A Korean Wedding

Top: this is the fire escape slide (most of them are a lot longer... taller buildings)- this was in a small town with short buildings
Middle: There was so many people in this room that people were exploding out of the door and into the next room... seating was first come first serve.




Colleen wanted me to tell you to check out the fish at the top of this page... did you know you could feed them? Simply click in their pond and food will drop- they chase after the food...it's just great. Colleen, you would love this haha!
 
It's been a busy work week and i'm exhausted when I get home at 8:45 every night... sorry I didn't post sooner. Work... ugh, where do I begin. Last week when I came in I was told I had 2 more classes to teach starting in December which is tomorrow (a little nervous). I told you that I was taking over the Leopards 4 class (1st/2nd grade level) , but now I will be taking over the Arch class (Kindergarten) as well. A co-worker of mine used to teach this class but since he's a worthless schlep.... they took the class away from him so that he can just sit around and continue to do nothing. Nothing around here seems logical... ahh! Oh well, I guess I should take it as a compliment! I will admit, I am looking forward to teaching the little ones. I will have them on Monday,(sculpture and reading) Wednesday,(science and cooking) and Friday ( P.E. and reading). The sad thing about my very full teaching schedule is that I will have no time at all to work on the art curriculum... I was really enjoying that! I tutor a little boy every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening (he is the bosses son). He reminds me of myself when I was his age (6)- he's got potential but the material just doesn't click. I am very patient with him and I enjoy helping him but he is extremely exhausted when he comes to my class at 6:10. When management asks me how he is doing I tell them that the biggest problem is that he is too tired (he goes to school 9-3 then has after school activities 4-6)... the child needs a break- DAMN! So, guess what... when my entire schedule got changed around, they changed this student's tutoring hour from 6:10 to 7:10... WHY! If he's falling asleep at 6:10 he's obviously going to be just as tired if not more tired an hour later. FRUSTRATING! I know I complain a lot in my blog but in the office i'm getting pretty good at just brushing it all off my shoulder. This week (Monday and Tuesday) were test days for the month of Novemeber. I promised my Tiger 1 students that if they all got a 90 or above on their tests, i'd give them a pizza party. Yayyy Tigers... I am so proud of them. Looks like I am throwing them a party this week!
 
This past week was Thanksgiving and a sad one at that. Instead of enjoying a lovely meal with my family, I went to Outback with my co-worker Alicia. Outback is always delicious so no complaints there but... it was no American Thanksgiving. Alicia and I met some very nice American men who were here on business. We enjoyed drinks and dancing at the Skyy Lounge in the Ramada hotel. It turned out to be a nicer evening than expected. I took one of the guys to the park Friday morning for what ended up being an intense jog. I found out he was a marathon trainer so he kicked my ass into shape. Thanks to him i've been killin it on the track this week!
 
So... remember I told you my friends and I were singing a song at our bosses wedding.... welll... it turned out sounding awful. We practiced all day Saturday which was a complete waste of time. I felt bad for the 4 Koreans singing with us. Most of them can't speak English that well so singing/memorizing an English song couldn't have been easy. By the way, we sang "Love" by Nat King Cole.... "L is for the way you look tonight". The wedding was a very interesting experience. It was very similar to an American style wedding except for a few things. When we came in we immediately went into a room where we took pictures with the bride. She was on display in a little room, for everyone to see...The wedding hall was decorated beautifully. There was a table set up outside the wedding room that had candles and pictures of the bride and groom.. it was a little strange because the bride wore several different wedding dresses in the pictures- all of which were different than the one she wore on the actual day. This whole set up reminded me of a memorial. When we left the wedding hall to go to the dining room, there were pictures of another couple already in place. Prior to the ceremony, the mother of the groom and the mother of the bride walked down the isle and lit special candles that resembled everlasting love. Once the bride and groom were married they stood to the side and watched while a friend of theirs sang and while we sang our terrible rendition of "Love"- Jessicas and Seth (bride and groom) seemed to enjoy it... part of me thinks that they thought it was a joke. Whatever, they looked happy and thats all that matters. After we sang, Jessica and Seth lit candles in front of the cake. I was really confused why they didn't cut the cake. In fact, the cake was never cut... it was basically just there for display. After all of this, people gave money,(a Korean wedding tradition) and were escorted into the dining room where we enjoyed a variety of different food… buffet style. The dining room was not decorated and there were no events, music, or any other types of wedding traditions. People simply ate and left. Well, the bride and groom did change into their traditional hanboks and walked around saying hello to people. At one point I saw them each cheers a pitcher of beer…and down it- WOW… I wonder if this is another Korean tradition?

The wedding (ceremony, reception… everything) took 1 1/2 hours. This was nice because it left my Sunday afternoon open. I enjoyed a day of shopping in shinae (downtown) with my friend Katie. I was amazed at all the shopping downtown had. Ya know, it's hard to tell when your going in and out of bars on the weekend nights.

I realize some of you are still a little bit worried because of the conflict with North and South Korea. I've been watching/reading the news avidly. It seems that the people of South Korea are just not pleased with the way in which their government is handling things. President Lee of South Korea says that he will defend his people…. this war will continue. Hmmm.. it makes me nervous. It definitely adds on to my learning experience in Korea. If it makes you feel better… I am registered with the USA embassy. If there is any kind of emergency they will contact me immediately via email and they will fly me home.

Korean Facts/ Randomness:

-My friend/co-worker and I are going to take a class called Hapkido (is a dynamic and eclectic Korean martial art. It is a form of self-defense that employs join locks, techniques of other martial arts, as well as common primitive attacks. There is also the use of traditional weapons, including a sword, rope, nunchaku cane, short stick, and staff which vary in emphasis depending on the particular tradition examined). I am pretty excited.. I will definitely let you know how it goes :)
- In Korea, don't be fooled by what looks like string cheese. Last week, one of my students brought me what I thought was string cheese. I knew it was too good to be true so I let him eat his first. I looked at his and smelled it.. ahh yes, sure enough I was right. Those little chunks were fish and that awful smell was fish- gross
- The majority of people in Korea are buddhist… a somewhat decent amount of them are christian. There is Christmas here, but the holiday spirit is not the same as it is in America.. I miss it!!!! I think i'll bust out my Christmas music and draw a picture of a Christmas tree and a menorah of course to hang on my refrigerator.
-The Korean flower is a hibiscus… it's called the mugunghwa which means Rose of Sharon. This flower comes in several different colors. Women use the red petals to stain their fingernails. They place the petals on top of their nails and then wrap up their hands with bandages and keep them there over night. I often see girls in my classes with stained nails- it looks orange.
- When you order food from a restaurant and they deliver, they bring it to you on/in real plates/bowls. After you finish, you rinse them off and set them right outside your door. The restaurant comes back later that day and gets the dishes- they don't charge you any delivery fee and no tip. I told you… people don't steal here. If we did this in America, those restaurants would never seen their plates, bowls and silverware again haha.
-I keep seeing these giant slides that extend out of windows on high floors of buildings. They aren't just any slides, they look like something you would see at an amusement park. I recently found out that these slides are not for fun, they are fire escapes.

** A special Happy Birthday to my momma and my brother-in-law Dave. It's not December 1st in America but since I live 14 hours in the future, it is your birthday here!! Have a great day
** To all my fellow jews... as you know, Hanukkah starts on Wednesday evening. Enjoy lighting your menorahs for the 8 crazzzzzy nights.

Back up North Korea... we aint afraid of YOU!

As most of you know, North Korea just bombed a small island right off our coast, near Seoul. If you're concerned about my safety... don't be! I am perfectly safe in Gwangju. All the Koreans around here just brush it off and act as if it's no big deal. After all, North Korea keeps doing this bullshit. It is the 2nd or 3rd time this year.. right!?- oh, it's hard to keep track! I do realize they have nuclear power but, and I hate to say this because I have friends in Seoul but... if North Korea is going to bomb a city in South Korea, it will most likely be Seoul. This is all very unlikely so sit tight- i'll be home in 10 months :)

If it makes you feel better- mom.. i've been reading up on necessary precautions to take if something bad does happen (you know me- I got the mom gene). I will make sure to find a shelter or i'll dig a hole, take all my food and hang out there for 7 to 8 days until the radiation has dispersed out of the air! I love you and I appreciate your concern :)

Happy Thanksgiving all my fellow Americans... eat some turkey and green beans for me- god knows i'm not going to find any here!

Leatherface is in Korea... ;)

Saturday night in sequential order: 1- leatherface/squid face, 2- smashing the ham over the the wooden bowl, 3-brides mother opening the ham of gifts



Hello lovely Americans.. Germans (I think that is the extent of people in different countries reading this blog)! I hope you have all had a nice week.. mine has been just swell.

