Food, Food, Food!

So this past weekend I went to Daegu to see Dan so he didn’t have to come here like he always does. I make it sound like I’m being the nice one; but really, I just wanted a lot of decadent Western food, which I got… Oh boy, did I get that!?!

I took the last bus from DongGwangyang (Jumadong), where I live, and got to Daegu around 9:15. The bus was supposed to leave at 6:50, but it didn’t show up until about 7:20. Everyone standing in line waiting for the bus kept checking their watches and phones and shifting their weight from side to side, myself included. This bus had been a bit late before, but no more than ten minutes. Regardless, it’s safe to say that I was a bit annoyed getting onto this bus.

My ill feelings towards the coming journey were made worse as I realized that this bus was a bit smelly and uncomfortable. I didn’t get any sleep on the way up. We took a different route than the usual and we didn’t stop in a rest area, which we have been doing lately, so despite the almost half hour delay, we got to Seobu Bus Terminal in Daegu at about the same time as if we had stopped and taken the other way. I guess that’s a plus, right?

Dan, being the incredible guy that he is, met me at the bus station, even though I’ve been there plenty of times and am comfortable enough getting a taxi in that city (only because a lot more taxi drivers understand my accent and can speak English, guess that’s what happens in a city with an Army base). Anyway, he met me near the street with a smile, hug and kiss, and then we jumped in a taxi and headed to our favorite love motel. I’m pretty sure I’ve never described what this is on here, so Mom and Dad, if you’re reading this, just skip to the next paragraph.  A love motel is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a cheap room you can get to stay the night.. or a few hours, depending on what your plans are. Despite its meaning, it is still a great way to travel cheaply and have a decent room in a good part of town. It’s also incredibly close to wear Dan lives and where I can shop and get Taco Bell (but we’ll get to that part).

Once we got to our motel, Tokyu Motel, we went upstairs so Dan could put my bag down ;) and so I could eat the delicious albeit a bit cool Mexican Pizza Dan got me from Taco Bell before he went to wait for my bus. He really is the best! Then, when I needed more food, because obviously anyone would after that, LOL, he took me to Caliente, a bar with amazing Mexican food. We split a meat burrito but really I ate half and he had ONE BITE of his half.. lame! I washed all this down with a yummy lime mojito, but I must admit: I much prefer the regular mojito. He had a few Jack and Cokes. Let me point out that at first he just ordered a coke, but then I made fun of him, so he upgraded.

After I was finished, we walked downtown and stopped at Vinny Roo’s, which has the alcoholic Capri Suns I love sooooo very very much!  For 5,000 Won, just under $5, you can get a delicious drink that comes in a pouch just like a Capri Sun juice drink, except it’s clear and not silvery. The guy there is lots of fun and he has all sorts of drinks you already know along with a bunch of fun, scary and crazy sounding ones. When I first went to Daegu back in April, Dan took a bunch of us here and we LOVED it. They were all obsessed with some gross cherry flavored drink called "Sex with an Alligator", while I preferred a sweet blue drink called a "Starburst", but the Long Island and Kahula Milk drinks he has are also delish. I definitely want to try more of those!

After that we went in for the night, because we are such exciting people. Dan had me bring my laptop so we could watch some shows together. We do that during the week too. You call it lame. I call it awesome. Lol Practice for when he’s gone? I think so. We watched White Collar that night if I remember correctly, which I probably don’t. lol

Saturday, we woke up after noon. It was almost 1pm. Haha Don’t ask me how we slept in that late. We went to bed pretty early. It must have been the combo of the a/c and the light blocking curtains. Anyway, after we woke up and got ready to head out for the day, we decided to eat some breakfast food, Western style. We both got biscuits and gravy because we don’t care about our bodies or if we live to see our kids turn 5 years old. Haha Dan also got what he calls "dippy” eggs, but the rest of us normal people call them "yokey” eggs, toasts, bacon and hash browns. I got French toast with banana in the middle. It was pretty yummy and it served as a breakfast/snack for Dan and me Sunday, since I got full way too quickly. After breakfast, we walked into Camp Walker and went to Dan’s room where we laid in bed, stuffed, not wanting to move, and watched a few more episodes of White Collar. Then when we left his barracks, I stopped to smell a bit of home. On our walk back to our room the night before, I kept seeing these HUGE maple leaves and I really wanted to take pictures with them, but of course my camera was in the room! Lame sauce! But I saw more of these massive leaves and loved all the autumn smells that I don’t get in Gwangyang but that I miss from home.

