Daejeon, South Korea

Another year in Korea

2012-02-21T03:36:00.002-08:00

Ok so I'm about to begin my third year here in Korea, and this year some things are different. For starters, I had to completely renew my visa. Meaning, I had to get an FBI background check and get my university diploma apostilled. In case you have to get a visa for Korea, please make sure that you give yourself about six months to do so. Sound like a lengthy process? That's because it is. You see, I sent my fingerprints to the FBI in mid November. It arrived in their system December 15th. My parents got the FBI background check on February 5th and tried to get it apostilled. However, the state of Georgia doesn't apostille federal documents so then they had to Overnite it Fedex to the US Department of State. They mailed it to the address that the FBI and the Superior Court Clerk's Office suggested to have it processed within a week. When they didn't get it back in that week, they called to find out the status on my document. They were then informed the address they sent it to was not the address to process it in one week but 2-3 months. Did I mention that my visa expires February 28th? Yeah, so that doesn't work out well for me now does it? Anyways, my parents made some calls, I made some calls, and my boss made some calls. My parents are still working on getting my background check, but my boss and I were able to get a two month extension on my visa. It was a miracle! I'm so thankful! However, I still know nothing about my background check...this weekend was Presidents' Day so obviously the offices were closed. It's funny how we get so excited about days off of work, but when we really need someone to be at work and they're taking the day off, it seems really inopportune. So yeah...stay tuned! Lol.

On to the next one, this year I'm getting a new apartment. I will be living a block away from my school! I'm really excited about this because right now I live about a 15 minute bike ride from school. I also live about two blocks away from Time World in Dunsan Dong (in case you don't know Daejeon, that's one of the prime shopping/eating/partying areas). I'm also a lot closer to my gym now. Really, I'm a lot closer to anywhere I really need to be. I will be living on the 10th floor. I have two huge windows overlooking the city. My apartment has a loft, a bigger bathroom, a bigger refrigerator, more closet space, and a washing machine with a dryer!!!!!! I haven't had my clothes dried in two years!!!! I'm pretty excited about that. Lol. The downsides: I have to take an elevator everyday (or walk up 10 flights of stairs), my bills will be twice as much, and they say not to flush toilet paper down the toilet (I still haven't decided if I want to try it or not). Lol. All in all, it seems like a pretty good deal.

Also, I'm getting paid a bit more. Since my bills will be higher, it's definitely a good thing!!! But none of the Korean teachers got raises this year even though it states in their contracts that they should get a raise. Most of them aren't too upset about it, but it makes me feel wanted knowing that my boss wanted me to stay so badly that he gave me a raise and a nicer apartment. Seriously, my new apartment probably costs twice as much as the one I live in now. I do feel badly and a bit selfish that I asked for and got what I wanted, but in Korea, that's kind of how things work. Foreign teachers (especially ones with experience) can usually find a better job somewhere else and will walk if they don't get what they ask for. Also, I didn't ask for nor did I get a raise last year. I asked for a different apartment but they didn't give it to me. So at the same time, I kind of don't feel as bad.

This year, we will only have three foreign teachers at the school. I'm kind of worried about this because I might have more classes, but at the same time, right now I'm working the maximum number of hours that I can before receiving overtime. So, if I get more classes, I will get overtime.

Anyways, I'm pretty excited about these changes, and I'm definitely looking forward to another year here in Daejeon. I move into my new apartment after orientation on Saturday, graduation is next week, and then the new semester starts the week after. A busy end to this semester and a busy start to the next one. I can't wait for things to slow down and get back to normal. I miss my regular schedule at the gym and now that it's warming up some, I want to start running again! I can't wait!!!!

Things that I've learned

2012-02-04T00:47:00.000-08:00

I'm coming up on the end of my second year here in Daejeon. I've learned a lot about the city and how to live and get around without knowing the language well. I like to share as much as I have learned with others because it was difficult learning it at times. I will break it up in two parts: medical and general living.

Health is pretty important so I will start with the medical:
1. Always go to a doctor that is comfortable speaking English. Ok, this may sound like a no brainer, but I made this mistake. I'm fairly comfortable speaking Korean about a few things, and I'm a pretty busy person. So I decided to visit a doctor's office because it was closer to my work. While he is a very good doctor (according to Koreans), he cannot speak English. My tiny problem turned into a bigger problem which would have been beneficial to have a doctor that I understood and that understood me better. While I did get through it, it was not fun and not comfortable.

2. Only go to a regular doctor for mild medicines. Basically, if you want the best over the counter medication go to a regular doctor. If you want something stronger that will take care of whatever it is your kids gave you this week, visit a specialist. My favorite specialist is the 이비안후궈(the ENT) because it never fails that's what my kids give me. My favorite ENT is across from Time World in the building next to the NongHyup with the pharmacy and the eyeglass store on the bottom floor. He's on the sixth floor. I think its called 주인이비안후궈. His English is pretty good, but the medicine he prescribes works every time. The best part about visiting the specialist is that it doesn't cost much more than going to your regular doctor. Unless, you go to a big hospital or the OBGYN.

3. Unless its an emergency, don't go to the emergency room. I've visited the ER here in Korea a few times. Twice at Eulji University Hospital in Dunsan Dong and once in Boryeong. One thing I have learned, no one speaks English. Two of the times that I went, it was an actual emergency that I needed medicine for. It was definitely cheaper than the emergency room back home, and they were able to give me medicine to ease the pain. One time I had to stay in the ER because the doctors office closed, but they wanted to give me an IV. That time was horrible. None of the nurses would check on me because they didn't want to speak English. My IV stopped 5 times, and an old lady in the bed next to mine flagged down the nurses every time until she left. After she left it stopped two more times. A 5 hour IV turned into an 8 hour IV. I told the nurse to just take it out, I was leaving at 7 hours there was still a good 1/3 of the bag left. It was ridiculous.

4. Go to the hospital for most specialists. Except for the ENT I mentioned before, the hospital is the best place to go to for specialists. My hospital of choice is Eulji University because they have an English translator on staff during regular business hours. She will accompany you through your entire visit, and she ensures that you understand everything.

Now onto General Living:
1. Live close to your work. Winters suck here in Korea, and it is not fun trying to get to work when you live a 45 minute walk from work. Taxis are impossible to find in the morning when there is ice on the ground. You will end up having to walk which for me takes 15 minutes longer when there is ice because lets face it when has anyone in Georgia ever had to walk on ice?

2. Buy a bicycle. Rush hour sucks in Daejeon so most of the time it is faster to ride a bicycle. Not to mention it saves a ton of money!!!! The only time I don't ride my bike is when there is snow and ice on the ground (if your wondering why refer back to #1).

3. Join an activity. It doesn't matter what the activity is. Meeting new people is never a bad thing. If you're worried about joining alone, don't be. I've done just about everything on my own since I got here including joining two different gyms and a church. Yes, it's nice to join with a friend, but you will meet more people by yourself. Korean people are kind of shy when it comes to talking to foreigners. So if you are always around another foreigner, a lot of the times they won't talk to you.

4. Learn Korean. Even just the reading part. I cannot tell you how many times being able to read Korean has saved my butt. It just makes life easier being able to tell the taxi driver where you want to go, read the signs that are in Korean, and order things properly.

5. Diversity!!!! No matter what aspect of your life financial, friendships, food...diversity is important! But in this case I mean friendships. I am in no position to give advice in any other area. lol. No matter where you live be it Korea, America, Canada, Mexico, Africa. It is very nice to have a very diverse group of friends. It makes things interesting! You can learn new things, try new foods, and play new games. But more specifically in Korea, have a good group of foreign friends and a good group of Korean friends. Foreigners are always leaving Korea. It is very nice to have a person that understands you and your culture. Most Koreans will always stay in Korea. It is definitely nice to have some one constant. It is a balancing act (TRUST ME). Often Koreans don't understand your foreign friends and your foreign friends don't understand your Korean friends. If it is too much, just keep them separate.

6. Fighting Gyms. I've been to two fighting gyms here in Korea and have run into the same problems at both gyms. From my understanding, all fighting gyms are like that in Korea. Here are the reasons. Most Korean women hate to exercise (sorry to generalize this is what I'm told and this is what I've seen), but they also want to lose weight. Most of the time, they join a gym for a month, maybe 2 max and then they quit. From my observation 1 out of 7 stay longer than a month and 1 out of 20 stay longer than a year. Therefore, instructors don't spend as much time training women as they do men, so often women that actually want to train feel excluded. Also, a lot of Korean men are "too shy" to fight women, and by "too shy" they mean they don't want to be embarrassed if the fight doesn't go well for them. Another problem, Korean high school boys and college boys say what they think without filters. This is everywhere! And even if they absolutely love you, they will say stuff that seriously hurts your feelings even though they are only high school kids. So my advice, find a gym that the owner is very understanding and that will help you get through these things.

These are just a few things that I've learned, and they are my experiences. Maybe there's a different Korea out there somewhere, but this is what I've seen. lol. Feel free to post your own advice and lessons on here. I'd love to not have to go through some bad experiences. lol!

And It's Back to Love...

2011-11-25T06:33:00.000-08:00

I just have to say that I have the best kwanjangnim (gym owner) ever! I am not going to lie to you he has got to be one of the most genuinely nicest guys ever. Even though my attitude lately has been poor, and I've created so many problems for him, he still does everything he can to help me.

So if you read my last post, you know that I've had trouble at the gym while trying to train jiu jitsu. If you've followed me for quite sometime, you might know that I had similar problems at the last gym. I am training in South Korea, so there is a bit of language barrier. Even though I sought help from the first kwanjangnim repeatedly (at least 10 times, I even had real translators each time), he never really tried to do anything about the problem. He always told me that he wanted me to train there for a long time, and that he really valued my commitment; but really it didn't seem that way because he never did anything about how unhappy I was. Eventually, I couldn't not handle the stress from work and the added stress of training at that gym, so I quit. I decided to train at another gym. At first, it was pretty good, but then the guys realized that there was a chance that they might have to tap out while sparring me so they decided not to spar me. The kwanjangnim at the time spoke perfect English, and although I shared my frustration, he did nothing. I decided not to train jiu jitsu for a while and just do muay thai and fitness training at the same gym. Of course, after a while I got bored and wanted to train jiu jitsu again. All of the old guys that wouldn't train with me had left the gym (it's quite common in Korea for people to train for only a short period of time), so I figured it was worth a shot even if it was just for a little bit. While I was training muay thai, we got a new kwanjangnim. His English is good, but not perfect. We often have problems communicating, but he is very understanding. I trained with the guys for about a month this time before I noticed that I was sitting on the sidelines too often again. Kwanjangnim noticed it too. He also noticed that I didn't like how the guys treated me. So he started instructing the guys to spar with me. Still some would come up with the excuse that they were hurt somewhere and couldn't spar with me (obviously not too hurt to spar with a guy that's 20 pounds heavier than me and significantly stronger). Before I even talked to him he understood that I was disappointed. He understood my anger and frustration. So, he took the time to spar with me. Even before I talked to him about how I felt. One day while we were sparring, he asked me why I was upset. So I asked him if he were me and everyone refused to spar with him, would he be happy. He said, "no". The next day, I talked to him for a long time (with the help of Google Translator of course...which by the way has got to be one of the worst translations, but to give it some credit Korean and English have very different sentence structures and styles of speech so it is difficult for a computer to translate accurately). He said that he understood and that he had the same problem when he trained at a gym in Australia. The guys didn't want to spar with him because they thought he couldn't understand anything because he was Korean. Eventually, it all worked out, and he was able to spar quite a bit. Obviously, its not going to be the same for me. I have two strikes against me. Even if I wasn't foreign, I'm still a woman and no guy wants to tap out to a girl. Even though I have been training for over a year and a half so I should be better than some guy that's never done grappling before, they don't understand that. Their pride doesn't understand that. I know this. Kwanjangnim knows this, but he wants to change it. He told me that I shouldn't worry about the guys that don't want to spar with me because they aren't worth it. They probably won't be training for very long. He promised me that he would help me train more and that little by little he wants the gym to change. He also said that he wants more girls to train. I honestly don't mind training with guys (like I said before sometimes girls are a pain and there's too much squealing), but I don't mind paving the way for other girls who seriously want to train. Talking to kwanjangnim really helped, I feel better about everything. He still asks the guys to spar with me, and I still spar with him after. If one of the guys asks him to spar, he makes them spar with me first. Sometimes, if a guy refuses to spar with me, he makes them spar with the big hyungnim who in return kicks their butt because he loves me! Hahaha. Seriously, I spar with him everyday; I do get my butt kicked, but in a much nicer way.

