Monday Music Time

I'll be in the air, flying home for the first time in a YEAR AND 9 MONTHS, and I think it's safe to say that I am completely incapable of focusing. So I'll grace you all with more videos of my little kiddos that I'll miss so much while I'm gone. These videos were taking from Monday Music Time!

My 6 year olds (American age 5 -- it's annoying that I always have to clarify that, isn't it?) singing their hearts out to "My Bonnie."

My 3 and 4 year olds rockin' out during instrument time!


And my favorite part of music class -- the lullaby! At the end of each class, they all pass out during a sleepy song. And if you're wondering how I get them to all lay still..."NO SLEEPING, NO STICKERS!"

I'll be Home for Christmas

I leave for America in 2 days! My mind has been in a whirl -- tying up things at work, last minute Christmas shopping, giving Ali a haircut, packing, unpacking, repacking, realizing my suitcase has gone WAY beyond weight limits, unpacking again, packing into two separate suitcases, remembering how much I hate packing...

Why can't Thursday just be here already?!? I had a nice conversation with Alligator Class about Christmas today, that is, after we cleared up that Sam had apparently taken a quick trip Haiti to see dinosaurs on Sunday...

Ali's Birthday

And just like, I'll be going home for Christmas in 2 weeks. In fact, exactly 2 weeks from this very moment, I'll be on a plane heading to Tokyo, and will just be a hop and a skip through Dallas away from landing in Omaha for the most epic Sybesma family reunion of all time! :)

Last weekend was Ali's birthday, and we celebrated in style. I'll let the pictures do the talking.












Firday night, I took Ali to a French restaurant with 7 courses! This was course #6: AMAZING steak! Almost as good as steak from Iowa. :)












The restaurant was called Chez Simon, and was up a little staircase down a little alleyway in an amazing part of Seoul. Great atmosphere, great food, great company! :)














Then Saturday, we roamed the streets of Seoul with Taylor, had coffee from one of the one hundred top espresso machines in the world (the pope has one!0, and then had an afternoon beer.











Saturday evening, we met up with friends at a little Spanish restaurant called Pakito.















Birthday cupcake with crooked candles!














The wine and beer was a flowin'.











Then we went bowling and drank white russians! (Which we brought ourselves.)












Go girls team! Me, Sarah Jane, Mary Soo, and...Olivia! (Olivia is really Oliver, but he very graciously played with the girls to even things out...)











Boys team! Ali, Taylor, Reuben (with a seriously gross mustache for his soccer game the next day), Ross, and...Olivia! I mean Oliver.



Welcome to your 26th year, Ali!!!

Peter Pan Performance

Another performance! This is my 6 and 7 year olds performing Peter Pan. They did a FANTASTIC job and loved this play more than I could have ever imagined. For the past month, all I've heard in the hallways is lines from Peter Pan, songs from Peter Pan, excitement about performing Peter Pan and so on. A couple of the kids even bought their costumes for Halloween so that they coordinated with their character. (You will notice that Tinkerbell is pretty decked out in full costume -- wand and all!) My favorite part is in Scene 4 when Leo, who was playing Lost Boy 1, says, "He took her to his shit!" instead of, "He took her to his ship!" so keep a look out for that. :) I'm so proud of them! I think this play and the songs from this play are some of my favorite that I've written so far. How will I leave these kids and this program to someone else? I'm getting so attached...

