It's Officially Summer in Korea!

Well hello, again! :)

As promised, I am back with some fun stories to share. This past Wednesday was a holiday in Korea, so we had no school. This meant we had the day to do whatever and I chose to hang out with a few good friends, Pete and Fritz. We went to the park by my apartment, laid on a blanket in much too tall grass and ate ice cream for a while. Then we went grocery shopping with Pete’s car. I must say, it’s quite nice going to the grocery store knowing you don’t have to carry everything back home. We brought my stuff home and met up with Birdie at a new coffee shop called Treatti. From there we headed to the Gwangyang World Art Circus Festival!! :D The four of us met up with Kerry, Nikki, Ki Nam, Toni, and Paul. We went and watched one of the performances there called Karma. This particular one has a Cirque Du Soleil feel to it and is performed by Koreans, Chinese and a Russian girl. I note this because on the festival’s website it mentions that it’s an international performance made up of Chinese, Korean and Russian performers, but there is only one Russian. I thought that was funny!

The show was pretty interesting. I’d never been to anything like it. It started off with the Russian girl on a pole doing some really artsy pole dancing. Then they got into the story of Karma and someone else whom I don’t remember. Haha From there some fun acts were on like the boys juggling their hats, another great one with boys and teenagers flipping through various sized hula hoops (sadly no pictures of that) and some little kids playing in there tubes. They weren’t playing, but they made it look so easy! All in all, it was a great show, and definitely worth going to see.   

Enjoy some pictures below:

At the entrance!

Waiting for the show to start :)

Excited with our not so yummy popcorn! haha

Fritz after the show with a few of the performers

The highlights of my last few weekends include:

·         Going to our usual Korean BBQ place with Lizzie, Pete, and Fritz where we ate and drank and then invited the owner over to join us. He’s a really nice guy, who talks to us in English sometimes.  He got us playing the game Titanic, where you take a shot glass and place it in another glass already half full with a chaser like Coke. Then you go around the table pouring soju into the shot glass and whoever makes the glass sinks has to drink it. It’s a fun game and he kept having waiters bring over more and more soju and cola. It’s disrespectful to say no to an elder, so we weren’t really sure how to get out of the situation. Needless to say, we stayed there until 1:30am before heading to a norabong (singing or karaoke room) for a while longer. It was a fun night with good friends. :)

·         Meeting up with Kate, Matthias, their friend Christian, and Fritz for shabu shabu followed by drinks at MiniStop, String and then to a noraebong for a bit.

·         Shabu Shabu again last night with Kate, Matthias, some of their friends, Kate, Rhonda, Lizzie, Pete and Trey followed by String for an Open Mic Night.

I feel I’ve used too many words again, so let’s let the pictures speak for themselves!!

At the Korean BBQ Restaurant!!

With the owner

Matthias cooking shabu shabu for us

Kate cooking too!

Kate and I at a MiniStop after dinner

Noraebong!! :D

My next post will be about my students! We celebrated two Kindergarteners birthday on Friday so I’ll tell you about that and a bit more!  

Getting Fit

I have been really slacking on writing on this blog lately. So sorry!!! I promise to do better! I don’t have any real excuse either. Haha I’ve been working as usual. Dan hasn’t been here to distract me on Facebook or Skype as much since he’s usually asleep when I’m on my breaks during the daytime. The only substantial change in my day-to-day routine recently has been exercise.

Please note: This post is about exercise, not teaching or fun places to see. However, I’ll include posts on both of those things very soon. This Wednesday is a holiday, so I’ll either be checking out the Gwangyang World Art Circus or the Yeosu Expo with some friends (think lots of pictures ;)!).