Work has been good… no crazy drama this week, just new schedules in the making. The way the classes work at my school are so confusing. The Kindergarten program is the only level that sticks with the same teacher/peers for one full year- their session begins in March (this is when the school year technically begins). The majority of books we use are all 6 month books. Because of this, we have a 6 month program. After a student is level tested, they are placed in their appropriate level (example: I've got a 3rd grade level class: Giza 1, with one 9 year old-typical age for 3rd grader and two middle school students-13 years old)- keep in mind that this is their second language so their English level is not always going to be the same as their Korean grade level. Also… do you remember me telling you that when Koreans are born they are already 1- that creates some confusion as well. Anyway… I was saying that we have a 6 month program. This means students will move up, if they are ready, come March (new school year). So we have these 6 month programs, but depending on the class load each teacher has, a class might get a different teacher at the beginning of a month. I know, I know… why am I telling you all of this- i've got a point… I've got a new class starting in December. Brian, one of our teachers… has got a very full load so I am taking a class off his hands. He teaches a Leopards 2 class (they are on a first/second grade level). Most of them are between the ages 7 and 9. Apparently this is a rather rambunctious group so I am anxious to get to know them and whip 'em into shape.

Are you wondering about my little Tiger 1 student Alice? Well I am very happy to report that this week has gone just swimmingly. I've got that class wrapped around my finger now- they don't even make a peep without raising their hands. Sounds like hell huh… don't worry, we still have a lot of fun. I mean after all… these kids never get a break from school, they never get a chance to be kids and play. I make sure to have a good time with them!

I know I told you before but i'll tell ya again.. i'm really enjoying the free time I have to myself… like after work and here and there on the weekends. Being that I am an American… teaching in Korea, my students are always asking me about America- where things are, what places look like, etc.Not only this but they want to know everything about me. The biggest topic we've discussed is geography- where I have traveled in the world. In class we are always looking at maps.. seeing what countries are where, what climates are like in certain areas, what nationality people are in different countries, etc. I have further researched this information at home… it's incredible… understanding geography has helped me to understand so much more that is going on in the world. I love having extra knowledge to share with my students.

Speaking of other countries, I am really hoping I will get the chance to travel outside of Korea while I am here. There has been talk about Japan for Christmas break and Thailand or Malaysia for the Korean New Year (end of January). Before coming here I thought I was going to be able to take time off to travel.. hence the reason I made my blog name: "Emilie's Asian Adventures". It's looking pretty iffy.. even if I was to take a day off for personal reasons, one/several of my colleagues would have to cover my classes (unpaid). We aren't very happy when one of us takes a personal day… that's why we just don't do it. SUCKS!!!

The most eventful experience I had this week was my bosses engagement party. All along I thought my boss was already married but I just found out he's been engaged for the past couple years and the kids he has are from his previous marriage. On Saturday a group of us went out to the country for this very traditional engagement celebration. I had no idea what was going to happen… I was just told that what we were doing was an old Korean tradition and it's rare that people still do it. Saturday, around 4 a group of girls (bride included) and I got in a van (the men were all in a different car)… after traveling up a mountain on a skinny, winding road, only hearing Korean and almost getting in a terrible accident (crazy Korean drivers) we finally made it to our destination- the bride's parent's house. We came in and immediately helped the bride get ready. She wore a traditional Korean Hanbok dress (the same dresses women wear for Chuseok). After getting her all ready we ate dinner and and had several shots of rice wine. Ohhhhh rice wine… you make me nauseous! I've told you about it before… when an elder fills up your bowl of this white, curling milky rice wine, it's bottoms up or else! I think "or else" is just you being rude.. i'm not sure because somehow, i've always managed to finish mine. After eating dinner everyone (except for the bride) went outside to the top of the long driveway and waited for the men to arrive. When we reached the top of the driveway.. or should I say, street.. we heard them shouting: "Hamsaseyo!"-"Buy this box!" With them they had red and blue lanterns, a giant box (this is called the ham (pronounced h-ah-m): a large, silk wrapped box containing a matrimonial epistle and some presents) and of course the groom who was also in a handbook- the male version (… he might as well have been wearing a dress like his fiance because his outfit was hot pink and lavender silk). Let me tell you a little more about the box-ham and the man carrying it…it was strange. The man who is carrying the ham is the Hamjinabi- the males good friend/ groomsmen. Not only is he carrying this huge, heavy box on his back but he also has a mask on. The mask is a dried squid that has holes punched through it to see. To all the Koreans the mask was extremely funny but to me, not so much! Being out in the dark street in this old country town with a full moon in the sky already made me feel like I was in a 1970's horror film.. this squid mask that resembled Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) didn't really help this feeling. Now, for the next 40 minutes or so we watched (I watched because I don't speak much Korean) the brides father and friends try to persuade the Hamjinabi to come inside. After only a few steps forward the women came out with food, shots of rice wine and soju…. briberey- "come inside, taste this wonderful food and alcohol he have to offer".. a few more steps and a face full of kimchee, the Hamjinabi and the men holding lanterns were making their way down the street. They were still pretty far from the house and that's when money became part of the equation. The brides father had white envelopes that had about 20,000 won each in them. He placed them on the ground and the Hamjinabi had to step on them as he walked forward (so the whole point here is: the bride's family is offering a party and giving money to the groom for his efforts in bringing/providing the ham. The ham full of gifts represents a variety of traditions as well as an everlasting marriage). So, once the Hamjinabi reaches the door, he smashes a large wooden bowl with the ham and places the ham over a medal box that is filled with Bongch' i Doek (red bean rice cake- always served during a celebration). Everyone comes inside and eats again… but not together, the girls all at one table and the boys at another. It was interesting how easily this small living room became a dinning room fit for 30. Being that that we sit on the floor and we don't each have our own place setting made it easy. The only beverage that was offered was.. take a guess… yes, rice wine. Near the end of the meal they brought out beer, that was a nice change but my stomach couldn't take it. I just washed everything down with several, juicy clementines.

Allow me to digress for a minute… so, i'm sitting in my kitchen, it's about 1:30 am and all I've been hearing for the past 45 minutes is barking dogs. I'm a little confused because not many people have dogs… you do know that they eat dogs here. Maybe i'm being dramatic, but is it possible that there is a slaughtering going on right now? I heard this same intense barking about a month ago…. hmmm… something to think about.. or cry about! Oh Lord!

After dinner everyone gathered around the bride's mother as she opened up the ham. You wouldn't believe these gifts.. heres a few things that were inside: a mink jacket, a beautiful wooden jewelry box filled with assorted jewelry- diamonds, gold, peals, silk pajamas, a burberry wallet and purse, etc.

Okay so…. all the barking just completely stopped… odd! Hmmmmm……

Anyway, sorry… the brides mother was so overjoyed, she was crying. After stuffing our faces with red bean rice cake (not my favorite), we hit the road. The ride home was rather nauseating… I could feel the rice wine curdling in my stomach as we headed down the winding mountain. Ohhhh… i'm still burping it today- gross!

The wedding is next Sunday and somehow, I was talked into singing at it (why the hell am I doing this???)- should be another interesting story… i'll be in touch soon!

Korean Facts/ Randomness:

-Remember I told you that people live with their parents until they are 30 well…. if you are a male and you have moved out, don't worry… you will still get all the same mommy treatment… up until you have a wife that is. Like I have told you before, men are extremely babied. My Korean friend told us that her 35 year old brother still comes home to get his laundry done. She was blown away when she heard that the boys around here (at TNE) do their own laundry and cook for themselves.
-I was with my friends X and Y at the pharmacy the other day and they were trying to ask the pharmacist for lubricant… he nodded and said, "ahhh yes, love jelly"- we have that! Gotta love the names they have for things.
-When you go to the grocery store, the Koreans are always looking in your cart to see what you buy. It's ridiculous how nosy they are.
- I miss carpet! Even though the floors are heated…I still miss the way carpet feels on your feet. There is no carpet anywhere… I barely see rugs, just hardwood floors.

Don't Mess with Emilie Teacher!

Top: Alicia's 30th Birthday Party- 80's themed... Cheers :)
Bottom: Pepero Day- pepero sticks


I think I had a pretty successful work week. A few screaming children here and there but over all it went really well! Management really loved the Kindergarten art curriculum that I just completed so now, for the next couple months I will be creating the art curriculum for 1st and 2nd grade as well.

