Land of the Morning Calm???????

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Hello!!!!!!!!!

TODAY IS PAYDAY!!!!!!!!!! Yippee!!! Well, I am somewhat excited because we will have money to actually live again, but also excited because we get to put our first big payment on our loans!! We are doing the TD Student Line of Credit first (since it is the biggest). We were laying awake in bed last night thinking about finally putting the money on these loans and we got so excited that we couldn't sleep!! Well, we just came out and watched TV for a bit more until we forgot about it and went back to bed.

Korea is known as "The Land of the Morning Calm." Really? I have been thoroughly annoyed these past few mornings. There is a new apartment building going up right next to ours. Well, in normal places, construction is not allowed to start until after a certain hour and they do not do construction on the weekends. This is not the case. These workers start their construction around 5-6am, banging on things, cutting things, throwing things, etc and not to mention the massive trucks that seem to have to rev their engines right by our window every few minutes. Why would we not close the window you ask?? Because it is so hot!! If we closed the window, I am sure that we would cook from inside out in our little apartment. So, thus we try and sleep through the noise. Kyle is able to sleep with earplugs in, so he is having a better sleep that I have been. I cannot sleep with something stuck in my ears. I always dream that they are bugs and I end up taking them out. Morning Calm?? I think not!!

I think we are headed into Seoul this weekend. Not sure if it is Saturday or Sunday, but we are going as long as plans don't change last minute (like the do so often). Also, tomorrow morning I am going to the LG store to buy myself a straightener. I feel so bad borrowing Terri's all the time. I am going to buy a Korea one so that it will not blow up on me again.

I am happy to be here, but at the same time there are so many things I miss about being home. I miss family and friends of course. Oh, and my kitties. I only talk about them all the time. I miss going to the grocery store and understanding what I am buying to eat, I miss people understanding me and me understanding them, I miss having a couch and I nice house to come home to. I know, this is all for the better and when we are done here our doors are open to so much more in terms of maybe buying a house or pretty much anything we want since we will be virtually debt free. I don't know, I don't think I am necessarily homesick right now, but I just miss the things I took for granted at home; like cheese, knowing where I am going, knowing which bugs are dangerous and which ones are not (they all look pretty freaky out here) and other stuff.

Speaking of bugs, we went walking on Sunday (we were babysitting Zak while Terri and Aarin went to the store) and we went up one of the big hills by our house. We heard there was some makeshift work out thingy at the top. So, we took Zak up there with us to investigate this. He had fun. On the way up I saw my first Korean spider. Now, I wasn't thinking much of it since it was fairly small, but as we got closer to the spider, it lifted up its front legs and ran from side to side facing us on the stair. Weirdest thing ever. It was kinda freaky, so we squished it. At least I haven't seen a Tarantula yet. Yes, they have them here. I do plan on going the entire year without encountering one.

Well, that it's for now. We miss you all.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!!!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Happy Birthday Mom!! We love you and miss you.

Nothing new...

Monday, May 26, 2008

Hey all...

So nothing is really new right now. We saw some army helicopters go over our apartment, they look like Apache helicopters. We could see the machine guns on them they were flying so low. We really haven't done much. We had a slow weekend because we just wanted to rest, but next weekend we are going to In-Sa-Dong (not sure if that is how it is spelled) in Seoul. It should be a good experience. We can get traditional tea and watch them make it and we can get our names done in Korea Script. Kyle's director is organizing the trip. It should be fun.

The long weekend in June, which is the 6-8, we are trying to go to Ulleungdo or Dokdo, which you have to go by ferry. They are two beautiful islands just off of the mainland. I hope we can arrange it. If the ferry tickets are all sold out, then we will just probably camp around here or something as long as the weather is nice.

I am going to go lay down. I have a headache from the kids tonight and my stomach isn't feeling 100% either. Ciao for now.

Short bit About Yesterday

Thursday, May 22, 2008

This is me making Korean Pancakes. SOOOO good.

Yesterday was a good day. Not much to say about it really though. I took some videos and some pictures of my classes. They were good sports about it too.If you haven't seen the video yet, then go down one more post and you will be able to watch it.

One exciting, or more frightening thing happened yesterday, well it is also extremely sad as well, but I was getting ready for work and need to fix a few kinks in my hair. So, as per usual, I plugged in my straightener with the converter and plug adapter. I waited for it to heat up and then walked out to the living room to use it. The second that I picked it up, it popped, like some blew up inside, scared me to death, I threw it across the room, forgetting that it was so hot, ran across the room to grab it so nothing caught on fire and then had a sad moment when I realized that my straightener is no more :( My good ol' straightener. It was like 4 years old or more, so it was going down hill. I think the converter wasn't working properly for some reason and it popped from all the power in the outlets here. I will just use Terri's for the next little while till I get paid and buy a new one, a Korean one till I get home.

