Thanksgiving (FINALLY!!)

So, I promised two things in my last blog- one was that i would post again soon, and the other was that I would tell you about my Thanksgiving here. I guess the first one won't be happening, but at least I am giving you the Thanksgiving update right?!

Anyways, so Thanksgiving here in Korea turned out to be a lot of fun, but boy did I have to work for it. There were several speed-bumps along the way, but nothing sopped the foreigners from celebrating Thanksgiving in Korea. Let's just say that Korea is missing a few essentials when it comes to Thanksgiving. The first being Turkey. That's right, Korea doesn't do turkey. In fact, many of the Korean teachers have never even tasted it before. And what's Thanksgiving without turkey. We made due and opted for Chicken instead. That turned out to be speed-bump number two. We ordered the chicken (over the phone), I'll get to why we didn't cook it our self in a minute, but as you know neither Caroline or I are great at speaking Korea. The 200 random words we know do not include anything that could have helped us order it except the word chicken which is the same in Korean and English. Erica was at our house too, but she too only knows a little Korean so it became a game of whether or not we thought we could do it. Our first attempt we thought went pretty well. We struggled with the language barrier but with our newly learned numbers we thought we were going to be good. We remembered how to say our address and was even able to clarify which of the five Line Apartments in our area that we live in. We got off the phone super excited and couldn't wait to see if we had done it. One hour goes by and finally our door bell rings. The guy hands us ONE tiny box of chicken that maybe has 8 or 10 small pieces of chicken in it. We thought we had ordered FOUR boxes. But we couldn't get that across so we just payed the guy, thanked him, closed the door, and then panicked! That was definitely not enough to feed 14 hungry foreigners plus who knew how many Korean teachers we invited were actually going to show up. So, we got back on the phone (with a different place- we were too embarrassed to call the first place again) and tried again. The second time we called was just as terrifying as the first and the short time I was on the phone I probably said "yes" about 15 times- about 12 of them I wasn't exactly sure what I was agreeing to but I recognized a couple words so I just said yes. My guess now is that they were probably asking where I lived or for me to repeat the order but I just kept agreeing in hopes of them just bringing something to our house. Thank goodness this time the order only took 20 minutes and we got exactly what we ordered. Success!!! With two major speed-bumps taken care of, what else could possibly be troublesome right? Did I mention that our apartments here are very nice but that none of us have an oven. Let me tell you how hard it is to make and cook food without an oven to bake things in. Not to mention, 90 percent of the foods we eat on Thanksgiving back home are not easily or even at all found here. Everyone picked a dish and was in charge of bringing it, and let me just tell you how impressed I was with the spread. Between Caroline, Erica and I, we made mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, cooked carrots medley, corn and sliced some veggies to snack on. The other foreign teachers brought fudge, stuffing, rolls, cranberry sauce, sweet potato fries, fruit, cornbread and other delicious goodies. Everything was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!

I forgot to mention that there were 9 foreign teachers there and 8 Korean teachers, so there was a good amount of people in our small apartment. It was lots of fun though. Caroline and I turned a long end table into a couch so we had 2 and there were a couple pillows on the floor, so it worked out pretty well. After eating we all played a Korean version of jacks that was really fun and just hung out. It wasn't as weird as I thought it would be not be home for Thanksgiving and having a bunch of friends from school that I now call family definitely helped!

I miss everyone a lot! I am still having tons of fun and enjoying myself though and look forward to the rest of my time here!

Its been one month to the day since I last updated...

Man, oh, man! For the past week, I have told myself that I was going to update my blog, but every time I thought about doing it, I became overwhelmed because SOOOO much has happened since the last post and decided I would just put it off some more. I have finally built up enough guts to write it now, and have just come to accept that it is going to take me many hours to write, and I am just not going to get to tell you everything. So here it goes...

My school, ECC, truly likes the foreigners and really does its best to make us happy. I LOVE ECC because of this but their timing seems to be a lot like my dads- not the best. So 4 weeks ago (wow that sounds like forever ago... I really need to update this more...) ECC took all of the foreigners on a field trip to 3 different places. We went to a temple, a traditional Korean folk village, and to the bay. They all turned out to be super duper fun, but I am getting ahead of myself. So, they pack all of the foreigners, who are all coughing and not in good moods because we are all ridiculously sick, into a small ECC van and drive us an hour away to our first stop. This would normally have been something we all looked forward to because we all like to hangout with each other and travel on the weekends together, but this was the first week that EVERYONE in the office was sick, and the Swine Flu had even hit a couple people. However, it became an unspoken but well known fact that this was pretty mandatory so coughing, sore throats, runny noses, upset stomachs and all loaded the bus. I personally had come down with the office sickness and had it not been mandatory I would have stayed in bed all day in my pajamas. It was bad news bears. But like everyone else, I loaded the van and immediately fell asleep on the way to the temple. When we got there, I was immediately in awe (and maybe it was the fresh air, but I started feeling better, and at least functioning) because there was fog all around us and the sun was hiding behind it but was starting to come out which made for some pretty awesome pictures. And the temple itself was just really pretty and really cool. We even got to see some monks in the temple praying which was pretty sweet too. It was a really big temple and it's hard to explain what exactly it looked like, but it was neat. And I had just learned a week or two before how to properly use my Macro setting on my camera, so I spent the whole time macro-ing EVERYTHING. Thank goodness Erica like to use this setting as well, because at one point we split off from everyone and got some AMAZING pictures. I know this is a side tract, but the macro setting on my camera makes me soooooo happy and has made me realize that I really want to get a super nice camera with a special macro lens and become a professional photographer- BUT only ever take macro pictures. If you don't know what I am talking about, you should check out my facebook album titled "Let's Macro That!" Anyways, so back to the temple... I got some awesome pictures, enjoyed being there, as well as the company and had lots of fun. Our next stop was at a traditional folk village. I didn't know what to expect but it was pretty cool too. We saw tons and tons of hut like places that were made out of mud with roofs made from hay. We also got to walk on a huge wall that went all around the village. This was fun and in a way reminded me of walking on the Great Wall of China. There was a HUGE swing there too that looked super fun but I never got to go on it because I was in the front of the group and got corralled to be in a group picture. The people in the back fell behind and went on it for a bit before someone ran back to get them to make them run and get in the group picture. Oh well, next time I'll go on it. After the village, we went to the bay. This was lots of fun too. A group of us hiked up the mountain to get an amazing shot of the bay. It was AWESOME and quite the view. It was worth all of the hard work to see water surrounding us, with mountains in the background. Korea is so beautiful. And it is soooo neat to be able to see mountains all around us all the time. This is quite the change from Florida, that's for sure. The field trip ended up being loads of fun and I think everyone enjoyed the trip, sick or not.

