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.