Where to Begin?

I am officially on Summer vacation and it has never felt sweeter! I get a FULL week off and have thoroughly enjoyed the sleeping in till 10:30/11 and hanging out and exploring Korea with some friends.  I have not had to wake up before 10:30am and it has been a blessing, I feel my body can FINALLY rest.  Being on go mode since I got here, I haven't really felt I had some time to relax but this week is perfect!

So let's go back to Friday since some pretty exciting things happened :P.  Friday morning the Kindergarteners went on a field trip to the swimming pool, which is not like the circle swimming pools we have in North America with the deep end and shallow sides.  This was more shaped like...swirly lines and it only came up to my knees.  The entire pool was this deep and allowed for a lot of children to crush in there and have some fun.  Now I was not under the impression we should bring our swimsuits and so I didn't.  However after much pressure from certain teachers and the amount of fun the kids seemed to be having, I rolled up my pants and went on in there.  I was not thinking about the fact that I would get incredibly wet or even the fact that I taught later that day...at that point in time the only thing that seemed to matter was playtime.  After many kids splashing me and making me increasingly damp, we had to get out and change the kids which made my soaking self feel a little jealous :P (only for a second though).  The bus ride home was pretty exciting, making the seat wet and dripping all over the nice bus while everyone else was dry and warm (the dampness did truly help keep me a little bit cooler). 

Once we got back to school some of the parents had gotten us kimbap and some fruits and veggies which was scrumptious.  All of the kids had packed lunches and we all sat in the multi-purpose room on mats on the floor and dug in.  There were a few interesting things upon sitting down to eat lunch, the first is that only one kid had a sandwich, all the rest had full out Korean style buffets :P.  The other thing that surprised me was watching all the teachers go around the room and look at what the kids had for lunch, going over to them and taking some of it.  The teachers walked around and peered at all the kids, some of them shared and some of them did not want to and yet it was completely ok for the teachers to take it.  I could not bring myself to do it however I watched in awe.  I know a day will come when I feel comfortable doing that as well so we shall see how long it takes :P So many cool cultural differences that I see on a regular basis.

The weekend was a good time, one of my friends had a birthday so a bunch of people got together at the church building and had a little thing for him.  There was SO MUCH PIZZA (the slices were literally like 3 times the size in Canada) and I was loving life very much. I have no idea how Koreans eat the amount they do and still stay so small...it amazes me.  As the party was going on, I met some nice Korean campus students and they introduced me to a game called "I am Ground".  It is a Korean game about memory and speed and is a pretty good time...until you lose and then have to kneel in the center while everyone hits you on the back.  Once my friend lost and got beat she left the game and refused to come back in...I got away by choosing to leave the game when I lost and no beats were delivered.  I don't know if I will get used to the physical assault that is involved in the games here haha it is all in fun though.

Over the summer break, a few friends of mine went to see the Batman movie, went shopping and got some stellar  knick knack in the subways.  It amazed me at how cheap things are and how large the world below the surface is, I am honestly amazed at the amount of things going on below ground.  So many stores with amazing jewellery and makeup and wow...so cheap.  I bought a few lovely odds and ends and some perfume that smells amazing for only $10.  It has been pretty lovely and exciting and I CANNOT WAIT to get my first pay check August 10th! No more worrying!!! yippeee!! :P

We also we able to go to Itaewon (the area near the army base that has A LOT of foreigners which is refreshing to see) and ate at an American Deli which was scrumptious.  A moment happened that I have never experienced, a group of very handsome army men in their uniforms walked past us and I can say that I was very...excited.  Ha I have never seen a group of men in the military that are dressed in their uniforms walking down the little cobblestone streets before but it was a lovely sight and they were very nice.

The busses here are so jammed that I honestly cannot express in words the feeling I get when I have to get onto a bus that I can see is going to be a nightmare.  When I got on my bus today there was no room at ALL and I was wearing a backpack so I had no idea how that was going to work.  I looked a little concerned and then an older man who had a seat took my backpack and put it on his lap and smiled at me.  It was such a beautiful moment and I felt so hopeful at that point in time that everything will be alright.  I was still crushed into a small area on the bus and the bus driver asked me to move a few times since he couldn't see (I was right up against him, awkward I know).  However the kind man held my bag on his lap the entire 1 hour and we got off at the same bus stop and I just bowed to him and thanked him.  He seemed so kind...little things like that give me hope.