Two weekends ago, all of the foreign teachers went up to Seoul together because it was Prairies last weekend to travel and she really wanted to see the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone- the division line of North and South Korea) so we all went up for that and took a half day tour of that together. It was really cool. First, we got to see "Freedom bridge" also known as "The Bridge of No Return". This the only bridge connecting North and South Korea and was the bridge where over 13,000 war captives crossed. There were fences and barbed-wire everywhere and also ribbons and flags. It was very interesting to see, but it was very rainy and extremely cold so a but miserable, but none the less, super neat. We stayed here for a little while before boarding the bus again and going to a museum. This museum told all about the DMZ and the history of fighting and friendship between the north and south. We also learned about 4 tunnels that North Korea dug leading right in to Seoul. North Korea originally denied they built them and even went through the trouble of even putting black coal ashes on the ceilings of the tunnels so they could claim their miners must have gotten lost and they were all accidents. However, there is no coal in this area so that lie obviously doesn't stand. Anyways, so after the museum we got to walk for awhile in the 3rd tunnel South Korea found. This was awesome. Its over 2o stories underground and we got to walk for a long while in it which took us super close to the North Korean border. There was a blockade at the ending point of where we could walk, but if you looked closely you could see North Korea which was super exciting. After going through the tunnel we boarded the bus again and got to go to a lookout point where you could see quite a bit of North Korea. Its a lookout point but its funny because you can only take pictures from behind a line which is kinda far back. This was a little strange but I guess its because North Korean doesn't want us getting a good look of their country... or at least not any good pictures. You could pay about 50 cents and look through binoculars to get a closer look of North Korea. I fo course did and it was kinda neat because with them I could see some buildings and stuff and even a basketball court. It was just cool to be able to say I have seen North Korea. Anyways, after that we to Dorsan station which is an almost completely empty train station. It has only one train that is on a track that leads from South Korea to North Korea. It has never run but it will be the first train to go from South Korea to North Korea supposedly when the two become friends rather than enemies someday. According to South Korea it is "Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North." This shows South Korea's hope of there someday being a friendship and no longer a divide between the country. It's a nice thought, but I am not sure if this train will ever run. I guess only time will tell. The DMZ tour was awesome and I really enjoyed going. Next time I might try to take the full day tour that actually lets you go to North Korea. This is the tour my Oma and sister went on 15 years ago when we lived here the first time.

After the DMZ tour, Prairie, Steve (new foreign teacher- Prairie's replacement), and I went to make free "paper arts." We weren't sure what this entailed but we thought it could be fun so we went and all enjoyed ourselves- even Steve. We made paper mirrors and paper boxes. I am thinking he is going to have to give his away as gifts because they are quite girly looking but I think all three of us really enjoyed ourselves and had lots of fun. Later that night we met up with Erica, Jason, Devon, and Jake and went downtown to see a lantern festival. It was really cool and I took a bazillion pictures. There were just so many lanterns of all shapes sizes and of all sorts of things, that I could not help myself. I put up those pictures tomorrow on facebook maybe so you can see for yourself just how cool it was. The next day we went Christmas shopping and Devon and I even got to go to Forever 21 and make some fun purchases. We also went to Itaewon and shopped and looked around and ate and then headed out later that night to celebrate Katelyn's birthday. That night turned out to be a super crazy night but loads of fun. The next day we went to Insadong where we did even more Christmas shopping and I got some pretty neat things. You will have to wait until Christmas to see just exactly what I got... I don't want to soil Christmas gifts by writing what i bought here. :) We left later that night which turned out to be a complete nightmare and super long story but we eventually made it home. Lets just say we were supposed to leave at 5:40 and we didn't end up leaving till 8:45 which got us home around midnight... ugggh when you have to wake up early. But I had a great weekend so it was worth it!

Last weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving Dinner which will have to be a separate post because I need to get this one posted and then head off to bed. There's a ton to write about it too so look for it in the near future. I promise I will do it soon and not wait a month before my next post. :)

Be looking for pictures on facebook and another post soon. Love you all lots and lots and miss you guys too!!!!!!!

Say Kimchi!

This past weekend, Caroline and I along with the two other Kinder foreign teachers, Jason and Erica, decided we would check out the Kimchi festival going on about 10 minutes away (by taxi) from our school. So Caroline and I walked from our house to our school where we met the other two and would catch a taxi. Let me just say first of all that this is standard procedure. Any time we meet anyone for anything we meet outside of our school because everyone else, besides us and one other couple lives near the school. We live about 15 minutes away but have now walked the same one route about ten bazillion times that we could probably walk it with our eyes closed. Anyways, so we walked to school and hailed a taxi. The taxi that stopped for us was probably the coolest taxi ever. It reminded us of cash cab. It was pink and swede on the inside and had a red leather roof. His dashboard had a ton of fun decorations, one being a stuffed spiderman. Jason tried to touch it, but got yelled at in Korean. I guess he is protective of his stuff. :) Caroline, Erica and I were sitting in the back taking pictures and laughing. I guess the guy liked us because he then forced coffee flavored gum in to Erica's hands, which we all ended up eating and HATING. But it was a nice thought. Had this been in America, I would have never taken anything from anyone, especially not a taxi driver, but this is Korea where there is no such thing as crime and he ate it so we did too. We finally got to the World Cup Stadium which is where the festival was setup and began walking around. We found a place that said you could rent free bikes so we did that and played on them for awhile. Erica didn't know how to ride a bike so we taught her. This was lots of fun. Plus, every time we rode up and back this one strip someone would take a picture- it was kinda funny. Finally, a guy stopped us and asked if we would ride up and down this one strip so he could get it on camera. We think he was some sort of press for this event. So we agreed. We were taped walking and waving by one other guy as well. We hoped this was for TV. Sure enough, the next day, one of Caroline's students told her that he saw her on the news. SWEET!! :) I wish we would have seen it. Oh well. So after riding bikes for awhile we started to walk toward a tent that read "Foreigners making Kimchi." We couldn't pass up the photo opportunity or the chance to make our own famous Kimchi while we were here, so we stopped in. First we were taken to be shown what ingredients are used to make Kimchi and briefly how to make it, and then it was our turn. We got to put on these super sweet gloves and aprons and then mix ingredients to make the super duper spicy sauce and then spread it on the cabbage. Although, there was nothing to spreading sauce on the cabbage, somehow I managed to do it wrong cause the guy kept coming over to help me. I think I wasn't putting enough sauce on mine. They LOVE it spicy. After making the Kimchi that we had no intention on ever eating (none of us really like the taste of it) it was packaged up and put in this carrying case for us to take it home. We ended up giving it to the owner of our school, the assistant manager, the technology guy and the 5 Korean Kinder teachers to eat and say thanks for everything so far. They liked it and loved that we made it! :) After making the Kimchi some guy who worked at the festival approached us and wanted to be our interpreter. We didn't really need or want him but he wanted to show us around so we let him. He took us into this building where we got to try lots and lots of Kimchi. Like I mentioned bfore, none of us really like Kimchi but we were up for trying a bit so this was fun. I tried way more than I ever expected, partly because if you linger at the booth too long you are forced to try it by the people working the booth and also due to curiosity because I thought all Kimchi tasted pretty similar. Surprisingly enough, some were actually kinda ok, and then others were absolutely awful. Erica and I got forced to drink this water Kimchi juice by someone and I can honestly say it was one of the worst things I have ever tasted ever. It was SOOOO gross. It tasted like drinking straight up vinegar and dirt. bleh! Caroline and Jason at the same time were being forced to try seaweed grossness that they both agreed came straight from the Ocean just a second earlier. They said it was the saltiest thing they have ever tasted and also equally disgusting. Thank goodness this was the last booth so we were able to leave and immediately find a drink machine where we all opted to pay whatever it cost to get the tastes out of our mouths. After that we rode on the "Kimchi train" and looked at some art all about Kimchi. This was kinda funny. After that we went into a building that told us all about the history of Kimchi. Apparently, Gwangju (where I live) is known for it's Kimchi and Kimchi festival and it is considered to be the best in the country. (just ask anyone here, they will tell you. ;) ) We walked around a bit more before getting kabobs to eat and then going home. It was a really fun day and definitely a Korean experience I am glad we did!

