this is for you, matthew hunter!

It's fun to teach the kids songs. We've been working on this one for a few weeks. :)

surprise gifts

Today was a day of gifts. The parents of the students will randomly bestow gifts on teachers—and every once in a while they will buy things for all of the teachers at the school. Today I received the following:

1) Chocolate from Jeju Island. Jeju is an island to the south of Korea. It’s a really popular vacation spot, so popular in fact, that two of my students have been there in the past week. Both of them have brought back pieces of the island’s signature chocolate for the entire class. It’s pretty amazing chocolate. There’s two layers of milk chocolate with a fruit flavor wedged in between. Both of my students brought tangerine chocolate back. Yummy! =)

2) A handful of dried noodles. My elementary class loves to eat snacks during their assignments and they always share what they’re eating with the other students and myself. Today the snack was uncooked ramen noodles with the seasoning sprinkled on. It’s not half bad, but my favorite snack that they bring is Cola flavored candy.

3) A coffee flavored popsicle. I’m not sure who this was from… someone just handed it to me when I came back from break.

And the gift to top all gifts! Drumroll please…..

4) SPAM! Every single teacher in the school received an entire case full of SPAM—complete with a handbag that says “For Your Smile: SPAM.” We were in hysterics in the teacher’s office. What are we going to do with this much SPAM? Between David and I, we have eighteen cases of the stuff! I have no idea why, but SPAM is huge here in Korea. It’s all over Lotte (the big grocery/department store we shop at). Anyway, we know what we’ll be eating for the next few months….


SPAMalicious.


Me with the ridiculously large case of SPAM.

On a terribly sad note, I think my Rainbows may be on the downhill slope of their life. I can only hope they’ll last me until Christmas when I can get back to the States and buy a fresh pair. If not… I shudder to think.

drums and fish

Can you believe we’ve been here a whole month?! Neither can we! Time has flown by… partly because our weeks and weekends are so packed with stuff to do! This weekend we stuck around Seoul. I got to sleep in on Saturday, which was so amazing. I’ve missed sleeping as much as I want (and believe you me, I do sleep a lot when I set my mind to it.) We left the apartment around 1 and went to a neighborhood close to Yeouido (an island in the Han river) so that we could scout out a good place to watch the fireworks festival. The process was a bit frustrating, since we couldn’t find a subway stop right by the river and we had to walk aimlessly for about forty minutes. One random occurrence during our search for a perch (like my rhyme?!) was that when David went into an elevator to find a good rooftop a Korean man gave him two clusters of grapes! It was really unexpected and random, but we enjoyed the fruit on our walk back. Korean grapes are actually a lot different than American grapes. They have four or five big seeds in the middle (which is annoying since you have to spit them out) and they have more of a tropical fruit taste to them.
Much to our dismay, after all of the effort we put into looking for a great place to watch the fireworks festival, we heard that it was cancelled due to the swine flu!! How frustrating! The Koreans have been really uber-paranoid about H1N1. They had expected 120,000 spectators for the fireworks, so I guess they were afraid that the plague would spread through the crowd or something to that effect. David was the most disappointed, since he’d been really excited about getting some pictures of the fireworks display.
So instead of watching the fireworks like we’d planned, we went over to the Seoul Forest (which is really just a park with lots of young trees) and watched the Seoul International Drum Festival! There were lots of fun drum displays that you could play on, and we had fun beating away some of our weekly stress!


The main event itself was phenomenal. I’ve always loved drums and percussion. There’s something about the raw power of the drums that moves your spirit. The way the beat causes your whole body to shudder. The way it causes your heart to skip several beats and you can’t escape its thrum through your chest. There were seven teams which performed on Saturday, most of them were from Korea. My favorites were the traditional drummers—some of the women even beat drums with their fans.



When we were leaving we ran into our other teachers and rode home with them. One of the teachers has family in from out of town, and it was refreshing to be around Americans so fresh from home!
Because we’d been planning on watching the fireworks on Saturday we’d thought we would do the drum festival on Sunday. Since those plans were suddenly irrelevant, we decided to spend the day taking it easy. Ever since we’ve gotten here our coworkers have been raving about “Dr. Fish” and how we have to try it at least once while we’re here. The “Dr. Fish” café is only a few stops away—so after listening to one of Buster’s sermons online this morning we hopped on the subway and made our way to the Arts Center.
“Dr. Fish” works like this: you go into the café and order something off of their slightly overpriced menu. David got a strawberry smoothie and I went for a pumpkin cream latte (I love pumpkin stuff!) and a Belgian waffle.
After a leisurely drinking and reading session the real fun began. We went over to a pool on the edge of the restaurant and stuck our feet in. There were probably fifty or so fish in the water. They immediately rushed to our feet when we stuck them in and started nibbling away at the dead skin cells. David was having a really hard time not bursting into hysterical laughter. It was a really odd sensation, almost like the little pin pricks you feel after your foot falls asleep. Anyway, it’s tickly! The fish seemed to prefer my feet to David’s, but we already knew that I’m sweeter!