A Small World

I've been battling one of those colds you get in Korea that hangs on and on and on until you forget you have a cold and start thinking that blowing your nose 29 times a day is normal. I woke up Saturday morning, fully planning to stay bundled up in my covers all day to recover, until I checked facebook and saw that Lisa Duitman, a friend of my mom's and someone I grew up with, wrote on my wall. Apparently, her daughter, Elayna, was on tour in Asia with the Cleveland Orchestra and perhaps I would be able to see it. So I did a little searching on google and lo and behold, Elayna and the Cleveland Orchestra were literally playing a concert 5 minutes from my house that evening. What were the odds! So I promptly biked over to the concert hall and bought myself a ticket. Hooray! An orchestra! And not just any orchestra--the Cleveland Orchestra is currently ranked #1 in America and #7 in the world. It was an absolutely amazing concert, and being the absolutely only white girl in the audience, it felt even more special. What a small world! A girl from my home town playing a concert just minutes away from me in Korea. I caught Elayna after the concert (MUCH to the disapproval of the Korean usher who very plainly told me that I was ABSOLUTELY not allowed to go back stage) and we went for breakfast the next morning at her hotel in downtown Seoul, and then I showed her and a couple of the members from the orchestra to one of Seoul's palaces. (That's where the picture of us was taken.) So random and so fantastic. God bless facebook.

And speaking of facebook, later in the weekend I saw the new movie that just came out about Mark Zuckerberg and the beginning of facebook called "The Social Network." It was one of the best, most engaging movies I've seen in awhile. Everyone who knows anything about facebook should see this movie! And if you don't care about facebook, go for the soundtrack! Trent Reznor does all of the music for the movie, and it is PHENOMENAL.

To end on a less upbeat note, today at 2:30pm North Korea shot artillery shells at a South Korean border island called Yeonpyeong Island. Two marines were killed, sixteen were wounded, and three civilians were wounded as well. South Korea then fired back, and they're saying this is one of the worst clashes between the North and South since the Korean War. As one person who commented on the BBC website put it, "North Korea is like a spoilt child. You can issue empty threats of retaliation all you want but it won't learn." This incident is a bit unnerving, especially after the Cheonan naval ship was sunk (presumably by the North Koreans) just last March! But don't fret, friends and family, Yeonpyeong Island is a couple of hours away from here. Also, it seems as though South Korea may have been conducting some military exercises near the border, so perhaps the attack from North Korea wasn't because they're completely crazy and there is fault from both sides? For some reason, that seems slightly more reassuring. If you haven't read about it already, click here for the article from the BBC.

Success!

Ali and I ran the Sports Seoul Half Marathon on Sunday! It was cold, it was early, and there was a shockingly fierce wind when we turned around for the second half of the race, but we survived! The han river was a nice place to run. I ran it in 2 hrs 7 minutes, similiar to my first half marathon, but not as good as my last one (which I did in 2 hrs.) I blame it on the wind! :) Ali did it in 1 hr 43 minutes, which is a KILLER time, especially since it's only his first one! That's under an 8 minute mile! I was proud. :)

We spent the rest of the day in recovery, and I'm afraid that my knees still haven't forgiven me. How people do a full marathon, I don't know. Every time I've done a half, just as I'm about to cross the finish line, I think..."Imagine if I had to do that all over again right now..." and I shutter at the thought of doing a full marathon. 13.1 miles is enough for me. :)







Nervous smiles before the race...














Ali showing off his form!




















World Cup Stadium in the background, where the race started.


















Kissing our medals!

Goodbye, Korean Fall

Fall has almost already come and gone. The leaves are barely hanging on to the trees. So before my final fall in Korea says goodbye, I'd like to give a little shout out to Korean Fall. Hollah!!!! I took these shots in the big square near my house on Sunday evening. I love Fall in Korea and I'm sad that I may not ever see it again. So, Korean Fall, I just want you to know how much you've meant to me and how much I've loved seeing you after the long, oppressive Korean Summers. Just between you and me, you are my favorite of all seasons in Korea. But don't tell the others. (I don't want Korean Winter finding out and lashing out at me like last year...)

























































































And a Happy BOOOOlated Halloween to everyone! I went as a Geisha Girl (very appropriate given my surroundings) an Ali and company went as zombies.