This weekend, our school is taking all of the foreign teachers on a mandatory field trip to this Korean traditional festival place. I am not sure what to really expect and they won't really tell us too much except that it will be lots of fun and we will enjoy it so I guess I am kinda looking forward to that.

I hope you all are doing fantastic and am having as much fun as I am here in korea. I miss you all tons!!! LOVE YOU!

Halloween!

It been awhile since I have last posted... wow. I am getting worse and worse at this blogging thing, but I promise I will continue to do it.

Ok, so Friday was Halloween at ECC. Because we are an English teaching school, we celebrated Halloween, even though this is not a known or celebrated Korean holiday. If you would have asked me about a week ago how excited I was about it, I would have told you EXTREMELY. My school requires that everyone dresses up. I LOVE Halloween and I love coming up with ideas of what to be. So this year I got the idea to be crayons. I recruited all of the Kinder teachers who teach English, which is 4 foreigners and 3 Koreans and we all agreed this would be age appropriate and really cute if done properly. The only guy kinder teacher, Jason, decided not o be a crayon but agreed to be a crayon box. So there were going to be 3 Korean, 3 Foreign crayons. (One Korean teacher ended up getting super sick and wasn't there for Halloween... but that's another story...) Anyways, so all of us went downtown to get solid colored shirts and matching tights. We also got felt and and lots of black markers to start the construction of our super sweet costumes! They only took a couple hours to make all of them and turned out so super cute in the end. You have to check out the pictures on facebook to see for yourself.

Anyways, so like I said, had you asked me a week before I was super excited about Halloween day at ECC because the Kinder kids all get dressed up and then we go to a local park and all their parents come. We parade the kids around and they all sing songs and do dances for their parents and anyone else who happens to be walking around the park. The foreign kinder teachers were also given the assignment to learn 2 dances so we could stand in the front and lead the dance for the Kinder kids to follow. This was a joke within itself because we had 4 days to learn the dances on our own and we all know how much I hate dancing and how scared I am to do it in public. But I learned them and finally accepted that I would be doing them in front of tons of people. However, lets just say Halloween turned out to be not half as fun because we were told 2 days before that it would be inside at our school and the parents were no longer allowed to come because of Swine Flu. Swine Flu is now in Bongseong Dong (which isn't a city, but more like a neighborhood) where our school is, and Koreans are super duper paranoid to begin with and now that its in our area there is no way we can let the kids be around it. This sounds good right, but do you really think that our kids never go outside so we are protecting them. Plus, one of the Kinder teachers I mentioned above was sick and has been out this whole week we all think because of Swine Flu. (although everyone is keeping it on the hush and nobody will confirm that what she has. But I know she must have it because getting a day off when you are sick is almost impossible at ECC so to get a week, she MUST have it...) So anyways keeping kids in a school where it is obviously present is silly, but I guess I don't make the rules and quite frankly have no say in anything, so inside it is. Whats funny though is I overheard a Korean kinder teacher explaining to someone why the parents were no longer allowed to come. I didn't hear the whole conversation and things didn't quite translate but from what I could tell, parents were not allowed to come because they could get Swine. From who? I wondered. And then I heard more of the conversation. Basically, without completely being said, Korea as a whole blames foreigners for the Swine Flu here and basically she was saying something to the effect that the kids are immune to us foreign teachers, but their parents are not. ha. I couldn't do anything but laugh even though I was kinda upset. It was a relief that I wouldn't be dancing in front of the parents, but at the same time, how was this going to be any different than the practices we had been having the past week for this. It wasn't. Halloween took place on the 6th floor in the activity room. The Kinder kids did get to do trick-or treating and us foreign teachers got to pass out candy to them but it still wasn't as much fun as I pictured it would have been at the park.. oh well.

So the Kinders leave at 2:15 then my next class isn't till 3. For our afternoon classes, the way it is had worked in the past is that the kids go around to all of the classes and go trick-or-treating and then all go upstairs and watch a movie together. This was also changed due to Swine Flu and we were told we were allowed to give our kids candy but we couldn't take them around to the other classes. We also wouldn't be watching a movie together and would have to figure out an activity to do on our own with them. I guess a lot of the teachers didn't care though because many teachers were still taking their kids around the school to trick-or-treat and several rooms had multiple classes watching movies and hanging out together. You better believe for my first class I obeyed the rules but when I saw this happening, I decided to do it too. I took my second class around the halls to other classes asking for candy and then I just kinda let them go crazy and do whatever. This is pretty much what all classes on my floor decided to do because there were kids running around everywhere. I guess it was kinda fun. :) Unlike my Kinders, where all of them dressed up, I had one class where none of them dressed up. This is my least favorite class and they are at the age where they think they are too cool for that. Then when I asked if any of them wanted face paint, they all refused (fine by me.. my face painting skills are not up to par) until they noticed that everyone in other classes were having fun with it and then they all asked if I could paint their hands. They still didn't want me to paint their face because they still wanted to be rebellious but they liked me painting their hands secretly. What weirdos.