Remember the problematic class I told you about… my Tiger 1 class? Well, I had some issues this week with one in particular Tiger girl. Her name is Alice and she's quite the sassy little know it all. Ya know, I try to be a nice teacher… I let a lot of things slide, I give prizes and candy almost every day, I bring snacks and I allow my students to watch funny videos from youtube (age appropriate of course). Now i'm certainly not trying to bribe my students but I do feel they deserve to be rewarded for their hard work and effort. Back to Alice…after a number of notes home to her mother and warning after warning, she still continued to act defiant, rude and disrespectful. Every day she would test me a little more. Oh boy did she have it comin… on Friday I really let her have it. After sassing me and writing extremely rude notes on her test paper about me, I told her to get out of my class and go sit in Alicia's class (noone wants to do that…it's like the principals office). Of course Alice didn't move she just sat there, arms crossed and cried out "no, no, no!". I got the teacher in the next room to watch my class and I escorted Alice out of it. She wouldn't even walk cooperatively, I had to pull her along by the arm. Once we got downstairs she held onto the rail with all her mite, I couldn't break her away … thats when we had it out. I reprimanded her like I never thought I could… I didn't know I had it in me but I was not going to allow an 8 year old to make a fool out of me. I know this sounds bad but I was glad to see her bawling her eyes out- she needed to know who was boss (plus, I'm not stupid… half of those tears were fake). I told her that she wasn't welcome back into my class until she gave me a sincere apology. She talked with Alicia for a few minutes while I continued to teach my class. She came back to class a changed child. Not only did she apologize but she was respectful and compliant… maybe even a little scared in a way that she knew she better not mess with Emilie Teacher again!

This weekend was so much fun! Alicia's 30th birthday is today (Sunday the 14th) and she had a big party last night to celebrate. The party was 80's themed which wasn't hard for me.. I already had all the attire. I wore an off the shoulder shirt that had a neon pattern, a cut off jean jacket, leggings with cut off jean shorts over top, tall bunched socks under my gray high-top converses, neon orange netted armbands (these are the only things I don't own, I promise) tacky makeup and of course a side pony tail. Alicia followed through with her mexican traditions… they are supposed to pay/make dinner, drinks, etc. and your just supposed to bring a nice gift (we got her an awesome one)! Being that she is mexican, she cooked some amazing authentic, mexican food. I can't even describe to you how delicious it was. She even got her sister to send some pepper jack cheese and charizo (spicy sausage) from the states.She made more than enough food and there were at least 20 plus people eating… drunk people! She went above and beyond. She made 5 gallons of margarita, 3 gallons of sangria, and there were endless shots of tequila. She ordered blow up guitars for everyone, netted arm bands, michael jackson sequence gloves, and 80's style sunglasses. We partied at her apartment till midnight and then headed downtown. This certainly isn't something to be proud of but…I promised my friends I would try to make it till the bars closed…you do remember, the bars stay open till 7! - oh mom, I know your proud of your youngest daughter! Ahhh Korea… gotta experience it all!

So, it's 9 pm and i've yet to make it out of the house… after this, i'm heading out for a nice, long jog. I think i'll sweat some of this alcohol off. Have a beautiful week- yours can't be as beautiful as mine cause fall in South Korea is just breathtaking ;)


Korean Facts/Korean Randomness:

- On Wednesday (11/11) Korea has a holiday: Pepero Day is an observance in South Korea similar to Valentine's Day. It is named after the Korean snack, Pepero and held on November 11, since the date "11/11" resembles four sticks of Pepero. The holiday is observed mostly by young people and couples, who exchange Pepero sticks, other candies, and romantic gifts.
Some of my students brought me pepero sticks- tasty :)
-Korea doesn't have day light savings which means I now live 14 hours in the future instead of 13. when I explained day light savings to my students they all looked at my like I was nuts (why do we have day light savings anyway?)
-This is cool and I am sure all of you know this if you watch the news…. the G20 summit was held in Seoul (capital of South Korea) this year/this past Friday.

Beautiful Fall!

Top: Walking along the fortress... Dominique and I sitting on a beautiful fall tree
Middle: I love the fall trees... this was on the grounds near the arboretum
Bottom: In the middle of our long hike through the forests near the fortress... we stopped to take a picture on this old bridge




I can't believe it's November.. although i've been getting a little homesick (people have been telling me it usually sets in for a little while around the third month.. it's been 2 months and 3 weeks) time is still continuing to fly. The work week zooms right by because we are so busy all day long. I can't get enough of the weekends so obviously, they go by pretty fast as well.

This week was a little hectic at work. I am almost done with the art curriculum but supposedly management says that I do not work fast enough… excuse me for teaching class all week long, grading, making tests, making lesson plans and writing evaluations. I've been working hard to create this great, year long, Kindergarten, weekly themed art curriculum. I tried to explain to them that with my busy schedule, I need a little more than 2 1/2 weeks to create a year long curriculum… nothing is ever good enough for them- quality work does take time ya know. On a lighter note in that area, management has looked at a good portion of the curriculum and they just love my work. They might even try to sell it to other schools… shouldn't I get a chunk of that?!?! I have really enjoyed working on this… it's right up my alley!

So… I have this one class where every student is just a mess. I still love them but man… it's rough sometimes. One of the little girls has got to be bipolar (one minute she is so sweet and the next, she is talking back and throwing things at me). One of the little boys is sooo incredibly smart but he has this weird hand fetish. If he isn't coloring his fingernails with his pencil (I often take it away for this reason) then he is eating his hands or his cuticles (I am telling you, he literally chews on his palms). My god child, your going to get worms if you don't stop that… I tell him this but it doesn't seem to make a difference. There is only 4 students in this class… one of the little boys quit this month for personal reasons (I think he knows he failed his last test and he is afraid to look me in the eye again). Teaching the older kids is still a new learning experience for me (I am really glad I have them but like I have said before, I miss my babies). When I did student teaching in college, the oldest class I taught was 3rd grade and it was only for 3 different science lessons so I haven't really had a lot of experience with older students (3rd, 4th or 5th). I feel pretty lucky to be getting this experience here before I go back to teach in America. I think I forgot how conniving older students can be. I really tried to be nice for a while but after this past week, I decided that I wasn't going to take any more of their bullshit. I came in today (Monday) and laid it all out.. I had a new set of rules and I was ready to enforce them. Can you believe that I was nervous? It ended up going really well. They still acted silly but I am okay with a little silliness as long as I feel I am getting the respect I deserve and we are getting our work done. I think things will be looking up in this class!

So let me tell you another why my academy embarrasses the hell out of me. You know I work across the street from the Gwangju convention center (Kim Dae Jung Convention Center). Well, some very sophisticated, middle aged, Korean women came in a few weeks ago and asked if we taught any business classes. Of course, management told them yes (No.. we are a freaking Elementary school with a few middle school students… come on TN). Not only did they tell them yes but they also went out of their way to tell them we had an entire business curriculum set up. If that isn't enough bullshit for ya, listen to this… this past Monday the women came in ready for their scheduled class time. You know management wasn't prepared, they probably even forgot the women were coming. Who the hell was going to teach this made up class? Luckily, Ryan wasn't teaching at the time.. he was just busy making tests, lesson plans, etc. so they told him he had 30 minutes to come up with a lesson for a 2 hour class… poor Ryan- he is a graphic design graduate, he really doesn't know much about business (haaa.. nor do I). He found some random stuff on the internet and went and taught it. After a week of teaching, Ryan told me the class was going well. He really loves the women but he still feels a little unqualified to teach the class. It's kind of sad that these women pay 2,000 won a month (equal to about 2,000 dollars) for a course that doesn't even have a set up curriculum. Like I said… it's embarrassing!

The best thing about this past week at work was what one of my students brought me. After class ended last Tuesday I walked downstairs ready to go home and make dinner but to my surprise, Annie's parents had brought me an entire pizza, a steak and potatoes, and a lobster with fresh veggies. Oh my gosh… thank you!!!!!!! I made sure to write them a thank you note (of course, they won't be able to read it so Annie will have to translate). Apparently Annie's dad owns an American-stye restaurant… I hope to visit there in the future because the food was delicious!

I had the best weekend… back tracking…I met a really nice girl when I went to the Daejeon Rock Festival last month. I found out she lived in Gwangju and knew some people I worked with so we exchanged numbers. This past weekend she invited me to go with her and some of her friends to a really beautiful, historic town called Gongju. It's fun to meet new people over here… it's like college- meeting people from all over the U.S… over here your meeting people from all over the world.The people in our group are from: America (Arizona, Minnesota Pennsylvania and North Carolina of course) and Canada (Ontario). Saturday morning we took a bus to Deajeon and had lunch. Because Gongju is such a small town, we couldn't go straight there from Gwangju. After arriving in Gongju, we went to a neat museum where we learned all about the Songsan-ri Burial Mounds. We later went outside into the beautiful, crisp fall weather for a short hike to visit some of the actual tombs. One of the most well known tombs we saw was that of King Muryeong. The tombs were mostly hidden… I have to say, the best part about the tombs was the scenic hike along the way. Although, it was a neat feeling to be surrounded by so much history….these tombs have been around since 523 AD. After visiting the tombs, a lot of our day was over because the sun was going down. We found a motel (yes… another love motel, what else- this one wasn't nearly as nice as the one we stayed at in Daejeon but it was still a cozy place to sleep). We ditched our bags and went out for a tasty dinner and a night doing what… can you guess… karaoke!!! I have learned to LOVE karaoke- mom, I think I need a karaoke machine but I doubt I will be able to find friends so sing with me haha. After a really fun night with all my new friends we tried to head home early so we could begin day two in Gongju somewhat early.