 Then we went to the PX, the Post Exchange, so I could grab a few necessities that Korea just simply does not offer, after that we headed to the camp's golf courses clubhouse for a WONDERFUL Westerner dinner of fish and chips.  I loved every single bite. Seriously. Ask Dan. That meal was wondrous. I’d been craving fish and chips since before I went home and needed more!!   

We WERE going to go out again that night but we just decided to get a bottle of cheap wine from 7/11 and some chocolate and stayed in and watched "The Walking Dead" which is a Zombie show that Dan loves. Romantic, right? Haha Though I must admit I have gotten pretty into it... he claims “a victory for all men.” His words. Not mine. :) We stayed up until the wine kicked in and made us too sleepy to function, so about 2 am Sunday morning.

Thirty minutes prior to having to check out Sunday morning, Dan and I wake up and decide to finally get moving.   We left the hotel and went to his room, which is about a 15 minute walk from the room we were staying in. When we got to his room we heated up the leftover banana French toast that we had from earlier in the weekend. Then we proceeded to catch up on another show we are watching together, I know, we're adorably lame... but we’re okay with it, so that’s all that matters!  After that, we went to Taco Bell again to get my fix once more. I ate all I could eat until my heart was content, then packed up a bean burrito with no onions and a double decker taco, thank you April, for getting me hooked on this delicious treats!  Then it was time to head to the bus terminal.  

Dan waited around, as I waited for my bus. We said our goodbyes and I got on a much nicer, comfier bus and proceeded to sleep for the next two hours. This bus stopped at a rest area, which woke me up. I do not understand the Korean public transportation system. Why do they stop sometimes and not others?!  Dan has a short week this week due to Veterans Day, so I will see him Wednesday night!!!

As for now, that is all!

Halloween as A Disney Princess AND a Superhero!!!

So Halloween was awesome. I got to celebrate twice in two separate costumes, once as a Disney princess and once as a superhero. As you know, my school threw a big Halloween party, just like last year. Last year, they wanted us to be dressed in scary costumes so I was a vampire and Kate was a witch. This year, they gave us more options, but in the end, they just bought us whatever they wanted us in. haha They put Kate in a new witch costume and me in a Snow White one.

Growing up, I had a Snow White dress that I LOVED. I spent 2 Halloweens as a kid being Snow White because I thought I looked the most like her (out of the original 5). I looked up a video on youtube of how to do my makeup like her. I went to Kandee Johnson's site. She does AMAZING work and I LOVE watching her videos. She's always so happy, upbeat and entertaining! Anyway, after seeing what I'd need to get the makeup look right, I watched her hair video. She made both of these videos to look like the Snow White we first met in the original animated movie.. from the 30s. Holy crap.. I had no idea it was that old!!! Then I watched the hair video for the second or third time and tried to mimic that look. Let me just say.. she makes it look SOOOO easy! haha I ended up using my straightener to curl my hair and pin and hairspray the crap out of it. I was getting so very frustrated but I think it all actually turned out pretty well, except I had wayyyy more flyaways than Snow White (or Kandee) ever did! Here's a picture with me and one of Kate's students. She had on the same exact costume as me, except in a much smaller size :)

The party was a lot of fun. As the kids came in, they tried to guess which of the foreigners was Kate and which was me. We do not look that alike, so it was pretty funny when kids asked me if I was Kate and vise versa. Once most of our kids were there, they sent the teachers and students off into different areas. Kate and I were sent to the 7 year old classroom to face paint. That was fun. I was way faster than Kate who completely doubted any skill she had. haha Angelina was in another classroom doing the same thing. Brian, Ivy and a few others were carving pumpkins with another group of kids in the Cooking Room. Then we swapped to give all the kids a chance to do both.

