Why I didn't blog on Sunday!

This past weekend was filled with fun, frustration, and quite a bit of laughter. Like I mentioned in my last posting, uncle Bob visited Friday evening. After he left, Britney, London, and I met three other teachers for a fun night out at a beer garden and a luxury Noreabong (the fun Karaoke rooms)! After singing the night away, we returned at 4am, and I slept until 2pm on Saturday! As I’ve said in the past, it’s the most wonderful feeling not having homework to wake up to anymore. The rest of my evening was spent shopping for apartment goodies and decorating.

On Sunday, Shauna and I tried a new church in Seoul. Just before we left for Korea, Shauna called to tell me that the church she took her group home clients (from Mankato) to has a pastor that was leaving to accept a six year contract in South Korea! This week, I had emailed a wonderful Gustavus professor and successful Lutheran theologian hoping he would be able to help me locate a Lutheran church with an English service in South Korea. Sure enough, he was able to find me one, and it happened to be where the pastor from Mankato would be. It really is a small world! We went to his church and found ourselves welcomed by a small but wonderful Christian community of Koreans and foreigners. Pastor Steve Kosberg looked pleasantly surprised when has asked the visitors to stand up and introduce themselves. We proudly let him know we were his neighbors from Gustavus! I sincerely look forward to returning to both Life Church and International Lutheran Church. After church, we met up with a few of Shauna’s friends who are also teaching in Korea and then headed home.

Here’s where my frustration and laughter comes in. I left Shauna on the bus to get off a few stops early as I wanted to stop at Lotte Mart again to look for a key chain. I was given a single key and was quite sure I would misplace it if I didn’t get something bigger attached to it soon. I looked everywhere and was unsuccessful at finding a key chain, so out of desperation, I bought some colored twine to attach to my key. As I was at the register about to pay, I heard something that sounded like a key drop. I looked around but saw nothing so I finished paying and without panic, as I couldn’t see my key in my wallet where I put it that morning, went sit down at a table in the entry way to dig out my key. After emptying the entire wallet multiple times, I knew my key was probably floating around some busy street in Seoul where I had opened my wallet multiple times that day. My key was gone. At this point I was surprisingly still calm as I called my boss to let her know the situation. She called me back after talking to the guy at school who is in charge of the teacher’s apartments. There were two options: 1) go back to Lotte Mart and have the key shop “found in the front of the store” come with me to the apt and make me a new key or 2) go back to my apt, have my boss call the number on my door, and send a person over to unlock the door. Either way it was going to cost money and I had no idea how long it would take. Lucy (my boss) said the first option was the better one to try first. So I left all my purchases at London’s apartment, borrowed money from her as I was nearly broke, and walked BACK to Lotte to find the key shop.

I didn’t see the key shop Lucy had told me about, so I walked to the service desk in back, only to get ignored by the worker and budged in front of by other Koreans. So, I marched to the front of the store and walked straight up to an employed and asked, “English? Do you speak English?” That was a no. So I tried charades by acting out key and lock. Still, a no go. Helplessly, I walked away and was near tears at this point. I was hitting my first actual frustration with the language barrier.

As I walked away and stood in the entryway ready to call Lucy back for plan two, the worker followed me out and thought he figured out that I had lost the key to my locker (they have in the front for people to put other belongings in). I kept saying, “No, my key, house key, apartment, lost!” He finally understood! He called a manager who took me back to the service desk to unsuccessfully identify the 15 pairs of lost and found keys. So, we went back to the original worker who said, “WAIT!” As I stood there, I called Lucy to explain that they thought I had lost my key in the store and needed help finding it. I asked her to explain to one of them my situation and that I needed them to help me find the key shop! As I tried handing them the phone, neither of them would take it. In my head I was thinking, “PLEASE!” Then I realized, DUH!...I was talking to Lucy in English, so they obviously were thinking, “Why the heck are you handing us the phone when you KNOW we don’t speak English?!” I quickly said, “KOREAN!” and they accepted the phone.