After having a delicious breakfast at the bus station we walked along the Geumgang river and to the beautiful fortress of Gongsanseong. The fortress was incredible… we walked/hiked for hours along the fortress, exploring the ancient mysteries of a 1,500 year old kingdom (Baekje). I could not get over how beautiful the trees looked and how wonderful the weather felt- we picked the best weekend to travel to such a beautiful place. After a nice long hike we took a taxi over to the arboretum and it's beautiful scenic grounds. We walked around admiring all the beauty and learning about the different plants, trees and flowers of this ancient town/country. The trip was amazing and exhausting at the same time… not knowing what to pack.. I made the mistake of packing too much. I didn't realize we would be walking/hiking all day long with our things. I could have easily just throw in an extra shirt and underwear but I didn't really know what we were going to be doing. Oh well… my fault… I guess I got twice the workout as everyone else because my book bag was like carrying a small child. The bus rides back to Gwangju were so relaxing… I finally finished my book (The Last Lecture.. I recommend it- very moving and inspiring) and took a nice nap!

Monday has come and gone and I can't wait till this weekend. Alicia (the lead teacher and my friend) is turning 30 on Friday- she is having an 80's themed party… I am looking forward to it! Talk to ya soon :)

Korean Facts/Randomness:

-A lot of Korean woman are pregnant right now because they all want to have their babies in the spring… it is believed that if you have a spring baby, he/she will be born with a lot of strength, power and courage.
-The way Koreans use heat is via the floor (the heats comes though the floor)… it's pretty nice since you have to walk about without your shoes one
-Most Korean children wear glasses (no exaggeration- out of the 18 students that I only teach, 12 of them wear glasses)- one time the girls in my Giza class were alll trying each others glasses on so I tried them on too… they don't even need them!!!!! I found out that the reason they all wear them is because it's a preventative strategy.
-My students were telling me how much they dislike spring… how could you not like spring it's such a happy time I thought- well… in Korea, during spring time they experience sandy winds from China (yellow dust). They said that a lot of people wear masks when they go outside. I am anxious to experience this yellow dust. Being that the Koreans exaggerate a lot, I am imagining its somewhat like pollen.

Happy Halloween!!

Original Jack and Sally (we look similar right?)
Tomb Stone: this was in the graveyard at the haunted house
Superman: James (one of the Kindergarten students) at the party
Jack Skellington (John) and Sally (ME) from, The Nightmare Before Christmas
























Happy belated Halloween all my fellow Americans. For those of you who were wondering, Halloween is not a Korea holiday. A lot of Koreans celebrate and many, many foreigners celebrate but it's not big like it is in America. You can't go to the store and find Halloween decorations/candy/costumes (you have to buy it off line).

My school has been preparing for the last few weeks for Halloween. We had insane amounts of decorations all over the school and a big Halloween party on Saturday. Even though our school made us buy our own costumes and made us work 5 hours on a Saturday without getting paid… it was a pretty fun/interesting day. The best part was seeing all the students in their costumes and of course scaring the crap out of them in the haunted house. Laura, Ryan, Alicia and I stayed late on Wednesday and Friday (i'm talking 12 am) to decorate the school and make the haunted house as awesome and scary as could be! After staying up late on Friday night decorating, we all got some rest for the party. The party went from 1 to 5 with NO breaks (thanks TN for shoving me back into the face painting room when I just wanted to snap a few pictures). We all had our jobs… they made Ryan and I (the artists) do face painting.. other activities were: mummy wrapping race, learn the thriller, guess what's in the box, cooking mummy fingers, haunted house, TNE market place-shop with earned stickers and Halloween photo booth with friends. I saw all my students there and a lot of them were dressed up but a lot weren't (some of them are a lot older so I guess they've grown out of that). The TNE school from Cheongju came to help us out (sooo nice of them to come 2 hours on a Saturday). This was the school I was supposed to go to in the very beginning. The staff was really nice… I love Gwangju but after having met them, I know I would have loved working at their TNE and living in Cheongju. From what they say, it seems like their school is better but our town and living accommodations are a lot nicer (I will have to visit Cheongju sometime and check it out for myself).

After the Halloween party my boss had his own party for all of us… he had great food and alcohol but most of all, this was a shit show (for the Korean staff that is). I have never seen some of the Korean staff/managers so drunk, it was hilarious!!! Work should be interesting on Monday haha!!!

Today (Sunday) some friends and I went to a big art festival called the Gwangju Biennale. Here's a little information about it: Founded in 1995 in memory of spirits of civil uprising of the 1980 repression of the Gwangju Democratization Movement, the Gwangju Biennale is Asia's oldest and most prestigious biennial of contemporary art. Centered on the Biennale Hall in Gwangju’s Jungoui Park, the presence has elevated the city of 1.4 million to become a cultural hub of East Asia. Like I have mentioned before… Gwangju is home to some of the best-preserved cultural relics in the nation, and is known locally as the “City of Art, Cuisine and Culture.” The biennale has 5 separate galleries that branch off to reflect themes recurring throughout the exhibition. Gallery 1- works that deal with photographic representation, posing, and the construction of the self through images. Gallery 2- explores mechanics of vision through illusions and para-scientific imaginaries. Gallery 3- brings together works that deal with the representation of heroes and martyrs, exploring the ways images are used to create myths, preserve the memory of victims, or bear witness to war and oppression. Although I liked all the galleries, I think I liked this one the best because I learned the most from it. Although, it was rather graphic, I really enjoyed reading about each piece (everything was in English as well as Korean). Gallery 4- looks at religious figures and idols, fetishes and dolls… this one was somewhat creepy but really neat at the same time. Gallery 5- strikes an irreverent tone, presenting idiosyncratic perspectives on the structures of cinema and television. This was not like a lot of art shows I have been to in the past. It gave me a whole different perspective on art… it was fascinating to see so many aspects of history from all over the world being portrayed through random works of art…photography/sculpture/film.. etc. This art allowed me to feel so many different emotions.. not like the art that I create (hmm… i'm inspired in a whole new way).

In the middle of this blog, I skipped with my mom. She informed me that i'm drinking too much over in Korea, chin chay (reallllly?) come on. So.. I'm sorry for those of you who think i'm an alcohol (like my mother……) but, i'm not. I drink once a week… twice at the most (on the weekends when I am out with friends). Mom- the most exciting days that I usually blog about are the weekends and there is usually alcohol on those days, especially in Korea. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of eventful things happening on days that i'm not drinking but those days consist of work, work, work!!! Mom, I love you but you've got to let it go!!! Sorry for that interruption.. carrying on...

Speaking oh alcohol… here is comes mom, Thursday night… so, I think we have found one of our new favorite thing do to every other Thursday downtown at Speak Easy (a foreign bar)- QUIZ. Quiz is a trivia came that Speak Easy hosts every other Thursday night at 10 o'clock. You have to have at least 2 people to a team, 5 max. Everyone puts 5,000 won in to play. There is 8 rounds, 10 questions in each. Every group grabs a table and has a sheet of paper to write answers as the questions are being asked. The team with the best/most creative team name won a pitcher of beer… that was us with the most ridiculous name that John thought of: My Couch Pulls Out But I Don't… pretty funny! Whichever team got all 10 questions right in a round got a free round of shots… we got that too, thanks to Ryan. For that round the topic was: comic book heroes… Ryan is an insane comic book buff so of course we got all the questions right. The game was really fun and really difficult at the same time. We got third place (with no prize). First place gets the pot of money, second gets their money back and sorry to third place but better luck next time. We will have to try again in a couple weeks. After QUIZ we went to German Bar where Mr. Song (the owner) promised us a free dinner… he's such a nice man! It was a really late dinner so you can imagine how starved we all were. Mr. Song lived in Germany for 13 years so he picked up a lot of the German recipes. He made us one of the most delicious meals (curry rice, sausages, chicken and a really tasty salad).

