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Life, love, and laughter in South Korea
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Archive for ‘2010’

I Love My New Job

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Posted on Friday, December 10, 2010 by Colleen

Remember when I worked at that hagwon in Seoul, and I was always stressed out, and doing work outside of school, and angry, and miserable because my boss was a see-you-next-tuesday? Well, my friend, those days are over, for I have moved to Jinju and started working in a public school!

I work at a middle school in Munsan (well, technically two middle schools), and there are 3 grades in the school. With the 1st and 2nd grades, there are 2 classes for each grade. With the 3rd graders, there are 3 classes. So that's a total of 7 classes in the whole school. I teach them each two times a week, Monday through Thursday. I usually have 3 or 4 classes a day. That's it. I teach about 3 or 4 hours total a day. Can you believe it? Classes are 45 minutes each. Each class has between 23-28 students, I can't remember the exact count.

I started working last Thursday, but I only had 2 classes, and on Friday I got the day off to move my stuff. So technically this was my first real week, even though I didn't teach much.The 1st and 2nd graders are having tests, so they have no class, and there were no classes in the afternoon. I taught maybe 4 classes the whole week. It's also close to winter break, so I don't even teach a book until the new term in February. The students are all really friendly, everyone says hi to me, and kids come to my classroom even if they don't have me yet. The classroom gets a little noisy sometimes, but my co-teacher, Mrs. Che, is in the room the whole time to keep them in line and help explain things to them in Korean. One thing that I found helps get them to do their work in class is to threaten to give them homework if they don't finish. They live in the country, so their English levels are different. A lot of the girls speak pretty well. I've only taught the 3rd graders though, since the others were having tests this week.

On Fridays I go to a different school in Geumgok, that school has a total of 31 students, in the whole school. There's one class for each grade, and the class size is 9-12. These students are really great, they are super friendly and active in the classroom. I teach them each once a day, plus two afternoon classes. The afternoon classes I teach without the co-teacher, and all we do is play games! My co-teacher at that school, Mrs. Gwon, is extremely friendly, and she speaks English very well.

At both of the schools I have my my own desk and computer which is nice. In Munsan I have my own classroom and the kids come there, but in Geumgok I go to the different classes. They are both pretty rural, but the schools are up to date. There is a huge TV screen in each room connected to the computer, plus the one in Munsan is touch screen.

The kids seem to like me a lot, I've been trying to do fun activities with them to keep them entertained in class. But I am really happy at these schools, I have so much free time during the day to work on my material, and the teachers and students area great. I really lucked out!



Trip to America

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Posted on Monday, December 6, 2010 by Colleen


So, in case you have been living in a box with no communication to the outside world, and thus had no idea, I just got back from a two week visit to America. I flew home on Thursday, November 11 and surprised my mom. She literally had no idea I was coming. I was going to surprise her and my grandparents, but due to a flight delay, I couldn’t make it in time for dinner. Instead I just showed up at the house (with Celeste, who drove me), knocked on the door at 10 o’clock at night, and shocked the hell out of her. For the first time in my life, my mom was actually speechless. She just stood there with the door cracked open, jaw just shy of the floor, for about a minute. Needless to say, when she finally regained her composure, she was ecstatic.

Oh, and incase that box you’ve been living in was located inside another box, I also brought Dexter home with me. Although he is a pain in the ass sometimes, I love him to death. Unfortunately Daniel hates him to death, if that’s even possibly. If you have any sort of knowledge of my prior cat ownership, you know that I can’t just abandon an innocent little animal in some god forsaken shelter where lord knows if they will live or die! So instead, I decided to immigrate Dexter into America. Let’s not talk about how expensive it all was, or how traumatizing it was, or obnoxious, or frustrating, or smelly it all was. Let’s just skip all that and pretend that I wasn’t standing at the door smelling exhausted and smelling like pee, okay?

Recently before I left Korea, I had a job lined up to start December first, so I planned to stay for Thanksgiving, but leave soon after that in order to give myself a few days to settle down in my new home of Jinju. It was a great two weeks though. I was pretty jet lagged for the first week or so, which usually doesn’t happen to me. But I was going to bed at 7 pm and waking up at 5 am, not really my cup of tea. I had a rental car though, which meant two things: one, I didn’t have to depend on other people picking my ass up to go places, or on waiting for my mom to come home with the van, and two, I was actually able to park (even parallel park!) my nice little rental car, without having the stress of parking my mom’s big boat of a van.

So I got to hang out with friends and family. To tell the truth I don’t have many friends in Oregon anymore. I mean, I have people I’ve known since elementary school, but we haven’t really kept in touch. But I got to see the love of my life (and future maid of honor!) Shayla, and I drove down to Salem to see Andrea, and we saw Harry Potter together. I hung out with my uncles Sean and Dan a few times, which is always a fun time. We went to one restaurant where the food servers were all drag queens. It was a place called Oasisba, and the food was amazing as were the appetizers and cocktails. If you’re a flaming homosexual, or you like to surround yourself with them, I highly encourage you to check this place out.

Also while I was in town, I was looking into wedding venue sites. As you know, Daniel and I are already married, but we never had the opportunity to celebrate with our friend and family. So when we return to America, we want to have a real wedding. I went to a few places with Shayla, a few with my mom, and a few by myself. I’m sure I’ll be posting the pictures soon to our wedding blog if you want to check it out here. I also went to the Bravo!Wedding Affair with my mom and Celeste. It was quite overwhelming, and filling. There were dresses and venues, caterers, DJs, musicians, photographers, wedding coordinators, décor specialists. And all of them had little booklets and business cards. By the time I was done I was hauling around 50 pounds of ads! It was a fun event, and I got some good ideas about things I would like to have at our wedding.

While I was home, Dexter adapted well. We kept him in my room for the first few days, because he was being dramatic and hissing at everything. But after the sedatives finally wore off, and he was able to explore the house, he started to fit in fine. He was still attached to me like a tumor though. Every time I sat down, he would be in my lap. When I went to bed, he was there. He would even cry when I went out into the garage to get something. He thoroughly enjoyed having such a big house to run around in, and other animals to follow around. Eventually he will be let loose into the great backyard, I’m sure he’ll be fighting with other cats and tearing birds out of the sky in no time! I’m gonna be pretty sad without him. It’s really nice to come home and having something waiting for you, even if that something it waiting to attack, lol.



No Work November

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Posted on Friday, November 5, 2010 by Colleen

As usual, I apologize for not posting in such a long time. It's been a little hectic. I finished up my contract at LCI at the end of October. I kind of wanted to stay on, because I love my kids so much, but the director wasn't willing to give me an extra week's vacation at Christmas time (even though she gave it to other people!) so I didn't really want to stay with her and her shady business practices.

We had a great time at school for Halloween, but leaving my kids was hard. I cried a lot. I wrote a nice letter to all the parents, about how much their kids have improved, and how much I love them. I hope we get to keep in touch. Alyssa said that her and Alice are going to come visit me in Jinju, that would be great! I had a hard time saying goodbye to all the Korean staff too, especially Colleen, Alyssa's mom.

I was pretty pissed when we were moving. There was a new couple taking our apartment, so we were told we had to be out by 9am on Saturday! With no extra time except for after school to pack. I was also told that there would be a cleaning service coming in, so of course, I didn't take my time cleaning the place. I was pissed about having to leave so soon, and I wasn't about to waste my time doing something that other people were going to be paid for. I found out later though, that the cleaning people never came! So the new couple had to move it to our apartment when it was a mess. If I was them I would be furious.

Daniel got a job in Jinju, which is where he worked when he first came to Korea. He couldn't find a job closer to Seoul, so he decided to take the one down there. I was a little stressed because that meant I would either have to find a job in Jinju, or I would only see him on weekends. luckily after some hard work I got a job at a public school in Jinju. I almost blew my chance because I typed of my essay so fast, and there were some grammar mistakes on it. BUT wouldn't you just know it, my interviewer when to school at PSU and he used to go to Hillsboro on the weekends for fun. Sooo he gave me extra points because I was from Hillsboro. Also, he didn't want to see me and Daniel separated, so taht was another reason he wanted to hire me.

