adventures & surprises :)

So, it's Tuesday! My favorite day of the work week because I get to come into work and just relax for the first two and a half hours or so. Yesterday was kinda an "off day" for me in the sense that when I got home from work I was zoned out. I got on the computer to blog but suddenly felt tired. Since it was about 7:30 I figured I could lay down & watch some T.V. and relax. Bad idea! I dozed off, woke up to my alarm at 8:30 and had my laptop beside me in the bed. Tried to wake up, but just couldn't! So needless to say I slept off and on for about 11 hours!! I guess I needed the sleep, but come on I didn't even wake up to eat dinner! lol.

Reverse to Saturday, my weekend at home. Considering my case of "chinomia" I chose to stay at home all weekend. Saturday morning I woke up early, before 9am, and decided to go for my check-up at the doctor. Walked into the office and noticed there wasn't even a place to sit in the waiting room! They have a "take a number" system at this dermatologist office and the next number was 80! I figured since I was starting to feel better from the meds I didn't feel like waiting just for the doctor to tell me that the meds were working. I think it was just a recommendation to come in for a check-up, not a requirement.

With this self-conclusion, I decided to venture to Lotte Mart to shop. The round trip taxi fare is about 10,000won to Lotte Mart, so I tried to make my trip worth it and bought a few necessary items as well as some "just for fun" items. I checked my bank account before venturing out just to make sure I got paid correctly! However I noticed I did not receive my entrance allowance (reimbursement for my airplane ticket, etc.) so I need to e-mail my coordinator about that.

The rest of my Saturday was pretty uneventful. From the posts on Facebook and a few text messages from friends it seemed like everyone was having a crazy fun time in Daegu and Seoul! Not saying that as a pity party for myself lol, but even though I was a tad jealous from their adventures, it was nice and relaxing to rest for one weekend. I have plenty more weekends to go out to clubs & drink in different cities around Korea! :)

On Sunday I felt even better (no swollen mouth or lymph nodes) so I decided to walk around Gumi and explore. Ended up downtown to do a bit of shopping. First I saw a man selling cotton candy, so of course I had to buy some :) As I walked further with my cotton candy I stumbled upon some sort of dancing/musical festival on the street. Next I browsed the open market, but didn't find anything too exciting. Towards the end of my adventure downtown I found a neat store to buy stationary stuff and small gifts. I also bought a new scarf for 5,000won...I figured it wasn't a bad price seeing as Korea's cold weather is taking it's sweet time in departing!!

On my walk back to my apartment I figured I still had time to explore, so I ventured further behind my apartment building. Last week I found a park with a swingset, so I stopped there a bit and then walked further to where I discovered a nice relaxing spot to read :) Korea is full of parks! Love it!! At this park I noticed a trail leading up into a small hill/mountain area. I decided to check it out and got approached by a man who was asking me questions. Not sure what message he was trying to relay to me, but it had something to do with walking on the trail. I decided to kind of ignore him and ventured cautiously up the hill. Seemed like it might have been under construction and since the sun was starting to set I only walked up part of it and turned around. I shall return there another time to explore.

With all my free time this weekend, of course I did not do much lesson planning. I found a powerpoint about describing objects, but didn't plan much further. Monday morning at work with 30 minutes until my first class I put together a game to go with it. Worked perfectly!! :) My kids love competition so they were all anxious to play! The game was for them to write a correct sentence describing a picture. The key words were bowl, cup, glass, plate, jar, bag, etc. During the powerpoint, before the game, we went over the names of these objects. I had a picture of a bowl and they repeated "a bowl." Next was "a cup." So I put the picture on the screen and my class of 32 boys goes, "A cup!....(laughing) B cup, C cup!!" Gotta love the maturity of high school Korean boys! :)

So, to end my blog...Monday afternoon before leaving to work I spot a package on my desk!! YAY! :) My dearest friend Scottie, who is coming to S.Korea in August through the same company I work for, sent me a care package! From all of our skype chats he put together an awesome assortment of things for me. I got new purple headphones, Lucky Charms cereal & fruit snacks, tons of post-it notes, an 8gb sd memory card for my camera to replace my lame 1gb one, and some other cool stuff with a letter to explain it all. Needless to say it made my day/week! :) Can't wait until he gets here so I have someone to join me in all my crazy adventures!

XOXO,
Amanda

it is what it is...

So it's Friday night and I am sitting in my bed...lame! My last blog was Tuesday, where everything was great and I was looking forward to making plans for payday weekend!! Yay! I made plans with my friends Lea, Edithe, and Jen to reunite in the capital of Korea and celebrate our millions of WON that are now in our bank accounts!! That is until Thursday rolled around.

WARNING: GROSS DETAILS
Well, Wednesday night before I went to bed I felt a bump on my chin. Thought nothing of it and went to sleep. Woke up the next morning to an even bigger gross looking series of bumps on my chin. I will pre-apologize for the gruesome details, but this is what happened and this is my life right now haha. It is what it is :)

I tried to cover it up with my hand and held a paper towel on it, but as the day progressed it got worse and my students started asking questions. It was actually pretty funny because they were concerned. "Amanda teacher...fight?! Amanda teacher...fall? fall off bike, boom?!" LOL. I kept shaking my head and shrugging my shoulders to tell them I didn't know how I got it. Finally I said "Amanda teacher wake up...and...WOAH! (pointing to my chin) haha...felt like a game of charades! But they got it! At lunch time Mr. Bahn noticed how bad it looked and asked me more about it. I tried to explain what a boil was (I had a couple when I worked in the daycares back home) and that it's a skin infection that needs to be "drained" in order to get rid of it. He asks if I need to go to the doctor and I said, well it would help to get antibiotics. At this point in the day it was diificult to move my mouth due to pain and not to mention my lymph nodes were swollen as a result of drainage.

I had taught two classes at this point and just wanted to get my last one out of the way. Eventually Mr. Bahn explains that he found a good dermatologist and that I could leave work at 2pm to catch a ride with a teacher back to Gumi. The teacher who took me couldn't speak English so we rode in silence and he dropped me off. Mr. Bahn wrote down some notes to help me find the place and what to say. I walk in and just point to my chin, lol. They took my info from my ARC card, kinda like my Korean license with all my info, then lead me to a waiting area. I sat & watched a Korean "drama" on t.v. for about 45 minutes before they took me into a room.

The doctor looks at my chin, asks a few questions using minimal English and explains my antibiotic prescription to me. He says to come back in 2 days. I then asked him if he could relieve the pressure in it, so they take me to a treatment room and have me lay down on a cot/table. I wait a bit and he comes in and starts pressing around the area. So I close my eyes, because it's an uncomfortable feeling. I then open my eyes and notice a needle in his hand, in which he is squirting liquid from. I have a small panic attack and try to relax..thinking it would be just one shot. NOPE! After 7 shots in my chin, I could no longer feel it! They then tell me to lay down for 10 minutes, put some gauze and tape on my chin...then lead me to the pharmacy for my meds and cream. After paying about $10 USD or 10,000WON for both the visit and meds, I am on my way home! I'm guessing they got my medical insurance info from my ARC card. Either that or doctor visits are just super cheap! I was nervous because I was down to my last 40,000WON until Friday. I was also supposed to go bowling with some friends Thursday night, but decided it was best to stay home.

I text Mr. Bahn and tell him what they did for me. He says he is glad I feel better and that he will see me tomorrow. I then tell him that I am still contagious (if I touch my chin then touch a student's desk, etc.) so maybe I should stay home. He responds with "well it's not "air" contagious like the flu so in Korea that means you still have to come to work." I didn't get upset with him but I think he could sense the annoyance in my voice because he sent me an apologetic text message later that day. I felt bad!! So I suck it up and face the fact that I have to go to work.

