The Title of Our Blog Should Have Been, "Korea.....It Just Doesn't Make Sense"

December is a big month. With Dave's birthday, Christmas, and New Years its a bit of a splurge of money, energy, and above all, fun!

I just wanted to share a quick update before we leave for Seoul to see BBBBEEEEENNNNNN for our whopping 5 day winter vacation!

The Friday before Christmas weekend went as any other Friday at E Bo Young Talking Club goes. We read storybooks to the kids and bored the pants off of them. We did get Kevin (the student that hit me a few weeks back) who was very excited about a stocking that his teacher gave him. He came into class and said (in broken English of course), " Teacher! Look! I got a new pencil case, stickers, and a new sock!" At that time he put his stocking on foot and began to walk around with it, like it was, in fact.... a brand new sock.

On Friday I got a package from my parents containing a ton of candy, yarn, and best of all, Oprah Magazine! I was so excited and I showed all of the kids, asking them if they liked Oprah. The general response I got was, "No Oprah!" I did have class of 2 older girls and thought it would be a learning experience for them to see a magazine in English (I know, I'm pushing it) I found it very interesting their view and reaction to the black people in the magazine. They laughed at them in a confused/ this is very strange/ I never see this, sort of way. They didn't seem to understand why there were different types of people in the magazine. They kept asking, "Teacher, chocolate?" or, "From Africa?"

Christmas in Korea was a success! It's funny being in an Asian country, I never expected Christmas to be as recognized as much as it is. Not to say that it is anything like home, but it still is quite popular. There were a few cafes decorated with lights and trees which helped us get in the Christmas spirit. We found ourselves asking about Christmas traditions here in Korea and there doesn't seem to be many other than eat good food and get together with the family on Christmas Day, which is still pretty optional. It seems that only small children receive presents from Santa and once they graduate from middle school they get cut off from the gifts.

On Christmas Eve our friends Kirsten and Keegan came over and we had a huge dinner together. It was complete with chicken (and lots of it), mashed potatoes, honey carrots (surprisingly easy and delicious), Stove Top Stuffing (courtesy of Kirsten's Mom), and gravy. Yum!

After that, we met up with Janet from South Africa and went to a little get-together at one of our friends apartments. I suggested doing a Yankee Swap, or White Elephant as the other party goers wanted to call it. Either way it was a hit. Everyone brought a weird/ funny gift. There were 14 of us who exchanged gifts and it was an absolute riot! Dave and I put in 2 very funny gifts (if I do say so myself) As a little background information, which you may or may not know, all Koreans love cell phone charms. Cell phone charms are (typically) tiny accessories that that attach to your phone. Normally they are fairly tiny so that everything can be put in your pocket. Dave and I put a different spin on it. We bought a stuffed animal and attached a handmade cardboard cut out of a phone. On the front it said "1 TXT from...." and on the inside it said "Your Mom!!!!"

The second of the gifts that we put in was a hand knit Willy Warmer. It was electric green and came with a poem.

"Now that you are getting older,

And the nights are getting colder,

Nothing could be neater,

Than this little Peter Heater."

Everyone was dying! Among the other gifts there was a panda hat, a recorder, a tambourine, and "I love pussy/I havea good time" chopstick set (which is what I ended up with, after a major game of battle swap) Side note: the chopstick set is just another example of misused English that can be found anywhere, and everywhere here in Korea. It was not, in fact, intended for the words to be so dirty...at least that's what I hope.

After the gift swap we all went outside to ring in Christmas with a bang....literally. Aaron bought fireworks at the local dollar store (Eh-sounds wrong...I know. The words fireworks and dollar store should never be mixed) It was snowing a lot which made the night have a magical feel about it. Some took to making tiny snowmen and others went for the fireworks. Kirsten and I tried to stay a safe distance away from anything on fire or that made us cold (a lot harder than it seems) If I could describe how the night made feel it would be a mix of whimsical, exciting, very scary, and overall fun.

On Christmas morning Dave and I woke up like little kids. We were both very excited to exchange our gifts, and open the big box from Dave's parents. Aside from a few gifts that disappointingly didn't fit (from both of us) it was a success. The rest of the day was a mix of bagel sandwiches with bacon, eggs and cheese, marathons of The Wire, decorating our apartment to finally make it looks like someone lives in here, naps, and pizza for dinner. Oh, there was also a lot of chocolate consumption in there as well....some would say too much, but I say there is no such thing.

Our Charlie Brown Tree (and Teddy just waiting to open gifts on the couch)

White Christmas in Mokpo

Snowmen with only 2 balls...it's how they make them in Asia.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas!

-Lindsey

Dave's Birthday Week!!!!

It was my birthday this past Thursday and I turned 26...well 27, but in 2 weeks I turn 28. Let me explain....In good old American years I turned 26 this past week but here in Korea you are considered 1 year old when you are born because they think of your time in the womb as the first year of life (or 9 months, but who's counting). So 26 +1 = 27. But also, on January 1st it is normal to being saying you as old as you will turn that year, so although my actual birthday was only 2 weeks previous I should begin saying I am 28 in Korean years. So basically, I gain 3 years of life in 2 weeks which is way to fast for me, not enough time to really accomplish much at the age of 27, even though I'm only 26....I don't know how old I am anymore.

Anyway, Lindsey, being as fantastic as she is, decided she was going to celebrate my birthday week this year. She started off by hanging Happy Birthday signs in my classroom with paper bows. She got me little treats through out the week and did nice little things like doing the dishes when it was my turn and just plain being really great to me. On my actual birthday Lindsey woke me up by scaring me to death by yelling "Happy Birthday!" as I rolled over still half asleep and then making me breakfast in bed. A delicious Korean delicacy known as the bagel and cream cheese (which is expensive). It was delicious. As for presents she got me a basketball which I am very excited about but I havn't gotten a chance to use yet because its been freezing outside and thats as much as an excuses as I need to not exercise. She also brought me tons of candy and coffee from home that she didn't think we would be able to get here in Korea. It was awesome! I have tons of Reece's Cups and 2 giant containers of Folder's Instant Coffee! She really knows how to make me happy.