So now I am off work for a month. I'm staying at my friend Lindsay's, who lives in the same apartment area as where I used to live. I don't have much to do all day. Lindsay taught me how to knit, so I made a tea cozy and I'm working on two scarves. We also went and got jewelry making supplies, so I've been making jewelry. I was worried about having Dexter here, but he's really behaving himself. He literally sleeps all day, and wakes up when Lindsay comes home. We've been having a good time together, we bought a big pumpkin and made different types of pumpkin soup, and usually we just knit together and play with Dexter and watch TV when she comes home. I try to tidy up the house or make dinner for her while she's gone. We are basically like husband and wife.

Daniel is down in Jinju already, he started his job at the beginning of November. He seems to like ti so far. I would like to make time to go see him this month, hopefully that can happen. I'm going to try to get my new apartment a little early, so I can ship all my boxes down there before I move. It will be a pain if I have to come back up to Seoul to ship all my stuff.



Thailand

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Posted on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 by Colleen

This past week was a Korean holiday called Chuseok. It's kind of like Thanksgiving for Koreans, but it's a lot more family related,and there is a lot of prayer to ancestors. The best part is that it's a three-day holiday right in the middle of the week. The school decided to give us the Friday off as well. We all wished we had gotten the Monday as well, then we could have had 8 days to travel, but no dice. I decided to go to Thailand for the vacation because I'm getting a little sick of Korea right now. Plus my friend Tim from university lives there with his Thai boyfriend, so that meant no hotel costs!

I flew out of Seoul on Tuesday morning, I went to the airport with Alex and her mom (who were going to China). I actually flew through China, and I really hated their airport. The souvenir places would take my credit card, but not the food place, and neither would the ONE place that was selling water. I got into Thailand late, but Tim was there to meet me! We went straight to his place and then went and got food. Thailand is a pretty cheap place, especially if you know your way around. Being a foreigner, Tim said prices might be high for me, but I had him and Nate to help me out.

The next day I adventured out on my own. I had to take a bus, a sky train, and a riverboat to get to downtown Bangkok, but it was only like 30 minutes. I started out near Chinatown and went to a really big flower market. Flowers are big in Thailand because they are used for prayer. The market was huge, and wet. Oh and I forgot to say, the temperature in Bangkok was ridiculous, I was pretty much sweating my ass off for the whole day. Anyway, I walked past the flower market and wanted to go to the Museum of Siam. Apparently I looked lost because a very friendly Thai person came up to me and gave me good directions of some places to see, and then he put me in a tuktuk (a little motorized, open car). the driver took me around Bangkok for two hours for only 40 Baht (about $1.30). First I went to the Lucky Buddha, where I ran into another very friendly Thai who was telling me about the temple. A lot of the temples restrict pictures, so I couldn't take any of that place. Then I went on to Wat Benchamabophit. This was my first big temple that I had seen, and let me tell you, it was impressive. Everything was ornately designed, with lots of detail and gold embellishments. I can't even begin to understand how an ancient culture can make something so amazing without the technological advancements that present society has. It was really mind blowing. And it's not just the one temple, all the temples in Bangkok are like that. And they are all right in the middle of the city too.

After that I decided to go back downtown to the Grand Palace. I didn't actually go in because one, it was expensive, and two, they require that you wear long pants, close-toed shoes, and your shoulders must be covered. The thought of doing that in that heat almost made me pass out, so I decided against it. Instead I walked around for a while, I found a really cool amulet market where I bought a few things that I have absolutely no understanding of. Then some more walking,
I made it to the foreigner section and got some lunch. I wanted to try street food, but I didn't know what anything was, so I decided to wait for the next day when I went out with Nate. This place had a lot of souvenirs, and people selling stuff. One guy tried to sell me a night with a Thai boyfriend, only $10! I tried to find this curry market i read about, but to no avail. For the whole day, I drank four giant bottles of water (which, by the way, were only 20 cents each) and I only peed once! That's how much I was sweating. I eventually made it back to Tim's for a well needed shower.

Then, once Nate came back we headed out for my bachelorette party! I don't want to go into the details, but it involved alcohol, Mexican food, and a strip club.

The next day I had Nate all to myself. We started out with a  breakfast of green curry and begin our day at Wat Arun, which again I couldn't get into because I wasn't wearing appropriate attire. But it was fine, seeing it from the outside was still great. Wat Aurn is a really old stone temple, which again has great detail. I ran into a group of Koreans, and had a little convo with them, that was fun.

After Wat Arun, we went to Wat Pho, which is home to the Reclining Buddha. Again, housed in a huge, ornate palace, the Reclining Buddha was huge. Luckily, I was able to get in because they gave out ugly, over-sized shirt to wear for us people in tank tops. the Buddha is a 50-meter long, gold plated statue or immense proportion. We walked around the temple for a little while longer, it was a big maze of buildings and entry ways, and gold and Buddhas. After that we walked around the riverside, basically where I was the day before. We got some street food which was pretty spicy, and then to another temple called Wat Bowonniwet. More gold, more Buddhas, but this one had a great carving of Buddha's foot print (which I think is important), and withing the etched lines, people had balanced coins for good luck. A monk came up and talked to use for a little bit about it which was cool. We tried to find the curry market again, but we still couldn't find it.

We soon went back to Tim's house, and then set out for Ko Samet. We drove for a long time to a beach area where we got hooked up at a hotel for high ranking naval officers. Nate is in the navy, and it boss really likes him, so he made a reservation for us. The next morning we headed to the pier to go to Ko Samet (an island about 200km outside Bangkok). We had to wait for a while to get the boat, and the pier was really sketch. I've got this fear about walking over things that I can see through, especially when I see water underneath, especially when I'm carrying heavy suitcases. Anyway, the boat took about 45 minutes and cost 100 baht ( a little over 3 bucks) and our room was literally two feet away from the water. We got settles at about 1 o'clock and went straight for the beach. Nate and I got some food at the little place right by the room. Then I rented a chair (100 baht for the whole day) and camped out. I went in the water which was amazingly warm, it felt great. For a while we had to stay away because I member of the royal family was coming ashore. Oh, and I forgot to mention, in Thailand, there are just tons of stray dogs and cats, just chilling, walking around, causing no problem. I loved it. There were also a ton on the beach. How great would that be, to be a stray dog living on an island, hanging out on the beach, getting food from people all day. i was pretty jealous of the dogs. Anyway, back to the beach, it was great. There weren't a ton of people, just a big group of speedo-clad Russians. So we were on the beach for a while, then explored the in-land area. When night came along we wandered down the beach to this outside restaurant where we sat on mats on the sand. We got a HUGE meal, two meat skewers, two cobs or corn, spring rolls, ribs, noodles, two alcohol buckets, and a hookah, all for $45. Plus, there was a fire show! A bunch of fit Thai guys throwing sticks of fire into the air, pretty bad ass. We stayed there for a few hours, watched the fire show and partook in some on-stage dancing. After a while though I was pretty tired so I went to bed.

The next day was another day or fun in the sun. Tim got some pretty awkward sun burns on his leg, his belly button, and hear his speedo line. We stayed there until about 3 pm and then took the ferry back. I had to be at the airport by 10am the next morning, so we had to leave the night before in order to get there. At the pier on the way back I tried some strange fruit and got a few presents for my kids at school. We then drove to Bang Saen to stay for the night. This was another place on the beach. We got a pretty decent room for 500 Baht ($16) with two beds. After a well needed shower we went to get some food. Again, great meal for cheap. We got crab legs, a spicy mussel salad, and a sour-spicy fish soup, all for about $13. And of course there was an adorable cat who I had no problem giving my fish bones to. After the filling meal, we went to get a Thai massage, something I had been waiting for for days. Tim and I went together, and we got a full hour for only 250 Baht ($8). Nate told them to go easy on us because we were sunburned, but usually it's a bit rougher. It felt great though. And Tim was talking to them in Thai which was fun. On the way back to the hotel we stopped and got some more weird Thai fruit, it was all decent tasting, nothing spectacular though. The night sucked, because I swear the beds were made out of straight concrete, and in the middle of the night it felt like little concrete midgets were punching me all over my back.

We got up the next morning to go to the airport, and we stopped by a cool looking Chinese temple in Bang Saen, again I couldn't take pictures inside, but the outside was pretty fascinating. After another hour in the car we got to the airport, early, I had to wait for the ticket counter to open. I brought about $250 dollars with me, and i actually had a hard time spending it all. Even with the travel, paying for the hotels, food, souvenirs, gas, I still had about 1,500 Baht to spend at the airport. So i did my last bit of souvenir shopping, got things for my kids' parents, something for my grandma, and a shot glass for my collection. I never figured out what to get for Daniel, so I got him a bottle of Jack form the duty free shop (he loved it). I must say, it was only five days, but I missed him terribly. It was kinda annoying seeing all the cute couple on the island, and not being one of them. I was happy to finally get back (which didn't happen until 1am Monday morning because my freaking plane was delayed in China and I missed my last bus).