So that was Halloween. The dance for kinder went pretty well and I was surprised by my abilities. Don't get me wrong, I was still awkward and not good, but it was good for me. We didn't get either of the dances fully on tape but we do plan to maybe tape it on Monday so I have it to post to facebook like I promised. :)

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! I miss you guys!!

CHINA!!!

For those of you who don’t know (which I don’t think is anyone since I was so excited I think I told the world!!), Korea celebrated Chuseok, which is similar to the American Thanksgiving last week. Since my school gave us 3 days off and there was a weekend we had 5 days off which allowed me to go to China! As soon as Caroline and I realized that we had this vacation, we booked our plane tickets to Beijing and applied for Chinese Visas. (Now I have TWO Visas in my passport! This makes me SOOOO excited! Oh the little things….) Three friends from work were also going to China so we made sure we were on the same flight which was fun. At 4am on Thursday, Caroline and I walked 15 minutes from our house to the school where we met Prairie and Katelyn. We took a five minute taxi ride to get to the bus station, a four hour long bus ride to get the airport, and had a 3 hour long wait until our plane flew out. Finally we got on the plane, so excited to be leaving finally for China, but then we just sat. And sat. And sat some more. Finally, about an hour and a half later we took off and were headed to China. The flight was short and only took an hour and forty five minutes. Thank goodness! I was over the whole traveling thing!

One of their friends, who is Chinese and from Beijing but also works at a hogwan in Gwangju was already on vacation in Beijing and agreed to pick us up at the airport and drive us to our hostels and hotels. Caroline and I decided to stay in a hostel over a hotel like our friends because hostels are ridiculously cheap in China and I think they are super sweet so why not. Our hostel cost us only $9 a night and that was the jacked up price because it was the 60^th anniversary for the People’s Republic of China. Can’t beat that price that’s for sure. AND it was actually a pretty nice place that had a restaurant on the main floor that served Western style foods. We quickly dropped off our stuff and headed to Prairie and Katelyn’s hotel. They dropped off their stuff and then we headed to this little art street. It was pretty cool. Not a whole bunch was open but we were able to go inside some buildings and check out some cool art and take some fun pictures.

From Art Street, we headed to a lake. Around the lake there are many bars, restaurants, and souvenir shops. We ate a fancy restaurant but sat outside. The weather was perfect. I had some real Chinese Sweet and Sour Chicken. It was absolutely delicious and similar but about ten times better than what we call by the same name in the U.S.. Dinner was fantastic and pretty cheap… well, if you don’t count the $40 sitting fee we ended up having to pay for no reason. (And that was after Alan argued with the people about how we were not told about this fee and how we shouldn’t have to pay for it. We got it half price. Can you imagine an $80 sitting fee??!!!!) Anyways, so after dinner we just walked around the lake and kinda just hung out. It was cool seeing Chinese lanterns and stuff lit up everywhere. I am not sure if this was for the celebration that day or not, but it was sweet nonetheless.

Friday morning we got up early and met Katelyn, Prairie and Alan. We were headed for The Great Wall. An hour and a half later we got to a non-touristy section of the wall. Katelyn and Alan stayed there because they did not want to hike The Great Wall, while an old Chinese man drove Caroline, Prairie, and me in a very old little toaster van to a different section of the wall. When we were dropped off we were told the hike would be about 3 hours long. However, once we started hiking we were told it was actually a 4-hour hike and with all of our picture taking it took about 4 ½ hours. It was sooooo breathtaking! The view was incredible and the weather was perfect! It was sunny, clear blue skies, the mountains were so beautiful and you could see the wall for miles! The wall itself was pretty awesome. Parts of it looked like they had just been redone, while most of it looked like it had never been touched. It was a rather challenging hike because of the so many stairs, ups and downs, and crumbling stones but something I would definitely love to do again. I posted pictures on facebook and as much as I would like to tell you that the pictures I took could show you how spectacular The Great Wall is, my pictures don’t even do it justice. I skyped my parents after coming home from China and my dad asked me “I’ve seen your pictures now. Is it still worth going?” My response was “ABSOLUTELY!!!!” The Great Wall is definitely something everyone should go and see, and in my opinion, hike. Oh and did I mention that when we finally got to the end of our hike, we met up with Alan and Katelyn on part of the wall and took a zipline down. That’s right- I ziplined down The Great Wall. That was also quite an amazing experience and soooo much fun!! If I ever go again (which I just might do with my family at the end of my contract here!! J) I would love to take another mode of transportation down, such as the bobsled. That option also seemed like it would be super fun. Who would have ever thought there would have been such fun ways to go down?!

After a full day of hiking, we got something to eat and then headed to The Silk Market. Before we got there, however, we stopped at a place called “The Place”. It was just a square like place but it had a super cool moving water picture thingie that I can’t really explain. I will let the picture do the talking. Anyways, it was pretty cool and we got some fun pictures.

Then we went to the Silk Market. This is a 7 story building filled with a million and one vendors. Each floor has a theme and everyone on that floor sells pretty much the same thing. It’s just a matter of who you think you can bargain with the best and who will give you the best deal. Think Mexico but way way more hardcore, if that’s possible. The vendors would literally grab you and push you in to their shop, shove stuff into your hands and then feed you lines about how much you needed the item. The vendors were all around my age, but they were FANTASTIC at what they did. They were all Chinese but could all speak at least 2 other languages pretty well- English and Spanish. It was amazing the phrases they knew and how convincing they were at trying to get you to pay way way way too much for something. Some of them would say things like “What’s your final price. No joking now. I am serious. Don’t be funny and try to go so low.” Others would say stuff like “I can’t give you it for that price or otherwise I will not be here tomorrow when you come back because my boss will have killed me!” Between these lines and calling me beautiful, it was hard to keep in mind that everything was way overpriced in hopes of me paying and that I needed to bargain hardcore if I wanted a fair deal. By bargain hardcore I mean you could often get them to go about 70% cheaper than their initial asking price. I did pretty well though and I don’t feel like I got ripped off- or at least I don’t think. Although, I was converting everything from Chinese Yuan to Korean Won to American Dollars all in my head, so who knows, but I think I did well. I paid what I thought was fair and did sooo much bargaining. Who knows if I could have got things for less, but I was happy with my purchases and the price I got them at in the end so everyone won. It was loads of fun!