Let me share with you some excitement from the work front… if you remember, I was asked to create the art curriculum for the Kindergarten students (did you know that their kindergarten starts at age 3 and goes to age 5.. WHOA). Anyway, i've been racking my brain and actually using a lot of my knowledge from college to create this curriculum. It's been so much fun and I think that it is going to be a great and incredibly beneficial program for their school. In the middle of the week my managers asked to take a look at my work thus far. I was ecstatic when all they could give back to me was positive feedback! Yay me! :) … It was so nice to finally get some praise from my managers- things are looking up!

Korean Facts/Randomness:

-Like I have said before, there is A LOT of plastic surgery in this country. The most done plastic/ cosmetic surgery is: double eye lids (like we have). It's crazy to me that they want to get something that a lot of older people try to get rid of. It's funny because now that I know about it, I notice women with it all around.
-It is getting SOOOOO cold here. I have already been wearing my down jacket, hat, gloves and scarf. Most of the reason it is so cold is because of the wind… Korea gets the siberian winds from Russia… BRRRR!
-In America, when you take a picture… people say "Cheese" (god I miss good cheese) but over here when you take a picture, people say "kimchee"
-Not a lot of people dive cars over here (it's the city life) but if you do, you get the privilege of having a special sticker in your car that guarantees you a free ice-cream at Mc Donalds every time you go (stupid I know but still interesting)

Seasonal Sickness.. all around!

Top: Me at the hair place... this thing they had on my head is a steamer- never seen anything like it (didn't get my hair colored in America so I wouldn't know). This smile didn't last long.
Bottom: View from the top of Mudo Mountain


Sorry that I am just now blogging… i've been pretty sick and I haven't had the energy to type (pathetic I know).

When I got to Korea, everyone kept telling me… "Emilie, you just wait, everyone who moves here gets sick within the first month"! Ha.. I sure showed them, I waited almost 2 1/2 months. I try really hard to eat well, drink lots of water, exercise and take vitamins. I would say I take pretty good care of myself (you taught me well momma). The sickness floating all over the teachers' room and all over school in general just couldn't wait to infect me. Dammit.. let me tell you… this makes me so angry: everyone here, I mean EVERYONE doesn't cover their freaking mouth. They don't even try to hold back the germs, they just open their mouth as wide as possible and let it fly. As angry as this makes me, I've noticed it everywhere i've gone. Maybe i'll start wearing a sars mask like a lot of Koreans do. Not only this but people here don't take sick days when they are sick…. mostly because people aren't given sick days. For example, I have 2 sick days (these include personal days) for an entire year. Now, you might be thinking it's not that bad because you know, teachers have tonssssss of days off including a summer vacation… OH NO.. not us. We have a 5 day summer vacation, 3 days off for the Korean Thanksgiving, 5 days off for Christmas and 1 day off for a holiday called Children's Day (when I come back to America and start teaching again, it will be like heaven). I have students come to my class with raging fevers… when I tell them they need to go home, their moms always say to just wait it out… that's unheard of in America. I told my Kindergarten parents back in America… "DO NOT send your child to school if he or she is sick.. especially with a fever!!!!!!" It makes sense, the aren't very cautions when it comes to fighting germs and you and I both know when one kid is sick… eventually they all are! Luckily the worst thing I had all year during my internship was ring worm (which, of course I got from the kids… sounds gross but it's not really a big deal). They really don't teach kids about cleanliness and germs. It's so different because when I taught in America, we couldn't reiterate enough about the importance of covering your mouth, using hot water and soap to wash hands, use germ X constantly and of course wash your hands constantly. I mean, come on.. they don't even have soap in our bathrooms at school. Anyway… I'm still sick, as well as about 4 other teachers. It's lovely ya know, we all sit around in the teacher's room coughing and snotting on one another. The funny part is, no tissues so everyone walks around with a roll of toilet paper (unlike the guys who don't care about the softness of their toilet paper, I don't have an irritated, red nose haha)!

People in Korea don't just wait out their sickness like us Americans.. they are hypochondriacs, they rush to the doctor/hospital at the sight of a snotty nose or a little cough. This is probably because they can't afford to ever take a sick day… they don't have any. After feeling like complete SHIT Saturday night, all day and night Sunday and Monday morning (off and on fever, aching body, sore throat, cough.. bla bla) I thought it would be a good idea to head to the doctor. My liaison took me there (ENT doctor) this morning before work. We walked in and waited in this strange waiting room. The waiting room was connected to the visible doctor's office so I could see everyone being checked by the doc. The doctor stuck a long metal camera down my throat, in my nose and in my ears. A visual showed up on a large screen right in front of me.. not only could I see it but so could everyone sitting in the waiting room (weird, right!). After being checked I went into a little room where I was going to receive a shot (basically, a vitamin shot). The nurse pulled down my pants, smacked my butt really hard and quickly stuck me with the needle then sent me on my way. It was interesting but the good thing was, it didn't hurt and as the day has progressed… I feel 100 times better. I was shocked at the cost of my visit… 3,000 won (about 3 bucks). Then I went downstairs to get a number of different perscriptions.. no ideas why I needed this much crap (antibiotics that consist of 4 pills 3 times a day for 4 days.. pain killers and caught syrup). All this was 3,000 won as well… gotta love these prices!

So, other than being sick and the awful hair color I have, (don't get me wrong, I love red heads but this color of mine isn't even red, it's turning into a lime green/ baby poop orange… AWFUL) the week has been okay. Let me tell you about the hair real quick…for a minute, I thought they might fire me because I don't have the blonde hair they hired me with.. you know, that was a big reason why they hired me. I went hiking with my boss and his family on Saturday and they gave me such a hard time about it. I'm sick of them, it's not like I wanted this… at least I have hair… it could be sooooo much worse. It's just freaking hair, get over it.. good god! I'm rocking this color and it's awesome.. I guess it's all about my attitude now! I will eventually change it… somehow fix it but i'm giving it a good month to breath- I don't want it to fall out! I'll tell ya one thing, i'm going to ROCK my halloween costume haha! I can't wait!!!!! I forgot to mention this in my previous blog.. I was probably too angry to go into detail.. but, the atmosphere at the most recent stylist that I went to was very interesting. First of all, it stays open till 4 am.. it really got crowded around 11 (yes, I was still there at this point). Out of the 30 some people who were in/came in to this place, about 28 of them were men. Well, thats an understatement... I certainly wouldn't say men. These guys came in and outr of this place the whole time I was there. Apparently they work for some kind of escort service/company... they all came in, made themselves comfortable and paid 10,000 won for a hair-do/style (wash, dry, cut/trim, straighten, curl, hair spray... you name it). These guys certainly were a sight to see. Some of them just stood in the mirror admiring themselves for 10 minutes at a time. A good majority of them even had on make up. It was quite an experience. When they saw the orange hair, they also cringed! ;)

Like I mentioned, I went on a hike with my bosses family on Saturday. It was so much fun!! It was perfect timing because all the leaves are starting to change. We went to a really pretty area (Mudo Mountain) where there are gorgeous,intense trails, and fantastic views! I surely got my workout.. my legs and butt are still pretty sore! It cracked me up because the Koreans all wear the exact same thing… honestly I was sooooo out of place. They all wear nice name brand hiking gear that all looks the same just different colors and they all carry hiking sticks- personally, a good stick from the woods is just a good! After the hike we went to a traditional mountain cafe and had lunch. One of the hiking traditions is to drink rice wine with your meal. This isn't just a little glass of rice wine that you sip on throughout the meal… this is a bowl of thick, white yogurt like milk that your elder serves you (I got reprimanded because I wasn't holding the bowl the correct way when receiving wine from my elder.. woops). Once you get your bowl of wine, you chug (it's rude not to finish your drink)…. the light weight that I am was pretty drunk at the end of the meal- I played it off pretty well in front of the boss and his entire family (aunts, uncles, kids, nieces, nephews, wives, siblings, and gradma).

So after the hike on Saturday, I came home and took a long nap. This is when I started feelin crappy. I still went out for a few hours (hung with the sexy German as well as lots of friends) then came home early. It's funny because I say early like it's 10 or something but when bars don't close till 6 or 7 am.. 2 am is early in my mind. I'll sure be a trooper for the weekend fun when I come back to America! Here, your lame if you go in before 4 am… in America that's a pretty late night!