I wake up at 6am to my mouth feeling swollen shut! I'm guessing the meds had a side effect/reaction and caused the left side of my mouth to be super sore and swollen. Maybe it was the 7 shots, I dunno! Seeing as I could hardly move my mouth to speak or eat, I text Mr. Bahn and explain. Normally I would have just went to work and then asked to go back home, but my school is 40 min away with minimal buses going to and from there! He calls me and I attempt to talk on the phone, and he says that he will explain to the vice principal and principal that I had a reaction to the medicine and cannot work due to it. I told him I could come to work so that they could see that I wasn't lying and I promised him I wasn't a lazy person who didn't want to work, I just thought it wouldn't be good for my condition to try to teach or be beneficial to the students. At that point I was half way dressed for school and wide awake. Took me awhile to go back to sleep, but I did for a few more hours. Woke up again to my mouth feeling sore and swollen. I was telling my friend about what happened yesterday and he refers to my situation as "chinomia" lol. I like to think my bandage on my face is rather sexy lol. NOT :) But, what can you do?!

Yeah, you can tell I was bored yesterday night, hence the picture lol. So basically I'm staying in my apartment all weekend and hoping that this goes away quickly. Korea is testing my immune system! I completely forgot that I was susceptible to getting these types of things, and I worked in schools before I came here, but I dunno why it happened this time. Germs will be germs! It sucks because I finally got paid today and had plans with friends. But, I'm still gonna make the best of this and relax since I've been go, go, go every weekend since I've been here! AND, I can definately work on some lesson planning...hopefully lol. Gives me more time to read too! :)

Tomorrow I'm gonna go for my check-up at the doctor then go shopping at Lotte Mart. I mean, yes my face hurts and it looks funny and people stare at my bandage, but I think I can survive a trip to the store to get some things I've been wanting/needing for my apartment and now have the WON to get them :) Maybe I can find some clothes too...I'm tired of wearing the same ones over and over lol.

For now I'm gonna watch a DVD and call it a night! Oh yea, quick note. Wednesday night I went wandering around my neighborhood & found a small park with a swingset! I'm sure I looked like a silly foreigner swinging for about 15 minutes & listening to my Ipod, but it was nice! :) I'm sure I'll be there alot more when the weather gets warmer. :)

XOXO,
Amanda

korean movies, green beer, & wingin' it...

Last Wednesday night was entertaining in that about 9 of the EPIK teachers in the Gumi area got together at a friend's place & watched a Korean movie (with English subtitles of course), as well as enjoyed pizza & drinks. Picture 9 people in a small apartment gathered around a laptop computer, reading subtitles of a movie, lol. The movie was called Old Boy and was funny as well as "twisted." I will leave it at that. Interesting movie...watch it if you have time. :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldboy
Thursday brought up the idea of looking for Guinness beer in Gumi to celebrate St. Patrick's day. While I was more on a mission for green beer and a night out of the apartment, I decided to join Paul, Ali, & Alex in their quest. We ate dinner @ a place we had been to before, then headed to another part of town where there is a western restaurant/bar called "Waegook Cook," which is actually owned by a "waegook". Considering it was a Thursday night, there were quite a few people there, all in spirit of green beer & decor. We attempted a game of poker, another card game, & enjoyed a free shot from the owner of the bar. Back at home around midnight I somehow managed to stay up until close to 3am. That's the downfall to being 14 hours ahead of Texas time, they are up when you should be sleeping. So with three hours of sleep after chatting on Skype, I made it to Friday!

Fridays, as previously mentioned, are my hell. Well not hell, but I have many more classes than I do the rest of the week! I will say TGIF every Friday, this I am sure of. So with many cups of coffee I make it through all 6 classes...ok well 5 because my co-teacher could tell I was sleepy & told me I didn't have to do my "teach the teachers" class. I've been there 3 weeks now & have still yet to do that class. I consider my daily conversations with them to be "teaching" enough, lol.
On to Friday night!! Met up with a new friend for some dinner, a coffee chat, & then out for drinks. Went to a few new places. It was nice to go somewhere other than Corona for the entire night..even though we did end up there for a bit at the end of the night, haha.

Saturday brought coffee, a stroll through Gumi with beautiful warmer weather, & lunch with my friend. After debating on what to do for Saturday evening, I decided to see a group of people that I hadn't seen in awhile. All of the teachers in a city named Jeomchon have an annual St. Patrick's day celebration, so I decided to partake in the event. Since I knew a few people that were in my Class 6 at orientation, I figured it would be fun! I was correct in this assumption!!

Tons of people packed into a smaller area of a bar, green beer, soju, Irish flags, green paint...what could be better?! Of course having only known a few people originally, I left that city with about 10 new friends! From the bar we went to a noraebang for a little, meaning ALOT, of karaoke. From there we stumbled to a Japanese restauraunt that was conveniently open around 5 am. Eventually crashed at a friends place & caught the 3:30pm train on Sunday back to Gumi. The train ride was only an hour and a half for about $5. Not bad at all for a weekend trip! Here are a few pictures (out of tons that ended up on facebook) which kind of sum up the night:

Sunday was a day of failed attempts at creating a lesson plan for the week. Having gotten little sleep during the weekend like I should have, I was tired & ultimately fell asleep with only a general idea. Monday morning, 30 minutes before my first class...BAM full powerpoint & lesson plan! :) Like we learned in orientation, some days you just have to "wing it!" And that I did. Which brings me to Tuesday...no responsibilities at the moment and enjoying my evening at my apartment. I started reading The Alchemist today...a book that a friend Wade gave me before I departed on my journey to South Korea. In love with the book already...very inspirational! :)

XOXO,
Amanda

mission cellphone complete...

Started this blog last week Wednesday! Geez time flies here! Once again, gonna try to catch up on some blogging. Here is what I wrote last Wed:

Phone is in posession. Complete with a 4-leaf clover charm dangling from it's side. Out of 3 options for a free phone, I chose the one with the least pink possible. I know, I know, I'm in Korea I might as well have a ridiculously "cute" phone, but trust me it still has "Korea" written all over it.

Tuesdays classes, not as fun as my middle schoolers, but not too bad behavior wise. Got all of my classes over with by 2pm. Then had to wait until 5:45 for Mr. Bahn to finish his classes. Of course I could have been lesson planning for next week, but the procrastinator in me lead me to chat on Skype instead. Finally we leave school and head to the cell phone store. At this time the wind was howling like crazy & signs were literally on the ground in the small city we were in. Apparently we were getting high winds from the Japan tsunami, so some people say.

I don't think I could survive, as well, without a co-teacher like Mr. Bahn. He has been so helpful and nice since I met him. On the drive into town he mentioned that he worries about me during lunch everyday because he thinks I am not eating enough. I tried to explain to him that even though he doesn't see me eating Korean food, I still eat it when I go out with my friends, and I eat enough "western" food on the side as well.

So we get to the cell phone store, which is the same company he uses, and he translates everything they were describing about phone plans, costs, types of phones, etc. I ended up choosing a 2 year contract that only costs about $40 USD to cancel if I leave in less than 2 years. With the plan I also get the phone for free, so that worked out in my favor. I was afraid I would owe something up front and I'm running low on WON at the moment. Pay day is the 25th!! Can't wait to celebrate and claim that I am a millionaire. We like to call WON monopoly money here lol. I will be getting about 3 million WON at the end of the month...my paycheck plus an entrance allowance :)

So after acquiring a cell phone, Mr. Bahn asks me if I'd like to have dinner with him. Of course I say yes and he takes me to a place where you cook the meat yourself. We had samgypsal, which is like a thick chunks of bacon. Of course it came with a bunch of side dishes, veggies, and kimchi. I think it made him happy to see that I actually enjoyed and ate most of the dishes for dinner. He even ordered me a bowl of noodles after the meal, which is customary in Korea. I figured out it's probably a good sobering up technique if you choose to do so because we drank 2 bottles of Soju between the two of us, lol. In the middle of the meal he told me "You are much stronger than I thought" in reference to my drinking ability. HAHA. This led to conversations about going to work hungover in the past. His stories topped mine. He said he once threw up in front of his students lol. Come to find out, today, he informed me that he continued his drinking with friends after I took a cab home. Therefore, he was hungover today at work!