Finally, they understood and took me to the THIRD FLOOR (not the front of the store) to find the key shop. One worker yelled across the counter to another worker who thankfully spoke enough English for us to communicate…AMEN! Back and forth between me and the key worker, we were able to figure out which kind of lock I had. Finally they said, “Ok, we will sell you this one!” I responded with, “Um, I don’t know how to change that lock!” At this point they agreed, “Ok, we will come to your house and change the lock for you.” “THANK YOU!” Except there was one question left, “How much?” I only had 70,000 won between my own and what London borrowed me. The two Koreans spoke for a while with the most pitied look on their face and asked, “45,000?” “DEAL!” At this point they were probably thinking, “Let’s help this poor, desperate, American and get her OUT OF HERE!”
The Korean who didn’t speak English said, “Go now!” and I followed him to his car…awkward moment! He asked for my address to put in his GPS when I said, “Point?” Does my place even have an address!? All our mail is sent to school. As we got about a block from my apartment, his eyes lit up and he pointed saying, “MY HOUSE!” He actually lives in the building right next to mine! For the first time since I arrived, I had seen two cute Koreans (the one who spoke English and the one who didn’t, but changed my lock). I still don’t know if it was because I was spending so much time with them trying to figure my situation out and got a good look, because they were just so relentless in helping me, or I really did think they were cute! Either way, after one broken drill bit and annoyed neighbors questioning the noise, I got my lock changed and have the nicest door handle out of all the apartments! Although there is no such thing as tipping in Korea, I gave the Lotte worker 50,000 won and FORCED him to keep the extra 5,000 when he didn’t have change.

So, that’s why I didn’t blog on Sunday night. I was too busy meeting cute Korean men and trying to get into my apartment. I realize many of you may not take the time to read this outrageously long blog, but at least I’ll have it for my own sake years after I leave Korea. It is by far the most memorable moment I’ve had since I arrived, simply because of the effort and frustration it took, all to end up just fine hours later. Oh, and by the way….I found the key chains. They’re on the third floor at the key shop…right next to all the new locks!

A little bit of everything!

Sorry if I kept you waiting! :) I know I usually blog on Sunday evenings, but I got a little side tracked with other things that I'll explain later. Excuse me if this gets a little long, which I can guarantee it will. Anyway, life is good, or should I say even better, now that I have moved into my new and permanent apartment for the year. Just when I was getting used to my old apartment and actually not looking forward to moving everything (washer and all the furniture), I realized how great it was going to be having windows that bring in light, floors any color but yellow, and just a little more room! I packed my entire place up (not that I had much, since I came in two suitcases) on Wednesday evening and by the time I got home from school Thursday evening, the moving crew was almost finished bringing everything in to my new place! All I had to do was point where I wanted things to be set up. It was WAY too easy. I am so much happier now. It's a very nice and clean apartment with plenty more space than I had before. I truly feel "at home" now. I've spent a little (too much) money getting things to decorate, but it's my first real place on my own, so I had to!

Last week also had quite a few firsts. We took our first field trip. Being that each teacher has 7-10 energetic kindergartners, we all got a little anxious when our supervisors told us we were going hiking. If we couldn't keep them together in a 10x10 ft classroom, how were we going to do it on a mountain?! However, our supervisors eased us by telling us, "not to worry...it would just be a (word for word) morning stroll." The hike started quite easily on wide paths, but my students were complaining that they were tired within the first five minutes. Soon, we (the teachers, parent supervisors, and Korea staff) were literally dragging kids straight up the mountain OR catching them from sliding back down. We started to think, maybe this is just a "morning stroll" for Koreans as there are mountains everywhere and hiking is so popular here. Needless to say, somewhere along the way, we took the wrong path. The good news is, almost everyone had a blast, no kids were lots on the mountain, and no teachers had a heart attack. It was QUITE the morning stroll.

I also had my first and worst student quit last week...hope it wasn't because of me! He was very smart, but never paid attention in class and always frustrated the other students by not knowing where we were in readings and everyone was always having to wait for him to get his work out five minutes after I would ask. Sad to say, but today already made a world of difference on how smoothly class went! Friday was also my first monthly exam for all of my elementary students. The English teachers have to write the exams for at least one of the classes they teach. When the students took the test, I realized what it was like to be in the teachers shoes when a student asks you a question that they desperately need an answer to in order to be able to answer the actual test question...yet you REALLY can't give it to them without actually giving it away. I was ALWAYS that student, and now I am the teacher, and boy is it a tough position to be in! You want the students to do their best, so you want to help them, but they really should have studied just a WE-BIT more to know that answer. Overall, the students knew most of the material, but struggled greatly with short answers where they have to write full sentences. Articles like "a" and "the" are SO hard for them to grasp, so grading their tests has also been a struggle when you know they clearly understand the answer to the question, but have trouble writing a perfect complete sentence. You want to give them all the points, yet they have to learn to write properly. Who knew there would be so much internal anxiety in distributing and grading elementary exams! All I can say, is I hope it gets better as time goes on like most things do.

