I've mentioned this before, but I wanted to give you another quick update on my project with Adventure Teaching. Check out the Adventure Teaching Facebook Page to see the progress made. We have over 450 fans and the number keeps going up every day!
We also finally have the Adventure Teaching Korea Blog up and running. Do some browsing through the blog to see what it's all about. The 'About Us' section pretty much sums it up, but basically we're trying to get people's Korean stories and adventures and post them to the blog. If you read this blog and live/have lived in Korea, check it out and e-mail us your story!
Thanks for the support!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
to caffeinate or not to caffeinate.
I’ve become a bit of a coffee drinker in the past few months. I feel so guilty! I don’t know if it’s working with kids again (or just working in general again), but sometimes coffee just seems to be the only thing that gets me through the day. I try to stick with the little instant coffee packs that go in the miniature cups at my school (unfortunately, instant coffee is the Korean way…), and occasionally I go to the local convenience store and get a little iced latte from the refrigerated section (it’s even in the shape of coffee to-go cup), but every once in awhile, I give in and splurge on the enormously high-priced iced latte from a proper coffee shop. However, yesterday I had a revelation as I spent a whopping $5 on a starbucks iced mocha—it’s not worth it! I don’t know if I’ve become Koreanized on the coffee side of things, but when did coffee shops start making such terrible coffee? It felt like work getting down my mocha yesterday and it occurred to me that something so small for so much money shouldn’t be so much work to get down. Maybe it’s time I buckle down, realize that caffeine may be part of my life now, and buy a coffee maker. Then if it tastes like dirt, I have only myself to blame.
Yesterday on my run I had a runner’s worst nightmare: about 5 minutes in, I felt a little gurgle in my gut, and then a cramp in my side, and suddenly I realized that I didn’t find a toilet in about 30 seconds, I would have wished I’d brought an extra pair of shorts. I found a toilet just in time, but clearly didn’t get the job done because the last 20 minutes of my run consisted of me practically sprinting for home. Kristin (my friend who is doing the half with me—hooray!) had the same problem this week, and we’ve decided to do some serious research as to how to prevent this from happening on race day. Are bananas supposed to help that sort of thing? I think me shoving a fiber one bar in my face right before my run may have had something to do with it. I’ve discovered that 35% of your daily fiber in a little bar is only a great thing when you’ve got a toilet nearby.
Yesterday on my run I had a runner’s worst nightmare: about 5 minutes in, I felt a little gurgle in my gut, and then a cramp in my side, and suddenly I realized that I didn’t find a toilet in about 30 seconds, I would have wished I’d brought an extra pair of shorts. I found a toilet just in time, but clearly didn’t get the job done because the last 20 minutes of my run consisted of me practically sprinting for home. Kristin (my friend who is doing the half with me—hooray!) had the same problem this week, and we’ve decided to do some serious research as to how to prevent this from happening on race day. Are bananas supposed to help that sort of thing? I think me shoving a fiber one bar in my face right before my run may have had something to do with it. I’ve discovered that 35% of your daily fiber in a little bar is only a great thing when you’ve got a toilet nearby.
Monday, August 17, 2009
marathon on the mind.
last night i ran 9.5 miles. (oh ya, i'm training for a half marathon!) i'm pretty sure it was the hottest most humid night of the summer so far. lately, every time i walk out of my building, i am dripping on every inch of my body within about 5 minutes, but last night i literally could have been mistaken for a slip-n-slide. i was all gun-ho about this summer being better than last year. then august came along and destroyed all hope. i got through the run though, and i wish i could say i was really really proud of myself, but ali pretty much stole my thunder since he, on a whim, did all 9.5 miles with me in 2 year old street shoes, very non-running shorts that he had been wearing all day out and a leather belt, having not done any running in 4 months. i've actually spent the last 2 months training which apparently some people see as a waste of time. anyway, the half is next month and despite the slight rain on my parade during last night's run, i still feel pretty proud and pretty pumped! (now if only i could drop the humidity about 95%...)