All in all, it was a pretty great trip. The weather was hot, but the goods were cheap and the food was great. The stray animals brought my heart up, but I missed my boo. It was great seeing Tim, and I had a fun bachelorette party. In the end though, I was ready to go home. I am definitely going back though!

You can see all my pictures here in my Facebook album!



Daniel Liked It, So He Put a Ring on It

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Posted on Wednesday, September 1, 2010 by Colleen

So in case you live under a rock and haven't heard the news, Daniel and I are engaged! It wasn't really a surprise to me, we had been talking about it before he went away to Nigeria. I told him that I was ready though. He's been back for almost a month now, and we were talking about it over dinner the other night and we decided that we both wanted to go through with it. I told him though, that I required a ring and a proper proposal. The next day he left to do some business in Ansan. I didn't really know when he was going to propose, but I was certainly hoping he wouldn't wait too long! I didn't want to tell anyone until I had a pretty ring to show off, lol. So come Tuesday night, I came home and vented about the student who spilled coffee all over my desk, and how the Speech Contest was a waste of time. Then as we were sitting on the couch he said "Ok are you ready? Close your eyes." Haha obviously I knew what he was going to do, so it wasn't like a surprise proposal, but it was special none the less. And there we have it, he asked and I said yes.

We talked about what we are going to do, and neither of us really wants to go through the hassle of having a ceremony in Korea. So we decided instead to make it official at the Nigerian and US Embassies, and with the Korean government, and instead of a ceremony, we are going to have a celebration party afterward. We are going to start saving up money, so that when we move back to America in a year or so, we can have a legit ceremony in the states (Oregon, most likely). We are also going to go to Nigeria and have a celebration. Daniel wants to go for Nigerian Thanksgiving, so it will be a joint Thanksgiving-Wedding party. He says that in Nigerian society, the family pretty much pays for everything, so we wont need to save for that. Plus it's not going to be a legit wedding, just more like a party.

I think we are going to try to go to the embassies soon. He has to go back to Nigeria at the end of October, and he needs to reapply for his American tourist visa for Christmas, so we want to go soon. Plus, I figure, the only point of getting engaged is to give yourself time to plan the wedding, so if you're not having a wedding, there's no point in staying engaged for a long time. You need to just jump right in! I will be sure to keep everyone updated on when exactly we are going to go to the embassies, so don't worry.



Education

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Posted on Thursday, August 26, 2010 by Colleen

I realized recently that I have been posting a lot of things about my life, and what I do on my free time. That's all fine and great, but when it comes to what I cam here to do I'm always leaving stuff out! I am a teacher after all. I mean, I'm not a full blown, spent five years in college, got a degree, licensed teacher. But I am educating children, so I consider myself to be one, and will put it on future resumes.

When I first came here, my class couldn't speak a word of English. Okay, maybe a few words, like "teacher" and "bathroom." Well, Thomas couldn't say bathroom, he would just say 시 (or, "pee" in Korean). My class had to start pretty much fresh, going from the alphabet, to small words, to simple sentences. I've been with them for 10 months now, and they have improved such a tremendous amount. I'll try to give you an idea of what class was like for the first four months. There was a lot of speaking Korean, even though it's kinda forbidden in the school, they were young and couldn't speak English if they tried. I got different kids starting at different months throughout the year, so after we finished a lot of the alphabet, Thomas and Daniel came in, so they were a little behind everyone. Elliot would barely even speak, and would slouch away if you tried to touch him. They could barely read any words, not even "the" or "and." We had a phonics book that would use words like "cut" and "tap" but they had no concept of rhyming words, or that rhyming words often had the same spelling. Every day I would point to the word "mop" and only a few of them could recognize it. It took most of them a month to learn how to spell their names.

And it wasn't like I was just teaching them English, they were so young they didn't even know how to write numbers properly, or deal with other students, or themselves for that matter. I've been having to teach them life survival skills as well. I've been teaching them not to cry in class, that they need to ask for help when they need it, not hit each other, not to freak out when something doesn't go right, some of them still can't write numbers properly. I've taught them the importance of sharing, and helping your friends with their work sometimes. For a long time, the girls would finish their work and would have to help the boys. I mean, the boys handwriting is still pretty bad, and nothing seems to help, but at least I can read it.

But they've come a long way since then. All of them can read pretty well (with the exception of Thomas, who can barely read "the" and "or"). We have book, and every Thursday they have to read a page that has about 15-20 lines, things like "Look at all the toys, they are on the floor. The blue ball is on the floor, the fast car is on the floor. Let's clean up the room, it is messy." So it's not the most advanced stuff, but I think it's pretty impressive. I probably couldn't read that when I was five. Side note, I recently saw a report that says that kids who learn a second language by the age of five are statistically smarter than students who didn't. Interesting little fact, no?

Anyway, my kids and I can have a pretty good conversation, they can tell me what they did over the weekend, what they had for breakfast, where they went on summer vacation, if there is a problem in class, if someone gets hurt the other students can explain why. Every once and a while they don't know a word in English, so another student will explain it, or I will look it up in the Korean dictionary, and try to explain it to them. I attempted to explain the word "born" to them, because Elliot was born in China, but they didn't understand. I was like "Ok, when you're mommy has a baby in her stomach, and then the baby comes out, and she can hold it, that's being born" but that concept still is a little too advanced for them.

We have started learning small bits of grammar as well, such as plural and singular, countable and uncountable, verb conjugations for "he, she, it" forms. They are too young for me to explain why we do things a certain way, so instead I'm just trying to ingrain in their tiny little brains to do things a certain way. Sometimes things just don't stick though. We just finished learning about the days of the weeks, the months, seasons, and "first, second, third...etc." Some of them understand pretty well, we have calendars on the walls, and I wrote the number of them month on them. And I've told them about 50 billion times that there are 12 months in the year, and it says "12" on the December calendar. But when I say "true or false: there are 7 months in the year" some of them still shout out true. It can be exasperating sometimes because I'm only given so much time to teach certain things. We just learned months, but unless we have time int he class to review, we won't really talk about that again. So I try to go over things enough so that it sticks, but sometimes, with some students, it just doesn't.

I have high hopes for them though, they have advanced a lot since they first got here, and I think they will keep up a pretty steady pce for the rest of their time here.



Hongdae and Itaewon Adventures

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Posted on Sunday, August 22, 2010 by Colleen

What a fun weekend I have had! First, on Friday, we had a pajama party at school, so all the kids came with their pajamas and teddy bears and blankets. We had a little snack party in the classroom for a half an hour, then I read them a few stories in a little makeshift tent the Korean staff put together. After that it was just sort of a free for all. We let the kids go to different rooms, they could watch a movie in the library with Jeff, or play games with Lindsay, or get their nails done in my class. of course all the girls wanted to be in my class, and a few boys! I probably painted about 20 girls/guys fingernails in that time. It was fun, but I started to get a massive headache which wound up lasting the rest of the day and night. Because I wasn't feeling well I decided to spend the night in.

The next morning, Alex, Megan and I went down to Hongik University to go to their Free Market. We got Mexican food before hand at Dos Tacos and the burritos were bigger than our heads! The market was really cool, it's nestled in a little park right near the entrance of Hongik University. There were a bunch of stalls with handmade jewelry on the street, then when you go into the park there were a bunch of vendors selling things like paintings, handmade leather goods, handmade notebooks, key chains, shirts, bags. There was so much stuff we had to circle around a few times to make sure we saw everything. And it was boiling hot outside, even in the shade we were sweating hard core. Nothing in America can prepare you for the humidity of the East. I wound up getting a few things, a cool tree painting that was also a clock, a notebook, and a few necklaces. Then on the way back through Hongdae, we decided to get piercings! We passed a shop with a bunch of Korean biker guys outside and we decided to go in. We ask how much, and it was only $10 which was cool. So I got my upper ear, Megan got her third holes on her lobes, and Alex got her nose.

We headed off to Korean class after that. I'm really excited because my teacher says that I should move on to Level 3 in September. I'm excited and nervous, because that class it taught in only Korean. My reading comprehension is pretty good, and my vocab, but my listening and reading out loud isn't too great. I can make small conversations, and try to piece things together, but listening to Koreans talk is hard!