Once I was allowed down stairs I got to see that Linds had balloons all over the floor and happy birthday flags hanging from the loft (which I plan to just leave up until her birthday in August). We still have the balloons all over the place because it jazzes up the apartment a bit. Although, when you walk in it does look like someone had a big party and just never cleaned up the balloons, which I guess is sort of true. We made birthday tacos for lunch and I think I ate 7 and it was fantastic.

At work Linds has put more balloons in my classroom and the other teachers all got my presents that were really nice and unexpected. I got a DVD, some nice chocolate, some moisturizing lotion, and pajama pants (more of those later)! Also, for my birthday our Director took everyone to the duck restaurant under the school before work. I'd never had duck before but it was really good. It can simmering in a soup and all the meat just fell off the bone, it was delicious! Our Director asked if I knew what meat I was eating. I told her yes and she asked how, I told her because the building is covered in giant ducks outside.

This past weekend Lindsey surprised me by taking me to Gwangju. Gwangju is one of the 5 big cities in Korea and less than an hour away from us by bus. We hadn't been yet so we headed up there to explore for the weekend. Our plan was to spend the night in a Love Motel which is exactly what it sounds like. Basically everyone lives in apartments so when young Koreans want some alone time they check into a Love Motel. They are generally cheap, tacky, and come with free soft-core porn so we naturally had to try it out. Our room did, in fact, have all of those generalities. The room was 40 bucks for the night and the building was full of dark hallways and mirror covered windows. It was like a casino. The decor was very 80's and awesome. Our room was called The Yellow Wave and looked a little something like this...

The room came equipped with a big screen TV, computer, heated bed, toothbrushes, condoms, heaps of tissues, robes, "extra hard" hair gel, hair spray, aaand bug killer. Everything you may need for an enjoyable evening.

Once we had checked in we headed out to explore the city. After a bit of confusion with a taxi driver and walking several blocks in the wrong direction was eventually found the downtown area which was really amazing. It is suddenly just blocks and blocks of pedestrian only roads filled with people and engulfed in shops 3 stories high.

Despite it being very cold we walked around taking everything in and periodically stopping in random stores to look around and regain some body heat. You could seemingly buy anything here, there is even a 3 story Dunkin' Donuts. I tried to buy a new flannel but despite visiting several stores I was just too big and nothing fit me, even extra large was way too small. Ends up, I am a giant.

We had dinner at an Indian restaurant that was recommended by our friends and it was delicious. There were lots of foreigners there which was a bit of a strange sight but the food was sooo good. I think we ate everything in under 3 minutes. We will definitely be returning. Afterwards we set out to find some good bars and get our drink on a bit. We started our own personal pub crawl, minus all the people and deals on drinks. In one club we tried a shot called Sex with an Alligator because that is a funny name. It was cool looking but very fruity tasting. To make an unnecessarily long story shorter: after several bars, one dirty club, and a cab ride that consisted of our driver telling us our motel had closed we returned to the motel around 2am to pass out.

The next morning we watched a movie (Lovely, Still) after googling how to write in Korean, "What time do we need to leave?" We tried to find a Korean BBQ joint for lunch but were continually directed to go to TGIFridays. Walking by TGIFridays was a bit odd though, seeing all the Koreans using forks and knives. Well, in some cases trying to use knives, but this is probably what they think seeing us use chopsticks.

All in all a great weekend and great birthday from my great girlfriend. (Sorry readers, I will refrain from being mushy from now on).


-Dave

Crazy Kids, Crazy Life

It's been a long time (now I have the Cake song stuck in my head)

Here it is on youtube in case it's stuck in your head now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9HjvIHsEhM

Getting on with it....because Dave and I are very interested in cooking local cuisine, we are starting a tradition at work to have cooking parties with our co-workers. Every once in a while we are going to gather and cook various meals, some Korean and some Western. It's a good chance for everyone to spend time together and learn something new. We started our tradition two weeks ago, after work on Friday. It was Korean night in which they taught us how to make thin seafood pancake-esk things. They were thinner than the pancakes we know and love back home, and they were full of scallions and an assortment of seafood. It was really good. We shared a few bottles of traditional rice wine and had an enjoyable evening. Our director was very impressed that Dave and I do the dishes together and help each other. (What can I say, were a good team!)

There isn't a very big foreigner community here in Mokpo (as you could imagine) but there certainly is one. I'm not sure who it was, but someone organized a Thanksgiving pot luck dinner at the local foreigner bar. We made ants on a log (a childhood classic). We went with our friends Kirsten an Keegan. It was a very strange site to have so many non-asians in a room together. We don't have many friends here so it was a bit awkward. The foreign community seems a bit clicky with well established groups of friends. We stood at a table closest to the food (good strategy) and talked with a few people. The food was delicious and it was nice to eat some western food such as stuffing, chicken, mashed potatoes, and pizza. The dessert was my personal favorite! I think there may be another pot luck coming up to celebrate Christmas. We have to start planing what we will make now due to the extreme lack of anything close to what we know in the grocery stores. Any suggestions?

I, Lindsey, have been sick for the past week and a half. What started off as a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad case of the flu lasting roughly 8 days, turned into a pestering cough, which yet again turned into a basic cold. Needless to say it has not been fun. It's exhausting trying to teach in such a weak state but I'm making it through. I will tell you my secret: lots of Go Fish and Uno. I'm pretty sure I used up at least half of each class just letting the students play such games. The joys of teaching!

One positive from being sick is that Secretary Teacher made some homemade traditional Korean tea for me. After typing to her for about 10 minutes using Google Translation, because she speaks very little English, I found out that the ingredients are: ginger, jujube (an Asian fruit similar to apples), and honey. It was delicious and we plan on making some of our own when we get paid.

As for school, it's been a bit crazy, between seemingly useless work, to our boss using words that make me uncomfortable, to kids hiding under desks.

Let me explain.