My taxi ride yesterday was good too. Again, he was trying to speak in English so that he could talk to me, but he knew very little. He thought, once again and as everyone does, that I was Russian. No, I am not Russian and this is not a compliment here since 90% of the Russian women here are street workers. When I told him I was from Canada, he thought that I was Miss Canada. I thanked him, but no. Then a minute later he asked if I was a Miss or Mrs, when I told him Mrs, then he didn't really say much else the whole ride.

Anyways, I am going to run. You can view more photos by going to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=117780&l=dee21&id=652110787.

Video from Class 2-B

Here is my class 2-B saying Hi.

I am tired right now so I will write more and post some more photos in the morning when I get out of bed. Good night!!

Same Old Same Old

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Hello Again!!

So, the reason I haven't posted in a few days is really because nothing much is new. It's all the same old, same old. Kyle is sick with a cold, I think this morning he is finally starting to feel a bit better. His nose was so red for the last few days. We went out together for dinner last night, the first time that we went alone. It was a good feeling to know that we can function here and get around on our own without someone needing to tell us how to get there or how to order food.

We got a bill yesterday for either our water or gas, not sure since I cannot read it. All I know is that it is only $27.86. Doesn't seem too expensive too me. We also received our alien registration cards which tells the Korean government who we are and why we are here. It is nice to have them because now I do not have to worry about bringing my passport with me to just go to the grocery store. We just keep them safe now. Locked away. Kyle opened a bank account yesterday so that we can get paid. I guess they do direct deposit, which saves us the hassle of having to go to the bank every time to put the money in. We still will have to go each time to get them to transfer our money over to our home bank so we can pay off the student loans!! We are so excited to make our first big payments on our student loans. It will feel so good.

It's weird to think that we have been here in Korea for 3-4 weeks now. It went by really quickly. I was walking with Kyle yesterday and saying to him how weird it was to look at the GPS map on the plane and see where we were going and how it still feels so unreal that we are on this side of the world. It really does feel strange when I think about it and mostly because it doesn't feel out of place to be here. Well, besides the obvious not being able to read anything anymore.

I should run and go get ready for the day. To everyone at home.... good night. To everyone here... have a good Thursday!

Engrish!!

Monday, May 19, 2008

So I have decided that I will start posting some pictures of hilarious translations into English. I am getting these pictures from a really funny website called Engrish. Now, if you do not want to spoil all my fun and just come to the blog to read them, that would be great!! Or you could be dumb and go to the site and spoil all my fun. There are some pretty inappropriate ones for kids on the site, so viewer's discretion is advised.

I have no idea about this sign. Pretty funny. It's from Japan.

My teaching tonight went really well. I had all my lessons planned out and prepared. I assigned tests to three different classes today. I don't think one of the classes appreciated it, but oh well. I need to make sure they are listening and learning what I am teaching. One of my classes, 3-A, was particularly not impressed even though I gave them 15 minutes of study time in class, which I never do. They abused the time though, so I am not sure if I will give them study time for that long again. They are my difficult class whom I have had to pull one student out to talk to a few times. Again today she was calling other students fat and stupid. I thought that kids here would be more well behaved, but I guess it is the complete opposite. Parents are the ones who discipline here and we are more supposed to be their friends. Well, that doesn't work so well all the time!! It was also my short day today. I only worked from 3:30pm-7:10pm. I still feel kind of bad since Kyle has to work from 2:00 till 9:15 basically everyday. BRUTAL!!

Here are some more funny signs, I think these are all from Japan. Ha ha ha.

Holocaust Apples

Saturday, May 17, 2008

We are currently sitting in our living room on our mattress couch with the windows open. This is not a new occurence or anything by any corner of the imagination. No, no, everyday, almost every single day we are disturbed by intercoms blaring from trucks driving through the city. One would immediately think that this is the Holocaust happening all over again, especially if you have no idea what they are saying through that intercom. They are yelling and they are repeating the same phrases over and over again. What pray tell is happening?

THEY ARE SELLING APPLES AND WATERMELONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enough to scare the crap out of you to sit on your couch and hear this stuff being announced that you do not understand. It sounds exactly like the Holocaust as portrayed in every single movie.

Great Movie

Thursday, May 15, 2008

We saw the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian last night. I LOVED IT!! It was soooo good. It was about 2 1/2 hours long and it felt like 30 minutes. I don't know, I guess it is just because I liked the books so much that I was guaranteed to like the movies. Anyways, I recommend it. I am so happy that they play movies in English here only with Korean subtitles. And... it only cost $7 to watch the movie, $5.00 for a large popcorn and two large drinks, and there was no one in the theatre besides our group and about 6 others. Pretty nice.