There has been a lot going on here, the weather is KILLER...humidity is OUT of this world and sweating is a very very very common experience here this week, One step at a time.  I know that everyone says SUMMER is where it's at but I cannot WAIT for Fall and Winter to approach.  I am feeling the excitement just thinking about it! :P A girl can dream..only 3 months left!

Lovely Break from Reality

This weekend was a lovely lovely break from reality! :P Or I guess a start of my new reality...either way it was wonderful.  The weekend started off with me staying up madd late on Friday to sleep in till 1130 on Saturday afternoon.  Now some of you may find this sluggish, HOWEVER this was the first time I was able to sleep in since I have been in Korea and it was such a lovely experience that word cannot descrive it! :P I woke up and immediately called my friend to ask her about plans that day as I laid in bed on the phone knowing I didn't need to be out and about until 2..oh the joys of not working Weekends! :)

I painted my nails, made some lunch, killed some fruitflies and got ready for the day ALL in my time.  I do not remember ever being so relaxed here and the awesome part is that this is the last week of school till Summer Vacation (1 week long break).  Another positive thing is that I found out in the entire month of August, I only have 10 teaching days due to summer vacation AND random Korean holidays.  Encourage my soul.com is how things seem to be looking :).

I headed into Seoul for a study, coffee and some hangout time and later that night went to a Jazz concert at church which was a lot of fun.  We grabbed some 김밥 (A Korean sushi but the cool thing is there is rarely fish in it which I don't like and so you can get the yummiest of rolls with beef and cheese and radish and mmm yummy) anyways we grabbed some of that and headed on our way to the Jazz concert thingy.  A friend and I started a little dance section at the back of the seating and it became a pretty hip happening place where people were joining us and people were taking videos of us (which may be used as blackmail in the future BUT in the moment it was a fun time).  After the concert the plan was to go get some ice cream before going home but ALL that changed in a blink of an eye.

In a random moment of decision making one of my friends (who has a car) decided we should go on a road trip to the mountains and stay the night.  With no change of clothes, makeup or anything for sleepovers we headed to 711 to get the requirements needed and some snack food and made the journey.  Oh my goodness was it ever beautiful.  Since we got there late into the night, we didn't see the glory of the scenery until we woke up this morning and WOAH.  I was breathless and encouraged to see all the mountains.  One of my friends and I went on a seat swing thing and just looked at the mountains while swinging and talking about how perfect the moment was.

Due to the fact that it was going to rain, the weather outside was overcast but cool, with fog on top of the mountains making for an even more beautiful ora.  My Korean friend than had the idea that we should go to this lake in the morning that is ONTOP of a mountain but as soon as we got there is started POURING and so we went inside a hotel and had coffee while watching the rain pour down.  It was an excellent opportunity for a quiet time and we enjoyed the beauty while being given perks of refills due to our foreigner status.  Everything felt perfect. 

After the mountains and beauty we drove back to Seoul while eating corn we got on the side of the road, a very common food to eat on the go here (the corn is so different here and yet scrumptious).  We left around 11am in order to get to church on time and we made it back safely as well as early, so I got introduced to the most amazing Korean food (not dessert) but FOOD I feel I may ever experience.  This food is called dak galbi and it is family style so you go out and there is a HUGE skillet burner that you all sit around and the servers come and put all this cabbage and diced chicken and rice cakes and sweet potatoe and onion with some delicious sauce onto the skillet and it is cooked for about 10 minutes, the servers (usually older lovely ladies) cook it in front of you and then you go to town and eat that stuff up...with lettuce or rice or solo. Oh man, I cannot even describe how good it was! MMMM! They also gave us free pop in a glass bottle which I was excited about! Oh was it ever amazing.

As you can tell food is a huge part of the culture, everyone wants to go out and eat or feed you or...craziness like that but it is all a joyous occasion and an opportunity to try new things.  My saying this week has been "When in Rome you must do as the Romans" and it has been going swell.

This weekend was honestly perfect and I CANNOT wait for the future weekends I will have.  As for now, I shall look forward to teaching the little kiddies tomorrow :).

