Post Office

I was got excited yesterday because I discovered that there is post office practically right around the corner from my school. Note: last time, when i sent stuff home and did not know there was that post office, I ended up going to one that is like a 20min bus ride from my house. Anyways.... but its kinda cool cuz now I if I need to send anything I can just go there on my way to or from school. Only little tiny insignificant detail... I get the impression that there is no one in this post office that speaks decent English. Oh well.... such is life

Hair

So this has been my dilemma the last few days: to cut or not to cut my hair. Coming to Korea I thought I would just let my hair grow, but now I am not sure I want to leave it long. I think I definitely look better with shorter hair but at the same time I do kinda miss my long hair. And miss being able to just throw it up in a pony tail in the mornings if I have no time to do anything with it.

So i think what I will do is keep growing it out for maybe one more month or so and then make a decision on whether to cut it or not. If you have any strong opinions about this serious life and death matter let me know and help me make my decision! lol :-)

much love to all

YMCA Teacher

When I started going to the YMCA for Korean classes it was kinda weird because our teacher had to leave half way through the term not sure why and so since she left we then kept having different Korean teachers every week, so that we never knew who would be teaching that week.

But for the last maybe 3 weeks we have had this one Korean teacher, MyungHee, whom I really like/ She is super nice, teaches well, and really cares about her students. Though sometimes I think she gets frustrated with us because, while she will be trying to explain a simple grammatical point, we will randomly ask questions on how to say something that requires the use of a much more complex grammatical structure (something we would probably see 4 levels of korean later) and so she asks us to be patient and tells us we WILL see it in the future, but we always insist that we want to learn it at that moment. So she usually ends up giving in to our request, and taking the time to explain something to us that we really are not ready to learn yet.

It's kinda funny actually. Just picture this... You are trying to teach a student the how to form the past tense of regular verbs (irregular verbs you have not covered yet) and then the student asks you a question on how to express something that requires a combination of the past conditional and subjunctive tenses... yeah... so this is what she deals with when she has to put up with us! hihihi... lol

Yesterday I got thrown off a little because she called me up on my cell (note: i usualy text back and forth with teachers, but people dont usually call) Anyways.... i have no caller id so i always answer my phone. At anyrate, first of all, i was embarassed because when I answered the phone someone responded in korean and I was not sure who it was so I asked (in korean) "excuse me, but who is this?" and then after like 2 seconds it hit me and i said "Sonsengnim?"- meaning teacher in korean. Anyways... then she said, "yes its me"... and we proceeded to chat for a bit. Now the reasons I really do not like talking to people in Korean on the phone...
1. Talking with people on the phone is one of the hardest things for me to do, as I find it very difficult to focus on what the other person is saying...especially since I also always have a hard time listening well. Even in English. I remember Eric B always telling me when I was on the phone with him "are you deaf? bist du taub? estas sorda? etc etc etc" because every now and then I would say "im sorry? what did you say? huh? what was that? what!>?!?!? say that again?" ... you get the point. So yeah.... generally i have always struggled with phone conversations
2. my Korean sucks. I mean.... if i am you could say a native speaker of English and have trouble with phone conversations, can you imagine what its like in Korean?!>!!???! Exactly my point/

So yesterday MyungHee kept talking to me on the phone at to what me seemed, a quick speed (but she was probably speaking slowly). She was asking me if I was free next Saturday. I guess she wants to get together with me because she wants me to meet her daughter, who is 19. But I was not sure about mys schedule so she said she would just call me later Friday evening.

will let you know what ends up happening or what we end up doin

Winter Camp practially over

So today is the last day of winter camp. I am both happy and sad; happy because preparing materials for winter camp and making revision upon revisions of lesson plans to try to make each lesson better has been a lot of work. Sad because I really like this second group of kids. They are all very good students. So I decided that for the last day we would do a movie analysis. So we will be watching Spanglish, which has good amount of cultural related material to be discussed. Also, since I actually really like this group I am bringing in some cake and chocolate and candy and drinks. Am sure the kids will love it.

on another note- i guess i really am kinda looking forward to finally going back to regular 45 min classes. It is so much easier to plan 45 min worth of material as opposed to 3 hours worth of materials. It is a world of difference.

PICS- for those of you who do not have access to facebook, here are some pictures

ENJOYING BEAUTIFUL WEATHER! HIHIHI... NOT REALLY, BUT HAVING A GOOD TIME




ONE OF MANY TEMPLES


A NIGHT AT JEJU ISLAND WITH THE KOREAN SALSEROS!- the girl on the right speaks spanish and she actually studied in mexico for 2 years or something like that. we had such a great time. this was our last night in jeju island


DELICIOUS HONEY BREAD- ate this at cafe fiore. delicious. simply delicious. i should seriously consider learning how to make this


IVANO AND I IN THE TROPICAL ISLAND OF JEJU- it was supposed to be a bit cold, but we ended up getting a snow storm and all. not necessarily what you think about when you think of going to an island


RABBIT-SITTING FOR THE WEEK. WE MISS YOU MR.BUNNY!- we rabbit sat for the week while jennyfer and nick were in thailand. Mr bunny for the most part behaved. Other than eating part of my paperwall, pooping everywhere and peeing on ivano's arm it was all ok. We do miss him though. he is just so cute! Jennyfer and nick... thanks for letting us take care of him. We really enjoyed the good company.


