In the Morning Calm

In an ealier post I said I would post some pictures. Since it was the end of the term last week I took some pics of our pizza party. These two girls are really smart and want to answer every question. The kid hiding his face is smart but super hyper. I let him punch me in the stomach once.

The kid in the far left is smart too. It's funny that he's doing that sign like he's all tough when he's your stereotypical Asian student. The other two are brothers and fight all the time. They'll be reading silently and one will hit the other and they'll keep hitting each other until one stops, like we used to do when we were kids.

Davis being goofy.Lisa is the one with her arms up. I once wore a tie and she asked me if I was a business man. Just shows what the Korean work culture is like. During breaks she once randomly came up to me and started naming a bunch of things in Korean.



That's Eric with the goofy eyes, he doesn't really look like that, just caught him off guard. Matt has his head down, and Kevin. Eric is super high energy. Every question he'll want to be called on sayn me me me me. Matt is really smart. He has better handwriting that most Americans his age.

Max, Kevin, Jeff

Victoria, Angela, and Judy. Angela is the smartest in this class. She had better scores on her test than some students two classes above her.

So all our students have to have English names. They can be anything they want as long as it's not Korean. Here's some funny ones I've had:

Fogg
Dolphin
Cheri (pronounced Cherry)
Jelly
Young Woo

I also thought this was funny, today a student asked me what game do I play. He meant what video games and I said none. A student overheard me and said somewhat seriously, how do you live?

Next week is our last week of our first term. There are four terms in the year, so this means we are a third of the way done and from here on out there is nothing we haven't done before in terms of work, we just repeat each term expect with new students. So I figured now is a good time to post what I think of our little adventure so far...

• First, is this as great as I thought it was going to be? No...BUT, that was almost impossible considering the expectations that I had. Also, we came at a terrible time, with it being winter. The cold really wasn't too bad, but having to walk everywhere is what makes it sucky.
  
• Jami living MUCH farther than we had hoped is another huge disappointment.
  
• Living in Seoul makes me realize how much I want to live in the country. I'm just not a city person, too many people and cars. It doesn't feel like we're really experiencing the "tradition" Korean culture by being in the city. There's a Dunkin' Donuts everywhere. It's kind of upscalse too, same with Pizza Hut, where they take reservations.
• The food is one of my biggest annoyances. Macaroni and Cheese, $4 for one box! Peanut Butter $5 for a regular sized jar! Chicken, potatoes, and carrot everyday for dinner except on weekends.
• There's major social differences at my school.
  

So that was the negative, now the positive...

• The convenience for me is so nice. I am close to everything...expect Jami.
  
• The work is pretty easy. The class structure stays the same for each class, it's just different books and passages each class. The students are good for the most part. I just have a few that are out of hand.
• Not speaking the language isn't as bad as it seems. There's a lot of english here and body language is almost as useful as words.
• It doesn't seem like there is any "trashy" people. Just homeless people, then it jumps to middle and upper class.
• The public transportation is so easy. Everything is just starting to feel natural.
• Experiencing the typical foreigner nightlife was interesting, but not for me.
  
• Hapkido is great besides one little annoyance.
• When we do experience the tradition Korean things, it is very cool, like the art and statues. I need to post the video of our Lunear New Year day, probably my favorite day so far.
• Some cool things we've done so far...Insa dong to get some Korean art, 6 story mall full of electronics, the Buddhist temple, Lunear New Year ceremonies, talk with some Buddhists over tea, walking through a traditional Korean neighborhood, get a painting done by some famous painter for free.

Overall, it's not bad being here, it just could be so much better and will get better once the weather warms up...and we get visitors.

We apologize for the lack of blog posts, but really, we haven't done anything too exciting. After Christmas temperatures dropped to the 20's and teens, which is survivable, if you have a car! We have to walk everywhere so it makes things not so much fun. But, in all honesty, for me, it's probably been the most relaxing month I have had in a REALLY long time. I spent one week addicted to the TV show, Dexter. I watched all 4 seasons, around 48 hours of pure veg-bliss!  Cole tries to make me feel bad for this, since it comprised of 60% of my wakened life in a single week. The other 30% was probably teaching. But I don't care, it was nice to lay around not stressing about anything or having to run around doing something. If you haven't seen it, it's worth every single hour!

We also spent some time trying to decorate Cole's apartment. I think we've made it real cozy. My apartment's make-over is next, but is a bit more challenging since it's a lot crappier than Cole's to start with.

In our quest of some comfort foods, we also joined the local Costco. During our trip there I got myself some of my favorite lunch meats and we enjoyed ourselves a nice American style hot dog in the food court. It was yummy and hit the spot!

Anyways, thanks for reading our blog! If you haven't signed up to be notified when we post, feel free to do so at the link on the right. The weather is suppose to get back up to the 30's this week, so hopefully we'll have more adventures worth posting about!

Here is some randomness of nothingness we've experienced in the last few weeks.

