We keep it partyin' til the AM

This last week went well at school. The second week was at least easier than the first, I am still getting the hang of everything but I at least feel like I have a better handle on what I’m supposed to be doing. I had to crack the whip a little on my last class of the day so they would be better listeners, basically I threaten to take away their extra credit points, so far it works pretty well.

Friday we went on a field trip to the War Museum, this was pretty fun but a little wild. The museum has a lower level that is like a Children’s Museum. The kids were super excited about it and there was a lot of fun stuff there. However I think we tortured the poor kids will a lot of staged photos; no don’t really play just act like you are and then get out of the way so I can stage this 10 more times. The outside had a lot of old war stuff, like airplanes/tanks/ships etc. Unfortunately it was raining outside so we didn’t spend very much time outside. It would be cool to go back when the weather is a little nicer and look around a little more. The car ride there was funny, we had 18 students, and 4 adults in a van and this van was the size of a mini van, maybe just a little bigger, it’s a good thing all these kids are so little. But we sang songs on the way and I talked a little about what we were going to see. Did a little review of new vocabulary words etc. Oh shout out to Mykle the kids love the slippery fish song! You earned me some points with the director’s husband he love the song too : )

After school I picked up some stuff at the grocery store, I went in for bread and came out with a sack full of stuff; isn’t that how it always is? Then came home and did a little work for school and watched some shows online. I am getting a little desperate and will watch anything, all the normal stuff like hulu and abc etc don’t work over here :( The main event of Friday night was me doing some laundry!! Haha I have no idea what the settings are I just know I need to push two buttons and it “works” but there is no dryer so I have to hang dry everything, but it has been raining so much my stuff is taking forever to dry!! It’s at least warmer so they aren’t so bad and the washing machine spins them surprisingly well.

Saturday morning I slept in a lot! I think part of it was that I was tired from the week, part of it was that it was raining so what’s the point of getting up, and the last part was that I knew I would be going out that night so I needed to be ready for a long night. I got ready at my house for the night and then went out in the monsoon to head to my new friends apartment (we hadn’t met in real life at this point). I got to her place just fine with time to spare. I still don’t really know how long it takes me to get around so I have been getting places early. I’m sure once I get more familiar with the city I will get back to my old (late) self :) I got to her apartment and no one was there! I wasn’t sure what to do. I waited a little bit, knocked again. Then I saw this girl coming out of her apartment and I asked (pantomimed) to use her phone. I call my new friend and I guess she had sent me a message telling me to push back our meeting time but I missed her message. This not having a phone is a real problem! I can’t wait to get one. The girl that I borrowed a phone from was super nice. I have no idea if she understood what I was telling her but I could tell she didn’t want to leave me unless I was okay. Luckily there was a coffee shop just downstairs and I just waited until the girls got back down there. The girls I met were Elena and Brittany, Elena is from Texas and has been working here for just about a year, she is leaving in a few weeks to go home but is coming back after a month to work in a new school. Brittany is from Colorado and has only been here for a month and a half. They are super nice girls and I think I made some new real friends : ) We got ready and headed to Hongdae which is a pretty big hot spot for nightlife. The cab driver there was pretty funny, they were playing that song “last Christmas I gave you my heart” on the radio so we gave him a karaoke show : ) haha We hopped around to different bars/clubs most of the night, the girls knew a bunch of people and it was someone’s birthday so we met up with a lot of different people. I was crazy because there were so many English speakers in one area, where I live I am lucky if I see one. We sang and danced all night. I learned some cool Korean dance moves, which I will be practicing in my room this week so I am ready for the weekend! However Koreans stay out all night. We didn’t head home until about 6 in the morning. We went out and got some breakfast and had to deal with a creepy Korean man that wanted to sit at our table with us. Then I made my way home, debating on whether or not I should sleep or not, because I will need to sleep later that night and be ready to work on Monday. So I stayed up a little bit did some things. Then I took a short nap finished getting things ready for the week.

I know I will be going out again next weekend so there will be new stories and adventures to be shared.

PS. Special shout out to my mom! Happy Birthday!! I hope you have a wonderful birthday I love you very very much!!!! Talk to you soon : )

Would you like to be my friend... confirm or ignore.