First off, I have this class of all girls. These girls are around 12 years old and just learning the in's and out's of being crabby. I started off a month ago thinking I was going to love this class because there were no boys to be rambunctious and the girls are all very good at speaking English. I think I made a mistake and was a bit too lenient with them and they started rebelling in the typical girl style. One girl, Holly, in particular rebelled the most. During a review game of Jeopardy before a test I asked Holly to make a sentence using "It ......to....." (It is dangerous to play with matches). She didn't understand it so I had her make a few more sentences. She was not happy. Unfortunately I am 99% sure called me a dumb bitch under her breath. This caught me by surprise. Where on earth did she ever learn such a phrase?! I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me. Low and behold though, I heard it again. I had enough! At the time a few of them were playing on their cell phones so I took them all away that instant. I began talking very fast (I was clearly very mad) telling them that they are rude, disrespectful and they have very bad attitudes. They kept saying they could not understand me. I said "don't play dumb with me!" and tried to talk as slow as possible. I tried to break it down as much as I could saying, "you are being mean, and you all have bad attitudes." For lack of better way of conveying my message I said "positive attitude" and had a big smile on my face and then I pointed to all of them and said "bad attitude" and put a big dopey frown face on. They still didn't understand me and I rushed out of the room and grabbed my director and told her that my class was being disrespectful. She went in there right away and gave it to them. One of the girls, Holly (the one that called me the name under her breath) was even in tears.

This is where it gets awkward. The girls were very upset because I took their phones away. They said that they were just putting it on vibrate and I took it away for no reason. (Oh kids, how you are so cheeky) My director was trying to defend the kids (which is silly because the students shouldn't use their phones so it doesn't matter if I take them) about taking their phones, saying that I shouldn't have done it and that they were just putting on the "vibrator". She must have said "putting on the vibrator" about 20 times. I could feel my face burning up with embarrassment. No one had the slightest clue but me, however it was very uncomfortable.

The next class the girls did a complete 180. They are now back to the lovely young girls they were when I first met them. I hope it stays that way.

In another one of my classes we were playing a game. All of the students had their hands up because they wanted to go first. I picked a quiet little girl in the back. Kevin, up in the front was not happy about this and when I turned around to write on the board I felt a huge WHAP! on my back....not just a little love tap...I'm talking a full on swing and hit! This student hit me in anger! I brought him right to my directors office where he defiantly got in trouble.

Because I was sick and I had little to no energy I would usually start off my classes asking the students to be extra respectful because I was sick. Like I was saying in one of my earlier posts, I really do not like teaching at EASY Academy because of the lack of respect they students have for any teacher. This little story sums it up. Almost every class I had was very quiet and respectful when I told them that I was sick....with one exception..... my EASY Academy class. After I told them, a boy in the back yelled, "Yeahhh!!!!!! Teacher is sick!!!!!!!!!" At that moment there is nothing left to do but shake your head and realize this is the next year of your life.

Not all of my school stories are disasters. Of course it's only the bad ones that I remember, except this one. I have a class of very funny students. Every day they come in with different jokes and antics they play. In one of my earlier classes with them, when I was still learning their names, they all switched from their normal seats and took on different names. They kept that game up for about 3 classes. I still don't know if I call them by their right names. Well, the other day I walked into the class and every single one of them was hiding under the table. I played along with it for about a minute and they all came back up. 5 minutes later, as I was doing attendance I asked the students where May and Ellen were. They said they may be in the lab so I had one of students go search for them. I continued doing attendance and the detective student came back saying she couldn't' find them. I thought it was strange since I could have sworn that I saw them earlier. About 3 minutes go by and all of a sudden May and Ellen pop out from under the table. Ohhhh my gosh! I was dying laughing!

Hmm, what else is going on at school? Oh, at EASY Academy I asked Sunny, the head teacher, if I could change my classes from IMT which focuses on creative writing....yes....creative writing to students who can barely make a sentence in English (not the point) to the newspaper class. In the newspaper class my main objective is to get the kids reading and speaking in English while increasing their vocabulary. We use a newspaper translated into English. The class is very open ended and quite enjoyable. I'm hoping this will help me enjoy work a little more. I really dread teaching the IMT classes for many reasons, which I have probably already stated about 1,000 times. I went from having 5 of those classes to 1. I'm very happy about it.

Every 2 months we need to do reports on the students. This means imputing test scores and writing reports  for each student. It's basically a glorified report card. Dave and I find it a little silly and a waste of time to write descriptions for each child when their parents can't read English. It's just another one of those thing at school that doesn't make sense. They are the biggest pain the the but because nothing is in English! We have to memorize which buttons to click and hope for the best! The other hard part of the task is trying to find their personal folders which are strewn about the school. I can't tell you how many Alice's, Amy's, and Stella's there are. It's difficult to try to sort through everything. It's okay though. We only have to do this every other month and our co-workers are extremely helpful.

In more exciting news, we are starting to think about our travels after Korea!!!!! Well, Dave is doing a lot of it while I rest, recover, and knit. The rough plan is to travel through Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Thailand) then spend a few months in India and Nepal. If money permits we are also thinking about Indonesia. We are doing rough budgets, time lines and general look over. We are getting really excited even though it is a year away.

Quirky Korea Part I

We have official been in Korea for a month now there are many new things we must get use to. The cultural differences are huge and small and run the gamut from just different, interesting, or hilarious to admittedly strange, weird, and also hilarious. This is home for the next year though so we need to get with the program. Here is a list of things we find funny, strange, awesome, or just plain interesting about Korea.

First, Koreans drive on the same side of the road as we do in the States and just like in any city drivers are a  bit aggressive, but at times there seem to be a lack of what we would call, "Rules of the Road." There is a light that we walk past on our way home from work that people fly through every night despite if its green or red. All taxis honk at you to offer a ride/ask for a fare. People take U-turns where ever they please. As you might imagine, pedestrian awareness in such an environment is not at the top of the list.

Also, in true Asian style, there are delivery people on scooters flying around everywhere. Rules do not apply to these scooters at all. They are allowed on the road and the sidewalk and weave in and out of cars and people with seemingly no intention of stopping for anyone. They just fly around at light speed making deliveries and being invincible.When you get deliveries in Korea they are made with real dishes and plates. When you are done you just put them outside your door and the delivery guy will come back later and pick them up (presuming no one has stolen them first). This cleared up the confusion as to why our neighbors left dirty dishes in the hall. Oh yeah,  McDonalds delivers. Now you don't even have to walk to your car, we will bring obesity to your door!