Since I came to Korea, I’ve been more and more conscious of healthy eating and living. It is extremely rare to see an overweight Korean. This is due large in part to their culture and general way of life. Koreans are very active. Even the smaller cities, everything is set up to be easily accessible, meaning you can walk or bike to almost anywhere you want to go relatively easily. Obviously there are times you need a car, bus or taxi, but when it comes to most day to day needs, like getting to work, the bank, grocery store, bar or out to eat, you can usually get there by foot. On top of that, the food they eat tends to be much more organic than what we have back in the States. Where we have a lot of processed food and soda, they eat fruits and vegetables, rice, and tea. They do have a weakness for coffee. There are coffee shops on practically every street. They also LOVE greasy fried chicken. They have a convenience store here called MiniStop and most locations have at least a small section of chicken cooking right at the register counter. I’m not trying to be stereotypical in any way. I’m just pointing out the things I’ve noticed about most of the people I see and meet here.

Before coming out to Korea, I spent the four years prior in college and I lived on campus for all four years, so I was used to walking around already. However, I rarely used the fitness center or took advantage of the sidewalks for jogging and running purposes. I have never considered myself a terrible eater, but I’ve also not put too much thought into what I put into my body. I like most “healthy” foods so I always made sure to eat them, but I also ate pizza, ice cream, whatever sounded good. I still have those things sometimes, but I have certainly cut back.

Nine weeks ago, I decided to start being more active, on top of just walking to school and other places I needed to get to in town. That first week, I ran a few miles on four different days. The second week, I did the same, trying to make running enjoyable by listening to music and trying to run at different times of day, like on my lunch break, as well as in the evening and nighttime. I also did sporadic P90X workouts during those two weeks. Then that third week, I decided to start following one of the P90X programs.

Since then, today being the end of the seventh week, I have successfully kept up with the exercise portion of the lean program. I bought weights from HomePlus and do everything in my apartment. I didn’t buy the vitamins or protein powder. I know that stuff is important for your body and I will start taking something, but I decided to wait on that until I got home. As for the diet portion, I haven’t even looked at their diet guide. I am just living off what I know I can find here, in my city. I eat A LOT of fruit and veggies. I also switched to whole grain pasta and bread, though I don’t have either very often. I have sort of become obsessed with making smoothies too. I make them with fruits and vegetables, yogurt, oatmeal and juices. I usually make at least 10 at a time so I can freeze them in small sandwich bags to drink later. My favorite one is spinach and strawberry. I also drink tons of water. I’ve always been a water drinker, but I never realized just how much you’re supposed to drink, so I’ve been trying to get in the full amount each day too. I have lots of lean meat, like chicken breasts, and oatmeal too. I still allow myself to eat other foods that aren’t as good for you and I’m sure I’ll continue to wean myself off of those, but for now, I’m very happy with my progress.

I noticed changes in my body after the first week and I’m already so much better at the workouts, and most importantly, I enjoy them! I feel good when I complete my workout for each day and when I notice improvement in my ability to complete the exercises in them. Doing this has been a big commitment, but I am determined to stick with it. I have just six more weeks till my 90 day mark is up, but I’m sure I’ll continue with it after that.

The whole reason I started doing this in the first place was because I wanted to build up good habits in both my diet and lifestyle before I got back home and had all of this temptation, mostly with food haha. I knew a decent amount about food and fitness before starting this, but I’ve already learned so much and I can see the proof of my hard work. I heard that I would start to crave the healthier foods I was feeding my body, and now I’m actually doing that! It’s so strange! Haha I used to be a HUGE chocolate eater, and I still let myself indulge, but that too has been cut back a lot, whereas before I’d eat 8-10 Dove squares and some 15 kisses, I now eat just one serving worth once or twice a week.

I’m sure this post is pretty boring to most of you, but I’m very proud of my hard work and I’m really glad that I have found something that works well for me. :)

If you’d like to hear more about this, or see my progress following the 90 days, let me know and I’ll be sure to include a follow-up on that!

So Long Winter, Hello Spring!

Hello again!

Last time we talked, St. Patty’s Day had just happened but there was a lot coming up. The weekend after St. Patrick’s Day held Dan’s going away party. This was a blast. Dan wanted the event to be a black and white affair so that we had an excuse to get all dressed up one last time (before he left).