TRYING TO SOLVE MIND PUZZLES- this are sophia and stella. I have to give my kids English names otherwise i would never be able to memorize their Korean names. Korean names seriously all sound the same to me and I cannot differentiate between girl and boy names.


THINKING ABOUT THE NEXT MOVE- Sophia


MY STUDENTS PLAYING SCRABBLE- Sophia, billy, jimmy, stella


CELEBRATING MY BIRTHDAY WITH THE TEACHERS AND IVANO- Jacky, Nami, Cienna, Grace, Sohee teacher


IN CLASS


STUDENTS OF MINE FROM WINTER CAMP- GREAT KIDS!- Jane and Stella. I love my group of kids for this second session of winter camp. They are all more advanced level and are actually very interested in improving their english. Also, from this group, four of them were in my advanced class last semester so it's nice because i know what level they are at, and what kind of things I can do with them. Btw. Jane showed me a super cool magic trick today. I just could not figure out how she was doing it!


MY STUDENTS MINJI (in black) AND MINJU (in grey) They are sister. Both very good students. I usually go swimming with them on fridays- we always have a very good time. Also, i love their mom. She is super nice, always smiles, and gives me hugs!!!


THE YMCA TEAM!


TRYING ON TRADITIONAL KOREAN CLOTHING- TESSA AND I


AT THE KIMCHI FACTORY WITH PEOPLE FROM KOREAN CLASS


LUNCH WITH SOME TEACHERS AND THE STUDENTS FROM MY KOREAN CLASS AT THE KIMCHI FACTORY- the woman closest to the camera is my Korean teacher MjongHee. She is super good and super nice. In maybe 2 weeks we will start getting together once or twice a week for an hour or two of conversation. She wants to improve her English and I my Korean so I will do what I did with Ula in Germany. That way we both benefit and no one has to pay extra for anything! Works super well. What I like about her is that she really cares about her students and you can tell she makes an effort to make sure we all have the best experience possible learning korean. Also, (though i find it a bit weird) she texts me every day telling me how her day is going, how the weather is, asking me what i am up to etc etc etc.... but I love it because I get a chance to practice Korean since the texts, of course, are always in Korean.


NOT BAD FOR A FIRST-TIMER CARVING A PUMPKIN- though it only lasted a bit inside my house as it started to grow green gross mold about a week afterwards


CARVING MY FIRST PUMPKIN EVER- THANKS SO MUCH DANA!- When Dana found out I had never carved a pumpkin she went and got one so we could carve it. It was so fun and i think we did a pretty good job.


THANKSGIVING DINNER


JINYOUNG AND SUK TEACHER- TEACHERS FROM MY SCHOOL- Jinyoung teacher is expecting a baby. I saw her a couple days ago and her belly has gotten so much bigger since last time I saw her (last day before winter break). She's looking just beautiful!


JACKY-MY LIFELINE SINCE I GOT TO KOREA. Jacky has taken care of me since day 1. Really dont know what I would do without her. Anything I need, she is always there for me. I would give you a list of all she has done for me, but it might take me a month to put it all together and at least 100 pages, so I am just not gonna go there. I think you get the picture. Btw. she just recently got a hair cut... looks super duper cute! - However, i insist that she should wear her hair in a pony tail, as it shows off her face and cute cheeks :-)


RINGING OF THE INDEPENDENCE BELL- This day was soooooo freakin cold! I seriously could not feel my toes or my fingers for that matter.


FIELD TRIP WITH ENGLISH TEACHERS FROM THE AREA


IN THE MILITARY SCHOOL WITH OTHER TEACHERS


FIELD TRIP


GEPIK FOREIGN TEACHER ORIENTATION- met lots of cool people and got many good ideas for lesson planing from this orientation.


MY NEW CUTE HELLO KITTY KEYBOARD- got it when I went out with Christy. Just could not resist buying it. Was really cute AND it also has the korean keyboard drawn into it.


CHRISTY- MOMS FRIEND FROM SEOUL


JACKY AND MIJONG WALKING AROUND- MiJong is Jacky's friend. She's super fun and really nice. SO far, I really like all of Jacky's friends that I have met. I like her type of crowd


SEOUL TOWER- JACKY AND I. Just could not resist the teddy bears. so cute!- This was the day Angela (jacky's friend), Jacky and I hug out, walked around for quite a bit, grabbed food, and went to Seoul Tower. Had a fantastic time. Angela is super nice!


