Third Official Update

Greetings all,

You guessed it, its approximately time for your monthly update all theway from Korea!! As promised I am emailing you because all of my academy reports are done, and work is starting to slow down... just one week until I get to enjoy my hard earned week of paid vacation! My last day of teaching for the week is August 23rd. (After the 23rd the office won't be opening up again until after the 31st. So if you are wanting to send boxes, it would probably be best to wait until after vacation, because it takes 7-10 days by the post office, and even longer through UPS.)

These past 3 weeks have flown by for intensives,and I am sure the next couple of weeks will fly by as well. It is strange to be working during the day, as I teach at the academy in the afternoon and evening. I am kind of starting to miss my vampire-like schedule, in Korea its much harder to get things done when you work during the day because hardly anything is open before 10 am. I think Iam just going to hang out in Korea over my holiday go see some of thethings to see in my province. There is also the issue of there not really being any set hours in Korea, even for international franchises. The subway here has been completely closed down twice now for a total of six days. I don't think that this would be able to happen in the United States. The owner decided to go on vacation or whatever and so she closed up shop. The owner is a very nice woman.

This Friday was all of (North and South) Korea's independence day! August 15th, 1945 is the day that Korea finally got rid of Japanese rule in their penninsula. The Koreans are very distrustful of the Japanese. Not to say that I blame them since they did take over their country and outlaw the Korean language and customs. I have read many different essays about the Japanese from my students, which is very interesting. It is customary to to hang a flag out of your window which of course the landlady did. I of course worked all day, but Iam getting paid overtime because it is a Korean holiday. So Happy Korean Independence Day Everyone!!!!!!

With August also comes my birthday! There are no offical plans yet, as it is Korea and we don't really plan super far in advance. But there are rumors of going to the horses races next weekend. I have never been to the horse races before-- so it would be a new adventure. We will also go out for a nice dinner. I will have to let you know more about what I did for my birthday in the next email.

The school that I work at is a hogwon, which basically means that its an after school academy. Korean children only get one month off for summer and so a lot of the academies like to have them come more often than the would normally when school is in session. This is to give them extra practice etc. There are academies for practically everything.

My academy does what is called intensives... where students of all levels except for Kbridge who are very tiny students (they are ready to be working with an English speaking teacher, but they are too young to start K1 phonics) K bridge, K1, and K2 are all kindergarten aged children between the ages of 5-7/8. They are also have the lowest levels of English as a whole. Kinder classes (or Kinderbabies as they are sometimes called by the foriegn teachers,because they are so tiny) have reading and phonics classes. In Phonics we teach students to recognize letter sounds, beginning and ending sounds, and vocabulary words. For whatever reason almost every kinderkid knows "delicious" and "cot" by the time they start working with foriegn teachers... as well as the ever important "water" and "bathroom/ toilet". Though one should never send more than one kinder kid out of theclassroom at the time because they get distracted by their desire to play. They also get introduced to reading. The books are boring but they have lots of repetition that students need and we work on things like names of transportation, names of food, colors etc.

A group that is even younger than the K1 kids are the activities kids. Activities kids come once a week during Intensives to work with a foriegn teacher. These kids will most likely be starting K1 in the fall, though I suspect that some of them may be starting Kbridge because they are so teeny tiny. I believe that there are activity classes on Wednesday so that students can practice their English. It is also so that they aren't terrified of the foriegn teachers when they startclasses.

Grades 1-5 are pretty much like those that you would find in theclassrooms in the United States. The especially since our Science and Social Studies books come from publishing companies in the United STates. The students learn Science, Social Studies, Writing/ Grammar, and Trophies(which is vocabulary building and reading). I teach Science, Social, and occasionally will teach Writing/ Grammar.

The Global Leaders are the oldest group of students (they are middle school students) they have grammar, news/ current events, reading, andTOEFL test preparation. I teach 2 test prepartaion courses, and grammar along with the current events class.

So that is basically what my students are like!

My average class sizeis 7 students, but that can change fairly easily. Students are not going to necessarily show up on their own day. They like to move around a little bit because sometimes their schedule changes. Right now the smallest class I have is 7 and the largest has been 12. I am kind of anxious for the day when classes aren't so large anymore-- because we get less accomplished and its a little more stressful.

What I have been up to mainly consists of working and sleeping, and I have managed to read a few books besides. I highly recommend The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It is very interesting and I think alot of you would really enjoy it, especially uncle david. I have purchased a few more books than I normally would in the past few weeks.