Review of my first real weekend in Korea

Fridays at my school are “special days” this could be field trips, cultural days, cooking days etc. This last Friday was a cooking day! My morning students made; mini hamburgers & frozen bananas (dipped in chocolate). My afternoon students are divided up into 4 classes; one class made hotdogs, another mini hamburgers, another pizza, and another egg salad sandwiches. I think I have found the root of the Asian obsession with taking pictures, they do it at the schools! They seriously took a picture of each student with his or her mini hamburger and then again with their frozen banana. The students couldn’t eat them until after they had taken a few posed pictures with their food. I can understand a few staged photos here and there but I would rather just get some candid photos and call it a day. I kind of understand the reasoning; schools are much more like a business here than in the states, the schools need these photos to advertise their school. However I was just waiting for a kid to drop their hamburger all over the floor because they were too busy posing for the camera. Luckily everyone got to enjoy their creations without any accidents. The afternoon class was a little more chaotic, we had all the students downstairs in the gym each set up at their own station, there were only about 30 students and 3 teachers plus me, but when you have a propane stove top, an electric dutch oven thing and every student has a knife things get a little stressful. Plus about 12 of those students are spaztaticular, they have only been learning English for a few months, they are older but so much harder to control. I am still trying to figure out the best classroom management for them, I am trying to decide between punishment vs reward, I might end up doing some type of mixture, like a point system.

On Saturday I really mostly slept a lot. I am still getting used to the time difference, I think the week took it out of me. However I live really close to the river, it reminds me a lot of Portland’s waterfront. There is a bike trail, a small rose/flower garden, running and walking trails right along the river. There are basketball courts, soccer field, children’s playground, a stake part area, a rock climbing wall, and fountains. There is a swimming area but it isn’t open, I’m not sure why it isn’t considering it’s summer. However one of the fountains is super cool, you can run around and play in the water but the best part is that the water will go in time with the music playing. I love watching it and it is fun seeing the kids run around and have so much fun. There is also a metro station that stops right by it and I think every Saturday they have an open air market. I love to go here on my off time, it is a nice place to get outside and enjoy a little sun or people watch. I spent some of Saturday here and Sunday morning here too.

Saturday night I hit the web to find some friends. I found a meetup website that looked promising. I found a group that was getting together Sunday evening for a walk in one of the older parts of Seoul and then going out to dinner, the area is called Insadong and Bukchon . I really wanted to go but it involved taking the metro, I haven’t been on the metro in Seoul yet and I was a little apprehensive about trying to do it on my own. I left a comment seeing if anyone that was going lived near me and wouldn’t mind helping me out. There were no takers, so I just decided to (wo)man-up and just go for it. I got to the metro station alright, I am pretty sure there is a faster way to get there but I took the route with the least turns and kept to the main/busier roads. While I was heading up the escalator to the station I heard some people speaking English, so naturally I waited for them to catch up to me and asked them to take pity on me. They most helpfully obliged! They helped me get a metro pass, which they call a T-money card (best name ever), and we chatted during the trip, they made sure I got off at the correct stop and even gave me their number just in case. The girl was from Montreal and the boy was from Tennessee. I transferred to my new train and got to the meeting place with plenty of time to spare. There were about 9 of us that showed up for the walking tour and dinner outing. I really like the idea of meet ups especially in new cities, it can really be difficult to make new friends. We saw some of the old traditional houses which was interesting to see among newer buildings. We walked around the shopping area too, it is more of the arty area. I would love to go back to this area and look around some more.  Dinner was very good, we went to a vegetarian restaurant that mixed Chinese and Korean style of cooking together. One of the guys that was there, lives pretty close to where I do and knows some girls that live right around where I live. I have added them on facebook and I think we will hang out later this week or weekend. After dinner a few of the other girls and I went to a late night shopping area, this is an open air market too. Where they have lots of great look knock off designer bags/sunglasses etc. The area is called Dongdaemun, am sure I will being going back again! After that I was able to get myself on the right train home and find my way back to my apartment! I was feeling very proud of myself and I really think I can handle this subway system. It’s crazy how much there is in Seoul and now I feel like I have it at my fingertips. I really want to explore and see a lot, so I hope I can make some new friends that will come with me, it is always more fun to explore with a buddy : )

I hope everyone is doing well!

PS: Shout out to my dad! Happy Father’s Day! I hope you had a great Father’s day!! I love you so much!!!