The next day, Prairie, Katelyn and Alan left for Shanghai since they had been to Beijing before and Caroline and I set off for some sight seeing. We went to Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. So did the rest of China. I guess because China was celebrating their 60^th anniversary of Communism, every family in China thought they should go visit their roots or something or least all go out because the streets, sidewalk, and subway was ridiculously crowded. By this I mean, you couldn’t really walk, you shuffled along with the crowd at its pace. And on the subway, there were police pushing people on and holding them in while the doors closed almost all the way at which point they would quickly pull out their hand and the train would begin to go. It was nuts. Caroline and I felt like squashed bugs in the subway as well as movie stars because people stared hardcore at the two of us. It wasn’t until we stepped out on to the streets that we really felt like celebrities though. EVERYONE took pictures of us or with us. One person would get up enough courage to ask for a picture with us and then it wouldn’t be a second later before we had a line behind them of people wanting to take pictures with us. We took about 20 pictures on the streets on our way to the Forbidden City and about 20 more once we got it. It was nuts! It started out kinda fun and we liked the attention but it soon became frustrating because we couldn’t get anywhere without being stopped and we couldn’t do our own sightseeing and picture taking.

The Forbidden City was pretty awesome though and exactly how I pictured China. The buildings were detailed and had dragons and other animals in front. The roofs were made of bricks that looked almost gold in color and on the corners of the roof there were animals that stood for different things such as protection and stuff I think is what I heard. It was really cool to admire all of the details and fun to say that I was in a Palace. This took most of the day especially with fighting the crowds, but we did manage to see some of the floats that were in the parade from the previous day and just explore Beijing a little. We finished the night by playing badmitten in front of our hostel.

The next day we went to Olympic park. It was definitely WAY less crowded than the Forbidden City which was AWESOME but the number of people who wanted to take our picture was still the same. We stopped for many many photos with Chinese families, kids, groups of friends, individuals, etc before we just kept on walking and pretending we were oblivious to what was going on. Caroline and I went inside the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest, which was super cool. It was neat to be in the places where so many people from so many countries won Gold Medals the year before. We didn’t end up going inside the gymnastics/other sports building but we did take several pictures outside. The buildings were all just so cool from even the outside. We spent several hours there and have some great pictures.

After Olympic Park, we went to Llama Temple. I have never been to a temple so this was really neat. Store after store on our walk to the temple sold incense but Caroline and I did not realize why until after we got inside. Each time you pass a Buddha, you stop in front of him, light 3 incense and then pray and bow three times to him before offering your incense to him by putting it in a fire at his feet. It was cool to see the Chinese people doing this even though I did not believe in who they were worshiping. It was just something unique to see.

After the Temple, Caroline and I set off to get massages. We saw a sign in front of our hostel that read massages for 28 Yuan, which is about $5 so we were all about it! We were hoping for back massages but they only offered foot massages at this place. After hiking the Great Wall the day before and all of the walking we had been doing, we were pretty excited. We chose some milk something or another to have our feet soaked in. While our feet soaked we got mini shoulder, neck, back massages. It was sweet. Then we got our hour long foot massages which were pretty amazing and surprisingly the lady even found a big knot in one of my feet that she rubbed out and made feel better. At the end we were asked if we wanted some foot cupping done and we said sure, why not since it was less than a dollar and it sounded cool. Basically the lady came at us with some glass cups, a stick and some fire starting fluid. She lit the stick on fire then put the fire in the cup and then twisted the cup on to our feet to make it suction cup on. It was quite strangey. And at the end our feet did not feel any different but it was a funny experience and Caroline and I both laughed a lot.

After our massages, we had just enough time to get some dinner at our hostel before we were picked up to go to an acrobatics show we had bought tickets to. This show was AWESOME. I think I really enjoyed it a lot because it reminded me of circus. And I miss circus a lot. So many of the acts were the same as those at FSU except way more hardcore which made me laugh cause I thought our show was impressive! The girls were ridiculously limber and crazy strong and the guys were unbelievably strong and pretty flexible as well. I took so many pictures until I was told I was not allowed to be taking pictures. Oops. It was neat to go to a Chinese acrobatics show because quite frankly this is something I think of when I think of China because their gymnasts are always soooo good at the Olympics. What a great way to end the night!

The next morning we met up with Prairie, Alan and Katelyn and made one last quick stop at the Silk Market to get last minute purchases. Then we went to a fancy restaurant so we could eat the famous Beijing Peking Duck. You could watch them cook the duck in this fire pit thing. Then it was taken to be cut. The head was cut off and the remaining part of the duck was sliced and served. It was served on two duck platters and the head was placed carefully on the one so that you could see it was a whole that that you were getting. I didn’t know what to expect, but I absolutely LOVED it. Duck is delicious!!!

After lunch we went back to the lake to see it during the day. We shopped for a bit before renting a boat for an hour. The boat ride was super fun and the scenery was really pretty which provided us the opportunity to take several more China pictures before we headed home. After our boat ride Alan drove us to the airport and we were on our way home. We finally got home after the time change and 4 hour bus ride home at 2am. Caroline and I had to wake up the next morning at 8am which was a little rough, but it was definitely worth it. China was a blast and I REALLY want to go back sometime!!

As I am sure everyone expected, this post was RIDICULOUSLY LONG! Like I said, you better just get used to it. Hehe!! I miss everyone tons and think we need to stop slacking and get to talking on Skype WAY more… k thanks. Miss you all!!

p.s- if you were wondering, this post is 4 ½ pages single spaced on a Word document (without pictures) and took me about 3 hours to write! J That’s right, I love you guys that much.

Lots of Fun!!

With the end of the month, comes a lot of stress at work and usually not a whole lot of fun. The end of this month, although still stressful, was also lots of fun.

So Ian came up with this language exchange idea where a foreign teacher would be partnered with a Korean teacher and we would meet once a week to hangout and learn each other's language. Well, I was supposed to meet 2 Thursdays ago with my partner, but as you know, I was sick, and so this past Thursday we met for the first time. I say this like I have never met the girl and I don't work with her, but honestly, I never have really talked to her because 1. She is the receptionist so besides the friendly hello in the morning, I never really have time to chat it up with her 2. She isn't a teacher, so she isn't in my office where I have most of my conversations with the people I work with and 3. Well, I got nothing. But basically we haven't ever had a conversation so I thought if nothing else, this first meet would be interesting. Anyways, so her name is Boram, aka Rebecca. She is the cutest Korean girl ever and I LOVE the way she says her American name and the fact that she LOVES to say it. Ok, so I make her out to be like 4... she is 23 Korean, 22 American which makes her the youngest at ECC too. I am the youngest foreigner and she is the youngest Korean. We are less than 2 months apart and we get along great. She speaks very very little English, but she is such a good student that she came to our first meeting with a paper front and back of questions to ask me to get to know me written in English (with Korean below so she remembers what she is asking). Not to mention she brought an English/Korean translated phrases book, a personal electronic dictionary, and she invited one of the kinder teachers who is her friend who speak English rather well. We had dinner at Shebu Shebu which is a common place the foreigners go to eat because it is delicious! Dinner was fun and after it the three of us went for coffee. Three and a half hours after meeting, we all went home with new friends. We arranged to meet this Sunday downtown to hangout and maybe go shopping and/or see a movie. I'll get to that in a minute. So... I think this exchange thing will be lots of fun and very useful for all of us. I learned how to say the money bills names and count using them, that something was "too expensive", "I want a discount", "please", and some other random but useful stuff. I'm pretty excited for our next official exchange. Oh, not to mention the Kinder teacher that came along to help the two of us communicate is a Korean teacher that teaches the kids only Korean and has her office upstairs instead of downstairs with all of the foreigners and Koreans who teach English, so it was fun to talk to her for the first time really too. I look forward to getting to know her and spend time with her too since I see her everyday but also isn't someone I say more than 2 words to usually because most of the Kinder Korean teachers don't know much English and I didn't realize how good she was.