I also read some articles about some of the professional MMA girls that train jiu jitsu. They said that they had similar experiences. Even after winning multiple professional matches, the guys still won't train with them. I also read that some of the girls won't spar with guys that aren't at least blue belts because the guys cannot control their strength. To be honest, there are only a few blue belts at each gym here in Korea (like I said most people don't commit to a gym for a long time in Korea). Most of the time, blue belts don't train every day because they get bored training with beginners (and women). So, I have to train with white belts. I'm not complaining as long as there are people to train with. When I spar with a guy for the first time, I always take it slow, and I let him make the first move. If he moves quickly, I will move more slowly than usual. If he is really strong, I will tap faster. I do try to give them a good spar, but I still let them win in the end (unless they do something stupid, like basically handing me an armbar). I do this out of respect for Kwanjangnim, not because I like the guy. Kwanjangnim asked me to go easy on most of the guys unless they are really good. There are only two or three guys that I'm allowed to seriously spar. I think that it is better this way for my safety and for the guys' safety as well. Even though, it's their own fault for being too prideful; I don't want to be responsible for hurting some one seriously. There have been several times that I do a submission on a guy, and they do everything they can to not tap. I know that they are in pain, but their pride is in the way. So, I just roll away and make them start again.

I really admire people like Kwanjangnim. He is an all around good guy...a genuine hunnam.

Jiu Jitsu: Love and Hate

2011-11-22T03:45:00.001-08:00

Seriously, jiu jitsu , at least for a woman living in Korea, is bipolar. One day, its fun and challenging; the next day it's dull or angering. Is this a problem other women jiu jitsu players have?

Okay, to be honest with you, I hate sparring with most women, too. I will not blame a man there. The truth is if you squeal when I do a move or cry when you get a slight bruise; I don't want to deal with it. If you have long hair, I don't want to deal with it. If you have long nails, I definitely don't want to spar with you. These are things that I have experienced doing jiu jitsu with women, and I hate them. Therefore, I cut off all of my long, beautiful hair. Do I like having long hair, of course, but at the same time, I don't mind having short hair and it's a little more convenient when playing jiu jitsu. Am I saying you should cut off your hair? Of course not. You can play with long hair, just make sure it's secured firmly on top of your head and out of the way when sparring. As a consideration to those I am sparring with, I also clip my fingernails weekly. They are never past my fingertips. The truth is when you grab someone to do a move, there is always a chance that you will scratch them; no one likes for you to draw blood. Of course, no one really likes bruises either but bruises aren't really messy and its a part of the game so you kinda have to get used to it. Also, it's dangerous for you too. Nails get caught on clothing often and get get ripped off which is very painful (and bloody...trust me on this one.) And now to the squealing part, yes, jiu jitsu is painful, but no one is really out to intentionally harm you. Everyone is just trying to get in a position of submission or win the game. That is the purpose of jiu jitsu. If you get bruised or a bump a long the way, do not cry or squeal. That just makes other people feel bad. It really is poor manners. Have I wanted to cry? Yes. Have I wanted to scream out in pain? Yes. But out of manners, I don't. Also, I spar mostly with men; so I know that if I scream or cry, they will not spar with me any more because they will think that I am too weak. All of these dislikes go for men to....I hate sparring men with long hair, long nails, and that squeal and cry. (****Ok side note here: I know from the sound of it, I seem like a very boyish sort of girl. I can assure you that I am not. I am quite possibly the girliest girl you will ever meet. I wear skirts or dresses everyday. I am definitely a high heels and make up person. I always have my toes painted. I'm girly even down to my favorite color, my favorite color is pink. Koreans consider me very much a "cutie style" person. I have what they call "egy-yo".)

So with so many sacrifices, I am continually asking myself why do I play the game. I play because this kind of fighting came naturally to me. I instinctively defend myself. It is fun at times, but it is also very painful. So why do I keep doing it? In my heart, I feel that I have to for two reasons. One, self defense. Two, it is a full body workout. We'll start with the latter. If you have met me in person, you know that I am not a small person. I could easily be very fat. If you know me well, you know I eat very little and still am not small. Therefore, I have to exercise excessively to stay fit. Jiu jitsu provides a good exercise for a short amount of time (I do not depend solely on jiu jitsu though, I run for my cardio workout). Now on to self defense, as a woman, I know what it is like to be in a situation in which I was completely helpless. I wished with all of my being that I was stronger and knew how to defend myself and others. I wanted to learn a kind of fighting in order to defend myself and others. I tried tae kwan do, but it was really repetitive and kind of boring and I never really got to try anything for real. It just seemed like a lot of pointless moves. I also tried kickboxing but once again too repetitive and it required a lot of repetitive prep work before actual sparring. There is judo, but that's mostly just take down here in Korea. The mat training here is kind of limited. Also, I would run into the same trouble in judo as I do in jiu jitsu. So jiu jitsu it is...

Now, here are the reasons I love jiu jitsu. As I said before, it is a really good exercise. Also, I am good at defense naturally. Also, it requires flexibility which I have a ton of. It requires technique which I am good at learning. I have a lot of technique. So most of the time, I get to spar the more challenging people because of my technique. I spar the biggest or the strongest or the quickest. But usually, only one time. I only get one chance. If the guy feels like I am not challenging enough, he will refuse to fight me again. If the guy feels like he could lose to me, he will not fight me again. Very rarely, here in Korea, will I find a guy that will except the challenge of fighting me continually. Do I mind fighting guys that are too big and could crush me every time? Not really. I want to practice. The truth is, if someone attacks me in real life, they aren't going to take one look at me and think "eh, she's not challenging enough...I'm just gonna walk away." Yeah, that doesn't happen. It makes me feel good when I am asked to take on the big guys. To me, it is the highest praise you could give me (on my jiu jitsu skill of course). Many people tell me my jiu jitsu is good, but they never want to spar with me which is pretty insulting to me. I feel like you are saying that I'm good, but I will never be good enough. These are the same people that are chatting me up after class or asking me out on a date. Really??? I'm sorry if you really cared anything about me, you would help me to learn to defend myself properly. So I feel like to them, I will always just be another pretty face. So, I dislike them intensely. No matter how much they compliment me; I will always dislike them. Yes, I know I keep getting back to the negatives...ugh...grrrr. Okay, so another positive, because I have technique, people often ask me for advice on what to do in certain situations. Even though my Korean is bad and there are other people that speak Korean that are better than me, they ask me because I'm weaker so they know that I can teach them how to fight the bigger and better people. Strong people don't always realize that it is difficult to do certain moves. Another positive, if a person really wants to train jiu jitsu, they ask to spar with me so they can learn. There are very few men, here in Korea, that are willing to sacrifice their humility to spar with me, but there are some. I also love the challenge of fighting someone that is bigger and better than me. It doesn't matter to me if I win or lose. I want to be the best me that I can be.

Lately, jiu jitsu for me has been unpredictable and very up and down. Even in the same day. For example today...I walked in and one of the long time kickboxers asked me if he could spar with me. He explained that he wanted to learn jiu jitsu, but he wanted to train with me because I had technique but I wasn't very strong. So he felt like he would learn more. After sparring for a short time, he was tired. So I was left alone. I sparred with no one. Seriously, I came down from a serious high quickly. The truth is jiu jitsu is a good exercise...only if you are sparring. I honestly have no clue how to get people to spar with me. I tried to go easy on people...even just taking positions with no submissions. I tried going my hardest and submitting people continually. I have never once complained about being hurt. I have never cried out or screamed when I was hurt or in pain. I have done everything I can to play this game...what am I doing wrong? What do I need to do to be able to practice? Seriously, I just want to exercise and learn how to defend myself. Has anyone else been through this? How can I get past this challenge?

할머니 and 할아버지

2011-10-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

Ok back to back posts are weird I know, but I just had an amazing thought about the experiences I've had here in Korea. This post is going to seem especially weird since it is so opposite of the last post. One of the biggest reasons I love Korea is because of the 할머니 and 할아버지. Old people in Korea are the best as long as you are respectful and treat others kindly. See, Koreans believe that you can feel if a person is good or bad without exchanging words. I believe this too. Mostly because I have such good relationships with people that I cannot communicate well with. Anyways back to the old people. A big example of their kindness is a couple of experiences I had today. I had gone shopping at Costco and I had a big backpack full of groceries. This old lady asked me several times to sit next to her and I told her that I was ok standing. Finally, I told her that my stop was next. She was so concerned about me, a person that most people consider a foreigner and could careless about (and if you read my last post, even kick me out of their restaurants). Seriously, it was very touching. Then, on my way home I decided to get 만두빵. The old man serving it teased me because I didn't say how many I wanted at first. He said you want twenty? I told him I only wanted one, and he said no you have to buy twenty. It was funny. I really thought he was serious at first. So I was like, yeah I guess I'll have twenty. Then, he told me it was going to be twenty dollars instead of one dollar. Hahaha. Then, he asked me if it our transaction had been fun and I told him that it was. He definitely recognized that my spirits had been lifted a bit and so he told me to always be happy. Old people are so much wiser than younger people. I'm sure if I met that man everyday I would always be happy. The truth is everyone has difficulties. Everyone has a hard life. Everyone has stresses. We think that the people we run into everyday have it easier than we do, but the truth is they don't. No one in this life has it easy. You never know what anyone is going through at any time. A person may get angry at you or do something to hurt you for seemingly no reason at all. Sometimes you just have to let it go because the truth is you don't know what they are going through. The old man I met today may or may not have been able to feel how heavy my heart was, but he knew that after meeting him my heart was much lighter. You never know what differences you can make in another person's life just by treating them kindly. It is because of people like the 할아버지and the 할머니that I met today that I love Korea and wish to stay here a very long time!

cuz i'm all white...

2011-10-22T23:22:00.001-07:00

So, it has been a really long time since I updated this thing once again. I really like experiencing things rather than sharing them others. I suppose I'm being a little greedy especially since I don't get to talk to the people back home very often. I'm sorry! I will try to make up for it. So, here's the latest:

The super quick update on my life for those of you too busy to read past the first few paragraphs. I'm still single, still working out, still fighting, still making friends, still going out, and of course still having many adventures.

Now to expand on these points. Yes, I'm still single. There have been some men that I'm interested in and are interested in me. Logically speaking, it really doesn't make sense. The truth is while they are friends of mine, we still cannot communicate well. We understand each other based on actions and how we treat others. So for now, I'm single.

