On the way down

Yo. This past week at work was the worst week we have had at the new school. And Jason and I have been at said school for 6 whole months. So we figured that one week out of 24ish isn't too bad. But man was it a rough one. On Tuesday, we had a field trip. We went up to some television station in Seoul. We may have been on TV somewhere. There were cameras everywhere. Some British dude from BBC was there on tour. Mister Maker. He had the kids make alien eyes. Pretty funny. The rest of the time was pretty lame. But it's always nice to have a day out of school. Thursday we had the birthday party for the August birthdays. The kids are so cute.

We've gotten about 9 new students the past 3 weeks or so. I got a new one in my Robot class. I got to name her. I picked Molly. And we got a new puppy named Jessica. So it's like at Wooster! Except they're 4 and Korean. But I still get a kick out of it. (Molly and Jess are my friends from Wooster...duh).

Why was the week so bad? Some serious mis-communication issues as well as mixed ideas about our duties. Hahaha duties. On Friday we sent 3 months worth of worksheets and workbooks home. Our boss was very unhappy because she felt like there were not enough worksheets for 3 months. We explained that since they have been telling us to do more speaking with the kids for the past 2 months we did various speaking activites with extra time rather than worksheets. No. More worksheets and more speaking. Here's the thing. We got yelled at twice. Once in Korean and then translated. It was upsetting. It's hard to find the balance that they want here. I can never really tell if they want the kids to actually learn English or just have the appearance of learning English. For example, I do not give my elementary kids homework because they don't do correctly or at all. So we spend the whole time correcting homework/doing it in class. This seems stupid to me, so instead we do as much work in class as we can. I feel that this way class time is productive, they're doing the work, and they hopefully are remembering and learning stuff. However, parents want to see their kids doing tons and tons of homework. It's a frustrating balance that we thought we had figured out but were wrong. Oh well. I do like my school and my boss and my kids. It was just a bad week.

My friend from Ireland (I can't spell her name that well and I usually call her Ireland anyway) has her parents here for 3 weeks. So I think hanging out with them makes me a little sad too because I want to hang out with my parents.

This Saturday I met SaraBrown in Suwon and we went to a Suwon Bluewing-Seoul soccer game. Suwon won but we left at halftime because we wanted to. It was pretty sweet though. We saw two really nice goals. Then we got on a bus to go back to Suwon Station and then we were going to SB's house. But the bus driver made everyone get off the bus and we didn't know where we were. Typical in the Adventures from the Annex to Asia series. So we got a taxi and eventually made our way to SB's town. Its a little town and I met her coworkers and various Korean friends. It was pretty fun.

Sunday we went to ShabuShabu for food. ShabuShabu is pretty cool. They put broth on the fire (most Korean restaurant tables have grills/fire in the middle of them) and then they bring you a plate of vegetables and a plate of meat. You put it all in the broth and eat it when it cooks. Then when that's gone you put in noodles and dumplings. When that's gone, they put in rice and an egg. It's a lot of food and it takes a while to get through all the courses but it's delicious.

It's pretty crazy that September is on Wednesday.On September 1st it is Mowgli's birthday. One whole year.

It is also my 8 month anniversary. It also means 6 months left. Heyoo! Still working on what to do next.Travis is engaged. Cheney is at college. Ethan is playing football and is a junior. Mom has a full time job at Purdue.

I stopped eating the other night and realized I was eating with chopsticks. Life is weird. September 10th is Dad's 50th birthday. Woah.We have September 21,22,23 off for Chusuk. Korean Thanksgiving. We talked about going to Japan, but flights were expensive. So I think I'm going over winter break.

Oh yeah. Now that I have 6 months left, meaning I'm half way through my contract, its the first time that I'm going down hill. On the way down.

Pictures of my kiddos.
This is my little T-Rex. As an alien. Awesome.
This is Sally and Amy. They are in Puppy class. Meaning Korean age 5. Real life age 3 or 4.
We brush our teeth after lunch everyday.
Jason and Scarlet. She's a firecracker and loves Jason Teacher to death.
This is Alex 1. The smartest kid in Robot class. His birthday is August 16th, the same as GrandmaAmy's! And he talked about his birthday all of July and all of August. He was so excited.
This alien is Clara. From Robot.