Finally, my uncle Bob got to come to Suji for his first time. It was a short but sweet visit. He got to my school in time to see my last class of the day for about 45 minutes. We were practicing vocabulary words by writing sentences on the board. They enjoyed having a new face in the room and his English assistance when their sentences just weren't quite long enough! He was great with them, and it was so special having him there to see me teach. After school, he took Britney, London, Shauna, and I to our favorite Korean restaurant and translated the entire menu into English for us! We now have more than just two options: cheesy ramen and Bibinbop. That night we all tried something new, and were for the most part pleasantly satisfied! Our new menu will never leave my wallet! Then, I got to show him my new apartment and we walked to Lotte Mart where he showed me a few new things to try. Like I said, it was a short visit, but he still had an hour to travel into Seoul for work the next day. He is always so generous with his time, Korean knowledge, and money :) when he is here. Thank you Uncle Bob from all of us!

A PROUD teaching moment!

Today was my first PROUD teaching moment! In my afternoon, 2:30-4pm elementary class, I have two male students who often make class a little more stressful for Christine teacher. Both are extremely bright and always do their homework. However, their behavior in class is often frustrating for me and their classmates: constantly touching other students, lots of put-downs, lack of attention, taking several times of me asking them to get work out, losing their place when reading as a class...and the list goes on.

Each week, students have a three paragraph essay to write based on a topic we brainstorm in class. Last week they had to interview a family member and write their essay about that person. Part of the assignment is memorizing the essay to present for the class. If they complete the memorization, they receive ten extra reward stickers, which ultimately mean nothing, but make the students go crazy for more! On Monday, I had already hit my "angry point" with Seth. I walked in the classroom and the first thing he said was, "Teacher, you are UGLY today." Really?! His mom got a phone call yesterday.

Today however, he brought tears to my eyes (seriously). Only one student had memorized their entire essay. None of my best students had even attempted to memorize anything past their first sentence. When I asked who had their essay ready to present, Seth practically jumped out of his seat he was so excited. I thought for sure he was joking as he often does. I was SO wrong. He got up in front of the entire class and as I held his essay in my hand to follow along, he recited word for word, all but one sentence of his assignment. My jaw dropped when he finished, and I gave him the biggest high five he's probably ever had as I told him how PROUD of was of his hard work! He did such a good job, and we both knew it. While Seth frustrates me more than anyone in the class on a regular basis, he is SO hard not to like. I sit next to him when we do class work, so he can't bother the other students, and he constantly rubs my legs and arms and rests his head on my shoulder. I've certainly learned...you've just got to accept the bad with the good! :)

One Month!

I have officially been living in Suji, South Korea for one month....exciting! I can HARDLY believe I've been here that long. Everything is finally starting to become very natural now...my schedule, teaching, food, etc. My week consists of a 7am work out, off to school by 9:30am, teach from10-6:30pm, make dinner, and RELAX (read, internet, or TV)! I'm in bed by 11:30pm or earlier every night, which is unheard of for me. Wednesday nights is when I get groceries and do school work that I bring home. I usually have essays and spelling tests to correct for two classes and weekly kindergarten reports to write on each student for the parents. Otherwise, I've honestly never had so much FREE TIME in my life, and I love it! I really do miss the wonderful community of people at Gustavus, but I'm loving life without homework. After 17 years (K-college) of education, it feels SO GOOD to have time to do anything my heart desires!

This weekend, Britney and London went hiking out of town, so Shauna and I decided to venture into Seoul alone for our first time. We made it there just fine and visited Namdaemun Market, one of the two largest markets in Seoul. It has many skinny streets filled with everything you could images: clothes, shoes, kitchen supplies, bedding, glasses, nic nacs of every sort, etc. We visited Itaewon again and stopped for the best food I've tasted since I arrived...COLD STONE ICE CREAM! It tasted just like home. Don't get me wrong, I love the Korean food, but nothing can replace American ice cream for me. It HIT THE SPOT on a warm afternoon! We successfully made our way around Seoul through the Subway on our own, and feeling quite accomplished we headed to the bus station to head back to Suji. Too bad we couldn't remember if it was the 5500 or the 5500-1 that took us back to Suji. We jumped on the first bus to come (5500-1) and asked the driver if it went to Suji. He smiled and nodded, so we got on. Two hours later we ended up in the mountains on a beautiful college campus with the bus driver laughing and helplessly trying to figure out how to get us home. He wrote a note in Korean to give to the next 5500-1 drive going back towards Seoul. We had called a friend who told us to get off in Jukjeon (where we had only been to once) and take the 11 bus back to Suji. The next bus driver again nodded when we showed him the note and asked, "Jukjeon?" Fourty-five minutes later I looked back and said, "Shauna, I think we just passed Jukneon" as the driver turned around and laughed at us. He clearly knew we needed to get off there and conveniently forgot to tell us...thanks buddy! Needless to say, we got off at the next stop, which happened to be the Suwon bus station where we grabbed the 11 bus and made it home....3 hours later! Although a 45 minute trip took a bit longer than expected, we had our first "lost Korean adventure" and we'll never forget that the 5500 and the 5500-1 are COMPLETELY different!