I go to the gym everyday. Living in a foreign country can be difficult, but I love working out my frustrations at the gym. It keeps me sane for the most part. Sometimes it is difficult especially with new people coming and going all of the time. Many Koreans (like many Americans) don't have much of a commitment for exercising. Of course, they realize it's good for their health and they should do it. So they come to the gym for a month or so and then quit. The people that are committed to the gym accept me as a Daejeon person and call me sister. They consider me part of the gym family. However, sometimes the new members call me the foreigner not realizing how hurtful it is to be considered that or how much more they are a foreigner to these guys than I am. The guys do try hard to make me feel comfortable and they do treat me well. However, the girls can be a problem sometimes. The girls are the worst. Maybe 1 out 20 will stay longer than a month at the gym. They all recognize the relationship that I have with the guys, and so they try to play nice. Most of the time, they want me to set them up with one of the guys or they want to practice their English. I don't mind doing either for them. However, I do mind their attitude. They like to talk about me in Korean which I don't mind as long as I can hear what they are saying (I do understand most things as long as I can hear them). However, when I walk away to get water or something they will talk about me so I cannot hear them. If I ask them to repeat what they said they ignore me. This has gone on for quite sometime. Lately, it has become annoying because the gym is no longer peaceful for me. One of the girls asked me to dinner and asked me if I liked hamburgers. I told her no. She continued asking me about fatty foods like pizza, steak, samgyupsal, and bulgogi. I told her that I don't really like greasy foods or beef. She then, told me that she didn't believe me because she could see that I was fat. I'm sorry say what? You come to the gym once a week and eat crappy food, and you are calling me fat? Yes you may wear a smaller size than me, but we can't all be small, and naturally thin Korean women. But whatever, its one girl and she really can't help being narrow minded when she hasn't experienced other cultures. And I was fine until the week after that, I went to dinner with some of the older guys, and one of them got really drunk and thought it would be fun to tease me. He said that I was very pretty, but only my face. Not my body. I was so angry. He did apologize when he was sober and said that it wasn't true and that he says that to all of the girls, and the other guys came up to me and said the same thing that he does say that to all of the girls. He promised never to say stuff like that ever again and so while I still don't feel fine and I don't trust him I don't want bad relationships at the gym so I gave in. But then, the next week, my friend Juli was talking to the girls telling them that her students say she looks pregnant. Then, the girls laughed, said my name, and spoke softly in Korean when I couldn't hear them. I wasn't comfortable especially with all that had been said lately so I asked them to repeat what they said. I asked them over and over in Korean and in English and they said nothing. Juli even asked for them to repeat and they didn't. So instead of starting a fight, I said goodbye and went to change my clothes. As I was trying to leave, the girls stepped in my way and asked me not to leave. I got very angry and I yelled in Korean at her, and then, I walked away angrily. Not how I wanted to leave because in Korea that is extremely disrespectful and I didn't want to be that person. I received a message later informing me that everything was my fault and the girls were very sad about what I did because I am not Korean we will have misunderstandings and I should have been more understanding. However, you cannot have a misunderstanding when words were not spoken audibly. I told them I will not be held responsible for this because I did ask them to repeat what they said, and it was them who disrespected me by not repeating what they said. I received a message back in Korean asking me to repeat what I said in Korean because they couldn't understand. I told them in Korean that I didn't want to speak in Korean because I can't speak Korean well. Honestly, I am too far away from home to be brought down by such negativity from a place that usually gives me serenity. I do hate that this has happened because I really don't know how much longer I can stay at this gym, but the truth is there is no other place to go. The gym owner asked me the next day if I felt better (obviously I didn't and I still don't because the truth is even while they may say differently to him I will always be the outsider and he will always side with a Korean person). He did tell me that he understood my feeling because when he lived in Australia he hated when people talked about him as well. And it has been better since then. I've been going at a different time so I don't see the girls, and the guys are even nicer to me now. Even still, there are times that I'm uncomfortable because the truth is there is really no one to do jiujitsu with me at the gym. The only guys that will spar with me are super strong or are high school boys. I do win against the high school boys (although I let them win too; otherwise they will never spar with me again). One boy makes it so awkward though. Everytime he sees me, he winks at me. Ew. Then, one time while we were sparring, he said, "Your eyes are blue. Very pretty." Seriously CREEPY!!!! I really don't want to spar with him, but as the people that will spar with more are limited I kinda have to. So there's whats up with the gym. I still run every day too. I have cut it back to only 3km because I think I'm getting worn out. I do have another marathon that I will run in November. I just hope it won't be too cold.

I do often go on trips with my friends as well as go out on the weekends. A few weeks ago, we went paragliding in Ulsan. There wasn't enough time for all of us to go so I didn't get a chance to paraglide, but the trip itself and the view was amazing! We did get a chance to go ATVing which was fun. I go out with my friends almost every weekend. Yesterday, I went out with one of my good Korean friends and his friend. We started out at a restaurant in Old Downtown. The guys had already started eating when I arrived. Shortly, after I got there, one of the workers asked my friend if we would leave. He asked what the problem was, and the lady said that she didn't like foreigners eating at her restaurant. Hahaha. Ok, stuff like that I don't mind because the truth is she doesn't know me. She's also just a worker at a small restaurant. I have way higher connections in Daejeon than she will ever have. She is more of a foreigner than I am. So it doesn't really matter. Plus, I made the guys leave their spoons in the dish when we left (some Koreans believe that if you leave your silverware in the dish when you are finished eating that it invites evil spirits.) The rest of the night was fine, no problems. My friend was really upset though; he kept saying that he was going to make sure that the restaurant was closed quickly. It doesn't matter though karma will get her eventually!

So I think that's about it. Even after all of that, I probably won't leave this country anytime soon. I'm still very much in love with it. Where else can I get paid this much money for my ability to speak English and still have time to have fun? Plus, besides my family and friends what is there to come back home to right now? A really crappy economy and an overworked society? No thank you, I will continue to have my fun and make my money.

mud festival and all that

2011-07-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

So this past month has just been about relaxing. It seems like since I came to Korea every weeknight is spent at the gym, and my entire weekend is spent with friends. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love, love, love this about my life. But, I'm so tired! So while I'm still going to the gym and running every day (I've even upped my run to 7km), I've cut back on my weekends. I still go out a few times over the weekend just not every moment I'm awake. Will I stay like this? Probably not. I enjoy hanging out with people way too much! But this month I was able to save quite a bit of money even though I went on a weekend trip to Daecheon Beach. I do save a good bit of money every month, but this month I was able to save more.

So about that weekend trip....
As a foreigner in Korea there are certain things you know right away and certain things it takes time to learn. The Boryeong Mud Festival is something you know about as soon as you land in Korea (maybe even before). It's this festival with mud...shocking right? Who would have thought the mud festival would have actual mud? There are all kinds of games that you play...with mud. Who wants to get muddy right? Well, actually this mud is really good for your skin. So many people go to have fun and to give their skin a little therapy. Word on the street is that it used to be free. Now, they are charging people to get in...not bad or anything its $5 no big deal. But, they are also limiting the number of people that can go in at a time which means if you come too late (like we did) you don't get to go. Bummer right? Well, to be honest I didn't want to get muddy...I just wanted to be with friends. So we just went to the beach. I felt bad for the others because I know they really wanted to go to the festival, but we had fun at the beach nonetheless. Well, at least until I got sick. Like, really sick :( I had a migraine and I was vomiting a lot and couldn't sleep. I haven't had a migraine in probably over 10 years and even when I did I was always able to sleep. So my friend called an ambulance. We rode in the ambulance to the ER. We stayed in the hospital overnight. I got an IV and meds for the day. Guess how much I paid? $10. Yeah, American Healthcare System take notes. You can't even ride in an ambulance for $10 in America. In Korea, its free. Did I find out what was wrong? Not really...hahaha...jk...I found out in Korean and loosely translated my intestines were sick. The IV was amazing (until they took it out). The meds were good too....they kept me from vomiting and keeping the headache minimal. However, they only gave me meds for one day...so I had to go to another hospital when I got back to Daejeon. When I got to Daejeon, I decided to go to Eul Ji Dae Hak Pyeongwon (Eul Ji University Hospital). It is one of the most expensive hospitals in Daejeon, but I like it because they have an English translator on staff, its close enough to my house and work, and they are very thorough. There I was able to find out in English what they tried to tell me at the other hospital. I had an infection in my stomach caused by bacteria from food or water. So basically, food poisoning. They gave me another IV and some more meds (some were even the same as the other hospital). This time it was slightly more expensive a whopping $20, but I also got a week's worth of meds. Still not bad...it's cheaper than a doctor's office visit in the US (and you still have to buy the meds). My only complaint was that the IV was a five hour IV and I was left alone with nothing but my cell phone for five hours and the IV stopped 4 times. Nothing too terrible. Anyways, now feeling quite a bit better. I'm still a little weak from not being able to eat much and being sick. But much better than before.

This past week was my vacation week. While I was sick for most of the week, I was able to stay home and rest. I even studied! Shocker! I actually did my Korean homework too! Not gonna lie to you, I hate studying and even worse I hate doing homework. Two things I really never had to do when I was in school. I love learning new things...I'm not kidding there. I love learning new things, but I love learning through experience...not by studying, bookwork, or reading. Reading might be the worst. Anyways, my Korean is really bad, and my friends kind of make fun of me for it. They tease me that I've been here a year and a half and all I know is "Hello". Of course, that's not true...I know a bit more, but I still have a long ways to go to be proud of myself. You remember I said that there are somethings you know right away and somethings it takes time to learn. The Korean language is definitely something that takes a long time to learn. Something Koreans don't always recognize is that a lot of foreigner's listening is way better than their speaking because they don't fully understand the Korean sentence structure. For me, I rarely answer in Korean unless I can do so in one word sentences because putting things properly in a sentence confuses the crap out of me. Anyways, in order to improve my Korean and learn proper sentence structure and grammar, I am taking a class. I've already learned so much. I still don't quite understand the sentence structure, but I'm learning more and more. Even my vocabulary is improving. I knew a lot of words to begin with, but now I know more. Wow, I'm pretty sure I've bored you enough for now...so until next time....

The Beginnings of Summer

2011-06-26T03:54:00.000-07:00

So after a long and brutal winter, summer has arrived. I'm pretty sure we skipped spring. At least, I didn't notice it being here. I love summer. I love the hot weather. However, I am not a big fan of the humidity here in Daejeon. Mostly because the humidity outside effects my apartment significantly!!!! Laundry takes a very long time to dry and often starts to smell bad before it dries completely, and the bathroom does not dry well after showers so mildew develops. In order to keep these things from happening, one must buy a dehumidifier or run the air conditioner. I opted for the air conditioner because dehumidifiers in Korea are super expensive. Unfortunately, my air conditioner did not come with a remote control, and the setting on the air conditioner was so low that it wasn't effective. My school provided me with a similar remote control that I was able to get to work randomly one time. However, I set the temperature super low because I thought it wouldn't work. Then, I couldn't get the remote to work anymore so I had to leave the air conditioner on, and my apartment got really cold. Well too cold for me anyways. 60*F. I was walking around in sweatpants and a hoody. Ugh. If this wasn't bad enough, my sink in the bathroom kept shutting off while I was taking a shower. Seriously? I was so grumpy! I walked into school almost in tears. My boss was like ok we'll fix it. Really? I had asked many times in a month's time in a calm cool manner, and it takes me almost crying for them to do something. Whatever, I got my remote for my air conditioner, but the landlord wouldn't do anything about the sink. So yours truly had to do the handy work for that one. Really, all of this added stress could have been avoided if they had given me the new apartment I had asked for when I extended my contract. I think my boss just hates me.

Anyways, now that everything is fixed, I'm a pretty happy Melanie. Just hanging out with my friends. Doing the same things I always do. Nothing really new. Oh except, Monsoon Season is here which means constant rain! It has rained almost non-stop for the past several days. All of the weekend plans got canceled because apparently everyone likes to hibernate when it rains. Thankfully, today we had a little break. So I went to the bike shop and got some splash guards for my tires and a basket that I can take off whenever I'm not using it. I really liked the shop owner. He spoke English really well. So naturally, I was curious as to how he could speak so well. He said he used to work for Microsoft (yeah, he was one of those guys that you called customer service and talked to...although, you probably actually would have understood what he was saying). He also had many foreigner friends that he trained and competed in triathlons with. He suggested that I should train and compete too. He told me of some public swimming pools in the area. It would be interesting. I love running and biking, both I do on a daily basis, but swimming...eeeeeeekkkk! I've only done swimming with friends before. Not that I've ran races or biked races before, but still. Maybe? It seems like it could be fun. I don't think I would race seriously to get first place, but just do it to challenge myself. It would be good. So really, nothing big and exciting going on. Just being me!

The Night Life in Daejeon

2011-05-31T01:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, so for those of you who've never set foot in Korea probably don't understand that the serious, studious Asian that you assume is a very responsible, non-partying adult does not exist. From the day they are born, Koreans are thrown into an everyday competition of who can be the best, the brightest, and the smartest. To achieve such an honor, they sacrifice most if not all of their childhood. Their childhood vanishes because as soon as they turn five years old they are given an adult-sized dish of stress. Many Korean children do not know exactly what it feels like to play because everything they do they are forced (by their parents) to be the best at. Their after school playtime consists of swim team (where they have to be the best), maybe baseball or soccer, and of course English school and/or Math school. Their elementary and middle school years fade quickly into high school which is significantly harder than Korean college. They have to study hard to get into a good college (even though once at said college its not as difficult). They want to get into a good college that will look good on their resume so they can get a high paying job. Once in college, they continue to study English so that they will have the best TOEIC score because a high TOEIC score almost guarantees a top job. So with all of this stress and no childhood memories what do these hardworking Korean adults do to stay alive? Drink. A LOT. Seven nights a week. While most of the world saves hardcore partying for the weekend, for Koreans, every night is a party. There is no prejudice. Which brings me to the beginning of my story...