Third Time's a Charm

This Sunday, I'll be running my 3rd half marathon. This one feels different for a few reasons. First, I'm running it with someone, that someone being Ali. After 2 1/2 years of being together, I think we've finally nailed down the very fragile art of running together. There were some tears along the way, some furious stomping (that would be me), some full out yelling battles that consisted of sentences like "EITHER RUN WITH ME, OR DON'T RUN WITH ME!" (also me, but in my defense Ali was doing this thing where he runs at my same pace, but about 2 meters ahead of me...INFURIATING). So the system we worked out is that we run in the same time frame, I leave about 15 minutes before him, we usually go different directions around the lake, give each other a high five here and there if we pass each other, and wallah--the perfect running buddy system.

Secondly, this is my first half that I'll be running and not sweating my face off. Oh, the joy of running 13.1 miles in November! The forecast say 57 degrees and partly sunny. PERFECTO! And finally, the race I'm doing is called the Seoul Sports Marathon and it's HUGE! There's thousands of people participating, which is a big change from my previous two races that were all small and intimate. (This will also mean more foreigners--anyone remember the "Where's Waldo?" picture from my last half?) Thousands of people running along the Han River through Seoul is a bit intense!

Wish us luck!

Feinschule Field Day

Last Saturday, our school rented out the sporting grounds of a nearby public school and had a full-on field day. We spent the morning playing games, and I'm happy to report that I have not, in any way, lost my competitive edge. I literally terrified my team, along with their parents, into making sure we took gold. There wasn't gold to take, unfortunately, but we had our (my) pride to keep intact! Other than a fierce game of tug-of-war in which half of the kids were injured/sobbing and one teacher was left with a sprained ankle, we had a blast! After lunch, I taught them all a completely professional line dancing routine, as well as the good ole macarena. We finished off the day with a Halloween costume contest.








My favorite Korean family! All with matching homemade costumes that say, "Roy! I love Feinschule!"
















All the fun and games makes for some sleepy children...














Best costume ever! I think he's a joker of some sort...

















ROY!!!
















Getting ready for some 3-legged racing...















Mother and daughter!















"When I grow up, I want to be a Princess!"

Rabbit Class

Most days of the week, before I have to bury my head in writing, editing, and re-editing drama curriculum, I get to teach my favorite class in the whole world. They're 4 yrs old (American age 3), they're adorable, and even though one of them hasn't stopped crying the entire month that she's been here (you'll see what I mean), I love them to death. I introduce to you: Rabbit Class.

V-V-V...

You know how in the Harry Potter Books everyone is afraid to say the word “Voldemort” and they’re all like, “V…V…V…he who should not be named” because they’re so terrified of him they don’t even want to say his name? I, too, have a “v” word that gives me such a feeling.

V-V-Visa. (I just gave a terrifying shutter.) I don’t want to say it, I don’t want to think it, I don’t want to hear any one else say it, I don’t want to see it written down…I want to take the word, rip it into a million pieces, stomp on it, throw it against a cactus a few times, let the sick kid in school vomit all over it, then tie a massive anchor to it and throw it into that spot on the ocean that covers the deepest hole on earth and let it sink, sink, sink into oblivion until it gets eaten, digested, and excreted into nothingness by a giant squid.

Get my drift?

Yet again, this malicious little word has made my life full of stress and complications as Korea changes all of their rules concerning v-v-v-oh, you know what I mean. I need an FBI Criminal background check! Me! Accused of being a criminal! (I realize that I shouldn’t take it personally, but it’s so intrusive!) And it can take 3 months to get it! So I have consequently spent my week frantically getting my application for a federal background check in (which included a lovely trip to the police station to get my fingerprints taken), and then making calls, searching websites, and desperately finding a loophole in the new rules so that I can get back into the country after Christmas. And I may have cracked the case! I'll keep you posted.