How do you say "pee in a cup" in Korean

Korean Physical

So today was the day that I had my physical exam. I have to get and pass this in order to get my alien registration card…I can’t get a bank account without it; thus pretty important. I was lucky enough to get an early morning time, at first my appointment was going to be at 9pm but my director found a different hospital that could get me in at 9am. Considering that lately I’ve been falling asleep at 8pm I really appreciated the change.

One of the other teachers came with me, she is the head teacher and super nice, her name is Ester. The doctor’s office was in this skyscraper type building and there were many other things inside it…like a school. The doctor’s office was quite the adventure; there is no way I would have been able to do it alone. The moment I was asking myself…wtf what is going on here. Is when I was asked to go into a room then I had to take off my top and bra then I laid down on the bed and the “doctor” put clamps on my ankles, wrists and these little suction cup things on different parts of my chest, mean while all these things have wire attached to it connected to a machine. Maybe this is a normal piece of equipment but I had never seen it before. I felt like I was a Frankenstein monster. The rest was pretty normal, eye exam, hearing test, blood test, this machine that you stand on and hold on to and it determines your weight, muscle mass, water level etc. The peeing in the cup was the funniest part. I was told not to eat or drink anything the night before or in the morning, so not thinking I went to the bathroom when I woke up leaving nothing in me for the doctor :/ oops. I couldn’t do it, I had to drink a few glasses of water and do some other parts of the exam and then try again. Keep in mind there are about 6 other people (not all staff) that are watching and witnessing my exam. Luckily I was able to get something out the second time but it wasn’t easy. I was so scared that someone was going to knock it over and they were going to ask me to do it again.

After the exam we headed back to the school, the exam already took longer than we thought it would and were about 30 minutes into class. But before I was allowed to teach I was given a little snack, which was very nice but it was lukewarm pumpkin soup, I didn’t really want it but Ester insisted that I eat it. Today was a weird food day for me, after school the director always provides a little snack for the teachers. Which is awesome! But today she went a little more traditional Korean than usual. There was this round thing that I thought was something holding purpleish rice…this isn’t a crazy thought because at lunch today the rice was purpleish, it had beans in it. Turns out NOT rice, I pretty sure it was intestines sliced up. It was the first thing that I’ve had to spit out in Korean. Luckily the staff just had a good laugh about it. I hope I didn’t offend anyone, I’ve been pretty good about trying everything but there was just no way I could eat that.

Tomorrow is cooking day, which should be fun. The kids are very excited about it. We are making lots of “American food” hotdog, hamburger, frozen banana, sandwich, pizza and fruit drink. I have to make a hamburger recipe tonight.

A moment of Kudos to myself:

The first day I started teaching in the maple class (second youngest age group) I noticed one of the little girls looking super sad. Later during the class she started crying (had no idea why) I just let the Korean teacher handle it. A little bit later I asked the class to do something and she looked like she wanted to cry again. So I went up to her offered her a hug and then had her sit back down and do what everyone else was doing. The next day she looked a million times happier and was super excited about class, very involved etc. So I just figured that she had an off day, she is 5 normal. Well I guess that she has been crying everyday in class for a long time, she cries for another older student in another class, I’m not sure if they are related or not. But I guess since I’ve started teaching she has stopped crying and asking for the older student. I just thought that was so funny…just go ahead and call me the child whisper  :) 

Marcie Teacher

First day of teaching in Korea.

Omg. I just had my first day of teaching English in Korea…wow I am so tired! Overall it was a great experience but I do feel like I was just taught how to swim by being thrown in water. In the morning time I teach 3 classes, blossom, olive, maple. Then we break for lunch and then I teach/play a learning game with maple, olive, blossom class. The students were very excited to meet me and to tell me about themselves. The funniest thing though is that they call me Marcie Teacher, even the staff call me teacher, sometime when they are talking to me instead of saying “you do this…” they will say “teacher do this…” It can get a little confusing. In the blossom class I have a very involved Korean speaking teacher which I think is helpful; in my olive class the Korean teacher is more hands off. The students in blossom and olive are about the same level. The students in the maple class are very young 4/5 years old.

This morning I was given a book and I was told you teach this okay. I was kind of wondering why they didn’t give it to me sooner, but it worked out okay. The only thing though, was that I didn’t realize I wasn’t supposed to teach the maple students something different so I was teaching these poor students something way too advanced for them…oops :/ we caught on about half way through the lesson.

