Halloween - Korean Style

Halloween is not a holiday celebrated here in Korea so at my school we decided to take a day and have halloween lessons/parties. The youngest kids (kindergarten and preschool) got to make halloween masks and go 'trick or treating' by knocking on the door of the classroom with me on the outside. And the older kids had reading exercises about halloween and a fun vocabulary activity. When asked what halloween was before had one kid said 'candy day' which is correct :P
Here are some pictures of the kids with their masks or working on the crossword.
7 year old class with their masks.
Preschool class (4-7 yrs old)
One of the 5 yr olds with her ghost mask.
3 6-year-old frankensteins
Working hard at coloring the jack-0-lantern mask so we can go trick or treating. After the preschool class finished their masks we went to the other classrooms and knocked on the door saying Trick or Treat.
One of my level 3 boys working on the halloween crossword
The other 2 level 3 boys. (The girls of this class didn't want their picture taken... so only the boys)

Edible Hand warmers

I have discovered Edible hand warmers in Korea. They are a pastry sold on the street that are quite yummy and if you stick them in your pocket and stick your hands in they keep your hands nice and toasty. They are fish shaped pastries filled with a red bean paste. Unfortunatly they are only sold in the afternoon/evening so i dont have the hand warmers/breakfast in the mornings :(

Yummy!

Passion, Jubilee and great Friends

A few weekends ago I was able to go to Seoul with Amy to attend the Passion Seoul Conference. I got off work early so we could get into Seoul for the start of the conference but we had some adventures getting there and got to Olympic park at 9ish instead of 7:30.
Our route from Asan to Passion was a taxi to Cheonon KTX station. KTX train to Seoul station. Metro around Seoul (getting kinda turned around and running through multiple subway stations). Taxi from metro stop to olympic park. Power walking around entire olympic park to the right side of the park where everything was happening. As my dad would say we didnt get lost - just had adventures :P.
We got there in time for Louie Giglo to speak and to hear Chris Tomlin play a little bit. Headed out for another adventure in Seoul travel (finding our hotel). This one was my fault because I hadnt printed out the actual addres to the hotel, just the psudo directions from the metro stop. So Amy had to stop and ask some guys where it was and we got in another taxi to get there. After collapsing in bed for the night we got up the next morning ready for Matt Redman and David Crowder.
Saturday morning we got up and were back on the metro to head back to Olympic park. On the subway we met 2 AMAZING girls who we quickly became good friends with. (Love yall!) Saturday was another great day with Matt Redman, David Crowder and Chris Tomlin all rocking on stage. All the speakers were tuned into the Korean culture and problems that Korean youth face today. Also had fun rocking out during lunch break at a 14 couple wedding. (yes 14 couples getting married at one big wedding type thing). Saturday afternoon we had a 3 hr break so I got to explore around Olympic park and get some coffee before getting in line to go back inside. There were people who sat inline for the entire 3 hours to get the good seats once we were let inside.
Took the bus back to Asan Sunday morning with the invite to come back up to Seoul to go to Jubilee Church with Choua and Pajai.
So this Sunday I went back up to Seoul on the express bus to go to church with them. The day was an amazing God filled day of church and then hanging out with friends. After church we went to a Thai resturant in Itaewon (after a taxi ride rollarcoster through seoul) and then went off shopping for a few hours before heading home for sleep.
I am so thankful that God gave me these wonderful friends in Korea.

Pictures from Passion Seoul:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039848&l=29b28&id=55500987
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039847&l=de868&id=55500987
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039846&l=de868&id=55500987
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039845&l=de868&id=55500987

The kids are so cute!

So i just have to say that Korean kids are the cutest little kids (especially dressed up in their traditional Hanbok outfits) Last friday the kindergarten went on a field trip to a traditional folk village near Asan and they were all dressed up in their 'costumes' So of course I went picture crazy and got lots of pictures of them.

Me and the 5 year old teacher showing the students how to walk arcoss the rope (or trying to show them)

My 2 classes


Some pictures of individual cuties

1 term finished as 'a Englishee Teecher'

I have finished the first term here at the school and monday starts a new term. Again I will be teaching 4 classes in the afternoon but different levels. I have a level 1 (those that passed starter), my same preschool class, Level 3 (those that passed level 2), and my same Middle School Class. I figured i would say goodbye to my old classes with class pictures I took of the students during the last week.