Tomorrow is Thursday

So....today was an interesting day as per usual.  Woke up early and painted my nails, so it started off on a pretty good note.  Once I got to school I had a lovely morning chat with two of my colleagues over an iced latte and the day looked brighter than yesterday.  I also walked into a room to find a bunch of the kids playing together, so sweet! Look at these adorable kids:

 My Kindergarteners were sooo cute today, I will have to post a video of them tomorrow that I will be taking to give you an example of the cuteness I work with on a daily basis.  The last Thursday of every month we have a speech competition between classes which is basically when each of the classes sing a song with actions that their teacher taught them and the best class wins! I am hoping we win, I have only been practising since the FIRST week of this month (No Big Deal or anything...).  We are singing the song "I like to eat, eat eat Apples and Bananas", they seem to enjoy it and it was the only one they ALL agreed to so yipee.

My afternoon classes were a little silly today and the older kids were not being as receptive as they usually are, I think it is time for summer vacation!! I have a week off (in 2 weeks) OMGOSH I cannot wait! I am going to sleep in, explore Korea, having fun times without kids around all day (I can only imagine how parents feel for 18 years).  So it is safe to say that when I was walking home today I wasn't in the best of moods from my rowdy kids but then this adorable little boy came up to me and said "Hello, what is your name"  I shook his hand and we talked for a bit, cutest 6 year old ever!  The awe and excitement of a child is something I need to focus in on more often...after all I do work with kiddies all day.

My nails and ARC :P boo yah

Good news everyone, I finished the lesson planning for the elementary kids all on my OWN today (not sure if they are right but they look super awesome to me).  I also FINALLY got my ARC (Alien Registration Card) I am officially an Alien in this lovely country!! With my ARC card comes more responsibilities like having the ability to get a phone or open a bank account or get an ONLINE password for the school website so I can do Kinder reports for my students (yay more work).  However I do enjoy it and I get it done pretty quickly so it actually is a good time.

I went to the store and bought some cookies which are the best thing ever! The wrapper tells me to try it with milk so I am considering going out and buying some in the near future...

(Not a super interesting blog but hey, my life can't be super intriguing all day...or can it?)

Lost Track of Days- The Magic of 팥빙수

The Beauty that made my weekend even better than it would have been: 팥빙수

I am having an off day...I can feel it.  I woke up later than expected and as if that wasn't bad enough I picked an outfit out that I would wear in the winter at home and SOMEHOW thought it would make sense to wear it.  Sweating party was not the most fun I have had.  I had circle time as soon as I got to school which takes a lot out of a person, especially when we sing a specific song where all the kids charge at you to tickle you which really entails a bunch of sharp little fingers digging into every part of the my being.  On another note, have you ever felt completely incompetent about something that you KNOW  is simple and yet can't seem to get? That is how I feel about doing lesson plans...I thought I understood but that was for the KINDERGARTEN classes, the elementary is on a whole notha level.  I may be having an off day as I feel almost everyone at my work is having lately....maybe it is the crappy whether and lack of sun?  Either way I hope to one day be adequate enough to do a lesson plan for a bunch of elementary students! :P

So this past weekend was a fantastic time :)  Started off with me being able to sleep in which I haven't done since being in Korea...sleeping in till 1030am is such a treat :)  I then went into Seoul with some people for this super awesome bible talk and fruit party.  I was very impressed to see all these people just grabbing a mango and pealing it with their fingers and eating it like an apple.  It is MUCH harder than it looks...I was not the most attractive person at that time but hey, I enjoyed myself and that is what counts. RIght? ha  

I then slept over at my friends place who just moved here to teach as well :)  There is honestly something so comforting about having a friend from home move across the world just a week after me.  We hung out this weekend and explored her neighbourhood (in the rain of course) but it was a GOOD time :P.  We had a rain photoshoot and once we got back to her place we watched some good ol English speaking television shows.  As we were walking down the streets of Korea I kept saying "Can you believe that WE are living in Korea RIGHT NOW?" It was such an interesting feeling, almost like a dream.  I had an amazing time with her and we were able to explore on our own which made us feel more independent.  As we were walking I was very surprised at how many "love cafes" there were.  I am not too sure what that entails as we were too afraid to enter one late into the evening but either way, it looked like a nice place.   