Every morning I wake up at 7am and every night after school I go to the gym so I like to get a good night's sleep; so I go to bed early, around midnight. Last night was no different. I went to bed and was asleep for a good hour and a half or so when I woke up to a noise at my door. I laid still for a minute assuming it was my neighbor going into his apartment, but my heart sank when I realized someone was trying to unlock my door. I got out of bed and walked to my door to confirm whether it was in fact my door. I stood a bit shocked for a second and reminded myself that I did have three locks on my door. Two of which can only be unlocked from the inside. I also reminded myself that Korean men often come home drunk. So, I assumed after a few minutes he would realize his mistake and leave. A few moments later he did in fact walk away. He went up the stairs to try one of those doors. For some reason, he decided that those weren't right either and came back to my door once more to try again. This time, he wasn't giving up. Finally, I very rudely yelled at my door in Korean for him to go away. He spoke back to me in Korean asking me to let him in. Once again, I told him to leave. Then, I asked him what he was doing. Once again, very rudely. He would not leave. So I called my best friend, Jeffrey, to have the police come to my apartment. The guy hears me talking to Jeffrey in English. He realizes I don't understand what he's saying so he starts speaking to me in English. Say what?!?!?! How was he too drunk to figure out he was at the wrong apartment, but not too drunk to understand and speak to me in English? So then, I tell him in English that he needs to leave because it wasn't his apartment that I've been living in this apartment for over a year. It definitely wasn't his apartment. So then, he asks me to open the door and let him see that it wasn't his apartment. Hahaha. I was like...uummmmmmmm...no. I am not opening up my door to some drunk man. He was like please just let me in. After that I just stopped talking, shortly after that he left to try upstairs one more time before leaving the building. Two minutes after he left the building, the police show up. Guess who didn't speak English? That's right the police. How can a completely trashed man who can't find his own apartment speak better English than the police? Fortunately, I was able to get my point across that the guy had left and Jeffrey was on his way to my apartment to help me out. They told me (in Korean) to keep my door locked until he got there, and then they left. Very helpful right? I did have a description of the guy, but they didn't wait around for Jeffrey to come and help out. Anyways, Jeffrey comes, and he's like I kind of want to see if the guy is still walking around. So he suggested we go get some juice from GS25 across the street. As we are walking toward the front door of GS, I look at the window and notice its covered in bugs...hilarious right? I'm telling Jeffrey, "Ew, disgusting look at all those bugs..." when I look past the bugs and inside the GS is none other than the guy trying to get into my apartment. What??? I shrieked and ducked down and was squealing "That's him. That's him." Dude...how does that even happen? Only in my world does this stuff happen. Jeffrey went inside (I stayed in front of my apartment) and asked some questions. The guy said that he didn't do it and the cashier said that he'd been at the GS since about 1:30 which is just after the whole door incident (it was definitely him, I know it was), Jeffrey said the guy just made a mistake, and he waited with me until the guy went home. Wow, what a night, and of course, I still had to get up at 7am to go to work. Ugh.

This is the world I have come to live in, and oddly enough fallen in love with. Even though there are people that don't make it pleasant sometimes, that is life and I still love it here. It's the same everywhere. The thing is while it wasn't pleasant last night. It was hilarious in many ways, and I'm still not afraid to live in my apartment alone. Now, don't get me wrong, not all Koreans are like this. Most Koreans do know their limitations and are not drunkards. It is only every now and then that a situation such as this pops up. Who can blame them for wanting to have a bit of fun after missing out on such a precious thing as their childhood?

Big Things Happening

2011-05-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

Wow! Reading a little bit of my last post made me realize I should probably update more often. So many things have happened since I last posted, its crazy!!! So the guy I talked about, Glen, and I dated for a few weeks before we decided it wouldn't work. We still hang out a bit, but our schedules are so different it's difficult to figure something out.

I did end up quitting the gym near Hannam. It wasn't solely because of the stripe testing. I quit before the test. It was a big combination of things. It was too far from home, it was stressful and people were being rude. I found a gym closer to my house that I started in April. Its in Dunsan Dong. Jiu Jitsu starts later, and its so close to my house that I go home before going to the gym everyday. It's nice being able to unwind a little before working out so I am able to enjoy my workout a little more. I am not quite as stressed or burned out from the gym anymore. Plus, the environment at this gym seems to be a little more relaxed. So its nice.

Now on to current events...hahaha. My schedule at school lately has been pretty nice. One of my afternoon classes got canceled so now I only have two afternoon classes, and the vice principal arranged my schedule so that I can go home early everyday. On the other hand, I do have to sub for the other teachers quite a bit. Every teacher we have found to replace the Korean teachers that quit have decided that they cannot work with children and quit too. I really hate it for the students because they keep seeing new teachers and new teachers. Its not that big of a deal for me to cover the classes, but the students are the ones that are hurt by this. They often ask me why there are so many new teachers, and I don't think I can explain or should explain whats happening. On top of that one of the private schools nearby shut down unexpectedly (I'll explain more later) and so we have a ton of new students. We have a lot of students that want to enroll in our kindergarten classes, but none that want to enroll in our afternoon classes. Director Kim said that if we had to open new classes in the afternoon as well as in the morning he would have hired another foreign teacher, but that is not the case. We have to open two new classes only in the morning. So now we need another Korean teacher. I do not have any breaks in the morning so I do not have to take on the class, but two of the other foreign teachers do. Now all of the foreign teachers have a full schedule with no breaks except me. At the beginning, I had one of the worst if not the worst schedules, but I got used to it and everything was fine. Then, one of my afternoon classes got canceled and now I have the best schedule. Plus, in the very beginning none of my students spoke any English, and we weren't using books. So it took a lot of energy to teach every single one of my classes. Now, the students know more, and we can start using books which makes teaching quite a bit easier. I really enjoy my job now, and I love my students. Sunday is Teacher Appreciation so we got lots of presents from the students. A lot of students gave us lotions and flowers. One of my classes gave me a pot of flowers and 100,000 won bank gift card to use anywhere. That's always a nice gift.

Now about the private school that closed. As an English Teacher in Korea, you have to be very careful about the places that you work. English is very important in Korea so private schools can make a lot of money if they are good. However, not a lot of private schools make it big. They often run out of money and have to shut down. In most of these cases, none of the teachers receive their last paychecks, and the foreign teachers are left in Korea with no plane ticket home. However, sometimes there are rare cases where the school is successful, and they still shut down unexpectedly. That is what happened this week. One of the largest private schools in Daejeon shut down unexpectedly. I am not fully aware of all the details, even though one of my friends told me most of it. The school had a lot of teachers and a lot of students. Especially for a private school. I cannot be one hundred percent sure if the school had money problems or if the owner just wanted to keep the money for himself. Here is what I have heard. The foreign teachers there often complained that they didn't get their paychecks on time. I heard it from several of the teachers as early as last summer. When the school shut down on Wednesday, the teachers were told that they would not receive their last paycheck, their severance pay, or their plane ticket home. The landlords, however, would be sympathetic to their cases and allow them to live in their apartments for six months even though the bills for the apartments had not been paid either. The Korean teachers did not receive their paychecks either and are out thousands of dollars in wages and bonuses. The teachers at the school said that the director took the tuition money from the students and moved to New Zealand without giving any of the teachers their final pay. The teachers have worked for a month without pay. As I stated before, private schools shut down all of the time so it is no surprise that one shut down now. What is surprising is that such a large, reputable school closed down. To kind of give you some idea how big this school is (I can't be positive how many students there were) my school has 4 foreign teachers and maybe 200 students. At one point, this school had 20 foreign teachers. If the school has a similar student-teacher ratio that would mean there would be about 1000 students. Many of the parents immediately called other schools to enroll their students. Even though they paid one month's tuition already, they are willing to pay that tuition again to enroll their student in another school immediately. They don't want their child to miss one day of learning English, and these kids are between the ages of 5-15! Now back to the teachers as I said before I'm not sure how many foreign teachers there were when it closed but at one point there was 20. If that's still the case, 20 foreigners are stuck in Korea with no job, no money, and no way home. When a small school closes, its sad, but its not quite as devastating because it doesn't effect as many people. There are maybe one or two foreigners that work there, and maybe 100 students attend the school. This school's closing has effected most of the private schools in this area of Daejeon. I apologize if my details are not accurate; I have written what I have heard. If you know more information and can clarify things a bit more, please feel free to comment and correct things. I only wanted to share this event so that other foreigners that are interested in teaching in Korea are aware of things that happen here and can take caution. I didn't mention any names because even the news kept the identity of the school a secret.

If something like this happens at Wonderland, I do not want anyone to worry about me. I will be fine. Even though it would suck that I didn't get paid. It wouldn't be horrible for me. I would probably find another job here in Daejeon. Even if I wanted to go home, I do have some emergency money saved up. Also, my boss called an emergency meeting on Friday to assure all of the foreign teachers that nothing like that would ever happen at Wonderland, and that he will do everything he can to protect us as foreigners in Korea.

I guess that's all I have for now. I will try to do better about updating more often.

Wow back to back weekend posts!!!

2011-03-06T04:10:00.000-08:00

Hey! I might actually be able to get back into this...just kidding. Don't get too excited this probably won't happen very often. I would be shocked if it does. So much happened this week I just have to share!

So Monday was horrifyingly busy!!!! All of the foreign teachers left school, so Max and I had to cover all of the foreign classes. That means, no breaks. Thankfully, Tuesday was Independence Movement Day or something which means NO SCHOOL! I needed that break after Monday.

So Tuesday night, I go to the gym. At the gym, I'm told that one of the girls that has been coming to the gym for one month is going to test for two stripes on the next test. You are supposed to wait about three months for the second stripe. Kwanjangnim said that since I'm her senior classmate he wanted my opinion. I told him that it didn't matter what my opinion was because he was the boss, and my opinion would not be fair or unbiased. Because truthfully, I've worked my butt off more than anyone else. I've trained harder than anyone else, and I've tried harder because I had to. For ten months, I've been going to this gym and never once have I gotten a break like that. I even had to wait even longer for my third stripe test. I am still really angry about this. If she receives two stripes as I'm receiving my third stripe, I will most likely quit the gym. The gym has been so good to me this year, and Kwanjangnim has been great. So I hate that something like this would make me want to quit. But the truth is, lately I've been feeling really left out at the gym. For several months, I was pretty much the only foreigner and the only girl at the gym, but it didn't seem to matter I felt like I belonged. Lately, there have been a lot of new people at the gym, and they have formed a sort of clique or something. I'm not the only girl any more and there are some more foreigners, but I get left out of good spars. I have to spar with the new people and the girls. For several months, I sparred with only the guys, and now, I have to spar with people that cannot challenge me. On top of that, Kwanjangnim wants to give the new girl two stripes???? That's not cool, and it really hurts that he didn't think it would hurt me. It was nice that he asked me for my opinion, but why would he not think it would hurt me?

Anyways, so after that, I really needed to go out! So Jeffrey and Mr. Park met me at the gym to go hang out for a bit. While I was waiting for them, these two guys walked by and wanted to talk for a minute. One of the guys, Glen, and I exchanged numbers and then I left with Jeffrey and Mr. Park. And like most good Korean boys, Glen texted me ten minutes later. Hahaha. While I'm hanging with Jeffrey and Mr. Park, Alex decides to come and join us. We had so much fun we stayed out till 5am. Which sucks for me because I had another busy day at work on Wednesday starting at 9am. Hahaha. Oh well, I survived.

Nothing really big or special happened on Wednesday, but I did receive about 15 text messages from Glen! I was kind of happy about that. He seems like a really nice guy!

On Thursday, Glen called me and asked if I would meet him later that night. Of course, I said yes! His friend, Jun Pyo, came along too which was perfect it made it quite a bit more comfortable. Those guys are amazing! Jun Pyo has a diplomatic girlfriend literally, that's her job. It was interesting learning more about them. Both guys are Korean, but they speak English amazingly well. They both are from Seoul but have jobs and live in Daejeon. They promised me next weekend they would show me around Seoul. I'm kind of excited about that because people always offer to show me places, but they never make plans to. At 2am, Jun Pyo decided to head home because we all had to work early, but Glen asked me to stay out a bit longer. So I did, we stayed out till 4am just talking. It was crazy! He's a super nice guy, and I really like hanging out with him. He's so much fun.