School yesterday was a challenge. Just my usual challenging students though. This time it went a little further in one class and really upset me. In my class with Hilary, Helen, Hannah, Billy and Nick the girls are always on a team together and they always slaughter the boys in the games. Mostly because the boys are shy and I think that Billy might have a slight learning disability. Anyways, I told them that the teams were going to be mixed today for the vocabulary review game. This is when it all started, I called out random names and said "Hilary and Helen you are with Billy and Nick, Hannah and myself are together". Hilary immediately started getting upset and therefore the other girls, normally well behaved, starting acting up as well. They started to say that they refuse to be on Billy's team because he is fat and stupid, they don't like him, and just really picked on him for his size. I was telling them the whole time that this is ridiculous and you are still on the same teams that I assigned and to apologize to Billy. Hilary got really mad at me and turned her back to me and ignored me. Well, we started the game with the teams that I made and I faced Billy because the other people would not. After about 10 seconds of giving Billy time to look for the word on the board I finally hit it myself. Hilary was so mad at Billy for not winning it that she started it all up again. I told them that for the remainder of the class there is no Korean, since all this was being said in Korean so I wouldn't understand, and if I hear any Korean being spoken to each other then I will give an "X" under behaviour in their report book for the day. I told Billy and Hilary to not speak to each other because they could be on the same team and not talk.

Not even 3 minutes later, they were swearing at each other in Korean. I told them to take our their stamp books, they pretended that they didn't have them, so I said bring them tomorrow or it is two X's. Two X's is really big because they have to explain to their parents why they had to X's and the school will call as well if I want them to. I told our secretary about the whole class and she said that my student is actually getting the same complaints in every single class. So, she was going to be spoken to today about her behaviour for almost the 11th day in a row. I just cannot believe the disrespect that the students have for each other and for me. I also had to put up with having students touch my stomach all day and ask me if I am pregnant because I am not as skinny as all Koreans are. Then when I say no, they say "just fat?" It gets tiring to deal with sometimes.

Other than those couple of things, my day was really good. My lessons went really well and my students listened, for the most part.

Tonight there is a going away party for one of the teachers here in Wonju and we are told that it would be good for us to go because there will be so many English Teachers there that it will be a good place to connect. I am not sure if I feel up to going tonight. I am exhausted from the whole week and being out late last night watching a movie that I might just stay home and hang out with Terri who is staying home to watch Zak. We will see though. I also want to go out for food. Sooooo hungry after work,

Hope everyone has a great day and Happy Birthday to Jake!!

Sweet Potato Cake??

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Teaching went well yesterday. It was my long day. I started at 3:30pm with my favourite class, 1-A, with the cutest little girl. Her name is Yuna. When we first started she barely knew the alphabet. Now she only struggles with a couple letters. She used to just repeat everything that I said, so when I would say "Hello, my name is Amy" and try and get her to say "Hello, my name is Yuna" she would just keep saying "Hello, my name is Amy". It was really cute. Now she knows and say hello and good-bye to me whenever she sees me. I thought the beginner class would be the one that would take the longest and it may be the one I have the most trouble planning for, but I love that class.

My next class was 1-B, just one level above the previous class. I have a brother and sister in this class and they are always disruptive. Yesterday they were colouring on each other, tearing up worksheets, throwing things, hitting each other, screaming, running around, knocking down chairs, etc. Today, if they do the same thing I will make them sit apart because when they get like this they make everyone else act up. They also never pay attention to anything that I say, so I am always choosing them for readings to make sure that they are listening.

Break time, if only for 10 minutes, was much needed at this point. I ran away to the teacher's lounge and just sat with the door shut and had a cookie and a juice box!

2-A is a class of just two people. Angela, who is too shy to speak and Jason, who all the other teacher's do not like his English name because it reminds them of Friday the 13th and the serial killer. They would have preferred the name Harry. For some reason, I just could not bring myself to call this kid Harry. That class drags on a little bit, but it isn't bad once they start participating.

2-B was loud yesterday, but I had a lot of fun with them. In this class I have 9 students; Gloria (the very loud girl who is always waving hi right in my face), Rora, Julia, Cindy (very shy girl, but very sweet), Sarah, Louis, John, David, and Tom. The boys in this class are bad too. They are always mocking me. Whenever I say "Okay!! Everybody listening!!" they say it back in a mocking tone. I guess this isn't too far from normal. I know I have it a lot easier than the female teachers at Kyle's school. They get called fat and ugly all the time. I just cannot imagine this happening at home. We played a really fun vocabulary game in this class and the boys were winning 8-2 but then the girls had a huge comeback and ended up winning the whole thing. It was really fun to watch.

Another break... very much needed. I made sure to have a coffee.

3-A was my next class, 3 students; Billy, Nick, Hillary, Hannah, Helen. The girls in this class are very talkative and all they want to talk about is their favourite boy band, Korea's infamous Big Bang! I came into class one day and they had posters of Big Bang posted all around my classroom. Whenever I need to get their attention I just say "Big Bang" and they are quiet waiting to hear what I have to say about them. The boys are very quiet, but I think that is mostly because the girls do not give them a chance to talk and when they do talk the girls make fun of them. I am trying to get this teasing to stop, but it is proving very difficult. When I talk to John, he says that similar things are always happening in his classes too with his students. He is always counting down every single day!!

