Firsts, and Other News.

Yo.

So, it’s been a while since I blogged. In the past weeks there haven’t been enough things blog-worthy to happen, but the accumulated amount I think is worth a blog entry on this fine week before Christmas. I’m in my 2nd to last week of teaching for year, because the school year ends on Wednesday the 29th. I, however, will be teaching “English Camp” for the first two weeks of January. English Camp isn’t really camp, its just more classes (these kids don’t catch a break! Instead of actually relaxing at home during their vacation they just go to extra classes during the afternoon. Poor things!) but the good news is that I have complete freedom for what I plan for it. English Camp, I am told, goes from 9:30am-12:30pm Monday through Friday. Now, they haven’t told me yet if it’s going to be two different groups of students (2 one-week sessions) or the same kids for both weeks. I guess it depends on how many students enroll, but of course they won’t know that until the Friday before I’m supposed to teach!! So lately at school I’ve been brainstorming and planning my Winter Camp lessons. I definitely want to do an international theme for one of the weeks, where the students learn about customs, food, clothing, and music from different parts of the world, all the while learning useful vocabulary and phrases for talking about all of those things. I really want to students to create something throughout the week so they have something to present and be proud of at the end of the week. For the international week, I think I’m going to have them create their own country, choosing customs, music, food, activities, laws, or even the design for their postage stamp (thanks for that great idea Lauren!). On the last day, students can visit each other’s countries and do the activities that the students create there. I got an idea online to make “passports” for each student so they can keep track of where they’ve “visited” (aka learned about). The passport will also have personal information about them so I can get to know my students a little better.

If I have the same kids for a second week, I want to continue with the theme but switch to travel. The target language for the lessons will be airport and travel situational vocabulary and phrases, and also what to pack, what could go wrong, etc. For their final project I think I’m going to have them work on skits, incorporating all the situations we talked about throughout the week. If I have a different group the second week, I’ll either repeat the International theme or pick another one, maybe music. I have a weeks-worth lesson plan sketched out for a music theme. But where I’m stuck is figuring out what they can create during that week. The students are extremely shy so having them make up a song and perform it or something is out of the question. I thought maybe they could learn the lyrics to an English song and do something with that. Help? Ideas? Keep in mind these are middle school students with VERY low self-esteem and a very narrow area of interest.

Other things:

I had a first 2 weekends ago. It’s not Korean at all, or even Asian, but it’s still a first for me: I got my very first pedicure. My friend Blythe called me up last Sunday and asked me if I wanted to get pedicures with her. Now, I have always avoided pedicures for two reasons. 1) For a long time I was a dancer and my feet were guaranteed to look like crap all the time. Paying to get them all prettied up would be a waste of money and time because dancing barefoot 3 days a week would cause my feet to look NASTY after just a few weeks. 2) My feet are EXTREMELY ticklish. I always had this image in my head of what me getting a pedicure would look like and it always ended with me not being able to control my reactions and giving the pedicurist a healthy kick in the nose. SO when Blythe called me I was thrilled at the idea with spending a chilly Sunday afternoon in a warm salon with her reading fashion magazines and chatting about our love lives. Or whatever people do when they get pedicures. I admitted to Blythe my hesitations due to my extreme ticklish-ness, but it didn’t take much to convince me since I was really looking forward to some girl time. Blythe said she was ready to be amused and would be sure to bring her camera. Which she did. And what she documented thankfully wasn’t what I had imagined would happen, just a few moments of “OMG that tickles. Hold it in, HOLD IT IN!” and a general good time. It turns out it wasn’t a complete pedicure that we had expected with the wax and the lotion and the soaking, just some lotion and a really good paiyyynt job!(said in Little Rascals voice). Nevertheless it was fun to hang with Blythe and read fashion magazines and talk about our love lives and get to know each other a little more. After our pedies we shopped a little in the surrounding stores (I didn’t buy anything though), then went for coffee. Later we called up Val and met us near Ajou University for Japanese food. Yum! We ended up sitting there for 2 hours just talking, so we continued our conversation at a nearby cute, trendy café down the street where we proceeded to play a really intense game of Uno.

What else…
I had another first. This one was actually Korean so it’s a little more exciting. Val and I joined some friends at a Nore bang (pronounced nor-ee-bahng) (singing room). They’re super popular here. Its basically a place where you and your friends can go into this huge room and do karaoke. But this was intense. There’s a huge TV and tamborines laying on the huge couch that lines 2 walls of a room that is probably close to the size of my entire apartment. They even had free ice cream! I sang Baby Got Back and some other ones. Classic. Good times! Looking forward to going back soon.

After hearing that The Nutcracker was in town (well, in Seoul) ,on a whim I called the foreigner hotline Seoul Arts Center where it’s playing to see if there were any tickets still available. When the lady on the phone said there were, I just went for it and and bought tickets for Val & I for Dec. 30th. Our seats are really far away (on the 3rd floor, but 2nd row)but they were only 30,000 won (about 30 bucks) so I thought it would be worth it. It’s being performed by the Korea National Ballet. I haven’t seen the Nutcracker (or any professional ballet) since I was a very little girl, and Val’s never been the ballet, so I’m really looking forward to it. Yay! I’ll let you know how it is.

I started taking yoga classes once a week. We’ve only had 2 classes so far but I really like it. It’s the perfect combination of stretching and exercise. Even though the teacher doesn’t speak a word of English, she’s very kind and always makes sure I have a mat near the front so she can gesture to me. There is one woman in the class who speaks English so she makes sure to sit next to me so she can occasionally translate. I’m really glad I’m getting at least SOME exercise, because before I wasn’t getting any at all aside from walking around. I feel really good about that.

For Christmas, Val's friend Taylor invited us to a Christmas buffet at a Canadian-style bar and grill place in Seoul. The buffet's supposed to have turkey and ham and all that good stuff and I'm REALLY excited because there is NO turkey in this country and its my favorite meat. So that's what we'll be doing Christmas day. As for New Years, no plans yet but hoping to go out with friends.

It's starting to get cold here. We had our first real snow (that stuck) last week, and since then it's been pretty darn cold. Apparently we get jet winds from Siberia and Mongolia and it's damn cold. I mean, I'm used to the cold but the winds here are frigid and strong. It's definitely winter. The good news is that Korea's winters are supposed to be fairly dry, so it won't be too snowy but still cold. What is cold without snow? Not fun. Despite that, I think I'm OK with a winter sans knee-high snow banks. I have to admit, though, not seeing snow until December was a shock. I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've gone without seeing snow, so I was happy when it started to fall. It was pretty!

No more news on the North Korea stuff.

Watched Strictly Ballroom on our movie channel this weekend. Score.

One last thing. I watched Toy Story 3 last night, and I cried at the end. Legit cried. Like, had to wipe my eyes and blow my nose cried. Val thought I was being ridiculous but those of you who told me what tear-jerker it was you ain’t lyin! Man, those Pixar movies really get to me.

Overall, I think I'm doing than I was before. As my Mom helped me realize, two of the things I felt I was missing in my life I now have. I wanted friends and a chance to exercise. Now that I have my awesome friends from the GEPIK orientation and the yoga class, my life is feeling a little more complete. I still would love to find a dance class, but I'll take what I can get. I might start a pilates class in January, or I'm considering taking up belly dancing, because that's whats available here. I think I'd be fun and REALLY good exercise.

Ok, I’m going to go now, I think that’s enough to keep you busy for a while ☺.
Merry Christmas and happy belated Chanukah! By the way, I somehow remembered to pack a menorah and Chanukah candles when I left so I got to light the menorah every night. It was very special to share the rituals with Val (and to make him latkes!). I made latkes for us and then brought most of them to school, along with my homemade applesauce, to share with my colleagues. They were a hit and they devoured all of them… there weren’t even any left to bring back home!

Ok, I’m really going now. Miss you all!

Love,
Mel

New Friends, New Ideas

Greetings!