Which brings me to Friday, Friday sucked! It might have been because I was super tired, but most likely it was because I got all of the new, non-English speaking students. That's right, all of my lovely English speaking students that I trained to behave well went to all of the boy teachers. Who gets stuck with the untrained ones? Me. Ok, two of the classes aren't bad. The baby class killed me!!!! Seriously, one kid was grabbing my butt with both hands while another kid was pulling down my skirt yet another kid was stepping on my feet and still another kid somehow managed to reach up and pull my hair all at the same time. I wanted to scream, and I spoke Korean. I'm not supposed to, but it was necessary. Apparently, that's the standard baby class here in Korea. I'm told that sort of thing happens often. The only thing that brightened my day was text messages from friends and Glen's phone call. The end of school could not come soon enough!!!

Now party people, its the weekend!!! Friday night was Lindsey's birthday so I went to Yellow Taxi for a minute to tell her Happy Birthday. Seriously, it was probably a minute. The place was crowded, I was feeling sick, and I was tired. So I went home and slept!

Saturday, I met up with Alex and Ji Hyun for lunch at an Italian restaurant. Yummy! Then, we went for some coffee. Later Saturday night, we met up again this time with Douchi. We went to Musa's in Hannam. Musa is one of our favorite bars. They serve both American dishes and Korean dishes. Our favorite order is a combination of Korean and American dishes. It comes with gimchijan which is a sort of pancake thing but not really...its so yummy!!! It also comes with sausage, cheese sticks, french fries and tater tots. Yay! When we got there, we noticed that the whole staff was new. As usual, our waiter brought us some free soda as a "service". Normally,they do it when the owner is there because he's friends with us. However, we didn't see him. So we asked about it, and they said that the owners had changed. I'm not exactly sure why they gave us free soda then. Hahaha. It was really funny because all of the servers kept looking at us. One of them stared at me for the longest time. It was really kind of funny because he wanted me to look at him, but I wouldn't. So then, he took out his phone and started fixing his hair using the camera. It was hilarious. I mean he's not a bad looking kid, but seriously he's probably 19 in Korea which is 17 internationally. I would go to jail. When we left, he raced to the check out counter, so he could be the one to take our money. To my surprise, he spoke in English of course he had an accent that showed English was not his favorite subject in school, but at least he tried. I'm not so harsh that I'm not going to give the kid credit for trying, but still he's probably at least 5 years younger than me (I can almost guarantee he's 9 years younger). Anyways, it was a good time. I love my friends!

So I guess all that is left is today. Today, I went to Costco. I found New England clam chowder and chips and salsa. That's the jackpot in Korea. Then, I came home and did some housework. Later, I decided to go to Time World and spend my gift certificates from my students. I had received 300,000 won gift certificate to the Galleria which is all of Time World this year. I spent 100,000 on a backpack. So I had about 200,000 more to spend. Thankfully, they gave me mostly cash back when I didn't spend the whole thing this time. I bought some pearl earrings because I left mine in the States, and I bought a Swatch. I still have 20,000 left in gift certificates, but like I said they did give me a lot of cash back. It was definitely a good day for shopping! I am proud of all my purchases!

My wish for next week, please let the baby class be better.

One year Complete

2011-02-28T17:46:00.000-08:00

So this week was my one year anniversary of arriving in Korea. I still love everything about Korea. I do get frustrated every now and then because it seems like people don't fully understand everything I say, but its a part of being in a foreign country. I am almost always confused about something, but for me, I think that is a good thing. I lived most of my childhood not challenging myself to do anything. If you knew me in school, you probably know I didn't study and I did my homework during my classes. I didn't study because I didn't really have to as long as I did the work, not too mention I didn't know how to study, and I hated the task of doing it. I never really had a challenge. Now, I live everyday in a challenge. Its a challenge to understand things. Its a challenge to understand people's feelings because they don't express them here. Its a challenge to learn the language and the culture more. Its a serious challenge to learn the manners and the social rules to go out with people. But I have never met a person, that never wanted to see me again because I forgot to give them water first at the table. It can be a bit embarrassing at times because they correct you in front of everyone, and of course, they all laugh. Its fun for me because its new, and its fun for them because I act like a Korean child even though I am an adult. Most people love teaching me about their culture and traditions. Most of the Koreans I have met have adopted me as part of their family, and they treat me as such. It is an honor for me to have met such wonderful people in such a short period of time. The hardest part of living in Korea is that everyone leaves. The past three weeks have been the hardest for me yet because I absolutely hate saying goodbye. Many of my younger brothers at the gym were called to serve in the army this past month. I knew Tae Su, Song Sok, and Simpson would leave this month, and I knew it would be hard for me, but I didn't know that Du Song, Jin Taek, and Seung Gil would go too. Tae Su and Song Sok were my best friends. It was really, really hard for me to see them go. They were really the only ones to take their time to show me things, and we would hang out after. I really miss them already. I don't think they will come back to Daejeon and that's what makes it so hard for me. This past week the foreigners that I worked with this past year left. No one decided to stay except for Max and me. So I had to say goodbye to them too. Also, this week many of the other foreigners I have become friends with this past year have left to go back home or to other places. I also have many Korean friends that graduated from college and are trying to find jobs overseas or have already found jobs overseas. This past weekend alone I had four goodbye parties that I attended. It was very hard for me emotionally. It has been hard for me at work lately too because Max and I have had to cover the classes the other foreign teachers used to teach. It has been stressful because we are supposed to make lesson plans for our new classes, talk to our Korean partner teachers about our new classes, train the new teachers, prepare them to take over our classes, prepare ourselves to take over the new classes, and at the same time finishing the curriculum for our current classes. On Monday, I only had one twenty minute break between afternoon and morning classes, and that was used to get the books I required for the afternoon classes I was substituting for. One time during the day, the Vice Principal came to find me while I was teaching one of my regular classes; apparently, they scheduled me to substitute in a class during the time I was teaching my regular class. She told me that I was supposed to be in the other class, and I told her that I have taught this class all year and asked her which class she wanted me in. Seriously, I cannot teach in two different classrooms at once; don't get angry with me when I didn't set up the schedule. This month has definitely been stressful and overwhelming, but I think it will be worth it. The rest of the year should be amazing. I have the same age group for morning classes that I had this past year, and I have the baby class. The baby class is so cute! I'm excited! I think I have good afternoon classes as well. Now, if only I can get through the rest of this week. Thank goodness we had Independence Day today and got the day off. I don't think I could have done this everyday this week!

Christmas in Daejeon

2010-12-26T03:25:00.000-08:00

Its funny being in a country that has couple's holidays so frequently. Korea has a couple's holiday almost every month! Its odd that Christmas is even considered a couple's holiday instead of a family holiday. Its definitely interesting being single in a country such as this. I love that the singles go out and hang out together, and we all have a lot of fun. Unfortunately, some people had too much fun on Christmas Eve and so Christmas Day was quite boring for me. I just laid around doing nothing. It was a bit difficult especially since it was my first Christmas being without my family. I was kind of hopeful because I had made so many plans with people, but they were all too sick. I really wished that I had just gone home for Christmas even though $2,000 is a lot of money to spend for such a short time. Couple's holidays suck especially when you have to spend them alone! Right, right, I mentioned in my last blog that I had met a guy that I really enjoy being with, and the truth is he's still that guy that I really enjoy being with. But just like any other relationship I've ever been in, I have no idea what is going on. I am totally confused. Is it so hard to put your heart out on the line? Is it too much to ask to take a chance on me? Am I ever going to be that person that someone is willing to take the risk of being hurt? If my mom were here, she would hug me and assure me there was such a guy and I should be patient. She would say that if a guy can't see that I'm worth so much more than that; then he doesn't deserve me anyway. The truth is she's not here. The truth is there may never be that person for me. The reality is I may only have friends the rest of my life, and somehow I'm kind of okay with that. The friends that I have now are amazing! They are family. It doesn't matter to them that I am a foreigner. It doesn't matter to them that I can't speak Korean. It doesn't matter to them that my values, my views and my goals in life are a little bit different. It doesn't matter to them; they still love me, they still trust me, and they still would do anything for me. To know that there are people like that, it gives me hope that I will be happy the rest of my life no matter what the outcome is. For people like that, I am thankful. I am truly happy to have friends like that in my life. Because of people like that, I want to stay in Korea for a very long time.

Slacker

2010-12-19T03:54:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know. I haven't posted in forever! I'm such a slacker. Since it has turned really cold in Korea, I have become extremely lazy!!!! Seriously, I've even been slacking a bit in the gym department. I only went twice this week! I hate the cold weather!!!! But in my defense, I caught a cold from having to stand outside waiting for the bus. So you can't really expect me to want to go to the gym. However, it hasn't stopped me from hanging out with people!!! Hahaha. I always have energy for that! Have I mentioned lately how much I love Korea? So, here is whats new:

A few weeks ago, I met a really nice guy. We have so much in common its ridiculous! I didn't think I would find some one that shares so many of my likes and dislikes here in Korea, especially a Korean guy. We've gone out a few times, and I really had a great time each time. I am really looking forward to spending more time with him!

This past week was final exam week. When finals finished on Thursday, I went out with Alex and some of his students. I really enjoy hanging out with them! They are hilarious! We had so much fun! Alex always makes things fun! He has quickly become one of my favorite people to hang out with on the weekends!!!! Next to Douchi of course! But Douchi has been kind of boring lately since she's always studying! :.(
Although, last weekend she took a break from studying to go eat lunch with me and Ohma. I love Ohma! She owns a coffee shop in Hannam Dae called Nulbo's. They have the most amazing waffles, and of course delicious coffee. Douchi introduced me to her. She's such a lovely woman. She's the same height as my mom so when I stoop to hug her it reminds me of my mom. She's funny because she says I'm the exact opposite of her son so somehow that reminds her of him. Hahaha. I don't know! But back to Alex, hahaha, he called me on one of my breaks this week while Tommy, one of my students (he says he's my boyfriend ;D), was sitting in my lap. Of course, Tommy got jealous I was talking to someone else, and he started copying everything I said loudly! Finally, I asked Alex if he would talk to him, and of course, he said yes! It was too cute! Tommy said, "Hello, my name is Tommy". It was adorable. Then, he became shy! But Alex was a trooper! And it really made Tommy's day that he talked to Melanie Teacher's friend!

Of course there's Sun, my Korean sister. She's such a wonderful person for sharing her family with me! I really enjoy her nieces; especially, since my nieces and nephew are so far away! This past weekend, one of her nieces celebrated her first birthday. She was so adorable! Her cheeks were soooo chubby! It was ridiculously cute! Apparently, first birthdays here in Korea are a very big thing. It was a lot like Nicole Teacher's wedding reception. There was a buffet table with a lot of nice food. They played a slide show of professional pictures. They had a photographer taking pictures. They played a game where the baby picked up various toys that represented her career choice. She picked up a gavel which represented that she would become a Judge. She also picked up a 50,000 won representing prosperity. It was such a wonderful experience. I am so thankful to Sun for inviting me to such events!

I have met a lot of amazing people here in Korea, and I am truly blown away by their thoughtfulness. I am always meeting new people here, and I am always falling in love with them! I love everything about them and of course Korea! It has been quite a year, and I hope to spend many more here in Daejeon!

Thanksgiving in Korea

2010-11-28T05:42:00.000-08:00

Ever since I can remember, I have spent Thanksgiving day just relaxing, watching television, and eating a huge Thanksgiving dinner. Last year was a little different, I was taking care of my grandmother; so I had to cook Thanksgiving dinner for her and my aunt and uncle. This year, Thanksgiving Day didn't feel like Thanksgiving at all. I had to wake up early and work on Thanksgiving. Hahaha. I don't even remember what I had for lunch. I didn't eat dinner; although Douchi and I went out for some pastries from Paris Baguette.

Although Thanksgiving Day was uneventful, we had Thanksgiving dinner at school on Friday. It was Activity Day, and this month's activity was Thanksgiving. We had a huge feast of gimchi, doekpoki, kimbop, pizza, chicken, fruit, cake, pie, and many other dishes. Nothing was traditional about it, but it was fun and delicious. The kids loved it, and they went back for seconds, thirds, fourths, and even fifths! Hahaha. They were walking around asking people to feel their bellies because they were so full. It was too cute! So I told them to do some stretches that would help them feel better! They loved it! They kept begging to do it again!

