War and Sand

The yellow dust is here! Doesn't it sound like something from a science fiction movie? It's a natural phenomena that occurs every year in Korea's springtime. It's been happening ever since the ancient times, when the peninsula's inhabitants thought that God's judgment was rolling toward them on the wind. In reality it is fine dust particles whipped up from China's desert and swept across the sea into Seoul and the rest of the country. It creates huge health problems here-people develop coughs and asthma. The mortality rate even jumps up by 1.4%. There are sirens to warn people to stay indoors if the sand concentration gets too hazardous. Otherwise, you're supposed to wear face masks if you step foot outdoors.

The yellow dust rolls over Korea!

After church today we ventured off our normal Sunday routine (go out to eat and go home) and visited the War Memorial. I'd never learned much about the Korean War, since I had a rather incompetent high school teacher who "didn't believe in teaching wars because they're too violent." It was a really fascinating process. The museum guide showed us all of the WWII documents for the Japanese surrender and told me that the Japanese visitors he's met had never seen it before since they don't display them in Japan. Go figure. What does Japan have to do with the Korean war, you might ask. Well, I'll tell you! Japan relinquished control of Korea (which had previously been a colony) as part of its surrender in WWII. The US and the Soviet Union then divided the country down the 38th parallel, with the US taking the South and the USSR occupying the North. Each of the occupying armies subsequently set up governments and left. It was from that point on that Korea was divided, with different ideals. War soon broke out.
Walking through the Memorial also gave me a really good idea of how much the UN really did save South Korea's butt. Without the UN's intervention, Korea would be one mega-version of what North Korea is today: a treeless, nutritionless state.
David really enjoyed playing in the exhibits (they let you walk up and touch all of the tanks, guns and planes.)

Facing off a tank.

Our friends Jacob and Amanda.

David loves tanks.

Riding tandem!

MacArthur's Incheon landing! (That's our city!)


Another big highlight of the day was going to Krispy Kreme! There are a plethora of Dunkin Donuts around here, but I've never been very partial to them. Krispy Kreme is my donut place through and through.
They even had cute little white tiger donuts because this year is the year of the white tiger on the Chinese calendar!

About to enjoy my Krispy Kreme.

White tiger donuts. :)

hippies are bad drivers

Sometimes, I feel like the people who wrote our school curriculum might have been smoking weed. It could explain for the things they write better than bad English. For example, a touching short story for you:

Jacob has really long purple hair. His hair is 10 feet long. Jacob has a dolphin named Donna. Jacob and Donna like to race cars.
"I'm going to travel around Italy. There are a lot of car races in Italy," Jacob said to his sister.
His sister said he would not follow through. Jacob told her she was jumping to conclusions.
"I am not a flake," said Jacob.
So Jacob and Donna went to Italy and they went to a car race. A race car driver looked at Jacob.
"Hippies are bad drivers," he said.
"You are judging a book by its cover," said Jacob.
Later than day, Jacob and Donna won the race. It was a bonding experience.
When Jacob looks back on the race, it makes him smile.

Yeah...

EBS TV

Field Trips are the days teachers slash down toward on the calendar! It's a time to just let loose and have fun with your kids without the pressure of getting work done. Today we drove the children into Seoul to a EBS TV station, where we could see several TV and radio shows being produced. It was a pretty cool experience. The kids even got to meet the Korean equivalent of Barney... the kids all told me his name, but I can't remember it. He was wearing some pretty cool airplane goggles though.


Group pic!


The kid's show TV star.


Nick rode next to me on the bus with his adorable jacket (it has ears on the hood!)


Ferrin and Tommy riding in the bus.


Ferrin and I were twins for the day!


Trying on the radio headphones.


Richard and his funny smile.


On TV!


Watcha lookin for Toby? ;)

St. Patty's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We had quite a day at KC- the hall was decked out in dozens of green balloons and all of the kids were dressed in green! Inwang even wore a green Guinness hat! It was pretty priceless. I told my boys all about St. Patrick and his life. Then I painted shamrocks on their hands with face paint and we listened to Irish music on my iPod. I introduced them to Gaelic Storm, Loreena McKinnett, Flogging Molly and Iona. They loved the fiddles and drums. They were dancing all over the place! It was so great. I also printed off pictures of Ireland from David's and my Eurotrip to show to them. It was a great day!


Claire, looking adorable as ever.


Inwang rocking out the green!


The boys showing off their shamrocks.


Me and the boys.


Ferrin's class (my old kids) dressed in green!


Toby fighting with his "sword." Every single break the boys make swords out of scrap paper and fight with them.


This is Tommy, Toby's younger brother. He has the fatest most pinchable cheeks I've ever seen on a child. Everyone, Korean teachers, American teachers and even the children love to pick him up and dote over him.

I also took some videos. Enjoy their cuteness without the stress of teaching ;)

A typical few seconds in my classroom.


Photo Op!!

take me home to the place i belong

Homesickness is a funny thing. It pounces when you least expect it. You can be fine for weeks and months and then something small can set everything inside you awry. Last night I heard the song "Country Roads" by John Denver and it sparked something inside me.

"country road take me home/
to the place I belong."

It's only too easy to realize that I don't belong here. Every day its a struggle to do some of the simplest things: order food from a restaurant, find something in the grocery store.
This particular spurt of homesickness will pass soon. I'm sure. Only to be replaced by a bout of wanderlust. What a terrible cycle, eh? It's my eternal curse.