Even though i'm not getting paid for the extra decoration hours i'm putting in Wednesday night, Friday night and the 5 hour Halloween party on Saturday… i'm still pretty excited. It's all about the experience. I think I would still willingly go even if it wasn't required! I can't wait to see all the kiddies in their outfits and of course see Iian teach thriller haha (Iian is one of the teachers… he's a trip). I'll be filling you in next week. Have a good one! :)

Korean Facts/Randomness:

-It's cold here and the mosquitos are still horrendous.. I have welts from these tiny little ass holes.
-I love this… we should definitely get this started in America: at every restaurant and bar, each table has a "call" button. You press it and the waitress comes right away. They never bother you unless you press the bottom.. it's great. The weird part is… no tipping. I always feel so awkward not tipping but like i've said before, it's rude to tip.
-At the grocery store, you can't just get a cart… you have to insert 100 won (10 cents) into an opening in the cart to get it loose. After your done shopping you put your cart back and get your 100 won back as well. (I'm sure they do this in some places in America, I just don't know about it).
- A friend of mine had a cat who recently died… I kept thinking, what the hell do you do with a dead cat (it's not like anyone has backyards to burry them in). He said that he took the kitty to a park and buried him there- thank god because… a lot of people I have talked to said that typically, you just throw them in the trash.
-I know I told you about the trash here but let me remind you how gross it is: there are no such thing as dumpsters or big trash cans. When you throw your trash away you just put it right on the street. In America, you can buy bags that help prevent smell or/and ones that close up with a draw string… no such thing here. Their trash bags aren't even dark colored, they are all clear so all the nasty trash is visible. So the trash on the street is just awful. Most of the time it's over flowing all over the place because other people passing by put their crap on top. I can't imagine walking past some trash and seeing a dead cat on top. Two days out of the week before the trash people come, the trash sinks up the streets. Like i've said before.. they don't have wild life so raccoons don't bother the trash. I guess they can get away with it??… EWW!

xox- EM

yellow...green....orange... DIE!

Top: here it is... you should see it with out the hat, it's an orange/yellow/lime green color.. :(
Bottom: Sally from "The Nightmare Before Christmas"... AKA- ME



Ok... I could die right now! So... I told you about my hair situation, well... the brownish color I got started to fade and everyone was saying I had gray/green hair- sadly, they were right. What is happening to me... I had to get this fixed immediately. I cut out a picture from a magazine of a girl with brown hair (not dark, dark brown but brown). I thought that it would mask the green/gray pretty well. So... tonight, I went to a different stylist and showed her the picture. After shampooing my hair, she took the towl of my head and I literally got sick to my stomach!!!! 4 hours later... i'm still sick to my stomach! Why you might ask, my hair is freaking ORANGE... no exaggeration! It doesn't even look like a nice orange, it's goldish orange. OH MY GOD, its awful. Ask my mom, she agrees!

The only positive part about this awful mess is.... I have a red wig for my Halloween costume because I am going to be Sally from the "Nightmare Before Christmas." Now, I don't have to wear the wig. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Good Bye Yellow Haired Emilie

1: "Happy Day" machine in the love motel (I can't imagine what your thinking now.. just wait till you read the 2nd to last paragraph)
2: Calgook soup- cutting squid
3: What each "couple" got at the love motel (the couple's love pack)
4: The Kindergarten, some English staff, some Korean staff and myself at Family Land






What an eventful week its been… although its Monday now, i'm referring to last week (you know how I do).

On Tuesday, I volunteered to go on the Kindergarten field trip. I never get a chance to hang out with the little kids and I love them, especially these guys. They are sooo freaking cute and hilarious! At 9 a.m. we all met in the lobby of TN English. There is only 3 classes, each consisting of 4 to 6 students. We took one of the TNE busses to Family Land.. what a place this was. It looked like some sort of run down amusement park built in the late 80's, early 90's. I could just imagine a scary movie taking place here. It didn't help that there were scream masks being sold so tons of kids were running around with masks on and holding plastic machetes! Luckily it was a sunny day so the scary atmosphere wasn't too realistic. We started off in the amusement park and let the kids ride a few rides. We saw a creepy puppet show that was all in Korean and later ate lunch while watching Beauty and the Beast, the play in Korean (it's not the same when Bell is a Korea). The Korean staff finally let us teachers go off on our own to ride two rides (thank god, I really needed to get my fair fix). We rode a somewhat decent roller coaster and a really fun bob sled ride… I laughed the entire time while Alicia, who was sitting next to me, closed her eyes and prayed that we wouldn't die.. haha! I didn't tell her this but I'll admit, part of me thought our sled was going to fly half way across the park and land in the tigers cage.. we survived, and just in time to take the kiddies to see the animals. Did I always think that zoos were sooo incredibly depressing??? If I didn't before I came here, well I sure as hell do now. It was so sad to see all the pretty birds flying around in circles in their tiny netted cages. You know how I told you that there is really no wild life, other than the rat I saw a few weekends ago…well, it was pretty funny to see that they had a variety of different ducks and geese in their zoo when in America, all you have to do is take a walk to the nearest pond and there ya go! I explained to the kids that we see see animals all the time… they were just beside themselves. I love how we are constantly amazing each other with the details of our own cultures.

On Thursday my Liazon/boss/friend, Michael took me to the phone store so that I could put more minutes on my phone- prepaid phone. We went on such a nice little walk. On the way to the phone store, which was really close, (at most, a 20 minute walk) he showed me where the dry cleaners is located and where a decent gym is (I am hoping to join there once the weather is just unbearably cold to jog in)… who knows though, maybe i'll tough it out! As directionally challenged as I am, I am kinda proud of myself for knowing as much as I do (I miss my GPS and my car).

work…. where do I begin… i'm still apart of this so-called research team but, this week they decided to pull me away from the team for a little while and use me for something that i'm good at. Since my passion is art and I taught Kindergarten for a year, they thought I would be a good person to re-write the art curriculum for the Kindergarten aged students. YES…. oh man was I excited! Wait… I should have known better. What they wanted me to do was copy an already made curriculum but to just change it around and dumb it down for Kindergarteners… they always take the easy way out (not my style) and then call it their on. I did a few lessons of this and realized it was more work because it was so difficult that dumbing it down for younger students just meant more preparation work for the teacher. Plus, the lesson's content was not at a Kindergarten level… what are they thinking!!!!!!! Tonight (Monday), I sat down with management and talked them into letting me create my very own art curriculum. How exciting would it be to create an art curriculum based around themes and seasons… DUH (I know, all my teacher friends are saying, YESSS- we do this all year long and with everything we teach- INTEGRATE, INTEGRATE, INTEGRATE… see, finally I am using what I learned in school). The kids will be way more excited to discuss Halloween and participate in a Halloween craft rather than do some random higher level activity on lines, movement and space. I am excited to create lessons that integrate the holiday/seasonal culture of America… after all, we are an English school. The Koreans are always more into quickness, rather than quality. It's no wonder they are always changing things. I hope that I can create a wonderful Kindergarten Art curriculum that they will keep and have for years to come.

Ohhh thank you.. it's Friday. Laura and I finally got a chance to test out our new soccer ball. AHHHhh, I sure did miss soccer. We had a blast playing around, dribbling, shooting, passing… great work out! We had the field all to ourselves and the best part was… it was somewhat dark which meant we were't getting the usual stares. It was a good thing too because I lack ball skills… that's why I was always a defender haha!

Ryan's birthday was on Saturday so Laura and I went on a search for cookie mix Friday night. I get such a kick out of these random adventures. Can you imagine two American girls in the grocery store, racking their brains trying to figure out what is what. I mean really, we stood in one isle for at least 15 minutes trying to decide what was baking soda. It's pretty much trial and error. We could have been buying some type of white fish powder… who the hell knows! The powder we got ended up being just what we thought, well, hoped… baking powder, good thing!

So… speaking of trial and error… I had my own little adventure this past Saturday morning. So let me just explain real quick the background/reasoning of this scenario: In April, my roommate in college got me this so-called natural highlighter. It was something you sprayed in your hair before you laid in the sun… it was a blonde booster (it was supposed to take out the brassy blonde and leave the pretty blonde)- Ohhh my god what a mistake. I didn't notice that it had been dying my hair until my natural blonde started to fade out and my roots were my winter color (very dirty blonde). I don't like roots, I really missed the all-one natural color. I couldn't take it anymore , I had to do something about it.. I felt like a lie haha! On Saturday morning my Liazon took me to a very nice hair place at the mall. I got the stylist to dye all my hair the color of my roots. Now, it's not the prettiest color but it's more realistic than the brightttt ass blonde that I had before. It's kind of a dirty, ashy blonde/brown but I like it better! I have never gotten my hair dyed before so I don't really know what it entails in America but the way they did it here was really strange. The funniest part about my whole hair experience was the other people in the place. People over here all have stick straight hair… I didn't realize this until just recently. All the people that you see whose hair is wavy or curly…. which is actually a lot, it's not real… it's a perm (they say, perma). I'm not just talking about girls but tonsssss of guys (they are all very metro-sexual here) and kids. In the couple of hours that I was there I watched 3 kids, 1 woman and 2 men get perms.