This evening should be full of resting, perhaps a movie. Thankfully we have a short week ahead of us. Next weekend is Chuseok, which is Korea’s version of Thanksgiving. That means we get Friday and Monday off! We’re planning on going to Sokcho over the long weekend to enjoy the national park up there and drink in the colors of fall!

A Dialogue.

[I walk into my last class of the day to see two scowling boys sitting at the table]

Me: Hello Danny and Roy! How are you doing today?

Danny: Bad. Very bad.

[Roy just gives me the evil eye]

Me: Why are you having a bad day?

Danny: Because you are here! I hate English! I hate Kid’s College!

Me: Well, for hating English you sure speak it well.

Danny: No! I am very bad at English!

Me: Okay then.

[After much cajoling and threatening I make the boys take out their writing books. Danny does his sentences reluctantly but well. Roy continues to give me the evil eye and sits with his pencil by his book.]

Me: Roy, you need to finish your sentences or I’ll take stickers from you.

Roy: [in an awful whiny voice that sounds like a cat is dying] NOOO!

Me: Then do your sentences.

[Roy continues to dawdle. I walk over to the sticker chart and remove one.]

Roy: AAAAAAAH! Okay! Okay! [throws his pencil against the wall] I hate English!

Me: If you hadn’t been angry all this time you could have finished the sentences by now and we could have played a game.

Roy: Too much work!

Me: Life is work!

Danny: No! Life is play!

Me: Yeah. Right.

I have these two boys at the end of every day and I swear it’s like pulling teeth for two hours every day. They mutter awful threats in Korean and scream and throw pencils and spit water on the floor when they’re angry. When they’re happy they’re quite pleasant. I talk to Roy about his trip to Europe, they teach me about Korean food and share their candy with me. How they feel is an incredibly random event. One minute they’ll be fine and the next they’re screaming how much they hate me. I’m learning how to become Zen about it… although today I was pretty much on a warpath. Oh the joys of teaching.

hey, hey mr. postman

Two slightly mediocre, yet exciting things have happened so far this week. First: WE GOT A LETTER IN THE MAIL!! When we got into Kid’s College Monday morning it was waiting for us. It was so great to get a little taste of home from our friend’s letter and although it sounds cheesy, it truly did brighten up my entire day! Feel free to send letters all of you. It would make me very happy and I might even write back. =)
The second momentous occurrence just took place, I finished knitting my scarf! It’s a little rough in places, but I finished! Maybe I’ll wear it tomorrow. It’s starting to get cool enough so that I can wear things like scarves and long sleeves without discomfort. I wish the weather would stay like this, but I know that it will soon get uncomfortably freezing. Oh no! Not winter!
Today one of my students threw a temper tantrum. He’s one of my international students, and I swear he’s got more pheromones than normal because he’s more moody that I am when I’m PMSing. One minute he can be fine and pleasant, but the next he will be screaming, “I hate you! I hate you!” It’s very frustrating and trying to get him to do his work is ridiculously hard. I blame it on the insane amount of stress they put on kids here. After Korean school in the mornings, the kids have to go to English school, piano, ballet, taekwondo, violin etc. Some kids are out of the house from seven in the morning till eight or nine at night. The adults aren’t much better. Korea is a nation of workaholics. Work is your life. That’s just the way it is here. All of us Americans seem lazy by comparison, but I don’t care. I need a life outside of work. It’s healthy.

Modeling my new scarf!

Scarf and the letter!

The Iron Horse Wants to Run

What an awesome weekend! We just got back from a loaded trip to the DMZ, which I shall elaborate on… but first, let’s start with Friday.
Friday was a Field Trip day! Now I know that teachers love them just as much as kids, because it means we don’t have to use our brainpower! Since my class has been studying insects we went to an exhibit focused on them. There was a butterfly house, a beetle display, stick bugs, grubs and all sorts of critters. The kids really loved it. Our guide through the place only spoke Korean, so the English teachers had no idea what she was saying. It was okay. We were too busy making sure no insects got killed by bored children!


