My last week at Bokju :(

Hello everyone, it has been awhile since I have posted....sorry for that. I have been side tracked and actually didn't feel I had much to write about. I am now beginning a transition from my current job to a new job.  I love the elementary school I work at, I am only a  10 minute walk away...the kids are great...and I have met some great people here. I am sad to leave, my final day here is on Friday. I start my new job at Gyeongbuk Educational Research Center on Monday the 20th. My hours there will be very different (1pm-9pm) than from my elementary school where I currently work 8:30-4:30. I actually don't mind too much about working the later hours because thats what I worked back home, but it will be an adjustment. Today was the final class for my 4th grade students and I have received a couple hundred letters and cards from them today. Some of the cards are written in Hangeul (Korean), but I told them it was okay because it will give me that much more incentive to study the language so that I can read them. Yesterday and today for our final class I took pictures of the students and put them into an Elfyourself video that I found online. They didn't know that I was doing it so you can imagine their surprise. I have never heard kids laugh so hard in my life. It was amazing, and I am happy that they had such a good time in class. Tomorrow I have my last day of English camp as well. We are doing individual presentations as well as having the students sing a song. It should be a lot of fun. After that the leader of Gyeongbuk Center for Education is taking me, Ellen, and our co-teachers from camp out to dinner. Thursday and Friday will be my last 2 days at Bokju where I will be teaching my 3rd graders. They are so cute!!! It will be hard to say goodbye, but I am hoping to come back and visit since I do not live too far.

Onto the next thing, this last Sunday I was invited by my landlords daughter and one of my students to go to the church next door to my house and have lunch. I had lunch and talked with the pastor who speaks pretty good English. I then read the kids a book and played dodgeball with them. I had the best time ever!! Plus there were cute little babies in the nursery. I am hoping that I will be able to help out there every once in awhile. I am planning on going there again this Sunday, I know that the sermon will not be in English but it will be nice to be surrounded by good people who were nice enough to invite me over for lunch. I am truly thankful for that.

It is really cold, and I am finished with school for the day so I am going to head out. Hope to talk to you all soon!

Wants nothing more than to be lying on a beach sunbathing...for just a few hours thats all I ask. November 29th 2010

Winter is here, and it has been here for awhile. All the colorful fall leaves have fallen and all that is left are baren stick like trees, nothing like the vast pine trees of Washington. I am craving sunshine like the worst alcoholic craves alcohol. Vitamin D deficiency has to be high in this country, especially when I don’t think they believe in tanning beds or vitamin supplements. I would give my left leg for some hot weather right now, but only my left leg because it doesn’t work so well anyway. In order to escape the bone chilling cold I will be visiting my family in Hawaii hopefully this March. I have come to the conclusion that I was not made to live in cold weather, so it will be nice to get some sun especially when it includes traveling to Hawaii (one of my favorite places). For now I will have to settle with cranking up my heat in my room and dealing with a $50 gas bill. I guess that it’s not too high of a price to pay for a little comfort when you are a billion miles away from home and warm weather.
On to a happier note, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I gathered together with about 30 other teachers in Andong and celebrated. We each brought a dish (mine:garlic mashed potatoes). I have had my share of pumpkin pie for the year thanks to the people who went all the way to Costco!

Life is a journey, not a destination. November 20, 2010

2 months down, 10 to go. I can’t believe how fast the time is  flying by. Life in Korea is starting to wind down, it’s a Saturday night and I am taking it easy at home. This is a big deal for me, I often find myself going non-stop, especially since coming to Korea. My slight addiction to the nightlife, and hanging out with the fun people I have met have helped fill the gap that comes from missing family and friends back home.  It’s not until I slow down and take the time to think, do I realize how much I do miss home especially all the great relationships I have there. I wouldn’t really call it homesicknesses so much as a bittersweet feeling of knowing how great I actually had it.  My time in Korea has helped me to realize how much I appreciate my life, don’t get me wrong it is great here also, but I think Washington is where my heart is. For now, home is where I make it and I am enjoying the independence that I have here. I want to use this time for self-reflection and growth as well as strengthening my relationship with God. Since being here I feel like I have grown so much already. When I am having a hard day, I often only have myself to count on, it’s not always possible to get ahold of the people you need to talk to the most back home. I am thankful for this because it has strengthened my character. This opportunity may never come around again so I want to take full advantage of it.  There is so much I want to accomplish while I am here: volunteer at an orphanage, study Hangul (Korean language), travel to Thailand, do a temple stay, read all of the books I brought, travel around Korea, go on some epic hikes, make lasting friendships….the list goes on and on. This is going to be a life changing experience and I am open to whatever God puts in front of me. I am soooo excited for this journey. I miss you all, you light up my life!

Let's leave the windows wide open at school when it's freezing...that makes perfect sense..NOT! November 17th 2010

So just about every EPIK teacher I talk to deals with this same problem. The schools leave their windows wide open when it is freezing out, so every kid has to walk around with a blanket because they are  freezing to death. No wonder they are always sick. It is so frustrating to have to wear my snowboarding coat, gloves, hat, and scarf all day long at school. I think it may be the most annoying thing I have encountered while living here. There is also the issue with wearing shoes inside. When going to a Korean household you take off your shoes (completely understandable). But when you go to school they want you to take off your shoes as well and put on inside slippers. Then I see people walking around outside with their inside slippers on it makes no sense at all. What is the point of inside shoes if you are going to wear them outside!?!?!?!?!??! So I buy these indoor slippers and I put them in the same closet everyday when I leave, mind you it is a closet no one else uses. So I go to school the other day and guess what??? Someone stole my F#@*%! slippers. So I wore my outside shoes inside all day, even though it really doesn’t seem to matter….so there school! Besides those two issues I really do love my school and my kids. Life is going well, starting to slow down a bit and the newness is wearing off. I am enjoying it here, and I have met so many great people which makes everything worth it.

