IX. Mmmm. Yes.

So, tonight was amazing. I hosted the teachers in my apartment and we made gingerbread houses and enjoyed the heavy winter snowfall. Nowww, back to reality haha. 

Report cards here are no joke and they sure are stressful. Never would've thought that I would be spending hours of my free time working on posting grades! But, it's ok. One more day of work and then, vacay :) I hear the mountain slopes calling my name...

Oh! And here are the pictures from my old class. The pictures are super old (end of October), but hey, I'm busy over here! Enjoy ;)

The girls- SO sharp. Love them.

The boys are obviously thrilled. Cuties.

My little angels. 

These ladies are SO fashionable.

Makes me look bad. 

Student of the Month. Little smarty :)

This is how we had fun in elementary school, remember?

Bye bye, Junior 6. I miss you. 

VIII. Sad Story

So, the time had come to change classes and all the little angels I was so excited about sharing have left the nest. Now I have a new flock of kiddies to break and mold muah ah ah. But really.

When I first came here, I was so shy to discipline children. As time progressed, the asian in me has been making itself more apparent. Funny how that happened... in Korea...

Anyway, here's proof that I'm turning more asian. A student drew a picture of normal me turning into an old-fashioned asian me. I look happy as I show the picture, but I'm thinking 'I hope this is a good thing...' Wowzers.

VII. Oh!

We had our first "snow" today. ^^

VI. Long time no see...

I'm a terrible blogger. But, hey, we all gotta start somewhere, right?

SO, since I'm teaching, I'm guessing a good topic would be the kids. What are Korean kids like? I bet they're cute...

Well, my classes are not exactly the best representation of Korean kids, considering that they're mostly from the wealthy upper class. However, kids will be kids, so, as is expected, I have some angels and some little devils. 

Classes switch every so often, but these are the ones I have now:

M/W/F

Junior 6: 11-12 year olds who can speak and understand fairly well. This is my favorite class. They understand my humor! I'll share some fun stories eventually, but let's just say, one student, May, is a HOOT.

Senior 3 (slow track): 13-14 year olds who should speak better than my J6s, but don't. This is an essay writing class, but their essays can be frustrating to grade. I think this my least favorite class. They are a handful. I care for the kids, but it is a common occurrence for me to come into the break-room asking someone to shoot me in the face. 

Senior 3 (fast track): All boys. They're like my sons. At first, this class raised hell, but after I taught them Telephone Pictionary, they've become my children. They crack jokes and occasionally misbehave, but we've formed a bond. This is also an essay writing class and some of them are hilaaaarious. If I find some good parts, again, I'll share...

T/Th

Basic 4: My babies and my second favorite class. These are my precious ones, some only 8/9 years old (in Korean age, which is one year older than the International age). They can hardly understand so every lesson is pretty theatrical: I've flopped like a fish, slipped and fell on my rear, snorted like a pig, and much more, all for the sake of Education! And they always laugh. Cuties. 

newHighschool 4: The name speaks for itself, although I don't know why we call it "new". These are the older kids who typically don't care as much and come because their parents tell them to. Pros: talking about life together. Cons: pulling teeth to talk about history. 

So many fun and ridiculous things happen in class. Sometimes they aren't worth sharing, because you have to be there, and sometimes it's super dramatic ie. like the time a student left my class and ran away. Literally. Oi.  Or the time my students came to class with two live fish in her bag- and gave them too me. 

I'll try to keep ya'll updated, but without a camera, it's hard!

I love you and miss you SO much,

LP

V. Mi Casa?

I have a bit of time so I will give you  a quick tour of my officetel (apartment). Sorry, no cammy, but I have my trusty MacBook:

1. The view from the front door.

2. Turn right and you reach my bathroom. The sink and shower.

3. Western toilet. Nice. 

4. After the bathroom, on the right, is the kitchen. And laundry room. No oven, mind you.

5. Walk through the kitchen to the left and you'll see my dining room/dryer.

(Do you see my dryer?)

6. My bike and the stairs to the loft.

7. The view of the loft from downstairs.

8. The loft that is half my height. 

9. My bed. No, I didn't have any choice in bedspread.

Pretty modern, huh? Yea, nothing really Korean and exciting. However, the floors do heat up, which is sweet. Oh, and I get my own video/audio monitoring system to see who is outside. So, no surprise visits, ok? :)

IV. Picture times

Oh hey. 

I've been lazy and busy = picture blog.

1. During class. Hehe. Hey, they were taking an exam, ok? This is totally allowed. 

2. Oh! I forgot to say that I bought a guitarrr. Cheap, but beeeaauuutiful Fender. It's for those lonely winter nights. 

3. Say goodbye to these. They're caput. Unless I can find out how to replace a lens. Time for new ones. Any suggestions? 

4. A Korean celly isn't a complete without a charm. Or bangs. 

5. What Korea does to you... >.<

Oh my...

Loves yous :)

III. Chuseok (Korea's Thanksgiving)

Dear loves,

Much has happened so I'm going to split my blogs up into two. First, I'll tell you about my first vacayyy (woooo!). 

Chuseok  occurred this year on Sunday, September 14th. My friend Grace and I hopped on a bus on Saturday morning to Kimjae, which is where my mom's whole family lives (as I side note I almost missed the bus) (as another side note I bought boiled eggs from a market- it's a traditional road-trip snack- you'll see ladies cracking the eggs on their heads.). I hadn't been there since I was 8 so I told culture shock to bring it on. Definitely brought it. 