First of all, I have had a number of inquiries from worried family members and friends regarding the N. Korean attack on the South Korean island of Yeongpyong. No worries--I am safe, alive, and nowhere near that island. In terms of safety, the advice I was given was just to observe the Koreans around me. If they aren't freaking out, I probably shouldn't either. Then again, how do they really know. But this sort of thing "happens all the time" so if the Koreans don't believe it's serious then there's no reason for me to get all worked up. The Koreans are going on with business as usual, so I will too. I registered with the U.S. Embassy here when I arrived, and I recently signed up for their e-mail/text message alert system so I will receive a text and an e-mail if there are travel warnings being issued for South Korea. Until then, I'm keeping my eyes and ears peeled and continuing to ask questions. I think that's all I can do right now.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of the past week I was at teacher training/orientation for GEPIK middle school and high school teachers. GEPIK is the Gyeonggi (pronounced geeyong-gee) English Program in Korea. It is basically the organization that recruits Native English teachers for the public schools in the Gyeonggi province. My employer is my school, but my contract is a standard GEPIK contract that all GEPIK teachers have no matter where they work. Soo anyway, GEPIK held this orientation this week in Anseong, a small city about an hour south of Suwon. I got a chance to meet a bunch of other English teachers in my area and go to lectures giving me great teaching and classroom management tips specifically for my situation. It's often hard to get advice from people from home about teaching because there are so many things that factor into teaching English in Korea that make it difficult and different than teaching American students. All of the lectures were geared specifically towards teaching Korean middle school and high school students in large classes with co-teachers and language and culture barriers, so they were super helpful.

I really enjoyed mingling with other teachers too and swapping ideas about what has worked (and not worked) in our classrooms. Most of the teachers are about my age and the majority of them have been in Korea for less than 6 months so we're all in the boat. Besides finally being able to make some of my own friends, my favorite part of the week was probably the demo lesson presentations we had to do. The entire group of about 80 people were split into groups of 15 according to what area we worked and lived in. In my group, consisting of teachers teaching in Suwon and surrounding areas, we got put into pairs and assigned a lesson topic to teach. We had one night to make our lessons plans (only 15 minutes long) and the next morning we all "taught" each other. Now, since classrom management is one of the biggest challenges of our jobs, as the students we were instructed to act like our students! Challenging our "teachers" with off-topic (and incorrect) questions, creating distractions, and not listening to directions and therefore delaying the activities, we imitated our students' accents and often inappropriate questions and language. We were all sort of fooling around with it and it was fun! I also walked away from the demo lessons with 5 other lesson plan ideas (worksheets and activities included) to bring back to my class.

My partner Michael and I did a lesson on American Holidays. We split our "class" into three groups and gave each group an information card about one of the following holidays: Halloween, Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving. After Michael and I did an example with Choesok (Korean Harvest holiday), the students were instructed to learn the information on the card. Then they had to go around and ask the other students about the other holidays and write it down on the charts we handed out. For the activity, we posted signs for each holiday on opposite sides of the room and the students were instructed to run to the sign that matched the vocabulary word we gave them, for example "jack-o-lantern", "pumpkin pie", "fireworks", or "independence". I think it was a success!

Another fun part of the orientation was learning a traditional Korean mask dance called Tacheum. Thursday afternoon we got to choose an activity to do, choosing from tradition dancing, learning about K-Pop (Korean pop music), a craft activity, and Korean calligraphy. All of the activities sounded appealing but I knew I wanted to do one that would get me up and moving after a whole morning and afternoon of sitting in lectures and lessons. I of course enjoyed dancing it and learning about the history and story of the dance. The traditional Tacheum dance is actually a mix of drama and movement and the performances almost always followed the same story that ends in tradgedy. Our instructor described the dance as very "down to earth", meaning that it was really a people's dance. It was never performed for the King or anything. It was and remains very sacred to the Korean people.

Last weekend I went to the Seoul Lamp Festival with Val, his/our friend Peter (the Korean-American who's originally from the town over from Sarah in NJ) and his friend, which I think many of you saw pictures of on FB. Unfortunately, at the festival I dropped my camera and the retractable lense got jammed, so the camera is temporarily out of service. I think it will be an easy fix because we took the lense part apart and nothing's broken, the lense is just jammed and needs to be re-aligned. If I discover the price of repairing it is close to the price of a new camera, well, Happy Chanukah to me! I'll probably buy a new camera. So sorry about that, you'll have to wait for more pictures for a while.

This weekend, after I got home from the training, I met two of the girls from orientatin out for drinks and dancing. Michelle was my roommate at the training and she hails from Toronto. She's been in Korea for about 3 months. Blythe is from Sacramento and has only been here for 3 weeks! Michelle, Blythe, Val, and I met for drinks at a REALLY cool bar at Suwon station that looked like a Moroccan restaurant with colorful pillows on which we sit on the floor and a sheet of veil separating each table. The vibe was chill and the drinks were good. We stayed there for a while and then went out dancing. We had a great time shaking it and drinking our free drinks (you get a ticket for a free drink after paying the \10,000 cover (about 10 bucks). That's a little steep if you ask me but getting a free drink out of it, I can live with it. After dancing the night away, Val & I headed home around 3am. I already have plans in the making to meet some of the other GEPIK teachers in my area next weekend. YAY for finally havs ing friends.

The rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful because I caught a nasty cold that pretty much put me out of commission for Sat and Sun. I spent the days Skyping with family and relaxing with Val and watching TV which I finally got set up. There are a number of English channels including movie channels and National Geographic Wild. Pretty sweet! I also found 2 channels that air reruns of one of my favorite shows ever that is no longer on and I can not find anywhere online: ALIAS! 10 points for my Korean TV channels.

This week and next week I am not teaching regular classes due to my students preparing for and then taking their final exams. So I'll be sitting at my desk all day, every day so feel free to g-chat me anytime!

Love to you all. I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving!

Love,
Mel

You Guessed It! More Korean Culture

Hi again!

OK, so you're probably thinking, "Ew, what the heck is this post about? Toilets and hairy food?" Well, yes it is. :) I've been making more observations about surprising and different things I am encountering here in Korea. So I'mma just go ahead and get to it.

1. Koreans drive like maniacs. They're as bad (or perhaps worse) than New Yorkers. Whenever I get into a taxi I fear for my life. People zoom through intersections and drive REALLY close to other cars. People even drive through red lights on a regular basis. Waiting at a red light, it's not uncommon to see a car slow down, the driver look to see if there is anyone coming in the opposite traffic direction, and zoom through the red light, spastically honking their horn. It's INSANE.

2. Regular toilets are a rare siting. Squatting toilets, as seen in the photo, are what you'll find about 70% of the time. These definitely get some getting used to. I'll be the first to admit that I avoid them at all costs, only using them if my bladder is about to burst and there is no toilet in the bathroom I'm in. And when I must use it, it's difficult. It takes some practice. If I don't pay attention, I end up peeing on my shoe, followed by me usually cursing and wiping my shoe furiously. Then I feel ridiculous. There is usually at least one regular toilet if you need to go ....erm... "number two," but otherwise you gotta use a squat toilet if the real one is occupied. Luckily at Sannam the teachers' bathroom has one regular toilet which I use whenever I can. Oh, by the way, the toilet seat is heated in the winter. So instead of that moment of wincing you have when you first sit down on the cold porcelain toilet seat, you sit and get a warm surprise. It's sort of nice. And in a school where the halls aren't heated (only the classrooms), you sort of want to stay there. Ok, enough bathroom talk.

3. There is no Korean equivalent to "bless you". Koreans don't say anything after you sneeze. It might not sound so bizarre, but after being accustomed to hearing someone say something after you sneeze for your whole life, being in a silent office (because everyone is hard at work... most of the time) and sneezing and it remaining silent is REALLY strange. I'm still not used to it!

5. In the winter, to keep warm outside people wear face masks. I was confused at first but I guess breathing warm air keeps you warm. It makes sense. I've gotten used to seeing people walking around looking like burglars or surgeons or gangsters but I was shocked when I first saw it. Even in the summer I saw people wearing them, which I don't understand really...