That brings me to my classes today. Today was more high school classes, 2 out of 3 being poorly behaved. In one of the classes I had a young male express his "love" for me over and over. We were practicing different ways to introduce yourself to a new person. I asked him, "How are you?" He replied, "I love you." I ask him, "What is your name?" Again, the same response. I quickly said "Nice to meet you" (didn't want to give into his antics) and walked to the next student. Then my last group of students meets after lunch. This class is of course tired & they want to put their heads on the desks. In the middle of my lecture I notice I'm basically talking to a wall. I stop, tell them to stand up, stretch, jump around, then sit back down. I lead into the activity part and ask them what kind of music they want to listen to. They randomly chose Lady Gaga, so I put on music. This got the majority of them to wake up! Success, no matter how small, it was still success for me!

Moving on to another post to update everything to today, Tuesday March 22nd :)

XOXO,
Amanda

turning a new page...

So, last weekend I made a new friend at one of places the local GET's hang out at. During our conversation, the fact that we were both "writers" came up. He told me that he was asked to write an essay about his experience in Korea so far. After e-mailing me a copy of his essay, I realized that out of all the essays that were in the book "Successful stories of a GET" (a book we received at orientation), his was one of the few that I had actually read. Long story short, I wanted to share with my friends back home, part of his essay. He describes the experience very well in my opinion. Here are a few sections I chose that relate to me. This was written by Michael Capanigro, who is on his second year in Korea.

"The English language has carried swarms of people from the ethnically mashed-up countries of the west to the eastern part of the earth’s ethnically dense cultures of Asia. Every GET should feel fortunate of the opportunity because being a native speaker of English is something you are born into, but teaching the language thousands of miles from home is not something we are all born to do."

"The expat community of English teachers in Korea is a diverse group of characters. We have all come here for some reason or other and all of us have a story to tell. These are the stories you’ll never hear from most people at home or from surfing the web. They are only told when you cross paths with a stranger who has come as far as you. Coming to Korea has been, for most people, to write a new chapter in their life or to at least get past the introduction. We should all be so lucky to turn that page."

"Learning to teach and trying to assimilate into a foreign country at the same time can be a perilous journey if you don’t embrace what you are doing and where you are living."

"Traversing the unknown warps one’s sense of time and distorts perspective, drawing the subconscious and disrupting the course. In a life of routine the mind begins favoring anticipation, caring only of results while forgetting the process. Our senses are lost without a process and the journey becomes a zombie-like charge down a worn path. What’s left to feel or experience when you already know the result or have anticipated the possible outcomes? I'd grown sick of knowing and tired of forgetting. I guess that’s why I came to Korea."

"For many GETs who arrive in Korea it will be their first job teaching anything. It can be an overwhelming experience to get in front of a classroom full of students who are more interested in you than in what you are saying, because, to be honest, they probably have no idea what you’re actually saying. You have to learn to speak in a new, slowed-down, succinct and instructional way. Once you get the hang of it you’ll find yourself speaking to your friends at home in the same manner and they’ll wonder if you’ve really gone abroad to teach English or be part of some human experiment. They’d actually be right in thinking both."

Overall, I think he gives a great perspective of what it's like living & teaching in a foreign country. A couple years ago I would have never considered taking on this challenge. But, after meeting people like this, I know I've made the right choice.

XOXO,

Amanda

language barriers & technology failure...

TYPICAL DAY IN THE LIFE OF AMANDA:
So, Sunday night I'm in bed a little after midnight, normal time for me. I make sure my alarm is set on my I-touch & off to sleep I go! Wake up naturally (sans alarm sound), look around, get that gut feeling, grab my I-touch to check the time...7:25AM. The school bus arrives at 7:03AM. For some reason my I-touch insisted it was Sunday, March 13th...not sure if it was always on the wrong date or if the "american time change" had something to do with it. They don't do "daylights saving time" in Korea. Regardless of the reason, I was late!!

I completely flip out, throw on some clothes & decide that instead of running around the city for a pay phone I will ask my landlord to borrow her cell phone upstairs. I ring her door, she opens and I use hand signals to communicate the use of a phone. I show her Mr. Jun's number on a piece of paper and mock calling him. She then takes the paper I have, tears off the bottom of it and proceeds to write down her telephone number. While trying to remain calm, I politely tell her no, I need to USE the phone. (INSERT CURSING ABOUT LANGUAGE BARRIERS IN MY HEAD) Finally she understands & hands me her cell phone.

I inform Mr. Jun that my alarm did not go off and he says, "Ok, well you still work for our school today. You take city bus to Do Gae, yes?" His "wording" choices baffle me. I tell the landlady thank you, return to my room, throw on teaching attire, grab my backpack, & head out the door. All the while I'm thinking of the quickest way I could get to the school, which is 40 min away. I run outside and debate on either running to the train station (10 min away) where I know taxis wait, OR risk standing on the corner for awhile trying to flag down an empty taxi. Luckily, I spot a taxi dropping someone off & flag it down. (FYI: you don't wave down taxis, you stick out your arm and bend your hand in a downwards motion...waving towards yourself is like "calling a dog towards you" in their culture).

So, I hop in the taxi, tell him bus terminal, pay 3,200 WON. At the train station I go to the ticket lady and say "English?" To which she shows me the "a little" hand sign. I say, "I need to get to Do Gae Middle High School." She browses a chart for a few minutes then shows me it will not arrive until 8:40AM. Perfect...NOT! School begins at 8:20AM, and of course I had a class to teach first thing Monday morning. This was the same class that missed my lesson last week as well due to technological difficulty! I pay the lady 3,000 WON for the ticket to Do Gae. Bus is cheaper than the taxi, go figure!

I sit around the bus station, call Mr. Jun to tell him what time the bus was arriving, then call my parents using my calling card I won at orientation. I figured they would enjoy my story of the day, lol. I finally board the bus, which showed up 10 minutes late, and arrive at school. To make things even more interesting, the school is running on a slightly different time schedule due to a teacher's meeting that morning. So I run in to make it to my second class in time, only to be told to sit down for a bit because I have 10 minutes until it begins. Phew!

I LOVE MY JOB...TODAY ATLEAST!:
The two classes I was actually able to teach (both middle school) were awesome! They enjoyed my lesson and even participated. If only my high schoolers would do the same! My last class of the day was my conversation class with 9 higher level students. I'm going to LOVE this part of my job! They speak English almost fluently! These were obviously the kids I had in my classes last week who were actually trying to talk to me.

So now we have 50 minutes to just sit and talk about whatever we want! Today we talked about music & movies. They told me they didn't understand the movie "The Social Network" which is the movie about facebook. I told them there wasn't much to understand about it because the story was about the guy "stealing" the idea of facebook from some guys. They said they understood this but the previews hyped them up & the movie let them down, haha. Smart kids! They also asked me a bunch of questions about the movie "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" lol. "Did you see it?" "Is it true?" haha, their imitations of a chainsaw were hilarious! I have another one of these types of classes on Friday with 5 students.

So now I am relaxing in my apartment for the evening. I cannot wait until my foot feels better so I can figure out a jogging path in my neighborhood! I'm going to shower, read some of my book, then maybe work on some poetry. I started a new poem, "swirls of time pass through my mind." It's basically about the rush of excitement & confusion that comes with discovering a new place and completely different culture, "aka", South Korea! Hope to post it soon. Until next time!

P.S. I get my cell phone tomorrow!! Finally, one less thing to stress about!

XOXO,
Amanda

sharing the streets of Daegu...

Friday is going to be my busiest day of the week. This one wasn't bad in that I only had 4 lecture classes & no conversation classes. Next week I will have a total of 6 classes (4 lecture, 2 convo) & during lunch time I have to be available for chats.

The funniest part of my day was my middle school class. There were only 9 students in there and I work with a younger male teacher. At this time the desks were in lines (I re-arranged them later) and Mr. Jung bent over in the middle of an aisle to help some students. The female students behind him were obviously staring at his bottom while giggling. I look over to see what they are giggling about, then look in his direction. This of course causes louder laughs from the girls because they assume I am also enjoying the view. I quietly returned to my desk, lol.