Kindergarten classes


Backpack Starter Class



Preschool Class

Backpack Level 2 (the boys and girls refused to get together for a picture)

I dont have any pictures of my advanced class (Because they always hide if i pull out the camera)

So those are my students for the first term. Next week I will see who my new students are and who i have again from previous classes.

Weekend Beach Retreat with College Life

August 15th was Korean Independence day so I had the day off from teaching and was able to go with the Korea Young Adults group (AKA College life) to the East sea on a end of summer retreat.
It was a long and busy weekend but lots of fun. We left Thursday around 9 pm and after a midnight breakfast (yes midnight breakfast on Thursday night) we arrived at the church we were staying at around 3 in the morning. Friday we woke up to rain so we spent the morning just being lazy and getting to know one another. By the afternoon the rain had slowed down and we went to the beach for a few hours before heading back to the church for dinner and worship. After worship there we had an intensive prayer time that went about 4 hours. There was another midnight breakfast that night (fried chicken this time) and then to bed around 2 am. Saturday we woke up and had another worship/devotional before hitting the road around noon. We drove to another town and had raw fish for lunch (which was actually edible). The soup with lunch had whole fish heads in it and my table gave me a nice big one :X I picked the pieces of meat from around the head and avoided the eyes and brain. Overall it was a nice meal and everyone was suprised that I actually ate the fish. After lunch we piled back into the bus to head home (so i thought) but instead went up a mountain to a cave. We didnt get to explore the cave because of a lack of time so it was just a detour up and down the mountain to look at some lovely scenery. We finally arrived back in asan around 11 PM (after leaving around noon).
Over all the trip was lots of fun. I met more of the Koreans my age and found 2 that spoke pretty good english (i thought they didnt speak any). Even with the long hours in a cramped bus the trip was definatly worth going.
Pictures will follow in another post (because the photo uploader is not working right now)

The rest of my Seoul Vacation

So im a loser who never did post the rest of my Seoul vacation. It wasn't super exciting and I never got around to posting the other days.
If you want to see the other days I have the pictures on facebook and here are the links
Day 2
Day 2 (2)
Day 3
Day 3 (2)
Day 4

On the last day I did find a can of Dr. Pepper (which made me quite happy) and eat some yummy Mexican food *yay* If you want more information about my vacation send me a message and i can tell you more about it
Kay

day 1 of Seoul Vacation- Namsangol Hanuk Village

The first day of my vacation I took the train into Seoul and managed (successfully) to get a Metro Card and find my way to the hostel I was staying at. After dropping my stuff at the hostel and taking most stuff out of my bag I went on to the Namsangol Hanuk Village. I spent the day there wondering around the traditional houses and through the park beside it. There was supposed to be more going on in the village (straw sandal making, traditional village stuff) but they weren’t going on this Saturday. I’m not sure if it was because of the weather or if they only have it certain Saturdays, either way there wasn’t much to do in the village until the evening. In the village they had some traditional Korean games.

One thing I found out was that children feeding birds was a universal liking. I was sitting on some steps eating a snack and a family near by was finishing their lunch (some sort of rice thing). Birds were flying all around and soon the boys started feeding the birds leftovers.

One was played like a hackysack game where you bounce the sack on your feet and the other was a throwing game to try and get them into a standing pot with 3 compartments. With the hackysack game I could only bounce it once or twice before missing and with the other game I got maybe 1 stick in 5 throws into the pot.

In the evening they had more events going on. One house had traditional Korean clothes to dress up in and get your picture taken and another house had some Korean crafts for the kids.

The part I liked best in the evening was the musical performances. There was a group of Korean percussionists who played on various instruments and on the later part of the show they combined ribbon dancing with percussion. After the percussion ensemble they had a group of 5 people playing traditional Korean instruments (to nontraditional songs). They played non Korean classic songs and a few traditional Korean folk songs. After the Korean folk songs I talked with a few Americans I had met. The son was a teacher in Korea and his parents had come to visit him.

So that ended my first day. Overall it was kind of a boring day because the village didn’t have as much going on (and it was raining). For a large part of the day I sat under a pavilion and read while waiting for the rain to stop (or at least slacken).