I swear I had so many I wanted to talk about but now as I sit down to blog I'm forgetting them! Oh well, I'll write about them later when I remember. In other news, I've been introduced to new, exotic fruits. A lychee and a hairy lychee (I'm sure you can figure out which is which) is a South East Asian fruit. The first time I encountered the lychee was at a dinner out with some fellow teachers from my school. It was a buffet dinner and upon seeing them I asked Nam Teacher, "What the heck is that?!" She laughed and explained that it was a fruit from South East Asia. With her instruction, I peeled the lychee (a somewhat difficult task) and popped the soft, rubbery center into my mouth. It tasted citrus-y and sweet. I liked it so much I even went up to get more from the buffet. Tonight I went to another dinner out with teachers at another buffet-style restaurant and what was there?! My favorite new exotic fruit. I was excited. I also saw snails at the buffet which I didn't have the guts to try. Octopus tentacles are enough for me at this point. Ick!

That's all, folks!

Love,
Mel

Trip to the Buddhist Temple

Hi folks,

I'm so glad to see your comments. There's no easy to way to reply to your comments (we aren't on Facebook, ya know), so I'll say here thank you so much for your comments and I'm so glad to hear from some old friends like BLANDINA! Girl, I was so happy to see your comment. So there's my mini shout-out and thank you to all of you who are commenting. I love them and I love hearing from all of you.

So here are me updates. Nothing new to report at school really. Just getting into the groove of things. Next week I'm going to teach about Thanksgiving since next Thursday is the day o' giving thanks. I'm really going to miss going to Grammy's with my fam and eating all the delicious food until I feel like my stomach is going to burst, but mostly I'm going to miss the company. They don't eat turkey here and they hardly have any bread products besides sugary cereals and white bread so it's not like I can even try to cook a Thanksgiving meal with turkey and stuffing, etc. Oh well. I hope you all enjoy this festive and delicious day. I'll definitely be thinking of home next Thursday!

This past Sunday I got to do something really special. Rachel and Ryan's mom took us to the Buddhist Temple that she attends. The temple is in another town, about 25 minutes away, out in the open surrounded by mountains. When we first arrived we visited the Buddhist museum on site that had ancient relics and information ... that I couldn't read because they were either written in Korean or Chinese! Fortunately, Rachel and Ryan's mom served as a tour guide and with her good English guided Val and I around and explained what we were looking at. As she explained some things I started to remember some of the information I learned in my Buddhist Traditions class I took at Muhlenberg sophomore year. I remember it being a terrible class because the professor was not good at all, but I also remember the material being interesting. As we walked around the museum I remembered flashes of information and it was nice to be able to ask questions and have somewhat of an intellectual conversation with her. At museum I got to "write" on parchment using ancient printing, meaning there was a slate with raised Korean characters and a raised picture of a temple. We brushed ink onto the slate and placed the parchment on top, then we gently rubbed the paper against the inked slate with a clothed wood so the ink transferred onto the paper and created a design! I got to try twice (didn't go so well the first time... I smeared it everywhere) and bring them home. I also got to taste flower tea, which was just tea made from a flower (it looked like wild daisy to me) soaked in water. It was so earthy and delicious!

After the museum we headed to the main area where the temples, statues, and ancient gong was. We got to peak into the temple which was very beautiful, surrounded by candles, statues of Buddha, and scented with incense. R & R's mom (I actually don't know her name!) explained that the statues of Buddha are not sacred and when people bow and pray they are not bowing and praying TO the statue. The statues are simply there to remind the believers of why there are there. I thought that was interesting. I sort of wanted to go into the temple and just sit but I chickened out about asking! There was another small temple where there were supposedly 1,000 Buddha statues. Crazy, right?!

As we walked around the temple she pointed out the mediation area (outdoors but secluded by tall trees and bushes) and we studied the paintings on the outside of the temple depicting Buddha's life. As she explained the paintings much of what I learned in my Buddhist Traditions class came back to me and I could determine what the paintings were depicting! That felt really cool...I had no idea I learned so much in that class. We continued to walk around and admire the scenery and the colorful accents of the leaves that were turning orange. It was such a special experience for me and she was such a great tour guide. I hope maybe I can go back and learn more about it. I know there are often crossovers with Judaism and Buddhism (Jewdhism?) so I wasn't surprised about how connected I felt there. I remember feeling connected to Buddhist beliefs during my class at 'Berg but actually being at a place devoted to them touched me.

One of the core Buddhist symbols is the Lotus flower. When Buddhists meditate they put their hands in the "lotus position" (pads of the middle finger and thumb touching) and there are symbols and metaphors of the lotus all over Buddhist art and scripture. The Lotus flower, if you don't know, is a white flower that grows out of mud and dirty water. The basic significance of the L is that we live in a world that is dark and dirtied with crime, greed, and deceit but by meditating and following Buddhist beliefs we can rise out of the "mud" and exist like a beautiful, pure flower. I liked the idea that you are not leaving that dirty world behind you, but you can exist purely and beautifully among it. Just like we can't escape all the terrible things in this world, but we can learn to not let it take over us and bring us down.

As you can tell, I really enjoyed this experience and I could tell it was nice for Rachel, Ryan, and their mom to share this with us. I had been looking forward to the visit ever since she mentioned she wanted to take us there and I'm glad we got to do it on a beautiful fall day. After the temple we ate at McDonald's (the kid's choice) and then went home. What a great day! The picture of Lotus flower, I must admit, is a Google image. I didn't have my camera handy when we saw the one growing in the pond at the temple!

Love to you all!

Love,
Mel

International Day, Hiking

Hey folks!

After receiving some bad news from home and having some stress at work, it's been a long week. So I'm just relaxing on a Sunday evening, listening to my new favorite online radio station called Radio Latina, a French radio station that plays latin-style songs in French, Spanish and English. All of the advertisements and talking is in French so it's like music to my ears! I miss French SO much so I love being able to listen to it whilst jamming to some great tunes.

The week was difficult because I found out that one of high school classmates died last weekend. I was not close with him, but some of my closest guy friends from home were. He was like a brother to them. To add to everything, I also got a very sad note from one of my best friends explaining that her roommate was seriously injured in a freak accident and they are waiting to find out if her brain is injured since she's in a medically-induced coma. Needless to say, it has been really hard to be away from home this week because my friends are hurting and I can't give them the support I want to. So I was kind of distracted this week and was missing home, wishing I could be there to give support to my friends. It's been hard dealing with it by myself here, even though I have Val who has of course been wonderful and a shoulder for me to cry on. When you go through things like this you just crave the company who share your pain, you know what I mean? I know my friends are well-supported at home, but I wish I could do more than send an e-mail, talk on a short phone call, or send cyber-hugs. So that's what my Facebook status was referring to this week, if you're wondering. I'm OK, my friends aren't and I can't help them. It's the worst, feeling so helpless.

Annnyways, the point of this blog was not to depress you. I actually have happy things to share. So let's get to them.

On Thursday after work I joined Val at International Day at Ajou University (where he is taking his language classes). This was an all-day event where all of the international students set up booths representing their countries and served food and had activities. The festival was concluded with cultural performances by some of the students. Sadly I missed most of the food and activities since all of that closed at 5 and I didn't get there til 5:15 or so, but I did manage to get some Turkish ice cream and of course a Cameroonian pancake. There were SO many countries represented there, like Poland, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, China, Japan, Lithuania, Vietnam, the U.S., etc. It was awesome! I was in heaven, being in such an international community haha. During the performances I got to do things like watch a Mongolian play this awesome cello-like instrument, enjoy Polish girls firedancing, jump along to the music with the Germans who performed a drinking song/dance (what a surprise haha), and participate in a Turkish circle dance similar to the Hora. It was really fun but tiring since I had come straight from work!