i feel really irritated at work lately with how left out i feel of everything. all the ins and outs of the school goes on in korean and i just feel like i have no idea what's going on and it's driving me crazy. i feel behind and lonely all the time. i want to be let in. i just feel like i have to accept the fact that i will never fully know what's going and will never have a position where people look to me to know what to do (oh how i crave being in charge...) as long as i'm in a country where i don't speak the language. it's so frustrating how the kids can't ever really come to me with their problems and i can't ever really discipline them in a productive way without pulling in a korean teacher to sort it all out. i just feel helpless and useless and it bothers me lately. :(
i feel really irritated at work lately with how left out i feel of everything. all the ins and outs of the school goes on in korean and i just feel like i have no idea what's going on and it's driving me crazy. i feel behind and lonely all the time. i want to be let in. i just feel like i have to accept the fact that i will never fully know what's going and will never have a position where people look to me to know what to do (oh how i crave being in charge...) as long as i'm in a country where i don't speak the language. it's so frustrating how the kids can't ever really come to me with their problems and i can't ever really discipline them in a productive way without pulling in a korean teacher to sort it all out. i just feel helpless and useless and it bothers me lately. :(
Friday, August 14, 2009
nightmare.
i had an incredibly vivid dream...no, nightmare...this week about how without telling me my boss called up the teacher i replaced and she came and kicked me out of my apartment and took over my job because they didn't like me anymore. to make things even worse, in my dream, i woke up and realized i wasn't dreaming, which made it really difficult when i actually woke up to convice myself that it was, in fact, just a dream.
needless to say, i've been way too smiley and overly helpful at work this week. i think everyone is really getting tired of me asking if they need a coffee when i go grab one for myself at lunch. someone just say i'm doing a good job, paleeeease!
last night we ventured into hongdae to meet joy and rob for dinner, then met up with a bunch of people afterwards. we found a sweet new hookah bar on the 5th floor in this little mushroom hobbit looking house thing. it was suuuuper cool. afterwards, ali and i, along with ali's 2 new french friends and a japanese girl we picked up along the way headed to the middle of nowhere to the coolest little underground bar i've ever seen! the owner gave us some special ramyan and played us the latest album he just released, which he sang along to enthusiastically!
i'm currently watching bruno, which we just downloaded today. it's hillarious/superly stressful. there's some parts i can't watch. i just get stressed when people look stupid and people make fools of themselves. it's just too much for me!
needless to say, i've been way too smiley and overly helpful at work this week. i think everyone is really getting tired of me asking if they need a coffee when i go grab one for myself at lunch. someone just say i'm doing a good job, paleeeease!
last night we ventured into hongdae to meet joy and rob for dinner, then met up with a bunch of people afterwards. we found a sweet new hookah bar on the 5th floor in this little mushroom hobbit looking house thing. it was suuuuper cool. afterwards, ali and i, along with ali's 2 new french friends and a japanese girl we picked up along the way headed to the middle of nowhere to the coolest little underground bar i've ever seen! the owner gave us some special ramyan and played us the latest album he just released, which he sang along to enthusiastically!
i'm currently watching bruno, which we just downloaded today. it's hillarious/superly stressful. there's some parts i can't watch. i just get stressed when people look stupid and people make fools of themselves. it's just too much for me!
Monday, August 10, 2009
big buddha
as promised, here's some shots from our discovery of the mr. ginormous buddha tucked inside bukhan mountain.in the back: joy (old college roommate who just moved here...whoop whoop!), kristin, jason, and natalie (all of whom we met this year and are developing blossoming friendships with...) and then in the front is ali and i. keep in mind that althought we are drenched, it is not entirely from sweat, it was also raining. however, with the amount of humidity in the air these days, we probably would have looked like that rain or no.
half way there...
go buddha! the tallest of its kind in southeast asia!!!
the buddha and temples from the peak...
never forget to finish off the day with some delecious korean pizza and hite!!!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
JOY to KOREA!
have i mentioned one of the most exciting things going on my life right now? JOY'S HERE!!!!! my old college roommate and great friend joy moved here a couple of weeks ago and her husband from australia comes tomorrow. we've been doing lots of hanging out, exploring seoul, and talking
about how crazy it is that over 3 years after graduating we would re-unite in south korea. who woulda thunk it.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
bring on vaca!!!
i'm on vacation!!! whoop whoop!!!