After an hour or so, everyone went outside so we could start our walk around town trick-or-treating. They tried to have it organized, but overall, it was very stressful and chaotic. Not for me. I just did as I was told but Big Mama and Ivy were running around the kids trying to sort out where they were all supposed to be. They were organized into groups by grade and each group had one place they would sing the trick-or-treat tune to before getting candy from them. They mostly went to stores, but a few restaurants and a hospital were part of the tour. This is obviously very different from how we trick-or-treat at home. The kids had very small containers to hold candy because they got next to nothing, compared to how we do it.

When we got back to iSponge, parents were cooking bulgogi (meat or beef). They sent kids upstairs to go through our "haunted house." This year's haunted house was much bigger than last years, but I was too scared to go in it. :) After they had their turn upstairs, they were sent to get food. Then we had to pose for way too many pictures, and we finally got home around 8:30 or 9.

Friday night was a very relaxed one for me. I wasn't feeling great. I was coming down with a cold and it was worst that day, which I wasn't excited about because I didn't want it to mess up my other weekend plans. So I spent my night watching TV, taking a nice long shower, reading, and getting plenty of sleep. I woke up to a few cute texts from Dan telling me he was on his way to Gwangyang! Yay! :) We spent the day relaxing. Then we went out for Korean BBQ for dinner, because we were both being way too lazy to do dishes or cook. Then we came back, changed into our costumes and met up with people in Suncheon, at San An's.

The Halloween party out here was serving as a going away party for a few girls too. :( Katherine, who I never got the chance to get close to, and Diviya, who is an AWESOME friend and who has been featured on here at least one other time. I'm sad she's gone and that it took us so long to get close, but I'm very grateful for her! Here is a pic of her and I form the night. She was Medusa.

They did a great job of making it a fun Halloween party with traditions we share from our home country's. They had games and candy and carving jack o' lanterns. It was definitely a fun sendoff party. Oh yeah, here's a picture of Dan in I in our couple costumes. So Korean of us. haha It's funny because in Korea, you see couples wearing the same shirt, accessory or outfit all the time. It shows that they are together. Dan and I have said how we'd never want to do that, but then we wore themed costumes. Hilarious. It could be worse.. For more pictures from both nights, look at my Facebook page!

As for plans this month, I don't think I have many. I'm going to Daegu this weekend, where Dan lives. I'll get my fill of Western food. He promised me Taco Bell, Subway and fish and chips. I think I'm most excited about those, or maybe a Double Decker taco. Or... haha I love food! Then he has two 4 day weekends in a row! Lucky me! :) Now we just need to figure out if he can come home for Christmas.... :)

Rubik's Cube Paintedness... (yes I know that's not a word)

So this past weekend I went to Suncheon for the first time in quite a while. Kate wanted to have her birthday as a theme party.. a Rubik’s Cube theme party. I didn’t blog about this, but last April there was another theme party. No, not Halloween. It was the Call of the Wild, so we were all supposed to dress up in animal print, or like animals. Dan, of course, took it to the extreme, and came painted as a leopard. We were not dating at the time, and after seeing him like this, I have no idea how we ever started. Kidding, love! :) But really.. look at this picture! He looks RE-diculous! :D

How did I ever fall for you? :) Kidding!!

Anywho, as soon as he heard about this party, he knew he wanted to go painted and he was trying to convince me to as well. Anyone who knows me at all knows I can be extremely shy, so the very thought of doing something like this terrified me. I don’t like to look like an idiot, especially on purpose. Haha Anyway, he must be quite charming because, he convinced me to go (and when I say he convinced me, I mean I said I kinda want to go painted too.. and then had his “in”.. all downhill from there).