Friday I went with Val to his tutoring session with this ADORABLE little boy named Sang. He 11ish and he just sits there and smiles if he doesn't know the answer. I've come with Val a few times when he goes to teach him just cause I like to be with him whenever I can and watch him teach because he's so good at it. Sang's mom doesn't speak a word of English but she's very sweet (I can just tell!) and always prepares food for V & I when he teaches. On Mondays I often go with Val to teach Rachel & Ryan, the brother and sister I mentioned in an earlier, because they just live across the main road from me. Their mom speaks great English and their grandma is always there. The grandma doesn't speak any English but I guess she really likes me and always just watches V & I and smiles. I wish I could talk to her! I guess a few weeks ago V went without me and their grandma was like "where's sexy?" haha. Even when I'm exhausted after teaching my after-school class on Mondays I like going to see Rachel and Ryan and their mom & g-ma. When I do come I usually help Val teach or just sit and watch. They are Buddhist and their mom is studying Buddhism in English (to practice) and she offered to take me with her one time so she can share it with me. I was like YES I would love to, so I think we're going to do that soon. Rachel is going to be a student at Sannam starting in March (that's when they start new grades here) so I'm excited to have her there. Her English is SO good, WAY better than most of my current students, so she'll do great.

After V and I went to Sang's on Friday, I took him to Outback (by his request) for our one year9-month anniversary. I finally got my salary so I insisted that I treat this time. I ordered steak and V ordered seafood pasta and we drank yummy wine. Our waiter was ADORABLE and tried to speak English to us. He was so sweet and sent us home with extra bread (Val's favorite thing of all time). We gave him a tip even though it's not customary to tip waiters here, and we also gave him a penny I had in my wallet as a souvenir. He was so excited he told us he was going to pin it onto his shirt (that's already packed with flare as part of his uniform). On our receipt he wrote "thank you and good luck! :)". Even Val admitted that he was adorable. Not in a I'm-attracted-to-him sort of way, but in a he-has-a-sweet-personality way. You know what I mean. The delicious food, casual atmosphere, memorable waiter, and special occasion made for perfect date night. To conclude the night we came back to my apartment and watched Toy Story on youtube (thanks, illegal internet movies!).

Today we went on a hike with Taylor (mentioned him in a previous post also...he's Val's American friend from the language school) and Taylor's Korean girlfriend Jin. I hadn't met her before and she was really sweet and her English is excellent. There's a mountain in Suwon that we decided to climb...I don't even know what its called actually. Hmm. But we hiked for about 2 hours, and it was really nice. The foggy and overcast weather was ideal for hiking but not ideal for the view at the top, as we couldn't see much! It was very nice to do something different and physical this weekend instead of the normal just sitting around. The cartoon at the top of this post says it all about the hike-- that is not an exaggeration in the least. Hiking is a common weekend activity here and people take it very seriously. Everybody was wearing those matching hiking clothes, visors, nice hiking shoes, and using those sturdy plastic hiking sticks. No joke. EVERYBODY. We were totally underdressed in our sweatpants, oversized t-shirts, and dirty sneakers. It was so bizarre! Also, about halfway through the hike there was a resting area that had workout machines. You are probably thinking, who the heck works out during a hiking break?! That would be the Koreans. Now I know how they all stay so skinny. These outdoor work-out machines are common here, but I never thought I'd see one in a location like this. So as we were sitting and resting, the Koreans were on the machines working their shoulder rotations, doing sit-ups, and.....wait for it....hoola-hooping. It was the most bizarre thing. Here we were on the side of a mountain and there's man, dressed in fancy hiking clothes, hoola-hooping. I had to laugh. I took pictures, which I will be posting soon. You have to see it to believe it.

The end of the hike was the coolest part. To get to the true, rocky peak of the mountain, we had to use a rope to assist us up the steep rocks. There were 3 ropes strongly fastened (I didn't even notice how) at the top of the "peak" and they extended all the way down to the base of that part. So to get up you scale up the rocks using the rope. It was pretty epic, though the view at the top was disappointing because of the fog. Nevertheless it was refreshing to do something new and see a new part of Korea. After hiking down the 4 of us got dinner at another one of those cook-at-the-table restaurants, but this time we had to take our shoes off at the door and sit on the floor. It was awesome and the food was delicious. We got pork and cow meat that was especially savory and tasty and I even tasted some mini jelly-fish tentacle thingys soaked in vinegar. They tasted like vinegar and felt like rubber. Yay new but odd sea creatures entering my stomach!

And that brings us to now, sittin in my PJs on my bed and bloggin'. It's 10:15 so I gotta go to bed (yup, living the wild life!). Thanks for reading! Pictures soon.

Love,
Mel

Getting into the Routine

Hi Folks!

So as promised, my blog posts have become less frequent now that work is in full-swing and I no longer have the sleeping schedule (or energy endurance) of my college days. Ah, I'm getting old. In addition to teaching my regular classes, I also teach a conversation class every morning from 8:05-8:50, an advanced speaking class on Mondays after school (3:30-5) and an advanced essay class on Wednesdays after school. I also will be attending an informal English Teacher's workshop most Thursdays, where the English teachers get together and just discuss topics freely to practice their English. It's nice and informal yet another thing I must prepare for and fit into my schedule. I'm still doing private tutoring on Saturday evenings in Seoul, and I will probably be taking up another tutoring session for Cho Teacher's middle school-aged daughter. I know it's busy but the money is good so I'm not complaining!


Generally, work is going well. The kiddies are still noisy. I am getting a little frustrated about the last-minute information I get. I find out 45 minutes before the day is over that I have to submit my entire lesson scheme for my AM Conversation class by the next morning. Also yesterday I found out 10 minutes before class started that I had to must teach in a different classroom (which has different seating arrangements and materials) because somebody needed the English room. My whole class was designed based on how the kids were sitting in their groups so I couldn't really do my lesson. And they inform me of my extra classes only a week before they must start, even though I've been asking when they were going to start. I asked starting on my first day and they didn't seem to know until the week before and suddenly I have 3 extra classes per week to plan for. Wha??! I'm really used to planning ahead so this last-minute stuff is hard to get used to. But I have to realize that that is the Korean way. Oy. I think people forget to tell me things because they forget I don't speak Korean.

Although I have new phrases that I learned thanks to Cho Teacher and my co-teacher Nam Teacher: 'mashisoyo?' means, "is your meal delicous?' you respond "ney, (yes), mashisoyo." Now, 'mOshisoyo' means handsome, so I gotta be careful! I also have learned "ko-chi ipoyo" means 'the flowers are beautiful.' Cho Teacher and Nam Teacher also taught me how to say "it's cold" and "I want to go home", useful phrases for the coming months, but I forget them :/. Korean is hard!

Since I've been so busy at work there hasn't been much else to report. This past weekend Val & I went to the big market near Hwaseong Fortress where he shopped for a leather jacket and I for stockings. It suddenly got COLD here. I mean, suddenly. Up until last weekend it's been beautiful and in the 70's every day. Monday was like 50 degrees and the forecast only goes down (literally) from there. It's supposed to stay in the mid-50's this whole week. All of a sudden I'm wearing sweaters, jackets, scarves!

The past week I've been tending to Val's terrible migraines that have been acting up. He thinks it's related to the changing of seasons because we know it's nothing serious in his brain because he got a brain scan on Monday because it was so painful. So I've been massaging his feet and head, making warm soup, putting a cold washcloth on his face. Poor thing, when the migraines come he can't even stand up and he's writhing in pain in his bed. The massage and stretching has seemed to help (thanks for your tips, Maren!) but they still come. I never thought I'd say this but for this reason only I hope winter comes fast!

Tomorrow (Thurs) is the Sannam Middle School School Festival, so there's no class. I'm not really sure what goes down on the school festival but I had to prepare a quiz for the students to give orally in the auditorium. But it should be nice to not have to teach. There's no school on Friday either because everyone's going to Everland, the big amusement park in Suwon. I'm excited! Except that its gonna be cold.


That's all for now I think

Love,
Mel

First Week of Teaching, More Korean Culture, and War.

Hey Peeps!

