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.

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!

everyone needs a box to call their own.

FINALLY! my little home! it's not much, but it's mine, and i love it. :) enjoy.

on the left: the view from my door.
on the right: my bed! and my monkey! :)









on the left: from the back of my apt looking at the door.
on the right: my little kitchen table amd tv. :)






left: the main room. (wait, i only have one room.)
right: my bathroom! i have a real shower! which is more than a lot of teachers here can say.


for the complete album i posted to facebook, with a few pictures from chicago, a few from here, and more of my humble abode, click here.

this is why i love korean kids...

who said koreans don't have moves? (i've never actually heard anyone say that...) you MUST watch this little korean boy body-popping like you've never seen. that's the sort of thing that gets you all the girls in school...

in other news, the new foreign teacher came to our school. out with the old (and strange--apparently he hasn't been paying his bills the entire 6 months he was here...) and in with the new (and canadian--some of my best friends are canadian)! anyway, i'm glad for the change. we are still down one korean teacher, but hopefully we will hire a new one soon--VERY soon because we seem to be getting a new student every day lately! we have an open house this saturday, so i'm guessing the numbers will keep going up (new semester starts in a month, so everyone is looking for a place for their kid...) it makes classes a little louder, preparation a little more time-consuming, and shouting a little more necessary, but it's job security!

up north...

north korea in photos

about 30 minutes north of where i live, i can climb a hill, look out, and see north korea just over the river. it's so close, and yet it's a completely different world. i felt really touched and emotional as i looked at these pictures--all the soldiers and people look just the same as the people i see everyday here, and yet their lives are so incredibly different. the little kids i teach at my school look exactly like the kids playing in those pictures, but the opportunities given to the kids in the pictures are non-existant. i can't believe that the other half of this country i live in is so close, and the people are exactly the same, and yet the two countries could not be heading in different directions. it's like the pictures are from 100 years ago. i can't believe that seemingly un-real world is literally right above me.

a very busy bee.

bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. that me. buzzing around. being a busy bee. becuase my life is very busy!

lately, i feel like i'm running around like a head with my chicken cut off! school is busy and i feel like i sit down maybe 2 seconds of my day. this week has been a dooooozy because the head korean kindergarten teacher has been out sick all week, leaving the place to basically crumble to pieces without her! also, the new korean teacher who is in charge of the elementary stuff is quitting, and next week the current foreign teacher is being replaced by someone new, and guess who gets to train this just-graduate who's never taught before let alone never taught in the chaotic classroom of korea? the busy bee!!!! (meeeeee!!!!!!!!!!) on top of my normal job, i'm doing atleast 4 hours of privates a week, as well as working the next two weekends, as well as spending every bit of spare time working on the adventure teaching facebook page and blog, as well as jamming every weekend with a hopping social life! this poor bee is losing her buzz!

i'm trying to stay calm.

mix-up.

i started writing this post about something that happened in my elementary class this afternoon, and it occurred to me that it's possible i've never actually laid out what my day looks like so here it is:

from 9:30-2:30, kookje english village (the name of my school...also have i mentioned this before?) is a kindergarten for 23 little angels (devils) ages 5-7 korean age, which means 4-6 american age. (when kids are born here, they are automatically age 1, and when january one rolls around, everybody in the whole country turns another year older. so, for example, if a kid is born on december 31, already 1 year old, he will then turn 2 the next day. a two day old is considered a 2 year old. so unfair! koreans are always trying to get a jump start on us westerners...actually though it's so fitting with the whole 'nobody's allowed to be an individual here!' thing that EVERYBODY turns another year older at the same time. pfffff!) so anyway, the classes are 30 minutes each and we change rooms for each class while the kids stay put. a lot of moving around for us! but it makes the day go super fast.

then from 3:00-5:15 we teach elementary students who come for classes after their regular school. these are also 30 min classes and a nice change after the kindergarten since they can wipe their own noses, etc.

OK. so here's the story. today in the highest elementary class , we were working on our weekly essay, this week the topic being, 'how often do you see your gradnparents." as all 4 students were scribbling furiously so as to lessen the amount of homework they would have that night, one of my students named mark shot his head up and asked me how to spell the word 'crap.' here's how the conversation went:

mark: carolyn teacher, how do you spell crap?
me: crap? how do you spell crap?
mark: yes teacher, crap.
me: why do you need to know how to spell crap mark? what are you writing about?
mark: how do you spell crap carolyn teacher?
me: um, ok. c-r-a-p.

2 minutes later....

mark: carolyn teacher, how do you spell bitch?
me: excuse me? what?
mark: bitch.
me: bitch? mark, what...what...what are you writing? this is an essay about your grandparents...
mark: bitch, teacher, please. how do you spell?
me: mark, crap and bitch? what?
mark: (nod.)

pause....

anna (student): sigh. crab and beach, carolyn teacher.

me: oh, CRAB and BEACH!!!!!!

apparently, he was writing about the time he went on vacation with his grandma. whew.




me: why do you need to know how to spell crap?