So yesterday after work I went home and was kind of chilling out whenI recieved a call from friends that they were going to go get Vietnamese for lunch. After lunch they were going to to the bookstore in Gongnam. I did of course want to go along. So after getting lunch we went to the bank, and afterwards went to the bus stop. The bus from Suwon to Gongnam is about a 40 minute ride. It had started to rain and of course my umbrella had decided to break. So now I have no umbrellas in Korea. When I go to buy water today I will have to pick up an umbrella. You don't drink the water in Korea and everyone knows it. If its boiled it is of course fine. Every restaurant has a water cooler so don't worry.

It was in Gongnam that books in English were purchased. They of coursehave a fabulous selection of English books in many different categories. That is not something that you can't find in a lot of places in Korea. But on the way there it was very rainy and my umbrella decided to no longer be functional. All of sudden an older Korean man was there sharing his umbrella with me. It was very nice of him. After I we were done looking at books (Richard, Nickie and I went) we decided that it was not so bad anymore and so we went by metro to Insadong to go check out culture street. We didn't find it right away so of course we pretty much wandered through the area, but it was kind of nice-- we discovered a park. Which we walked through and we watched the old Korean men play agame that is very difficult to understand. It has black and white circular pieces that are put on coordinates. I would like to find outwhat the name of the game is and then try to play it. This weekend was the first time that I had actually seen people wearing traditional clothing also known as the hanbok. It was in Insadong that we also found a Starbucks, they are just as expensive as at home. I don't drink "yuppie coffees" very often because they can be hard to come by and they are also very expensive. In the spirit of getting a treat I also purchased a piece of New York cheesecake which was fabulous. Well, worth every penny of it. Though it was slightly expensive.

After our refreshing break we were ready to do some shopping there were tons upon tons of stores and shops. There were some beautiful pieces there. I bought a scarf, two necklaces, some postcards (which are next to impossible to find in Korea), an older man bought me a fan as a gift.... a bag, and a hard rock cafe t-shirt.

Nickie and Richard were looking at a map of the area. The space where they were was already crowded and so I decided to not crowd in and look at the map. Instead I was looking at these hand painted fans that a street merchant was selling. When an older man (Nickie and I later found out that he was 60) asked if I was American. I'm always slightly nervous when that question is asked. When I said yes the man said "America Good, U.S.A. good." and gave me a thumbs up. He saw me looking at the fans and he picked one out for me, and had a man stamp it (add his signature to it) and he gave it to me... It was at this point that I wished that I knew Korean. He was a man that fought in the Vietnam war along side American troops (That is my guess anyways). It was also in Vietnam that his leg got shot off. Which he proudly showed us, and on his hat he has different pins from the military and patriotic pins. One of the pins had two flags, one Korean and one the U.S.A flag. Koreans are very patriotic, especially the men. I cannot say if thisis true in men of my age, because I don't talk to a lot of Korean men my age.

It was at this point that we finally found culture street-- Wevfound things from all over Asia. There were some beautiful pieces ofvartwork! There was pottery, and hanboks and all sorts of wonderfulvthings. I mainly stuck to the smaller shops and street vendors. After walking down the street we were starting to get very hungry. It was at this point that we decided to head to Itaewon to get dinner, because we were too hungry to make it back to Suwon. We took a cab there, it was then that I stumbled across the Hard Rock Cafe-- Seoul. We were off in search of the Mexican Restaurant. In true Nickie fashion she was off blazing ahead (not that it is a bad thing)... I called her name and we stopped. I told her that we could just stop and see and if it was really expensive and that we didn't have to eat there. Well, we did eat there and they were both amazed by it. Neither of them had been to one before, I have been to a couple. :-)

Overall it was a fun day, and by the time I got home I was exhausted and ended up falling asleep very soon after I laid down. :-)

In September I am starting Korean classes, which I am really excited about!

Scott Update ----> Scott and I have now dated for a year. :-) He hasbeen very busy this summer with his classes, and his two jobs. Scott and I talk as much as we can on different chat mechanisms, we talk on skype, and we send emails back and forth. We communicate with each other in some form or fashion everyday. Though my intensive schedule and the time difference it has been a little morechallenging. He is planning to come and visit me.

That's pretty much all of the news that I have. Though, I did go through my first typhoon. It was really windy and the power was kind of flickering. I didn't really go outside though. But I am anxiously awaiting news from everyone.