We've been getting messages from home about all the snow Omaha has received this winter. We even watched one of Omaha's weatherman's web-cam for a few hours on Christmas Eve. They received a blizzard a couple of weeks before Christmas with several inches of snow, I believe around 10-11 inches. Then Christmas was almost cancelled due to another blizzard! This time, it caused drifts taller than me! Then came the cold...temperatures plummiting to the -20's! Winter in Omaha and other parts of the midwest has certainly been historical.

But, Korea saw it's own historical storm, as well. On January 4th Seoul and it's surrounding cities woke up to more than 11 inches of snow! It was the most snow in a single day in recorded history (records begin in 1937). That is the most in 73 years! But the thing about Seoul, is it hardly ever snows. So when it does, the city becomes paralyzed since they don't have many snow plows. I saw one, but it wasn't really plowing correctly, it had the blade perfectly straight, so it was just moving the snow around. I also saw a firetruck with a blade on the front, and construction equipment was trying to help clear the roads. Apparently, since people weren't driving, people were waiting an hour or more just to get on a subway train. That means, they probably watched around 6 trains or more go by before there was room for them to get on! But, the good thing for Cole and me was that school was cancelled! Snow day!

I went out sledding with some other teachers (Cole apparently doesn't like sledding. "Been there, done that" I suppose?). They don't have sleds here, so we made our own with cardboard and garbage bags. And even though Seoul is surrounded my mountains, there really aren't too many hills here. The hill we found was pretty sad, and it was full of trees. Probably not the smartest thing, but fun nonetheless. I opted to watching since I didn't want to come home in a wheelchair. It was neat watching since, for some, it was their first time sledding since they are from warmer states like Florida.

Sung Tan Chuk Ha! This means "Merry Christmas" in Korean.  And while we're at it, Happy Thanksgiving too!  I think many curiosities about living abroad is how that country celebrates holidays. Well, obviously, Korean's don't celebrate American Thanksgiving, but we sure did! Not on Thursday, but on the following Saturday. Cole and I had only been in our towns and teaching for one week by then, so it was very kind of the teachers at my school to invite us. The girls (mostly Erin and Jillian) did most of the cooking of American food we can find at Costco, while the boys set up the dining table in a vacant apartment/studio in my building. We had ALL the Thanksgiving fixings (except we substituted turkey for chicken since a turkey costs $80!). We even had all the thanksgiving day football games pre-recorded, a little Christmas music in the background, and even a Christmas tree, so in our minds it was really thanksgiving day! It was a lot of fun and we really got to know Jillian & Ross (they're a couple), and Erin & Miles (they're married) and their daughter Brooklyn a little more.

                                                       Jillian with the Amazing Apple Pie!

Christmas in Korea isn't a huge deal. Even though a large percentage of Korean's are Christian, it just doesn't get hyped up here like it does at home.  It's a national holiday, so most large business are closed, but some are still open, for example, Cole's school. Yep, he had to work on Christmas. Whereas  the streets at home are deserted strips of land, here, Christmas is an extra day to go out and have fun. Many pack churches in the mornings, but by afternoon, stores are packed and movies sell out.  Many foreigners go out and party until the sun comes up again.  One tradition Korea does seem to have is buying a Christmas Cake from one of the several bakeries they have here. They are extremly beautiful pieces of art. Every bakery has palletes and palletes of them delivered, stacked up outside the shop. Some workers dress up, ring bells, and yell out trying to sell the cakes. Sometimes you even get a free hat when you buy one, like we did!

When I had extra time in my classes this week, I had some kids write stories about Christmas. While reading their stories, I got a peak of how Korean's spend the holiday; here are a few of their stories:

"I'm wariting about Christmas story. Because Christmas day is no go to the zone and no go to the school and mom and zone is give a present. Mom present is my choices. I'm very very happy! Merry Christmas the end."

"That time, Christmas... Me. Sing a song. The song is Santa Claus is coming to town. My family listen my song. My song is finsh and my family and me is happy and smile. I like Christmas. And my family give money that is very very happy. Merry Christmas"

"I like Chrismas because parent give a present and eat a icecream cakes and sanga claus give a present."

Well, I don't eat candy EVERY day, but probably at least once or twice a week. And the best thing is, it's free! As a teacher in Korea, teachers are seen in great respect. And as a way to pay respect is apparently bringing the teacher goody's almost every day! Since I've started about a month ago, I've received tangerines, saltine crackers (though they call them cookies), rice cake, lots of chocolate, and even a ginseng drink. Many times, I will have a little one come up to me with tight fists, open their hands, and say, "Here teacher, eat." I usually find a half melted skittle-like candy in their palm that they saved just for me.  This is when I convince them I just ate and will have to save it for later...

Here is a picture of a candy bar I received about two weeks ago from one little girl named "Sally." It was a chocolate banana bar to be more specific. It was basically a chocolate bar with little monkey faces that tasted like banana. It was yummy. But the best part was how she decorated the box. She wrote all over it, "I like you" and "You is best teacher." 

Receiving candy and sweet little notes like this makes hearing "Jami Teacher" for 8 constant hours very much worth it!