After class we decided to go to Itaewon. We went to a cool little restaurant in Noksapyeong called Berlin, where we all got some drinks. I got a Frozen Key Lime, and it tastes exactly like key lime pie, it was great! We also got a few appetizers to stave off our hunger. Then Daniel and Lindsay met up with us for a while. After Daniel left we went back to Itaewon to a nice little Indian restaurant where we got to sit outside and eat. Drinks weren't good, but the Chicken Tikka Masala and the garlic Naan were. Next we went to a cool spot called the Bungalow. This place has this wooden swings to sit in, and the floor is covered in sand. It was like being on a tropical island. We met up with Ruth and Walker, along with Frank and Miguel. Here the drinks were good, I got something called a Cassis Frappe, and it is now my drink of choice. We stayed at the Bungalow for maybe an hour, then we all parted ways. Lindsay, Megan, Alex and I decided to hit up Ladies Night at The Loft (which is kinda a shady place, but the music is good and girls drink for free, so ti has it's perks). We met up with Daniel and some of his friends, we had some drinks and danced for a while. We left to go find Miguel up on the hill, but he was no where to be found, which was quite aggravating. By then Megan was pretty drunk, and Lindsay and Alex were tired, so they all went home and I went back to hang out with Daniel. We left sometime around 1 o'clock. It was a pretty fun night, went to a lot of places, had some good food.

And this morning I woke up and guess what I did! I bought a ticket to go visit Tim in Thailand! I'm so excited! I have a vacation for Chuseok, which is like the Korean Thanksgiving. So I'll be leaving on Tuesday morning, and coming back Sunday night. It took me a while to find a good ticket, because most of them were either really expensive, or the timing was bad. But I found one this morning, and after a little trouble with the credit card company I was finally able to book it.



Taebo (태보)

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Posted on Thursday, August 19, 2010 by Colleen

So I recently found out that I live very close to the community center for my area, and they have a huge sports/exercise complex! It's just a 5 minute walk form my apartment. Rhea, Grace and I decided to start doing Taebo (태보) there two days a week. For two days a week, for four weeks, it's only $28, which I would say is a pretty damn good deal. I'm on my second week, and it's really fun. It gets hard, because we move around so much, and by the end we are all dripping with sweat. And the best part is, I can understand a lot of what my teacher says. A lot of the moves, like back kick, uppercut, side jab, are all Kanglish (English words slightly modified to the Korean language), and if you look you can basically follow him. But when I listen I can understand him saying things like "come forward, go back, 4 more times, other side" so I'm excited that I can understand that much! Next month I'm going to start doing it three days a week (for only $38 a month!), so hopefully that will keep me away from the night life on Fridays.

The place also offers classes like belly dancing, dance-aerobics, yoga, pilates. And they have a nice looking gym as well. Daniel is thinking about joining the gym, but I have to ask a head manager for approval because he doesn't have an ARC card.



Summer Vacation Part 2

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Posted on Saturday, August 7, 2010 by Colleen

After having a few free days in the Seoul area, Megan, Lindsay and I decided to go traveling around Korea. We all got 5-day Korail passes, which basically let us get on any train at any time for 5 days. We started our trip by going down to the southwest tip of the peninsula to an area called 목포 (Mokpo). We quickly found a motel by the harbor, and it actually wound up being a pretty nice motel. For $45 we got a double bed, and a mat, plus a big TV, aircon, and a computer. We started exploring right away. We went down to the harbor and quickly bought a ticket to go to Oedaldo, otherwise known as "Love Island". The boat ride took about 30 or 40 minutes, and we were a little worried because there were some ominous looking clouds on the horizon. By the time we got there we were all pretty hungry, so we figured we would find a restaurant and get some fish or seafood. Well, "Love Island" turned out to be a total bust. We couldn't find a restaurant for a long time, and when we finally find one they had about 4 menu items, none of which I wanted to eat. We ordered food just for Lindsay, and it took almost 30 minutes to make, and they wound up making food for all of us. I kind of felt obligated to eat it since there was so much food, we didn't want to waste it. We walked around for a little bit and there was really nothing to see besides a "flower garden" which was really just a shrub garden.

We waited down by the shore for the next boat, so that was nice dipping our feet in the water. On the way back on the boat, these two old Korean men (ajushis) came up and started talking to us in Korean. Of the three of us, I am the only one with any sort of Korean conversational ability. It' turned out to be quite funny trying to decipher what they were saying. Basically, they found out Megan was from New York, and Mr. Lee told us his son lived in New York, and that he wanted to travel with Megan to go visit him. Ha, then we though that he wanted Megan to date his son, but it turns out he has a wife. So we chatted for a little bit, telling them where we were from, what we did, that we were on vacation. The guys even paid for our boat ride which was really nice. At the end he gave us the coins in his pocket, and after he wrote down what he was saying, and we tried to decipher it on our phone dictionary, he understood that he was saying "Here are some commemorative coins" lol. It was really enjoyable. I gave Mr. Lee my phone number and he said next time he came up to Seoul he wanted to eat with us. Sadly, I have recieved no call yet :(

After that we decided to go to the "fun" part of Mokpo, but turns out there isn't one. We went to a few different restaurants and got food and beer, even some "dried accompaniment" as they refer to their dried sea food product. In the end, we decided to get the hell out of Mokpo before it sucked us into it's abyss of boredom.

From there we went to Busan, and honestly, didn't do much. We got a cheap motel where we slept on the floor, went to the beach every day, read some books, and ate good food. It was quite relaxing. I wound up getting RIDICULOUSLY sunburnt. I couldn't wear a bra for 2 days because it hurt, and lindsay had to put my hair up for me. Sleeping was absolutely terrible, I was hot and cold and hot and cold. Terrible. The beaches were literally lines with umbrellas and Korean. You could rent and umbrella and a chair for 10 dollars, which was nice. But really, you could hardly see the same because there were so many mats and umbrellas. Apparently on the last day we were there, there were over 1 million people on the beach.

The last day we were there Lindsay's friend Brett (WHO WAS THE OREGON DUCK MASCOT! To see him in action click here) came to hang out. I honestly don't think I've met a funnier person in my life. We had such a great time. We went and got grilled fish, which was delicious, and it came with fish head soup which was also really good. We had quiet a lot to drink, then got some coconuts filled with alcohol. I'll tell you what, I felt absolutely BAD-ASS walking on the beach drinking tequila out of a coconut. Then we all go these cheesey temporary tattoos that all the Korean men had on, we all got butterflies on our chests, and Brett was trying to get with the girl doing it, very funny. After that we went to a night club (which was my first one in Korea). night clubs are a little different in Korea, most people dance in a group or by themselves, and it's not nearly at inappropriate as American dancing. In fact, people don't really touch when dancing. When we got there no one was dancing, so we got our drinks and literally started the dance party. Soon everyone was dancing, and Brett was spitting out these moves that the Koreans were going crazy for.

All in all it was a fun relaxing trip. I like Busan, and I'm glad I had already been, so I didn't feel the need to do the touristy stuff and just relaxed with my skin cancer.

The link for my pictures on Facebook is here.



Start of Summer Vacation

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Posted on Sunday, July 25, 2010 by Colleen

Again, sorry for not posting anything in a while, but really, life is not that exciting right now. After my first couple months here, where I spent all my weekends going out and doing stuff, I mostly spend the weekends at home now. I have Korean class in the middle of the day on Saturday which prevents me from doing some stuff.

But now I am on vacation from school, I have one week off, so I have to go do stuff. Yesterday was Saturday, and a lot of other coworkers were leaving to go to Borneo for vacation. I thought Daniel would have been back by now, so I didn't make plans to go anywhere, and by the time I realized he wouldn't be here, it was too late to book anything. But that's ok because I didn't really want to spend the money to go anywhere. So yesterday morning a bunch of us went to get our nail done at my favorite nail shop. Afterward, Megan, Lindsay, Grace and I went to Korean class. Grace decided to tag along just to see what class was like. We stopped at a great little cafe on the way up to Sookmyeong University called Froggy Cafe and had some really good pesto pizza.

