Update in September

Sorry it has taken me so long to write in my blog recently. Things have been kind of hectic around here and I have found myself to be very exhausted throughout the week.

School has been ok. I find myself unmotivated at times to teach because they kids can take so much out of you. There has been a lot of stress to just try to get the kids to listen at times. I am just sick of yelling all the time basically. As cute as the kids are, I wish I was more informed on the ages because I would have chosen an older age group to teach. Two weeks ago, I got to go on my first field trip with the kids to a botanical garden. The garden was gorgeous and the kids loved it. Their excitement over a flower, or a dragonfly, or even a little frog makes it adorable to watch them run around.

The past weekend, my co-worker, Karla and her co-korean teacher, Rebecca went clothes shopping. I loved all the different Korean fashions even though some are odd. Unfortunately, since everyone is so petite here I couldn’t find a lot in my size, but the experience was fun! Rebecca had invited us to dinner because her mother wanted to meet us Americans. Her mother loves when Rebecca brings home English speakers because she enjoys hearing Rebecca speak English to them. Dinner was amazing, her mom had prepared season meat and had a little miniature stove on the table for us to cook the meat and talk. She spoke a little English and was very sweet.

This weekend I got invited by one of the guys I work with to a touch rugby tournament they were playing in. I had never watched touch rugby before and knew nothing about it. The rugby tournament was held at the Korean Military Academy and was quite the event! There were tons of teams that had come from all over Korea as well as teams that flew in from China and Japan. We watched the boys play and I realized I really liked watching the sport! It is kind of like soccer… but playing with your hands with a difference in a few rules. Our boys didn’t end up winning the tournament but were in the semi finals! They served free wine all day and there was a buffet later on that had burgers and other bbq food! It wasn’t amazing tasting, BUT it was good to have some traditional American food still. After the game, there was an after party held in Itaewon at a place called The Bungalow. The place was really nice and had tables and couches set up on these sandy areas. Great atmosphere. We had a good time and ended up having to take a 40,000 won taxi ride home because we were too late for the subways. Eek!

Today co-worker, Karla and I went to Insadong. I was a little skeptical at first because she told me that it is this really fun place that sells traditional Korean things like papers, and souvenirs, pillows, scarves, jewelry etc. My experience with places like these has usually been a result of Koreans just trying to sell junk. Fortunately, this wasn’t the case! There is a long street that basically sells nice things that are mostly all handmade. It was such a cute little area. We stopped in at a tea house where we both got a cup of tea and shared some homemade Korean ice cream which was delicious!

I ended up buying a scarf. There were also stands that were set up to make your own crafts. You can paint mugs, plates, bags, make beads and jewelry, and even your own light lantern! We ended up making our own light lantern which I was really excited about! I loved this little shopping area and plan to go back for some gifts possibly! :-)

Next week will be a short week since we do not have to work on Friday due to the Korean holiday, Chuseok. Chuseok is the Korean Thanksgiving here and I guess one of the busiest times for traveling. Next week we will be doing things in class that are related to Chuseok which should be fun and interesting! Next weekend I will be visiting my Korean family in Seoul to celebrate the holiday with them. I am interested to see how they celebrate their own thanksgiving. All I know is there won’t be turkey or stuffing which is a sad, sad, sad thing for me. Haha

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I had to blog about this. During my afternoon elementary class last week, we had read a book about a moth that was a pet friend to a little boy. We had a do an activity with it so I decided to have the kids make cards to someone they love or is their good friend and decorate it with a moth theme. (I know it is a little odd, but the kids enjoyed it!) I have the kids freedom to do whatever they want with their card and use whatever they want as long as they wrote in english. This is a card one of the students wrote to her mom. I had to share. It reads:

"Dear Mother, Mother I love you but you are too scary. But I like you. Do you like this card? I'll give time one month tell me what this card is good or bad. But you love me too. And I like play too so play with me one hour. And I'll sleep with you. And I don't like to do homework. That is cecret (secret)"

I couldn’t stop laughing. I wanted her to read it while I recorded but she refused and about broke my camera. I guess you guys will have to only enjoy the visual for now!

My First Food Delivery

I have faced one of my challenges I thought I would have while I was here in Korea- getting delivery for Korean food. Just about anywhere delivers here and I have been having a craving for bibimbap. I get tons of fliers on my door advertising delivery for certain locations and I finally decided to try one today. My fear was that I was going to sit on the phone for a good 15 minutes trying to tell the man what I wanted and where I lived and then end up getting hung up on because he didn't understand me. Luckily, that wasn't the case. The first thing I said when the man picked up the phone was, "I am very sorry but I speak little Korean". He went silent and then I went ahead and just said "Bibimbap". I told him my address and after a few minutes of making sure he knew what I wanted and where I lived, that was that! Easy! My food was delivered in no joke- 5 minutes. SUPER FAST! and SUPER CHEAP! This is all I got for 4,000 won which equals roughly around $4!
The restaurant delivers your food in real silver and plate dishes so after you are done with your food, they give you a little bag that you put all the silverware and dishes in and leave it outside of your door. In a few hours the delivery guys comes back to pick up your dishes.

