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!!!!!