Love,
Miss Bookworm

Crazy Busy

Hi All,

Just a quick note to let yoou know that I am alright. I have just been really busy with intensives the past couple of weeks, big test days this week, and now academy reports! I will be sending out an email after things have calmed a little bit again and all of my academy reports are turned in. I also appologize for being really bad about responding to messages lately... Eventually, I will get back to you I promise :)

Death

So lately it seems like there has been a lot of talk about death, by both family members and friends, this past year. I'm really not scared of death because I am secure in my relationship with Christ, and when you start to fear things you stop living, and you stop trying new things. So my point of view is the fact that eventually everyones number is going to be called up and I just need to live my life the best that I can and show love to everyone I meet (even those I would consider unloveable.) Am I perfect? No, I am not. There are times when I fail at this miserably but the only thing that you can do is keep trying and to pray for strength.

But I have created a list-- I call it my Lifes To Do List. (I know I'm kind of obsessive about lists... but for me they work.) My list is divided into five different sections Personal, Educational/Professional, Cultural, Travel and Misc. I thought I would share parts of my list with everyone.

Personal:
be there for the premiere of Scott's first feature/full length film
learn more about my geneology
Come to appreciate the outdoors
have a stress management strategy
Memorize the New Testament
Create a personal budget and stick with it
get organized and live simply
Be content with who I am, and where my life has brought me


Educational/Professional:
Master Basic Car Maintenance/Care
Learn how to invest
have a favorite author, and know why he/she is my favorite author and read everything by them
learn to play the paino
relearn cpr and the heimlech maneuver
Learn how to throw a punch
Learn to play chess
Get my master's degree
Get a doctorates degree
Read all of Shakespeare's plays
Learn Quecha
Learn Latin
Learn Ancient Greek
Relearn French

Cultural:
become worldly- choose four other countries to learn about the language, customs, cuisine, art, folklore and history
See a play on Broadway
Go to all of the major art museums the met, the Prado, the Louvre, the Van Gogh museum, the Corcoran etc.
Go to a performance of the American ballet company
Live in Mexico
Live in Ireland or the U.K.
Live in France
Live in South America
learn how to ballroom dance properly

Travel:
Go to Europe
Backpack somewhere
Go to the Cannes Film Festival
Go on a Safari
Explore the Galapagos archipelago
Visit Temples in Asia
Go to New Orleans and just look around
go to a baseball game at every baseball stadium in the U.S.
See the northern lights
Go to at least 25 of the 50 states capitols :-D
Go the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Visit the 7 Wonders of the World
Machu Picchu (Peru), The Coliseum (Rome), Petra (Jordan), Christ Redeemer (Brazil), The Great Wall of China (China), Chichen Itza (Mexico), The Taj Mahal (India)
Visit the Lascaux Caves in southern France
Go to Paris for a week, and just go to the museums, and the sights
Go on a trip with my Mum
Go to New England to go to the sights of famous American authors such as Emily Dickinson and Nathaniel Hawthorne
Go to Kenya
Find the village in Switzerland where the Hauptlis originated from
Go to New Zealand
Travel to 6 of the continents ( I think Antartica is unecessary)
Go to Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bali, Indonesia, India, China, Mongolia
Go to Costa Rica

Misc.:
Feel Comfortable using power tools
Live more green/ environmentally friendly
develop my scrapbooking skills
play one card game really well (I almost always loose)
take up photography
Collect tea cups
Learn to Grill
have a signature drink
Become a master gardener and have an herb garden
Design/Build a house
Own a Convertible
Go Rock climbing
Have a nice holiday house somewhere tropical

This is just a partial list, but I encourage you to think about things you want to do and then start doing it... But love to all!

Craziness

So I have changed the look of my blog... what does everyone think?

Other than that I have been busy getting ready for intensives to start next week. It is going to be a very long four weeks, but I think that its going to be going by fast. I looked at the calendar yesterday, and today is my 11th week in South Korea! It really doesn't seem possible, but I guess it is. The next 41 weeks will probably fly by just as quickly.

"Its Not Always Rainbows and Butterflies" -Maroon 5

I have been in a really positive mood today, I have accomplished a lot today! I went grocery shopping, and I did two loads of laundry, and I am in the process of cleaning/organizing my apartment. I have done a lot of things that I have needed to do. I was looking at the books that are with me in Korea and they are definitely a wide assortment-- but one that made the trek with me is a devotion book called Hindsight I will be honest i don't really remember where it came from it was just hanging out on my bookshelf but it seemed like it would be an appropriate book to bring with me on this new venture. I am horrible with doing devotions, even though I desire to be better at it. But I was flipping through it looking at it, and this verse spoke to me:

Be made new in the attitude of your minds;

and put on the new self, created to be like God

in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4:23-24

The reason that it spoke to me was the fact that the last week or so I have been in a bad frame of mind I have been frusturated, irritable, doubtful and been struggling with my identity. I know all the basics like my name, and my age and what my college degree is-- but with my identity in terms of who I am within this big scary world. I have been in such a huge funk and have just had a bad attitude and didn't feel like I had anything positive to contribute and so I decided that I would just not say anything.