Dan and I at the game

We started the afternoon on Jechil, the island next to Gwangyang, for one of the Chunnam Dragon’s soccer games. This was the second home game of the year and the weather was warm, sunny and beautiful. At the game, I brought some sojullo (like jello shots but with soju instead of vodka). Everyone shared that and drank beers. After the game, we all met up at the Korean BBQ place we love. There were twelve or so of us and Rob, Dan and I were the first to arrive. We were seated quickly despite it being close to dinner time. We spent a good long time there and then most of us went bowling afterwards. 

Look at all the Waygookens!!

We bowled three games, then made our way to String. They already had live music going from another event being featured there that night, so it was already a bit busy but we got drinks, sat down and enjoyed some music. Shinee was there to take pictures and videos of the event. He has his own studio in Gwangyang which is where we went to get our “family portrait” done last April. I can’t believe it’s already been a year since then!

Dinner at our fav Korean BBQ!

Bowling! We took 3 lanes :)

Lizzie Love! hehe

Here are a few shots from that day, taken from my camera at Shinee's place last year.

The guys

Lizzie and Iain used this as an opportunity to get some engagement pics ;)

This is a tag from Shinee's Facebook, one of the pictures he did!

Anyway, this night brought a lot of fun. More and more people from Gwangyang and Suncheon showed up and it was great seeing so many friends! Even the girls from Mokpo made the trip up! Kate brought more sojullo, as if we planned having it spread out! I served as bar tender some, taking orders, getting the drinks I could, or telling Rock or Mina to make them. Haha Dan loved talking and spending time with everyone. There were even a few toasts made for him! I didn’t partake because I didn’t want to get emotional. Haha We left around 4:30am, walked home and spent a lazy Sunday together.

Finally at String!

Bubbles!!!

So many people!!

Some of my absolute favorite people right here!

The following weekend was the Beerlympics event Kate had been planning for a few months. This event was also partially meant to be Trey’s birthday party. It all turned out to be a lot of fun. Kate had a board organized by game and team. I think there were 5 teams at the start, but more joined in as people showed up. The first game was Flip Cup and each team played the other four, so this took a while but it was fun and I love Flip Cup! At the end of this event, Kate tallied up how many games each team won, and our team- Team Sexy, with Dan, Chris, Amanda and I- was ahead of the pack with 3 wins, although I really think it was 4. I can’t remember all of the other events because I think I only played in one other one (Zoomee, Zoomee) but there was originally going to be distance pong, until we tried that out and realized we were all too drunk already and it was way too hard, so we just cancelled that one out. There were also Quarters (played with heavier Korean coins), Beer Pong.. I think, Zoomee Zoomee, and a beer chugging one that I know of. Haha

On top of that, Rob brought curry for Dan (who hinted at wanting it each time he saw Rob and also everyday on Rob’s Facebook wall leading up to the event). The first time Dan came to Gwangyang was when KiNam took us to the Posco villas and we partied there all night. The following morning, Rob, Dan and some of the guys walked around Gwangyang drinking and eating curry, very very messily.

What a night!

Flip Cup!

Team Sexy! haha

Love this picture!!

Getting Currified!!

The next day, Sunday, was Dan’s last day in Gwangyang so we met at the Chinese place across from the bus terminal for a last meal of sorts. After eating tons of delicious Chinese food, we went to the coffee nearby when we realized Dan still had another hour. We sat outside in a circle telling stories with Dan. When I say we, I really mean Trey, but that’s okay :)

At the Chinese restaurant.. nom nom nom

Rock's pic of us at Holly's Coffee

KiNam's picture

After this, Dan went back to Daegu then made his way out of Korea. He spent the next few days in Chicago with some friends and he’s currently in his hometown probably appreciating it a lot more than he ever did when he was younger. :)

This past week has been pretty typical, with work and dinner with Lizzie. The hagwon’s in Gwangyang had Friday off so I went out to screen gold with Lizzie, Iain, Trey and KiNam after dinner. Friday I finally got back outside to run, although I’m not sure how good of an idea it was because now my cold seems to be worse than it’s been most of the week. Oh well… Today we’re celebrating KiNam’s birthday. There will be dinner, more screen golf and String. I guess I’ll be taking cold med’s to keep up!! ;)

Life is good. Life is really, really good. I plan on coming back to the States at the end of this contract, which means mid-August, so I’m trying to enjoy the time I have left here!