After class we decided to go to Seorae Village, otherwise known as "Little France". We took Bus 13 from Exit 1 of Chong Shin University. We didn't exactly know where we were going, but found it eventually. I gotta say, although it was quaint and nice, there certainly wasn't a lot of French stuff. We were expecting coffee and pastry shops, French restaurants, wine shops. Really it was a main street about the length of a football field, and there was only one French restaurant and it was expensive. We saw two wine shops, but no place to get good cheeses or other French groceries. We actually wound up eating at an Italian restaurant. The food was really good and reasonably priced. I did pay $9 for a tiny cup of coffee though. If I haven't mentioned it yet, coffee in Korea pretty much sucks. It's either watered down, or milked down and really weak. Plus they don't really have fat free milk which was a bummer. So I was excited to go to Little France and get a good cup of coffee, but for the most part all there were were the typical Korean coffee places (which although the coffee sucks, there are at least 3 coffee places within eye sight basically no matter where you go in Korea). So I got coffee at the restaurant which apparently specializes in coffee. I'll admit that aside from "latte", "mocha", and "americano" I don't really know much about coffee or the taste of beans from different countries. But he recommended one for me at it was pretty good. Not worth $9 but still good.

All in all I was a little disappointed by "Little France" it was more like basic Korea with some wine and a French Restaurant. After that we walked to the Epxress Bus Station and took the subway back. Grace and Megan went home while Lindsay and I decided to check out Namdaemun Market. All the tour books rave about this market, saying it so big and great, especially at night. Well we went at night, and there was literally nothing special. It was just like the typical Korean market with food stalls, souvenirs, clothes, ginseng in big bottles. Lindsay and I were pretty disappointed, we couldn't figure out why the guide books would rave about this place. So instead we took a stroll down to Myeongdong, which was much better.

We went shopping at Forever 21, got some icecream, and went to this great 꿀타래 (ggul ta rhe) place. This was a little stand that I've seen a few times and finally decided to try it. There were three guys working there, and they went through this whole show for us, it was hilarious. Basically 꿀타래 is made by taking a frozen circle of honey, and stretching it into a million tiny strings using cold flour, then they put a nut mixture in the middle and wrap it up. So the guys had this whole show planned out where we watched them make it, and they would tell us about it, even using English. They would say stuff in Korean then say "In English-ey, Oh My Got, so delicious!" and then would repeat each other when they were talking. Even if the food was terrible, it was worth $5 just to watch the show. But luckily the food was good, it tastes better frozen, but still very good.

So all in all it was a fun day, although Seorae and Namdaemun were a little disappointing, we still had fun, and at least we got to see them. Megan and Lindsay and I are trying to plan a trip down towards the south of Korea next week, making our way to Busan.

The next day was Sunday, and Lindsay and I decided to hit up the Seoul Folk Flea Market. I've already been there a few times, but I was really in the mood to get some decorative stuff for the apartment, and I was bored, so I went again. It's beginning to get really hot here, and humid. So just walking a few blocks down the street gets really hot and sweaty, pretty gross. Plus in the summer I like to wear my flip flops, but they happen to be a magnet for dirt. Basically summer just makes me feel icky. But I'm on vacation, and I don't want to spend the whole time in my house, so I'm getting out as much as possible. Anyway, Lindsay and I met at the market and walked around for a few hours. We both found some good stuff, I got a tea set, Korean calligraphy brushes, and some decorative elephants. Lindsay so some calligraphy sets as well, and a few other things I can't remember. Some stuff there is cheap, while some is expensive. i really like all the old, partially rusted money coins form centuries ago, and I really just want to get a bowl of them, but they are $1-2 each, so a handful of them could wind up being pretty expensive.

After our little tour of the Seoul Folk Flea Market we decided to hit up Itaewon. We found a really great brunch place called The Flying Pan. They serve brunch all day, and the cafe is small and quaint, and best of all they have AirCon. i got the smoked salmon eggs benedict, and Lindsay got the berry french toast. My meal was delicious, and not to badly priced, I think $14 or so (p.s. since I don't have a Won button on my computer and its a pain to find it online and copy it every time, I am just going to round out the Won amount to dollars and list everything in dollars). After our filling brunch we went to What The Book, the local English buy/sell/exchange bookstore. I forgot that they moved so it took us a while to find the place, but the new building is so great. I bought a few books and a magazine to keep me busy. We finally went home after that.

We ventured out again on Monday. Megan came over and we planned our trip for the week. We bought a 5-day Korail Pass which basically lets us get on any train we want for 5 days. We are going to start the the south-western side of the peninsula, and work our way along the southern coast, eventually coming out at Busan. Although you usually don't get tickets until the day you are leaving, we knew that the trains back from Busan on Sunday would sell out quick, so we went down to Seoul Station and got our tickets in advance. Then we met up with Lindsay and decided to check out Samcheongdong (삼청동). We started out at Anguk Station and worked out way up Gyeongbokgung Palace wall through Byeolgung (별궁). This is a really great, although narrow, street lined with coffee shops, Korean restaurants, shoe stores and jewelry shops. We stopped at a great coffee place called Coffee Factory and had good coffee. I think I mentioned it before but most of the chain coffee stores have pretty bad coffee, but the small out of the way places are much better (although a lot more expensive).

We made our way through the area to the main street of Samcheongdong. Similar to Byeolgung, it's lined with coffee shops and shoe stores. There were also a few museums we saw: the Toy Kino Museum, The Owl Museum, the Chicken Art Museum. But unfortunately it was Monday so they were closed. We walked around the whole area, up a gigantic hill and back down again. After we got to the bottom we took a stroll through Insadong. Again we have all been there, but it's a fun place none the less. Remember how I said I found calligraphy brushes at the Seoul Folk Flea Market? Well, I found two sets in Insadong for the same price as the set I bought before. That always seems to happen when you buy antiques and traditional Korean goods, you always find it cheaper somewhere after you bought it. But I got them anyway, you can never have too many calligraphy brushes! So there is a lucky lady back home whose name starts with an "S" and ends with an "hayla" who will get to pick out her favorite set!

We also went to a traditional stamp shop. When we were at the Seoul Folk Flea Market, Lindsay and I got some wooden name stamps for people we know, but all the work was done on a machine. We stopped at a store that did them by hand, and they did them in stone stamps which was pretty cool. Only Megan got one, but I'm defs going back to get myself a nice one. They are a little pricey ($30 for the cheapest, while the wooden ones form the Seoul Folk Flea Market were only $5). I also found a really cool stone set with the zodiac symbols. I want to come back and get the whole set at a different time, it's only $100 for the set. They store was interesting, lost of stamps and calligraphy brushes. Even Queen Elizabeth came there and got a stamp! And, wouldn't you know it, while were there we met a Korean girl who goes to the University of Pittsburgh! I almost shat myself when I herd that!

We also went to another 꿀타래 shop because it was so good, and I got a video of the guys show, it was pretty funny, maybe better than the first guys. It was a long day, so we headed home, but not before stopped at Skin Food!

Finally, on Tuesday we decided to go back to the Samcheongdong area to go to all those museums. I was the first one out there, I went to Changdeokgung Palace (after first finding the wrong place, Jongmyo Shrine and finding it closed on Tuesdays). I went walking around there for a while, but it was freaking hot so I took solace in a coffee shop. I also went to the Tteok (traditional Korean rice cake) Museum, but that wasn't really interesting. After that I went to the Korean Museum of Buddhist Art which was really interesting. They actually had a pass for $10 that gets you into five of the nearby museums so I picked it up. Megan met me there and we went to find Lindsay (after traversing the two biggest hills in Korea to get there! I swear, we only find the tough paths when its hot outside). We then went to the the Chicken Art Museum, which was literally two floors of chicken and rooster art work from hundreds of years and many countries. The curator gave us a tour and explained some of the stuff, but his accent made it a little hard to understand. Afterward, we went to the Korean Embroidery Museum which was intersting as well. There were a lot of really big embroidery pieces with really intricate details, very impressive to say the least.

Then back to the Owl Museum, which was the 40-some of year collection one one woman who really liked owls. The place was covered wall to wall, floor to ceiling with different pieces of owl art including toys, sculptures, paintings and dishware. We had to pay to get into the museum, but we got a free cup of orange juice. Then back towards Byeolgung to get food and coffee at a place called Homestead. And after that we were all pretty much pooped to we all headed home to finish packing and take a rest. We are going to Seoul Station tomorrow at 8am to start our trip. And I will be sure to update about all the wonders that southern South Korea has to offer!