So, that was Thursday night. Friday at school the Kinders had English Market day. Basically instead of teaching 3 classes after lunch on Friday, all of the Kinder teachers got to have lots of fun. We set up different items in several classrooms and the children came through the classes and acted as if they were at a market. The market consisted of the stationary store, fruit market, vegetable market, flea market, and the snack store. Caroline and I were put in the fruit market which had boring items to sell but it still ended up being fun. Each student had specific lines they were supposed to say and we would respond accordingly. We had been practicing lines in a couple classes the previous 2 weeks but I don't think the kids really understand why they were memorizing these lines until they actually got to the "market." Then, I think it clicked for some kids. Some kids were still clueless about the whole thing and acted surprised that we expected them to ask us certain questions and respond with a specific answer. haha. Oh, and the smartest and oldest Kinder class was videotaped so when we have "open day" and all of the parents come to see what their kids do at ECC, this video will be played and they will have an idea. I got to be in a couple of these videos, so I made my second debut in Korean tv/movies.. haha. the first being when I lived here 15 years ago and was on "Hello English" :) hahah. OMG and I almost forgot to tell you the best part of the whole thing.... everyone working HAD to wear a yellow Miss America Sash that Read "ECC English Market" and headscarfs!!! :) We looked so... Korean. It was AMAZING! And the kids all had the cutest matching purses that held their fake American dollar bills. It was such a fantastic day. Good thing Caroline remembered her camera cause we got some great pictures! I was soooo mad I left mine at home, but its ok cause the two of us always share pictures anyways. As soon as she posts them to facebook you will see them on my facebook page as well so no worries.

My afternoon class on Friday, I spent giving oral, written, and writing tests as well as doing book reports. I then spent my free time grading and even managed to still take a ton of book reports, evaluations, and tests home to grade. :( Oh the life of a teacher....

Friday night we went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant that was really good and then called it an early night because we were so tired.

Saturday was lots of fun! We woke up and I got to do some skyping and then Caroline and I went hiking. We hiked for a good 2 hours. We went a different direction which was again really pretty and had even more fun exercise machines along the way! :) The weather was absolutely perfect. It was in the low 80's and sunny! After hiking we met Aaron and went to a place called Kimbop Nara. I think Aaron said it best when he described it as "the Waffle House of Korea." It is open 24 hours and sells really good and extremely cheap Korean food. We had Mandu (Korean dumplings) and Kimbop (seaweed around rice and several vegetables. We got tuna in ours) Yes, Anne, I actually like and eat Kimbop now. Its "Mashitta" (that's delicious in Korean) After that, Caroline and I headed to the bus station in search for a specific Korean learning book, which we did not find. boo :(. Then we came home for a bit before heading out again to meet some co-workers for a couple rounds of bowling. It ended up being a last minute thing and people backed out so it was just me, Caroline, Devon, and Jake but we had an absolute blast. We bowled a couple rounds. I bowled a 96 and a 110. For those of you who really know me, you know this is an absolute record for me! hehe. Caroline kicked all of our butts though and won both games. It looks like I need to take lessons from her. After bowling we ate some amazing Galbi and then went to a local bar for some drinks. We had some Soju cocktails which is Soju (Korean liquor) mixed with real fruit. We tried Kiwi, Mountain Strawberry, Blueberry banana, and Orange/ Grapefruit red. They all were delicious but I think the kiwi one is my favorite. That night ended around 2am.

Sunday we slept in and stayed in our PJ's most of the day. At 4 we met Boram (Rebecca) and Gina (the Korean Kinder teacher) downtown. It had been raining all morning and still was raining so instead of shopping we went to see a movie. We saw "Fame". It was in English with Korean subtitles. It was REALLY good and a must see if you like singing and dancing movies. Anne, Taylor, Tams, its the newest "Center Stage". hehe. We also had some coffee (Caroline and I had Smoothies) and then we went home. Gina and Rebecca are becoming my new best Korean friends! :)

Monday was a good day at work. It was activity day in my afternoon classes which means I got to watch movies and eat all afternoon with my classes. Today was good. Nothing too special but another good day at work so I'll take it. Tomorrow is my last day of school this week. Then it is the start of the Chusok, Korean Thanksgiving, holiday! And guess where Me, Caroline, Aaron, Prairie, and Katelyn are headed?! CHINA!!!

That's right. I leave for CHINA on Thursday morning for 5 days. I am BEYOND EXCITED!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to hike the Great Wall and do sooooo much sightseeing!!!! :) I will update everyone about my trip when I get home! :)

Miss you all and love you more!!!!!!!!!

Another long update... get used to it!!

About a week ago, I got to talk to one of my most favoritest people ever... my old roomie twin friend Taylor! (Quite the title!!) After talking for awhile we decided that neither one of us is very good about updating our blogs and so she gave us a challenge. She challenged us to both write 3 times this past week, even if it was just a paragraph because then it wouldn't seem so daunting when we sat down to write it at the end of the week. Well.... I am not sure if you have noticed, but I definitely failed. Here I am, one week later with no posts and am having to write another long one just to update everyone. :( But, in my defense, I was sick this past week and definitely was not feeling up to it. Which, is a story of itself...

