Good Bye For Now!

Who would have thought that you could go to another country and see family more often than at home where you both live? Well, that's been true for me. In the past four months, I have seen my aunt and uncle from Virginia five times. That's more than we've seen each other in the past five years! Our first visit was the Seoul City Bus Tour in September when uncle Bob came to the city for work. Then, uncle Bob made a short stop in Suji to see where I live, help me find the basic necessities at Lotte Mart (detergent, hand soap, Sung-pyeon, etc.), and got a chance to eat at our favorite local Korean restaurant. In October Britney, Shauna, and I spent Korean Thanksgiving (Chusok) at Bob and Shina's doing lots of fun activities (site seeing, hiking, shopping, eating, eating, and more eating). We also visited Shina's family's who prepared an amazing Korean meal for us and generously gave us a tour of the main attractions in their city. This will be on of the most memorable weekends for me in the entire year, I'm quite sure! Then, I visited Bob and Shina once more in November and December. They took me to the Jeonju paper museum, a traditional Korean drum concert, a fun market, the movie 2012, and Korean church. On Sunday evening, I had to say good bye. They are going back to Virginia on December 27th. I thought it was going to be harder than it was, but I could hardly be sad after being so lucky to see them so often in such a short time. My relationship with them has grown tremendously and I feel blessed to now be so close with relatives who are soon to be far away again. While I am definitely sad to see them go, I am now motivated to take a trip to Virginia when I get home to see them again. So...I know it's only good by for now.

The Good with the Bad

As life gets more and more routine, I feel as though I have less and less to tell you about! But, in the last few weeks, I've had a variety of fun and not so fun things happen. Let me give you a quick (yeah, right) summary, add a few pictures, and get on my way.

NOT FUN THINGS (saving the best for last is always better):

-Losing Rachel- What a sad loss! She was so smart for her age. My little Rachel, who hadn't missed a day of class since I

started didn't come to school one Thursday and Friday. I for sure thought she had H1N1, but never expected to hear that she wouldn't be back. On Monday, my 2:30pm elementary class was interrupted when my supervisor came in to

tell me that Rachel was leaving LCI, as her family was going to take some time away to travel. It was such a shock that I immediately started crying. We took one last picture together as I was in tears, her parents thanked me for being such a good teacher, and then she was gone. Needless to say, I was a pretty ineffective teacher the rest of the day. Rachel wasn't even my favorite student, and I was so sad to see her leave. I can't imagine how attached I'm going to be to ALL my students after a year!

-Battling Bronchitis- I'm feeling better now, but I should be from the drug overdose I was on the last week. The Korean doctor I saw prescribed a shot in the rear and six pills, thee time a day for my first case of my never failing winter Bronchitis!

-Korean Funeral- It never once crossed my mind that I would be attending a Korean funeral when I came here. In Kore

a, funerals are the most important event to attend for a family/friend. Last week, our Korean supervisor's

(Lucy) mother, who we knew was sick, passed away. The funeral started the day she died and lasted for the next three days. They take place in the hospital on a "funeral wing" in large public rooms. No embalming is done; there is just a large photo surrounded by many huge, beautiful flower bouquets. Each of us (teachers) placed a flower on the alter and shared a moment in silence with Lucy's family (similar to a wake in the US). After, we entered the room next door to enjoy a traditional Korean meal. Certainly sad, but another unique cultural experience to take home. I'm glad we could all be there for Lucy.

FUN THINGS:

-Thanksgiving- I was lucky enough to celebrate Chusok (Korean Thanksgiving) with fam

ily in October, and then our English staff celebrated our Thanksgiving together! We all pitched in for a potluck style meal that truly turned into a feast! Although we didn't have turkey, green been casserole, or pumpkin pie, we did have rotisserie chicken (hot dog flavored-a surprise to us!),

corn, vegetable and fruit trays, twice bakes potatoes, salad with feta cheese, grits, a DELICIOUS homemade apple pie, and many bottles of wine! We ended the night (or morning) together around 3:30am after an evening full or Noraebong (Karaoke) singing...what a blast!