I just made a facebook album with more pictures of the kids. If you want more, check it out. I love you all. I miss you all a lot. Enjoy the end of summer/beginning of fall.

Ramblings and LimaBeans

Hi. Getting back into the swing of things at work after vacation was hard. The kids were squirrely and I was exhausted. So this weekend, I wanted to just chill out at home. Sleep a lot and save some money. Then Ian called. He said two words and plans went a whole different direction. "Beach tomorrow?" Done. Friday after work, I hopped on the bus, went to Suwon Station and got a train to Daecheon Beach. That's the same beach that Mudfest was at. I got there at 11 and found Ian on the boardwalk. We hung out on the beach until about 5 am because we were sleeping in a tiny tiny tent and it was way too hot to go to sleep sober. And there were a lot of ants. It rained all day Saturday, but it was still fun. We wandered around and played on the beach. Actually, it was sunny for about 2 hours. We played gin on Saturday night and watched this game. This man charged people five bucks to put a blindfold on, spin in a circle, and walk four steps with a bat. They then tried to smash a watermelon. If they did, they got a bottle of whiskey. It was hilarious. The guy made bank with all the drunk men trying to impress their girlfriends. We just woke up and packed up the tent and came home. Very fun weekend.

Now, I have decided to share some thoughts that I've been having.

• I think when I get home, driving will be really really hard and stressful.
• I don't like umbrellas. They seem like a good idea, but you still get wet. People with umbrellas run into me. I run into things when I'm using them. It's hard to remember to bring it if there's a chance of rain. It's hard to remember to take them home. Kind of like futons. They are a great idea in theory, but are just not as convenient as they might be. Futons are heavy and hard to unfold.
  
• We've been trying really hard to make the kids only speak English at school. Rex wasn't there M-W, and they did an awesome job. I was really proud. Then my little T-Rex came back and it all went to shit. He's such a firecracker.
  
• I saw a commercial for Carlsburg beer. Their motto is "Probably the best beer in the world" It made me laugh so I tried the beer. Not too shabby. At home, I buy Rasin Brand Crunch because the commercials are hilarious. Advertising works. I'm a sucker.
• I don't understand how if you leave the tent door open, all the mosquitoes fund their way in. How do they know? What are they doing? Just flying around looking for open doors? Mean.
  
• The internet is pretty cool. You can do so much on it. I use it to keep in touch with real life, read funny things online, read the news to try to keep up with the world, play Tetris, and watch TV online. It's great for killing time and not getting too homesick.
• I found that I miss home the most when I'm hungry. Food is so good and it is so much more than just nutrients and all that stuff.
• I started talking vitamins. I don't feel any difference yet.
  
• I hate bug bites. Especially on my feet.
  

I had some more, but I can't remember. I've added some pictures. The first three are from our Jeju trip. I swiped them from Jason. He does a great job with scenery pictures. I don't like taking pictures of scenes because it never looks as cool in the pictures as it is in real life. The last picture is me and Ian this weekend. Ian is the Canadian dude that I worked with at my first school. He now works at a public school in Suwon. It's pretty weird that school is starting up for you guys. CRAZY. Cheney moves to COLLEGE soon. That blows my mind.


Monday, August 16th is GrandmaAmy's birthday. Happy Birthday GrandmaAmy! I love you! I miss you!
해피 벌스 데이 투유
That means happy birthday in Korean.

Its also crazy that August is half way over. That means 6 months and 2 weeks left.

Pictures.
This is my head on the way up Hallasan. Photographer-Jason




Hallasan scenery. Photographer-Jason
Jeju Waterfalls. Me, Sophia, Jason.


Me and Ian. Daecheon Beach.


Closing thought. Coconuts. Fruit or nuts?