To look at all my photos from today follow this link

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037436&l=c4222&id=55500987

or this one

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037437&l=aac13&id=55500987

Summer Vacation

Summer vacation for my school starts next week and I will spend the first half of my vacation touring around Seoul. Here is my basic itinary for my trip

Vacation In Seoul
July 26- Aug 1
Saturday – Arrive in Seoul - Namsangol hanok village
Sunday – Yodio Full Gospel Church – Deoksugung Palace
Monday – Gyeongbokgung and National Folk Museum of Korea (1 day tour if time) Seoul tower in evening
Tuesday – Itaewon and go back to Asan last train leaves seoul station at 7:00 Pm

That is just the rough outline of the vacation and when I get back i will expand on it in further posts
Kay

New Apartment (complete with pictures of old and new)

Last weekend we heard a rumor that we would move into our new apartment on the 1st of the month and so we decided on Sunday we could pack our stuff the next evening (Monday June 30th). We were bored later that evening so we went ahead and started packing our stuff up and quickly got most everything packed. That is fine – it would make Monday evening even easier. Sunday night we got a call from the pastors wife (about 10:30 at night) saying that we were moving tomorrow (Monday). She was calling to tell us this so that we could have everything packed by 9 am the next morning *gasp*. Luckily (or God’s planning) we already had most everything packed and just had to pack up the last stuff (sheets, toothbrush etc) in the morning.
So we had everything packed and left as usual for teaching at the Kindergarten. We had our keys and tried to drop them off at the Pastors office but it was locked L We called around and were finally told that we were supposed to leave our keys on the kitchen table and the apartment unlocked. Someone drove to the kindergarten and picked up our keys. While we were teaching at the kindergarten and eating lunch they moved everything from one apartment to another and got it all set up for us (basically in 2 hrs). After lunch the pastor’s wife drove us over to the apartment to show is where it is and to see what it is like.
It’s a beautiful 3 bedroom apartment with the view of a mountain to the east (I think) and a view of the parking lot and other apartments in the complex to the west. My bedroom is about the size of the bed :P but that is fine. There is a little porch type thing at the end of my bedroom that my dresser and mirror are at that. One bad thing is that the sheets I brought from America were for a twin sized bed and the bed that I have here is larger (queen maybe). I will have to go to the E-mart and get myself a bigger sheet set. This apartment does have a washer and a drying rack on the mountain view porch.
Pictures

This is my old apartment. You can see the lovely bathroom with the shower basically on top of the toilet, the couches that came from the pastors office (along with the coffee table) and the bedroom with a bed (I also have a dresser and mirror but they cannot be seen in that picture)

This last picture is the front of my old apartment building with is lovely paint color (but it made it easy to pick out if I wasn’t quite sure the way home).

The view from my new apartment (east side)

The view from to the west

Bathroom (yes its all pink)

Bedroom (and my bed takes up the entire room)

Utility room (with a washing machine)

Living Room (couches from the pastors office)

Kitchen (small but it has everything needed)

Book shelf (only 3 books there right now but soon it will be filled)

Things I miss

I have been in Korea for 3 and a half weeks now and am starting to miss some ‘American’ stuff. This list is what all I miss most about being in Korea versus America.