-Decorating My Apartment- Across the street from our school is a Korean version of the Dollar Store, which I LOVE! I bought garland, bows, poinsettias, and bunch of fun hanging decorations to get my apartment in the Christmas spirit. It was a blast decorating my own

"home!"

-Christmas Card Making Party: Britney, Shuana, and I cozied up in my apartment with hot chocolate, ice cream, songpyeon (the delicious Korean rice cakes), and Christmas music to make Christmas cards. None of us got anywhere near done with them, but it was such a relaxing evening kicking off the holiday

season!

-Kevin K.- I got a third new student last week. I now have a Kevin and a Kevin K. Our Korean sta

ff asked his parents to change his English name, so they went from Kevin to Kevin K. Too funny! I was told he was a good reader, but would have trouble speaking and understanding me,

so I was worried. Turns out, he's my smartest boy in the class...and SO CUTE!

-New Glasses- Not that exciting for you, but certainly fun to tell that I got a new pair of glasses for a total price of 35,000 won, which would be less that $35! Can you believe that? I'm still in shock. I went to one of the big markets in Seoul where there are glasses shops every other direction. They checked my eyes (for free) on the spot and had my new glasses ready in 20 minutes! Can't get any better than that- and yes, I can see out of them!

-Shauna's Birthday!- Most recently, we celebrated Shauna's 23rd birthday.

We had another fun night out bar hopping in Seoul. Let's just say, it's a good thing we don't live in Seoul- way too much fun to do that often! :)

So...I guess I had more to share than I thought! Life continues to be busy as we are all getting our classrooms decorated for Christmas and getting gifts sent home for the holidays. Time has been going so fast that I thankfully haven't been able to get too sad in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I still can't imagine not being home for the holiday, but I'm sure I'll be having quite a good time in Hong Kong!

The Last Few Weeks

It's been a while since I wrote. After my trip to Taiwan, it didn't seem like anything could be that exciting to write about. However, the past two weeks have been filled with fun. Britney's birthday was Sunday, November 15th, so we headed to Seoul to celebrate the night before. On Saturday evening, we had a delicious Thai dinner and then had a fun night of bar hopping in Itaewon. Some of the evenings highlights include: dinner, of course; free drinks for women at one bar; my first picture with a Korean after three months of being here; my friend Zeb's dance moves; running into our other teacher's out that evening; and all the fun pictures we got on a great night out in the city! On Sunday, we (London, Shuana, and I) knocked on Britney's door to surprise her with her favorite Korean cake, Hapy (missing one P as a common Korean/English translation problem) Birthday candles, and a tambourine as a present. Now, she has her own tambourine to practice and bring along to Noraebong nights, as that's her specialty. Britney and I then headed to Seoul to do some Christmas shopping. We spent 7 hours in the bitter cold, realizing the crisp fall weather was finally here. We ended up buying scarfs, mittens, and socks off the street to stay warm while I was determined to finish getting all my gifts! It took the entire bus ride home to un-thaw!

Not much new has happened in school. Since the school closure, the chatter of H1N1 has come to a calm. Kids are slowly coming back to school and we don't hear much of the flu anymore. I even got two new kindergarten students, Richard and Haily, who are cousins and very cute!

