubrey really wanted to go see it) so I wasn't too sure about it but I ended up actually really liking it, surprisingly. I know the Twilight series are really lovely dovey and crap, which I was not looking forward to (since the first movie was like that) but the last one was actually pretty entertaining (the ending at least). The beginning was kinda too much stupid love/stuff-that-would-not-happen-in-real-life but the movie got really good at the end. There's this huge, epic battlescene with people ripping other peoples' heads off and the four of us were pretty much screaming in the theater. We were so loud, screaming, "OOHHHHHHH" and "AHHHHHH" every 10 seconds but it was HILARIOUS and absolutely RIDICULOUS. I won't say much more about it but the movie exceeded my expectations (though to be fair, I didn't really have any to begin with). I enjoyed myself. After the movie, we went to the arcade where there is this one awesome game. Andrew and Katelyn said the game was a rite of passage for all those who visit Iksan. It was a lot of fun; it's a video arcade Korean version game of Super Mario Party, if that makes sense.

Oh and one last thing. When I got back from Iksan on Saturday night, there was a puppy in my host family's apartment! My homestay got a dog finally and she's adorable. She's tiny and only 5 months old right now. Her name is 까비.

Gratification

Last Thursday was the 수능, which is the college entrance exam. I had no school Thursday and it was half a day on Wednesday because the teachers had to go to a meeting to prepare for proctoring the next day. The 수능 is a HUGE deal in Korea. It's really a national event, really. No planes are allowed to fly that day (seriously). There are police roadblocks set up around schools sometimes to stop noise and work on traffic flow so no student is late to it. It's a BIG deal. It's THE test that makes or breaks a students' future, in a sense. This is especially true if you are trying to get into a specific university or study a specific major. This is what all students are preparing for when they study. This exam is what all the high school students are studying for everyday from 8am-midnight. It's ridiculous but this is the Korean education system. So while the rest of Korea was holding their breath waiting for their kids, siblings, friends to get out of the 수능, I was sleeping in and bumming around. I went to Cafe Mama's (the coffee shop I go to around my house to lesson plan) and did some work for a little bit with Tracey. After the 수능, people celebrate and the third year high school students all give out a collective sigh. Their stress goes from 100% to 0% within a span of 9 hours(how long the 수능 lasts). They only have half days at school after the exam (they leave at noon) and most kids don't even have to go to school since all they do is watch movies and hang out from then onward. At the Yeongheung high school (Tracey's school and my connected high school), the kids no longer have hair cut length requirements so kids have elaborate plans to dye, perm, and grow out their hair, etc. Days following the 수능, parents take their kids out to eat at fancy restaurants, buy them phones, electronics, etc. It's a BIG deal. It's interesting to see it all play out because there's nothing as big in America. The SATs are nothing compared to the 수능.

So I volunteer at a North Korean Defector Program (NKD), teaching English on Thursday nights. This past Thursday was so rewarding and gratifying. I've been working with two students, both in middle school. Let's called them S and Z, to protect their identities. This past week, only S showed up and I would say that he's slightly more advanced than Z. So I started about two months ago and the goal is to get them reading by the end of the year (by the time I leave Korea). I started with the absolute basics of the alphabet. The problem is that as fast as I wanted to go, I had to work with their speed. Even though I would tell them to study at home, they never would. So the only time they really worked on anything I gave them was when they were with me for an hour on Thursday. That's why it ended up taking so long to get through the alphabet. After we got through the alphabet (which took a few weeks) and even today, Z hasn't gotten it zone, we focused on the consonant sounds. Last week was the breakthrough with S. I taught him the short vowel sounds for 'a' and 'e'. I used consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words to teach him and it worked. It was SO gratifying; honestly, it was more rewarding than I thought. I know I still have a long way to go and this is just one small step but it was still a step. He was sounding out the sounds like I taught him and he was getting it. It wasn't perfect but it worked. It was awesome. I'm excited to see Z this week and bring him up to speed too.

On another note, planning for Winter Break is really time consuming and kind of difficult. I don't want to travel anywhere alone, not because I can't but because traveling is just more fun when you are with other people. It takes a lot of effort to talk to a lot of different ETAs and figure out their plans and where they're going and if you are interested in going there at that time, etc. It's giving me a headache.