On our walk to/from work we walk through a park on a walkway/bike path. It is not a large park but a long extended one adding some pleasant atmosphere to the walking/bike path. This path extends all the way to the other side of the city and along the way there are a series of "work out stations." They aren't quite gyms but 5 to 8 exercise machines for people to use while casually walking around the city. There are no weights or electronic machines but all prison workout machines and you can always find old folks working on their abs out there. Sort of like a less cool Muscle Beach Gym.

Also, in the section we walk to work, there is a miniature golf course. And by mini golf I don't mean windmills and waterfalls but a legit golf course with shortened holes that people can play in this fairly small park. We have yet to see anyone play but the warmer months are still to come. Golf is incredibly popular but space is limited in this small country so golf courses are quite expensive. As an alternative screen golfing and driving ranges are very popular.

Also popular is wearing American sports gear. We see loads of Red Sox, Yankees, and Indian hats. Sweatshirts that say, "Boston Massachubits" (which we want desperately). They have no idea what the teams are, or possibly even where they are from, but they sure are cool to wear, sort of like pink Red Sox hats.

Also popular are noraebangs (literally: singing rooms) which are personal karaoke rooms that people can rent. There is a big screen with videos playing that hade nothing to do with the song, where it has a music video or not. Sometimes the video is just views of mountains while singing Sean Kingston. Your voice is distorted a little bit to save you some dignity as well. They have rooms for everything though: Wiibangs (Wii rooms) , PCbangs (computer rooms), jjimjillbangs (Korean spas), DVDbangs (DVD rooms where teenagers make out).

Noraebang = Ballin'

One of our favorites is the lack of garbage cans. When you have trash or recycling you just bring it outside and put the trash bag on the sidewalk. No need for a trash can at all. Food compost goes into the 1 trash can for the 90 or so apartments in our building, trash goes in bags, and recycling just goes on the sidewalk. No one seems to know what Trash Day is so we just bring it out whenever the apartment starts to smell. This naturally gives the city a nice aroma of garbage at times. Sometimes you are just enjoying a walk on a nice day with a nice breeze when you are suddenly punched in the face with the smell of hot garbage. Can't wait for summer.

Not really sure where the line between proper garbage disposal and littering is drawn.

The concludes Part 1 and Part 2 will be coming soon where we will discuss tie died dogs, toilets, and prostitution. 

Korean Mountains & American Bars

This past weekend Lindsey and I took a trip cross town to Yudalsan Park. Yudalsan (or Mt. Yudal) with our friends Keegan and Kirsten. We hadn't been to the other side of the city yet but it was awesome! It is referred to as Old Downtown since our side of the city is the "new, hip" area but Old Downtown is plenty interesting. It is a more condensed set of busy streets that you can get lost in like a maze. There are shops on every corner and streets venders everywhere. Even ladies selling puppies in a box...

There are also these really awesome arch ways over most of the streets that light up different colors at night. We will be going to see these this coming weekend.

Before exploring the Old Downtown area though we hiked up Mt. Yudal. The park is on the westside (flashing westside gang sign) of the city near the ocean. Almost immediately you are provided with a view of the whole city that just gets better and better as you go. It is not a hike as much as a nature walk up stairs. As you ascend there is a stature of some General who's name I can't recall who beat up on some Japanese ships long ago and several asian gazebos designed like temples. It is about a half hour stroll to the summit where you get 360 views of the city and the water along side the craggy mountain top. As always there are plenty of other people around. 

That afternoon we did our weekly venture into the world of Korean grocery shopping (which never goes quite as we expect) and that evening we went to Moe's Bar, one of the foreigner bars here in Mokpo (the other being New York). Surprisingly on a Saturday night there were little to no foreigners in the bar but mostly Koreans everywhere, as usual. The bar is a short walk from our apartment and themed after Moe's Bar on the The Simpsons but is disappointingly nice in comparison to the Homer Simpsons trashy second home. They have nice couches with tables to sit on while they blare American music. We went with Keegan and Kirsten again and just spent the night drinking and chatting until we realized it was well past our bedtimes. 

Sunday was mostly spent relaxing around the apartment. We explored some side streets for a Korean BBQ for lunch and ended up at a slightly disappointing place. We were starving though and would have eaten anything. Dave went for a bike ride along the bike path all the way to the Old Downtown area on the other side of the city while Lindsey got her knitting fix (its never enough). Then that evening Lindsey went to the foreigners Book Club and met several other people teaching here in Mokpo. She had a really good time and it was great to meet more people in the city that we can actually communicate with. We both finally got into the foreigners group on The Book and joined a snowboarding club. So we are beginning to branch out and build social lives here. Spreading out wings if you will.

On the work front, some of Lindsey's evening classes have been canceled while the kids study for some standardized tests. Also, our lesson plans aren't detailed enough and we need to hand them in in the beginning of the day so after we spend too much time writing these detailed lesson plans we can't use them in class. Not to thrilled about that but oh well, we only have to write them for the first 6 months!

FUNNY KID QUOTE:
Dave - "Ok everyone, what do you see in the picture?" (Picture is of a white man serving 2 white kids ice cream)

Kid - pointing at the white man "I see a cracker!"


How that kid knows that term I don't know but it was easily the highlight of my day!!!

Wolchulsan National Park

This past weekend we had our first experience in the Korean mountains. We went to Wolchulsan National Park which is just an hour or so south of Mokpo with our co-worker Cody. The weather wasn't the best but the park was beautiful non the less and the hike was great fun. It was cloudy and foggy all morning so there were no spectacular views to be seen and aww and ohhh at but it was a cool feeling to be surrounded by clouds. There were temples and an amazing bridge that links 2 ridges. With the fog it looked like the bridge went to nowhere. We thought we were taking the "easy" trail but discovered rather quickly that we had taken a wrong turn for the more difficult "dangerous district." Thankful we survived to summit the mountain just as it began to rain. We managed to have a bit of a snack and enjoy our accomplishment before descending to escape the rain. It stopped pretty soon and we enjoyed our hike back down. Occasionally stopping to give our shaking legs a break. As we got closer to the parking lot the sun began to shine more and more and it turned out to be quite a nice afternoon once we finally finished. We had a great day though! Plus we got to know Cody much better which was awesome and we got to teach him American sayings such as, "slow poke," "buns of steel," "we look like bums," and "I am fat and tired." After we had conquered the mountain and the elements we enjoyed our lunch amount the yellow and red foliage. As we finished the mountains emerged from the disipating clouds and we were treated to some beautiful views. We got the best treat as the sun past behind the summit of the mountain before we left. The bus ride home was a serious struggle to stay awake which we all failed at.