ME


BRIDE'S DRESS- Jacky and Angela insisted I should try on the traditional dress.


SHOEMAKING


TYPICAL KOREAN CLOTHING- ANGELA, ME, JACKY


FOOD MARKET


PARADE- this is a huge parade in Suwon that takes place once a year. Went to see it with Jennyfer and Nick. Great time.- I uploaded I think one video from the parade on YouTube. Check it out.


NAMI AND I- This was after a good chunk of time of walking with Nami, Grace, and Jacky. From here, you can see the city of Suwon. Pretty nice view


GRACE, NAMI AND JACKY- TEACHERS FROM MY SCHOOL- Grace always treats me like her daughter. She has a son that is my age, but says she also always wanted to have a daughter. So she also takes super good care of me and every morning she gives me a hug and every afternoon before going home! She is also one of the calmest, most patient people i have ever met. I feel like the world could be falling apart and she would still remain calm and say "dont worry.... everything will be ok" seriously no joke. I have no idea how she manages to always be so...... ummmm.... at peace? anywho.....


HANG OUT WITH FRIENDS- this was my first weekend out to Seoul



WALKING AROUND THE STREETS OF KOREA

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Sorry i usually do not put pictures up or anything. I am just lazy because I hate having to wait for the pictures to upload. Guess i like just doing it all at once and get it over with! hihihi.... till next time

YouTube uploads!

So finally I had time to follow Jennyfer's suggestion on changing my location on YouTube to "Worldwide" and so I was able to upload videos. Thx Jennyfer! So there are 31 new videos for you to watch if you have time to kill. Just look up "Korea Here I Come-" and you will see a bunch of them. From there, I guess one video will lead you to the next and so on. Experiment and enjoy!

BABYSITTING- This week ivano and I are babysitting Jennyfer and Nick's bunny. It has posed some challenges as he is never still, insists on eating my paperwall and notecards, loves to bite and poops everywhere!. But he is super duper cute. :-) totally loving eat. ... though I don't think Ivano appreciated Mr.Bunny peeing on him today. hihihi. lol. oooooooops!

SECOND WINTER CAMP SESSION- today was the first day of the second session. What a difference from the first. Half the students, all the same level (advanced), and all good students. I am so excited about these next two weeks! It will definitely be go better than the first two. Btw. today Minji and Minju gave me my "late" Christmas present after camp. Minju (the younger sister) felt bad because I guess the last day of school she forgot to bring it with her. Anyways... it is this super cute winter hat that they bought with their pocket money. So nice of them! I love those two. They are super nice and they are good students and their mother is great and actually hugs me!

LUNCH- Today after class was done grace teacher (she is my mother's age- important in Korean culture since the older you are the more respected you are) came to the office to see what I was planning for lunch. She told me some of the teachers had just eaten because someone ordered food in or something (but i was in class). Anyways... i told her i would probably just wait until i got home to grab a bite. And then she said she could not let me not eat and so she went out and got me kimbab AND paid for it, AND brought it to me on a plate AND brought me my chopsticks and all. I was like "wow." I mean... in Korean culture, if anything, the younger person should be doing that for the older person, not the other way around!!!! Grace is just so nice. and she loves me lots. And I love her too.! very much.

bye bye!

KOREAN HOME

So last Wednesday after class Wang teacher and I decided we were gonna go grab some food and then hang out a bit. I was not sure what she had in mind, but then after class she was like "do you mind if we just eat at my place" and i said "of course not!" I was so happy that she would have me over at her house. So we went to her place, which by the way is super nice. :-) Liked it very much. And she made some food and we ate and talked....and then her daughter came back from swimming lessons and we all hung out at her place and I got to see lots of pictures from when she was a bit younger, from when she got married, etc etc etc (all which was super cool) i love seeing people's pictures and seeing how they change throughout the years. We also all played some piano and she sang a bit and then we all danced. Was SO much fun! Really enjoyed spending the day at her place. Plus, she is super chill so I feel really comfortable around her. AND I got to see where she lives, which I find super extra cool. I love seeing how people live. That way no one can tell me.... "this is how people live in Korea....." yadda yadda yaadda.... that way, i can see it for myself.

So so far, I have seen Jacky's place, Junha's place, and Wang teacher's place.... so that's kinda cool cuz I can start to get a pretty good idea more or less on how the average Korean person lives here. Of course I would like to get the opportunity to visit some more Korean homes, but I guess maybe that will come with time.

btw. The English of Wang teacher's daughter is super good. I was majorly impressed. Especially because she understands very well and has very good pronunciation. Anyway.... I hope we get to hang out again like that

ON ANOTHER NOTE: Really wanna meet Jacky's mom. But as I told Jacky, first I have to learn to communicate some basic Korean. I wanna be able to speak to her mother and not to have Jacky have to translate everything. So I really should make a greater effort to learn Korean. Its just so difficult! But I am sure If i set my mind to it I can do it. Just gotta discipline myself

till later