Lunch time was kind of cool, the school makes the lunch for the students but the students bring these empty bento boxes with locking lid, for us to serve their food in, complete with chopsticks of course. I am doing pretty well with eating Korean food. I haven’t eaten anything that has made me sick (yet) and I have tried lots of new things and even things that I thought I wouldn’t like. I haven’t gone to the grocery store yet. I really should just go but the thought seems a little overwhelming. I might ask my teacher Ester to come with me one day this week after work. She is super nice I love her already. 

Later in the afternoon I had the older elementary students, they are called Yale, Oxford, Harvard, Cornell. Yale and Oxford are the same level, this class seems along the same lines of when I was student teaching French, have a book with text, listen the tape reading it, read it together as a class, some listening comprehension questions etc. The Harvard class is a the most advanced, I’m not really sure how much teaching I really do in this class, it is more grammar focused; like today they worked in their workbook and we went over the answers. The Cornell class is more challenging, they are older students but this is their first year learning English, it is very hard to keep them on task. This is a class where I wish I had a Korean teacher to help me keep the kids in check. However at the same time the material/ text that they are supposed to be learning is not at their level. Like today I was working on animals, and I was supposed to explain the difference between mammals, insects, reptiles, birds, fish etc. One of the questions was Which class of animals doesn’t have a backbone or skeleton? And this was the question I was supposed to be asking, they don’t know what a backbone/skeleton is and they sure as heck weren’t watching or listening to find out.

After school was over the staff had a little party for me. They even had a cake! It actually was a really good cake, I was surprised because I thought Korean bakery goods weren’t going to be very good. However I think this was from a French bakery. Also I successfully ate my piece of cake with chopsticks! Yes you heard me right I ate my cake, with surprising ease, with chopsticks! I also gave the teachers the gifts I brought them from Oregon, I got them jam and chocolate from the made in Oregon store. The chocolate had pictures of Oregon on it, which was a big hit : )

I still haven’t gotten used to the time difference, it isn’t terrible but I keep waking up super early. Like this morning I woke up at like 5 or 6 I think. I could seriously go to bed right now but I feel like I need to stay up in order to get my body on the right time. I might watch a movie or read a book for a while or organize my closet a little beat. And knowing that I have to do it all again tomorrow is just making me want to go to bed sooner…granted I know that hearing so much Korean and everything being new and different is making everything more tiring, once I get through the first week I will be good. I just need to experience everything once then I will know what is expected of me.

Alright I love you all.

Random question: if any of you have any children songs that you can email me I would love you forever. I totally spaced and forgot to copy my mom’s music :/ *hint hint mom*   

International Girl of Kimchi

First Morning in Korea: Travel adventures, first impressions.

Considering how far I was traveling the whole thing was surprisingly smooth going. I was stressed getting to the Portland airport because I had to get my ticket from the person at the desk which can sometimes take forever! But I was able to walk right up to the counter and get my ticket. I did feel a little sneaky because I put my lighter bag up first and the guy tagged it and sent it on its way then I did my second, heavier bag up and they let me slide because they had already sent the other bag to which I “could have” moved some stuff. But we are only talking a few pounds here (like3-4) so it would have been dumb if they tried to make a fuss. Then I breezed right through security, like I owned the joint :) I bought my coworkers/boss some jam and chocolate from the Made in Oregon store. I had the forethought to have little gift bags ready to go so I could wrap them at the airport, I wasn’t sure if I was going to meet them all once I arrived. The flight to Seattle was super quick, but those planes are freaky small, the one good thing about them is that they have a front and back exit.

I have never been to the Seattle airport, that place is pretty big. I had a few hours to spend before my flight to Seoul so I go a pedicure. I figured with the amount of time I will be taking my shoes off, I better get my feet into shape. The place that does it in the airport is okay, they have a “waterless” system, which I can understand why that would be easier and cleaner but it still seems like a rip. Especially for how much they charge.  However my feet are pretty and polished :) I still have weird feet tan lines, it’s weird the tops of my feet are really tan but my toes and legs aren’t, haha. I think it’s because I wear flats a lot with jeans so the tops of my feet get the most exposure.