Coffee 팥빙수

The next day we went to Church which was encouraging.  Every time I see a non Korean person speaking Korean I feel completely excited that maybe that could be me.  I then find out that this person attends Korean University and have been speaking it since grade 9...tragic reality.  Slow and steady wins the race right? (that seems to be my slogan here).  Afterwards I got together with an AMAZING person I recently met and we went out for incredible bonding time and scrumptious dessert called 팥빙수 (Paht-bing-su).  It is so delicious that I have a hard time explaining it so I will just show you a picture of two different ones we ate during that chat session :P.  

Basically, it is a MASSIVE bowl with crushed flavoured ice on the bottom with icecream, red beans and other assorted toppings depending on the kind you get.  After you have a few spoonfuls of the yummy goodness you then mix and mash it all into the crushed ice and it turns into a party.  Now it may not sound too delicious but let me tell you, You have not lived until you have tried one of these in Korea.  We got one that was green tea and another that was coffee....mmm mmm party time.

The outing and 팥빙수 was lovely and I was super excited about my weekend UNTIL I got onto the bus.  Everything changed when I walked onto the bus, luckily got a seat but it just happened to be by a man who had a plastic bag full of fish and sea creatures that made the entire bus smell of underwater death.  I was hoping that I might be able to get used to the smell with my 1 hour ride but that was not realistic.  Oh man did it reek, not a good bus ride although I did get a seat.  I could only imagine my disappointment to be STANDING on a bus that smells like fish guts (gross visual, I apologize). 

I have never been more grateful to be back in my little town :).  It was an experience though, an interesting end to a lovely weekend.  I have found that I LIVE for the weekends to spend time with my friends and explore Korea.  I seem to not look forward to the weeks but as soon as I am at school with the kids it is hard to have a bad attitude since there are always a few that seem to make me smile.

My attempt to be Korean...fail :P

<3

The End of Week 3

So I have officially been teaching for 3 weeks...oh man do I ever have stuff to learn! The cool thing about life is that you never know enough and will continue to learn as long as you exist on this earth.  Today seemed like the longest day ever...although I DID have to work longer than expected due to my little visit to the immigration office on Monday.  It really is amazing at how fast time goes by in Korea, it might be due to the pace of the Korean people, or maybe the busyness of my life, either way things go by QUICK TIME.

So today was a good day, I didn't make anyone cry! WOOT WOOT although one of my kids did say "No More Erika" which may have been a death threat, not sure if I should press charges (JUST KIDDING, however it did kind of suck that he said that).  It may have been because I continued to tell him that how he was saying "permission" was incorrect and he must repeat it until he said it properly, either way it was a downer.  Sometimes I am unsure if I am cut out for this Korea Teacher thing but then I look at all the kids who told me they loved me today and the fact that one of the older kids asked me "Erika Teacher do you have a special man friend at home?"  These kids crack me up, I find myself laughing at random parts of the day while interacting with them.  There are pros and cons to each job and I would have to say that working with kids all day is more of a blessing than a curse :P.

After a pretty difficult morning, the receptionist at my school came over to me with a package that had been sent to me from a friend of mine who I haven't seen in years and lives in Hong Kong! I WAS SOOO encouraged to open it and find these lovely things (along with some Korean Won):

Honestly after I got this amazing and generous gift, nothing could have brought me down!   I continued with my day, got home late and went grocery shopping for some scrumptious food.  I am attempting to figure out how to read the washing machine however I feel the need to give up and hit a random button, pour some soap in and hope for the best.  How bad can it really turn out?

  Overall today was a pretty legit day, it IS FRIDAY and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the weekend has in store, I am exhausted from the week so I might just hit the hay early tonight (Yepp I am THAT cool).  I think much exploring will be in play tomorrow so let's hope it's not a scorcher!!!   I can hear the rain hitting my tiny window very heavily so maybe that will slow it down.  (As a side note look at my window).

Doesn't get much better than that! :) haha Well I am off to have a date with my bed! 

Day 21-Almost a MONTH :O

*Hello hello* (the English lines to my favourite Korean song).  I am becoming more and more fond of Korean music and it MAY be because one of my friends here loves it off and plays it every time I see her, OR maybe it is because I am embracing newness....either way I like it!  You must youtube the song "Hello" by SHINee, lemme know what you think! I love ittt!!