Today, we went back to the church in Suwon and saw the people who walked us there last weekend. They invited us to a church service on Wednesday nights that we will likely join them to in the near future. There is also a Christian band from the US performing this Saturday night, that we hope to go to. Otherwise, I took another three hour nap today, did some laundry, and finished my first book since arriving! In college, I always used to tell my roommates, "I can't wait until I don't dread Sundays filled with homework and finally get to enjoy the Day of Rest." Well, I FINALLY know what it's like to enjoy the DAY OF REST, and I love it!

Finally, I got exciting news last week that I will be moving to my new (hopefully bigger and cleaner) apartment on Thursday after school. That's just in time for uncle Bob who's coming to visit on Friday to see my school and my new place. I look forward to his visit this week!

Three weeks and counting!

This Saturday (September 12th) , Shauna and I have officially lived in Korea for three weeks...time is flying! The teaching weeks go by so quickly. Working from 10am-6:30pm seem like long hours, but because I'm constantly teaching a new subject, class, or grade, I never anticipate the end of the day. By Fridays, I am excited for the weekend, but by Sundays I am ready for my week of teaching to start again.

This weekend was wonderfully relaxing! I slept in LATE, talked on SKYPE with my best friends and family, went for a run on the endless miles of soft running trails across the street from my apartment, cleaned my "house," went to the musical RENT in Seoul and explored a new church. It was my third Broadway show, but my first time seeing RENT. Beauty and the Beast in NY is still my favorite, but I'm glad I spend the money to go see it. One of the teachers who just left had told Shauna and I about Life Church Korea in Suwon, the town next to Suji. Today was our first time going anywhere without London or Britney to help direct us. So, when we got on the 720-1 bus headed toward church, I said to Shauna, "If God wants us to be in church today, he'll get us off on the right stop and help us find our way there." We knew the ride was between 35-45 minutes to the stop where we were supposed to get off. We were looking for a Premium Outlet Mall that we were told was very obvious. About forty minutes into the trip, passed many large shopping areas, we were starting to loose hope thinking we would have to try again next week. Suddenly, I heard Premium Outlet announced on the bus, the only stop announced in English the entire time we were riding. I practically pushed Shauna out of the seat saying, "Did you hear that? That's our stop! It said Premium Outlet in English...get off!" So we jumped off only to stand there thinking, "now what?" It was clear God wanted us in church today when two other Americans (married from Iowa) got off right behind us and asked us if we were going to church this morning. They kindly walked us there (about 10 minutes from the bus stop) and we had a rejuvenating morning at church. Everyone was extremely welcoming, it had a contemporary English service, and their were many other foreigners. I am so excited to go back again!

Each weekend since I have been here, I have enjoyed relaxing with friends and/or family, sleeping until noon (which, I haven't done since high school and feels amazing!) exploring new churches, and seeing tourist attractions in Seoul. By Sunday evening though, I am excited to see my students and face the excitement and challenges of the week. It's Sunday evening right now, and I'm ready for tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Eric!

Today we had a birthday celebration in class! For those of you who don't know, Koreans are actually considered to be one when they are born. Everyone is also grouped according to the year they were born. According to Korean age, sometimes someone can be two years older than their actual age! In the Kindergarten classes, the mother of the child who is celebrating their birthday organizes a party and brings in LOTS of food and a present for the children. All the other students in the class also bring a present for the birthday child. Today Eric received everything from new school supplies (crayons, pencil holders, pencils) to toys and even a POLO shirt! Eric gave each student a set of binoculars! The children sang Happy Birthday to Eric in English and Korean, watched him blow out his candles, and then literally shoveled their faces with food. We had chocolate cake, huge chocolate chip cookies, Korean Dukbokki (hot and spicy rice cake, which I actually liked a lot!), tangerines, juice, pop, and of course...fried chicken! Following this celebration, the children were supposed to go to play gym. I vetoed that after Eric (the birthday boy) threw up his birthday meal in the toy basket in our classroom minutes after eating it! Instead we caught up on classwork we got behind on from the party. The children had a blast, and we all can't wait for the next birthday celebration!

