BlahBlahBlog.: I adore this. (taken from lettersofnote.com)
somuchsunshinetothesquareinch:
In November of 1958, John Steinbeck — the renowned author of, most notably, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and Of Mice and Men — received a letter from his eldest son, Thom, who was attending boarding school. In it, the teenager spoke of Susan, a young girl with whom he believed he…
Weekend Adventure
So a new friend of mine, Chris from New Zealand, invited me on a little hike in a neighboring city. I was feeling a bit sick, but decided I should get out of my apartment and go on a little adventure. So I went. I didn’t bring my camera, so all of these photos were taken with our phones…sorry.
We went to Yeosu, and hiked up 구봉산 (Gu Bong San) and saw awesomeness. 
Then we talked to some one at the top and he told us where to go to find a temple. This was exciting because even though I have been here for 4 months, I haven’t been to a temple yet! So, the next stop was 한산사 (Han San Sa).
Then we left in search of a perfect place for lunch…hiked up through someone’s garden, oops, and ended up on the steps of a temple or something that looked like one anyway. The “temple master” (that is what I will call him) invited us to have tea with him…so we did!
After that we walked around the city a bit and ended up on the waterfront. We found what I like to call the “light saber monument”…because I have no idea what it was.
From here we just walked around for a while longer…and passed this awesome store.
From here we went back to Suncheon, had dinner, and watched the Sandlot. It was a very fun adventurous day. :)
Nothing New…
Nothing new to blog about…other than the realization that no matter what country you live in…you will find drama there!
Also, I’m wearing some pretty awesome NON-ZEBRA leggings right now…and rockin’ em.
A quick update
So…it has been a while, I knew before I started that I wasn’t going to be great at updating this….so…sorry!
Things have been going well, I went to visit friends in Suwon for Christmas and New Years..it was really fun! We went dancing a lot, obviously, and one night a little Korean boy (really about 23 or something like that) kissed me on the mouth when I thought he was just trying to tell me something in English! That will teach me to lean in for a better listening experience! BUT it was really funny and cute…mainly because he was so little and shy.
This weekend is Lunar New Year for Korea…so I will have two days off from work, and I am really excited! I’m going up to Suwon to meet with friends, and then it is off to go Snowboarding!!!! I am a littleLOT nervous about it…haven’t ridden in about 3 years or so. So if nothing else, it will be entertaining to everyone around me? From what I hear, the Korean skiing and snowboarding experience is much different from that in the US. Apparently there is no consideration for personal space or staying out of someone’s way or being aware of the direction someone around you might be going in…I hear people just go all over the place, don’t look for anyone around them, and then just run into them. So, that should be fun.
I have made friends with a barista at “Yoger Presso” cafe near my work, she is super nice and she has a really cute little uniform. Her name is Yeong Jin…or some spelling similar to that…and she speaks a little English, so she tries to make conversation with me. I am also one stamp away from a free coffee there…she is pretty impressed with my americano/latte drinking capabilities. :)
My director and his wife are SUPER nice to me…any time I mention I want to find something or need directions somewhere, they just think for a second and say “we will drive you there”…they go out of their way to be helpful. AND my director’s wife’s hobby is “shopping,” so when I mentioned I needed to buy a coat, she cleaned out her “overflowing” closet and gave me three really nice and stylish coats! I now have my original USA old lady purple jacket, a Korean long black coat, a “crimson” coat, and a black and white flannel looking coat with some specks of sparkle! Pretty awesome!
[Flash 10 is required to watch video]
The sound is not very good, but i assure you this club was “hoppin” you can see how crowded it was for New Years when the lights flash on the crowd!!
A LOT over due, but this was taken on New Years Eve in Seoul. Spent time with some college friends and new friends…we ate pancakes, went ice skating, and then danced until the sun came up.
So my classes have been getting better…students responding to my questions/comments (though I had to give them candy in order for them to grace me with their use of the English language)…less disruption in class (no cell phone or Korean use)…but Monday and Today…no bueno! Students just ignoring me, pretending that I am not standing directly in front of them asking them a question…when I ask every single person the same question…”what is a bank”…each one responds with “I don’t know”. Give me a break, everyone knows what a bank is. They are all just pretending they don’t know anything. One question said “where is your office?” the options were…a)on the table..b) on the fifth floor. Over half of the students selected answer A. COME ON! You cannot have an office on a freaking table. UGH!
I am having a difficult time not getting frustrated. I know that their English is better than they want me to think…I have seen their writing…they know some English.
Also, I keep having computer problems at work. The listening questions are all on a program that requires Internet connection to run. Well..it seems every other class, the computer decides it does not like the Internet, and it will NOT find any available wifi networks for me to use. So…in comes the Director, he can’t get it to work…so I hand write all the questions on the board, and read the dialogue for the students. This is ok, but it wastes sooooo much time. Why don’t the computers ever work for me?!?! I don’t get it.
Anyway, this was my Wednesday.
Haven’t met any foreigners or koreans my age…so I went to a restaurant/bar alone tonight. :( These are all the sides that came with my meal…for free!
Day 1 of Teaching
Day 1 is complete! I started my day by waking up to having no water…so that was neat. I then decided to take an adventure to home plus (a large walmart, HEB plus type of place…it has everything). I like the idea of walking places, and walking to home plus takes about 30 minutes. It started raining on my way, I did not bring my umbrella…so i walked super fast, but did not out walk the rain. Eventually I will learn the brands of food items etc. that I like, but my first experience with shopping wasn’t very easy. I didn’t have a lot of time, so I couldn’t just browse the mulit-floored establishment! I have a translator on my phone, which is nice, so I would walk up to employees and show them in Korean what I was looking for! It was a big help.
After the store, I walked 30 minutes back to my apartment…in the rain…slightly uphill…and was a little sweaty from carrying all my groceries in my backpack (they charge you for bags)…and couldn’t shower because I had no water! But I heated some of my bottled drinking water on the stove and rinsed off.
As far as school goes…I teach 8 classes a day, about 37 minutes each, with about 10-15 students in each class. My first class was pretty good, I think I remember their names…but it was down hill from there. My last class of the day were older students…the boys just kept staring at me while the girls…well they were staring too. I teach “listening” which consists of playing pre-recorded questions and the students have to answer the questions based on the pictures associated with them or the conversations etc. Super easy. Except after the questions I try to ask them if there are any words they didn’t recognize, or try to explain what certain phrases meant…none of them would talk to me! Just staring…or ignoring me when I told them “no korean!” (they aren’t supposed to speak Korean during the English class…duh).
So I think over time I will be able to figure out their specific needs, and will get more comfortable with them…hopefully they do too!