The Korean hiking experience is very different because there are so many people!! There were hundreds of people on that mountain and it wasn't even great whether. Cody said if it was nice there would maybe be double. Plus, all of the people are decked out in all of their outdoor gear. Everyone is wearing the nicest and newest gear in awesome colors. Koreans very much care about their appearance and it is no different in the woods.

And there I am naked...

On Sunday night I went to my first Korean bath house, or a Jimjilbang. It was quite the experience. After our long day of hiking I was ready to go to bed at 8 o'clock until my Director texted me asking if I still wanted to go to the Jimjilbang. As you could imagine, I was very nervous about this (if you don't know why now...you will when you read further). I decided to bite the bullet and do it. How awkward could it be? So my director picked me up at 8:30. One of the first things she said to me was, "wow, you are very giddy right now," and I explained that I get giggly when I'm nervous hahaha

First of all,  I was obviously very new to this Korean tradition. I didn't know what to do or where to go. It was a hard balance of trying to follow my director and other people and see what they were doing, yet not starting and watching their every move. I pretty much mimicked my director for the 2 1/2 hours. What ever she did, I did. Where ever she went, I went. It proved to be a very good method because I did not make a fool of myself.

So, when we walk into the jimjilbang we take off our shoes and place them in a little shoe locker, pay, get a "uniform" and head to the actual locker room. The locker rooms are separated by gender. This is where the naked-ness began. There were tons of women anywhere between age 5 through 70 walking around. My director and I found our lockers and we did what all the other women did. Got naked. There I am, walking around with my boss and about 50 other women, naked! Ahhhh!  So before we could do anything we had to take showers in the shower room. The room is long and on adjacent walls there are multiple showers in a row. I didn't bring my shower supplies so I had to share with my director. We picked showers that were side by side and soaped up. She then asked me if I wanted to use her scrubby face cloth and I politely declined. Then she started washing my back! I could have died! When in Rome...so after she washed mine, I washed hers. It gives me, personally, a new meaning to the phrase, "You wash my back, I'll wash yours"!

After our showers we walked to a different room with about 4-6 large hot tubs. In these hot tubs you sit and relax (still naked) with your friends and also other people you don't know. This room also has a swimming pool with cooler water and a little play poo for the little kiddies. We spend about 10 min the hot tub. From there we went to a sauna room and sat and chatted for a few minutes. She was explaining to me the different services for an extra fee that the jimjilbang provides such as massages and exfoliation stations. From the sauna we watched a woman get exfoliated (sounds dirty doesn't it? hmm.... it almost makes sense because we are all naked....what a conundrum) Anyway, at the exfoliation tables a woman takes a rough hand mitten type thing and rubs your whole body, yes, everything...front and back with her scrubbing mitten.

After our sauna session, we took another quick shower and got dressed in our uniforms that were given to us when we paid. It is a pink tee-shirt and long shorts combination (the men get blue ones). My director told me that I should put on my bra so the men won't look. I got dressed in the very tiny shorts that were just a bit too small and a very baggy shirt. We headed upstairs to the sauna floor which is co-ed. It is a big open room with 2 big water fountains, massage chairs, TV's and a bunch of mats and pillows on the floor. Also, it's decorated with a bunch of gemstone murals. It is very beautiful and peaceful. There is a separate room for eating and purchasing food too. We bought a bowl of persimmon juice (the local fruit. It's tastes similar to an apple but it looks like a tomato) and a few baked eggs (yes, baked). We sat in the common room for a bit while she explained the different sauna rooms. There were about 6 or 7 different rooms, each with a different theme and temperature for health. The first room we went into was the salt room. I can't remember what the temperature was but it was HOT! The room was decorated with various stones and flowing pictures, all very serene. There were straw mats that lined the floor. Underneath the mats were big crystals of salt. It was really cool! The salt in the room is supposed to help make your bones grow stronger. We spent a bit of time in there and we sweat like dogs! Oh my word! I could just feel the sweat dripping off of every bit of my body! It sounds gross, but it actually felt good. After what seemed like 20 hours, we went back to the common room, drank our persimmon juice (I need to find out the actual name of the drink) and headed to the next sauna room. This one was not as hot, but still boiling. I don't know what the theme of the room was but it was very beautiful. This room was filled with about 10 different gems forming pictures of mountains and a big yin yang on the ceiling. We just layed in this room, relaxed, and stretched our muscles. She taught me a trick to always face the wall when you are laying down, otherwise people can see up your shorts hahahah Once we were done in that room we went back out to the common room and went into our third and final sauna room. This one was bigger than the others and it was a whopping 72 degrees celsius (thats 162 fahrenheit for all of you friends back home) We only spent 5 min in that one, thank goodness! I could have literally died in there! We finished up our baked eggs and juice and went back downstairs to take one last shower. After our shower my director wanted to put some lotion on her face. She insisted that I shared with her and put someone my face. I use the term "some" loosely because I must have but 6 different lotions on my face! I'm not a women of beauty either so I felt like I was pampering myself. After that, she dropped me off back at my apartment.

Boy was that an experience. As weird as it sounds, I actually enjoyed it. It's not weird being naked around 50 other women if they're all naked too. The jimjilbang is a traditional Korean pastime and I want to embrace the culture around us.

When I got home I felt rather sick. I felt very nauseous. I think it was a combination of dehydration and getting used to sitting in a sauna for more than 5 min at a time. For the first half of the night I slept on our couch, just in case. In the end I felt better after a little bit of rest, and I spend my second half of the night in our bed.

Other side notes about the jimjilbang.....

- I bet you're wondering what me and my director talked about during this time. The memory stands out the most when we were both lying our sides, facing each other and asked me why I liked Dave and if I want to marry him. We talked about a range of topics such as health, friends, family, pets, etc. It is a bit hard to communicate with her because her English isn't the greatest, but it also not the worst. We had some good conversations and I learned a lot.

- Jimjilbangs are also a place where you can sleep for the night. It is $8 to get in and they have separate areas designated for sleeping.