On Friday, I headed to Jeonju once again to spend the weekend with my aunt and uncle who are leaving at the end of December. I didn't catch a bus until 10:30pm, so I arrived around 1:00am to uncle Bob waiting for me at the bus station. (Oh! When I left Suji, there was excitement from the first snow fall that melted by the time it reached the ground.) Saturday was a beautiful fall day that we spent shopping in downtown Jeonju and the market as well as trying lots of new street foods (chicken skewers, deep fried vegetables, and sweet potatoes). Of course, we also snacked on some Songpyeon, my favorite traditional Korean snack! Then, we visited the Jeonju paper museum where I learned about the history of paper, discovered the many things made from paper, and got to make my own sheet. We made our second attempt for the famous Jeonju Bibimbop, which I liked better than the first place we tried. I still have to say that Suji has my favorite Bibinbop (sorry Jeonju)! We ended the evening at a performance by a group of well toured Korean musicians playing traditional drums. Their speed and synchronicity were incredible, but somehow the rhythmic sounds still allowed me to fall asleep! On Sunday, we attended a Korean church service. I cried for my first time of homesickness, but also tears of joy. I was so happy to be in such a special place with family while I was so far from home, but I also realized how much I miss my parents as church is the one place we always go together when I am home. The tears quickly passed as the service began and I was able to recognize a few words I had learned over the weekend and one contemporary song that I sang along to in English! After lunch, I started learning the Korean alphabet thanks to uncle Bob and aunt Shina's willingness to tutor me. I'm just starting to be able to sound out Korean words. I'm excited to be able to read the words all around me. I might not know what they mean, but reading is a place to start! My aunt and uncle are leaving at the end of December after 10 months here. I can still remember last Christmas when they told us they were arriving in February. Now, they are already going home, and my time is going just as quickly! I have been making the best of my time here and with them as I will see them much less frequently once we both return home. It was a great weekend, and I hope to see them and Shina's family once more before they leave! Thanks again Bob and Shina!

My surprise vacation in Taiwan!

My last blog was written in anticipation of an unexpected but well needed trip to Taiwan after school had been closed for a week to take "preventative measures" against an H1N1 outbreak. The cancellation was announced Friday after school, and Shauna, Britney, and I spent the next 24 hours planning our trip around Taiwan.

With very little sleep, we started our full day of traveling at 5:30am Sunday morning on a bus to the airport. We flew out of Korea at 9:10am and arrived in Taipei (northern Taiwan) at 11:30am. From there we went from bus, to a high speed train, to a third bus ride all the way to the southern tip of Taiwan. We safely arrived in Heng Chuen around 6:00pm thanks to our first of many generous Taiwanese people who had the bus stop literally across the street from our hostel- The Surf Shack Bar & Grill. This man also wrote down many of the areas attractions in Chinese (the language spoken in Taiwan) to show bus drivers as well as his home and cell phone numbers in case we ran into any trouble during the week.

With hostels, you never know what you're going to get. Well, we got LUCKY! We had a very clean hostel with a husband (Terry- Canadian) and wife (EE- Taiwanese) who owned it and both spoke wonderful English. EE also happened to make the most wonderful American food (burgers, salads, breakfasts, drinks, etc.)! On top of that, they had an ADORABLE five month old daughter, Charlyn, who we got to entertain (or she entertained us) all week while her mother cooked for us! As soon as we checked in, I knew we were set. EE changed our reservations (because it was off-season and so we could all be together) from a double and single room to the biggest room in the hostel with three queen beds for the SAME PRICE! This was the first of their many kind gestures towards us during the week. That night (Sunday), compliments of EE, we had a delicious cheeseburger dinner (topped with a little American flag), a few delicious drinks (Margaritas, Mojitos, and Pina Coladas) and an early bed time!


Monday morning, Terry met us at the hostel to give us a ride to Baishawan Beach, about 15 minutes away and picked us up again that afternoon. The wind and clouds (from their first "winter storm" passing through) weren't what we had hoped for, but the beach was nothing less than perfect! The first hour was ours alone on the beautiful, secluded beach and remained that way for most of the day(s). After being sand blasted for about an hour, we found a sheltered little cove that blocked us from the wind and allowed us to enjoy the rest of the day sand-free. Just after we had finished swimming in the warm salt waters of the SOUTH CHINA SEA for over an hour, a group of Taiwanese people approached us and asked to take pictures with us. They spoke enough English to have a great conversation and invite us out for drinks! That evening, we met Fairy, Anita, Charleton, and a few others at a lounge/bar and spent hours talking as if we were long lost friends! The night ended around 2am when were so happy to have met them, but so sad to know that we may never seem them again.