So this week started out pretty well. Nothing out of the ordinary. I started getting a stuffy nose on Monday and my throat hurt the smallest bit but it does that sometimes so I didn't think anything of it. Tuesday I was ok, just tired. (Before I start on Wednesday, you must know that my school requires us to check our temperature upon signing in every morning just to make sure we don't have a temperature and ultimately they are checking for the first symptom of Swine Flu.) Anyways, so Wednesday I woke up again with a sore throat but did not think too much of it since this happened on Monday and I was fine. I took my temperature when I got to school and it was 37.0 C. This is a slight fever but I didn't want to tell anyone because they might freak out that I was getting sick and make a bigger deal than it was. Throughout the morning I started to get more and more tired and my throat started hurting me more and more! By halfway through the day, I was laying all over my desk feeling tired and my throat was killing me. I really wanted to go home, but I knew that I had to make it through my afternoon classes. It hurt tons to talk and even began to ache to move but I finished out the day. I went to bed early and decided that I was going to get someone to cover my 3:00 class on Thursday (next day) and go to the doctor's during my break before that class and in to that class if I needed to. Thursday morning, I walked in to work feeling REALLY achey all over, my throat was killing me and I just felt like I could not even function. I took my temperature, almost hoping I had a fever so it would be known I was sick and needed to go home. Sure enough, a fever- 37.8 C. I told the only other teacher that happened to be in my office (She was Korean) and she decided I definitely needed to let Tanya (my principal) know because they don't mess around with fevers because of Swine Flu. My principal was called and to make a long story short, Caroline and I were driven to the hospital by one of our bosses to begin getting checked. (Caroline had a 36.6 temperature when we first started the morning but somehow 15 minutes later had a 37.0 temperature and they decided she should get checked out too. I think since she lives with me and I was sick and that's borderline sick too) Anyways so we got to the hospital and had our temperature and blood pressure taken before we were handed a mask and confirmed to both have fevers and be "sick". My temperature was about 101 F at the hospital. Shortly after being handed a paper and told to wait upstairs somewhere, my principal arrived at the hospital. She explained that we were going to be tested for Swine Flu and if the test came back negative we would go back to school and if it was positive we would have to take another Swine Flu test that was much more expensive but more accurate. Anyways, so the results of the Swine Flu test came back negative for both of us, but the throat culture showed I had Tonsillitis. No wonder my throat was killing me. Caroline was confirmed just to have the common cold but both of us were prescribed meds. We both got the same ones and then I got one pill extra... I assumed that was for my tonsillitis. We have no clue what these meds we took were except for one which read Tylenol ER. Is that emergency room Tylenol. We don't know, but we both took them diligently along with the other pills for 4 days, 3 times a day. Anyways, so after we got our meds, we were both driven right back to school, fevers and all, and began teaching 10 minutes later. Keep in mind, meds don't work instantly so I was STILL in pain, achey, and my throat was on fire! Oh and I was contagious. Oh, and I forgot to mention... It was Kinder Birthday Party that day and guess who had been chosen a couple days earlier to be the MC? ME!! So... Tonsillitis or no, the show must go on. I MCed (is that a verb?) for the birthday and taught in pain the rest of the day, laying all over my desk in between classes. I was not in a good mood at all and getting home in to my bed was the only thing on my mind. The day could not have gone by any slower, but eventually I made it home and in to my bed. I was passed out hard by 10pm and didn't wake up until my alarm went off the next morning at 8am. Feeling WAY better but far from 100 percent, I went to school the next day.... I had no choice anyways. If they made me teach the 2 days before feeling like I did, no way was I going to get out of teaching when I was feeling better.

Anyways, so as the day went on I started feeling better and better. School ended and well I wasn't gonna let anything spoil my weekend so with meds in hand I went out to eat for dinner with Caroline, the other 2 Kinder teachers (Jason and Erica) and Ian. After dinner we went to Ian and Aaron's (both co-workers and good friends) house for a lo-key Friday of playing games. We played Apples to Apples for several hours before going home and passing out as soon as our heads hit the pillow.

Saturday afternoon a group of us got together to go to the Green Tea Fields. This group included Me, Caroline, Aaron, Paul (Aaron's friend), Steven, Miranda, Prairie, Monica, and Carol. Monica and Carol are Korean English teachers at our school that are adorable and brave enough to go out with the foreign teachers for some fun. I LOVE those two and am so glad they feel comfortable hanging out with us, because the trip would not have been the same without them. Anyways, so we headed about an hour south to Boseong. The Green Tea Fields we went to are the only green tea fields in the country with 5.8 million plants being grown. It was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL and not like anything I have veer seen before. I have uploaded a couple of pictures on here and a bagillion more on facebook that you should check out to get a taste of what we saw there. I can't really explain what it was like and the pictures don't even do it enough justice of how beautiful and cool it was to see. Anyways, so we had to wait for 45 minutes for the bus to come pick us back up and by this time it was really dark outside. We didn't mind though because everyone started talking about how we could be in a horror film at that moment and we started making up a plot of how everyone would die. It was loads of fun. We finally caught the bus that drove us to the bus station where we caught another bus that drove us home. The bus ride was a lot of fun as Aaron and I talked for awhile before deciding to rock out hard to some Taylor Swift and some Korean Pop Music. We got back to Gwangju around 9:30pm and since we hadn't eaten dinner and had been on our way to and at the fields since 2:30pm, we were all really hungry. We ate at a Galbi place that was really cute and absolutely delicious! Caroline and I then went home and went to bed. We still needed to catch up on some sleep to get rid of our sickness.

Sunday, I went to church with Ian. It was pretty sweet, but still no Wesley Foundation at FSU. I really miss that place, and especially Vance, who was by far the best pastor I have ever had! I think i am looking for that here and I need to accept that I am not going to find it. Probably not here, nor anywhere! Anyways, so I enjoyed church and was super glad I went. Its something I really miss and something I felt I really needed to go to. I will probably go back again. The real pastor wasn't there so I would like to hear him as well if nothing else.

Monday and Tuesday were good days at school and I can now say I am about 99 percent over my sickness. I still have a small runny nose but I'll take it! :) Tomorrow I have my fourth Korean class, third Korean test. Wish me luck cause I have a feeling its gonna be bad! I enjoy learning the language though and get excited about class.

Past my bedtime now, so I am off to sleep. I love you ALL!!! I hope everyone is doing well!!

I less than 3 my co-workers!!

So..... I really need to start updating this thing more often because SO much happens in a week here and I can't even remember everything. Go to the bathroom, then grab something to eat because this is going to be a long one...