3-B is a fun class. The boys again are difficult and always try and make the girls laugh. A couple of the students have crushes on each other, so it makes for some interesting times in the classroom when I pair people together. Yesterday we read a dialogue in the text book and then did some class discussion questions. I didn't really feel like going on in the text book, so we just talked and had class discussion on many things for the whole 40 minutes. That is fine though because it is a conversation class and everyone who spoke had to give their input in English.

Then I was a given a cake by one of my student's parents because today is Teacher's Day. Supposedly we will get a bunch of stuff today. I was so excited to get the cake because it was my long night, so we shared it in the teacher's lounge. As if it wasn't bad enough to try and eat cake with chopsticks when you are starving, but then when I finally got a bite of the cake, it was a sweet potato cake. Ew!! I then pretended I was full and made the other teachers eat it all.

My last class was very long... I only teach this class 4-A once a week, on Wednesdays, and it was definitely a long class. This is the class where the students do not want to be there and they are only there because their parents literally pushed them through the school doors and watched them walk into their classroom. They are so quiet so I just make them read everything and write everything in the textbook that it says to do. So hard to get them to participate when the boy sits there hitting his head on the table and writing as lightly as possible in his book so you cannot see what he is writing, but he is at least getting the work done and the girls just look at the clock and their watches and have friends yelling from outside the window to them.

I was happy to get home last night. I had some rice and noodles and an ice cream. Watched Medium and went to bed. Woke up around 9:45am. I think I am finally over my jetlag. YAY!!

Tonight, we are going to watch Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian at the theatre. They play it in English with Korean subtitles, like all English TV here, so I have become accustomed to it.

I need to go prepare for tonight and eat something. Ciao for now.

Not Much New...

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Kyle enjoying his Galbi!! Yummy!!














This is us getting ready to have Galbi. You can see Zak and Terri and some of Arran's arm.

They bring out hot coals and put them in that bowl in the middle and then a rack goes over the bowl. The smoke hood comes down and they you cook the Bulgogi. It is soooo good.













Not much is new right now. We both went to teach tonight. It was one of my short nights (I keep losing my Monday night short night because of long weekends, but I guess that is better!!). I am not sure what the plan is for tonight or if we are even doing anything.

My director had read over Matt's resume and has sent him the contract to begin working at the beginning of August and to be here at the end of July. I am so excited to have him working with me when John leaves. Very excited.

Yesterday, we didn't post on here because we really didn't do anything. We got up, sat around, planned for today's classes, slept, ate ice cream and then went over to Terri and Arran's to visit and have some spaghetti. It was a good day all in all, but for some reason I am still tired. We even were able to sleep in today until 10:20am!! That's the latest yet!!

Teaching was good tonight. A couple of my students are still trying to get through without listening to me and doing their work. They always pretend they forgot their books at home so they will not have to do the work, but I just say I am going to make photocopies and then the books magically appear on the table. I started a new textbook with one of my classes tonight and they seem completely disinterested in it, but it is the text assigned and I have to use it. At least since I have been using it for one of the other classes, I can use the same lessons again and maybe make them a bit harder. That makes my life a little easier.

It rained here today, I guess this is just a warning that monsoon season is starting in a month. Not very excited about that, but I know it will still be nice and warm after monsoon season ends. Also, when Matt gets here he will have missed the majority of monsoon season. Lucky him. We are planning on going into Seoul soon. I am not sure when, hopefully after payday so that we can actually afford to go. I am having the hugest craving for Shabu Shabu right now. I think I will see if anyone wants to go for it tonight. It's so cheap. I will also try and take some pictures so you can see what it is!!

Other than all of that babbling, there is nothing going on. Cleaned the house, made spaghetti, went to work, did the laundry (I miss having a dryer and an oven) and nothing else. I am really missing having my cats around. It is sad coming home and not having them greet me at the door. I saw some really sad stray cats the other day. It broke my heart. Koreans are afraid of cats though. They believe that if you cross a cat or do something to anger it, it will take revenge on you ten fold. So, they would prefer just not to be around cats. There are also many Korean folk tales about evil cats, so that doesn't help.

Good night all.

Gangeung, The East Sea/Sea of Japan, and Ojukheon

Sunday, May 11, 2008

One of the beautiful houses at Ojukheon












Kyle and I at Ojukheon

















This is the Sea of Japan/East Sea










We're back!!

So, we got in about an hour ago. The trip was good, but we have a couple of stories.

First, the bus ride in took FOREVER. There was an accident in the tunnel which also happened to be the longest tunnel I have ever been in. Then, the traffic was backed up as far as the eye could see. So, our bus driver took a short cut and got off the highway and took some back roads till he got past all of the traffic and then got back on the highway. It saved us probably over 2-4 hours of traffic congestion. The scenery on the ride from Wonju to Gangeung was gorgeous. The mountains that we live in are so lush with trees and it is a very relaxing ride. The roads are great as well.