I realize that I still have a contract that I need to fufill but if the rest of the year goes as fast as it has these last two months I am going to all of the sudden be facing this dilemma about how I am going to get everything home :-) So I feel like what I want to do is something that I have to start thinking about. Its actually something that I have been kind of obsessing about lately-- THANKS SO MUCH AMANDA AND SCOTT!!! I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR KIND EARS AND SUGGESTIONS! MISS YOU!!!!!! Amanda and Scott have been really great about empathetically listening to me, even with me sometimes being kind of whiny, and providing suggestions of how to figure out what I want to do. I think I have it narrowed down to a few things. Now comes research, and figuring out what I really want to do, i.e. more narrowing down. Though I am going to still do my student teaching Fall 2009 at SCSU and get my teaching license even though I am not convinced I want to teach in the school system.

But all of this is connected in my head as to how it relates to the verse in Ephesians... attitudes are everything and as my mum tells me "attitudes are contagious" so even though I really don't know how I fit into this world exactly and I am pretty sure that I had hit a rough transitional period with a little bit of culture shock all mixed together I need to stay positive and enjoy my time here in S.K. and get to know more about "my new adult self" and more about South Korea, my current home country. I think that during my week off I am going to travel through S.K and see some of the sights and learn more about this beautiful country.

Thanks for all of the support and the prayers you guys! Love to all!!!!

The Second Official Update

Greetings Everyone!
I hope this email finds you well, it is around 11:30 am on Mondayhere. Im starting off my week with doing laundry and having a bit ofyogurt for breakfast. I usually have enough clothes to get me throughWednesday, so if I do the wash on Monday then usually my clothes aredry by the time I need them. It is interesting not having a dryer, itcauses a need for a little bit more planning. I could of course takemy clothing to the laundry and they would dry and press my clothes,but honestly I am not that picky about them... and its kind of nice tohave hang dried clothes.
I haven't been up to so much since I last emailed... though this pastweekend we did go down to Boreyong/ Daechon during the Mud Festival.We (my group) chose to not get muddy, but instead to walk around andsee what is going on and to lay on the beach most of the day. This ishow the weekend went... we met up on Sat. at the train station, at7:45 am our train left at 8:02, and rode the 2-2 1/2 hours it takes toget there. After we got into Daechon station we went and took a taxitowards the beach where we walked around for approximately an hour tofind a place to stay for the night. We found a smallish hotel room andwe changed into our swimsuits and then we went in search of a cashmachine, and lunch. We ate at a tent restaraunt and had lunch... I hada cheeseburger with french fries and a pepsi. What I really don'tunderstand is Korea's love of mustard. So many things have mustard onthem. After that we went to the beach where we rented an umbrella andlaid out on the beach, and went swimming in the ocean it was verynice. We had bought some drinks at one of the convience stores. Around5 o'clock we went back to the hotel to change and shower and we met upwith some of Jason and Stephanie's friends at a galbi restaurant. Wehad Samgyeopsal-gui for dinner along with the side dishes, rice, andbeverages. I had a cola and had some plum wine with Stephanie. It wasvery good. If you come across Bohae Plum wine (and it says its Koreanon the bottle) I highly recommend it. After dinner we got some drinksand just hung out on the beach with a group of people who wereforiegners that lived in Suwon, some of them lived in Yeongtong (whichis my neighborhood). It was fun, we played games like bunnie bunnie,danga danga and categories while waiting for the fireworks. There wassome drinking going on, someone in the group had brought things tomake buckets (Thai whiskey, the Korean equivalent of red bull, andcoke) and there was beer, and I had purchased a wine cooler calledrock voc... it was frome australia. But the fireworks werespectacular. They put on a nice show... these fireworks easily couldbe put in the same category as the fireworks in Chicago over memorialday weekend when we did our girls trip. It wasn't too hot or too cold,the tide was starting to come in it was nice. The next day we got upand started packing up our things, showered and went to Lotteria forlunch (Korea's version of fast food) and then decided to head to thetrain station to see if we could catch an earlier train, we couldn'tand so we went to Boreyong to a coffe bar type thing and just hung outin air conditioning for the next couple of hours until we went backand caught our train and went to get dok galbi for dinner when we gotback to Suwon Station. It was at that point that I caught a cab andwent back home, tired and only had one shin that was severly sun burnteven though i did put on sunscreen and even reapplied. It was a niceweekend and when I got home I was completely exhausted so I got readyfor bed and went to sleep.
I have intensive starting in a couple of weeks, and those will run for2 weeks. I am trying to decide if I want to stay in Korea and do somesightseeing or if I want to go to Thailand for the week. Its veryreasonable to get to Thailand from here, and once you get there itsvery inexpensive. So I don't really know what I want to do. If youhave any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. My next week ofvacation is in Feb.
Thats all I really have for now. I put up some pictures on facebooktoday. Here is thelink:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2132056&l=21e98&id=56005799