- Because children are allowed in the jimjilbangs, sometimes we may see our students and their parents there! My director says when she sees them, it is the one time she gets shy. Could you imagine if I ever saw a student while I was on the first floor? I don't even want to think about it! hahahah

There are many differences between Korea and home but we love it!

Our First Full Week At School

It's official, we are teachers. We have our own classrooms, own students, we give tests and correct them. So this is what it is like to be on the other end of crazy children's antics....

E Bo Young Talking Club is very small. There are 6 classrooms, each with one large table and 10 chairs. We have small classes, anywhere between 3 and 9 students. There are a range of levels starting with Phonics (which we don't teach), A&B's (low level) all the way to Talking Master Juniors (high level). We both have Korean co-teachers who teach half of the material in the units. We teach the conversation and listening aspects of English and our co-teachers teach grammar and writing.

On Wednesdays we have weekly meetings at E Bo Young. This week's Dave and I were told that we need to make lessons plans before every class and hand them in to our Director. We also have to start listening to the students dialogue that they record in the computer lab. In the beginning of each unit they gave a cheesy dialogue they must listen and record it. We must listen to their recordings to make sure they are pronouncing the words correctly. The funny part of Wednesday's meeting was that our Director conducted 1/2 of the meeting in Korean! Dave and I just sat there not having a clue ha ha

Oh! I forgot to mention that we do not wear shoes in our school. WE WEAR SLIPPERS ALL DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How awesome is that?!?!

As for whether or not we like it so far...Dave enjoys it. I, on the other hand, am not enjoying it as much as I had hoped. I am getting very frustrated with several parts of the job. First, Dave and I have 2 different schedules. We both work at E Bo Young from 1-6, teaching lessons from 2:30-6. At 6 all of the teachers get a dinner break. From here Dave has 1 more class at E Bo Young from 6:30-7:15. This is not the case for me. I have an additional break from 6:30-7:15. At 7:15 I have to go over to Easy Academy and teach 2 additional classes. I get out at 8:45 every night. Dave gets out at 7:15. I find this incredibly frustrating because I have little to no time to get anything done. On Friday's though, Dave teaches 2 classes at Easy Academy until 9:30. This is the one time a week in which I get an hour and a half to get some work done.

Another reason why I am frustrated is because Easy Academy is a totally different system, in turns, ends up being extra work for me. The classes are harder to teach because they are middle schoolers and naturally do no want to be there. Also, there is even less structure than E Bo Young so I have no way of keeping on track, or assessing how the students are doing. I just teach from the book and hope for the best. The students are placed in levels that are far beyond what they should be in. The material that I am teaching them is so over their head. The are not comprehending anything I am saying. (language barrier aside) Im finding it mentally taxing because for and hour and a half straight I talk and talk and talk but nothing is sinking in. I need goals in order to be motivated. I find it mentally draining not having standards, assessments, or even any feedback. It really gets me down. I'm sure things will get better when I get used to the system and figure a few things out. I really enjoy the kids and I think there are a lot of positives to the job too. It could always be worse!

On Friday we had to accompany our Director to the immigration office to fill out paperwork. First, on our way over, she told me that they found something wrong with my heart when they took my physical. I said "WHAT?!" and she said, "yes, your heart, there is something wrong with it," So I got worried! She then ended the conversation with, "it was a joke." Veryyyyyy funny Director! hahahahahaha I could have had a heart attack (pun very much intended)

After the joke session we got really serious, real quick....she asked me if I would like to join her in a traditional Korean bath house on Sunday. I asked her if I had to get naked and she said yes! hahahah I'm going to do it! It will be an experience.


We have decided to end every post with funny things our kids say

-They like to joke about dying. If a student is missing in class and we ask where they are, a typical response is either, "they died!" or they went to "sky town"

- We were reviewing a picture of a park with a few people walking about. When I asked a boy to explain what was happing in the picture he told me that a man is stalking the girl. I don't know where he got the word "stalker" from, or even the idea of a man stalking a woman.

-Dave was teaching likes and dislikes in his class and he asked a student something he doesn't like and his response was "I don't like beer"

-One student told me that I looked like her aunt. I asked her where her aunt was from and she said Korea. I asked her if she was from Korea and if she is Asian. She said yes. Hmm....I usually get "you look like someone I know" but this is a first....an Asian look alike!

- I asked a girl in my class to explain a word to me and she told me in Korean. I said to her, "I don't speak Korean!" and her response was "I don't speak English!!!!!" haha


P.S. we are looking into a vacation for the winter. Our options: China, Japan or Hong Kong. Any suggestions?

Ends Up We Have to Work Here...

After our relaxing weekend came to a close Monday rolled around and we had to start work! Surprisingly, we weren't feeling very nervous at all. Our first day was a test day. The classes run for month long terms and we had to give the end of the month Speaking Tests. Our predecessors, Luke and Kristy, told us that this would be a crazy, stressful day but it was ridiculously easy! The kids come in, you give them the test, and one by one you bring them into the hallway and ask them the same 5 questions over and over again until its time for the next class. We wish everyday was test day!

One question we asked was, "What is wrong with me?" and then we had to act like we have a headache. Dave asked one student and his answer was, "Teacher is American" hahahahaha

We did have to actually teach one class at the end of the day. Our Director owns 2 different academies: E. bo-youngs Talking Club and EASY Academy. We primarily work at the Talking Club but in the evening we have to walk 2 buildings down and teach 1 or 2 classes a night. The kids at Talking Club and very young and more fun to work with because they are full of energy and are willing to participate in class and the activities. The EASY academy kids on the other hand are 14ish and it is like talking to a brick wall! There is a newspaper class that we both teach and the whole class is the kids reading from a teen newspaper. When you ask them what the article is about or what words mean or say anything they just stare at you and it is a bit frustrating.

So our first day was pretty easy but on Tuesday we had to teach classes all day. Our day began with going to the hospital with our Director. We had to get physicals in order to get our Foreigner IDs. The government needs to make sure we are healthy and not crackheads. We had to get x-rays for the physical and the doctor wanted Lindsey to take her bra off because of the wires. His way of communicating this was to cup his hands around his imaginary big boobs and bounce them up and down hahaha
We can't really do anything (like open a bank account) until we have those IDs and they will take around a month to get! Plus it cost us each 80,000 won (around $75USD) so that was a surprise but hopefully they will come soon.