The best part of my weekend was Saturday night/Sunday… I went to a town called Daejon with a couple of friends (Laura, Ryan and John) for a Rock Festival. This town is about 2 hours north of Gwangju which meant we had to take a bus. We left around 5 p.m. on Saturday and got into Daejeon around 7. We went right to the festival which was located right along a really pretty river. They had hot air balloon rides and hang gliding all day until about 9 p.m.. The festival was so much fun… it was mostly foreigners so I enjoyed meeting lots of new people. The food was delicious and the music was great! I ended up finding some friends I know that are from Cheongju and others from Gwangju. Also, I finally met up with a guy that I know from Raleigh. I have been emailing/facebooking him since I found out I was going to S.Korea. He is friends with some guys I worked with this summer at the pool. Originally, I was supposed to be living in Cheongju which is where he lives. When my plans got changed I thought I wouldn't ever meet up with him but luckily I found him and some of his Raleigh buddies at the festival.. good times! Did I mention, the beer was rather yummy as well… once again, another Saturday night of drinking… drunk, gone! The festival was supposed to go until 5 a.m. but, and this is why the foreigners get such a bad rap… they were throwing bottles, knocking over tables , chairs, etc… just stupid and reckless! I wasn't one of these people, actually I was so enthralled in the music, friends and alcohol… I did't notice this recklessness! The shut the festival down around 1 a.m... UGH! We could have gone out to bars but the alcohol has gotten the best of us if you know what I mean.

So, where do you stay in a town that you don't know anyone… of course, you go to a love motel. Did I tell you about these love motels? Well if so, i'm sorry… if not then here ya go… typically these are motels that men take their mistresses or their whores/hookers/booty calls, whatever… you get the idea. You can tell that a building is a love motel because in it's parking lot/garage it has a special little awnings that hangs down to disguise the cars. When I hear the words "love motel", I think run down and trashy. Ohhhh wow was I wrong.. these places are like a mix between an elegant hotel room and a nice little bed and breakfast. Don't get me wrong.. it's got a hint of sleaziness here and there, for example: the "happy day" machine in the lobby that was full of a variety of different sex toys and dildos, and the couple packages for each room that had the following items: 2 toothbrushes, a razor, 2 condoms, shampoo/conditioner, massage cream/ KY jelly, and some type of "love brochure"- it was all in Korean so I couldn't read it. The four of us just wanted to pass out for the cheapest price but that was not going to happen. Since this was a love motel, I think the man at the front desk wanted to make sure we were all going to be making love.. ahha! We had planned on getting one room but that just wasn't an option. He made us get 2 separate rooms… that, for some reason were very far away from each other…oh well! The walls of this entire place were brick… no sound was getting through those- i'm assuming that was the point. When we got in the room we tried to watch a little TV before going to sleep…but, can you guess what was on every channel… yes, PORN! What an experience that was!

Sunday morning, John (he used to live in Daejeon a few years ago) took us to one of his favorite restaurants. We ate such a delicious soup, it was called calgook. We got a giant bowl of this soup for the table and we all shared it (that's how most things work in Korea… if you don't like to share then it's not a good country for you). The soup was a clear, chicken-like flavored broth with herb noodles, whole squids, millions of clams and shrimp. Like a lot of Korean dishes (especially kimchee) you use scissors to cut things up. While cutting these big squid, John explained to us that women generally do the cutting when they are with their families. If it is just a group of friends, it doesn't matter who does the cutting but if a girl is on a date or with her spouse then she cuts. This is an interesting way to see if someone is one a date… check out who is cutting the kimchee.

It's been a long one… i'll save my "Korean Facts/Randomness" for next time ;)

October Drama... October Gossip...

Top:A woman at the Food Festival making traditional kimchee
Bottom: Gwangju International Food Festival (outside vendors/tents)



I've gotten into the habit of blogging every Sunday. I really love my Sundays. Typically, I sleep in, jog in the park (sometimes, if i'm not too hung over of course), get a pizza, watch movies, and mess around on the internet. This Sunday, I did not get the chance to blog… my apologies! I was far too busy hanging out with a gorgeous man instead… not just any man, a German man! I guess i'm like my big sister… we are both attracted to cute Germans. Who is a "Twilight" fan? Well if you are, let me just tell you what this boy looks like. He's a cuter, older, version of Jacob (the werewolf)… with better hair, not that bullshit spiked up hair. I met Nick at the bar on Friday night, we danced, talked, exchanged numbers and then had a great date on Sunday afternoon. I really enjoyed his company, what a nice guy he was. If nothing else, I met a great new friend.

Sunday night I went to the Lotte Mart (Walmart) with friends. I finally got some jogging pants… it's getting cold here.. BRRRR! I was shocked when I tried these pants on and they were actually long enough. So, not only did I buy some great pants but I got a months supply of groceries and a soccer ball (YES.. I can't wait to get out there with Laura and kick around the ball). I love the Lotte, all their fish is half off in the evening, and you can try multiple samples of everything. It kicks Walmart's ass. It's a nice mix of Walmart, Target, Costco, Harris Teeter , The Dollar Store and Trader Joes. As you can see, the Lotte Mart is a joy in my eyes, especially that night. Ohhhh, but wait…I got ahead of myself… as we were walking out of the store Ryan's bag broke open and his 6, 2 litter bottles of Mountain Dew rolled away. Once again, the Koreans are looking at us like, "oh, you silly Americans." Not only that but, I always, always forgot that my refrigerator is a third of the size of a normal one.. WHY.. I don't know? I get home to unpack all of my things and I realize that there's hardly enough room for it all.. UGH! I guess my problems could be worse… I made do!

I'm backtracking here… I was just so exited to talk about my most recent stories. Let me start with the work week. Last week, all I did was bitch, bitch, bitch about work so, i'll try not to do that so much. This week I had a wonderful connection with my students. I don't know what it was but I feel so much closer to them now. As a teacher, I feel that it is extremely important to find that connection with each of your students. I love getting to know them on a personal level.. it really benefits their education in so many ways. Back home, I did most of my teaching with Kindergarten. I absolutely love the little ones, they are such a hot, happy mess. When I got here I was really nervous because they told me I was going to be teaching older students. I had no experience with 4th, 5th and 6th graders… whoaaaa!! I should have more confidence in myself because I went in there on day 1 and i've been doing great ever since. I teach 3 different classes… students ages range from 8 to 13. Ya know, I thought I would never like teaching the older students as much but I love it just the same, it's just different. These kids actually look at me as a person, not as just their teacher. They respect me and admire me and I adore it because I feel the same way about them. Now of course there is always problems… whining, complaining, confusion, frustration, exhaustion.. you know, it's life! Over all, I really love these kids. I love the down time we have… oh yea, now that i'm teaching older students who I can joke with, i've turned into that teacher who constantly digresses away from the content. Yes, it sounds bad but we always make sure to get our work done and I find that the digression is very beneficial to their education… and mine ;) . We always talk and compare our cultures, it's a great learning experience for them to hear about America and American culture and for me to hear about Korea and Korean culture. Not only that but they are practicing their speaking skills which is key! We have a huge flat screen computer on the walls of every classroom so we always have a reference to use- yay Google!

This week one of my students told me she was having a birthday party this weekend. I was so excited for her… after class, she came down to my office and I gave her some candy, a silly band and a Godiva candle (thanks Aunt Susan). We started discussing the details of her birthday and she told me that her real birthday was a few weeks ago. I was so confused as to why she was just now having her party. She casually told me that her mom had forgotten her birthday… AHHH- WHAT! How can a mother forget her 8 year old daughter's birthday- sad, sad, sad!!!
I determined the reason of this forgetfulness.. I think: Clara has 1 older brother. In Korea, the favorite child is the first born son. Now, when I saw favorite I mean FAVORED, in every way….. NO exaggeration! I am assuming that her family forgot her birthday because she is not the first born son… just a girl! In Korean culture it is known that if you marry a first born son, you have many responsibilities for the rest of your life. For example: for any type of family gathering, holiday, etc, the festivities are held at the first born son's home… which means, the wife has to cook and prepare for everyone. As a woman, you know that it is a lot of responsibility to marry a first born son. Some woman loathe it but others love it. Back to Clara, if it makes you feel any better… she was not sad about her mother's forgetfulness at all…. only me! I think she, as well as all Koreans are just used to it. That's the way it is!

Work was nice this week, other than some of the people I work with… actually, it's just one dronish sluggard! This person, and I won't bother to say his name, is making the entire staff look bad. He comes in late to work, he can't take constructive criticism which is just too bad because it's beneficial when it's coming from someone who does know how to do their job, he fell asleep in class (we have cameras on us… not only is management watching but parents as well), because of his lateness and his work not being completed in a timely manner, management got rid of our 40 minute breaks. Thanks a lot jerk!!!! Now, we work from 1 to 8:35- no break for dinner, nothing! the list goes on..! He's like a burning building… eventually, it will fall! It's really unfair that he is making all the English teachers look bad…we all reflect on each other. American's are already stereotyped as being lazy and it doesn't help when one of your colleagues is making that stereotype true! The fire is burning….FAST!