I think it’s to the sauna for me tonight…

Baby, I've Got a Plan

Anyone catch the Kanye West reference in my subject? Last night, my entire bike ride to and from Ali's place (yes, I got a bike!) I was shouting out his new song "Runaway" like the good ole days of shouting out Alanis Morissette on the lawn mower back on the farm. What is it about Kanye that always makes me want to where a bright orange suit, where a crown, and dance with a bunch of ballerinas? (SNL last week anyone?)

But, reference or not...I do have a plan! I had a nice long meeting with my boss this week about my future in Korea. And I'm coming home for Christmas, people! It'll have been about a year and nine months since being home. I've just paid for my tickets and there is nothing stopping me now! Step away Korean children, Carolyn Teacher is going home! I'll be landing in Omaha on Thursday, December 23rd and coming back to Seoul on January 8. A little over 2 weeks to eat as much oatmeal, cheese, licorice, and guacamole as possible. Ah, it will be grand.

And as for further life plans, my last day of work in Korea will be June 3rd. Then the plan is to do some traveling this summer and gear myself up for grad school at Columbia College next fall. It's so strange to have an end date to living in Korea. I'm always wondering what I'm going to do next, when I'm going to leave, and now that I know, I have this overwhelmingly sad feeling inside just thinking about it. Last night on my bike ride through the back streets of Ilsan, I was just taking everything in -- the same blue trucks everyone seems to have here, the GS marts on every corner, the Korean kids out playing WAY past a normal bedtime, the friendly building guard who always give me a huge smile and "ANYONG HASEYO" every time I come home -- I'll have lived here 3 years by the time I leave and I feel like this is just what I know now. This is my life. It's comfortable and it's mine. Despite the fact that I've spent so much time wondering what's next, I'm just not ready to go yet. Hopefully I will be in 8 months.

Chuseok O'Clock!

People, Sweater Weather has come! (*Note: I capitalize because, to me, Sweater Weather is something in the vicinity of sacred.) I was told today, as I proudly wore a brand new sweater to school, that I looked "coozy." I think they meant cozy.

So, Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving has come and gone. So what better way to explain my holiday than in pictures. Here goes:

We spent a couple of days out east in Seoraksan -- Korea's biggest mountain.







Where we stayed, Osaek, there are famous springs there that were discovered by a Buddhist Monk many a year ago. This water tasted so much like iron, I felt like a vampire. (Cuz, you know, iron tastes like blood? Not funny? Shoot.)








We took a long stroll (the front desk Korean guy at the resort said it was a "hike," and despite the fact that all of the Koreans on the trail with us were in full-on hiking gear, complete with boots and sticks, this most definitely, just a stroll) through the mountains for a few hours one morning. Lots of pretty water falls.










Don't worry, mom. If I had fallen into the water fall, the life ring would have saved me.












Then, we went to the beach! We gazed at the ocean and tried to see Japan. We didn't.













Sokcho, the city on the eastern coast of Korea, is famous for dried squid and sting ray. Both equally disgusting and smelly.











After we returned from the east, we spent a day at Everland, Korea's best amusement park. We battled Korean crowds all day, but the T-Express 70 degree drop roller coaster made it all worth while.







So scared to ride the roller coaster...














Ali in the map, where he spends most of his life.

















We made friends with a polar bear! For being the most ferocious of all bears, they sure look cute and cuddly.












If you can't read the first point on this sign, it says: "The drunken, pregnant, old are not permitted in this ride." Gotta watch out for those pregnant drunk old people. They're a serious problem here.











Ali tried to win me a stuffed animal, in true "date at an amusement park" style, but he didn't. I love him anyway.








And we even got to spend a day in Hongdae at a little hand-made arts market, enjoying the fall weather and gazing at all of the beautiful pieces of art that we would never be able to fit home in our suitcase. Someday, someday.

So, to sum it up, a fantabulous Korean Thanksgiving. So much to be thankful for, and so grateful I could spend another (and VERY likely my last) Chuseok in this country.

Sweater Weather? Not Yet.