Tuesday morning, the sun was shinning brighter than we could have hoped for, but the wind was still strong. We decided to venture to a new beach that we soon realized was a mistake as it was very open. We took at cab back to the beach we were at Monday and decided we were content not exploring any more beaches. While taking pictures, a tiny Taiwanese man we saw snorkeling in the water came running up to us, speaking no English, making gestures that he would take pictures of the three of us. Little did we know that his nice offer locked us into a morning on the beach with him drinking wine and eating over-processed bread that he ran home and brought back for us. He also loved Britney and brought her a large, BEAUTIFUL polished shell to take home. He was so kind that we couldn't help but stay in his company for a while. However, over an hour later, we motioned that we were going to go rest in our little cover and he headed home. We also didn't know, that wouldn't be the only time we were "enjoying" his presence. After baking in the sun all afternoon, we knew we were going to have to start searching for a way to get home. With a tiny town across the road and no taxis that far out, we were hoping to find a phone to call our hotels owners or a taxi to come get us. After our encounters with so many helpful Taiwanese people in just the first two days, we trusted our gut and hopped in a car with two locals who left their coconut stand to bring us 15 minutes back to town. We simply handed them the hostel's business card, made a few helpless Americans gestures, and we were on our way! That evening, our hostel owners took us out to dinner for a traditional Taiwanese meal and the hot springs nearby. Another perfect end to a perfect day!

Wednesday morning, instead of calling a Taxi, EE's mother (who also helps around the hostel) took us to the beach and picked us up again that afternoon. Right when we arrived, Shauna noticed "Scuba Man" sitting in the sand (in the same snorkel gear as the day before) as if he was waiting for us to return! We immediately headed to the opposite end of the beach. When we were sure he was gone, we went directly back to our favorite cove. After hours in the sun, we decided to walk into the little town to buy a coconut from the locals who gave us a ride home the day before. It was our first time drinking coconut juice with a straw right inside the fruit! It was so delicious, but we couldn't decided if it was worth it when on our walk back to the beach, "Scuba Man" appeared on his scooter. He immediately stopped and made eating gestures that we CLEARLY said, "no thank you, not today!" to. We thought he was gone, but we thought wrong when 20 minutes later he appeared in our cove with more processed bread and another bottle of wine. After his pleading, we finally accepted the wine (not the bread) that he started pouring. We laughed at first, sang some songs to him, but decided it was time to send him home when he tried napping with us between Britney and Shauna. When we started packing up (during our last hour on our last day at the beach) to get away, he finally got up to go home. He wasn't the best or worst part of our trip, but we sure won't forget him! On our last evening, our hostel owners took us into Kenting (the tourist trap 15 minutes from Heng Chuen) to look at all the gift shops. Like I said, we were lucky to have such a nice place to stay with such generous people!

Had we known how perfect we had it down south, we probably would have stayed another day, but we got up on Thursday for our last delicious brunch and headed back up north to Taipei by bus and the high speed train. Our travels were delayed by an hour when the train stopped abruptly which we soon found out was due to an EARTHQUAKE! Knowing we would now be late for our check-in, I asked the two Taiwanese women sitting next to me who spoke very little English, but enough to understand what we needed, to call the hostel and let them know (in Chinese) that we would be late. Without their help, the hostel owners would have left and we would have been sleeping on the couches in the lobby of the hostel. After their call, they did their best to learn about our travels and offered us a delicious Taiwanese snack! We finally checked into our new hostel in the city that was definitely no Surf Shack! We each had our own tiny little room with less than sanitary bathrooms on each floor. At that point, we decided we wanted to spend as little time at the hostel as possible. We headed to a fun night market filled with delicious new foods and unimaginable streets full of late-night shopping.