My last class of the day is "seniors" or grade 3 high school. It's rather shocking when you say "I am 25 years old" and a student replies, "Oh, I am 20 years old!" Granted Korea adds a year to your actual age (they start counting from conception) so he is probably more like 18 or 19. So yea, I'm 27 in Korea (since my birthday is in December)...time is REALLY flying :) I'm gonna be all mixed up on how old I really am when I return to America.

TIME TO CELEBRATE:
Paul and Ali propose dinner & drinks in their neighborhood of Gumi. Of course I say yes! Alex & I split a cab & meet up with everyone. We decide on a place that offered a variety of meats for a decent price. It's funny I actually eat the salads they serve as side dishes here. They use the best dressings...I doubt I could ever find anything like them in America. I actually had seconds on both of the salads. I only say this to shock all of my friends and family who know that I RARELY ever eat salads or many veggies. So proud of myself :)

AWKWARD BATHROOM:
So, during dinner, I step outside to use the separate bathroom facility. As I enter, I have a Korean girl, maybe mid 20's, tell me hello. This is normal. I enter the stall, sit down to pee, and hear her whisper to her friend, "miguk, miguk!" which means "american!" Mid pee, her friend yells HELLO! I politely say hello in return, they giggle, and run out of the bathroom. Oh, Korea! lol.

So, after many shots of Soju and a little beer, we all catch a cab to the downtown area for...well of course, more soju & beer! We find a place we've never been & settle down in a table near the back of the restaurant bar. And by settle down I mean we talk obnoxiously loud about inappropriate things simply because...nobody else knows what we're talking about! :) And if they did, they probably just think..."stupid foreigners!" haha :) Our final stop was at Corona, where we played a couple games of darts, I met some new people, and we all stumbled home to sleep.

BACK TO DAEGU:
Too bad I was woken early by blaring sunlight into my room. Still need to find a way to tame the light just a bit. I mean, if it's a beautiful day out then I'm all about getting up for the day. But after a night of drinking I just want some sleep! So, I get out of bed and make a plan for the day. So many options on the weekend because everyone wants to go different places for different reasons. I was invited hiking, but overslept. I then had the option of a friend coming to see me in Gumi for a night out, or meeting her in Daegu for a night out. I decided since I went to Daegu last weekend for a day trip, I needed to see what the night life held.

Took a train (got off at the right stop this time, yay!!) and met Lea around 6:30ish. She had been there a couple times already, which was good because Daegu downtown is alot bigger than Gumi, obviously! The plan was to go to dinner then meet up with Paul, Ali, and the rest of their friends who they were visiting for a night of drinking and fun. But, due to the lack of cell phones & low quantity of available pay phones, communication errors led Lea and I to wander around ourselves.

We saw quite a few interesting people, ate a pretty yummy seafood pasta dinner, scurried along with the madness of people & cars trying to use the same street, dodged cars trying to fly through the streets, soaked in all of the loud blaring music from various buildings, ate an amazing waffle/ice cream combination dessert, and ended the night with a beer at a popular "western" bar called Travelers. Oh yea, before dinner we were starving, so we got a snack at McDonalds...had to try to Korean McDonalds...but I only got fries. I will let ya know how the burgers are if I ever go back. Although, I never ate the burgers back home lol.

From all the walking around and lack of sleep the night before, around midnight I decided to head back home. Luckily, we made it back to the station in time for me to catch the midnight train. Lea ended up taking a taxi due to the fact that her train wasn't available until 2am! That's the only downfall to trains, you have to plan accordingly! On the train ride home I started feeling a sharp pain on the top of my left foot. Not sure what happened, but today is Monday and it still hurts. Looks slightly swollen, but that could be my imagination and it could just be a bad muscle cramp.

SUNDAY NON-FUNDAY:
I say non-funday because due to my procrastination of lesson planning on Thursday, I forced myself to stay in my apartment until my plan was complete. That resulted in me continuing to procrastinate & not finishing my lesson until right around midnight. In my defense, I also cooked, did laundry, e-mailed some people, showered, and cleaned my apartment. Oh, and how can I forget...chatting with "bad influence" Scottie who is a professional at distracting me with intriguing opposite conversations & questions of Korea. I can't wait until he gets to Korea in August & discovers I have been giving him false information about Korean culture, haha! j/k...maybe :)

BEST PART:
My favorite part of my weekend was skyping with DeWayne, Sarah, & Owen!! I got to "officially" meet my nephew! He is soooo adorable & I cannot wait to hug him! I wish I could say "hold" him, but by the time I get back to Texas he will be almost one! Until then I will just have to see him grow up on Skype. I am still a very proud Aunt even though I can't be there right now! :)

XOXO,
Amanda

things that just don't seem strange anymore...

Found this on an EPIK facebook group, thought it was funny so I decided to share it. It might make more sense if you live in Korea, but if you've read my stories you will get most of it:

In Korea...things that just don't seem strange anymore... 
- Pedestrians share the sidewalk with automobiles and motorcycles...
- Restrooms don't have tiolet paper or paper towels...
- Every child you pass on the street will say 'hello' to you...
- Children love arm hair...
- Every city bus will have at least 2 teenage boys sitting in each other's laps and playing with each other's hair...
- People think you should board the train first before allowing people to get off...
- You leave the house almost every day with the hem of your pants soaking wet...
- Cell phones are meant to always be turned on...
- People love to know your blood type...
- Kids and non-smokers are invincible to second-hand smoke...
- You are at risk of being hit by a car the second you walk out of your apartment...
- There are more oscillating-fan-related deaths than shootings...
- Other foreigners fascinate you...
- People think that it is really nice to meet you once again for the 300th time...
- Most laws are merely suggestions...
- All food is "delicious" with no exceptions...
- You never shut your bathroom door for fear of drowning...
- You only hear Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga's names twice a week now...
- The school bell makes you crave ice cream...
- The apocalypse has not arrived... it's just some guy selling fish...
- The smell of kimchi, garlic and soju is an aphrodisiac...
- You need to start making a schedule of your laundry waiting period...
- Fish and rice belong at any breakfast table...
- You can't find pornography anywhere but there's at least 5 brothels in every small town...
- There are only 2 languages ever spoken - Korean and English...
- Little kids traveling alone on public transit is nothing to be concerned about...
- Loud construction workers are Korea's answer to the alarm clock...
- Any decent men's tie should sparkle...
- Everyone, including 7 year olds, has a nicer cell phone than you...
- Even if you are fast asleep on the subway or city bus, you won't miss your stop...
- At least once a week you crawl across your apartment floor to get something you forgot after putting your shoes on...

I've witnessed over half of these things! LOL, gotta love dynamic Korea!

XOXO,
Amanda

finally caught up...

I'm finally caught up on my blogs. I hate writing about things that happened in the past because I either go into pointless detail in an effort to remember what I did each day, or I forget the good parts!

GETTING USED TO IT:
So, day 3 of real teaching arrives. By this point I know "kind of" what to expect when I enter the classroom. I mean, I had already given the same lesson 5 times, so what's a few more times? lol. I start the morning with Ms. Kim. I can tell I am going to love her classes due to the behavior of her students & their level of respect. I love the bow I receive at the beginning and end of class, and I'm considering asking my other co-teachers to do the same. It's not that I feel special when they bow, it's more like a sign of respect and gives a start and finish to my lesson.

Now normally on Wednesdays & Fridays I will have a conversation class with other teachers who want to improve their English. It's open to all the teachers, but for this week Mr, Bahn said I didn't have to do any of my conversation classes (including English Zone time during lunch & meeting with the higher level students for conversations). While I'm sure I will enjoy my conversation classes more than my lecture classes, I was glad to just teach for the first week.