So, I survived my first week of teaching. In my 45-minute class, I first established some classroom rules, then I showed them where Rochester was on the map. When asked where I was from, I responded 'New York' and they all went "ooooooo New York!" because of course, they think I mean NYC. On my powerpoint I used a map of the US where the states where marked and labeled. I found pictures of popular city landmarks like the Hollywood sign, the Golden Gate bridge, and the Statue of Liberty and put them on the same slide with arrows to where they were located. Then I put a picture of a cartoon house where Rochester is with the city marked. I showed them how NY is not only a city but also a state, and I am from NY state. I showed them on the Powerpoint pictures of Rochester (the Erie Canal, the skyline, and snow). Then I showed on the Ppt 3 facts about me. I told them that 1) Korea was the first foreign country I had visited, 2) I had 3 sisters and 0 brothers and 3) I liked to dance. Obviously #1 is false so then I told them that one was not true and had them guess which one. The next slides showed them the answers: a slide with a picture of me dancing and other dance pictures like tap shoes and Jeanine from SYTYCD, a picture of my with Andrea, Al, and Maren at the post-Baccalaureate party at 'Berg, and finally pictures from Venice, Cape Town, Zambia, and Israel. Then I asked them to write down 3 things about themselves, 2 true and one false. I collected the papers and read them later, trying to guess which ones were false.

The end of the lesson focused on the U.S. I asked them what they thought of when they thought of America. I heard responses like fat people, junk food, rich country, money, Obama, famous, baseball, New York City, the Statue of Liberty, tall buildings, etc. That was what I expecting to hear, so with visual aids on my slideshow I explained how many Koreans perceive America to be all like NYC or Beverly Hills, but in fact what makes America so wonderful and interesting is its diversity. I ended the class with that lesson, praying that they actually got the message because I thought it was really important to help change people's skewed perception of what the USA is like. It was a fun lesson for me to teach. Next week I am explaining to the students how each table is a team who can earn or lose points depending on their behavior or participation. The team with the most points at the end of each class gets candy and the class with the most cumulative points at the end of the semester earn a pizza party. It's nice that the students are still young enough that that sort of bribary....er....motivation still works!


The students talk. A lot. Even if I shout sternly "Be quiet!" or "stop talking!" they don't stop. What's worse is that the English room echos so even when 5 students are talking it sounds like 15. Now, corporal punishment is still around here in Korea. Meaning if a student misbehaves, he or she comes to the teacher's office after class and gets hit, usually with a hollow plastic tube or sometimes with bare hands. This was really shocking for me to witness at first, even though I was expecting it. Sometimes the students get punished in class by having to stay in a "plank" position (like the position you're in when you do push-ups) or have to kneel on the floor and face the wall. Since the students are used to physical punishment, yelling does not scare them. It makes sense, you know? That is why I created the points and teams system, since Koreans in general are very competitive and very proud, especially when it comes to education, so the students are sensitive to points, especially if I display each team's points on the board during class. I hope that will act as motivation for them to behave.

Also, the English level of the students is MUCH lower than I expected. If you can imagine, I ..... literally ...... speak...... at..... this...... pace.......often.........repeating........myself.......or........saying.......something..........in another...........way.......,in a different...........way ....... and 80% of the students don't understand me. Sometimes the Korean co-teacher translates or says it in English to be sure they understand but I'm not really sure how I can get through anything if I have to talk at a baby snail's pace. Also, most of the students still don't understand basic grammar structures. For example, on their 3-things-about-me sheet I got things from 98% of the students "I like dog" or "I am boy" "I like play soccer" "I am Sannam Middle School" or "I love lamp." Just kidding on the last one :-P. But seriously, those are the kinds things I'm seeing from a very large percentage of students. So I have to modify my plans for the next few classes and incorporate a basic grammar lesson so they can at least know that. I decided to use next week to really drill that by having each team create a fun team name and then create a grammatically correct introduction for their team. I'm having them fill in the blanks of "Our team name is __________. We are going to win because we like ___(noun)__________. We are better than the other teams because we are ___(adjective)_____________. We are going to beat the other teams because we like ___verb______. I'm giving them a color-coded word bank to use when creating it. For review the next week I'll probably have them correct bad sentences and make it competitive somehow with teams.

So, that's that. I also am in charge of teaching an essay class every Wednesday to advanced students and every other Saturday I teach a "Class with Foreign Teacher" class where I can teach whatever I want. This week in the Saturday class we played Trainwreck (ice breaker game) and the I taught them some line dances (The Electric Slide and The Cupid Shuffle) along with basic dance vocab like front and forwards, back and backwards, side and sideways, right, left, step, kick, heel, turn. Koreans don't like dancing, as I found out from warnings from my colleagues and me asking my students in class "does anyone else like to dance?" and seeing a total of 2 hands among my 500-something students. Greeeattt. I think I'll do different things each class, perhaps using an American movie to fuel a discussion about something or American culture.

I also had this really cool idea to do a class about Baseball. You're probably shocked to hear this because you all know how much sports, baseball especially, bore me to death. However after one of Val's soccer games the Ajou University baseball team started practicing on the field and he asked me to explain the rules because he'd never really seen it before. I was like, uhhhhhh, hmm. Someone's asking me to explain the rules of a sport?! So I told him the basics and realized that many phrases in the English language that are based on baseball that those who don't know the game probably don't understand. So I thought even for my regular classes I could do a class on baseball idioms in English because there are a ton! Covering all your bases, in the home stretch, getting to 1st, 2nd, or 3rd base, being way out in the outfield, he's up to bat. Can you think of others? I think it would be an interesting vocabulary and culture lesson for the students.


On another note, I am officially at war with a particular kind of Korean. They majorly annoy me and come to me uninvited and always overstay their welcome. And it has become my goal to murder as many of them as I come across. Yes, I am talking about the Korean mosquito. Somehow, these mosquitos, which are bigger than the ones in Rochester (not those little brown ones like in NY but those huge black ones) find their way into my apartment and feast on me while I get my beauty sleep. Many of you know that I have a really strong reaction to mosquito bites and even without scratching them they blow up to sometimes to be 7 or 8 inches in diameter. So I wake up looking like I have the mutated chicken pox and they bite me in the most inconvenient places, such as my toes, my face, and my top lip. Afterall, those are often the exposed skin when I'm sleeping. 2 weeks ago I had absolutely had it with the huge bites on my legs that burned that I went to the pharmacy and got some medicated cream and some pills. I don't take the pills because I don't know exactly what they are but the cream helps especially if I apply it right after the bite. I searched for repellent at HomePlus but couldn't find it but I know it's there because my neighbor has some and she got it there. Last night I was awake for almost 2 hours using myself as bait, turning the light on and off trying to catch the mosquitos buzzing around my ear and biting me. I ended up killing 2 but found 4 others this morning. Yep, that's 6 mosquitos in my tiny apartment in one night. I swear, they tell their mosquito friends "hey! come to this room! she tastes yummy!". Argh. So yeah, I'm going to HomePlus today and not leaving without that repellant. If i'm going to be at war with these suckers (literally!) I need to step up my game and get a proper weapon.

Before I end this long-winded post, I thought of another Korean culture thing you might find entertaining. Koreans love little dogs. I have yet to see a dog bigger than a schnauzer. And people dress their little dogs in little outfits. I HATE when people do that! and I swear to you, a few weeks ago when V & I were walking to get some dinner at a local restaurant we saw a tiny dog, being walked by a 30-ish year old man, wearing a little jacket and SNEAKERS on its paws. Seriously. 4 Mini sneakers on its tiny little paws. Val & I couldn't help ourselves bursting into laughter and doing some major eye-rolling. That is a typical site here. It's like the Hollywood fashion trend of tiny dogs has become the trend in all of Korea. Oy. Those poor dogs.

Thanks for reading!

Love,
Mel

Biting Into the Second Apple

Anyeong!

First, my announcement that I would be starting to teach classes on Friday was a false alarm. There was a miscommunication and it turns out that the last day of midterms was Friday so my REAL first day of teaching will be tomorrow, Monday. It's for real this time, so I'll update you on that soon.