Friday morning, we had plans to call yet ANOTHER Taiwanese friend that we had met on the beach who lived in Taipei and offered to take us to all the major attractions in the city. Our minds quickly changed when we saw the sun shinning brightly on our last day of vacation! Instead, we rushed to the train station to head to the nicest beach around Taipei. Our confused faces attracted another helpful Taiwanese woman (living in Canada, but visiting friends/family at home) who happened to be going exactly where we were! She got us off the train at Fulong Beach and wrote down all the times of the trains returning to Taipei that evening. Sadly, the beach was closed for swimming, but we had no problem enjoying our last day relaxing on the sand. It was a completely different beach from our hidden paradise in the south, far more public with scenery (a beautiful temple), but just as beautiful! On our last night, we did something I'm sure not many people can say they have done. We went to the top of the 101 Tower, currently the tallest building in the world! It was a cloudless day, which made for an incredible sight at night. It also has the world's fastest elevator taking us from the 5th to the 88th floor in just 45 seconds at 25 mph! We then hiked to the 91st floor and enjoyed the beautiful city lights from the outside observatory. It was an awesome end to such a fun week!
The week flew by, as they always do, and we were back on our plane home by noon on Saturday. We safely returned to Suji (our city) around 6:30pm that evening. I was so excited about the trip that I had my dad (and brother who were up at early for deer hunting opener) wake up my mom at 4:30AM to tell my family all about the trip! I am still in shock of how many truly generous and friendly people we met in Taiwan! We have been in Korea for over two months and haven't met any Korean friends our age, yet we met several people who wanted to be our friends within a day of being in Taiwan. When we got off the plane, we knew it was back to reality with the always rushing Koreans making their way home from the airport as well. Tomorrow will finish our first week after the break and I can tell you that my patience and energy has been renewed! I have found myself a much better teacher after the break. Now, it's only a month and 12 days before I'm flying to Hong Kong for my Christmas vacation!

LCI's First Ever Halloween Spirit Week!

WHAT- A- BLAST! LCI's first ever Spirit Week was exciting, but quite exhausting! There were a number of factors that played into it all. By the afternoon breaks on Friday, all the teachers had their head of their desks to rest for a short five minutes before putting a smile back on their face to teach until 6:30pm. It was such a fun week for the Kindergartners who experienced the fun dress up days that we (the teachers) also enjoyed when we were young...and not so young if you had dress up days until senior year of high school, like me! All of the staff thought it was so disappointing for the elementary students (as young as 1st grade) who didn't get to participate in Spirit Week, but often saw all of us teachers dressed the part. I must remind you though, of the constant pressure students have to learn, learn, learn here, so it just wasn't an option for them according to our Korean staff who we begged to let them participate. Regardless, it was a blast for everyone, including the elementary students, who really enjoyed seeing the teachers dressed up every day! The Spirit Week dress up days were as follows:

Monday- Pajama Day!
Tuesday- Crazy Hair Day!
Wednesday- Backwards Day!
Thursday- Sports Day!
Friday- Halloween Dress up!

Those were the exciting parts of the week...now for the exhausting. As I mentioned two months ago when I arrived, many parents were very worried about the amount of time we were here before we came to school to see their kids as a "quarantine" against the Swine Flu. Well, that worry has continued to escalate quite rapidly since then and is at it's peak about now as a few Koreans have died from it, there are a number of cases in schools, the medical field predicted it would reach it's peak around October/November, and the biggest announcement that the Korean government was thinking about closing all schools in the country for 2-3 weeks to prevent any rapid outbreaks! Well, that didn't happen. But, many schools are closing for a minimum of three days to a week due to the amount of students dropping schools for up to a month making classes sizes little to no students and the number of parents calling to complain about their concerns. On top of all this panic, our head supervisor was gone the entire week due to her mother being seriously ill, and my (as well as a handful of other teachers) supervisor, Katie, was in and out all week as she just found out she is pregnant and has been advised to rest with the amount of stress around the school. That means we were left with two supervisors doing four people's work load. Although we all felt tired, we can't complain compared to the exhaustion that Rebbecca and Michelle (supervisors) showed by Friday. At this point, LCI has had no "serious patients" but has decided to close down for one week. The staff now has an unexpected but much needed nine day break (Oct. 31st-Nov. 8th) to enjoy!