We arrived into Gangeung about 40 minutes later than we were supposed to and made our way to the tourist information so they could help us find our hotel. We asked them, they snickered, and pointed across the street. Well, we thought that was the only reason they were snickering. The hotel looked fine, kind of weird, but we assumed it was just a Korean thing, and went to our rooms. Well, boy were we wrong. Now, we had someone at Kyle's work book the hotel for us. The office manager. She is kinda crazy, but this was really funny. We walked into our room to a photo stuck on our table of all sorts of sex positions and something called a "Love Foam". We then realized, that all the fluorescent lights were not "just something Korean" but we were staying in a Love Hotel. Ha ha ha ha. We laughed so hard about it. Anyways, we were so grossed out about everything that we just didn't want to touch anything at all. Zak was climbing all over the love foam that had stains on it. But the grossness did not stop there but I also will not get into it. So gross. Anyways, we slept there and then left in the morning.

So, we went out for lunch when we got there after walking around for an hour trying to find some place decent and we finally found a place for Galbi. We were so excited. The food was amazing. It was the best beef that I have had in a looooong time. Turned out, when we got the bill, it was the most expensive beef I have had in a long time. The bad thing about some restaurants here is that the prices are not listed anywhere and you just order and then pay. Normally, Galbi costs us $11 per person for A LOT of beef and side dishes. It's so good. We got our bill, it was 98,000 Won. Which is equal to $98 CDN. Holy Crap!! We paid it and left and we were bitter about it the whole trip.

We then headed back to the hotel and got our cameras and caught a cab to the beach. It was so cold down there, but it was beautiful. They drive the speed boats ride up on the beach there! It's crazy to watch. It was cold so we didn't stay there long. You can see pictures at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=114350&l=3031d&id=652110787 of the whole trip. We then went back to the tourist information place and asked where we could go for dinner that was not $98 and we ended up eating at Pizza Hut. It was great. Cheaper than home and it hit the spot. We would have had Galbi again had it not been so expensive.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and hung out for a bit. Terri and I talked about being married and how nice it is to have another married couple around that's the same age and we talked about family and Zak. It was good. The guys ran to the store to get something to drink and then came back. After that we went to bed.

The next day, which is today, we went to Ojukheon, a memorial park. It was beautiful there. The architecture is phenomenal and the gardens are beautiful. We walked around in there for a while and looked at everything. So beautiful. Once again, you can see the pictures at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=114350&l=3031d&id=652110787. We laughed a lot at all the misspelled things in English and all the bad translations. The sign said "menorial" not "memorial". Another sign finished a sentence with saying "These were erected to honour the selfless acts that" and nothing after the word "that". It was funny. We think we should get paid by the government to go through their national parks and fix all these mistakes. We could make a fortune. We went for coffee and there was mistake there too, "calamel" instead of "caramel", "peprmint", instead of "peppermint", etc. It was great.

The bus ride home was much easier. We slept and there was no traffic. It took exactly 90 minutes to get home on the express bus. Looks like tonight we are having some other teachers over and going up on the roof of our building to have some drinks and enjoy the sun. It is at least 15 degrees hotter here than in Gangeung.

I know I missed a bunch of stories, but I am tired, I need a shower (since I refused to shower in the sketchy love hotel), and we are going out for cheap Galbi tonight since we do not have any groceries at the moment. It is cheaper to go out for food and bring home leftovers than it is to cook here. Still weird, I wish we knew that before we spent money on our groceries. Money is definitely tight this first month. We are hoping to make it through and still be able to pay our bills from home since we have to wait a whole month to get paid. The first month is so hard here.... so incredibly hard. In so many ways.

Hungover....

Friday, May 9, 2008

Kyle's boss took us all out last night and purposefully got us all drunk. In Korea whenever your glass is empty, someone has to fill it. She made us do shots so the glass was always being refilled and it is considered very rude to say no.

Day 10 = too much soju (tastes like varnish)
Day 11 = hung over and bus ride... blech

Kyle Starts Teaching Today

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Let's see.... yesterday was pretty good. My classes all went really well and Kyle seemed to have a good day as well. Kyle actually starts teaching officially today. He is pretty nervous, but I know that he will do great.

It looks as though our good friend Matt is going to come out here and live in Wonju as well. He has been offered a job at my school and I am helping organize everything. I am so excited that he is coming. He should be here in the end of July if everything goes according to plan.

Tonight is beer night. Which means that Kyle's boss is taking all of us out for beers and food. We are pretty excited and I guess the people that Kyle works with are excited to meet me. Well, at least those who have not already. We won't stay out long tonight though because we are heading to the East Sea tomorrow and we do not want to be tired or sick for the express bus and just the time that we are there. We are so excited!! We are staying over night for only $40 CDN. It is really cheap. Hopefully we also make it up to one of the National Parks and see the large temple and the scenery up there. There will be lots of pictures by the time we get back.

There will not be any updates till we get back on Sunday our time, which is Saturday your time in Canada. Well... hope everyone has a good weekend. We miss you all!!