this is the first time i've actually had a vacation in korea and STAYED in the country. this is partially due to the fact that ali and i don't have summer break at the same time, but mostly due to the fact that i have no money. :) but fear not, my week has been thus far eventful, relaxing, and full of some MUCH-needed sleeping in.
i feel like there's so much to tell i can barely do it in one blog. i hate it when one entry gets really long because if it were me, i would stop reading part way through. (in fact, that is what i do to all those blog entries that hit the 'too-long-for-casual-reading' mark.) so i may split it up.
last saturday, a group of us went on THE COOLEST hike i've been on in awhile. we went to bukhansan (very famous mountain right here in seoul--i went a few times last year...BIG rock formations, remember?), with the goal of finding the ginormous budha tucked away in some hidden place in the mountain. one of my friends here stumbled upon it accidentally one day and was hoping to share the amazingness. and let me tell you, it was AMAZING! we were climbing up this completely hidden and off-the-beaten-path trail and suddenly, through the brush is the biggest budha i've ever seen. in fact, it IS the tallest budha in all of southeast asia. the craziest part is that there was NOBODY THERE. we were completely alone. somehow, this enormous budha surrounded with 10,000 smaller budhas in glass cages has completely slid under the "tourist destination" radar. we spent the whole day reaching the very top of the mountain, and finished things off with some beer and korean style seafood pizza at the bottom. i promise pictures will follow sometime this week.
and speaking of pictures, I FINALLY GOT A NEW CAMERA!!! mine hasn't been able to upload pictures to my computer for awhile (hence the lack of pictures) and last week it finally just quit on me. the lense went out and never came back in. it was finished. so my new camera is the fujifilm finepix J150. ali and i went to the electronics market yesterday (biggest electronics market in asia...ali's dream come true, my worst nightmare...) and this is what i ended up with. we nearly got scammed--ok we totally thought we got scammed for about 30 minutes and i was practially in tears--but it turns out i got a pretty good deal because mine isn't a rip-off like the other $150 cheaper one that i found at the next booth right after i had paid for mine. :) anyway, wohooo! bring on pictures!
that is only the tip of the iceberg in news! i'll continue later!
this is the first time i've actually had a vacation in korea and STAYED in the country. this is partially due to the fact that ali and i don't have summer break at the same time, but mostly due to the fact that i have no money. :) but fear not, my week has been thus far eventful, relaxing, and full of some MUCH-needed sleeping in.
i feel like there's so much to tell i can barely do it in one blog. i hate it when one entry gets really long because if it were me, i would stop reading part way through. (in fact, that is what i do to all those blog entries that hit the 'too-long-for-casual-reading' mark.) so i may split it up.
last saturday, a group of us went on THE COOLEST hike i've been on in awhile. we went to bukhansan (very famous mountain right here in seoul--i went a few times last year...BIG rock formations, remember?), with the goal of finding the ginormous budha tucked away in some hidden place in the mountain. one of my friends here stumbled upon it accidentally one day and was hoping to share the amazingness. and let me tell you, it was AMAZING! we were climbing up this completely hidden and off-the-beaten-path trail and suddenly, through the brush is the biggest budha i've ever seen. in fact, it IS the tallest budha in all of southeast asia. the craziest part is that there was NOBODY THERE. we were completely alone. somehow, this enormous budha surrounded with 10,000 smaller budhas in glass cages has completely slid under the "tourist destination" radar. we spent the whole day reaching the very top of the mountain, and finished things off with some beer and korean style seafood pizza at the bottom. i promise pictures will follow sometime this week.
and speaking of pictures, I FINALLY GOT A NEW CAMERA!!! mine hasn't been able to upload pictures to my computer for awhile (hence the lack of pictures) and last week it finally just quit on me. the lense went out and never came back in. it was finished. so my new camera is the fujifilm finepix J150. ali and i went to the electronics market yesterday (biggest electronics market in asia...ali's dream come true, my worst nightmare...) and this is what i ended up with. we nearly got scammed--ok we totally thought we got scammed for about 30 minutes and i was practially in tears--but it turns out i got a pretty good deal because mine isn't a rip-off like the other $150 cheaper one that i found at the next booth right after i had paid for mine. :) anyway, wohooo! bring on pictures!
that is only the tip of the iceberg in news! i'll continue later!
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