There's probably only two or three of you who understand the title of this blog entry because it refers to a speech made by Quinton, our study abroad program director in Cape Town. During orientation, Quinton prepared us for living in a new country by explaining the 3 stages of culture shock with the metaphor of 3 apples. The first apple is sweet because it represents the "honeymoon phase" when everything is very exciting and new and you're just taking it all in. The second apple is a little sour because it represents the stage when you might start feeling homesick and frustrated with some of the cultural differences and ways of life in this new place. Finally, biting into the third apple is sweet once again because you start establishing a routine and feeling comfortable in this new place. You might have recently started making more friends, found something about the new place that excites you, or gained more confidence because you can finally find your way around, understand the public transportation system, or decorated your living space.

So as my title suggests, I've begun biting into the second apple just a little. Although I'm still in the honeymoon phase of seeing Val again (I'm not sure if it's ever going to go away!), now that I've been here for 3 weeks I've gotten a healthy dose of Korean culture. However in this post I'm not going to whine about how I'm feeling a little homesick, frustrated that I often can't find food that I like or am not able to read the ingredients or health facts because everything is written in Korean, or that I feel very out-of-the-loop at work because nobody tells me anything and I get hardly any notice about things because somebody forgets to clue me in because I don't understand Korean, because, well, I just told you! Instead I thought I'd make this post a little more interesting for everyone and talk about some observations I've made about Korean culture that are contributing to the sour taste of apple numero dos.

1) Koreans are very judgmental. They base A LOT on first impression alone, and I'm talking about VERY first impression because they put a ton of emphasis on how somebody looks. Koreans are extremely well dressed. Every single person you see is dressed very well in clothes that look high-quality and are tailored well. Women wear high heels with EVERY outfit, day or night, work or play, skirt or jeans. People at school have told me that all the students want to know if I am pretty. Val gets told by people that they like him solely because they find him handsome (can't blame them there). They even tell him that they like him better than his other friends because his friends aren't good looking. And I have been told multiple times that I am prettier than the previous English teacher at the school (which I think is ridiculous) so the students and other teachers are excited. Women are constantly fixing their make-up, dabbing their faces with those oil-absorbing sheets, etc. Many, many women carry designer bags. I'm talking Louis Vuitton, Coach, etc. And these are not knock-offs. In Korea if you look beautiful, you will be well-liked. Simple as that.

2) Foreigners, especially Americans, have celebrity status. Now this might sound great, but it's actually quite uncomfortable. Besides getting gawked at all the time, people feel very shy around me especially when they find out that I'm from New York. Of course, most Koreans don't understand that New York is also a state and when I try to explain that I don't live in New York City they just think I'm saying that I live outside the city. I don't bother trying to explain it anymore because people nod their heads like they understand and then still manage to think that I'm from NYC. NYC is THE city in the U.S. that everyone knows and like many other country everyone here has a dream to go the NY. And because they see NY on the TV all the time they get intimidated because I'm a "New Yorker." V's Korean Mom (who I now call as my colleague Cho Teacher) said that she was nervous to speak to me because I'm a "New Yorker", said in a voice of awe. I'm like "come on, I'm just regular ol' girl" but that doesn't really work here. Koreans will believe anything an English-speaking foreigner will say, especially an American. So this showcases my previous paragraph because it's an example of how judgmental people are. They base a lot on very little and have no interest in changing their minds. Korea is one of if not the most homogenous countries in the world, so they are not used to meeting people with different backgrounds or ideas. Everybody at least in urban Korea has the same experience of starting school very young, going to college, entering the workforce. I have yet to see a homeless person or a crummy car.

3) Korean food is spicy. Even when I ask if a dish is spicy they will say "No, not spicy", so I order it and it's still spicy. They love that hot pepper sauce!

4) Koreans don't watch where they are going. Walking on the street people don't really move out of the way to let you walk, they will just keep walking and bump into you without an apology. Also, they won't look up while they are texting, talking with others, or just looking down so they will just ram into you. Now it's not that Koreans are rude, it's just how Korea is. The country is the size of Indiana but has a population of about 50 million. Needless to say, it's crowded so people are used to being bumped, etc.

5. Koreans will huck-a-lougie (sp?). LOUD ones. Like, the loud, unmistakable throaty inhale that sounds like an elongated hebrew "ch" and powerful, juicy spit. I can deal with a lot of cultural differences but this one might cross the line for me. I can hear it from my room form people passing by on the street 2 stories down. It's disgusting.

Numbers 4 and 5 exemplify a major difference between Korean and American culture. As I found out when I read my "Living Abroad in South Korea" book, family life is the center of Korean society. For this reason, people don't feel the need to exert energy caring about strangers. In other words, they don't bother to hold the door for you, apologize when they bump into you, or spare their phlegmy projections because they don't care about you as a stranger. Everybody is just doing their own thing and down spare a thought for others. Sort of sounds like NYC, hah. It's an odd perception to us Americans who are used to (hopefully) apply basic politeness in their daily public encounters. It seems a little ironic to me, though since Koreans care so much about how they look in public. Haven't quite figured that one out yet.

This having been said, I have found Koreans to be generally kind, welcoming people. I am enjoying getting to know my co-workers and look forward to continuing to meet my own friends. I have decided to take up Korean lessons somehow, whether it be privately with a bi-lingual Korean, borrowing Val's books and learning on my own, or signing up for a Korean class at a nearby YMCA. Not only do I expect learning Korean to be a fun thing to do and I will learn quickly since it's full immersion, but also being able to eventually communicate more clearly with Koreans will ease my stresses and help me be me so I can make friends and not just be another alien, celebrity American to be shy around.

So I'll leave that for y'all to ponder as your weekend wraps up.
I miss everybody and the beautiful yet often short-lived Rochester fall weather. Enjoy those colorful leaves for me, I don't see many trees here in the city!


Love,
Mel

Soccer, Seoul, and a Small World!

Anyeong Hayseyo (Hello)!

It's been a week since I arrived in Korea, and since stealing internet from an unsecured wireless network in my building, I have been able to talk to many of you via Skype, which has been SO nice. It makes me feel so good to see your faces and hear your voices. Oh, the wonders of technology! Those of you who I've talked to have been asking what I've been up to this week, so I thought I'd give an overview to you all who I haven't seen yet on Skype.

One first impression of Korea that surprised me is that there is a decent amount of English around. Names of businesses (especially ones aimed towards younger people like clubs, lingerie or make-up stores, Western style restaurants, etc) are in English. Also, the bus stops and bus line maps have English spellings which is SUPER helpful for me right now who can't recognize Korean characters. Also, I am the same height as other adults here, which is a new thing for me, hahaha. Finally I don't feel unusually short!

On Monday I laid low while Val was at school and when he got home we listened to music while I unpacked a little and talked about what we wanted to do during Chusuk, the holiday that Val was on break for. For dinner, we went to meet two of his students (who he is tutoring in English). "Rachel" and "Ryan" (they insist on going by their English names) are brother and sister, and Ryan's 11th birthday was last week so we took him and Rachel out for dinner at a place called Mister Pizza. Rachel is 13 and shy, but I tried to talk to her about music and Boys Over Flowers, the extremely popular Korean drama that I watched online during the summer. She liked watching it too so we talked about the characters and story...it was fun to be able to relate to her about something. Both Rachel and Ryan's English are excellent but they are shy about speaking!

Tuesday we went to HomePlus, the huge shopping center, to buy stuff for the apartment like shampoo, soap, food, towels, laundry detergent, etc. I was able to find some Western products here like Frosted Flakes, Pringles, Haggen-Daaz ice cream, Opti-Free contact solution and Pantene Pro-V brand shampoo. HomePlus has absolutely everything I'll ever need right there. It's 3 stories of food, electronics, house and bathroom supplies, a photo center, even clothing. For dinner we met Val's buddy Taylor, an ESL teacher from the MidWest for dinner at Suwon Station, the main travel hub in Suwon. This is not only the Suwon subway station and bus terminal, but also a huge shopping center also equipped with bars and Western restaurants like Baskin Robbins, KFC, and Outback Steakhouse. We ate at Outback. In Korea. It felt sort of silly. There were signs all over about the "Down Under" and stuff...I wonder if the people there really even know what that means.