Bulgogi Galbi

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

We went to the hospital yesterday to have our blood tests done and prove that we do not have HIV and that we are not on drugs. It was definitely an experience. We had to walk back and forth between two different departments about 5 times (no one would have noticed had we not been foreigners, but everyone noticed and kind of giggled). Also, there were A LOT of children there getting their yearly medical tests done for school. Anyways, so we finally get everything ready for us to go and get our blood taken out. We go downstairs to the place where they do it and there is a big line. We waited about 20 minutes. Now, getting your blood taken out in Canada or anywhere in the west, unless you are doing a blood drive, you get taken into a private room where no one can see you. Not here!! They made us sit down in the open and EVERYONE watched the two foreigners get there blood taken. It was really awkward. Then we had to pee in a cup. Well, we were not given the regular little cup that has a lid that you can screw onto it, we were given a paper drinking cup with our little label on it. No lid and just a line marked on it where to fill it.

So, once you have finished peeing in your cup, you must walk through the crowd, there are lots of people, with this open paper cup full of pee, and place it in a Styrofoam holder with everyone else's open cups of pee, in the same open place where we got our blood taken. No wonder it smelled like pee down there!! Gross!!!! I was so scared I was going to spill it and there was no possible way I would have been able to conjure up enough pee to fill up another cup. Needless to say, I was very relieved when I put the cup down.

We went out for Galbi last night. It was soooooo good. Galbi is the Korean word for BBQ. You sit at this round table and there is a vent above the table to suck up the smoke. They bring out some coals and turn the table on to heat them up. After that, they bring out the meat, little strips of bulgogi (beef), that you just BBQ on the rack over the coals. The people who worked there could tell we were struggling making it, so they came over and cooked it for us. There are so many side dishes and dips with the BBQ. We wrapped some of it up in lettuce with salad and dips and ate it that way, it was really good. So, now I have two restaurants that I absolutely love!! I really needed to eat some red meat by the end of yesterday though after having blood taken out in the morning. It made for a long and tiring day.

It looks like this weekend, we will for sure be going to the coast. To the Sea of Japan, I mean the East Sea. It is technically the Sea of Japan, but if you call it that around any Korean, they will not like it very much. They are still upset about the Japanese occupying Korea for so long that the Sea of Japan is just called the East Sea. We will be staying over night and hopefully doing some exploring. We will be going with Terri and Arran and Zak. We are very excited to get out of the house for the weekend. Hopefully the weather is nice!!

Last Night Was....

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Uneventful? Whiney? I guess those two words sum it up. Work last night went by pretty quick, but all the kids seemed to whine about everything we asked them to do. Either that, or they would pretend that they had no idea what I was saying to them, when the totally did. If it wasn't that, then it was the kids only doing their work when I was looking at them and when I turned away, they would stop and do homework from korean school or just sit and talk to each other. I understand that they are all very tired by the time they get to the English School since they go to school all day and then English school at night. I just don't know what to do to make them more interested. We play as many vocabulary games as humanly possible.

Anyways, I guess that is the norm and I just lucked out my first couple days because they were excited to have a new teacher. That is the official opinion.

Today at 1:30 Kyle and I are off to Princeton to get Mihwa and then we are driving to the hospital to get some blood work done. In order to qualify for our Alien Registration Cards we need to show them that we do not have HIV and that we are not on drugs. I am not very excited because I have a hard time peeing in a cup, so I am going to try and hold it all morning till I get to the hospital so I can do it right away.

Last night I asked John what he plans on doing after his year here ends in September, I think, and if they will be looking for another teacher. He said they are actually already looking to hire someone for the end of July to start on August 1st. I mentioned that my friend Matt was looking to start working somewhere around then and they said to ask him. Basically, I guess if he wants it. So, he seems interested and I really hope that he comes. My school is a great place to work and the people are amazing.

I am going to go eat some breakfast now!! I am still not over my jetlag, getting up at 7:30am seems to be the norm about now, but Kyle seems to be sleeping in till around 9am or 9:30am lately. He is doing much better in that department than I am!!

Fuddy Cazzipillars

Monday, May 5, 2008

Everything here is so short. The counters do not even come up to my belly button.










These are sea cucumbers. Disgusting. They were squirming and wiggling.









Alright, so the story behind the title is from when Kyle and I were walking to go and get groceries. I saw a caterpillar on the ground and I got excited that it resembled the ones from home. You know, the black and yellow fuzzy ones? For some reason, through my excitement, I exclaimed "Look Kyle!! A Fuddy..... uhh... fuzzy caterpillar." Of course, Kyle wouldn't let it slip and so I told him what I almost said and it was "Fuddy Cazzipilar".

Today we went down to Rodeo Drive and walked around the streets for just a little bit and looked at the store. Yes, Wonju has a Rodeo Drive that also has overpriced clothing. While we were there Terry and Arran decided that they were going to take us down to the open market. When this was mentioned, Arran got an interesting look on his face. I was scared. So we went down there and we some some really gross stuff being eaten. For example, something that I thought was an intestine, just happened to be an intestine stuffed with coagulated blood, called a blood sausage. The most disgusting thing I have ever seen. There were plates and plates of this stuff and people were eating it. Ew! I have only ever seen that thing on Fear Factor and even then people were not wanting to eat it, these people were choosing from their own free will to eat it!! This definitely outdoes the container full of sea cucumbers that looked like a container of penises. Ew.