1. My friends – I miss couch time in the hall and puzzle nights in our dorm. I miss being jumped on while lying in bed or at my desk. I miss getting to talk to my sisters and my brothers about anything and everything. I miss twizzler fights with my roommate and getting locked in my closet so I can never leave. I miss spastic squirrels who jump at us and give us heart attacks and watching squirrels try to carry a whole apple up a tree. I miss Phi Lamb worships every Monday and Prayer groups during the week. I miss all my friends from school and life.
2. My family – I miss my brother trying to show me the newest game he found on the internet or the latest battle he won on his computer game. I miss helping my little sister take care of my nephew and babysitting him so she can go to karaoke night. I miss IM talks with my older sister about her latest experiments and her life in Baltimore. I miss helping my mom cook and my dad showing off his latest gadgets he has gotten. I miss talking to everyone in my family and hearing their voice.
3. BOOKS – I miss having a basically unlimited library of books available at my own house to read and reread at my leisure. I brought 3 books with me to Korea and have read them all twice plus 3 books I borrowed from the library at the school. My list of books read in the last month is
i. The Best of Guideposts (1x)
ii. Montana Skies 4 books in 1 - (Healing Love, Compassionate Love, Love Remembered, Love Abounds) (2x)
iii. A Love Woven True (2x)
iv. Pride and Prejudice (on my computer)
v. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
vi. The Secret Garden
vii. Walk Two Moons
With the lack of internet at my apartment I spend the evenings reading and playing solitaire on my computer so I have had plenty of time to read. I just lack in books to read
4. Mexican Food – I love Korean food (I would even go as far as to say that I like kimchi) and get plenty of chances to eat that but you cannot find a Mexican restaurant in all of Asan. The other Texan here says that you also cannot find tortillas or any of the other essentials to make Mexican food here in Asan. There is rumored to be a Mexican restaurant in the Itaewon district of Seoul but I haven’t had a chance to go up and see if the rumor true. I have also heard that a grocery store in the Itaewon district sells American groceries (for the army ppl) and has tortillas and shredded cheddar cheese so that quesadillas and tacos can be made.
5. 24 hour Wal-Mart – Although Wal-Mart has its evils it has everything needed and in one place. I haven’t yet found out how to get to the E-mart in Asan (which is probably the closest thing to walmart in Korea) but there is one within 2 miles of my apartment. For now we just have to get what we need from one of the many convenience stores on the way home from school in the evening. The stores do have a lot but not all of the stores have everything that we need so sometimes we make multiple stops in search of Q-tips or laundry soap. I miss the ease of running to Wal-Mart whenever something was needed. I also miss late night Wal-Mart trips with my friends to play and goof off because we were bored.
6. Washing machine – Our apartment doesn’t have a washing machine so I have to hand was everything. Its not to bad to hand wash socks or shirts but hand washing my sheets and towels is a lot of effort. We are supposed to have a washing machine in the new apartment but no dryer. Koreans don’t do dryers. Everything is hung on the porch outside after it is washed.
Ok, that is about all I can think of that I really miss from America at this point. I’m sure the list will grow and shrink as I stay here and become used to Korea.

American (or is it Korean) fast food

Yesterday and today (during my trips to Seoul) we had American fast food. Thursday for lunch we got McDonald's at the Seoul Train station. It tasted for the most part like McDonald's. They had a shrimp burger that i wasn't brave enough to try and the meat on their burgers was very pale... what type of meat is it really????? Friday we had KFC at the same train station. On the menu I didn't see any of the traditional KFC things so I ended up getting a spicy chicken sandwich. On the sandwich they had a hash brown (like McDonald's breakfast ones). I enjoyed the sandwich but it isn't anything that I could ever get in America.
The question is.... is it American fast food or Korean fast food?
I went to Seoul Thursday and Friday to take care of the criminal background check for my E2 visa. Thursday I asked the Korean going with us if we needed the checks that we had previously done and she said no because they had to do a new one. We got there and found out that they did need it and couldn't do the seal (which was really all we needed) with out it. So we went home and went out on Friday to do it all over again. Friday I did remember to bring my criminal background check and after sitting in the American Embassy for almost 2 hrs (it was very busy that day) we finally did get a seal put on it and signed and all that. To get back to Asan on time we had to get on the 11:18 train from Seoul station but didn't get finished at the embassy until 11:15 so we missed the train :( We finally did get back to Asan just after 2 and to the school around 2:30 (classes started at 2 pm).
So I have taken 2 trips to Seoul and seen nothing more then what I see through a taxi and the American Embassy. At the Embassy there were Korean police stationed all around it because of the riots over the American Beef. They had buses sitting beside the embassy with all the police riot stuff ready in case another riot happened there.
Maybe I will take another trip into Seoul this weekend and go see the city (no.. not likely I dont want to spend another 90 on the train each way so soon...)
Kay

June 15th 10AM - a weekend of exploring (and a doctors visit)