Me and my class along with my Korean helper Jennifer

Toby with a butterfly (I think he's the cutest kid at the school...)

This is Ethan, he's one of my sweet boys. =)

On Saturday morning we left our apartment at 5:30 in the morning and took the subway into Seoul where the meeting point for our trip was. We got there around 7:30 and hopped on the Adventure Korea tour bus. There were about thirty of us going on this particular trip. It was a little awkward at first—because no one knew each other, but as the trip progressed everyone became very friendly (although I’m sure the ridiculous amount of alcohol consumed by some of the other travelers had something to do with it).
The first stop was Goseokjeong, a place bordering this gorgeous river. We had over an hour there for lunch, so David and I went down to the river to snack. It was so nice to get our first taste of Korean nature. We’ve only been in the city for the past three weeks, so it was really amazing to get this view. There were rafters going down the river, and they beached on our shore. They were Korean, and they kept looking at David and talking very excitedly. A girl we met on the trip who’s Korean American told us that they really loved David’s “California Surfer” look. It was pretty funny. We also met two teachers from another Kid’s College there on the riverbank, so it was pretty fun to compare notes with them about similarities and differences.

Me imitating a funny statue.

Us at the river!
After lunch we left the gorgeous river and started the “Security Tour” of the border. This included the 2nd Tunnel, which was discovered by the South Koreans in the 1970s after an infantry soldier heard an explosion underground. There are four known tunnels that the North Koreans dug in order to invade the South and our guide told us that there are probably up to 20 of them total. After the first four were discovered the North gave up and abandoned the rest of them. We hiked all the way to the end of the Southern half of the tunnel—the cave ceiling was low and the taller people hit their heads a lot. Luckily they had helmets on.

After the tunnel we went to the Unification Observatory and got a full fledged view into North Korea. It was really fascinating. From the place we were you could see several propaganda villages that the North has set up along the DMZ. The government won’t let real citizens live there because they’re afraid that they’ll desert. Soldiers stay there instead! Also another interesting, yet tragic fact: there are no trees in North Korea. They’re all cut down and used as fuel since the country has very little electricity. It was a very weird feeling to look out at a land that you’re forbidden to go into.

Me and North Korea!

David in front of the "forbidden lands."

Watch where you step!
After the “Security Tour” the bus took us to the bridge for bunjee jumping!! I couldn’t bring myself to commit to it, so I stood at the bottom of the river and watched twenty-two people make the plunge. Towards the end I was regretting my decision to pass it up. Everyone came back breathless and glowing with adrenaline and I decided that if the opportunity ever presents itself again I will jump. David chose to do an ankle jump. Of course I got tons of pictures. =)

The plunge.

The height! Yikes!
After the jumps (which took quite a while because there were so many jumpers) we went to our accommodations for the night. We stayed in a guesthouse in the village of Odaemi which is only two or so miles from the border. There were no beds, so we slept on mats on the floor. It wasn’t so bad after my Cambodia experience. In fact, I was out like a light for most of the night. For dinner we had Korean BBQ (thin strips of pork slowly grilled over an open fire). The Adventure Korean staff built a really huge bonfire, which we socialized around and roasted marshmallows in. It was really refreshing to be around such a large group of white, English speakers! Americans were actually the minority in the group. There were lots of Canadians and quite a few Brits in the bunch. It was cool to talk to people and hear their stories of how they ended up teaching English in Korea. One really cool thing that happened toward the end of the night was a fire show! A girl named Ashley brought out her “Poi” equipment and started twirling it around. David got some pretty cool pictures of the show. A lot of the people in the group were asking if he was a professional photographer!

The massive bonfire behind us!

Ashley's fire show!
In the morning we got up and rode a tandem bike around the tiny village (it’s a lot harder than it looks!). The guesthouse we slept in was surrounded by bright green rice fields and although it was very gorgeous the air reeked of cow manure, which was rather unpleasant. Still, it was great to be out in the country feeling the cool morning air!

Riding tandem!


David's view of the sunrise...
We went to see a monument on a hill where lots of people died during the Korean War. Afterwards we walked all the way to the DMZ and harvested rice. Of course this meant only two or three swipes with a scythe to get a few stalks, but it was still an enlightening experience.

David harvesting rice.