In all of our painted glory :D

As you can see, we make quite the couple.  That's Diviya with us. But in all seriousness, the party was a blast. There were a lot of people I knew as well as quite a few newbie’s that I have been too shy to say “hi” to. It’s amazing what being painted does to a person. Lol Also, there was TONS of sojullo. For those of you who are not familiar with the term, think jello shots, but instead of vodka, we use soju, and it’s usually in big containers that we all share from.. very Korean style, and delicious. :)

I was truly painted from head to toe. I painted my fingers and toes in a fun way too! See them here:

Aren't they fun!?!

ther than that, I’ve just been working hard with the kids, working on not being that teacher who yells a lot.. It’s.. challenging, to say the least. It’s one thing to be a teacher with poor classroom management back home yelling at her students and it’s an ENTIRELY different think to be like that here, in a country where most of my kids struggle to understand me.  Although, today we made trick-or-treat “buckets” and it was fun to take a break from the book. That’s almost all we ever use and I still had them speaking in English while they worked! It was awesome.

I’ll definitely talk more about Halloween at school and with friends because both are going to be a blast!

Married in Korea

Well, as you all know, two of the greatest people I've ever met got married this month. Here is a picture of the happy couple. Lizzie and Iain, I wish you all the best. It truly couldn't happen to two better people!
As for me, life hasn't changed much since I last wrote. I'm still teaching, although I must say, I actually feel like a teacher this time around. Last year, my classes changed almost every month. Most of the books we used were meant to be completed in a month, so we'd get new material for the next one and for the most part, I never repeated a lesson with new students. This year, I am a lot more familiar with the curriculum and I am finally getting the chance to use what I know works, and tweak what doesn't. It can still be a challenge to do all of the things I'd like to with my students, but I don't really see how I can change that, since I am on a pretty tight schedule. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but on top of completing a set of books (or unit, depending on the book and class), I am also expected to help students in most of my classes prepare a presentation. Each month, I come up with a new topic for each class that relates to the material they will cover that month. We pick out key words or ideas from the unit and then use those to make sentences explaining their mean. At the end of the month, each child gets in front of a camera and presents what they have written and worked on for that topic. It's meant to get the kids comfortable using English the correct way. Sure, this is a more formal way, but it is better than nothing. I also try and push my kids to answer questions I ask them in complete sentences, which is a challenge, even for some of my more advanced students.

I certainly didn’t plan on saying that much about school; of course I’m not finished yet. At the end this month, October, new parents will be coming in to decide if they want their kids to attend iSponge. So, Ivy asked me to have the 7 year old Kindergarten class prepare presentations, all on separate topics, instead of the same, as they usually do. Edward will be talking about a typical day at iSponge. Eric will talk about 3 of our most fun classes. Sherly will talk about a few of the field trips we go on- remember, these are rarely educational, just super fun! Haha Sarah will talk about Drama class and the plays they have presented and worked on. Sally will finish us off by talking about Halloween and what we do at school for that holiday. We will also be having another Halloween Party, like last year. I’m excited :)

Outside of teaching, I’ve just been spending time with friends out at all our usual places (String, BBQ, Club Davey) and of course, hanging out with Dan. He took me out to a very nice dinner a few weeks ago up in Daegu. We got all dressed up for it. It was very cute and cheesy, which I love! Haha Kate’s birthday was this past Wednesday so we went out to String for that. She wanted to have a Rubik’s Cube party this weekend, but turns out many people will be gone since it’s a long weekend, so we’re doing that next weekend instead. I’ll take lots of pictures and puts some up here. :) Of course we’ll have a Halloween party too, outside of school. I have to figure out what to be… Dan wants to be a zombie soldier so I have been looking into ways to make him all bloody and gross. Should be an interesting month!

So I've been slacking a lot lately; I've been too busy..... watching TV shows and movies on my computer. Haha Actually, now that's it's been so nice out, I've been busy almost every weekend going to Busan, Suncheon, Namhae, or just out in good ol' Gwangyang.

This is at String.. one of Fritz's last times there, except not really because he ended up coming back..

Anywho.. life is really good right now. I have no complaints. :) I have decided to stay for another year, at the same school I'm at now. I should be signing a contract within the next few days. Also, my school is giving Kate and I a month off. They still owe us a week in our current contract and they are giving us 3 more so we can go home! YAY!!! We are using that first week to go to CAMBODIA with Rhonda. It should be a blast! We are all really excited!!

Also, I'm going to really try to keep this thing more updated. We shall see how that goes..!

Goodnight world!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

So first off, I have to say Happy St. Patrick's Day!! I know it has been a while since my last post and things haven't been too interesting really, until today.