I took the tram inside the airport to my gate got my new ticket and changed my money into Korean won. Thanks a lot dollar for being weaker :/ It isn’t that much weaker but still is lame. Then made some calls and got some lunch. It was funny because I made my first Asian friend (from Japan, but is half Japanese/Korean) at lunch. The place was crowded and he and I were going for the same empty table, I got there first (maybe) but I offered to share, he gave me the table but after doing a quick lap around the room came back to take up my sharing offer.  It was pretty funny because he didn’t speak much English and I felt like I was testing his skills, he did have a little translator on his phone that was pretty cool, a little inaccurate but help get the point across. The funniest thing was when he asked me if I knew about and had facebook; haha I guess his friend that he was visiting showed it to him and set up an account, he was pretty excited about it.

Then it was time for me to get on the longest flight ever. However it was a pretty great flight, even in my coach class you get taken care of. Also I’m not going to lie I love how small and thin everyone is on the plane because you actually have room. Each person has their own little TV thing that you can watch movies, play games, listen to music etc. There are a lot of choices, I ended up watching like 3 movies, I kind of slept off and on. My body just couldn’t figure out what was going on, I did work on my Korean a little bit, I just made some flash cards to help me learn the alphabet. They gave us 2 pretty good meals. The only thing is you feel so gross because you’ve been sitting so long and then eating on top of that, once I got off the plane all I wanted to do was run or do something active. However I am kind of impressed with myself because I didn’t get up once on the plane, I was in a middle seat and I hate climbing over people, plus airplane bathrooms are stupid, then towards the end it became a challenge to see if I could do it. Also Incheon airport is a very smoothly run airport, it’s crazy how calm and quiet it is, I got through customs and got my bags no problem, then you walk out the door to where the public is. I think that must be it, keeping the public out of even baggage claim, yes it can suck if you have a lot of stuff and need a hand, but I get so mad at baggage claim and it crowed over with a million people that stand stupidly close to the carasol so you can’t see your bag or they’re in the way of you bag.

Once I got outside I saw a man with my name on a sign (my driver) and he helped me get my bags to his van. This is where the real adventure begins. The van itself was hilarious, the car floor had (two different patterns) linoleum on it and the roof was padded and the stick shift had a sock over it. I am never driving in Korea! It was crazy I don’t understand how we didn’t crash a million times, he was breaking/speeding up so much I felt like I was on a rollercoaster. Plus I think he got lost/took the wrong way, that is the way it seemed according to the GPS. You know it’s bad when the foreigner can tell you need to be in the other lane or you are going to miss the turn. But I survived and made it to my apartment, my principal and her husband were waiting for us, that poor husband had to carry my 50 pound bags up to the second floor. My apartment is cute, small but not too bad. I unpacked but I’m not sure if I am going to keep everything where I put it. I need to get some hangers. My door has 4 locks on it plus another door to get inside the room itself and a little intercom so when people knock I can ask “who is it?” Then they will answer something I can’t understand and will end up having to open up the door anyway haha. It is a small complex, 2 apartments downstairs 2 on the second floor (1 being mine) and then the owner lives upstairs on the 3rd floor. I live right next to a drycleaners, which could come in handy because they have a washing machine and no drier (this is very typical) but I have no iron so it could be nice to have non-wrinkled clothes.

My boss and her husband took us to get some dinner, we got bulgogi :) it was good. It was weird just kicking your shoes off and sitting on the floor. Plus I’m not going to lie I was getting a few looks, haha I really do stick out. It is just funny to watch the heads turn, I’m not a freak show or anything, this is a huge city there are plenty of Americans etc staying here but it is a little weird.

After dinner we went to the school really quick just so I could have a little look around. It is such a cute school it has several levels. They have this cute little gym/play place downstairs and a stage. All the classrooms are colorful and cute. I am getting excited to teach but pretty nervous too, I think it’s the unknown that is scary I think once I do it for a few days I will feel great. I am feeling the same way I did before I started student teaching.

After visiting the school we came back to my apartment so I could go to bed, however I got this burst of energy and unpacked everything. Think I just didn’t want my bags on the floor. There isn’t much room for my clothes, there is a thing in the washing/drying room where I could put clothes but it’s so muggy and humid in there that I feel like they will smell bad, inside my room I have AC.  Oh and my boss is so nice and cute she even made sure I had a few groceries waiting for me :) I’m trying to decide if I want to explore a little bit today on my own. My boss invited me over to her house today at 4pm and her husband will come to the apartment to get me but its only 8am so I got some time to kill. I really need to buy an alarm clock. I thought I could use my old cellphone as one but it’s not updating to the time zone.

I am super excited about everything. Thank you everyone for your support and prayers. I will try to keep everyone updated on my adventures.