"MAYBE" TURNED IN TO TODAY!:
After teaching Ms. Kim's class I went back to the office where I was informed that they had finally fixed the screen in my classroom! YAY! I run to the room to make sure, set up my powerpoint, and prepare for my first lesson in my own room. :)

My second class with Mr. Lee consisted of the normal chaos...but not as bad this time. Perhaps these students were at a higher level of English than Mr. Lee's previous students.  After class I stayed in the room for awhile as to avoid eating lunch in the break room. I felt bad, but I really just wanted to eat my leftover pizza without being force fed Korean side dishes! So, my plan worked...this day atleast! I go into the empty break room, heat up my pizza, eat, and return to my room for the 3rd and final class of the day.

Mr. Jun brings in his students, all males, and they sit down. He makes a few announcements, then calls up a student. I don't know, once again, what the boy did, but he made him kneel down on the floor and repeat things in Korean. He then has the boy sit in squat form on the ground while he proceeds to give a lecture on appropriate classroom behavior to the rest of the students (I'm assuming that's what it was about, who knows!)

During the time I'm sitting at my desk waiting to start my timer. I put a timer on my I-pod touch in order to keep track of time and make sure I'm not going too slow or too fast. At this point my timer is on 40 minutes. I'm supposed to teach for 50 minutes. By the time his speech is over, my timer is at 27 minutes!! LOL. There goes half of my lesson! I then stand up in front of a half-asleep class of Korean boys and try to encourage them to have a conversation about their hobbies with each other. I got mainly blank stares and heads down on desks. It's after lunch, hell I was sleepy myself! Especially after a 15 minute lecture from Mr. Jun! Finally I catch about half of their attention with my hobby guessing game. I put four words on the screen and they had to say them out loud with me, then guess which hobby the words were hints for.

EVERY DAY IS DIFFERENT:
Needless to say, every class is going to be different. I just need to be one my toes and ready for whatever the students present me with. Over time, I will hopefully figure out a system that works regarding behavior and lesson planning. I just hope it's not on the last day of teaching here, haha!

Since I had about two hours left at the end of the day, I decided to stay in my room and check out some of the materials I came across in the cabinets. I pop in a few CD's and DVD's and realize that half of them are either crap & useless, or don't even work! What a waste of money for the school! I'm still intent on finding a way to use something though! As I'm getting ready to head back to the main office my co-teacher pops in my room. He says he was looking for me because the Vice Principal wanted to know where I was at. Ooops! Guess they need to actual atleast see my physical presence to make sure I'm ok, or not doing anything inappropriate...who knows their reason! Lesson learned...cannot hide in my room, darn!

BUS RIDE MINI-DRAMA:
I was happy to be finished for the day, so I went back to the office, collected my things and left to the bus stop. Half way to the bus stop I realize I still have on my "school slippers" lol. I say screw it, and keep walking. They are also rather uncomfortable because they are new and probably one size too small for me even though that was the biggest size I could find in Korea to fit me! To "escape" hearing Korean all day long, I often listen to music on my I-touch. As I'm waiting for the bus I have a giggling girl sit next to me, get out her phone, and point at the key pad. She wanted me to give her my cell phone number, lol. I explain to her that my I-touch is not a phone and that I do not have one. She starts speaking in Korean and staring at me for a response. I smile politely and return to my music. She then grabs my arm and starts pulling me off the seat. Turns out the bus had arrived outside, so she was "assisting" me, haha!

I board the bus & get off at the stop in Seonsan. I search for the people I had met the day before, but with no luck I get on the bus alone. The bus stops alot on the way home at different places so once we got to the downtown area I tried to remember where I had gotten off the day before. I see a sign that I think is familiar, and get off. Then I look up the road and see the train station in the distance, damn! Got off too early! So I start to walk, in my uncomfortable shoes, when I feel someone tapping my shoulder. Apparently I left my scarf on the bus, so some stranger was kind enough to catch up with me! :) I've already lost one scarf at orientation & I've discovered scarves are a necessity with the cold weather in Korea!

Finally I make it back to my apartment. After my eventful trip from school to home I feel the need to open the wine I had bought at DC Mart. It said "rice wine" of course, but I figured it couldn't be that bad. Wrong! It was gross, so I opened a Hite beer instead. I then get into a movie that was on the English channel called "Hachi." Turns out it's a super sad movie, but I liked it.

MINI-CELEBRATION:
As I'm watching the movie I get a message from Paul asking if I wanted to join him and Ali for dinner/drinks. I say yes of course! Especially since I didn't have any lectures the next day due to national testing for high school students! Time to have a mini-celebration for surviving teaching so far! I meet them at 8pm, along with Rita, a friend who lives a town away from Gumi. We wander the streets in search of a place we haven't been to yet. I tell them I don't care what kind of meat we eat, as long as I get to eat more meat than vegetables! We go to another one of those types of restaurants where you cook the meat yourself, but the lady (waitress) insisted on cooking it for us. We then start the shots of Soju and rounds of beer. Alex joins up with us and we decide to move on to Corona bar. We walk in and I see Adalet and Tom, the friends I made on Saturday night! I talk to them briefly and then play a couple rounds of darts. I actually won twice :) As it nears midnight I am talking to Adalet and Tom and figure I need to head home to get some sleep. Regardless of whether or not I had to teach I still had to be up at 6am!

DESKWARMING:
I figured I'd sum up today on this post as well. This morning I woke up, feeling super tired, as I expected, and dragged myself to the bus stop. Since I knew I had no lessons to teach I didn't even bother to work on my appearance lol. My intention was to work on some lesson plans half the day, and then read/blog/facebook the rest of the day. In other words, a normal day of "deskwarming" like I had done the previous week. Thanks to my new friend Scottie, I started my day chatting with him on facebook and ended my day chatting with him on Skype. LOL. I did of course work on my blogging, but that was about it! Didn't even open an educational website once today!

The highlight of my day was that one of the teacher's walked by my desk and I heard her say "color of my mind." She was reading my screen, nosy! haha. She then sees the picture of me with long hair on my blog website and says, "Oh, so beautiful!" Next she calls over her friend to look at the picture. I now have two Korean teachers hovering over me staring at my blog. I finally switch the screen to Skype and they disappear.

On my way home from school today I managed to conquer the bus system. I noted down the name of the big store that I got off near the train station in order to prevent future mistakes! On the bus ride I immersed myself in a book that I brought from home. It is a neat book in that you can make decisions on how you want the story to go and how it will end. It's called "Pretty Little Mistakes" so you have to use your own judgement on which path to take in the book. You either end up in a good situation, or in some cases your character dies and you start over! Keeps me entertained!

TIME TO COOK:
I then decide to stop at the grocery store inside the train station and grab a few things to make dinner. I like going out for dinner, but sometimes it's nice to just cook at home. This brings me to where I am now. Deciding what to fix for dinner...hmmm! Ok, I'm done blogging. All of my posts from now on will hopefully be current and up to date!

By the way, I intend to upload pictures to go with my blog posts, but my computer is stubborn when I try to add them. They are all on my facebook page, but I still want to add a few to go with my stories. Check back for pics later!

XOXO,
Amanda

what did i get myself into?...

So, the second day of work arrives. I get to school around 7:40am and add in a new activity for my lesson about hobbies. I managed to find a powerpoint that was already designed & everything! I chose hobbies as my first topic because it fit well with my introduction about myself. I told them what my hobbies were, and had them talk about their hobbies (IN ENGLISH is the goal lol) with their friends in class.

I finalize the lesson and head to class. Of course the screen hadn't been fixed yet so I went to their homeroom class again. My first class was Grade 3 of high school, which is like seniors in America, so you can imagine their enthusiasm in class. It's doesn't exist! lol. Seeing how Mr. Lee handled the discipline the day before I expected him to do the same. Instead, now that I was actually teaching, he just sort of wandered around joking and laughing with the students. The rest of the class went okay, but out of the 25 or more students (including a few special needs students) only a few were actively participating. This is when I think, "What did I get myself into?" haha.