First, let me catch you up on my life since February. Kate and I went to the Busan Museum of Modern Art about three weeks ago. The whole experience was a lot of fun, travelling via bus, taxi, and subway trying to find the museum, and then later trying to find our hotel, and on Sunday, shopping. HA! The museum was featuring a trick art exhibit which was complete mindblowing. We spent a few hours there taking pictures of each other and asking Koreans to take ones of us together. I have a whole album of them on Facebook. They are definitely worth checking out. Below you can see a play on one of Van Gogh's paintings and another of me battling a shark.

Then last week, I came back from lunch to shower and watch an episode of one of my favorite shows like normal. However, when I went to watch it, I was told that I could only watch it if I downloaded some viewing license. Not thinking, I clicked it, which downloaded some virus and restarted on my computer. When it restarted, the blue-screen-of-death appeared and there was nothing I could do about it. Like an idiot, I had not backed up any of my pictures from while I have been here, so all I have now is what's on Facebook, which stinks, but I'm just glad I have my computer back, working again and I can start capturing new memories!

As for today, I came to school, teaching like normal. It was time to teach my last class and I noticed that one of my students was not there. I ran downstairs to grab a few supplies I needed to teach the class and saw the other student, so I waved and said hello, got the materials and went back upstairs. After a few minutes, I said, "I wonder where Carly is," thinking she had time to change her shoes and get to class. Then one of the two other students in the class, Sunny, told me that she isn't in the class anymore. When I asked why, she spoke to the other girl, Lora, for a few minutes in Korean, trying to figure out how to tell me in English. Together, they came up with this, "We don't like her, so we complained about her. She reads too slow and she says words wrong, like in Kate teacher's class she said 'eve-er' instead of 'ever'. It's so simple! Also, she is not friendly with us. The other young students are friendly with us, talking about their life, but not her." I brought up Carly's age because she is in second grade whereas Lora and Sunny are both in fifth, thinking that might be why they don't like her, because she has such high English skills at such a young age.

As they were telling me this, I was in shock! Instead of teaching for the first 10 or so minutes of class, we just discussed this. I didn't understand how they could complain about a student and get her removed from my class, especially when I had seen Carly there and hadn't heard anything about her no longer being in the class. Midway through class, after we had moved on from the conversation, Ivy came in asking for the books that are at the level just below the class these girls are in. I saw her take them into the office with Big Mama, Carly and Carly's mom. So I guess that means Carly is now in this lower class?? Oh boy.

How can this be okay, you ask? I think it's all because of money. They would rather have Lora and Sunny's parents continuing to pay tutition and keep their kids at our school and risk losing one, although it looks like they somehow found a way around that, probably by telling Carly's mom that the class is too hard for her, but what do I know? :/

SNOW in GWANGYANG!! :)

Hello Peeps!

So yesterday a wonderful thing happened. It SNOWED in GWANGYANG. For those of you who don't know, or who forgot, this is the name of the city I live in over here in Korea. Anyway, snow is kind of a big deal over here because it doesn't usually happen this far south and even when it does, it's very very light. Yesterday it was much lighter compared to Michigan, but it was still more substancial than any snowfall I've seen in my part of Korea. Overcourse, it did not stick, but there is always next time...!! I took a picture of it using the restaurant aross from my apartment building as the backdrop, since they have nice dark windows. I can't believe how excited I'm getting about snow. I really don't like snow, in fact I always complain about it. Who woulda thunk!? haha

Other than that, not much has happened. Lizzie came back last week, so that's been really great. I've already seen her a few times. Fritz is back too and I finally saw him on Wednesday. Now Rhonda just needs to come back from Italy and the Gwangyang crew will be reunited!

On a side note, I can't believe it's already been about 7 months since I first got here. Only 5 months left!! Then, who knows.. The only thing I plan on doing in the near future is going to Busan, which is much bigger than Gwangyang and about 2 hours away, and going to the Magic Art show and probably doing a lot of eating and shopping. Busan is also home to an aquarium where you can go diving with sharks, sea turtles and many other sea creatures. As of right now, I still plan on doing that come Spring, unless I chicken out!