On Saturday, Douchi and I went to Michi's house in Daegu for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. It was absolutely amazing!!!! There was a turkey with actual stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, pumpkin pie and cake! Everything was so good!!!! We ate and ate because most of this stuff you cannot find in Korea. Its only once a year. After we ate, we decided to work it off by going dancing. It was so much fun! In Daejeon, there's only a couple of dance clubs, and the music isn't very good for dancing so we don't like to go to them. So we were excited that we were able to hit up some of the clubs in Daegu. I love dancing, and even though there was no one really there, it was fun just being with friends, listening to good music, and dancing!

This Thanksgiving, I did miss my family and my friends back home. I missed sitting at home in my pajamas watching the parade and football. However, I am very thankful for a wonderful life here in Daejeon. I have been blessed with amazing students that are so cute, joyful and full of life. I live in a beautiful and exciting city. I have a nice apartment. Best of all, I have many friends that I consider family. This year, I am thankful for destiny. I am thankful for courage. I am thankful that I had the courage to leave my entire life in America behind to have this amazing adventure in Korea. I have experienced so many new things. I have tasted so many new foods. No matter where life takes me, I know I will always remember Korea. There are things that I have learned in Korea that I will take with me the rest of my life. Like chopsticks, they are so useful!!! It makes it so much easier to eat noodles! Or using toilet paper to clean up everything instead of paper towels or napkins. Hahaha. I am pretty sure I could not live without Cham chi kim bop, and I will probably eat soup with every meal now. I am very thankful for the experiences I have had this year. I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving!

Winding Down!

2010-11-14T02:21:00.000-08:00

So at work this week, I had two open classes, and one additional meeting with parents. The past few weeks preparing for these open classes have been seriously stressful, but the hard work paid off. I think the classes went well. I believe my bosses are pleased...at least, I hope they are pleased. Anyways, so after all of that stress, I needed to wind down and have a little bit of fun with friends. This definitely was the weekend for that!

On Friday night, I met with Alex and Douchi and some of Alex's friends. It was a lot of fun! Of course, we went out to eat. Alex's friends are Korean, but they speak English very well. It was amazing. Two of the guys are the same age as me which is a good thing in Korea! Hahaha. I think we all hit it off pretty well so I definitely want to hang out with these guys again. After eating, we went noreabonging. Is that a shocker? Hahahaha. Most nights end at the noreabong. One of the guys and I had to go to a wedding on Saturday so we cut the night kind of short. Hopefully, we will be able to hang out again soon.

On Saturday, I went to one of the Korean teachers' wedding. The wedding was beautiful and she was such a gorgeous bride! The wedding was held at a wedding hall. When we arrived, Nicole was sitting in a room having her picture taken. We all walked in and took pictures with her. Apparently, all of the guests take pictures with the bride. It was interesting because the groom kept walking in and out. Koreans apparently don't have any superstitions about seeing the bride in her wedding dress. After Nicole had finished with the pictures, we moved into the ceremony hall. The wedding was amazing. They had a slide show of professional pictures of the bride and groom. They were really good pictures too! I couldn't believe how gorgeous these pictures were! The aisle the bride and groom walked down was more like a catwalk. It almost felt like we were at a fashion show and not at a wedding, but I kind of liked it! They had a fog machine so when the groom walked down the aisle, he walked through fog. When Nicole's Dad walked her down the aisle, they walked through fog. It was really interesting. After the wedding, we met in a reception hall with a buffet. The food was delicious. They had just about anything you could possibly want to eat! It was pretty sweet!

After the wedding, I relaxed a bit. I really had stayed out too long on Friday night, and so I was pretty exhausted. But, Sun invited me to hang out with some of her friends so I couldn't refuse. It was a lot of fun even though her friends were kind of shy. They spoke a lot of Korean so it was kind of hard to keep up. I can understand a bit if they speak slowly and enunciate, but it was a group of guys. I think in Korea, guys speak quicker than girls. I did understand a little so it was ok. Its really funny because apparently being single in Korea is an invitation for your friends to set you up. Hahaha, so every time I go out with Sun or even one of my other Korean friends its always all guys at the table...hahaha. Sometimes I feel like I'm on one of those dating game shows. I've met a lot of nice people though, but I really think they are too shy to act on anything. But I do enjoy meeting new people so its ok!

Today, Sunday, I've just relaxed a bit and ran a few errands. I realized yesterday at the wedding that my memory card for my camera was messed up. So I decided to go pick one up. Also, my bike tire went flat again sometime last week. I was debating whether I should just get a new tire or just get a new bike. I've been thinking about getting a new bike for awhile because my other bike only has 6 gears. So, it can be kind of slow when I'm riding to the gym. Plus, my back tire has gone flat at least 10 times now. It's never the front tire; it's always the back tire. So it can't be something I'm doing wrong, but I have to pay to get it fixed every time so it sucks. I asked for a new tire, but the guy insists he can fix it. But every time, it goes flat again. So I decided to just go for it and get a new bike. I figured with the distance that I ride everyday and with the length of time I plan to stay in Korea; I needed to get a better bike. It's nice. I spent a good deal of time today just riding around. I wanted to purchase it from a shop either close to home or work, and I lucked out because I found a place kind of in between. This bike doesn't have a basket like my other one; so I might still get the tire fixed on my old one and keep it for riding around town. Plus, the bar between the seat and the handle bars is kind of high so it would be difficult to wear a skirt and ride it. My other bike folded up which made it easier to carry up the stairs, but this one doesn't fold so I hope I am able to carry it up the stairs at the gym. Maybe I will get a better work out right? Hahaha. Here it is Sunday night, and I'm not ready for the weekend to end. I love the weekends! I love my students too; so it's not too painful waiting for the weekend to come.

No Rainbows and butterflies this week

2010-11-06T04:04:00.000-07:00

After 8 months of being in Korea, it was bound to happen eventually. One of those weeks that nothing goes well. Let's start with Monday. Randomly after working until 5:15 on Monday/Wednesday/Friday since the beginning of school, my boss changes my schedule. Not a big deal, I don't mind, but no one told me and the fact that it changed with no discussion means someone complained. Whatever, I got over it. Then, on to Tuesday, one of my open classes got moved up to next week with my other open class. Leaving me only a week to prepare. Ok, I can deal right? On Wednesday, I find out that my boss is going to sit in on my classes on Thursday to observe my open class lessons. Wednesday at 6pm as everyone is leaving the office, I'm given a form that I am supposed to fill out for the open class observation. Thursday, the materials I had asked for a week ago were not purchased. I had to run across the street to purchase some myself which left me no time to fill out that form I was given at the end of the day on Wednesday. My boss didn't like that I didn't have it filled out, and he didn't like my lesson plans for either of my open classes. So, Thursday afternoon, I had to change both my lesson plans for my open classes so that the Assistant Director could observe my classes on Friday. Friday, she observed my classes and gave me some suggestions on what to do, but we both discovered one of my classes is no where near ready for the open class. So now, I have to do the open class lesson plan everyday until open class. This will put us behind in the books, and my partners are not going to be happy about that. Whatever, I'm doing the best I can, and they have to know that. Friday night, I found out that my Jiu Jitsu tournament was canceled because no other women wanted to compete. I was relieved about that at first because after this week at work I wanted to spend time with friends on Friday and Saturday nights which would put me a little behind on my sleep on Sunday. Friday night, I had promised kwanjangnim I would go out with them for a bit so I couldn't really go out with anyone else. Then, tonight, Saturday, everyone from the gym is resting for the tournament, and everyone else is out of town. I had plans with Yup, but he bailed at the last minute. I'm really kind of upset about that because I needed something to go right this week. Now, I kind of wish my tournament wasn't canceled. I was happy when 6pm came on Friday because I thought all of the bad stuff was over, but I guess not. Whatever, one bad week out of 8 months is not bad. I'm still in love with Korea; just not in love with certain people right now. Hahaha. Maybe this week will be better? Anyways, I'm going to the tournament tomorrow to support the guys. Hopefully it will be a good day!

Chungyang

2010-10-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

Alright, this weekend was another fun packed weekend in Daejeon. Friday night, we went out for a bit with the gym. It was Mike's last night in Korea for a while so we went out for a bit. We just sat around and talked for a bit. Nothing too big. I was exhausted so I went home early.

On Saturday, I was able to sleep in for a bit before Sun picked me up. It felt good. I definitely needed some sleep! Hahaha. Sun and Wan Hee picked me up and took me to Sun's parents house in Chungyang. It was very relaxing. We had samgipsal and home cooked Korean dishes. I was super excited! I had never had such delicious gimchi! Sun's parents also have persimmon trees! They picked some persimmons for me! They were so good! I'd never had sweet persimmons before. I've only had the sour ones. I'm in love! Sun's nieces came over for a visit too. They were super cute! One even prepared an English song for me! It was the cutest thing ever! The oldest one (she's probably about 3) calls me Miguk Amni which means American sister. It was super cute. Sun told me they consider me family; her parents asked me to call them Ohma and Appa (Korean for mom and dad). They asked me if they could be my Korean family. It was so sweet!!! And they invited me to help make the gimchi for the winter! Yay!!!! I'm going to learn to make gimchi!!!!! After we got back to Daejeon, we hung out for a bit at Sun and Wan Hee's house for a bit. Some of their friends came over for a bit, and we sat and talked. Then, we went out noreabonging! Hahaha. It was another amazing performance! The guys were all super sweet. When I mentioned that it was cold, they all fought over who was going to give me their jacket. Hahaha. It was the sweetest thing ever. I'm pretty sure they only did it because Sun and Wan Hee told them to, but it was still super sweet. It was definitely a good evening! I really enjoyed hanging out with them!

Next weekend is my jiu jitsu tournament so I can't guarantee a post, but I will definitely try to post a little something to tell the outcome.

October 24th Weekend

2010-10-30T22:02:00.000-07:00

So I didn't get back until late on Sunday night from the Jiu Jitsu Tourney; so I didn't get to post before the craziness of the week started. So I'm going to try to write as much about the weekend as I can remember. On Thursday night, we went out with the gym because it was one of the Korean guys last night in Daejeon. He is moving to Seoul because he is a police officer in the Korean army. He is really a sweet guy that speaks English very well, but he would never talk to me because he's super shy. Of course, on his last night in Daejeon, he opens up and starts talking. Hahaha. We went to Musa's another place that all of the workers recognize Douchi and me. We get special service! Hahaha. Then, we went noreabonging. The guys have amazing voices! If you have never been noreabonging with a Korean, you have to!!!! Every song is a performance! It's amazing!!!! I love it! I wish we could have stayed longer but it was a Thursday and most of us had to be at work in the morning.

Friday, as expected, I was super tired! I really wanted to take a nap on my breaks, but instead of resting like your supposed to do on your breaks, they asked us to set up for Halloween. I hate decorating with a lot of people. Everyone has there own opinion and nothing gets done. I was tired and grumpy because I only got 3 hours of sleep. On top of that, people kept popping the balloons and scaring the crap out of me! I hate balloons popping. Its the worst! Oh well, I survived; I'm not sure how, but I did. Which brings us to Friday night. Douchi and I wanted to go out for a short evening because we were both tired and Douchi had to be up early the next day. We met up with Alex and some of his friends for a bit before Douchi had to go home. I stayed out for a bit longer. One of the guys we hang out with from Hannam joined us late. After everyone else left, we stayed out even longer and talked. He's really sweet. It was starting to get really cold so he kept buttoning up my sweater around my neck...hahaha. He even walked me to the taxi carrying my bags. It was the sweetest thing ever especially since my bags are pink! Hahaha.