Jun 30th email update.

Greetings Loved Ones!
I hope you have all had a pleasant nights rest and are ready to starta new week. I am personally decompressing after work and willeventually be heading to bed (currently it is 10:36 pm).
It is hard to believe that I have been in South Korea for a month already, it is getting hot and we are well into the throes of rainy season here. I will probably have to learn to walk gracefully in heels so that my pants will not be in a constant soaking wet stage. It is rather uncomfortable and can be very distracting. Other than that andthe dangerous (when wet) marble that is everywhere, I am enjoying my time here and I am getting acclimated very quickly. I still am very much in what one would call the silent period if you study linguistics or language learning theory, but each day my "survival Korean" is getting better. I am hoping to be able to start taking Korean classes in September on Saturdays after intensives are done. But I am not scared even though everyone keeps telling me that Korean is a really hard language to learn. Its true it probably is but not any more difficult then any of the the other languages that I have tackled or will eventually get around to tackling.

I am starting to meet people and make friends, what is nice is thatthey are from all over the world, and they provide interesting insight not only about the world, but also about how Americans are percieved.There has been some very interesting discussions about that already. I am also beginning to understand why these stereotypes aboutAmericans exist... having met some of the stereotypes personally I am rather ashamed to be lumped into the same group as them. But this isall part of the change when moving abroad and dealing with the"culture shock" that is bound to happen. I do have culture shock moments-- some of them have to do with the food, and some of them have to do with things like common courtesy-- like not running down others while you are pushing your children in a stroller (it happens here alot) or trying to decipher what something is based on the pictures. Pictures can be terribly misleading-- if I can't figure out whatsomething is I usually don't buy it. And the red sauce here can belethal... so beware! Or being singled out because you are obviously not Korean.

But along with the negative things I have also had a lot of positive experiences like meeting people I would have never met before, feeling very succuessful when I was able to take a cab by myself for the firsttime (on Sat.-- even though he did take the long route and the fare was 11,000 won (the equivalent of 11 dollars)), I have gone to my first football/soccer match- it was the Queen's Peace Cup (women'ssoccer) New Zealand vs. South Korea, I have tried curry, sushi, Indian food, and have even eaten shrimp (though that was not the bestexperience). I am finding myself a little more independent each day and am becoming a little more bold in trying new things whether its asking for the price or wandering off a little bit farther than I am use to. The metros still kind of freak me out and I don't forsee myself going on them by myself anytime soon.

But as great as everything has been there has also been days that havebeen horrible and I have wondered why I even bothered to come here. But those days are few and far in between and for the most part I amdoing well with it, though I do miss people from home. But I do have a proposition for that-- I am trying to make my apartment feel more like home and with that I have a little fridge/freezer combo and a armoiretype thing that are in need of some serious decoration, so if you (or your kids) are inclined to write letters, draw pictures or send pictures I will put them up on either my fridge combo set, or my closet doors, and will email pictures with each update that I send...:-)

If any of you know of anyone who would like to teach English in SouthKorea for a year, there are two openings at my school in Suwonstarting the end of August. You do have to have a bachelors degree andthe school would reimburse you for your flight to and from SouthKorea, provides housing, pays 2 million won a month (which is about2,000 dollars), and pays a lot of heath care costs, there is a plan--and at the end of your contract there is a severence/ bonus, you get apension from the government. So if you know of anyone that isinterested let me know.

If you would like my contact information send me an email and I will make sure you get the information.

This turned out to be a long and kind of intense email. :-) If there is anyone that is not currently on this email list that you think would enjoy getting updates let me know and I will add them to my list.

Send questions that you have, because then I will know more aboutwhat to say in my next email :-)