On another note, there are many things that continue to amaze me about Korea;

1) How old people are and yet how active and strong they must be to carry around HUGE carts of food all day...See this cart?

Imagine it made of wood with more food on it....dang

 Now imagine this woman pulling it....That is what I see every day.

All I can say is: Jack Show

2) How community minded most people seem to be.  Example today we had water gun play day and the kids all got soaking wet as they shot each other with their water guns.  Afterwards all the teachers took their kids into their homeroom class and the kids basically got naked and changed in front of each other, helping one another fold their clothes and change.  Do we do that in North America IN the school system? I was caught off guard a little.

3) How you can see the same people walking down the streets everyday and they continue to be fascinated by you (in other words, must continue to stare....for LONG periods of time).

4) How Koreans can go out eating almost every day and still stay the size of my index finger.

5) How a person can be sitting on a bus and if you have the window seat and they have the isle they will not get up and move for you, you must fend for yourself.  (This idea I get because most people are super tiny here and therefore they can get up and easily cross by...with some people that is sadly NOT the case).

6) How it can be SUPER hot and rain at the same time being humid and nasty the entire time it rains (for days).

These are a few things that have been coming to mind my past few days here as I have been exploring more and seeing more things.  Honestly I am amazed at how culture is such a huge thing, I mean OBVIOUSLY it is but since I have been in North America for such a long period of time I have never really been able to see a completely new way of life. 

Today at school we had the last two periods of the Kindergarteners off because we had WATER GUN PLAY DAY! It was a pretty good time and luckily for me I was assigned the role as the MC and therefore didn't get TOO wet.  The kids are ADORABLE and the more I get to know them, the more I enjoy their presence and what they have to offer.  Honestly, these kids are brilliant...the fact that they go to school in a completely different language and are able to communicate is outstanding, not only that but read and write (at the age of 4+5).  CRAZINESS!!!

Best War Faces EVER

I am starting to finally get the hang of how things run and I have done my FIRST lesson planning for the next two weeks which I have a feeling may be a struggle for the first little while :P.  Slow and steady wins the race right? ( That is what I must cling to in order to feel adequate).  My coworkers are super helpful and patient with me and I cannot imagine getting a job with a school where I would be the only foreign teacher...ahh how do some people do it? I guess there would be pros and cons to each. 

After school yesterday I left right away and headed into Seoul for midweek and to my surprise I was only 30 minutes late.  OMGOSH I loved it, I was able to hang out with incredible people, eat a superb mini pizza thing and some mocha bun (delicious) and stand on the bus almost the ENTIRE way home.  The subway ride is something I am not sure I will ever get used to, being SQUEEZED into a tiny space is not a comfortable feeling...add no air-conditioning and  wandering hands to the picture..WORST.   However as time continues I can only hope to one day be able to embrace the other thousands of sweaty people I am feeling crushed by.  On a side note, whenever I see Korean people sweat I get a little happy...honestly most of the people here ALWAYS look amazing and they never seem to sweat but the few times it DOES happen is what I cling to when I think about how bad I get sometimes. 

The Escalators are on a whole Notha Level...

Speaking of sweat... the Korean weather is a little bit hectic lately with super hot days with NO sun because it is covered by the million layers of clouds.  However, the mornings are usually a little cooler on my way to school which is a lovely encouraging gift from above :P.  Honestly though, it gets soo hot and humid that it sometimes is difficult to breath, I hear that after a year it gets better...A WHOLE YEAR. 

On another note, I am enjoying myself more and more here as time unfolds.  I have my core group of friends who are super supportive and encouraging, I have my church family, I have my "favourites" in the classrooms and I have been getting some good reviews by the parents.  Finally things seem to be fitting in the right place and it is probably due to the fact that I stopped worrying.  I am learning that worrying and being anxious does nothing positive for a person and when I worry I am basically saying that the plan for my life does not exist. 

Surrendering really is the key to happiness because as soon as I have been able to do that, I am finding myself in a place where I feel content and happy with what is going on with my life and excited to see what the future unfolds. Yay for progress!!