I am going to punch a 5th grader in the throat. November 1, 2010

Halloween was wonderful…I loved my costume and had a great time with my friends in Daegu. The only problem was it took about 3 hours for us to get a hotel because people kept turning us down (we think because they didn’t speak English) finally though the wonderful Sunny (our lovely Korean handler) helped us out. We ate at a restaurant with Western food called the Holy Grill, it was so lovely that we went back the next day. I had an Alley Cat Pale Ale from Canada…it was amazing, the best beer I have had since I have been in Korea. We got back from Daegu Sunday afternoon and now it is Tuesday and I am at school. Our fellow co-workers that will be teaching at the Research Institute with me and Ellen arrived on Thursday and three of them are living in our building which is nice.  Three guys and three gals… many new friends yay!
Tonight we are all going to look at the gyms in Andong and hopefully join one…This is extremely necessary since I have a 5th grade boy student who likes to yell “Baby!!” at me everytime I see him. He has also started making big belly motions at me with his hands. What really puts the icing on the cake is that now the other 5th grade boys are doing it as well. I am guessing that he is just saying it to be brat, because none of the other students have pointed out that they saw an extra tire around my middle. Let me tell you though I wanted to punt him right out the window of the 3rd floor. I am not that mean  so I just chased him around the school acting like I was going to beat him and strangle him. He is lucky I am so nice. I am very thankful that I teach 3rd and 4th grade where the students still praise me and tell me they love me. Thank God for that!
Well onto the next thing…I am no longer allowed to have my vacation during the times of other EPIK teachers because I will be working at the Institute. I had planned on going to Bali with some friends who also are teachers (one teaches at Bokju with me) but now me and Ellen found out that that will not be possible. We will have to take our vacation at the end of winter or early spring instead of in Jan/Feb like everyone else. It is a little disheartening knowing that I cannot escape to warmer weather this winter. I do think I may go to Japan over a 5 day weekend in February though, it could be fun. I think me and Ellen are planning on that. I better get back to work, or maybe I will start doing crunches instead of sitting at my computer. Miss you all!

Adventure to Busan: Fireworks Festival October 24th 2010

So this last weekend I decided to venture to Busan which is 2.5 hours bus ride south to the coast. They were having their 6th annual fireworks festival. Me and three friends Ellen, David and Eddie went together on the bus. Once we got off the station we had to ride the subway for 45 minutes (my first time!). After getting off the subway to walk down to the beach I felt like I was in a herd of cattle, there were soooo many people. I can understand why there were so many people, it was the best fireworks show I had seen in my life. We got to the beach and found our friends which had been saving a spot for us since 1pm or something like that. The fireworks show started after 8pm, so cheers to them for holding down the spot for that long. Sitting on the beach watching the fireworks has definitely made it to the top of my experiences in Korea so far. There are photos of the show on my Facebook, so check it out.
After the show, we met up with many other friends from orientation. After not seeing them for a month it was nice to catch up. I feel like we are one big crazy family, love them! We then went to Noraebang (Karaoke) that was awesome, me and Ellen killed Sir Mix Alot Baby Got Back. It was a fabulous night. Around 3am a few of us decided to find a Jimjilbang (a Korean steam room) where you can also crash for super cheap (10,000 won). The place was amazing, 4 floors of different saunas and steam rooms. We didn’t go into any of them because we were so tired instead we tried to find room to sleep. The fireworks festival had brought so many people to Busan that the Jimjilbang was packed. So we brought our thin little mats into the only area we could find room, a childrens play area. Little did we know we would be woken up in the morning by children who wanted to play there. I opened my eyes to a little boy saying “Hello!” it startled me enough to wake me up. I then had to take pictures of the situation because my friend David was surrounded by children and he was still attempting to sleep in the middle of the play area. Worst night of sleep in my life, but definitely the most entertaining. After leaving the Jimjilbang we headed to the largest department store in the world Sensegae, and we went ice skating. I had so much fun, and can’t wait to go to Busan again! This weekend we will be going to Daegu for Halloween, I am going to be wonderwoman. Well it’s Monday now and I have to get back to work planning lessons, but I just wanted to update you! Hope everyone is doing well miss you all.

I Love 3rd Graders! October 13, 2010

So it was my first day teaching 3rd grade. I had four  classes today and have 3 classes tomorrow. I teach by myself because the homeroom teachers do not speak English (those same teachers were actually teaching them English before I came around, tell me how that works?). So my day started off on a very wrong foot, I walked to a shop to get coffee and they were only selling bakery items, no coffee so I had to start my day with no coffee If you know me, you know how unacceptable that is to me. After getting to school I had so many computer problems. Each classroom has different versions of programs so it is very frustrating. For the most part the day went very well though. The kids had fun, so thats all that matters. They love looking at pictures of my family and friends. Also they like taking pictures of me…it cracks me up. I think that this is going to be a very rewarding experience, especially after I straighten out all the little issues.
There is a surfing festival coming up I think on August 22 and 23. I am hoping to go to it, if I can get some people to go with me. I think it is pretty far away so we will see.