Last weekend was INCREDIBLY fun!! Friday is always a long day at work because I have all of my classes and I don't get out until 6:20pm. The middle school teachers don't get out until 9, some even 10pm so by the end of Friday, we are all ready to either 1. pass out or 2. go for a drink. This past Friday we decided to go with the latter of the two and hit up a local bar. Caroline and I had never been to the bar we went to, but it was quite nice because it was a 5-10 minute walk from our house which meant we didn't have to deal with a taxi driver not knowing what we were saying and taking us to a completely different apartment place on the way home. (Side note- Caroline and I try so hard to say where we live and sometimes we are taken right to our house, while other times we are taken to random different places or to this one apartment building that we also believe has the same name as ours- Line Cha. Go figure- there is another apartment building 204 that isn't ours too... hmm.. silly Koreans... they are trying to get us Americans without the proper pronunciation skills to speak Korean, lost and I DO NOT appreciate it!) Anyways, so the name of the bar was Hofbrauhaus- just like in Munich. However, it was not like the one in Munich at all- no HUGE glasses of beer, no German band, and more importantly, no crazy Russians. hehe. But it was tons of fun to go out with the other foreign teachers and have a 맥주 aka Mekju aka beer. (or two... or three...) We all hung out quite late that night having tons of fun before going home and crashing.

On Saturday we went downtown and did a little shopping on art street. I got two really cool water colors that I am really excited about. Now I just have to figure out how to hang them because no holes can go in the walls, tape I think would ruin them when I tried to take it off, and I don't have them in frames... hmm... anyways, so after a little shopping, we went to a travel agency and booked our flight to CHINA. Caroline and I, along with 3 co-workers, are going to China in October for 5 days over the Chusok holiday. This is the Korean version of Thanksgiving. We are SUPER excited about China and I think all 5 of us are now counting down the days till the holiday break!!!

Saturday night was A BLAST!!! My school had a farewell/welcoming dinner for the 2 Kinder teachers that were leaving, and Caroline, Me and the 2 new Kinder teachers. EVERYONE from our school to include all of the teachers, receptionists, school managers, the lunch ladies, and the bus drivers came. We had assigned seats at this restaurant but it was still fun. Caroline and I got to sit by each other which was good cause then we could talk and be surprised together. I say surprised because the first dish that came out was a huge fish. The next plate was a plate full of raw cow parts. It included cow tongue, cow liver, and cow stomach lining. Let's just say that I didn't eat any of the appetizers. the main dish though was galbi which is meat that you cook at your table. Then you wrap it in a leaf and put a special bean spread, maybe some garlic, perhaps some of your salad or a different sauce on it and eat it. It is quite good and probably one of my favorite meals in Korea. While we were eating, the manager of our school came around to everyone and served us Soju. This is Korean alcohol that some people can handle no problem, while it is deadly to others. We HAD to accept (with 2 hands as this shows respect) because turning down our manager would be REALLY disrespectful and a definite no no. Everyone of course took it, but some just didn't drink it while others drank theirs and got drunk. It was kinda funny to see people drunk at the dinner. Anyways, so Caroline and I, as well as the other new teachers and the teachers leaving all had to make a speech and bow several times and then dinner was finished. After dinner, the foreign teachers decided they wanted to go out together and talked several Korean teachers in to coming with us. A big group of about 20 or more of us started to walk towards a cheap bar. Our manager happened to be following and noticed what we were doing and told us she knew of a better bar that we should go to. She led us there and then handed us her credit card, and then left. Can you believe it?! We couldn't! She did this though in order to create "harmony" between the foreign and Korean teachers. They are big about that at our school which is awesome, but we were going to be "creating harmony" at a cheaper place, but hey we didn't turn her down when she said she would pay. So after our HUGE cap ran out, we decided to continue the party at the cheaper bar. Lets just say that we had A LOT of fun that night and everyone seemed to be thirsty. :) The Korean teachers were so much fun to hangout with and I can't wait to hangout with them again.

Sunday we went to this HUGE 7 story electronic mall like place called Kuhmo world. It was pretty sweet and sold any electronic thing you could possibly want as well as a few other things such as furniture or houseware stuff. Weird, but super sweet. I didn't buy anything and Caroline only bought a tuner for her new guitar, but it was neat to go and look around.

This past weekend was also tons of fun. I went to Seoul with 7 other foreign teachers to see a Korea versus Australia soccer game. One of the teachers we went with is from Australia so we decided we would cheer with him for Australia. We all got decked out in Australia's colors- green and yellow- and he had some extra headbands and flags we all passed around to wear and cheer with. We learned the Australian cheer. "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie- Oi Oi Oi" and sang it several times that night even though we were losing from the start. We had really good seats pretty close to the field and near the cheering section so it kinda in a way reminded me of the student section at FSU football games so it made me happy. The score ended up being Korea 3, Australia 1, but it was still fun and we managed to make some Korean friends we took pictures with at the end of the game and Ian even traded stuff with. That night we all just kinda hungout around the area and then slept in this "love motel". It was an experience but it turned out being just fine and the owner was a super cute older guy who ALWAYS had a smile on his face which made us love him.

The next day, we did a TON of shopping and had so much fun. I bought my mom's birthday present there along with some other souvenirs and a super sweet giraffe purse. There were so may stores that were all selling similar stuff, but it was all so cool. There were fans, flags, jade, pottery, dolls, masks and other random stuff everywhere. I definitely want to go back around Christmas time as this is where I think I will be getting several Christmas gifts. It was awesome!! We came back back to Gwangju late that night and had school the next day.

It was an awesome weekend because its always fun to hangout with some coworkers/ good friends!

School is still going well and I have started taking Korean class at ECC on Wednesdays. Our "principal" made it so that all 4 of us foreign kinder teachers have 4th period off so we can take the class during that period and over lunch. There are the 4 of us plus 5 middle school teachers taking it, so its a good bunch and lots of fun. We have had two classes and took our first test this past Wednesday. I got minus 1 on writing and did not miss any on the speaking portion. It was only on the consonants but you gotta start somewhere right?! My next test is this Wednesday on most of the vowels which scares me because I have a hard time even hearing, let alone pronouncing the different vowel sounds. There are a couple that sounds SOOO much alike. I won't be doing well on that test I don't think but we'll see. I am super excited about the class in general and really can't wait to start learning words.

Each day I spend with my kids, I love them even more. Or in one case, I have one class I really don't care for and each day I find myself getting more and more annoyed. But I am trying a new discipline system with them that I think might be helping. I made a deal that i would give them a pizza party if they could spell out the word pizza 7 times during the 12 times I see them. Sounds way too easy but this is hard for them. They have 2 days where they did so far and 2 days where they didn't get it. But I think they are trying really hard now since they know I am serious and hopefully this works. Its a room of 8 boys and 2 girls, so its just a lot of goofing off, being silly, and basically just acting like 5th grade boys. Overall though, my kinder kids are the ones that steal my heart with their cuteness and how smart they are and I love all of them! I will be posting pictures today or tomorrow on facebook.

Sorry this post was ridiculously long!

I love you guys so much and miss you more! I hope all is well with everyone!!!!!