Yesterday was the first day since last spring that the high was less than 80 degrees. It was a crisp, chilly 77! But it was enough for me to run home after school and immediately scrounge through the depths of my big pink suitcase for the winter clothes I packed away last April. I realize that I may be getting ahead of myself – 77 degrees is not exactly wool sweater weather, but after the never-ending heat and humidity this summer, I am ready to jump, head first, into a change in seasons.

So, I did my bi-annual sorting of the clothes and hesitantly parted ways with those that have been hibernating in my drawers for too long to justify another season of non-use. Then, I promptly headed to my favorite (and only) clothing store nearby that has cool clothes that actually FIT. They’ve finally started carrying jeans above a size 27. YA! My intentions were great – there was now so much space in my closet for all of the new fall clothes that were calling my name! After an hour and about 17 in-and-outs of the dressing room, I left with a new bag. Better luck next time.

I also made an excursion to the dentist yesterday to get a much-needed cleaning. Or as they call it in Korea, “scaling.” Why can’t they just call it cleaning? Scaling sounds like something you do to a fish when trying to separate the skin from the bone. So anyway, they “scaled” my teeth, which basically consisted of the dental assistant taking a malicious looking little drill and voyaging farther into my gums than any dentist has ever explored. My poor gums. So vulnerable. So exposed! Fortunately, it only lasted 15 minutes. Which left me with the same feeling that I had last time I went to the dentist and had a cavity filled in 2 minutes flat -- Is that it? Are you sure you did everything? Wouldn’t you just like to fiddle around in my mouth a bit longer just to make me feel like I’m getting my money’s worth? But I’m not complaining. The less time I have to spend with gadgets and drills exploiting the privacy of my mouth, the better.

Pinocchio

So, for your viewing pleasure and to give you an idea of what I do, here is a portion of the Pinocchio Performance we did last month. These kids are age 7 in Korea (which means Age 6 in America), and are my oldest Kindergarten class. Keep in mind that they've only been learning English for a couple of years at most. The video includes scenes 1, 2, and 5 (I edited parts of it so that it's not so long.) The drama and music were written by yours truly. :)

Catching Up with August

Since I've basically (not basically...totally) spent this month reminiscing about Bali and blissfully extending my summer vacation via blog posts, it's probably time I move on and live in the present. It's the last day of August, and, as per usual for this time of year, I've suddenly realized that summer is nearing it's close and my response is..."What the WHAT!?!?!" It's been a busy summer that's felt like one big un-ending goodbye party. And it's been an especially busy August. Let me break it down for you:

The weekend after we got back from Bali, we said goodbye to Joy and Rob. It was great spending this past year with my old college roommate and friend...and her fantastic Australian man.







Then, the next weekend I said goodbye to Amanda as she began her travels to southeast Asia. So to wrap it up, I'm surprised I have any friends left.



However, there was one 'hello' in August, which was to Ali's parents!!! His mom and dad just left last Thursday after spending about 8 days here in Seoul with us. They did it all: the temples, the museums, the food, the dmz, the outdoor expeditions...any exploring that there was to be done in this city, they did! It was nice seeing people from the 'real world,' and remembering that there is life outside of Korea. Now if only I could see my own family. :) It's been 15 months and counting...

My Bali Trip: The People

And finally, to finish off my blogs on Bali, I'd like to do a post on the people because I found them full of beauty and tradition.


This is a woman walking in a traditional Hindu parade to one of the temples.
















A shy looking girl walking out of the temple after making her daily sacrifice.














On our bike ride, we stopped to see this man doing his wood carving. It was crazily intricate and detailed. His kids were all sitting close, learning the trade.










This woman was in one of the temples in Ubud, making her sacrifice.












In the traditional Hindu home, a woman weaving.














Woman chatting at the market.



















The Grandma and Grandpa of the Hindu home we visited.
















A woman working at the market trying to sell her things.














Women walking to the Hindu cremation ceremony, where they believe that their relatives' spirits can be set free.