Great food, fast service, super cheap, and they save you from washing dishes... Oh you amaze me Korea. :-)

My Montage of Kids

Hello Everyone! I have finally made a video on you tube that shows some random clips of my class as well as some of the other students I have been teaching. Enjoy! Copy and paste this clip in your web browser. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl2wsMwO34Q

DVD Room

Today my Korean cousin, Minhee, came to Ilsan from Seoul with her husband to spend the day with me. I was actually not too excited about having them come only because neither of us can communicate the other language very well, but the day ended up being really fun! They took me out to lunch and then I showed them some of the shopping areas in Ilsan. We wanted to see a movie in the theater but there was nothing that we wanted to see, so we settled for a DVD room. This is SO awesome. It is a place where you go and there is a wall that is lined with DVD’s (mainly American) and you choose the DVD you want to watch. The DVD room we had went to had a good selection of DVDs. The movies were mainly all new releases and oldies but goodies. They then take you to this hallway that is lined with little closed off rooms. Inside the room are a large comfortable couch that you can lay on and a large projector screen. You can also buy snacks and refreshments before you go into your room as well. It was extremely nice because it was just very comfortable and had no distractions. My cousin and her husband really wanted to watch a horror film so we chose to watch Hostel 2. The movie was a disappointment but the experience wasn’t. DVD rooms are ALL over Korea so it is very easy to find one nearby. This is the first one I have actually been in. The price for the DVD room all together was 17,000 won. It was a little pricy but cheaper than three tickets to go see a movie at the movie theater.





Afterwards, I took them to see Lake Park in Ilsan. Lake Park is a man made lake and is absolutely gorgeous. It has a large path that runs all around it and the water is crystal clear. This is a picture of my cousin and her husband at Lake Park.

Hiking in Korea

The English couple that I work with, Karla and Josh, invited me to go on a short hiking trip this Saturday in Ilsan. Since I had wanted to try hiking in Korea, I took them up on their offer. Hiking is probably one of the most popular hobbies that Koreans have (besides drinking massive amounts of soju). We went on a short hiking trail in Ilsan which took us about 20 minutes. My first thought was “Oh wow, hiking is a piece of cake.” Then the couple suggested going to a bigger hiking mountain in Seoul. Thinking that I had this in the bag, I was proven wrong as I stood their heaving and panting after about 5 minutes going up the second mountain. The hiking at this mountain consisted basically of an hour worth of going up semi-vertical steps.

Josh and Karla had gone hiking plenty of times before, so needless to say, I was lagging behind most of the time. Besides the never ending burning sensation in my butt and legs, I was enjoying the beautiful scenery! This was a picture of Seoul just halfway up the mountain.

Luckily, the weather was nice and not Korea’s normal 90 percent humidity! Once we finally reached the top, the scenery was all worth the pain and struggle. Once you get to the top you can see all of Seoul all around the mountain. They have a HUGE boulder at the tippy top of the mountain so you can stand on it to get even more of a better view. The first picture is of me enjoying my success. Karla told me it was only necessary to scream “I AM THE QUEEN OF THE WORLD!”. Haha!

Karla and Josh have told me that there are other mountains that are 7 hours hikes and ones that even have ropes for climbing. I told them…baby steps first. The experience was definitely all worth it and am kind of looking forward on claiming my next mountain!

After hiking, we decided to go to Itaewon. Itaewon is one of the most popular foreigner tourist sites in Korea and also has a military base. I loved Itaewon! Itaewon is known for the best western (American) food in Korea. I saw more foreigners in this city than Koreans—which is a rare thing to see! The city seemed so exciting and it was just nice to be surrounded by things I could read. We chose to eat at a Mexican restaurant for the night called Los Amigos. The food was DELICIOUS. I got a baja burrito smothered in cheese. Yum! The restaurant had live music and at one point I almost felt like I was at home in the states just having dinner at Don Pablo’s or somewhere like that! Korean food in Korea is generally pretty cheap, but when you are craving for more food found in the states, you are generally going to pay more for it. I didn’t mind because I felt like it really hit the spot! After dinner we hit up a local bar called Woodstock. We were still dressed in our hiking clothes so we felt a little out of place and self conscious that we smelled of sweat but we still wanted to have a drink. The bar had a live band that was made of 3 Korean men but they sang good American rock’n’ roll. I was impressed. It had been a long day for us so we didn’t stay long. There is still so much in Itaewon that I wanted to explore so I am anxious to go back.