Then our Director took us out for a delicious lunch. We can't remember what it is called but you get loads of veggies and thinly sliced meat and boil it in water to make a broth. After you have eaten all of the veggies and meat you then add noodles and a dumpling to the broth to make a soup and even after that you add rice and spices to make the last dish. Director also gave us a crash course in Korean manners. For example, the youngest person should always pass out the chopsticks and pour everyones water and set the table, you cannot start eating until the eldest has taken their first bite, and when handing something to or receiving something from an elder you must use 2 hands. Conversation at times was a little hard but it was delicious and a good time despite having to sit on the floor which we fear will never, ever, ever become comfortable. Our legs fall asleep and Dave isn't flexible enough to cross his legs under the table.  

Once we arrived to school 45 minutes late (aka you have 30 minutes before class starts). We had to look over over our new schedules, see what classes we had, and get ready for the 5 classes that we have in a row. When we went to find the teaching books for the classes we had we were told that the school may not have them aka they don't have them! There is very little direction given to us and it is presumed that we pretty much know everything or that Luke and Kristy trained us on everything in the 1 and a half days before they left. So for the majority of our classes we just had to use the kids books and make up the lessons as we went along. Some books have enough material but some literally have 1 page with 4 lines of dialogue on it and we are suppose to make a 40 minute lesson out of this! We end up playing a lot of games. The kids are helpful too. They know what they usually do and can help coach us through when we have a blank spot. We need to build up an arsenal of games and activities to do with the kids. We can make some up and wing it a bit but we need a solid base of activities we know work. We ask the Korean teachers lots of questions and they are generally really helpful but at the same time do not seem to notice the same level of disorganization that we do.

Some classes flew by and some dragged. Some classes had awesome kids and some were quite and boring but it isn't anything we aren't use to. Kids are kids, the only difference is these ones don't speak English very well. After the first couple weeks we will have a much better handle on things and will feel a lot better about it. Like all things it is a learning process.

Until next time....

Getting to Know the Place We Call Home

So the weekend has come and gone. The weekend was a part overwhelming, part relaxing, part very fun. On Saturday we went up stairs to meet a few of our neighbors. Their names are Kirsten and Keegan and they are from Washington and Oregon. They too are teaching at E Bo Young Talking Club however it is a different one in the city. They are super nice and we get a long with them very well. We hung out for a bit before Dave and I decided to tackle walking around the city for the first time.

We were hungry so we decided to pick a random restaurant and order Kirstens favorite meal, which come to think of, I can't remember exactly what it is. She told us we could walk into any Korean Restaurant and order it so we picked any restaurant and tried to order it. I was nervous about doing that for some reason so my reaction as we passed each restaurant was, "ummm let's go to the next one." Turns out we were in a Chinese Restaurant! hahahaha We ate there anyway. We couldn't read the menu so we just pointed to a random thing on the menu and hoped for the best. What we got was a seafood soup, chow main type dish, some fried things which we are not too sure of what they were, and a mix of side dishes. It was very delicious, but not what we were looking for.

After eating Chinese food in Korea we went on our first grocery shopping adventure at E Mart, and what an adventure that was!!! It was a big supermarket type store full full of tons of food (obviously....we were in a supermarket). First of all there are tons of people hosting sample stations, similar to Costco back home. But, the kick is here, all of them are yelling about their products to you. At one point Dave and I were checking out the dumplings in the frozen food isle and there were 2 samplers at each end and they were both yelling at us to buy their brand of dumpling. They would point at the other one and make the "no" finger to say that we should buy theirs. We went with a neutral dumpling in the end. A lot of the sample girls are wearing very skimpy outfits too.

As we walked through the grocery store it was very frustrating not not be able to read or recognize anything. Absolutely nothing was familiar to us. In the end I think we bought laundry detergent, milk, cereal, and some chocolate biscuit thing. We have made a pact to buy something new and unfamiliar every time we go to the grocery store.

From there we headed back to our apartment and rearranged and completely organized it. It took a while but now everything is where it should be (you could only imagine how happy this makes me).

For dinner we met up with our new friends a Kristy and Keegan and had some delicious Korean BBQ! Oh my word! It was soooo good. The place had a cool rustic feel to it and vents above the table to prevent the place to get smokey. Also, like I was saying before about how the waiters do not come to the table often to check up on us, we just learned that on the tables they have door bell type things call the waiters when you need them. Its genius! After dinner we went to to a bar called Boomba which had $1.50 beers. We had a few and took a taxi home.

Sunday was relaxing. We hung around the apartment for a while before we walked around the city even more. We walked down to Peace Park by the water. Its beautiful and very industrial. In the distance there are a bunch of islands and mountains however there are tons of ships, factories and wires. I like it though. At the waterfront there is also a cool motel called The Queen Elizabeth. Its a ship! It's so funny. Here's a picture of it

We also found an abundance of children in little cars (similar to Big Wheels) only they were remote controlled! The parents would walk behind the children in the cars and they kids loved it! hahaha We thought it was so funny!

For lunch we went to a cool place where you cook your own meal (very common here) Instead of having a grill in front like the BBQ style, they give you a big pot of boiling broth. On the side there are various vegetables and a plate full of meat. There are varying degrees of spicy sauces that come with the meal too. The way you cook it is by dropping the food into the stew (including the meat) from there you take rice paper, dip it in a pinkish water and place it on your plate. Using tongs you take out what ever food you would like and place it in on your rice paper and fold it up like a little dumpling. It is so tasty! After you have cooked your food, you can also drink the soup that you have just created. Yum!

Until next time....

My first few days here in Mokpo

What a crazy few days it has been so far (would you think anything less?)

Our flights over here went rather smooth. We started in Boston and flew to JFK in New York. From there we had a direct, 14 hour flight to Korea. We arrived at the Incheon Airport outside of Seoul. We were greeted by Jiyyeon Kim from our recruiting agency. We sat with her for about an hour as we waited for our bus to Mokpo. She defiantly noticed Teddy hanging out of my bad and commented on him ha ha (Teddy is a big hit, what can I say?!)