We tried to go to Baskin Robbins to get some ice cream down on Rodeo Drive, but it was so busy in there today that we just left. We then went to E-Mart, which is like our Superstore or Costco. It was insanely busy in there especially since it is National Children's Day. We were only there for a short time. We also got to eat there... guess what we had??? McDonalds. Ha. It was good. The names of the stuff were pretty funny. Like the Shanghai Spicy Chicken Burger, Shrimp burger, etc. I had a McChicken and Kyle had a Big Mac. We kept it simple and normal. Many stares while we were there. There was another blonde in the food court and we made sure to say Hi to each other. We are few and far between out here.

We then came home. Got Water. Watched a movie and have been watching a Star-Wars-A-Thon ever since. I am not sure what is up tonight, but I am sure we will go out somewhere. Last night we went out to a bar and had some really good food. We got the biggest jug of beer I have ever seen and it was $11. It was enough for three people to have at least 3 glasses of beer each. Full Glasses. Anyways, the food was really good. We had some sort of chicken thing that was phenomenal and dipped it in honey mustard dip (that sip seems to be everywhere here) and some bacon wrapped potatoes. It was soooooo good.

Anyways, I am going to go dry my hair. Kyle saw that I posted that he hasn't written anything on here yet and that I was going to get him to do it soon and he gave me an evil glare. I will get him to write something soon hopefully.

Long Weekend

Saturday, May 3, 2008

It has been a relaxing weekend so far. Yesterday was so hot, it was about 30-35 degrees and then almost 100% humidity. Kyle and I walked down to a strip mall and went into a bunch of stores like Adidas, Mountain Hardware, etc. One woman stopped us and stared at us, then finally said "Where from?" and I told her Canada, she said "Ooooo, I love Canada!" and then she tried to continue a conversation with us, but it proved to be difficult and she left shortly after and continued shopping.

We then walked to the GS Supermarket and bought some groceries. The walk home was almost unbearable because we were lugging a lot of groceries and it was just so hot out. Not to mention, you have to walk basically up hill the whole way to our place from the supermarket and it about a 15 minute walk. We were very tired when we got home. So, for the rest of the day, we stayed inside with the fan on and just spent some time together talking about being here and watching some TV shows from home.

Today, we went for a short walk through another area by our house and then came home. We are thinking we might try and go out for some Korean food tonight with Aarin and Terry. We just need to find them first as it seems they have gone out as the pram (the stroller) is not in the hallway.

I think tomorrow we are going to try and walk up one of the mountains/large hills, by our house as we have been told there is an outdoor gym up there that old ladies work out at all the time. It would be a nice walk and interesting to see. I just hope it isn't so hot out again tomorrow or we will just go in the morning.

Amy's Day Two

Friday, May 2, 2008

We found corndogs in the super market!! Here we are frying them since they do not fit in our small toaster oven.


















The view from my classroom window


















My whiteboard.... I love this thing


















The table in my classroom. This is before the kids mess it all up on me and make me clean after every class.





















The calender that one of the kids made for me on the wall. It's a penguin!!











This is my desk/table in my classroom for all my books/papers/pens and most importantly MY COFFEE!!














This is Amy, yet again, I really need to get Kyle going with this blogging thing. Anyways, I just stepped in the door from my second day of teaching. I wouldn't really call it teaching so much as playing games. I went in to work today to find out that today is game day. Every Friday is game day. So with my first class, the very beginners, since I didn't know a game to teach them and they were new and didn't know it was game day, we continued with learning the alphabet. Today we associated words with the letters of the alphabet and today I also had a second student in this class. After we did word association for a while, we then moved into learning "Hello", "Good-Bye", "My name is", and "What's your name". I know they didn't really grasp the whole concept, but they definitely learned hello and goodbye as they kept saying it to me whenever they would leave or enter the main room of the school.

My second class we played hangman for a while on the board until the kids became out of hand with it and then we switched to a board game. The boys seemed disinterested and kept trying to talk on their cell phones (yes, grade 3-4 with cell phones in class). So I had to make them stop quite a bit. There were two boys in particular, Simon and Tyler, that were very bad. They were climbing the on the desks, throwing things, and just not listening to anything I had to say. I ended up putting Simon in the corner, as is Korean custom and because he was the instigator, and he had to put his hands up in the air above his head. Whenever his hands would fall, I would have to tell him to put them back up and to not talk to anyone. He still didn't listen very well. Next class I will make him sit outside and give everyone who is listening a stamp in their "stamp book" (the stamp book is something that measures how well the students are doing and how well they are behaving. When a student gets so many stamps in their stamp book, they get money from their parents. I can also put "x"'s in for anyone who is misbehaving, not doing homework, or not studying for tests. ) It is a huge motivator to give the well behaved stamps and the not well behaved nothing.