Wednesday we traveled to Seoul with Val's friend from Korean class, Lina, who is from from Kazakhstan (next to Russia. I had to check the map because I didn't know!). She doesn't know much English but Val was our translator, speaking to her in Korean. We took the subway into Seoul, a 40 minute ride, then walked to Namsan Tower where we took the cable car and got great views of the entire city! The other highlight of the day was getting our portrait drawn at Namsan Tower. We sat for about 30 minutes while this man drew our portrait. It doesn't look exactly like us, but it's nice to have something that represents us that's now hanging in my apartment. Reactions to the portrait have been that Val looks like Usher, we both look Asian, and that the artist clearly spent more time on me than on Val. Hahaha. Oh well, I like it. It's nice. And the whole thing including the frame only cost us about $40. We returned to Suwon went out with some of Val's Cameroonian friends for a bit, then came home. It was a busy day!

Thursday we traveled to Ansan, a city about an hour away, for a soccer match between Cameroonians and folks from Southern and Eastern Africa in the area. The match was organized by the Multicultural Family Center, and Africans living all over Korea came to participate in or watch the game. Val played and helped the Cameroonian team dominate (they won 7-1) by scoring the big goal and assisting on a few others. He is a really excellent soccer player and he blew his teammates and opponents away....they had no idea how good he was! During the game I was chatting with other Cameroonians who had come to watch the match and found out that one of them currently lives in Elmira, NY and went to Med School at the University of Rochester. I was like WHAT?! How crazy is that. Here I was in Korea, talking to a Cameoonian about East Avenue, Strong Hospital, and the Clothesline Festival. It was insaneeee. After returning to Suwon we met Val's Korean Mom who took us out to dinner...at Outback. I didn't have the heart to tell her we went there already so we went. She said that since I just arrived I probably wasn't used to Korean food yet so she wanted me to eat something familiar. I appreciated that.

Friday, when I discovered my clandestine internet connection, I spent the morning when Val was at school Skyping with the fam and posting my previous blogpost. When Val got back we met his classmates for a delicious lunch. The only language they all speak is Korean, so I was totally out of the loop during lunch when they were all chatting. But I could tell by their expressions when I met them that they were delighted to meet me because apparently Val talks about me all the time in class. As we walked to lunch, one girl pried my & Val's hand apart and hooked her arm around mine and walked with me. She asked me in broken English if we could get coffee together sometime (she's from China), and I told her of course. She's sweet! It was during that lunch that I also met V's classmate Peter, a Korean-American who also studying here. He speaks English, obviously, so we talked a little and I found out that he's from Bergen County, NJ, the same place my girl Sarah is from. I asked him if he knew Sarah and later I asked Sarah if she knew him but they went to different high schools. Still, it's totally crazy. It's a small world after all.

Saturday Val & I headed to the Ajou University soccer field where he plays with a group of Koreans (old and young) every Saturday morning. It was fun to meet his teammates and watch him play again. All of Val's teammates kept telling me that Val is their best player and he totally was. I don't know squat about soccer but even I could tell that the others were amateurs compared to him. We were there allllll morning and a lot of the afternoon but it was a beautiful day so I just got to sit back in the sunshine and watch my boyfriend kick butt. 'Twas fun! The team ordered pizza after the games, then Val & I went back to my apartment and napped. We ate our Outback leftovers for dinner, then abandoned our plans to go out and stayed in to watch a movie instead. Yesterday I attended church with Val. The first service was in Korean and I learned through Va'ls translation that the priest, a woman, gave me a personal welcome during the service, and even mentioned me in the closing prayer thanking God that "our beautiful Melissa is with us today." It felt very nice and I felt so welcome. The church prepared a delicious lunch and then Val and his Korean Mom lead an English service. Val stood in front of everyone and spoke about the weeks' Bible verse. Despite the fact that I don't connect at all with Christianity, it was pretty incredible to watch Val stand up there and talk about it. He made some really beautiful comments and points that I could definitely relate to, and his passion for his faith really shown through. It was a special moment that I got to witness that.


I start work on Friday. During the past week whenever there has been down time (usually when Val is napping), I've been brainstorming about teaching, exploring resources online (of which there are a TON for ESL teachers), and have even started my lesson plan for Friday. I think we're going to play Two Truths and a Lie :). I'm getting nervous but also excited. I think it is going to be fun and I already enjoy making lesson plans and things. I will of course report once I've started. This week Val goes back to school so I imagine I will spend the majority of the time prepping for the first few lessons and visiting the school. Wish me luck!!

Love,
Mel

In Korea!

Dear friends,

Well, I’m in Korea! I’m writing from my apartment. Let me paint the picture for you: I’m sitting on my bed, eating dry frosted flakes and drinking milk out of the carton, because there are no spoons or cups yet. We got the Frosted Flakes from Val’s apartment and bought milk last night, but that is all there is right now. Hahaha.

Anyway, it is Monday, Sept. 20 but I'm posting today, the 24th, because I just found an unsecured wireless network. There is no official internet at my apartment yet so this might not last too long but I figured if I have internet I should post! Ok, back to the original post:

Val is at school now, until 1, and when he comes back we’ll stop by my school to say hello and then go shopping for food. We totally lucked out because the next 3 days are public holidays here so he doesn’t have school. I imagine we will spend those days getting the apartment spiffed up and stocked, meeting Val’s friends, and checking out some of the celebrations for the holidays.

Cool/ interesting things about the apartment: the door is SUPER high tech. First, the door to the building is a just glass door that slides opens with a key card that you hold up to a sensor, just like my ‘Berg ID card that I used to swipe into my buildings. As you ascend the stairs (I live on the 3rd floor), the lights in the hallway illuminate automatically when it senses people there. That means the lights are only on when there are people in the staircase—pretty cool and environmentally-friendly! I like that. The door to my apartment itself does not have a key, just a touch-screen keypad that lights up when you press a button on the outside. Once you punch in the code, it does this little sing-songy beeping pattern and unlocks. OH and the coolest part? When opening the door from the inside, you just press a button on the handle and the little lock physically turns by itself. After about 30 seconds it turns again, locking it. The sing-songy beeping happens then too. Sweet!

What is currently in the apartment is: a small cupboard for shoes at the door (in Korea it is customary to remove your shoes whenever you enter somebody’s home. Val jokes that in Korea you can never get away with wearing two different pairs of socks!), a bed and a closet in the bedroom. There’s also a washing machine, but no dryer. The bathroom doubles as the shower: there is just a toilet and a sink with a shower head-sprayer-thingy attached to the faucet, and a drain on the floor. To shower, you close the door and turn a dial on faucet to switch the water from the faucet to the sprayer, and shower like that. It’s somewhere between having a shower and not having a shower. We’ll see how that goes.

My flights went very smoothly. The long one was surprisingly comfortable. I flew Asiana airlines, a Korean airline that is very, well, Korean. Meaning very efficient, clean, and high-tech. The seats were very comfortable and the blankets and pillows provided were actually comfortable and big. I had a window seat next to just one person, which meant I only had one person to crawl over if I wanted to get up.