On Saturday Laura, Ryan and I went to a International Food Festival at the convention center across the street. It was outside and it's a good thing because the weather was just incredible. Outside, they had a bunch of little tents/vendors set up for about 10 to 15 different countries (Greece, Indonesia, China, Thialand, North America, Nepal, Japan, etc.). For each one, you could buy a small portion of food. It was really fun and delicious. The best one was Greece. While we stood in line they gave us a sample of fruit with greek yogurt. After about 20 minutes of standing in line, (this was the most popular tent) we enjoyed a colorful, delicious Greek salad and a hearty Greek kabob. The only downfall to the food was North America's random, lazy selection. They decided to give samples of macaroni and cheese, snickerdoodle cookies and perogies (I am pretty sure perogees are not even an American dish.. maybe Italian). All the other places had such yummy, exciting food… why couldn't they impress people with some barbecued ribs or some cheese burgers!? Inside the convention center was a huge assortment of foods and other miscellaneous things that were being sold or sampled.

This week should be fun… I volunteered to go to an adventure park with the Kindergarten students, Ryan's birthday is on Saturday as well as a big art festival that we all plan to go to!

Korean Facts/Randomness:

-At the schools (not ours), the students have to serve the food before they can eat
- People here are very generous in some ways but when it comes to letting you cross the street or holding open a door, forget it… just wait to be run over or slammed in the face with a door- it doesn't matter if your hands are overflowing with groceries!!
- Probably, a third of the people living here, especially the women who work out, wear sars masks over their face. They are just afraid of germs…
- If you go to a store, it's impossible to find actual napkins, as well as tissues. I don't know what that's all about but I sure am tired of using toilet paper as a napkin. I buy paper towels but most places (school, restaurants, homes) don't have them.
- Koreans don't really drink with their meal.. it's strange but it's just not necessary for them. If there is a drink then its beer.

Korean Business....

Top:lycoris, also known as: spider lillies. I picked these in the park on Saturday.. sooo pretty!
Bottom: Halloween at TN English :)


The week began with stress and agony.. ugh! To be honest, had I known how ridiculous work was going to be... I would have thought a little bit harder about coming to this in-particular school. Don't get me wrong, I love it here but work is just hellish sometimes... well, a lot of times! Like I have said many, many times before... the management is so unorganized here!!!! I am on this research team and frankly, it's hard to say what exactly i'm doing research for. We have these unorganized meetings a few times a week and I always leave with numerous questions in my head. I finally started speaking up because I just can't stand the way things are done. Management wants us to do all these tasks and then when we ask specific questions pertaining to them, they are not even sure how to answer us. It's beyond me why they ask us to do something that is supposedly imperative and yet they don't even know exactly what they want- COME ON!!! So, obviously there is a big difference in the way Westerners do business and in the way Koreans/Asian cultures do business. In Western societies, most people start off working in lower positions, as they gain knowledge and superiority, they work up...it makes sense and its very beneficial for a company. In the education world... most principals worked as teachers and for many years. What kind of principal would you be in you had no idea what it was like to teach!!! Over here, the management has never taught and they hardly speak English.. those are the two very important things that go on at our school. Typically, when a boss asks his employees to do something, the boss probably has a general idea of how long it might take his employees to complete what was asked. Usually he knows the answer because he has been there once before and knows what each job entails. Our management is constantly asking us to complete these outrageous tasks and after the task is given the time question always comes up. How are we supposed to know how long it will take when we have never done something like this before? Not only have we never done something like this before but... neither has management. And.... on top of it all.. why the hell are they getting brand new teachers, like myself to do these projects. These projects would take much less time to complete if they were being done by the older, more experienced teachers. I think they thought it was a wonderful thing to have an actual Elementary teacher come to teach at their school. Now, I adore my students and I feel that they are learning/ progressing a great deal but... a majority of things that I am doing and things that they want me to do don't match what I learned in school AT ALL!!!! This job is not easier or harder with my degree. The jokes on them that I am getting paid more.. oh well! Here's what I think they should do... i've suggested it but they don't listen. Since us teachers have to prepare, teach, make lesson plans, create scopes, make tests, grade, write evaluations, bla bla bla-do our job... we don't exactly have all the time in the world to worry about all this extra work- it's a litttttttttle more important that we worry about the children and their education. So, they should hire some other people to come in and strictly work on extra work... or, they should let the older teachers do the extra work and let us new teachers take over their classes. Hmm... they won't do it! Last thing and then I promise i'll stop bitching! So, since the company is so unorganized... they have not created the calendar for the rest of the year. This means, none of us teachers know the exact dates in which we will be off work for winter/Christmas break. This is driving my insane because several of the teachers and I are planning to go to Thailand for that 5 to 7 day break and we can't buy our plane tickets until we know which days we have off. Since we can't get our tickets yet, the price continues to increase every day. Before we know it, no one will be able to go because they won't give us the schedule till the beginning of December. It's ALL BULLSHIT! Ok, i'm done :)

Other than the work drama, I had a very riveting shopping experience. On Wednesday evening Laura and I went out to dinner then went to run a few errands. We came across a really cute, little store that was having a sale. We couldn't help but go in. While looking around, a very elegant Korean woman came in. She spoke a little bit of English. She told me she liked my style, as well as my small head/face. She picked out a variety of things that she thought I would like and I tried them on for her... it was kinda weird but quite the experience. During all the trying on, she randomly took off her belt and asked if I liked it. I told her it was very nice and so she gave it to me. She picked out a really neat suede vest... something I would never find in America. I really loved it and had to have it. For 45,000 won I couldn't pass it up. I payed for the vest and when I got my receipt it said 70,000 won. WHOA... I did not think the vest was that expensive and I really didn't wanna pay that much so I appologized in my best Korean. Right after I got a refund, the elegant Korean woman said, "not to worry, I will pay the difference of the vest"... I couldn't believe it! I refused several times but she really wanted me to have the vest. I paid 45,000 won and she payed the other $25,000. I was so grateful and tried giving her a hug but she refused the hug in a very weird way. Oh well, we continued on our errands.. what a night! :)

The nice thing about the work week is that it flies by... its Friday before we know it.. thank God! The weekend was pretty uneventful. I ate one of my favorite Korean dishes (Shabu Shabu) on Friday night and had a few drinks at a bar in Sangmu (our side of town) with friends. This weekend was dedicated to saving money. On Saturday I volunteered my time to go down to school and help decorate for Halloween. Halloween is not a Korean holiday but because we are an English school, we celebrate it and educate the students about it. The school is giving us an extra 20,000 won (around 20 american dollars) in our October pay check to buy a Halloween costume for the school Halloween party which is on Saturday the 31st (Yes... we have to come in on a Saturday to work and No, we are not getting paid extra for it... I still think it will be fun!). This upcoming week we are all ordering our costumes from a website. I think my costume is a good one... finally, I think i've got a pretty scary one. I'm not telling yet, you will find out soon!

Saturday night was great, I stayed in and made a delicious dinner, read some of my book, watched some old school movies like "Breakfast at Tiffany's" , as well as some french films... (oh Dave, you were right, there is a LOT of symbolism in french films) and oh course, skyped! Actually, I helped Laura kill off a couple of crabs that she and Ryan ate for dinner. That was an interesting ordeal... kinda sad though because the crabs really tried their hardest to hop the pot. I took some videos that are on Facebook if your interested.

Korean Facts/Randomness:

-The little kids (ahh I miss, so much teaching little kids) call my "Animal Teacher" because it's hard for them to say "Emilie" haha..it's really cute. The little ones are so precious and hilarious.
-Asian people do not have very long eyelashes at all. A lot of women either wear fake eyelashes or they have eyelash implants.
-Prescriptions do not come in bottles. They come in individual little packets (a packet for each day). Depending on what you have, they will put a few types of meds in each day's packet. For example, Laura got sick and in her day's packets she had her antibiotic, a sleeping pill, a vitamin and a tylenol.
-Korean architecture: you know that America is one of the only countries that builds with lumber (mostly we have that resource readily available).. Korea, as well as a lot of other countries builds with concrete slabs and metal. Maybe this is why they don't feel he need to have a smoke detectors or fire extinguishers anywhere around here... buildings are less likely to go up into flames if they are made of concrete and metal.
- I told you before that our windows don't have screens... insane amounts of mosquitos were coming it, it was awful! So... i discovered that our windows do in fact have screens..silly me, YAY! The screen extends out from inside the wall/window and clicks into place- it's very nice! No need for a mosquito net now ;)