Seoul City Bus Tour

Today was a wonderful day! The main reason being...I got to see family in Korea! My uncle Bob is also teaching English (at the college level) in South Korea. He was in Seoul this weekend interviewing new candidates for the Fulbright teaching opportunity in the United States. He stayed an extra day to take me, Shauna, London, and Britney on the Seoul City Bus Tour. The tour allows you to ride all day and get off at any of the stops for as long as you want with a bus arriving every half hour to take you to the next site. We visited many of Seoul's main attractions starting at 11:00am and finishing at 6:00pm. It was a long, but great day in the city! My personal favorite was our first stop at the Deoksugung Palace because we arrived just in time to see the changing of the guards. Other places we stopped were the National Museum of Korea, the War Monument of Korea, the Seoul Tower, and the Gyeonghuigung Palace (one of many along the way). The one place we didn't stop at was either of the very large markets, which we all agreed would be more fun once we get a pay check. We have plenty of weekends left to get there. Thank you uncle Bob for your generosity in taking us out for the day...we had a blast!

Week One Complete!

I have survived my first week of teaching in Korea, and I loved it! I can not believe that I have been here for two weeks (today) already! I feel like I was just sitting in my hotel room watching re-runs of Law and Order waiting anxiously to teach, and now I'm going into my second week.

If you take a look at my kindergarten class at the top, I will help you get to know them a little better. Starting from the left, Issac is precious. He always does his homework, but I can't read his writing (no, it's not Korea). His favorite line is, "Teacha, this one?" (pointing to where he thinks the answer should go, which is always correct) after I just write the answer on the board and point in their work books exactly where to write it. He's just like me...usually knows what he's doing, but always checking to make sure he's right. Rachel...class genius, class queen, and teacher's pet. Before the rest of the class has even written the entire first answer down, Rachel is always saying, "Teacha finished, teacha finished." Her mom called last week saying Rachel always wants to finish the entire workbook, which is intended to last the entire semester! She is very good at helping the slower students in class, but also knows how to work each student. The other girls are constantly trying to please Rachel so that she wants to be their friend. Kelly can't stay on her bottom. She is constantly handing her pencils, erasers, and anything she has to other students. She is also very smart and is always telling the students next to her the answers to help them get done faster. I constantly have to remind her to do her own work! Ann is the best listener in the class. She is sweet and quiet. She too is always asking where to write her answers when they are on the board. Sally also can't stay on her bottom and is a smart girl. When we play the matching pairs game, she never forgets where a card is to find its match. Eric never does his homework, but always does his work in class and likes it! He is never afraid to let me know when he doesn't understand something. His favorite line is, "Teacha help me, teacha help me." Last but not least is tiny Kevin with a perm. (Many boys here get them!) He is so sweet, but takes the most work. Most of the time I have to stand directly behind him and point exactly to where he should be writing or he is in his own creative world. He also makes the most noise for being the smallest. He was gone on Friday, and it made a world of difference in how smoothly class went! It's very fun to continue getting to know more about each other their personalities!

Contrary to what I thought I would enjoy more, I really like teaching the elementary students in the afternoon better. I love young kids, and my kindergarten students are so cute, but a lot more to handle. The older students are much more well behaved, can communicate well, are so curious, and ask many questions when they don't understand. Class discussions is great and they are so fun to teach! I never have to prepare for Kindergarten. I just show up and teach every day. My older classes require me to at least look over the material enough to know what I'm talking about. I was observed by my supervisor for my Social Studies and Writing class on my second day teaching, and she was "So impressed!" so it was a good feeling! Friday morning, I had to attend a Science Seminar. When asked to answer a basic science question, I got it wrong! I laughed and said, "That's probably why I had to drop Biology freshman year!" My supervisor still trusts me enough to start teaching Science in November. We'll see how that goes...should be interesting!

This morning (Saturday) I woke up to my dad calling me on Skype from the Brainerd hospital where his mother lives. One of my greatest worries coming here was leaving my two grandmothers at their age. I couldn't believe I was already getting a call about one of them being in the hospital, so it was my first downer about being here. She was feeling better when they called, and I was fortunate enough to talk to her through my web cam as dad brought his along to the hospital! Please keep her, my family, and my uncle Bob (her son, also in S. K.) and I in your prayers as we are far away from her. Tomorrow, myself, Shauna, London, and Britney are going to visit uncle Bob in Seoul. He is excited to take us on a bus tour and out to see more places in the big city. Sounds like a blast!