Until next time!! :*

March Madness- Not the Basketball Kind

I know, I know.

I’ve been REALLY slacking lately. In my last two posts, I talked about my schools move but then I never followed up on it showing where they moved to or anything about the beginning of the new school year (which starts in March over here). I’ll get into all of that first.

So, the new school year in Korea has officially been underway for two full weeks now and that is the same amount of time I’ve been teaching at my schools new building. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, read the rest of this paragraph. My school moved from their old building because the owner of the first building wanted to have a program that taught just Kindergarten there. That’s what Ivy said but that doesn’t make a lot of sense; it probably has something to do with money.

So, without further ado, here are pictures of the new school.

6 year old classroom~ Daniel, Lisa, Shawn (L to R)



5 year old classroom, board to the right




7 year old classroom~ Joseph and Amanda


As you can see, we still have three Kindergarten classrooms (and now we actually use all three each day). We also have a play area and cooking area, both much smaller than in the last building. There is a nice sized room filled with textbooks, crayons, art supplies and other materials that we use with the younger students too.  Although some areas are smaller and we now have no “teacher’s room” I really like the Kindergarten setup on the first floor.

Right now we have three 7 year old students (Amanda, Michael and Joseph- Alan left), three 6 year old students (Shawn, Lisa and Daniel) and two 5 year old students (Anthony and Brett). That makes 8 Kindergarten students, when we used to teach just two K classes totaling 9 students. The last five kids I mentioned are new to i-Sponge Kindergarten, although I have taught Anthony (Angelina’s son) for four months in an afterschool class, and Shawn, in that same class for the last two months. Daniel doesn’t know nearly as much as the other two 6 year olds which is frustrating for him and his teachers. Shawn knows a lot of vocabulary but his writing skills are lacking and Lisa is pretty great at everything. Anthony does very well in the 5 year old class, but he gets bored and discouraged when he sees Brett, his only classmate, flailing about on the floor or biting crayons. Brett is a very young 5 year old (I think his actual age is 3) but he never speaks in Korean or English and he doesn’t do any work ever, not even coloring.

The 6 year olds! Shawn, Lisa and Daniel

As for the second floor, my only real complaint is that to get to it, you have to go outside and in a different door.  It’s especially going to be annoying come rainy season. As you can see below, there are 5 classrooms, all about the same size. They all have this push pin board covering the upper half of the room. I LOVE this because my old classroom only had one bulletin board with this material. This is great because it’s much easier to put up posters or displays of the kids work on this material. I use a corner of the room to put up the monthly lesson plans for each of my classes, sorted by the days they are taught. I also have a few other important lists over there. There is a really fun rounded gold tile wall in my room which the kids think is awesome too.

Ellie's classroom (She replaced Brian)

Sarah's classroom/Kate's when she has bigger classes

My new classroom! :)

Kate's class, love this color!

Ivy's classroom (she got all of the leftover desks haha)

Computer room, a bit smaller than the last but at least we can print off of them now!

My class with one of my higher classes

I have a few new students in some of my after school classes, but for the most part, these are the same. All of the classes are great and they surprise me with how smart they are and how much they can comprehend and then reiterate back to me.

Now let’s get onto what’s been going on outside of school.