I definitely spent my ten minute break (the only break I get during the teaching hours, which is only from 3:30-7:50, so that is not bad) in the teachers lounge with John. We talked about the situation in the classroom.

My third class was with just one student and we spent the time playing a mixture of games, from hangman to bingo to scrabble (our own made up version that doesn't take a lot of time on the junior scrabble board). He seemed to have fun, but is still very shy in front of me since he is very new at the school. I am supposed to have a second student in this beginner class as well, but she didn't come today.

With the fourth class we played a game called Zingo and I did the same with the fifth and sixth classes as well. It seems as though the girls are more eager to learn and participate in classes than the boys are. Even when I ask the class questions and get everyone to give a response, the boys try their hardest to not participate. I am going to have to think of something else because they refuse to work in groups with girls as it is embarrassing for them.

The day was very loud and very hot. My classroom was so hot and humid. I had the windows open and the fan going, but with 10 stinky, hot and sweaty kids in the room who do not wear deodorant, there seemed to be no escape. John (the American teacher) and I are always talking about turning on the air conditioning, which scares the Koreans there since they are not cold at all. I think we will turn it on next week if this keeps up. It is just so hot in there and it is just going to keep getting hotter. They say it is hotter here than normal. I was still being told how pretty I am and how nice my eyes are all day. Still feels weird when they say it. Some of the kids even took pictures of me with them on their camera phones.

I took a cab home from work tonight. It was the first time I did that. I had Esther, my director, picking me up and dropping me off. She was not able to tonight, so I took the 15-20 minute cab ride home for a whopping $3.10 CDN. Not too shabby hey? Things in general are much cheaper here. So I didn't know the address for my house, the cab drivers also do not know intersections very well since Koreans do addresses by association with a larger building or complex in the vicinity, so I found out how to say middle school "jung-hak-gyo", of course that is just my way of sounding it out. So, I live next to a middle school. The cab ride was very easy. Although, trying to confirm where I was going proved to be a challenge. I am becoming a master at sign language!! Ha.

Anyways, I am going to go relax and watching some English TV with thousands of subtitles. Oh yeah, also today, Kyle got our cell phone here (I will let people know the number by email when I get it) and we had our own internet set up so we no longer have to mooch someone else's wireless, which had an awful connection anyways.

Jetlag is still bothering us, we have been up everyday between 5am-6am and then we are exhausted by the time we get home. We will try and stay up a little later tonight and see what happens. We should be up around 9:30am here, which is 6:30pm Saskatchewan time and 5:30pm BC time. I think.

One more thing, this weekend is a long weekend so we have Monday off!!

Teachers Log Stardate 05.01.08 A

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Last night was our first night of teaching. This is Amy writing right now. I left our apartment around 1:55pm and was picked up by my director who does not speak very much English. We drove for about 10 minutes and arrived at the school. When I got there, I was so scared because no one was speaking any English, but yet were telling me that in the matter of an hour, I was going to start teaching my 7 classes a day. I had no idea where to start!! Usually you get to sit and watch someone else teach for at least a day so you know what to do, but nope. I was thrown right into the deep end. After the initial scariness of being there the other teachers began speaking English to me. Then the American teacher from Missouri, named John, came in and he helped me out a lot. He told me where each class was (as they were previously his classes) and gave me the corresponding text books. If I had any questions or needed a translator the women that I work with were happy to help me.

My first class consisted of one new student who did not know the English alphabet yet. So, we spent the 50 minutes of the class reading the alphabet and I taught her the song that goes with it. She now knows most letters except she has trouble with "u" and "v". My next class was about 8 students and we spent the time reading out loud a dialogue from their textbook. I guess they were already practicing it for a while because now I have a test for them on Tuesday. I have no idea what the grading system is or how I am even going to do it!! My next few classes were all about the same. Me trying to feel things out and them asking me lots of questions. Mostly "did that thing in your nose hurt?" and "Do you have babies?" The kids made me laugh a lot. One of my older classes was very rambunctious and I had to leave the room for a couple seconds to photo copy the pages of the text because some of them forgot their books. Well, when I left the classroom, one of the boys opened the window and dropped another boy's glasses out of it. I couldn't find them. Needless to say, the two boys did not get along the rest of the class, and John (the boy without glasses now), could not participate because he could not read.

I was really nervous going yesterday, but it seemed that as soon as I sat down and told myself that I could do it, I realized that I didn't have to be nervous. Everything went well and I guess the students really liked me because they told all the other teachers that they did. I know they also told them that they thought I was very pretty, they liked my hair, I have nice big eyes, that they are envious of me, etc. It was weird to be told how pretty I am by everyone every couple of minutes.

I had a great time teaching yesterday and I am looking forward to today. Today is games day. I am sure I will have more to tell you later on when I am done. Kyle will write about his day next.