Playing Host

This past week something really awesome and special happened: Dad and Aunt Julie visited Korea! Unfortunately I couldn't pick them up at the airport, since I was busy babysitting lots of children who were in the holding cells during the Wizard of Oz production. Fortunately, with the help of Google map, videos and meticulous instructions, they made their way from the airport to our apartment without much trouble at all. It was so surreal and wonderful to have them here. It's always a bit jolting when a face that belongs at home turns up here, whether it be from a friend or a relative. David and I had loads of fun showing them around our temporary home country. One of the first things we did was take them to Insadong where we did a bit of shopping and toured the nearby palace and temple.


Dad and Aunt Julie at Jogyesa temple.


Colorful lanterns.


Prayer beads.


Aunt Julie browsing the market at Insadong.


A calligrapher.

On Sunday we went gunho into the Suwon Folk Village. There was plenty to see there, from traditional architecture to folk dances. We ate some traditional pancakes there as well, which Dad and Julie really enjoyed.


Dad and Julie investigating a traditional house.


Beautiful colors.


Me, Dad and Julie. :)

On Monday, David and I had a holiday from our school, so we took Dad and Julie to explore downtown Incheon. After a stop at Dr. Fish, where they had their feet nibbled by hungry fishies, we went to Chinatown. The highlight there was that we got to witness the creation of amazing dumplings. A huge ceramic pot was heated with an open flame and the dumplings were stuck onto its side to cook for several minutes. We thoroughly enjoyed eating them. After exploring Chinatown we went to the Yeonan Pier's fish market. It's a hub of lively vendors selling squid, fish, crabs, shrimp the size of my arm and basically anything and everything the sea has to offer.


The delicious dumplings cooking.


Eating the delicious dumplings.


This octopus was bigger than me!!!


A sampling of fish.



During our workweek Dad and Julie did their own thing. We had coffee at Paris Baguette (a pastry shop) together every morning before I had to ship out to school. They toured the DMZ, explored more of Seoul and even visited our school to see the kids.
It was a long and full week with them. I was really sad to see them go, but at the same time really ecstatic that my traveling has helped them broaden their experience of the world into Asia! So please, come visit!

New Chitlins (aka The Scarecrows)

After the glitz and glamor of graduation (and the Wizard of Oz, which went well with hardly any snaffus (with the exception of a boy smacking a girl in the face with his shoe in the backstage room where I had to single-handedly babysit 25 children simultaneously)) the great winds of change came to Kid's College. There was a complete, Russian roulette style switchup with our early classes. My kindergarteners: Inwang, Lucy and Anna went to Ferrin Teacher while Helen's old class became mine. Although I already miss my three, having new, littler and livelier kids is somewhat refreshing. The class is very wild, but obedient. I have five boys and one girl.

Nick: Up until a week ago, Nick was "the baby" at Kid's College. He's the smallest one in my class and definitely one of the cutest. He DOES seem to have a penchant for the more feminine things. I've seen him with a ponytail and a strawberry clip in his hair, as well as painted fingernails. Although he is small and not much of a talker, he's one of the fastest, most efficient students of the class.

Richard: A man of few words. Richard came into Kid's College saying absolutely nothing. He has a case of extreme shyness, although over the past month or so he's really come out of his shell. He'll even speak in complete sentences now. He is an absolutely phenomenal colorer (for example, he drew the little yellow head streak on a penguin he was coloring). I'm trying to get his mother to enroll him in art school. One of my favorite things about Richard is that he simply calls me "Ryan" instead of "Mrs. Ryan" or "Teacher." He also gives the best hugs and tells me he loves me every day.

Jeney: The one female of the class. She's intensely protective of all the other boys, and even gets jealous of me on occasion. For example, today I had my foot on the door to prevent Toby and Peter from leaving the room. She came up and gave me the death glare/moved as if she was going to punch me! Of course I had to exert my female dominance on that one. ;) It's really precious when she tells you she loves you, but the sentiment can turn within seconds.

Peter: Like any normal boy, Peter is quite rambunctious. Together he and Toby really enjoy disrupting class-- but when he puts his mind to it, Peter is a really great worker. He has a stutter, which he's really improved on lately, but his volume level is pretty intense when it's cranked up. He alone carried the class's performance of "Old MacDonald" for the graduation ceremony!

Toby: Oh Toby, Toby. The mischievous charmer. Toby is perhaps my favorite child in the entire school. His cuteness knows no bounds. He's got a bit of a rebellious streak in him. Whenever I take away a sticker when he misbehaves he says, "It's okay, I don't need stickers anyway!" But outside of his rebelliousness, he's a sweet kid. He is also quite the chatterbox. He talks so much during class that sometimes he forgets to do his work. In so many ways he reminds me of my youngest brother Adam when he was little.

So that's all of the munchkins. We held a brainstorming session today and they decided that our class name should be the Scarecrows (after their favorite character in the Wizard of Oz). The only objection was Nick, who moved that we be called the flowers!

This is a typical 20 seconds in my life:



Toby and our new class mascot "Snowy"


The four boys: Richard (in the back), Toby (left), Nick (middle) and Peter (right)


Me with the boys.


Peter and Toby painting their trains.


Nick.


Richard and Jeney loading on the paint.

Blog post on family's visit to come very soon!

a little blurb

In a completely non-Korea related blog post- I want to tell you guys about a great book giveaway/contest. I stumbled across it in my continual search for literary agents/writing opportunities. So if you're at all interested in writing go on over and check it out.

Blog on new students and family's visit coming soon!