Me handling a sharp blade!
After the rice gathering we hiked back to the guesthouse and ate lunch (Bibimbop, which is a very traditional Korean dish of rice, vegetables and an egg). Around 1 we got on the bus and drove back to Seoul. Strangely enough my throat started hurting again. It’s more of a stabbing searing pain this time than an actual soreness. It’s quite annoying, I hope it’s just my current sickness making its last stand instead of a new one. Ugh. We got home with plenty of time to clean up and rest for the upcoming workweek. Back to the grind soon. Hooray.
I’m really glad we went on this trip. We got to meet some awesome new people and see some really cool things. We’ll definitely be using this company again in the future.

Hump Day is over!!

In Charleston I had Bubba’s dreams, fits of sleep where I obsessed over waiting on tables. Something always went wrong in these dreams, so they didn’t provide me with very restful sleep. Here I have kindergarten dreams—where I try to make my students write out sentences and something goes horribly wrong. I know it seems silly, but I guess it’s just the way your brain works. If you do something long enough during the day your brain can’t help but hash it out in the hazed confusion of dreams.
This past weekend was both a hit and miss. I ended up stuck in the apartment all day Saturday. For the first few hours it was nice. I slept in until 9:30 (and believe me, it was glorious!), drank three cups of instant gold mocha (Koreans love the instant coffee. It’s growing on me, though nothing will replace a good cup of freshly brewed Dunkins with cream and sugar. Ooh, my mouth is watering just thinking of it.), checked my internet stuff, wrote a short story and knitted. By three or four in the afternoon I was antsy, but I couldn’t leave because the cable guy was supposed to be here at an unspecified time and David was away for the day. By seven I relented and went downstairs for a few minutes to get teriyaki chicken on a stick. I was quite upset that my entire free Saturday was spent stuck in an apartment. I’m so much more aware of free time now that I have so little of it. Every moment away from the school is precious! The one good thing that came out of Saturday was that the short story I wrote (a flash fiction horror story centered around fire imagery) got accepted into an anthology called “Elements of Horror” so I get to see my name in print again! It’s a small project, but even small steps take you places right?
On Sunday we decided to go to church. We picked a church called “Jubilee” which is in the Southern part of central Seoul, right by the city’s financial district. It took us over two hours to get there via the subway. We left our apartment at 11:30 and reached the church at 1:35. It was so great to be in a fellowship of believers after such a long two weeks! Much of the congregation was young Americans who had come over to teach English. We met some really great people, even a few from Charleston!
After church and a lunch of fried chicken (which Korean adore for some reason…) we went to see Bongeunsa Temple. It was very large and filled with the smell of incense. A huge Buddha statue towered on a hill above the city and dozens of Koreans knelt down before it. The priests beat the drums and the giant gong. It was a very strange experience just after attending a great, fulfilling church service.


We got home at 8:30, our day consumed with the traveling (4 hours on the trains total!) and church (a 2 hour service!). It wasn’t a bad day, but it was sad to see the weekend used so inefficiently.
I’ve been sick this week. It started with a scratchy throat on the train back on Sunday and turned into a searing pain later that night. I’ve still gone to school and made it this far through the week, so hopefully the illness will be on the downslide (especially since we’re going on a trip to the DMZ this weekend!). The lesson I learned? Wash my hands compulsively because I work with germy children! Bleck!
My first serious homesickness hit Saturday night. It was a crying night for sure. I’ve only been gone 3 weeks, but it seems like so much longer. In another 3+ weeks I’ll have been gone from Charleston the longest I’ve ever been away… which seems very odd, but it’s true.
Okay, I’ll stop rambling now and post this thing.

a few of my (new) favorite things

The weekend is here and we finally get a little room to breath in our busy schedule! Today I’ve had the apartment to myself… and I have taken advantage of the opportunity to clean, write, knit and read while waiting for the internet installers to come (I don’t know what time they’ll arrive… so I’m a bit stuck here, unfortunately.) The second week of school went decently smoothly. I’m having an interesting time learning how to balance the dynamics of a class of six very different children. There’s a lot of drama among the girls (which causes me to reminisce on my own elementary school girl drama and see how silly and pointless it was!) and I’ve also had trouble with some students being incredibly slow with their work. It’s hard to meet every students needs. One of my kids needs work on learning how to read while the others are zooming ahead and finishing their workbooks and demanding entertainment! Ah! Pray that I would figure out a system to balance all of these things out!
I’ve decided to put together a list of a few of my “new” favorite things!

1.Gimbop. This is a traditional Korean food that reminds me a lot of sushi (just without the fish). It’s cheap and easily available. We eat it a lot for a quick dinner.