SIDE NOTE:
I forsee a problem a couple co-teachers, but I'm going to give it a couple weeks before I say anything. That is what they recommended during my lectures at orientation. Each co-teacher is different. They either help you (like Ms. Kim and Mr. Bahn), ignore you (like Mr. Lee), or worst of all interrupt your lesson (like Mr. Jun). I have yet to work with the teacher who is new and my age yet. I will see how he is on Friday.

TAKING THE GOOD WITH THE BAD:
I survive the first class and move on to Mr. Bahn's class. I walk in and the atmosphere is completely different. The students (grade 2 high school) are seated and fairly interested in my lesson. I even had a student speaking fluent English to me and asking me questions. I leave class with a smile on my face and go back to thinking this isn't so bad.

WRONG! haha. I have lunch then head to my last class of the day, with Mr. Jun. I figured if he was anything like he was outside of school, it was going to be a challenge. I walk to their room (grade 2 high school again) and immediately notice that the kids are running around and there is no screen for my powerpoint. GREAT! I start writing my intro on the board (I was gonna wing it without the pictures or game) when Mr. Jun says we are moving to the art room so that I can have a computer...whew! We march down the hall and the kids pile around the big tables in the art room...this means trouble.

In Korean culture it is common for kids, or just all people, to TOUCH everything and everyone. Personal space does not exist. But, that's not the part that bothers me. It's when the boys, and some girls, start hitting each other. Of course kids hit each other in American schools, but here it is ridiculous.

Imagine this...these kids sit in class all day long, study at the school all night, get home past midnight, go to sleep, wake up and do it again all week and every other Saturday. My "english class" is the only class that doesn't count as a grade for them. What behavior would you expect from them?

So, back to my class. I start my lesson (which I've already lost time because of moving), and half way through it Mr. Jun takes over and has them repeat every hobby I had listed on the screen. This was not part of my lesson, and is taking up my time, so I get a little frustrated but just repeat the words along with the students. I was as bored as the students were! Finally, the torture is over and I introduce some rules I had added to my powerpoint slide.

AMANDA TEACHER'S RULES:
1.) Always speak English
2.) Keep hands, feet, and other objects to yourself.
3.) Respect the teacher & each other.

Now, this is the one time I like having a translator. No matter how hard I tried to explain the rules, I felt like some kids might not understand. So, I had the co-teacher translate and then had the kids repeat them in English with me. Low and behold, as I'm saying rule number 3, about 5 kids are breaking rule #2! I stop, give them the "stink eye" like we were taught in orientation, then hold up two fingers and point at the screen. They stop and say loudly "OK , OK, OK!" So you get the picture of what I am going to be dealing with!

BUS ATTEMPT #2:
I could talk about behavior all day, but I will spare you, in this blog post atleast! haha :) To end my day I sit at my desk until 4:15pm and leave for the bus stop again. This time I was told a different way that should take me to the train station...for real this time. This requires me to switch buses in Seonsan. So, I pay only 1,200 WON this time at the first stop. I get off in Seonsan and spot another english teacher, yay!! He shows me which bus I need to take to Gumi-yuk. Turns out he & his girlfriend live beside of it as well. I ask him how I buy a ticket and he informs me that you pay on the bus. I pull out my wallet and only have a 10,000 WON bill. He tells me they won't accept that large of a bill so I panic and try to find a way to get change. I run into a little store at the bus station, grab a drink, and get my change. As I'm walking back to the bus area I notice everyone boarding the bus...just in time!! I put my 1,500 WON in the box & sit with Ashley (a guy). We trade stories about our school and apartments and finally make it to the train station where we run into another english teacher. I'm assuming I will see these two every day, so that's something to look forward to...english conversation! haha! The girl I met, Ana, told us we should buy a bus card pass that you can swipe instead of using cash. You basically put however much you want on the card and it gives you your balance when you swipe. So on my way home I stopped to buy one and put 20,000 WON on it. I'm hoping I get reimbursed for the cost of commuting to work. I will find out soon.

Tuesday night I went home with the plan to adjust my lesson, blog, and relax. That is exactly what I did! :) The only time I went out was to get a pizza from Pizza Bingo lol. I did attempt to switch it up and tried to go to a place that sold chicken, but it was expensive because you have to order it in bulk basically...more for families, not one person. After ordering my pizza I noticed they have chicken there too, so next time I can get that! Here's the highlight of my night...after I pay for the pizza I turn to go out the door and trip over their stand-up heater they had in the middle of the floor, ooops! Hope I didn't break it...I'm sure he was thinking, "stupid foreigner!" HAHA!

XOXO,
Amanda

now the real work begins...

So after my fun weekend, I decided it was best to stay inside my apartment on Sunday and get caught up on lesson planning & blogging. I ended up Skyping for half of the day, but oh well! I cooked some dinner so I could have leftovers for work on Monday. This time I made spaghetti...pretty good!

FIRST CLASS:
Monday morning, first class, I am scheduled to teach grade 1 high school students. I go into my classroom, open my powerpoint on the computer, then go to turn on the touch screen. Of course, IT DOESN'T TURN ON! Just my luck! I'm not panicking at this moment because I figured my co-teacher for this class (Mr. Lee) could fix it for me. I wait awhile then eventually he comes in with students trailing behind him. I ask him to turn on the screen, he looks at it, tries...fails. Then he disappears! Which leaves me starting at a group of all male students (freshman age), who are in return staring at me. A few of them yell, and I mean literally YELL, "HELLO TEACHER!!" I politely and quietly tell them hello in return. As I sit there, I start thinking...what the hell am I going to do if they can't fix it? Obviously I did not have a back up plan. I checked it on Friday and assumed it would work Monday. After a few more guy come in with wires and plugs, they discover they cannot fix it. So, I have the students make nametags for me to kill time. This turned into a whole debacle as I realize that most of them do not know how to translate their name from Korean symbols into English letters.

Let me back up a bit. As the co-teacher and I were waiting for more assistance in fixing the screen, I witnessed my first "culture schock" regarding school punishment. One minute it looked like the Mr. Lee was joking with the boys, the next he grabs one by his hair and slaps him across the face two times. Not even slaps, it was full blown hits! I have no clue as to what the boy said or did, but I'm assuming it was something inapproprite about me. I don't know! After witnessing that I decided to do the nametag activity. Which I said, didn't turn out so well. I highly doubt they will remember to bring them to class every week, that is if they were even able to write anything on them.

After sweating, literally, through that class I try to think of a back-up plan for the rest of the day. They inform me that they are going to bring in a professional to fix the screen and it will MAYBE (notice the word), MAYBE be ready in the morning...or sometime this week. In my mind that meant NEVER, lol. I go back to my teacher's lounge to tell my next teacher, Ms. Kim, that the screen is not working. She suggest we go to their homeroom class for the lesson where I can use a computer and screen. THANK GOODNESS!!

Another difference in Korea is that the students get to the class before the teacher does. The teacher does not leave the office until after the bell sounds off. Then they slowly walk, as to waste time, to the classroom & begin their lesson. I, on the other hand, like to be prepared when the students enter the room. I'm sure it will be different once I get settled into the English Zone room.

SECOND CLASS:
We enter a room full of middle schoolers, grade 2. Ms. Kim has them stand up, bow to me, then introduces me. I am immediately more at ease by this process. It also helps that the class size was much smaller, about 10 students. I begin my lesson & the students are very respectful. A few of them chatted in their own language, but for the most part they participated in my activities. It was funny to see that the girls sat on one side of the room and the boys on the other, lol. The end result of this class was 100% better than the first obviously! However, I did finish before class was over, but Ms. Kim backed me up and had them do a small activity until the bell rang. Another lesson learned, no matter how many extra activities you have planned, you should have even more!! In Texas I alway allowed my students to have the last five minutes as "free time," but that was different because I could hang out with them, or just sit at my desk & keep an eye on them. That would appear wasteful here.