Following the Halloween incident where a student stole a lollipop from my backpocket last week, I decided to punish my kids. I had all my classes write lines for 15 minute at the beginning of class where they copied, "I am sorry teacher for not respecting you. I will respect you." It went awesome. I had a co-teacher translate all my slides at the beginning which explained the situation. I wanted all my students to understand why I was punishing them. If they didn't understand why I was making them copy lines, then they would just resent me. I imagined my Korean teacher coming into Korean class one morning and yelling at us in Korean and not being to understand her. If that happened, I would be so confused and angry if she punished us by writing lines. If she came in, guns blazing, and explained to us in English why she was angry, I would at least understand the reasoning behind her actions. In my powerpoint slides, I wrote out the situation in English and Korean so that my students understood. I didn't want any excuses from anyone about the punishment. It worked. I even got a few letters out of it from students, while they were copying lines.

This past weekend, I didn't travel. My family had told me a few weeks ago that my sister, 지은 would be going to the hospital for a quick test on Saturday and our family would be going with her and then playing afterwards. Bright and early Saturday morning, around 7:45am, we piled into the car and drove for about an hour. Her test only took about 30 minutes. Afterwards, we drove to Gwangju and ate at a duck restaurant. It was delicious. We must've spent at least an hour and a half eating at this place. I was so full; we ate around 11am and I wasn't hungry by the time dinner rolled around at 7pm. After lunch, we went to Lotte Outlets in Suwan, Gwangju. My parents dropped bank there. I guess it's because they don't go shopping very often but they had no shame buying things left and right. For example, we stopped at the Kappa store and they dropped like 200,00원 (a little less than $200) for two track suits for my brother. It was interesting watching them go to town. After the outlet mall, we headed back home and bummed around for the rest of the day.

I'm looking forward to this weekend. I'm heading to Seoul to see all (or at least almost all) of the ETAs for Thanksgiving dinner, provided by the KAEC. It's gonna be a big shindig, with the KAEC office and the Ambassador. They go all out for us; they rent out a museum and there's apparently all the typical Thanksgiving food. It's hosted by the military and it's about $50 a head. It's gonna be epic.

Changes in an Instant

I stayed around in Mokpo this weekend--thought it'd be nice to spend a weekend at home since I've been traveling so much. The plan was to bum around the apartment with the family a little bit and also go to my boys' soccer game on Saturday.

After school on Friday, one of Tracey's co-teacher invited us to dinner with her and her husband and kid. The family has AMAZING English. The son's English is absolutely incredible--I think it's better than all my students, honestly. Most Korean kids know English grammar in theory but can't apply it. This kid's speaking and listening ability is incredible. I was able to talk at a somewhat normal speed and he would understand and respond. Tracey tells me he reads English chapter books. That's better than most of my students. Her husband and son live in Gwangju for her husband's job. They see each other on weekends. The son is home schooled. It's an interesting concept in Korea. They took us to a restaurant and then we went to a cafe afterwards and chatted. I think her husband used to be an English teacher too since he also had really good English. We talked a lot about the education system and how different it was in Korea/Asia versus America. It was definitely a good conversation and it got me thinking a lot about how imperfect all education systems really are.