오 대한민국 승리에함성

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Posted on Sunday, June 27, 2010 by Colleen

Well until last night, World Cup season was in full swing. The Koreans go absolutely crazy for their soccer team here. For the opening game we went to a bar in Jongno. There were many other outdoor places like COEX and City Hall that were showing the game, but it was raining so we decided to go inside. The bar was extremely hot and crowded, but we got seats. It was really exciting to watch, and the Koreans at the bar would cheer for just about anything that happened. Luckily the game was at 8:30 PM so we were up for the whole game (and then some). It was a huge party when they won, people int he bar were dancing, we all got free shots, there were hundreds of people dancing and cheering on the street. We stayed afterward and watched the Nigeria - Argentina game, Daniel was sad that they lost. We were going to try to stay up for the America game which was at 3am, but when it got closer to 2am Alex and I decided that we were too drunk and tired to stay up so we went home.

The next game was on a Tuesday at 8:30 PM, and I was a loser that day and just stayed in and watched it. There is a big soccer field by my house and they put up a big screen and a lot of Koreans and their families went and watched it there. The next game was at 3:30am! I got up to watch it but fell asleep during the second half. A LOT of people got up to watch the game. And although I fell asleep, I woke up when all the people outside were cheering. Even some of my kids the next day said they stayed up and watched the game. We tied that game with Nigeria so Korea went on to Stage 2.

Last night Korea played Uruguay at 11 PM. We decided to go to City Hall with the big crowds. It was raining the whole time, and even though we had ponchos we got really went. The ground was covered in trash and wet cardboard, it was gross. But we had a lot of fun. There are not open container laws in Korea so we just got some beer at 7-Eleven and drank while watching the game. There were a lot of people there despite it raining. The crowd was really loud too, and a lot of Koreans would get excited to see us cheering on the team. I even know one or two of the songs they cheer in Korean. Unfortunately Korea lost 2-1 and everyone was really disappointed. We kept holding on to our hope until the very last second :( Luckily they kept the subway open until 2am (it usually stops at midnight) so we were able to take the subway part of the way back.

It was a great experience to be in Korea for the games. They have a lot of national pride, and they get very excited about soccer. There was a big sense of camaraderie during game time, even amongst the foreigners. I can't imagine Americans getting this excited about our games back at home.



The Month of May

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Posted on Thursday, June 3, 2010 by Colleen

My apologies for not having updated my blog in so long. I wish I had a legit excuse, but really, I'm just lazy. So it's been a month since my last post, I'll try to recount all the important things.

Daniel is still home in Nigeria. It's been really hard because he doesn't have internet, and his phone dies all the time. Plus the calling cards suck, and every time I make a call it docks me 6 minutes minimum. That really sucks when I manage to call him and it cuts off right away. He told me last night though that his visa is getting processed, and promised that he will be home within the next three weeks. He's going to move in when he gets back, so that should be nice, I wont have to pay $80 to see him every two weekends.

Towards the beginning of May there were three important days. First came Children's Day. This is a public holiday, so that parents can take the day of and celebrate their children, it's quite nice. The day before we had a fun day at school, with face paintings and going to the park to play with bubbles. There was even a magician. He was god-awful though. It was like watching one of those movies where you feel so embarassed for the main character that you can't bare to watch it (like Superstar or Mrs. Doubtfire). But the kids loved it, and it left the teachers with some funny jokes. Then the following weekend was Parent's Day, which is Mother's and Father's Day all rolled into one, and you just get your parents a nice carnation. Then a week later was Teachers Day. This was great because the kids (and by kids I mean their parents) get the teachers presents. I got flowers, chocolates, gift certificates, and a really nice wallet. Some teachers got designer perfume, face cream, shirts, etc. And all the kids wrote little "Teacher I love you" notes that made me feel special.

The Lantern Festival was held a few weeks ago, basically to celebrate Buddha's birthday. All the buddhist temples were decorated with lotus lanterns. I think you can put your name and a prayer on them, for good luck in the next year. There was also a huge parade. Kelly, Rhea and I went down for the festivities. I made a lotus lantern, a keepsake box, some prayer beads, and a lotus candle. Then we stayed for a few hours to watch the big parade where all sorts of people had all sorts of paper lanterns. We even saw one catch on fire!

The weekend after that I went to Busan which is down in the south on the ocean. Originally Daniel and I planned to go, but he had to leave. Then I invited Tim and Grace, but neither could come, so I was by myself. Rhea and Jeff where there too, but I didn't get a chance to meet up with them. Friday was good, It was warm, so I went to a temple on a mountain called Beomosa, which was still decked out for Buddha's birthday. I had to walk 3km uphill in the sun to get there, before I found out that I could have taken a bus. I actually hurt my leg going up the hill because it was so steep. Then I met a few people from Seoul and went down to the beach. It was nice to walk in the warm sand. After that I went to the aquarium. I hate zoos, but for some reason the aquarium makes me feel like a giddy child again. After that I checked out another temple which was SO MUCH better than the first one. It had a ton more colorful lanterns, plus I went at dusk when they were lighting them. After Friday, things basically sucked. It rained all Saturday and Sunday, and I felt really lonely all by myself. I wanted to go out and do things, but I only brought flats (because I'm an idiot) so my feet wound up getting soaking wet. At one point I had to buy rain boots, but all they had were an ugly pair of floral ones. By the time the weekend was over I was happy to go back to Seoul.

I had parent conferences this week, where all my moms come in and I sugar-coat how great their kids are while trying to slip in the behavior problems with have. But it went well, all my moms really like me. I had to miss like 5 days of work a few months ago, and Lily's mom said that she was literally depressed the whole time. And Joe's mom told me that he comes running home and tells her about everything I do, and how I joke with him. They all want me to stay longer, but I'm not sure if I want to. I also got a new kid in my class, who is straight up crazy. All the teachers say he's "sick in the head" because of some emotional problem he had at his last school. He seems kinda of nice, but he is one of those kids that does stupid shit to show off, and then the other kids start doing it too. I frankly don't have the patience for that. I'm trying to be nice with him, but also being firm on the rules and not letting him slide on things my other kids get in trouble for. I'm worried that Joe will start acting out more again because of this new kid, which will make lots of trouble in the class.

My Korean is coming along well. I'm starting level 2 of Korean class this weekend. And on Wednesday I was able to have 2 conversations in Korean (one to tell the mail guy I was home, and the other to make an appointment at the nail shop). Korean's just had their local election on Wednesday. Unlike in America, people don't buy TV time and blast you with platforms. Instead, the Koreans hire giant trucks with built in stages and LED Screens, and drive around the cities playing songs about their candidates while singing along with choreographed dance moves. They are also all over the place with matching outfits and sashes, handing out business cards. It gets annoying, especially because I live right next to the subway station and I could always hear the must and loud-speaker rallies.

Kyla finished her contract at the school, so we had her going away party in Hongdae this weekend. We wound up staying out until 4am. But we went to a rock dance club, and even though my heels were killing me I still had fun. She left on Tuesday night and the new girl came on Wednesday. Guess where she is from! Oregon! I almost shat myself with excitement when I found out! She grew up in Eugene and went to U of O. It's exciting to have someone from my area. The closest thing I had before was N. California (which counts for nothing because I don't like California) and Vancouver B.C.

Finally, the World Cup is coming around. Although I don't follow football too much, I am excited about it. Apparently the Koreans go absolutely CRAZY for football. There are tons of commercials for the Korean team, and everyone has shirts. I even got Daniel and nice Nike Korea jersey (before I found out that Korea would be playing Nigeria!), and I got myself a t-shirt. They play the games on the big jumbotron at City Hall and the whole area is just a sea of red-shirted people. A bunch of us are going to go to the first game next Saturday. Hopefully Daniel makes is back in time to watch some of the games!

PS. Dexter is doing fine. Still crazy. He ate my shoe.



Take Me Out to the Ball Game

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Posted on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 by Colleen

This past weekend I went to my first Korean baseball game. Although I'm not found of watching baseball on TV, I do enjoy seeing it in person. About 9 of us pre-ordered tickets to see the Doosan Bears (Seoul home team) play the Neksan Heroes. Some of us went to Korean Class so we got to the game late, but it was still really fun. It's the same rules as American baseball, but some of my friend are Scottish, so we had to explain the whole game to them. Let me tell you, Koreans love themselves some baseball. The place was completely packed, people even sitting in the walk ways because there were no seats left. And there was a huge scoreboard that announced who was up to bat, and the crowd went crazy for the batters. Everyone also had those inflatable tubes that you whack together to make noise. And the best part? The beer. You can buy beer from the shop outside and bring it in, or you can buy it in the stadium for, get this, the same price! Normally back in the states, the second you enter a stadium you are forced to pay double the cost of normal priced items. So it was great to be able to get cheap beer while watching the game. There is even a guy that goes around with some sort of tap system on his back and sells beer.