THIRD CLASS:
We break for lunch then I return for my last class of they day. Middle schoolers, grade 3 with Mr. Bahn. During my break I quickly thought of some extra activities to add to my lesson, so the third class ran pretty smoothly. Same class size and level of respect. You could tell they really respected Mr. Bahn as well. I've heard he is one of the most "feared" teachers at the school, but that's how you have to be I've learned! As I leave class feeling pretty confident in myself, I ask Mr. Bahn if my lesson was ok. He replies, "Yes, it was good for middle school..but MAYBE not for high schoolers...they won't like it as much." In other words I needed to adjust my lesson plan in attempt to keep their attention/interest. So much for only making one lesson plan a week! I won't have to make an entirely different one, just adjust it according to the class levels. Could be worse!

BUS RIDE HOME:
The final task of my day was finally using the city bus system. For this I had to walk to a station about 5 minutes from the school, purchase a ticket for 3,100 WON and it was supposed to take me to Gumi-yuk (the train station by my apartment). Sounds easy. Well I get on without a problem, we stop in another small town, Seonsan, more people get on the bus, and we head towards Gumi. When we get to Gumi I notice it stops at Gumi bus terminal. I assumed this was close enough to the train station. I get out and start walking and looking for the station...which is nowhere to be found. I eventually stop a person and say, "Gumi-yuk odiyey?" which means, "Where is the train station?" He points down the road and says, 20 minute walk. Just my luck! lol. So I then have to grab a taxi & pay 2,800 WON to get to the station. I could have taken a taxi all the way to my apartment by saying "Gaksan eh DC Marte" but I wasn't in a good mood and figured I could use a walk to cool off lol.

DINNER WITH FRIENDS:
I make it home and decide to put off lesson planning for awhile. I had an idea in mind already that I could finish in the morning at school since I didn't have class until 10:20am the next day. I get on facebook...my form of communication with all English speakers in Gumi haha, and Paul and Ali ask if I'd like to come to their apartment for dinner to save money. So, I catch a cab to their place, about 3,800 WON, and enjoy a nice relaxing evening with dinner and drinks. Ali made rice with curry sauce, chicken, garlic, and some veggies. Normally the sound of this meal would not make me excited but seeing how I'm eating stuff that I don't even know the origins of in Korea, any vegetables or foods I can identify taste great to me! Turned out to be a very delicious meal! And we ended with strawberry ice cream which in my opinion was better than any strawberry ice cream I've had in America. Around 11pm I head home for sleep.

XOXO,
Amanda

taking the train to Daegu...

Finally my first weekend to myself (meaning no bothersome teachers)!! A group of people on facebook had discussed taking a day trip to Daegu to explore the city or do whatever we could find. So, my first task was the train ride. I wake up around 10am, get ready, and head to the train station. As I said, I had checked the train times to DongDaegu station the night before. Turns out there are two train stations in Daegu, and DongDaegu is the better one to get off at so we chose to meet there. I get to the ticket machine around 11:30am, choose the English option (thank goodness for that!), and decide to take the 11:46am train. I choose my train type, station, departing time, and when it comes time to pay it says, "Unable to give a ticket due to lack of change." I freak out and try it two more times. Then I switch machines. Same message! I'm starting to get worried, then I move to a whole different area of machines. Finally, I get my ticket for 4,300 WON. Less than $5 USD to take a train 35 minutes away to another city...not bad in my mind.

MINOR MISTAKE:
I walk to the boarding area & try to figure out what all the numbers on my ticket mean. Eventually I realize which one is the car number and seat number. I get on and notice someone is sitting in my seat, so I find a different one. Then a couple walks up to me and looks at my strangely so I move again. Finally I settle in & enjoy the ride. When the train finally stops I assume we have reached my destination, so I get off the train. I walk inside the station and do not see my friends. I run outside and notice the sign says "Daegu Station" not DonDaegu. SHIT! It was 12:20pm by this time and I was supposed to meet my friends between 12 and 12:30pm. I had ten minutes to make it to the next station. I run to the ticket machine to catch a train but the next one wasn't until 1pm. My next instinct was to take a cab. I mean, it couldn't be that far! I run down the stairs outside and hop into the first cab in line. I was told you take the first one in line because that's how the taxi system works. Well, turns out I chose a "deluxe taxi" and there wasn't anything deluxe about it except that after my 5-7 minute ride to the station, it cost me 8,000 WON instead of the normal 3-4,000 WON. Bastards! lol. LESSON LEARNED!

DAEGU:
I arrive at the correct station and search for my friends. Turns out they split up to search for me, how sweet! :) I met up with Jan-Louis, Drew, T.J. (who was part of my class 6 "clique" lol), and Alex. I tell them my mistake, they laugh, and we make a plan for our day. First stop was food. Drew and Jan had been there since early morning so they showed us the place they had eaten. Me, T.J. and Alex decide to go there. It was easy to order because they have a "plastic" version of what the plate will look like displayed in a case. I ordered chicken and rice, not bad for "plastic" food, lol. And it was super cheap, less than 3 bucks.

We trade stories about our apartments and schools then wander around the city for a bit. Alex mentions that Ali had told him about a place where we could take a cable cart across a mountain and go hiking. Since I wore decent walking shoes I voted to do this. We agree, the 5 of us pile into a taxi (me in Drew's lap), and head towards the mountains. When we get to Apsan Park, we search for the information center, get a map, & head to the carts. I could already tell the view was going to be amazing before we got in the cable carts.

I was correct...it was beautiful! You could see the whole city of Daegu. My pictures don't do much justice for it, but in person it was amazing to look at. After snapping some pictures we begin the hike up the mountain. We are in regular clothes while the Korean professional hikers are fully geared up with a walking stick and all. The weather was still cold, but once we started walking it warmed up pretty fast. Here are a few pictures from the trip: 

We eventually came close to one of the highest point of the mountains and agree to head back due to time constraints. Jan wanted to buy a laptop in the city and I figured it was best to head back to Gumi anyways.

BACK TO GUMI:
Back at the train station Alex and I decide to get the next available ticket home. Turned out we had to wait an hour, but it could have been worse. So, we ended up grabbing a couple donuts and coffee from Dunkin' Donuts & sit down to relax in the station. It's funny I never went to Dunkin' Donuts in America and now in Korea I go here often. Their donuts don't seem as horrible for you for some reason, lol. Not justifying that they are good for you at all though! But after a day of hiking I figured it wouldn't make a big difference.

We part ways when we board the train. Of course Alex jokes and tells me to make sure I get off at the correct station. Atleast I know what the Gumi one looks like! :) On the ride home I had a younger Korean boy over my shoulder watching me play "Angry Birds" on my I-touch. As we got closer to Gumi I decided to go to Lotte Mart to do a bit of shopping since I hadn't had the chance to go there by myself yet.

I take a taxi to Lotte Mart and spend almost 2 hours browsing. What's sad is that was only on the first level! I didn't even get to the other three levels! I was lucky to find some meat for spaghetti, pepper, other groceries, and even some teaching supplies. They gave me a bag of supplies at school, but I wanted a few extra things.

I venture home by taxi, unload my purchases, and decide to cook dinner! Since I finally had all of the ingredients for mashed potatoes I decided to make them along with some canned corn and beef patties I had gotten earlier in the week. Needless to say it tasted amazing! I was in heaven, lol.

BAR LIFE:
After relaxing I decide to venture out for the night. I wanted to go back to Corona because I knew that the girls I had met the day before would be there and some other people. I waited awhile to see if Alex wanted to go with, but he never got online, so I went by myself. It's about 11:45pm when I get there and I walk into an almost empty bar. I was slightly confused but was later informed that since Corona stays open until 6am more people don't get here until after the other bars have closed. Good to know! I sit down with a beer and am immediately motioned over to another table by some people.

Turns out it was the owner of the bar who was hanging out with some "regulars." We do introductions and I meet many more EPIK teachers who have been living in Korea for awhile. He then introduces me to another group and I end up hanging out with them for the rest of the night. Adalet, from South Africa and Tom, from London, were the main two I talked to. We have a few beers, play a few games of darts, and before I know it it is nearly 4am! I laughed when I found out the bar was open until 6am and wondered who in their right mind would stay out that late. Turns out I do! lol :) Adalet stays for another drink, while Tom heads to his 4:30am train ride and I catch a taxi back to my house (pure laziness, but who cares, it was late!).