Side story about the airport: While we were sitting in the airport in NY we were surrounded by Koreans.  There was a few ladies sitting across from eating a ton of food. One of them pulled out an apple and started ripping it apart (don't as me how). She broke of a few good sized hunks before it got too difficult. Her solution, bang the apple on the armrest of the chair! hahaha She hit it a few times and apple juice was flying all over. On the last time, she hit it, and the apple went flying across the floor! I could have died! A chunk flew off and then she offered it to her friend on the side of her. The friend didn't want it. haha

Once we got on the bus we spent the next 4 1/2 hours sleeping on the bus. When we arrived in Mokpo we met our Director at the bus terminal and she brought us to our new apartment!  She is a very kind person. She is easy to get along with and she seems like great person to work for. Not giving us any time, she told us that she will pick us up at 7:20 in the morning so we can go on a picnic.

I would like to take this time to tell you about our apartment. When you walk there is a tiny bathroom to your right. The bathroom consists of a toilet, a sink....that's it. Our shower nozzle is an attachment that comes out of our sink faucet that you can hang on the wall. There is a drain in our floor so essentially the whole bathroom is our shower. Everything gets SOAKED when you take a shower! Moving on through the apartment we have our living room equipped with a couch and a table with 2 chairs. Our kitchen is in the same room as the living room. Continiuing up the stairs we have our loft bedroom. We have a double bed on the floor, a table and a TV (which has 2 English channels). Being a loft, you can only imagine how high the ceiling is...not very! haha One other thing is that when we want hot water we need to press a button on a panel on the wall. When we are done we need to shut it off. In the winter time we have heated floors too (my dream come true)! We love it so much! Our new home is fantastic!

Low and behold, 7:20 AM we get a call from Director saying she is outside. She picked us up in her car and brought us to E Bo Young Talking Club to meet all of our co-teachers and Luke and Kristy who are the native speakers we are replacing. They are a wealth of information. We ate kimbap for breakfast, which is the Korean form of sushi. It was delicious! We took an hour and  half ride north to a beautiful park to go for a hike. All of the trees were changing colors and it was stunning! There were a few Buddist Temples with prayer lanterns hanging outside. As we were hiking we were getting to know our Korean co-teachers who are all super nice. I really enjoyed getting to know Claire and Jenny. We hiked for about an hour before we had to leave to get back to Mokpo. It was a great way to get welcomed into our new school.

For lunch we had Korean BBQ. It was very traditional. We took our shoes off at the door and we sat on the floor. Korea has many traditions that we are unfamiliar with, but we are quickly getting used to. When eating, the youngest person should poar the water for everyone, and we cannot eat until the oldest male, or person in charge has started eating. Koreans have a very communal way of eating. There are a bunch of different dishes on the table and everyone eats and shares from those dishes. With Korean BBQ the servers give us the meat and we cook it ourselves on the grill in the middle of the table. Instead of using knives, scissors are used to cut the meat (so genius). Also, one other thing that is different from the States is that the server does not come to you unless you call them. It's interesting.

From there we headed back to our school where we met Secretary Teacher and Driver Teacher. We introduced to them as that, and that is what we should call them. The kids call me "Lindsey Teacher" (it's very cute). We shadowed Kristy and Luke in the classes that we will be taking over. The kids had very funny reactions to the new teachers. It was a mix of curious, skeptical, scared, and excited. Their faces lit up when the saw us. They would yell and point at us, "Who's this!?" or they would timidly come around the corner and play a hide and seek game until we spoke to them. A lot of times they would say, "New Teacher!" The kids have a hard time pronouncing my name. Both Dave and I have to teach a series of 40 minute classes until 6 PM in which we have a dinner break. Dinner is always provided by our school, which is great. We didn't expect that at all. After dinner I have to go over and teach at the EZ Academy which is Directors new school that she opened up. Dave stays at E Bo Young. I'm not happy about this at all. First of all, I get out an hour and  a half later every night. Dave only works until 7:15 every night and I work until 8:40, except Fridays in which Dave works until 9:45 and I get out at 8:15. It's a really cooky schedule. I end up teaching more hours than Dave and the classes are more difficult and with no direction. Its a bit frustrating, but I have no room to complain.

We were exhausted by the end of the day. Director brought us home and we passed out within seconds.

The next morning we met Director, Luke and Kristy to switch their phones over to us. That took a while, and come to think of it, is pretty irrelevant to this story. After that we went to school to set up for the Halloween party. We went crazy! The place looked so spooky. We had a few different rooms set up; games, face paint, movies, costume, and scary. In the scary room we had different food that felt like human body parts. The kids loved it. The party was a bit crazy, but Dave and I are used to that with camp.

As a going away/ welcome present, Director brought us to a norebang. For those of you who do not know what this it, you need to know! It is the greatest thing ever! (waving my arms in the air like Nancy Lenhart). It's the Korean form of Karaoke. Norebang literally means singing room. In the room you hang out with your friends and sing together (as opposed to singing in front of everyone at the bar back home). There is a table, chairs, a huge screen, and microphones, and disco lights!!!! Using a massive remote control you can pick from a variety of songs. When the song comes on the disco lights go crazy. Also, on the screen there are very cheesy 80's videos playing in the background. They have the most outlandish themes. One of them looked like a home video of mountains. It is so much fun! Dave and I sang our first song together, Jessies Girl. Turns out I don't know any of the words except the chorus. It was intimidating getting up and singing in front of all of your new co-workers and your director! Director grabbed me at one point and handed me the tambourine and we started dancing together. As the time went on it eventually turned into everyone standing up and swaying back and fourth holding each other. At the end, Director got up there and told everyone to sit down and she belted out a balled like she was on American Idol (or the Korean equivilent) It was great to see everyone together having so much fun.

It has been a crazy couple of days and I am so so so excited to take this weekend to relax and take everything in. If there has ever been a time in my life that I have been completely overwhelmed it would be now. There is a lot to process between learning a new job, getting to know new people, dealing with the language barrier, not being able to communicate/ read anything, new culture and just change in general.


Everyone is very understanding and helpful. We are learning so much and experiencing even more. I am excited for our new adventure here in Korea. We have a lot of places to explore, a lot of friends to meet, a lot of food to try. I think it is safe to say that I am very easily falling in love with Korea.