As exciting as that is, for now, we have lost a week's pay and the options for making that time up are LESS THAN THRILLING. One of the teachers said, "If we have to work five, six day weeks (Saturdays) in a row, someone REALLY will die!" So that option has been eliminated and talk of taking winter break days away has been mentioned, but won't slide either with all teachers having vacation flights booked months ago. However, everyone is excited for the break and rushed home to look up inexpensive flights to warm places near by. Britney, Shauna, and I have booked a flight to visit Taiwan from Sunday to Saturday. Some other teachers mentioned travels to Thailand and the Philippines. From the sound of it, everyone is going to have a blast and hopefully take the time off to get some well needed rest. At least that's what the three of us plan to do as we lay around the beaches for five days! :)

A wonderful weekend!

I'm sorry that MN decided to skip fall this year, but Korea certainly did not! This past weekend, I headed to the gym on Friday night and decided to stay in and rest as Britney and I were heading out for a hike on Saturday to see the fall leaves change. It was great to get a good nights rest and an even better morning when I woke up on Saturday to Kimmy (my best friend from college) and her parents on Skype. I haven't talked to her for more than 10 minutes here and there since I got here two months ago. We talked for over at hour! It was SO wonderful, but needless to say, our departure time for a hike in Seoul had been quite delayed. Instead, we decided to venture back to the area where we took our LCI students on the "morning stroll"...aka mountain hike! We left around 1:30pm and started up a 5.6km trek around 2:00pm. Ms. Cross Country (Britney) and I have really enjoyed working out, but have both been struggling to run more than 20 minutes without being breathless. We thought a nice hike would be a little easier on the lungs, but ten minutes into the hike proved otherwise when we both found ourselves wheezing! I've been feeling ok for the most part, while Britney has been on and off meds since she got her. However, we would like to think part of our breathing issues could be due to the air pollution here. We're both hoping we adjust sooner than later and the exercise that used to be pretty effortless will get a bit easier with time.

Anyway...Britney and I hiked for about 45 minutes when we came to a funny plateau on the mountain. There was an array of things for people resting from their hike to do: rings, parallel bars, the standard exercise equipment, over sized hula hoops, some funny tire contraptions to stretch your back, and even bench press weights! A little odd to say the least, but we took our rest and continued on our way. Much different from when I lived in upstate NY for a summer, we saw MANY more Koreans hiking than I saw people in NY. Everyone here does it from ladies my grandmothers age to toddlers! I even saw one of my kindergarten students out with his dad. It was really nice to see so many people taking advantage of the beautiful area they live in. As we continued on our hike, we saw a beautiful peak and both said, "How do we get there? That's where we want to go!" Little did we know that at 4:30pm, that's where we would end up! A fairly easy hike from the beginning turned into a fairly intense rock climb at the end.

It was all worth it! Two and a half hours later we sat on the top boulder of a beautiful mountain overlooking many color changing leaves and the city we live in. It was also instantly when we reached our rest point that a generous Korean pulled out his 2 liter water bottle filled with Makgeolli (Korean rice wine) and his little paper cups and began pouring us a drink. He also handed over a fish stick (like beef jerky, but fish...not good)! Out of respect I took a piece and ate a bite only to gulp an entire glass of the wine immediately after. In return Britney and I shared with him the trail mix we had brought with. He took a few pictures for us, we relaxed, and before we knew it he pulled out a can of Carona beer! We didn't know how good of an idea it was to be drinking on the top of a mountain after a two and a half hour hike and little food/energy left in us...who knew how fast the alcohol would hit us before we were rolling down the mountain?! We avoided opening it, but gladly did when he pulled out a second can for himself and initiated the toast. We could have sat their forever drinking with the generous Korean (who spoke no English), but eventually decided we best head down before we got stuck on the mountain at sun set.