Seven and Seven

Happy August!! I have been in South Korea for seven months. I have seven months left on my contract. The past seven days have been vacation. This was the first time that I have been out of my apartment, off the internet, without shampoo for more than two days since I've been in Korea. We had a split week vacation, which means that we had Thursday-Wednesday off. That means five work days, but only one weekend. Pretty sneaky. Because of this, we made the decision that we would stay in the country and make the most of our time outside of travel time. So we went to Jeju-do and Busan. Jeju is an island off the southern coast of the Korean peninsula. Busan is the second largest city in South Korea and is on the southern coast of the peninsula.
Day 0. School. At lunch, Rex says "teacher, head please." I said "what?" Rex then grabbed my head and headbutted me. I had a bump. He had a bump. It was awesome. We left at 4. Walked up to the airport shuttle stop and hopped on a bus to the Gimpo Airport. We flew to Jeju-do and hopped on another airport shuttle. The Jeju airport is in Jeju city, which is on the north side of the island and our hotel was in Segwipo, which is on the south side of the island. The shuttle took about an hour. We didn't know how we were going to find the hotel when we got there. Luckily, when we got off the bus, I looked across the street and saw it. Hotel Sunbeach. AWESOME. We checked in and learned that we had been upgraded to a giant room. With a king size bed, two couches, three chairs, two tvs, a balcony, and two air-cons. Excellent. We dropped stuff off and started walking around. Found a rocky coast, climbed on some rocks and just enjoyed being on vacation!!


Day 1. We got up at nineish I think and grabbed a taxi to Jungmun beach. We had some fried chicken and beer for breakfast and camped out on the beach. The waves and currant and riptide were really bad so we weren't allowed in the water. We napped. When I woke up, it was ocean time. Awesome. Played in the water, played in the sand, had some beers and oranges, and met some new people. Well, Jason met some new people and we hung out. I was in the water and heard a whistle, so I turned and saw Jason waving me in. I ran in and find Jason and Sophia laughing. "Why are you laughing at me?" "Jason said want to see me get Katie out of the water? And then he whistled and you came right in!" Sophia informed me. I then replied, "Excellent. For the record, he did not train me. My father did." It was pretty funny. After they got me out of the water we went with our new friends to a sushi/seafood buffet on the beach. It was delicious. Our new friends had rented a car so they gave us a ride to E-mart where we bought sandwich materials and then to the hotel. Then we passed out. We thought that the bed was big enough for all three of us, but after an hour of being in the middle, I flipped out and slept on couch cushions on the floor. After that, we took turns on the floor.
Jungmun Beach. On a BEAUTIFUL day.
Sophia and Jason enjoying some amazing sashimi and crab legs on the water after a great day in the sun, sand, and salt.



Day 2. We woke up at 8 because we were going to hike Hallasan, the tallest mountain in South Korea and you have to start by 10. So we figured out the bus schedule and started our hike at 9:55. It was about 3 km straight up. I think it took us around two and half to three hours. We got to the end of the trail and learned that access to the top was restricted. That was kind of a bummer, but we were pretty happy with what we had done. We ate some sandwiches and went back down. It took us about an hour and half. When we got to base camp, we decided to walk an additional 2.5 km to the bus stop. When we got off the bus, we realized that we were only 2 km from the waterfalls that Jeju-do is known for. So we went and checked those out. Went back to the hotel, showered, and sat. Then we wandered around looking for food. Found a delicious galbi spot, ate and passed out.
Going through the meadow at the end of the trail on Hallasan. San is Mountain in Korean, so this is Mt. Halla in English. Just a little tidbit for you.
This is Jason feeding me an orange on our lunch break at the top of Hallasan. Jeju-do is famous for oranges and orange products, like orange chocolate. These little guys that we bought were delicious.


The marker marking the end of the trail. I was very sweaty. I also got to carry the bag of water and snacks because my two co-workers were too badly sunburned. You may be thinking, "wait. Katie, you weren't fried?" Haha. NOPE! I did not get burned. Well, just a little on my legs. Speaking of my legs, the morning of the hike, I fell off the bus and had a huge bruise on the back of my leg for the rest of the time. It kind of hurt during the hike.