Saturday, I just wanted to sleep all day, but I couldn't because I had made a 10am hair appointment to get my haircut (yeah, I got home at 6am; I'm an IDIOT!!! hahaha). After my haircut, I was awake so I figured I would go to Costco. It wasn't busy at all. I guess Saturday before noon is the perfect time to go. When I got home, I was exhausted and I had to be up early on Sunday to go to the jiu jitsu tourney so I had decided to sleep. Is that possible on a weekend in Korea? Apparently not, Sun called me and invited me for dinner to meet with some of her friends. Of course, I told her I would. I can sleep when I'm dead right? Hahaha, jk. Although, I'm pretty sure I wasn't a whole lot of fun because I was falling asleep at the table. Hahaha, but I did last for a few hours. I was proud of myself. Sun noticed I was tired and suggested I go home early. Hahaha. I think that is the earliest I've gone home since I got to Korea.

Sunday, Kwanjangnim had told me to be at the gym at 6:30am, but every time we go somewhere we never leave until at least 30 minutes after he says we will leave. So I decided to get a little more sleep. I was getting ready when the guys started calling me at 6:15 when I wasn't at the gym. Say what? I told them I'd be there in a bit, but of course, there wasn't a taxi in Munnyeon Dong at that time. So I had to walk. I ended up meeting them at the bus station. Oh well, I got to the bus station in time, and we weren't late getting to the gym in Bucheon. The fights went really well. Of course the high schoolers started the tourney off. Song Won and Kim Won were in the same weight class and belt rank. There were several other boys in the same category. I think they sparred two players each before they had to spar each other for the gold and silver. Kim Won got the gold and Song Won took silver. It was the same way in the no-gi competition. Next, the older guys had their tourneys. Ki Jin took silver again (he wasn't happy about that, but he did well). Seung Young took one gold and one bronze. Seung Young busted his head open on one of his opponents teeth, he completed his matches with a bandage on his head, and that's possibly why he only took bronze in that competition. Mike took home a silver in gi, and he took home a gold in no-gi. Overall, our gym won four golds, four silvers, and one bronze. We won the entire tourney and took home the crystal trophy. Kwanjangnim was very happy, and we probably would have done some serious celebrating except we didn't get back to Daejeon until midnight. We were all exhausted from such a long day! But it was good! I was very proud of the guys!

Fighting Weekend

2010-10-17T06:51:00.000-07:00

On Friday, Yun Ho and Song Wan both competed in the K-One Max fight in Gochang, South Korea. I was able to go to support them because our school had the day off. I was really excited that I was able to go because the whole gym has been looking forward to this fight for forever! I didn't know that Song Wan was competing as well until they started checking his blood pressure. I think both of the guys were dieting for this match. Yun Ho dieted for 12 days and lost 8 kg for this fight. I was shocked because he's already really skinny! When we got to Gochang, the guys went into a room to register. I decided to wait outside because they had to weigh in, and even though they are comfortable enough for me to be in the same room, I'm not comfortable. After weighing in, we were able to go for lunch. The guys didn't eat all day because of weigh in. We ate eel for lunch because it is the Korean power food. It looked absolutely disgusting, but it was really pretty good. After lunch, we walked around Gochang for a bit. They were having some sort of festival so we checked it out. We were trying to figure out what we were going to do all day because the fight didn't start until 6pm. The guys asked me if I wanted to go to a sauna room. I told them that they could go, but I would read a book outside. Then, they asked me if I wanted to go to a PC room. However, the way they said PC it sounded like they were saying fish. So I thought that they were talking about the place where they have the fish take off the callouses on your feet. I was like sure I don't care. I was a little surprised when we ended up in a PC room...hahaha. Here I thought that I was going to get a Korean pedicure and instead I spent the day on the internet. Oh well! Hahaha. After a couple hours though, I was seriously bored and tired of sitting so I told the guys I was going to walk around the city for a bit. One of the guys didn't like me going out on my own so he walked with me. It was a little awkward because his English isn't that good, and my Korean absolutely sucks! In a group, it doesn't really matter because I know someone else will do the talking, but one on one sometimes I feel like I have to choose simple phrases to use to make people feel more comfortable. It was ok though. We grabbed some coffee and looked in a few shops before meeting up again with the other guys. When we met up with the guys, it was time to go back to the gym for their medical check up. The paramedics checked their blood pressure to make sure they were in a good condition to fight. Yun Ho's blood pressure was super high so they kept checking it. We were the only ones left in the gym when they finally gave him the ok to fight. After the medical check up, Kwanjangnim, the coaches and I went for dinner while the guys were warming up for their fight. I asked one of the coaches to order for me because I wasn't familiar with the food, and they wanted me to choose quickly. Kwanjangnim thought I was being slow about choosing what food I wanted and told the other coaches. When I gave him a dirty look, he was surprised that I understood what was going on. Hahaha. Then, they started talking about how they went noreabonging the night before. So to confuse him even further, I asked him a question in Korean about the story they were telling. It was hilarious! However, I think I might have gotten myself in a bit of trouble because now Kwanjangnim thinks I understand more Korean than I actually do...so now he doesn't speak to me in English. Hahaha. After dinner, we went back to the gym because the fights were starting. This tournament actually had a good many women fighters. The coaches kept telling me that next year I was going to compete in the tourney. I told them they were going to have to train me more than they do in kickboxing in order for me to compete. From our gym, Song Wan competed first. He did really well, but as usual his opponent was bigger and stronger than he was. Kwanjangnim had to throw in the towel the first round. I hate seeing Song Wan lose because he is such an amazing kid. He improves so much between fights, but I think he gets put up against harder opponents each fight. Yun Ho's fight went better than Song Wan's. It was the hardest fight I've seen him fight. He had to go all three rounds with his opponent. At the end of the third round, they were tied so he had to go a fourth round. His opponent did a few illegal moves and was docked for it. However, one of those illegal moves left Yun Ho hurt badly. He finished the fight and won. But he was hurt too badly to compete in his final match. It really sucked to see him in so much pain. I couldn't do anything about it. Everything I tried to do he pushed me away (I think he didn't want me to baby him). It was so hard for me to just sit and watch him hurting.

We got back to Daejeon about midnight; so I called Douchi to see what she was up to. She was out with Elicus and the guys from the soccer team. So I met up with them for another epic evening! Hahaha. It was a lot of fun! Even if we didn't end up at the noreabong. Hahaha. The guys are hilarious, and they make every night out amazing! We only stayed out until 4am before we headed back to Douchi's. My keys got locked in the gym so I had to spend the night with Douchi.

On Saturday, I had to call Shiiki to see what time Kwanjangnim was going to be at the gym so I could get back into my house. The gym was supposed to be closed because of the fight and some renovations, but Kwanjangnim was going to be there for a bit. I was finally able to get my keys and go back to my place to clean for a bit before the girls arrived for the Daejeon Rock Festival. Some of Douchi's friends stayed at my apartment for the festival. They were really sweet girls, and we had so much fun with them. The festival turned out to be more foreigners than fun. So Douchi, Michi and I decided to go back to Hannam. The girls decided to stay for a bit. They called us later because the police shut the festival down because of noise complaints. It was really weird. They met up with us at Musa's in Hannam, and we definitely showed them a good time. I talked to some Korean guys they thought were hot, and I introduced them. It was fun! Musa was playing some really good music so we had to get up and dance which got the whole bar joining in the fun. It was hilarious! The girls were just excited that Musa served french fries, cheese sticks, and tater tots! Hahaha. Afterwards, we got a group of guys from Musa's to go noreabonging with us. However, the girls were not used to staying out as late as we normally do, so we went home pretty early at 3:00. By the time we got everything figured out and got home, it was 4am. One of the girls decided that she would prefer to be closer to the train station in the morning so she wanted to stay in a hotel. So, I had to help her find a taxi at 4am. The entire time we were looking for a taxi, she kept complaining about how the other girls were trying to tell her what to do. She certainly was not very appreciative of our hospitality. Oh well, the other girls were really sweet, and I would love for them to come back any weekend.

All in all, it was a good weekend. Next weekend, I'm supposed to go to Seoul for a concert with Douchi. It should be fun! Stay tuned!

Shrimp and Partying with soccer players!

2010-10-17T04:35:00.000-07:00

Alright, as expected I didn't get around to a post last weekend, but it definitely needed a post. On Friday, Kwanjangnim gave me a new ghi. It was really cool! I was super shocked! Apparently, I'm the first person he has done this for so it was really special. After I got my second stripe for Jiu Jitsu, he had asked me if I wanted to get a new ghi. I told him that I would wait until after my third stripe because I went to Taiwan and everything. I had no idea that he would buy me a ghi! He gave it to me in front of everyone. One of the girls, Hyu Jin, told me that everyone was jealous of me. It is a really nice ghi. It is white, and it says Jiu Jitsu on the sleeves. It is much thicker than my blue one so it should last a while. I was super excited! I had actually planned to skip my kickboxing class that night to go out with Douchi, but after that I had to stay. After kickboxing, Douchi and I went to see one of our friend's band play at a bar in Hannam. They were really good, and we had a lot of fun. We met some new people. They are art students at Hannam University. They all play soccer together too. They were a good group of guys. Two of them were born in the same year as me which is very special in Korea because of the social formalities. In Korea, it is hard for people to be friends if they are not in the same birth year because you have to show respect to people that are even a year older than you. So everyone gets a little excited when they find someone that is the same age. If a person is older or younger, they are your brother or sister. One of the guys name is Nam, he is my first peer friend in Korea. This is Nam:

So we were both kind of excited about him being my first Korean peer friend. After the concert, we went to Musa's to hang out for a bit longer and talk a bit. We ended up going noreabonging until 6am. It was crazy! We had so much fun though!

So Saturday morning, after noreabonging, I rode my bike home. Hahaha. I slept most of the day. It was kind of depressing because it was such a beautiful day outside, and I slept through it! Needless to say, I did not make it to the Baekje Festival as I had planned. However, I did wake up when Sun called me to invite me to dinner. It was amazing. We ate on the roof of the Dunsan MMA gym. We were able to watch the sunset which kind of made up for missing the rest of the day. It was gorgeous!!!! The Dunsan Kwanjangnim brought his wife. She was really nice. The Judo coach from the gym came as well! It was a really nice dinner party. However, everyone was tired so it ended way to early! Sun and her boyfriend, Wan Hee, dropped me off at my apartment. After they dropped me off, I called Douchi to see what she was doing. We decided to hang out for a bit in Hannam. I called my new friend Nam to see if he wanted to come out with us, and of course, he was immediately on his way! Once again, an amazing evening began to unfold. Nam brought several of his soccer buddies with him that we didn't meet on Friday. They were hilarious. Two of them were older so they are Douchi and my Oppas, big brothers, but we just call them by their names. One of them, Kim, is the same age as Douchi (but he doesn't know this...hahahaha). He calls me Noona (big sister). It's really funny! He's the coolest kid ever. I was laughing the entire time! This is Kim:

We decided to go noreabonging again. Douchi and I performed an amazing "Barbie Girl" which Lee, one of the big brothers, said was stuck in his head all day on Sunday. This is Lee:

The guys performed SHINee's "Ring Ding Dong". It was awesome! When it got to the chorus, they all broke out in the dance. I had never seen anything like that at the noreabong. Douchi and I were shocked and couldn't stop laughing.

We stayed at the noreabong until 5 on Sunday morning...which kind of sucked for me since I had to be at work by 10. Hahaha. It was all good though, I made it to work on time. It was Sports Day so I had to cheer on the kids and run a race. It wasn't too bad, and I don't think it showed too much that I didn't go to sleep the night before. It was a lot of fun. The parents seemed to really enjoy the day with their kids, and they appreciated us coming out on a Sunday to play games with their kids. We had a wonderful time.

After Sports Day, the guys had a soccer game. So, Douchi and I went to cheer them on. Their offense was really good, but their defense sucks. Nam scored 4 goals. I was so proud! It was a fun game though because we were able to hang out with the guys a bit. Some of the players on the team have to share jerseys (I guess maybe they came late or something). But Kim let one of the guys were his jersey, and the guy got hurt so Kim had to borrow a jersey from one of the other guys. It was hilarious because when you translate what he said into English he was saying, "Give me your clothes". So, I teased him the rest of the game in English about it. The other players started in on it, too. It was really funny because normally Korean guys are a little more shy about stuff like that. We also found Lee and sang "Barbie Girl" to him to make sure it stayed in his head awhile longer. Which the other players also enjoyed and even joined in on the chorus. Anyways, it was definitely a fun game even though they lost. It was truly an amazing weekend!

Quick Post

2010-10-03T07:27:00.001-07:00

So I'm going to make this a quick post because not much went on this past week/weekend, but next weekend I may not have time to post because it's going to be pretty busy!