Shortly after we headed back down, another Korean gentleman seemed to appear on our right out of no where! He immediately asked if we were teaching English. Of course, after we responded yes, we ended up walking the entire way down with him. He asked all about us and our experience here, told us about his four years living in the US as a reporter, and insisted he was so grateful to talk to us because his English was so poor. He gave us an example of Korean's trouble with pronunciations when he said a word that I understood as "piñata" when he was actually saying "vineyard" (yup, don't know where I got that one from) and he said most Koreans say as "vine yard" (two separate words). It was actually quite humorous, but in general, he spoke very understandable English. When we got to the point where we though we had to split to go back on our same path, we turned around to see a woman not far behind us. He looked back at her, giggled, and then turned to us saying, "Oh..that's my wife!" It was too funny...he left his wife to come practice his English with us! At that point, he promised us that his way down was much shorter than the way we came and promised to help us get back by bus. At this point, it was 5:30pm and with the sun sure to set soon, we followed him the rest of the way. Without our bus passes or the correct money, he kindly paid for us to come home with him. As we sat next to his wife and him, his wife began talking. He translated for us. My wife said, "It is good for me to speak with you to practice my English....but it is sure BORING for her!" Oh the dear lady! She knew what it meant for her husband to practice his English with us, so she let him walk ahead with us the entire way! Had we known she was behind us, we at least would have waited for her to walk along with us while we talked. To top it off, in this overpopulated country of Korea, he ended up living in the high rise apartments right behind ours. So, he literally walked us home. He also offered to take Britney and hiking up the most popular mountain in Seoul next weekend for the peak of the leaves changing! I know you're not going to like this uncle Bob, but we exchanged numbers with him because we couldn't pass up the offer. If he calls, we can't say no! We did also offer to answer any questions he has about the meaning and pronunciation of English words as he said he reads lots of English articles and is very particular about understanding them and saying the words correctly. I might be a bit naive, but I didn't see the harm! He was so kind in helping us that day, that I couldn't say no to him. Besides...if it weren't for him, Britney and I might still be on that mountain!

The night ended at 4:30am (Sunday morning) after our (Britney, London, and I) first night out in Seoul and a long and expensive cab ride home. The driver clearly didn't understand where we were going, so about 20 minutes past where we thought we should have been, we ended up calling the FREE ENGLISH TRANSLATION number posted on his window. At 65,000 won, he ended up clearing the meter, turning around to get us home, and charging us only 45,000 won, which is still more than the 39,000 anyone has ever paid to get home from Seoul in a cab. However, we made it home and all felt bad that he lost quite a bit of money that night.

The next morning, or afternoon I should say, since I woke up at 2:00pm, we headed to an American restaurant called Butterfinger Pancakes...doesn't the name just tell you right away it's going to be delicious?! For a high price, we got a high stack of the most amazing pancakes, rosemary seasoned breakfast potatoes, and an overstuffed omelet. We ate until we couldn't take another bite, all leaving (with regret) food on the plate. It absolutely cured any American homesickness we were feeling at the time. That evening, I talked to mom and dad for an hour and was in bed by 11pm to rest up for LCI's first ever spirit week- look out for pictures of that on my next blog. It really was a wonderful weekend!

Good Friends...New and Old!