Day 3. Decided to sleep in without an alarm. Woke up at about 9:45. We had some beef soup for breakfast and then grabbed a bus up to JejuCity. There was a lava rock that looks like a dragon head that Sophia really wanted to see. Then we got another bus to a beach on the west coast. This one was calm and warm. Crowded, but since it was so calm, we could spread out more. We hung out there until about 5. Grabbed a bus back to Segwipo and ordered pizza and packed and went to sleep immediately.



Day 4. We woke up at 5:30 and while waiting for the first airport shuttle of the day were offered a taxi ride for the same price. So we took that and flew to Busan. Took another shuttle to Nampo-dong and found the hotel and SARABROWN. We went to Haeundae beach via an hour on the subway. It was crazy crowded. A city of umbrellas on the sand and a traffic jam of inner tubes in the water. Inner tubes that ran us over repeatedly. We dealt with it for a few hours and decided to call it a day. On our walk back to the subway, we saw a bar/restaurant with a sign that said tacos and nachos. So we stopped in for a snack. Turns out they also had a great deck and awesome margaritas. So we ended up meeting a new couple, drinking 21 margaritas, 6 soco and lime shots, 4 jaeger shots, 3 tequila shots, and 12 beers. Along with numerous orders of nachos and tacos. We then followed the new couple to the beach and then to TGI Fridays and then back to the beach. We got home at about 2 am.
The madness that was the Busan beach. Very overwhelming.



Day 5. Last night was explained to me. We got sneak attacked by Mexican food. It was awesome. This couple, Brad and Shenay. Let me talk about them for a second. He's from Canada and huge. She's from Korea and tiny. They have been married for 8 months and she is a Korean popstar of sorts who just sold a song for a lot of won. Pretty cool. We left the hotel at about 10 and went to the fish market. Saw lots of fish. Lots of mudfish, which kind of look like snakes. One of them hopped out of the tank behind me. I heard Sara and Sophia squeal and turned around just in time to see the fish man fling the fish at Jason who then screamed like a young child. I mean while almost fell over laughing at the scene. We walked through the whole market and then checked out the harbor. Back to the same beach with the intention of going to an art museum. We couldn't find that, so we did the Busan Aquarium instead. Then the beach for an hour. We then went back to the fish market for a raw fish dinner. Delicious. We were going to try the live octopus but that got to be too hard to communicate. Showers and then wandering around Nampo-dong. We went to a bar called Big-Sugar. A giant white room with towers of beer instead of pitchers. We hung out there for a couple hours and then went to bed.
Group shot on Busan Harbor. SaraBrown (from Wooster), Me, Jason (co-worker), and Sophia (co-worker). Some of the best traveling companions I could ask for.
This is me in the Busan Aquarium. It was pretty fun.



Day 6. Woke up, packed up, checked out, left our bags in the lobby and went to find some breakfast. Wandered around a market for a while and decided to try to walk to a new beach. It took us about an hour to find, but it was great. There were few people and no waves, so I just played in the water for over an hour. Then Jason and I went for a walk. Upon our return to camp, we found some unwelcome European men bugging Sara and Sophia, so we left the beach. We tried to find a galbi spot but could not so we took a taxi back to the hotel and continued the search. We gave up and went to Pizza Hut and Coldstone. Then we grabbed our bags and walk to Busan Station. It took us about an hour to get there. We checked in, got our tickets and sat outside for 30 minutes. Here we watched some of Busan's finest homeless people make a scene. It was surreal. Then we boarded the KTX speed train and pulled out at 6:45. We pulled into Seoul Station at 9:40 and ran to the bus. I think I walked in the door at 10:30 or so.



Day 7. Last day of vacation. I have to go back to work tomorrow. Luckily it's only two days til the weekend! I know this was a long one, but I wanted to be sure to have some documentation of the first time off we've had in SEVEN MONTHS. One thing we did like the most about the adventure is that we were not at work. I guess I like work well enough, but I LOVE not working. Finally gt my tan. I'm pretty sure that the past seven months I have spent more time inside than in my entire life combined. It's pretty crazy. I love outside. In Jeju, we saw a deer and two snakes. And in Busan, we saw jumping fish. That's the most wildlife I've seen in a long time. We also saw a purple dog.
See. Purple dog.