2.Aloe juice. I know, it sounds really weird, but they drink it here. There are little pieces of Aloe plant floating around in it. You chew it with every sip. It’s strangely delicious and according to my coworkers it really helps a hangover (not that I would know…).


3.Korean children. Seriously. They are darlings! Its funny because really small children on the streets will just stare at you because they don’t know what to make of a Westerner. I also love my Korean kids. They are very sweet and affectionate. Every day I feel loved.

Me and Inwang.

This is Anna. She's new in the class. Very sweet and shy.

My two boys, Inwang and Ethan.

These are the other three girls in the class: Lucy, Joycelyn and Esther.

4.Pizza with bows. I’ve always loved pizza. I mean, who hasn’t? But here in Korea, pizza is specifically a food for women! I don’t really know why. It just is. There’s a chain here called “Mr. Pizza: Love for Women.” Hilarious.



5.Skype. I mean, a free way to talk to my family and friends? And video chat? Who could beat that!

6.Lonely Planet. Seriously the best guides available. We bought one for our Europe trip and it helped exponentially. Now we have one to explore this new country!

night musings

At night we sit high
above the neon city.
Its lights throb and wash
against our toes.

We talk, weaving
futures and pasts into portraits,
pictures of what if...

Somewhere far away a Palmetto Bug skitters
and the moon rises red over Seoul.

Weekend Adventure

For our first weekend in Korea (well, really our second I guess, but this one feels like the first actual weekend) we decided to explore the mass of people and buildings that is Seoul. On the advice of our fellow teachers we hopped on the subway Saturday morning and headed for a portion of town called Insa-dong. It’s a pretty popular neighborhood on Saturdays. There’s an open air market with all sorts of fascinating goodies and treats for sale. There’s street food there too—we ate some pretty amazing spicy chicken and a freshly fried pancake with cinnamon sugar filling. It was delicious and cheap! Who could ask for more? There were other, less appetizing foods for sale as well, including boiled silkworm larvae. Ugh. They smelled as disgusting as they looked… so I don’t think I’m going to be trying those any time soon. I’m excited about stocking up with Christmas presents there come December!






Whenever I spot a Westerner amongst a large crowd of Asians I’m always reminded of how much David and I actually stand out. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m actually a little startled to see another Caucasian on the subway or walking down the street. Another strange thing is that I’m startled whenever I overhear another English conversation. I’m so used to not being able to understand the buzz of the world around me. It’s something I take for granted already! Imagine how ridiculously overwhelmed I’ll be when I get back to the States!
Another strange observation I made on Saturday was the attitude of Koreans towards Americans. South Koreans are such an incredibly hospitable people! They are very welcoming; we’ve had several older Korean men approach us and ask us where we’re from. When we reply that we’re from America (or Miguk in Korean!) they smile and nod and say, “Thank you! Welcome to Korea!” It’s been a rather common occurrence.
One culture shock I had occurred in transit on Saturday. There were no seats on the subway so I was forced to hold onto one of the little handles that hang from the ceiling. There was an older gentleman in the seat in front of me who kept tapping David on the shoulder and pointing at my stomach. Apparently there was an inch of skin showing because I had to reach up. I was a bit flustered by the encounter.
Anyway, back to Saturday. After exploring the open air market in Insa-dong we toured the nearby palace of the royal family from the 18th century. It wasn’t very large and looked like something you might see out of the “Last Samurai.” Our next stop was the Buddhist temple in the neighborhood. It was a really beautiful structure. The Koreans paint their sacred buildings with beautiful, bright colors! It makes for some great pictures. There was a service going on while we were there. It was a bit strange to see all of these people bowing before the Buddha—although I had experienced the same sights in Cambodia.




On Sunday we met up with Snyder, our friend who’s been in Korea for 14 months now. We had a really great day running around different parts of Seoul. We toured another palace and walked through the prison from the early 20th century which the Japanese used to torture the South Korean independence fighters (there’s a lot of enmity between the Japanese and the Koreans for this reason). After an exhausting day of walking and touring we went down to Itaewon… a neighborhood which is the foreigner’s hub… and ate a Moroccan buffet. I’d never eaten Moroccan before, but it’s pretty delicious. It made me want to visit the country! We visited a really great bookstore (all English books! There aren’t many of those here…) and bought a Lonely Planet guide to our new home country. The subway ride back took a good while. That’s the problem with living on the outskirts of Seoul… It takes at least an hour and a half to get anywhere into the city!
Overall it was a busy but restful weekend. So far I’m really soaking in our experience here… although there are the occasional spurts of homesickness. I miss all of you of course.
Much Love!