What a busy week! On top of the usual weekly grading of spelling tests and essay along with journal reports about each Kindergarten student, we had a lot more work. Our classrooms are soon to be judged for our creative artistic ability in decorating for Halloween. Teachers have literally gone all out to make their classrooms as SPOOKY as possible before the festivities begin Halloween week. Just like elementary school, we will have a dress up week including: pajama day (my favorite in elementary school), crazy hair day, sports day, backwards day, and of course, Halloween costumes! I never thought of myself as too creative, but I think I did quite a good job on my room! There are scary spiders crawling around all my walls, ghosts flying around the ceiling, Christine Teacher witch and her student witches lingering around the board, a cauldron of creepy eyeballs with BAD STUDENTS brewing, and a path of my Kindergarten students walking through the woods to get their Halloween candy at a haunted house! You can about imagine how long this all took. As well as the decorating that consumed all my spare time this week, we also had to create our monthly test that is coming up again soon. Friday was a breeze as my morning was spent celebrating Kevin's birthday. Again...tons of presents and food: spaghetti, fried chicken, pizza, cookies, Korean rice cakes, chocolate cake, fruit, juice...at least the birthday boy didn't throw up this time! PLEASE look at the cute comb over and Kevin's birthday suit...absolutely adorable!Needless to say, my week flew by again!

We had a special visitor in Korea for a short time...Britney's dad! Exactly 30 years ago, he was teaching English in Japan and will be returning as a special teacher for a short time. He stopped here to visit Britney and see the area before heading back to the school he taught at. He treated Shauna, myself, and Britney to a delicious duck Galbi and wine dinner on Friday...thanks Tom! Saturday, I took the day to rest...sleeping in, working out, responding to emails, and making an EXCITING Saturday night trip to E-Mart (another Walmart/Target type store). My best purchase was a cute down winter coat for only 30,000 won (about $27)! I knew I didn't need to waste the room in my luggage to bring one when you can get them for such great prices here...I got lucky!

Today, was such a fun day! Last time Shauna and I attended the International Lutheran Church for our first time, it took us an hour and forty five minutes to get there between the bus and subway. On our way home, I happened to recognize a different Suji numbered bus at the same stop we got off at for the Rent musical, only a few blocks from the church! So, today I ventured on my own and got to church in less than an hour! The service was so great filled with MANY of my favorite traditional hymns (Shine Jesus Shine, You who Dwell in the Shelter of the Lord, I the Lord of Sea and Sky) and a baptism of a beautiful little Korean girl (maybe about three years old). I don't know what it was about today that brought me to tears so many times during the service, but it was wonderful. Maybe it was that I hadn't seen a baptism in a while, but welcoming a new beautiful child into the family of Christ was especially moving for me today. I may have been a little creepy taking pictures, but it was so neat! The greatest part came after the service though...the traditional LUTHERAN POTLUCK! I was supposed to be meeting friends for lunch, but couldn't pass it up! We played a fun game to get to know the congregation members and then the feast began! By the time I sat down, the only open seat was at a table with three Korean men...one a doctor from Suwon near me, one who got his masters at the U of M, and the other who sang a beautiful solo in church and has been to St. Paul twice...small world! They all spoke great English and were SO fun to socialize with. The International Lutheran Church is a WONDERFUL community that I am so glad to now be a part of!

I still met my friends for lunch, but didn't eat...000ps! Today I met Zeb, an OLD friend from college, who just arrive a week ago today. I also met and NEW friend, Sarah, a girl who I had been connected with through other mutual friends. Don't get me wrong, I love all the people I have been hanging around with so far, but it was so nice to meet up with more friends. We had lunch in Itaewon (the foreign district), found the English book store, and then I took them to the very fun, artsy area called Insadong. Then we headed back to Itaewon for dinner at a delicious Thai restaurant, and I picked up mom and dad's Christmas present that I bought earlier and didn't want to lug around all day. After all the shopping today, I must admit, I have some buyers remorse, but I did get most of my Christmas shopping done...thank goodness! The best part though was certainly the time spent with wonderful friends in my new home that I have grown to love!