One Month Update

Nothing too exciting has been going but I know you guys want to hear about everything so I will update you!

I am not going to lie, the last week of my first month I got a little frustrated with teaching. I just felt like I was struggling with trying to be a fun teacher, but still trying to have control over my kids as well. It’s hard because the Korean teachers want you to make sure the kids aren’t bored, but they also want you to get as much workbook pages done as possible, so it was just frustrating. I had felt like all I was doing was yelling at the kids and they just were not listening. It makes it even harder that I can’t have small talk with them like a normal kindergarten teacher would because their interactive skills aren’t that high yet. I am not complaining, just venting! :-) On a better note, the days after have gotten much better after I got confirmation from my co-teacher, Sonny, that I am doing a good job and I just need to stop worrying so much!

One thing I have had to get used to with these kiddies is their bluntness. I have had two students now come up to me and rub my belly saying “Amanda Teacher Pregnant?”….”Ummm no Amanda Teacher is not pregnant, Amanda Teacher just has eaten too much of your good food!”. As embarrassing as it is, I still manage to laugh and then slap my gut for a bigger effect. Haha! I have also been told by the students I am a “long neck” and that they refer to my skin color as black since I am tanner than most of them right now. Gotta love ‘em.

One thing the Korean students here really go all out for are their birthdays. It is a HUGE deal when someone has a birthday. We take time out of the day to have a little birthday party for them. The mom of the birthday student usually brings in a nice big cake with drinks for the teachers and students. It is traditional for the kids to bring in a photo album or a poster board of basically a story and pictures of how they have grown from a baby to their age now. They then present their poster or photo album to the entire class. They speak in Korean when they tell about their childhood, but their pictures are always cute to look at. It is adorable and the cakes are always delicious! The whip cream in Korea here is lighter and whipped which makes it easy to consume more than I should.




Last Friday was another outing with some of my fellow English teachers. We went to our favorite bbq meat place again and met up with a few people. I have been meeting quite a few people from England which has been interesting and entertaining to hear their rich accents! I feel like I am the youngest out of most of the people who have been meeting which sometimes surprises me. The weekends and mainly weeknights are the best times to see all the foreigners come out. On the main streets the foreigners are more abundant and travel in packs! It is kind of easy to add on to your group just by walking down a busy street. Later on we ended up at a bar that the entire back wall of the bar was lined with old records. You could basically request ANY song, I am talking ANY, and they would play it for you. Good times.

The next Saturday my Korean Aunt came later on in the evening and wanted to take me to dinner and to get a massage or “massag-ee” as she would say. An offer I could not refuse. She took me to a king crab buffet that is literally right outside my apartment which could be dangerous because I LOVE crab legs. They gave us plastic gloves which were nice because I always manage to cut myself when I am opening them up and a pair of the best crab cutting scissors ever. I should have taken a picture of the scissors, but one blade of the scissors was short, while the other blade was skinny and long, perfect for opening crab legs. I am not sure if this is just in Korea, or I have been sheltered in the states and just have never seen anything like this before!

Now I may have told some of you about my last “massage” experience in Korea. It was a total nightmare. I can’t believe I still even call it a massage because it was more of a form of torture. My mom set me up to have a massage at a spa a few summers ago and it basically consisted of me being naked and having them rub my entire body with a brillo pad…yes a brillo pad…the same brush you would use to clean a crusty casserole dish. I started crying which didn’t help because I had a hot muggy rag over my face the whole time. Needless to say I was VERY hesitant about this second massage place my aunt was going to take me to. We walked in and the place was extremely nice and seemed legit. They had footbaths while you waited for your massage and lounging chairs. My aunt and I were going to get the massages side by side. It started out normal with an actual massage table and massage creams but once again, I felt like they were literally trying to see if they could make me cry. It wasn’t a brillo pad this time; it was just extreme pain from how far they were driving their knuckles and elbows into my back muscles! I think it is the culture here that makes a Korean touch very rough! I have even noticed it with my Korean family and other Koreans. A pat on the back is never a pat on the back, it’s more like a hard slap on the back. Or when they grab your arm for something, it’s more like--let’s see how much I can dig my fingers into your skin. My aunt told me she wants to try to see if I will like one more massage place so we will see what my pain threshold is there.

Missing you all! XOXOXOX

P.S. I am still trying to sell my car back home. If anyone is interested or know of someone who is, let me know!