Day 17- Blister Times

Oh Mondays how I hate you...seriously...hate! ha  Mondays are my longest days at school however today I got out 3 hours early to make my journey over to the immigration office.  Today was a day of running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  I got my pictures taken for my alien registration card (the card that gives me power to get a bank account, pay my bills and have the same rights as everyone else up in this joint :P) however I forgot to pick them up last night.  Sadly I start work at 10am and the store doesn't open till 10am so I was uncertain of how I was going to get the passport pictures I needed for this card.  One of my coworkers gave me the idea of going over on my lunch break and picking them up and coming back to school quick time to teach my next class.  Now lunch is one of my favourite parts of the day BECAUSE 1) I get some me time  2) I get to eat Korean food   3) I get to do the paperwork and planning for the day  4) I enjoy sitting in a chair  and finally 5) No kids in the teachers office.  Sadly as soon as the lunch bell rang I headed out to the store to get my pictures which turned out horribly (this was with the photographer man continuously telling me I needed to improve my hair and whatnot, boy was he right).

SO many leftovers...ahhh

When I finally got them, the man charged me 15 bucks for 8 pictures even though I only wanted 1...the pain of not being able to communicate! I REALLY need to learn the language, my goal is to be able to speak it comfortably before this year is up (we shall see how that works out).  One thing for most people to note is that when your job tells you how much things will cost, add about 60000 won on top of the price they tell you (60$ at LEAST) because everything costs money to get done here.  Once I had the pictures  I  headed back to school, missioning it like a boss...it did NOT help that today was one of the most humid and uncomfortable days of life.  I was sweating like a crazy person as I was running around and lucky for me I got back with a bit of time and grabbed an iced latte to give me energy for the rest of the day.   The running around really doesn't help the blister issue that occurred from yesterday and even though I was wearing comfortable shoes today, the damage from yesterday was already done (most painful blisters I have had in a while). Yay for activities! Maybe it will result in tougher feet? (Classy I know :P)

One of many...mmm mmm good (I know few people want to see this but it is MY blog and I wanted to show the world :P hah) 

 Once I got back to school I was able to sit and fill out some forms for a good 5 minutes before starting my next class which was ARTS AND CRAFTS (boo yah).   My kids were generally good today, I am starting to feel more comfortable with them and I can tell that they appreciate me too, getting way more touchy and willing to ask for help which is great.  I do notice that my Kindergartens are the most stubborn and least likely to ask for help on reading or pronunciation...very interesting since I would think that the younger the kids the more humble? Hmm maybe they just want to feel like they can do it?

Once the clock hit 4 I left school and caught a taxi to the immigration office which was incredibly intimidating and overwhelming!  I had no idea which area of the building to go, which forms to fill out and no one was very helpful BUT this allowed me to learn by example!  After about 15 minutes of walking around and being uncertain I figured out what I was supposed to do.

The immigration office is about 30-40 minutes away from where I live and the cab ride there only cost me 11 bucks :) (in Korea you never tip either, so it was literally 11 dollars).  As I was waiting for my turn, I watched as the clock kept ticking away and began to worry a tiny bit because the number of my ticket was 60 away from what numbers were on the screen and the place closed down in 45 minutes.  Less than 10 minutes before they were closing, my number popped up on the screen, I WAS SOO thankful because after filing out my forms I had to go get more paperwork done and I finished in JUST the right time (it was a beautiful feeling).

I then caught a taxi cab back home and he was really nice.  He gave me loads of candy and proceeded to talk to me in Korean even though I continuously told him in Korean that I spoke no Korean.  I told him I was from Canada and he seemed super excited about it and we sang "La bamba" all the way home.  He seemed super nice and kept telling me I needed to learn Korean (at least that is what I think he was saying, he was only speaking in Korean so I had to put together some things I have heard before).   The cabs are super awesome and clean and air conditioned and oh man do they ever beat the bus!  HOWEVER today the nice taxi man charged me 20000 won when we got back (20 bucks) and I knew it should be cheaper since I got there for 11000 won.  The nice man had cheated me and I was sad about it but it just gives me more motivation to learn the language. 

My feet are sore, my tummy is empty and I am boiling water so I can have a drink since the water here is unsafe to drink from the tap.  I think it will be a good time once I make some dumplings and cut up some tomatoes, we shall see what happens with the rest of my evening!  :)  Yay to continuous learning :P