On Saturday morning, I went to my boys' soccer match. How I came to hear about it is a story. At school, I can tell which kids come running in from playing sports and which kids are more active when I visit them in PE. One specific day about two weeks ago, I was leaving the gym and saw two of my boys walk in. These two boys are what I would call the "popular kids" in my class. They are in 3-3, which used to be my worst class on Wednesdays but because they like me, the overall ability to control the class has increased significantly. The class is so much more manageable than the first few weeks and I think the boys even like me (most of them at least). Anyway, they were coming into the gym and I thought it was odd since I knew they weren't a part of the gym class I was just playing with and it was also the end of the day so there would be no next gym class. I asked what they were doing and they said they were going to play soccer. They then said they were getting ready for a contest (competition I deduced). They showed me a piece of paper with a bunch of Korean I didn't understand but I got the gist of the information. I asked them when it was and they said it would be two Saturdays away. I told them I wanted to watch them play and they started to give me more information but I told them to remind me in class when I would see them on Wednesday. They gave me information about location, 목포국제축구션터(Mokpo International Football Center), the time, 12:40pm, and the field, Star Field. It's the same place Liam coaches soccer on Saturdays/Sundays. I had mentioned to them in class that I would bring them cookies but I don't think they actually believed me when I said I would come. I also saw almost the entire team on Friday after school on the bleachers/stairs. I told them I'd see them Saturday since most of the team didn't actually know. One of the students said, "No, thank you." T.T Actually, a majority of the guys I saw practicing are some of my rowdier, "bad" students. Most of them don't pay attention in my class and manage to disrespect me in one way or another. Regardless, I was going to go. Tracey met me at EMart Saturday, around 12:30pm where I was picking up cookies. Then we caught a taxi to the soccer field and met up with Liam; he then led me to my boys. The game was already in swing and I saw my boys (I recognized their blue uniforms) so I headed over to the ones on the sidelines. They were all sitting on the turf. As I approached, they noticed me but I could tell them were looking bummed. I ended up chatting with one of my students, whose English name is Sawyer (he's in class 3-1 and has pretty good English actually). He told me the game was actually moved up to 12:10 so I was arriving for the later part of the game. They only had about 10 minutes left and the score was 2-0 (the other team) so that's why everyone was kinda depressed. The team they were playing in this first round was the team that won the competition last year. Apparently my school's team got 2nd last year. It was just unfortunate these two teams were playing each other in the first round of the competition. I told my boys to cheer up and gave Sawyer the cookies to give out to the rest of the team later. I hung out with them on the turf but other than Sawyer and the popular kid who was the main one who invited me to the game, none of the boys really talked to me. I don't blame them since they were losing the game and it wasn't looking good for them. I didn't realize which of my boys were actually on the team until I saw them playing. Half of them I didn't even realize would be out there. After they lost (3-0), they went to the other side of the field where their stuff was and Tracey, Liam, and I headed over there after a bit. I saw almost all of the gym teachers there. They all came out to support the boys I guess. I think they were surprised to see me though. I also saw a few other of my boy students, friends of the soccer players, there. All my students seemed pretty surprised to see me but none of them really questioned why I was there. I mean, it was obvious I was there to see them. Since they lost, the overall mood was kinda down. Well, they have next year...
Afterwards, I went to a family owned cafe (non chain) on Rose near my place. I graded some papers and Tracey joined me later. Around dinner time, Lizzie, Annie, and Liam joined us so we could get dinner together. We headed out to the bar, Cool Luck, after and had some random life chats and what not. It's nice to have educated conversations with people. I never really appreciate it until I have conversations with ignorant people. I am glad that Fulbright selects well though.

On Sunday, my sister woke me up. She asked me if I was going to go with our family to drive her back to college in Gwangju. Even my host brother was going so I got up and got ready after a little bit. My mom asked me if I wanted to stay at home and rest but I wanted to spend time with them so I tagged along. After dropping her off at school, the four of us went to a restaurant to eat. My mom says it's a famous restaurant in Korea. It was delicious but it wasn't the best thing I've had. It's nice to spend time with my family doing random things even if it's nothing too exciting.

So, again, I leave things for the end. I found out tonight that my grandma passed away yesterday morning (EST). I called my mom tonight with the intention of asking her if she was still planning on coming to visit in February. She got on the phone and said, "Don't cry that grandma's gone." I was in shock. I made sure she said grandma. Apparently she told my brother to send me a message through Voxer (a texting app we use) yesterday but he never did. So I'm not sure what happened but she's been sick and in the hospital for some time now (since my grandpa passed away). I was told she had colon cancer but even that, I'm not sure how true it is. So my mom told me this information and I just...didn't know how to digest it. It's a weird situation since my mom has always been closer to her dad (my grandpa) than her mom (my grandma) so I've grown up being trained to be "biased" towards my grandpa. In reality though, my grandma was the one who raised me. I remember how my mom and grandma would always joke about how my grandma would stick her tongue out with saliva and as a baby, I would just suck it up. It sounds disgusting now but as a baby, what can you do? My mom's family dynamic is a bit complicated so I won't get into it but my mom always had something against my grandma and I don't think she ever forgave her. So even when we were on the phone talking, my mom was talking negatively about her mother that just passed. I was getting angry and told her to stop talking about her negatively. My mom said something that was pretty attacking so I hung up. I sound like an ungrateful daughter but again, this is a weird situation to explain. It's family issues. I am kind of in shock. It hasn't hit me. Actually, it hit me on Friday that I have no living grandpas left. Now, today, I only have one living grandparent alive. Wow. Life really just changes in an instant. I think I need more time to just think about this. My grandma wasn't a Christian. Even in the hospital, she refused to believe in it. This is what makes me saddest.

RIP Grandma 11-3-12