So, all in all, Saturday was a very entertaining eventful day/night for me!

XOXO,
Amanda

so they really can speak english...

FRIDAY:
End of my short work week. I arrive at the school and continue with what I was doing the day before...absolutely nothing! :) I did manage to finish up my introduction powerpoint presentation that I planned on using for next week's lesson. The highlight of my day was getting to go into the "English Zone" and play with the technology. My female co-teacher showed me how to use the computer (it's in Korean of course!) and how to use the touch screen board. Not sure why my computer in the teacher's lounge can be in English and this one can't. Also, what confuses me is there are white boards to the left and right of this touch screen that I am not able to use because she says they do not have markers and I should write with the touch pen on the screen. Well, what if I want two things to be shown at the same time? I like to write on the board in marker. My solution to this is to find my own markers and erasers eventually. They still use chalkboards in the regular classrooms...I'd take that too if I could!

So during this "play time" I notice a crap load of teaching materials in cupboards and on shelves. However, most of them are upopened, which seems like a waste to me! I plan to eventually put use to some of them. Since I was going to use my PPT as my introduction to my students, I wanted to test it out on the big touch screen. I plug it in, everything works perfectly! I am excited about this & return to my desk looking forward to Monday's lesson. (I will explain more on that later, lol, you can guess what happens I'm sure).

SCHOOL LUNCHES:
Perhaps I should mention my daily situation of eating lunch in a Korean school. The first day we had lunch provided in the office from the Vice Principal as a gift. It was the infamous "bibimbap" which as I've said before I'm not a big fan of! I force it down & continue with my day.

The next day I ate in the cafeteria with Mr. Bahn. I could tell by the look on his face he was worried I would not like the food. Turns out it was a fish soup, rice, and a meat patty. Of course they had veggies as a side dish and kimchi. I opted to just take the main course and walk to a table. Of course, the principal spots me and pulls out a seat for me beside of him. I nervously sit down & he stares at my plate, then looks at Mr. Bahn and says something in Korean. I look at Mr. Bahn and he explains that the principal told him "it is Korean tradition to eat vegetables with your meal"...whoops, my bad Mr. Principal! haha! Shortly after the principal completes his meal and leaves. I then force myself to eat the fish soup...just the broth, nothing else floating around in it. I had no problem with the rice and meat. I actually wish I had the option to get seconds on those two things. As we leave the cafeteria Mr. Bahn says that I may want to bring my own lunch from now on so that I do not starve every day, lol. Guess I didn't hide the fact that I didn't care for Korean food too well.

From his advice, I bring a ham & cheese sandwich the next day, along with some korean style pringles and a couple other snacks..fruits and such. I enter the break room to retrieve my sandwich from the fridge and notice all of the female teachers are sitting at the main table with a million side dishes. They prompt me to join them. I could feel the stares as I brought out my sandwich to eat. They immediately search the room for some chopsticks for me and start pushing their side dishes towards me. While this is generous of them, I am sort of bothered because I am perfectly happy with the food that I brought. Plus, I didn't have anything to share with them in return, so I felt bad! To top off things...I didn't like half of the stuff they forced me to eat. I couldn't even identify it!! I could tell this would be a daily problem, which I have yet to figure out a solution to! They also all go the bathroom to brush their teeth together after lunch. I do not find the need to do this, but I figure I will bring those supplies from now on so I do not offend their custom.

SCHOOL MEETING:
Back to my Friday. Mr. Bahn tells me that there is a school meeting at 6PM and that I should attend it with him. Being that the "meeting" was taking place in downtown Gumi in the evening, it was safe to assume it would be more of a eat food & drink beer & soju type of ordeal. I was correct in my assumption! At 5PM Mr. Bahn and I leave the school to head downtown. On the way he says we are going to be eating seafood. I figured it wouldn't be too bad...atleast I could eat some shrimp or crab. He asked me if I liked seafood and I told him I liked fried shrimp the most.

We get to the parking lot outside the restaurant & Mr. Bahn says we must linger outside because he saw the principal enter the restaurant and didn't want to be stuck sitting next to him. LOL, another reason I love Mr. Bahn...he knows how to have fun! We enter the room with some other teachers and sit at a table (on the floor) together. I am immediately offered beer & soju, so I accept. Then one of the teachers takes the beer glasses and shots of soju and stacks them on top of each other, like a "bomb" shot. He then hands me a spoon and tells me to tap the first shot glass for our "bombs." Well, I definately bombed that assignment! lol. The soju shot made it into the beer glasses, but I still managed to make a mess! It provided the table with laughs atleast! :)

Dinner was actually really good! They had a big pot of seafood mixed together with a broth at each table. I was informed that our meal was very expensive, about 50,000 WON for each pot of food, with about 10 or more pots. Good thing the school was paying! :) As we begin the "meeting" Mr. Bahn tells me that he special ordered a dish of fried shrimp for me! Not necessary, but super thoughtful of him! When it got to the table another teacher took a piece and Mr. Bahn informed him that it was only for me, lol. I ended up sharing the rest after I assured him I had eaten enough.

The meeting part was basically the principal standing up & talking about who the hell knows what...well atleast in my ears. I noticed that when he speaks, or anyone speaking to a group speaks, the rest of the audience looks down in respect. Complete opposite in America...that would be considered rude to not show them you are paying attention. So, after realizing I was the only one staring at the prinicipal, I also looked down.

After eating, the shots of soju began! That is when I also made the realization that alot more teachers could speak English than I thought! I guess it takes some liquid confidence, but I had alot of great conversations with the teachers whom I did not have a chance to talk with at school. I also notice that the principal is walking around the room holding a bottle of soju. Mr. Bahn tells me that it is custom for the new teachers to receive a drink from the principal. I prepare myself for some soju, but when the principal gets to my table, another male teacher says something along the lines of, no soju, she wants beer. I dunno why he thought this, seeing as I took a soju beer bomb with him, but whatever. So I pick up a beer glass (using two hands, as it is required in Korean culture) and he pours me a glass of beer. I say "kamsamida," take a drink, and he walks on. Mr. Bahn then says, "bottoms up" and encourages me to chug the beer. This was his form of a joke, but I took him seriously and drank it all. He seemed happy by this and I discovered he just really likes the term "bottoms up!"

Just as I was enjoying myself, they announced that the meeting was over. Everyone stood up and left. Bummer! I felt sorry for one of the new young male teachers (my age, 25) because I was telling him that I was going out with some friends that night. He said he had to work the next day (as most Korean teachers do on Saturdays), and wished that he could join me.

CORONA:
After dinner I took a taxi to the bar we had discovered that week, Corona. It was ony 8PM but I knew that my friends were going to be there soon, and I was pretty sure I could find someone to talk to in the mean time. I walk in and immediately recognize the guys that Alex & Paul had played pool with on Wednesday night. They let me join their game, which I suck at pool & don't care too much for it, but it was something to do. I was already a bit tipsy from the teacher's dinner so I didn't even drink alot at the bar. I hang out with them for a bit until Sue, Robin, Willem, Alex, Ali, and Paul arrived. Around 11:30 I begin to feel tired & decide to head home. I was planning on making a day trip to Daegu in the morning so I wanted to get some sleep.

As I head out to the streets towards home, I spot a group of about 6 girls, who appear to be English teachers as well. Turns out they are all teachers and have been living in Korea for awhile. Some atleast one year, the others 2 or 3 years! We meet, talk a bit, and they insist I join them for atleast one drink. I explain I'm tired but end of going with them to a place down the street. They were very entertaining in the fact that they were scoping out potential Korean boyfriends, haha! I guess after you've been in Korea awhile you might change your "type" or "preference" of guys lol. I ended the night by getting their names to add them on facebook. Without a cell phone you feel ridiculous asking for facebook names, but oh well :) I will soon have one!

I return to my apartment, check the train times for Daegu and finally go to sleep!

XOXO,
Amanda