Yoido Park and Seoul Folk Flea Market

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by Colleen

A few weeks ago I went down to Yoido Park after Korean Class with a bunch of friends. It's supposed to be a great place to see all the Cherry Blossom trees, so we wanted to check it out. But when we got there, there were hardly any cherry blossoms. The park was nice, and there were lots of people, but the only cherry blossoms we saw were on the way to the park, and not actually in the park. Great thing about Korea is that drinking in public is allowed, so we were able to find a spot, snack on some chips, and have a few beers right in the middle of the park. The only downside? It happens to be a big spot for couples to go, and just that morning I had to say goodbye to Daniel since he was going home. So although it was a fun park, it also made me a little sad. But on the bright side, we found wild bunnies! At first we saw one and we thought it belonged to a girl that was seen earlier with a bunny, so we tried to catch it. We probably looked retarded, a bunch of foreigners trying to chase a bunny through the shrubs. But then we found bunny #1's friend's and realized that they probably lived in the park.

After the park, the other girls and I went to Itaewon for dinner. By then I was starving and cold. We decided to go to an Italian restaurant that was slow and over-priced which kinda sucked. But the paninni was decent, and the wine was good, as was the company.

The next day the same group of us went to Shinseol-dong to go the the Korean Folk Flea Market. This place is absolutely huge, let me tell you. Two floors, all sorts of goodies! There's a huge antiques section with things like wooden furniture, pictures, jewelry, old school lighters, there was even a canon! Most of the stuff is pretty cheap, but it would be hard to carry around. Arlene got a cool wooden stool, and Kyla got a nice box. There were also some antique Buddhist items like sculptures, coins, medallions. Along with the antiques, there is a clothing and jewelry section, even a whole area that sells cheap alcohol! Arlene and I also found a guy who does stamp carvings. In Korea, when you sign important documents, most people have small wooden or plastic stamps with their names engraved on them, and they simply stamp the paperwork instead of actually signing. They were really cheap and the guy was super nice, so Arlene and I bought a bunch of them.

The whole place is really cool, and it takes some time to see everything. I bought a Korean storage box, some WW2 Korean Army shot glasses, some movies, and I even found an electric mixer for only $10! Also, really strange, in the street outside, there was a guy selling ginseng, soaking in soju, with a dead snake in it. Grace later told me that people drink the soju in the glass for "stamina" but it sounds disgusting to me.



LCI and Dexter Update

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Posted on Saturday, April 10, 2010 by Colleen


I thought since it's been a whiles since I wrote about my kids, I would update you.

A few of them got switched around, some left the school, some moved to a different class, so I now have ten students: Alex, Alice, Alyssa, Becky, Daniel, Elliot, Joe, Lily, Sally, and Thomas. They have really come far since they first started and didn't know any English. We've started doing harder books since the beginning of the term, and now most of them can read simply sentences, they are remembering new words more quickly, some of them can even attempt to sound out new words. Alyssa and Becky are my top students, but Lily and Alice are catching up. Thomas, my probably worst student (knowledge-wise, not behavior-wise) is still my favorite, he is just so freaking adorable. I'm probably going to steal him and bring him back to America. This is a picture of the little goofball and the adorable outfit he came in with on Friday. The kids do have school uniforms (either the grey business suit, or the red stripes sweatsuit) but I like it much better when they wear their own clothes. That was you can tell whose parents let them dress themselves lol.

Daniel is doing pretty good too, he really likes to repeat the things I say, so his mom said that sometimes he goes around the house shouting "Hey! Be quiet!" to his brother. Elliot has REALLY improved since he first started. I remember that he would never talk, I could never get him to volunteer in class, his pronunciation was terrible, he never smiled. But now he's a whole new person. He talks and smiles all the time, he remembers our Theme Book words really well, he can even read a little bit. His handwriting still isn't that good, and he doesn't write too fast, but most it's because he gets distracted in class. Sally and Becky's handwriting are great, probably better than some of the 7-year-old kids upstairs. Joe has gotten a lot better, he's not as terrible as he used to be, he still is a pain in the ass though. His mom says he's been trying really hard at home to be good, so that he can be good in class, and it is starting to show.

They've started learning how to write sentences, and speak in complete sentences. I make them spell every new word that we learn, multiple times, hopefully it will get them to understand the sounds of the alphabet better so they can sound out new words. We have a handwriting book we do a few times a week, where I give them a random sentence about something we did that day, and they have to write it down. They are doing pretty good learning the days of the week, and I'm teaching them how to write the date. We've also started doing reading comprehension, which they aren't really that great at, but some of them can guess the right answers.

Mostly we have good days, but there are still frustrating ones. I know they are little kids, but they have to do a certain amount of work each day, and if they mess around too much then I have to revoke playtime. I've stopped yelling though, now when they don't listen I stand quietly at the front until they all pay attention, and I remind them that the more time they take in class, the less time for the playroom. We are still working on classroom behavior like sitting properly, keeping your shoes on your feet, pushing chairs in, walking calm to get in line, walking in a proper line in the hallways, etc. But they are doing really great.

We started a new book called a Theme Book which has basic vocabulary, handwriting, using "a and an", "it is and they are" type things. Our theme now is food, so at the end of every section I have them make a food book about the foods they like. Here is an example of Sally's "I like Vegetables" book.








































































Dexter, on the other hand, does not give me nearly as much joy as my kids do. I really thought that getting him neutered would calm him down, but there has been absolutely no change. He still likes to stay up all night playing with toys, meowing, knocking over heavy objects that cause me to jolt up in my sleep. Whenever I climb up the stairs, I instinctively pause at the bottom, because I know he is going to come and try to attack my feet. He's jumping up on the tables, trying to break into his cat treat bag, using my lip gloss as a toy, jumping into my recycling bag, trying to knock over the trash. He still likes to jump on my lap when i have my computer, and if I try to move him out of the way even the tiniest bit, he bites me. I know he loves me though because when I get home, he tries to jump up on me wont let me leave until I pet him. I guess the only good habit he has learned since I got him is that he stopped clawing the furniture. Here is a video of his attack styles. First, going for the jacket, then when that taste no longer satisfies him, he goes for my hand. And let me tell you, these are not little play bites, he's shooting for the kill. Sometimes I think he purposefully tries to go for my wrists because he wants to kill me and make it look like a suicide. He's crafty, this one.



Beauty and Racism

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by Colleen

For the most part, living in Korea has been a great time. I am America, and when I tell people this i usually get smiles of approval and attempts to speak extremely mispronounced English. And for the most part Korean people are nice and accommodating, business owners go out of their way to do things for you, they try their best to help you understand what they are saying, and some will even help you randomly on the subway when you are trying to write something in Korean. There are two aspects of Korean society though that just seem exasperating.

Back home, it really is true that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" you know, different strokes for different folks. There are all sorts of movies, songs, pictures, fashion models that depict multiply different types of beauty. But in Korea, it seems like there is a strict definition of what "beauty" is, and if you don't follow the guidelines, society doesn't treat you as well. I rarely (if ever) see a Korean woman go out without make-up and a fully coordinated and chic looking outfit, with hair that probably took hours to do, and 4 inch heels (with no back up pair of sneakers in their bags like the smart girls back at OACD). There are beauty stores literally every five feet, and millions of commercials for beauty products.

I know this seems like the case with America, but here it seems like it is being force-fed down the throats of every teenage girl that in order to get a man and get a good job, you need to be gorgeous. Families pressure young girls extremely that they need to look their best, and that they better the girls look, the better husband they will get in the future.

Plastic surgery is a big market here. One of the most popular operations is "double eyelid surgery" in order to look more western and have bigger eyes. Although breast implants aren't really big here (thank god, could you image a set of double-Ds on a 100 pound, 5'2" Korean girl?), facial operations are really big. And since the market for plastic surgery is so huge, it has lead to a large number of unqualified plastic surgeons operating on people. It seems like there just an inordinate amount of pressure put on woman to have beauty, and they will take extreme measures to get it.