So, Grace and I arrived to the apartment on the fifth floor, with no elevator (I feel sorry for the 8th floorers), immediately greeted by my two uncles, their wives, and their kids. Also immediately came the food and strange Korean snacks that I vaguely remembered eating when I was young. Everything was said in Korean so their was a LOT of translating going on. Then, the women and children made traditional rice cakes called songpyeon. Afterwards, we ate dinners and by the way, ALL meals look like this. You always have a main dish, rice, a soup, and a ton of side dishes (and one of them of course has to be kimchi). 

The next day was the actual holiday, the whole family went to my grandparents' graves to pray and pay our respects. Then church and then another feast. My aunt, her husband and kids, and my mom's cousins also joined us. Everyone is loud, funny, and full of life. Too bad I can't understand them.

At night came the best part. The tide had gotten low, so (also traditional) we went out to pick snails, 

among other things. The best part was picking the things out of the ocean knowing someone was going to eat them (not me). You could hear family members yelling at each other, "I caught something!", of course in Korean, throughout the night. 

At night, my mom, Grace and I and my cousin all had a little slumber party in one little room. Precious. My cousin and I were able to bond by showing pictures. Precious. I really need to learn Korean. 

The next day my mom said that I need American food in my system otherwise I would get sick so we went to Lotteria, which is Korea's version of McDonald's (yea yea). Didn't come close. Then we did some shopping (I wanted to buy my cousin a present) and we left. Definitely a great experience. 

Overall, I definitely enjoyed myself and had an amazing time with family. It was crazy to see them and semi-connect with them. Now, does that mean I won't miss turkey on Thanksgiving. Heck NO. But, like I said, I had an amazing time :)

II. Week One

Dear loves,

I'm sorry for the delay in posts. Everything was in Korean and I couldn't figure out how to get around the site. Such is the story of my life here in Bundang, S. Korea. Since this city is brand new there are little to no foreigners which means little to no English, and sadly, no classes that teach Korean! I decided to buy Rosetta Stone which has been fun, but the process doesn't take me directly to conversational Korean. I'm going to try to find a tutor, but we'll see!


Tips of the week:

1. Guys wear purses. Not just bags and totes, but purses. It's normal and it's been around a whiiile.
2. Make sure you know exactly what you are ordering. Otherwise, you'll walk outside, see something swimming in a tank, and wonder what ojinga was...
3. Don't tip at ALL. Everything is included in the check. On top of that, everything's a set price- no tax. It's fairly cheap here, hence a lot of shopping*
4. Be careful when you walk on a street- Koreans are crazy drivers and there's pretty much no such thing as pedestrian right-of-way. If you're not careful you'll die.


Schedule:

Day 1: Arrival and greetings with the staff. Tour of the apartment as well as the drawing of diagrams to explain various buttons and knobs which, of course, are in Korean. The school provided everything from transportation to breakfast for the next morning. Incredible.

Day 2:
Orientation, pictures.
Meeting of other teachers at other campuses. Found out the curriculum is a bit more difficult than expected, but was very well prepared with materials and a personal counselor. The staff are well-equipped and very helpful. Shopping*.


Day 3: Doctor's check-ups. School and class tour. More preparation for classes. Shopping*.

Day 4: Mother arrives. We eat. Bankzone= sweet card. We shop*. I buy a RICE COOKER! Ha, yeayyy :) and other various Asian necessities. Mom cooks dindins.

Day 5: Mom peaces. Seoul, capital of S. Korea with my new friend Grace. Shopped* some more (common theme, eh?) and toured around. Had dinner at home and then when to a bar two stops away from our digs. The clubs aren't dancing clubs, so we grouped with some Westerners and started a dance party. The Koreans were dancing, we were dancing, it was awesome. The owner of the bar gave Grace and I a special invitation to come back. Funfun.

Day 6: Church! At this place called Jubilee. It was amaaazing. Joshua 1:1-6. I can't wait to go back. Then more shopping* and rest. And now to planning for tomorrow some more. So much work! But oh so great.

Yes. I am having a great time :)

I love and miss you all SO much.

<3,
LP

I. Invitation to the Voyage

"THERE IS a majestic country.. they say, which I dream of visiting with an old friend..."

The clock seems to be ticking faster, or maybe it's just my heartbeat, and yet the things that I need to get done grow exponentially. I have a week till I leave for S. Korea for a year (or more) and I'm just now figuring out that, wow, I have a week till I leave for S. Korea for a year. (Or more.)

So many ties are loose and I can't help the feeling that I'm entering into something bigger than I know unprepared. But what is prepared? Most of us are terrrible at planning things perfectly. We can't read into the future. All you can do is do what you can (pretty sure I made that up) and let the Good Lord fill in the rest...

Hm. I'm not sure if I'm at peace quite yet, but everything is just a season.

I know what I need to do and I AM excited about living and teaching English in a foreign country. In a week, the next blog will either be one of excitement, or well, no blog at all. Who'd want to hear a sob story?

Don't worry about tomorrow, let tomorrow worry about itself. 

Ps. If I haven't seen you or talked with you yet, crack the whip!