As I’ve said, Dan’s leaving soon so he’s been trying to spend time with everyone while he still can. Last weekend, we stayed out until almost 8 am!!! It was a blast. We started the night alone at my place. Dan had gotten in earlier and was snoozing (that morning marked the end of his two weeks on night shift so he was naturally exhausted). After that, we met up with some friends at String, stayed there for a while and then went to noraebong (karaoke room) followed by the hajeongook (delicious pig spine soup) restaurant we love. It was such a good night. We slept soundly for quite a while the next day. Then that Saturday night, a lot of people were going out to Elvis bar in Suncheon so we joined them but it was much earlier night. I think we got home around 3am. Sunday was a lazy day of catching up on our shows and then we went out for Korean BBQ with Pete and Kate. He didn’t have to leave until Monday so I spent my break with him and then went to the bus terminal after work Monday night to say goodbye.

Here's a little taste of last weekend:

Shots :)

I love this boy so much

Rob, Dan and Trey wrestling.. haha

Haha This is hilarious b/c they jumped in the back of Pete's car thinking they were being nice and that we'd need more room... I had the row in front of them by myself haha

At a noraebong, probably singing Little Mermaid's Under the Sea haha

Trey passed out, so Dan was bugging him haha

They think they're so cool ;)

This weekend had even more fun plans. It was St. Patrick’s Day and there was also a rugby tournament. Now if you’ve followed my blog from the beginning, you know I’ve only been to one other rugby tournament.  Because it was going to be an early morning, most people stayed in on Friday night to take an early bus Rob arranged. The bus picked up Suncheoners and then came to R & R, Rob’s hagwon (private school) and to pick up the rest of us. It was a noraebus, which meant people could, and did, do karaoke on it during the drive. Despite the early time, a considerable amount of people were drinking. When we got to the field in Busan, the guys started warming up and a huge group of us walked across the street to the HomePlus to get drinks and snacks.

Our guys were up to play first and there were just three teams total, so each team played two games. During the games, pretty much everyone was drinking and enjoying the nice weather. It was a bit windy but considerably warmer than it has been recently. Many people even got a bit of a sun burn. After the games were done (Our guys won!) we got back on the bus and were taken to the other side of Busan to Haeundae Beach. Once we were dropped off, we parted ways. Most people hadn’t arranged accommodations ahead of time, but Dan’s always good about that so we headed to our room while our friends found places to stay. We were at the Sunset Hotel, which had a decent view of the ocean and nightlife. Dan took some pictures but only from the inside of our room. We had a small balcony area which we looked out on but didn’t take pictures from.   

Between the bus ride up to Busan and all the time spent at the field, Dan had been drinking quite a bit and took a much needed, nice long nap (it was a sleep really). I tried to wake him up a few times to see if he wanted to go eat, since he hadn’t really eaten anything substantial since 8am and that was MiniStop chicken, but he wasn’t having it so I just watched TV for a while and then dozed off. When he woke me up around midnight he was starving so we went out in search of food and saw some of our friends who were at a bar called Wolfhound Pub that was conveniently located about 15 steps to the left of the hotel we were staying in. We hung out for a bit, and then left with a few of them to get some Burger King. While out, we were told most of our friends were already in for the night because they hadn’t napped at all and were just exhausted, so after BK, we went back to our room.

The next morning (this morning) we met up at the same bar as last night. In the daytime, they are a restaurant and they have all kinds of delicious (albeit a bit expensive) western style food.  Dan got some shepherd’s pie and I got fish and chips. Ahhh, so delicious.. I’m hungry just thinking about it now! After eating, reminiscing on the night and saying goodbyes to those going other ways, I got on the bus back to Gwangyang.

A few pics from this weekend:

The Jeollanamdo Aliens~ aka the good guys lol

Toni, Trey and Lizzie, beer, alcoholic cider and all sorts of mixed drinks

Carolyn, Lizzie and me with the other team's supporters behind us

Our room for the night

Nice ocean view :)

This coming week is sure to bring more fun times with my students. It’s amazing how much faster the weeks seem to go by in this new building. This week’s also sure to bring awesome stories. Dan’s going away party is being held this coming weekend with some combination of a park, Dragon’s soccer game, String, and who knows what else!