My second (and biggest issue) with South Korea is the straight up racism that takes part in society. Korean is an extremely homogeneous culture, Koreans marry other Koreans and have Korean babies. If you go to one of the more western areas of Seoul, you might see a Korean girl with a western guy, but it's not that common. And most Korean woman that I talk to say they will only date Korean men. Koreans have extreme racism towards people not of their own culture, especially an ethnicity that is darker than their own. They dislike Southeast Asians, Indians, Africans, etc. They also hate the Japanese with a pretty big passion (based on atrocities committed almost 60 years ago). I often get weird looks from Koreans when I go out in public with Daniel and we hold hands or kiss in public. A woman on the subway even asked us how ws it possible that we were friends, he's black and I'm white.

This was even a conversation I had with a 10-year old Korean girl:
Somehow we got on the topic of nationality, and I told her that my boyfriend was not America (and she knows he is black)
Me - No he isn't American, he is from Africa.
Sophia - Oh. Are all people in Africa black?
Me - No, not all of them, but most of them are.
Sophia - Oh, so Obama is black?
Me - Yes he is, part black.
Sophia - You like Obama?
Me - Yes I do.
Sophia - Why? (then a conversation ensued about political views)
Sophia - But he's black.
Me - What, I shouldn't like him because he's black? The color of his skin makes a difference?
Sophia - Yes it does.
Me - Are black people different on the inside?
Sophia - Yes
Me - What do you mean? They have blood right? And a heart? And a brain?
Sophia - Yes
Me - So what's the difference?
Sophia - Black people smell.
Me - What? Korean people smell, are you saying I shouldn't like them?
Sophia - Korean people don't smell.
Me - So you think think that because the black people you have met smelled, that they all smell?
Sophia - Yes.
Me - Ok, well maybe the people you met did smell, but maybe its just those people. You can't dislike a whole group of people based on the actions of a few.
Sophia - What do you think of Indonesian people?
Me - I don't know, I've never met an Indonesian person, but I don't think I would have a problem with them. Why, do you?
Sophia - I knew a baby, and it cried for 5 years!
Me - Okay, well maybe I wouldn't like that one baby, but I can't say that i dislike a whole group of people based on one person or baby.
(by this point Sophia was completely disinterested, she was set in her ways that she did not like people who were of a different color, so I posed a situation for her.)
Me - Ok, so you have just moved to a new school, and there are only three other girls there. There is a white girl, a black girl, and an asian girl?
Sophia - teacher what is Asian?
Me - You are Asian.
Sophia - Oh, you mean yellow?
Me - Uhhh, ya, that's not really PC but okay. Anyway, the white girl smells really bad, and she dresses funny. The yellow girl is really mean to you, she makes fun of you, pulls your hair, pushes you. And the black girl is really nice, and she doesn't smell at all. So who are you going to be friends with?
Sophia - I won't be friends with any of them.

Even at a young age, Koreans are ingrained with the idea that non-western and non-Korean people are inferior to them, that they are criminals and thieves. When Daniel first came to Korea, he told me that his students would make fun of him constantly, they would call him "monkey" and other racial slurs, they wouldn't listen to anything he said. He said it was extremely disheartening that that he wanted to quit after the first week. He says he still gets looks from people on the street, Koreans treating him poorly. He tries his best to be nice and friendly to everyone, and people that have gotten to know him really like him, but others don't give him a chance.

Maybe it's because I've grown up and went to university in a heterogeneous society where the color of your skin isn't as big of a deal. But I couldn't imagine growing up in a country that is so intolerant of other races. I get pretty pissed off when Daniel and I get unapproving looks in public, or when people ask how it's possible for me to get along with a black person. But you know, there isn't really anything I can do about it, I can't change the mind of a whole nation. So to deal with my own irritation towards the matter, I am learning how to say some useful phrases in Korean such as "is there a problem?" when someone stares and "the sex is great", "he has a big penis", and "I love him very much" when people ask how I can like a black man. I know, slightly childish of me, but it makes me feel better!



Spring is Springing

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Posted on Sunday, April 4, 2010 by Colleen

Well, I officially have a living room! I ordered a rug, a couch, and a bookshelf and they are all now situated in my apartment. It really makes the place look better. The couch I got was pretty cheap too, only about $70. I did have to pay a $35 delivery charge though which sucked. But I came home one day last week and there it was, waiting at my door. It wasn't quite like the picture online, but its good. A few other people at work ordered couches as well, but theirs are smaller than mine. John also left me that little coffee table (technically I think its a sacrificial table), so now I can put all my clutter on there, and have my other table free as a dinner table or use it as counter space since I am lacking in that.

Dexter got neutered last week. I was really hoping that it would calm him down instantly, but I guess not, he's still crazy. In fact, I think he is more crazy. He's now trying to get into any bag or cat carrier I leave on the floor and destroy it. He has also taken his first leap from the upstairs loft. Although it wasn't a completely unaided jump, he broke his fall halfway down by jumping off my back while I was standing in the kitchen cooking. A coworker recently adopted a Korean kitten as well, and apparently she is having the EXACT same problems I had with Dexter a while ago: the constant biting, sneak attacks on the face while trying to sleep, meowing, overall crazy attitude. So I guess Korean cats are just psychotic in general, which is probably why they are not very popular here.

My afternoon classes had their first tests. The teachers are in charge of making, grading, and writing evaluations for the tests. Dear lord, I hate test day. It was seriously 2 hours of "Teacher, what does this mean?" "Teacher, what do I write here?" "Teacher, I don't understand". There was one part on the test where they had to spell about five numbers, and half of the asked "Teacher, how do you spell twenty?" that's the freaking question! I can't tell you the answer! The number twenty wasn't even on the test! Some of them didn't even read the question before the asked. One question said "place a or an in the blank spot before each word" yet many of them still came up to ask me what to do. One girl came up for every reading comprehension question saying she didn't know the answer, but when I read it out loud for her she could think of something (and yes this girl can definitely read). Next time around, I am definitely refusing to answer mundane questions, and it's going to be way more multiple choice.

I'm going to a wedding in a few weeks, so I went dress shopping. Daniel is going to be the best man, so I figured I had to look good. I only brought one dress with me (because I only own one dress) and I'm pretty sure it's not very flattering for my body shape. So out with Mr. Jackson I went to try to find one. I finally found the dress but of course it's not in my size. But the store did do custom dresses of certain styles, and I found one that Tim and I both liked, so I got measured and ordered the dress. I thought the wedding was in May, so I told her not to rush, but then Daniel told me it's in fact in two weeks. So I frantically called the next day, but the woman assured me it would be ready in ten days. I certainly hope it looks good on me, it's an A-Line, and I told her to make it flair out a little more to help hide them birthin' hips of mine. Here is a picture of the display one in the store. I chose a silver colored silk for mine though.

I did get some sad news. Daniel's visa is being revoked and he has to leave the country in two months. He was originally planning on leaving at the end of August anyway to go back home for his sister's wedding and to visit family members. So we planned on going to China together since I have a break at the end of July. But now I guess that's out, and he has to leave at the end of May. When he goes home he's going to get the proper paperwork and funds together to come back on a business visa, and start his own company. But it will mean that he will be gone for at least 3 months. So to make up for China, we planned a trip for a three-day weekend I have in May. We rented a really nice hotel in Busan, one that is right on the beach, and that I got for almost 50% off the listed price. So we're planning on making it a nice romantic/going away weekend for the two of us. It's going to be hard to be without him for 3 months, but I'm really hoping that when he comes back he will move closer to Seoul. By the way, check out the great purse he got me the other day, just because he is so amazing.

I've been cookin' up a storm lately. Last weekend I made great bacon, cheddar muffins and chocolate chip cookies. Ps cookies are really hard to make if you do not have beaters! Especially because Korean butter is a little strange and doesn't quite get as soft at room temperature as regular butter. This weekend I made french toast, homemade mac and cheese (which I still prefer the Kraft kind too. I really miss cheap mac and cheese **hint hint wink wink in case anyone ever wants to send me a few boxes, I would be eternally grateful), and sugar cookies. I would like to be able to make more intricate items, but it's hard when you don't have a house full of baking supplies and spices. Or when you're in another country and can't read the labels or even know what kind of apples you're getting at the store, and when you can't ask for help either. I really want to make pie, but I can't find pie crust, and it's hard to make it by hand if you don't have a processor. Also no graham crackers for cheesecake crust. Hopefully I will learn soon about appropriate substitutes.



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