June 15th 10 AM
Yesterday I had to go with one of the Korean teachers to Chunan for a doctors visit. We left at 9 am and were back before 11 AM. I had to go do a checkup for my visa. They did height, weight, eyesight, blood pressure, chest ex-ray, blood drawn, drug test etc etc… The last thing we were supposed to do was a dental exam but when we got to that part of the building there was a line all the way down the hallway in front of the dental office. She talked to them and was told it would be a 2 hr wait to be seen but they just took our paper work and made a mark on it and let us go. We didn’t have to wait for in the line for a proper check up.
After we got back I decided to go out hiking. I got my GPS (and after stopping at a convenience store for fresh batteries). I walked over to the school because from there you could easily get to the mountain. I never did find the entrance to the mountain that I had been told about but I did explore up the mysterious stairs to nowhere. These stairs look like they lead to nowhere because from the bottom of the stairs you cannot see any paths just green vegetation. Once up those stairs though it is a beautiful little greenbelt park right in the city. Looking out on one side of the part is city but then looking out the other side is farm land and small personal houses. The park had lots of winding intersecting trails that I explored on and had a little workout section in the middle of it. When I came to a trail leading down to stairs I took it thinking it was the same set of stairs I had come up. Getting down it I realized it wasn’t but that it was a set of stairs a short distance down the road further. After that I did a little more exploring around the city near my school and got GPS coordinates for the school and apartment and church.
School coordinates N36*46.178’ E126*59.746’ Elevation 131 ft
Apartment coordinates N36*46.707’ E127*00.120’ Elevation 83 ft
Church coordinates N36*46.732’ E127*00.171’ Elevation 83 ft (also coordinates for kindergarten)

The Mysterious Stairs to nowhere

June 13th 9:30 PM - Field Trip with the Kindergarten

June 13th 9:30 PM

Today I got to go on a field trip with the kindergarten classes to a war memorial and cemetery. The first part of the trip I went with my downstairs classroom then went to my other classroom and helped out there for the rest of the trip. All the graves in this cemetery are Koreans that were killed in other countries then Korea and wanted to be buried in their home country. I took lots of pictures of the memorial and of my cute kids. As I was walking back to the bus with the kids one of the little girls accidentally stepped into a grate that was across the sidewalk and got her leg stuck. I was able to pull her out but her shoe fell of and was sitting at the bottom of the area the grate covered. I couldn’t get my hand down there to get her shoe but luckily the Korean teacher was able to reach down there and got her shoe for her. On the way across it the first time the teacher told the kids to be careful because they have such small feet it was easy for them to fall into it but coming back they weren’t paying attention to where they walked. No pictures of the kids posted here because I do not know the rules of the school as far as posting pictures of kids online.

Lots of graves at this memorial

The monuments on either end of the cemetery.
I am not sure what the specific meaning of the monuments are because I was busy chasing children and didn’t have a chance to read what was written about them.

Today I also had a breakthrough in my advanced class. The lesson for the day was on money and buying and spending. The lesson started like normal with minimal participation from the students but at the end when they were doing some out of their work book I took out some American money I had and passed it around the classroom. I had a 20, a 10 and a handful of change (including state quarters). All the students were looking at the money and asking me questions about it – they wanted to know which presidents were on it (and I hate to say it but I didn’t remember on all the coins which president it was), why the state coins all had different backs, the buildings on the front of the bills (white house and US treasury). They also pulled out Korean money and we were comparing it. One thing I saw that was interesting was that the 10 won (which has the same value as a penny) was a copper coin like the penny (although it was a little bigger). Today is the first day that the students have actively asked questions and wanted to learn more and really the first time they have talked and held a discussion in the class.

June 6th - first week finished

June 6th I have survived my first week of classes. My daily schedule is to wake up at 8 AM or so, lazy around my apartment till about 9:15 then I walk to the kindergarten to check email before I start teaching at 10AM in the downstairs kindergarten class. I help out in that class and teach an English lesson then go upstairs at 11 AM for another 5 year old class. There I teach from 11-11:30 then help out in the classroom until lunch at 12:15ish. After lunch I walk ~15 minutes to the Language School where classes start for me at 2 pm. I teach from 2-3 pm a starter English class then have a break until 4 when I teach level 2 English class. I get another break after that class (5-6) then teach one more class at 6. My last class is the most advanced class at the school and is composed of 15 and 16 year olds. I leave school at around 7:15 and walk home to lazy around w/o internet or TV until I go to bed. For dinner I usually stop at a little bakery called Paris Baguette for a sandwich (and I also pick up something for breakfast the next day) so I am usually only eating Korean during lunch each day
My classroom at WMLS





My daily schedule and classroom name.