Now I imagine you are thinking “apartment, flight, yada yada yada….I want to hear about the much-anticipated reunion!” Ok, I tell you. ☺ After I went through immigration and got my luggage, I clumsily maneuvered my REALLY heavy luggage cart though the line to hand in my customs card. I walked into the lobby and spotted Val immediately (he’s not too hard to pick out of a crowd here!). He saw me too and we ran to the opening of the partition. Thank goodness those luggage carts stop as soon as you let go of them because otherwise it would have gone flying when I just let go of it and ran into his arms! We stood there hugging for a really long time, both us just saying “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!” My first thought was that he smells exactly the same as he did before. And that he is about 1,000 times hotter in person than he is on the webcam. ☺
When we finally pulled away I kept saying, “you’re real!” and poking his face. We went outside and bought bus tickets and waiting for about 15 minutes for the bus to take us back to Suwon. The poking and hugging and kissing continued while we waited, along with the saying of many “I love you”’s and “wow it’s you”’s. It was about an hour bus ride, but we kept busy ☺. It feels pretty __________ to be with him again. Seriously, I can’t even think of an adjective that can accurately describe it. Just pure happiness, relief, and the sense of feeling complete again. Every time I close my eyes and open them again I can almost not believe what I’m seeing. When I look down and see my hand in his it feels like a dream. When I breathe in and smell his natural scent I feel like I’m in a trance. I feel sort star-struck in my own universe because I’ve spent all this time seeing him on a screen and dreaming (day and night) about him, wishing to see him. Now that I’ve seen him again in person I feel fluttery-hearted and almost embarrassed or timid. Like seeing this seemingly perfect, glorified person who was just 2-D before is now a real person who I can see with my own eyes and touch. It’s similar to how I imagine seeing a celebrity in person for the first time is. Like you can’t keep your eyes off of them and you are taking in the fact that they are real, in person.
There is a difference though, between star-stuck with a celebrity and how I feel. I think the general conclusion about seeing celebrities is disappointment. Sort of like, “oh, that’s it? (S)he is so…normal. There’s no white light beaming from somewhere behind them. (S)he looks like a regular person.” Personally I’ve never seen a celebrity in the flesh (minus a millisecond-long glance of Will Ferrel in L.A. at the Step Brothers premiere that happened to be taking place outside the restaurant I was eating at), so this might be completely off. Regardless, this was the opposite reaction for me seeing Val. He is so much better looking in person. And I don’t just mean that he is handsome, I mean that the way he looks at me is better, and it feels better looking at him. There is no camera as the middleman here. When he looks at me I can actually see him. It’s like in Avatar, when they say, “I see you.” For those of you who didn’t have the pleasure (or desire, I suppose) so see Avatar, when the Na’vi people in the film say, “I see you” to somebody, it doesn’t just mean “I can see you with my eyes.” It means “I see inside you, I understand you, I see you with my soul and my heart”. So yeah, our eyes meet it’s just that. No webcam, no computer screen, no 2-D, and certainly no oceans and continents in between. That “seeing” of one another can’t really happen like that when all of those factor in. So with them gone, I feel like my heart has opened up to receive all of his love and I can finally see him, and he can see me. Less words are required now, because everything we had to try to express in words when we were apart are replaced by the warm, fuzzy feeling that makes you heart grow bigger that I get when he looks at me and I at him. And that, my friends, is what love feels like.

After bringing my bags up to my apartment, we relaxed and I called my mom and the Korean recruiter to inform them that I had arrived. Soon it was 10:30pm and I was starving! We took a short bus ride to the Ajou University area because there were a lot restaurants open late there. V picked a restaurant and we ate beef and veggies. The style of restaurant is typical in Korea and Val had talked about eating like this so I was excited to try it. At each table there is a part cut out of the middle and a stove kind of thing placed inside. There are hot coals underneath. The waiter brings over the ingredients (very thinly sliced beef, mushrooms, sliced garlic clove, and onion) and puts it on the fire and it cooks right there. They give us tongs to flip the beef and scissors to cut it. So the meat cooked right there along with the onions, slices of garlic, and mushrooms and we tended to the food on the fire ourselves. When it’s done we get rice and lettuce leaves and you’re supposed to mix it all together and wrap it in the leaf and eat it. As we ate, Val coached me on using the flat, metal chopsticks (definitely harder to use than the round wooden or plastic ones) and helped me with basic Korean phrases like thank you, hello, and the Korean equivalent of “bon appetite!”, which translates into “eat a lot.” We ate and reveled in the fact that we were there together, and it was all real. Things like “oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m pouring water for you and you’re going to drink it right here!” and “Yay, I can kiss you if I want to because you’re here!” After our meal we stopped by Val’s place to get the food because he lives very near to the university and also went into a convenience store to buy milk, soap, shampoo, and ramen. There are bowls and a few kitchen odds and ends in my apartment (thanks to the current English teacher at my school who is leaving soon after I start working) but that’s all so we needed other basics. By this time the busses had stopped running so we grabbed a taxi and rode back to my place. We stayed up for a while, continuing to say “I can’t believe this”, things like that, until we fell asleep. I’m jet-lagged so didn’t really sleep but as soon as morning came I was exhausted! I guess it’s going to take a while to adjust to the 13- hour time difference. Speaking of, I’m going to put my computer down and sleep a little before Val gets back.

Pictures and more updates to come!

Love,
Mel

Humorous Insight into Korean Life: ROKetship.com

Hey everyone,

Thanks to a friend's blog, I just came across this great website called ROKetship.com. On this website are comics, drawn by an American living in Korea, documenting the quirks of Korean culture that often jolt Americans living there. It seems that some of these you might not "get' unless you actually live in Korea, but they're interesting anyway, and they give some insight into what it's like to be a foreigner in Korea. I've already looked at a bunch and find them interesting and funny and thought to share them with you all. Here's the intro from the artist to the website, to give you a better idea:

Hi, my name is Luke Martin and my wife and I have been in Korea for a little while now. We are here teaching English and are having the time of our lives, though our hearts are still at home in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Since living South Korea, I have noticed the many large and small ways that life is different in this country and, on my wife’s suggestion, I began drawing a comic strip about them. Hence, the magic that became, ROKetship! (ROK = Republic of Korea). The strip is a cultural comedy of sorts, which pokes fun at foreign life on this planet called, Korea! It seems like every day is just bursting with quirky inspirations. I have already stuffed a note book full of ideas for new strips.

My humble aim for ROKetship is for it to become the voice for Westerners living in Korea. Comics are much funnier when they reflect real life, so if you have any ideas for strips, please send ‘em over!

Thanks for swinging by and I hope you enjoy ROKetship!
Laugh often,

-Luke



See more at www.roketship.com! I know I'll definitely be looking at them! Thanks to Anais for introducing me to the website =)

Lots o' love. 6 days and counting!

Cheers,
Mel

FAQ's

Salut tout le monde! (Hello everybody!)

Welcome to my new blog, a place where I hope to give you all a glimpse of my new adventure in South Korea. I have received many questions about my trip, so I thought what better way to introduce my blog by answers those frequently asked questions!

Q: Why are you going to Korea?
A: There are a few reasons. First, teaching in Korea is a wonderful opportunity for me to continue my passion for traveling and not to mention, employment! By teaching English in Korea, I get to fulfill my goal of working and living abroad, discover and experience a part of the world that I have never been before, and get valuable job and life experience. Also, Valery is living in Korea and after spending more than a year apart, it is time for us to do this for real!

Q: What is Val doing in Korea?
A: For a number of reasons, Val is completing his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering in Korea. In order for him to apply to a Korean university, he must pass level 4 of a Korean language course. He is on level 3 now. Each course level lasts for 3 months, so he will be done with his Korean language requirements in March of next year. Then he will apply to university and complete the last 1.5 or 2 years (depending on credit transfers) of his degree.

Q: Will you be close to Val where you're living?
A: Yes! His apartment is about 20 minutes walking distance from where my apartment will be.

Q: Where exactly will you be in Korea?
A: I will be living in Suwon, a city about 20 miles south of Seoul.

Q: Where and what is your job, exactly?
A: I'm going to be teaching English conversation at Sannam Middle School, a public middle school in Suwon. The school is walking distance from my apartment.

Q: When are you leaving and how long will you be there for?
A: I depart Rochester on September 18th and will arrive in Korea at 6pm Korea time on the 19th! I have a 1-year contract starting on October 1st.

Q: What is the time difference between Korea and the U.S.?
A: Currently Korea is 13 hours ahead. Once we hit daylight savings time in the fall, however, it will be 14 hours.

Q: How can I keep in touch with you?
A: Skype me! My skype name is melissa.waldman10. I will also have internet at my apartment so e-mailing is great too.

Well folks, that's all for now! Time to start packing and preparing!!!

Love to you all,

Melissa