This week at school we went to the Chestnut Farm to pick some chestnuts. It was pretty sweet because I've never seen a chestnut before. They're spikey! I nicknamed them Spikey Mikey and came up with a little rhyme for the kids to remember the words to describe them. The kids loved it! Also this week at school one of my kids had a really high fever while he was at school and his mom couldn't come pick him up. So he had to lay on the couch at school for 4 hours before she could pick him up. I was so upset! It was so sick...I almost cried just watching him.

This past weekend, I got invited to a few different things but I decided to be responsible and get things done around the house. On Saturday, I went to Costco to do some grocery shopping, and I went to Galleria to spend my $100 gift certificate. I found a nice backpack from North Face for exactly $100 so I knew it was meant to be. Hahaha.

On Sunday, I went out with the Muay Thai coach from Dunsan MMA and his girlfriend, Sun. They are such amazing people! I had so much fun. I really enjoyed talking with them! They invited me to a jumbo shrimp barbecue next weekend! I'm super excited! I can't wait. I'm supposed to go to the Baekje Festival on Saturday, but hopefully I will be home early enough to go with them! We talked about Sunday, but on Sunday, we have Sports Day for school. Ugh! I hate that everything is piled onto one weekend! I'm not complaining about Sports Day because in theory it sounds like fun, but I hate that its on the weekend which means I have to go to bed early on Saturday night (and by early I mean before 2am), and I can't do anything on Sunday because its all day. Oh well, good times! I can't wait! Maybe I'll get around to a post next weekend, maybe not. Who knows!!!!

SHOPPING, THE BEACH, AND DANCING

2010-09-23T06:42:00.000-07:00

So far since arriving in Taipei, we've done a ton of shopping! Seriously, the markets are amazing, and I love the jewelry. I cannot believe that I have bought so many bracelets. I swear, I must have bought 50 bracelets this week. I love it!!!

However, shopping is not the only thing we've done this week. We went to the beach yesterday. It was nice. The water was gorgeous, but the sand was disgusting. We got in some serious tanning, but I think we got a bit of our tans walking around the markets.

Last night, we went dancing at this club called Luxy. There was a group of girls that started crowding around us and asking us to dance. Asian girls are like that though. They'd rather dance with foreign girls than guys. How do I know this? I tried to get one of them to dance with a guy instead of me, but she kind of got a little mad. Hahaha. Whatever. Luxy had some really good performances. The bar tenders did a fire show that was pretty sweet! They had a group of girls that danced a few times throughout the night. Then, they also had a dance crew do a performance. The club was fun until they started playing all techno in the hip hop room. Who does that???

Today, we went to Taipei 101. It's the tallest building in Taipei. We did some shopping in the mall there. They had a pretty sweet bookstore there where we were able to find some post cards and stuff. After, we went to the largest street market in Taipei. It was nice. We found a lot of gifts for friends and family. I am excited about giving gifts!!!

So far, we have had a very relaxing week. It has been perfect!!!

Special Posts for Taiwan

2010-09-21T16:51:00.000-07:00

Now, I can't promise I will update everyday that I am here in Taiwan, but today I have a little time, so...

Yesterday, we landed in Taipei. I didn't check the weather or anything (probably stupid on my part but hey whatever right?) Apparently, a typhoon hit Asia this past weekend. We actually flew out of Korea at the tail end of it. However, when we landed in Taipei, it was beautiful, sunny, and 85 degrees!!! Sweet! We have been told that the typhoon ripped through the island, and that there has been a lot of damage mostly to the southern part of the island. They also told us that we roads to the south are closed. So, Douchi and I are going to one of the northern beaches today.

Last night, we went to this really cool restaurant called Modern Toilet. The entire restaurant was decorated as a bathroom. The tables were bathtubs with a sheet of glass over it. The seats were toilet seats. The cups were shaped like miniature urinals. The dishes were toilets. Even some of the food was shaped like poop! Oddly enough, the only place that didn't have a toilet seat was the bathroom...it was a squat pot. The food was very yummy! It was an all around fun experience!!!!

After, we walked around in a few of the night markets. I got some really cute sandals for $6!!! I also got most of my Christmas/birthday presents for family and friends!!!! The stuff here is amazing! I love the jewelry and stuff! I'm super excited about the rest of this week!!!!

This week and weekend

2010-09-19T05:54:00.000-07:00

This past week at school has been pretty exciting because we are off for Chuseok most of this coming week. Chuseok is the Korean Thanksgiving. It is celebrated on September 22. What I've been told is that older people give younger people allowances and presents on Chuseok for showing respect. The kids dressed in their Hanbok (Korean traditional dress) a couple of days this week for their Korean classes. They looked so cute!!! A lot of the parents sent in food for all of the teachers as well. Parents also sent in gifts. One of my students gave me some bath gel and body butter from the Body Shop. Another one of my students gave me a 100,000 won gift certificate to one of the department stores. I was shocked!!!! I just thought Chuseok was celebrated the same way we celebrate Thanksgiving with food and family. I did not expect any presents! Crazy! It was definitely a good week!

As good as the week was, the weekend was even better!!!! Friday night, Douchi and I went to Mr. Chicken and Beer (of course), and then we hung out for a bit at our endcap. We called it an early night at about 2 since I had Jiu Jitsu testing on Saturday.

Saturday morning, I woke up early and made a high protein breakfast. Then, I took some cold medicine and went back to bed. I've had a cold this past week, and I wanted to feel well and be well rested for my test. When I woke up, I made a high carbohydrate lunch so that I would have energy for my test. I don't think my body is used to consuming so many carbohydrates because along with the energy boost it made me really nervous and shaky. Hahaha. Really, there was no reason for me to be nervous because Kwangjungnim already told the entire gym that it was 99% chance that I was going to pass because I always come to class, but I was so nervous I was emotional. I kept looking at everyone walking into the gym so calm, and I started wondering how they were so calm. Then, I realized that they had probably spent the morning with their family which would make me calm as well. So of course, I started missing my family and thinking that this is my first birthday away from my family which made me cry a little before I even started testing. Then, we started the test, and of course everything was in Korean, and everyone kept forgetting to translate for me. Normally, it's not that big of a deal, but I was super nervous. We started with technique, and San Ha and I did well with that. I still had no idea how many techniques I was supposed to show him. So, I just did as many as I could remember at the time. After technique, we had to spar for about 45 minutes straight one after another. It wouldn't have been too bad except our lineup consisted of Tae Su, Seung Young, and Seun Gil. These guys are huge, not too mention really good at Jiu Jitsu. Seung Young and Seun Gil were pretty nice with their spars, but Tae Su was MEAN!!!! I think he just got caught up in the fight, but he kept choking me really hard. One time, I said tap three times before he finally heard me and let go. I think it really scared him, but it served him right!!!! Then, another time he sat on my ribs really hard. He is REALLY heavy!!!! Hahaha. I wanted to tap just so he would get off of me, but it was my test so I couldn't. Kwangjungnim finally told him to get off me, and slow down. After my second spar with Tae Su, we were finished, but no one told me so I was so confused! Everyone saw me sitting there and they started laughing because I was confused which made me start wailing!!!! I ran to the bathroom. San Ha came in and helped me calm down. Then, Kwangjungnim came in to tell me not to cry because I passed the test. I wasn't crying because I thought I had failed...really, I love Jiu Jitsu and everything, but failing one test isn't worth crying over. I mean I'd probably be angry, but I don't think I would cry. I was just emotional from missing my family. After I calmed down, I walked back out and watched the end of the testing (Ki Jin had to test for his fourth stripe). While we were watching, Seun Gil noticed that I scraped my toes on the mat so he went to the office and got some bandaids and ointment. It was so sweet. He doctored me up. But seriously, I have no skin left on my big toes and the toes next to them. Not to mention, I probably have close to 100 bruises all over my body including one across my nose, one above my eye, and another on my chin. It was rough, but it was still fun. It was totally worth it! San Ha and I both got our stripes! So did Ki Jin and most everyone else.

After the test, we went out to eat. We were all starving! Douchi met up with us at the restaurant which was definitely good because I was still kind of emotional. Song Sok met up with us too. I had my two best friends!!!! I started cheering up a bit then. It was definitely a good day and a good night...even if I did cry my eyes out! Hahaha. I'm such a baby! I used to never cry. Now, I cry during music videos! What has Korea done to me? Hahaha, just kidding. No matter how emotional I get, I still love this country, and I wouldn't trade these experiences for anything. I miss my family and friends back home, but I don't want to go home...I want them here with me.

Today, I went to get my haircut. I went to the same hairdresser as I did last time, but this time she did not cut it as well as she did the last time. I came home and fixed it, but I spent too much time (it took 5 hours) and money for me to have to fix what she messed up. I will not go back to the same hairdresser, and I probably will not go back to the same salon.

After the salon, I came home and started packing for Taiwan. I am leaving in two days on Tuesday (my birthday). I am celebrating my birthday this year in Taiwan with Douchi!!! I am super excited! If I have to spend my birthday away from my family, this is the best way to do it! So, that's all I have for now. Happy Chuseok Everyone!!!! Hopefully, next week I'll have some fun stories to tell from Taiwan!!!!

First of the last two weekends

2010-09-19T03:40:00.000-07:00

Alright, as I said a few weeks ago, last weekend was super busy, and I didn't get a chance to make a post. Sorry!!!! This weekend has been pretty busy, too, but I'm going to try to make this post worth reading! It would be a super long post if I did both weekends together so I am breaking them up.

I'll start with last weekend. Friday night, I went out for a bit with some of the guys from the gym. It was pretty calm because Kwangjungnim and one of the older guys at the gym went out with us too. It was still fun though! I really enjoy hanging out with the people at the gym. They are such amazing people!

Saturday was fairly chill. I went to Costco for a few things in the morning. Korean class was canceled so I didn't have to go to class. So I did a few things around the house. Then, I met with the people from church to practice even though I didn't sing with them on Sunday; they wanted me to come and practice anyway. After, I did a little bit of shopping in Dunsan before coming home. I decided to have a movie night since I had to be up early on Sunday morning for the Kickboxing Tournament.

Sunday morning, we met at the gym to catch a bus to the tournament. The tournament was in Sintanjin, about 30 minutes from the gym by bus. We got to the tournament early so we went for some lunch. We had bone soup. It was very yummy!!! We still had a bit of time before the tournament after we finished lunch. So I talked a bit with the guys from Daegu MMA. "Sex Machine" was there. Hahaha. For some reason, he wanted to take a picture with me...which was fine, but he wanted me to stand in front so that his head wouldn't look too big standing next to me. Hahaha. My face was bright red for the picture because they kept talking about how small my head was. I'm sure it was a horrible picture. Oh well, I don't have to look at it! Hahaha. After the picture, he introduced me to his brother, "Sex Machine 2". I'm not making this up. I was dying laughing until...he asked me to tell him who's head was bigger. Who does that? I'm in trouble no matter who's head I say is bigger. I tried to tell them that they were the same size, but they wouldn't let me slide. So I asked my English speaking buddy who I should choose, and of course, he would not help me!!!! I decided to go with the truth. The original Sex Machine's head was slightly smaller so I chose him. I hate answering awkward questions like that. Hahaha. Anyways, shortly after the tourney started, and Song Won was up first. I really wanted him to win mostly because he's the coolest kid ever, but also because he lost his first kickboxing tourney. He fought the same kid as last time, and he lost again. But, he did a lot better this time. I was very proud of him, but he was still pretty bummed. Next up for our team was the guy we call "The Driver". We don't know his real name so that's what we named him because he drove us home from the last kickboxing tournament. He was awesome! He won his fight. After "The Driver", San Won was up. She's one of the high school girls at our gym. It was her first fight, and she went up against a girl that's been training since she was 12. San Won didn't do well in the first round, but after some advice from Tae Su, Yu Noh, and one of the coaches from Daegu MMA she did better in the last two rounds. She still lost, but she put up a good fight. The last fight of the tournament was the best. Mostly because it was Song Sok's fight. He's the sweetest guy ever!!!! Plus, he is an awesome kickboxer. So, of course, he won his fight! After Song Sok's fight, Douchi and I took pictures with some of the guys from Daegu. I wanted a picture with my English buddy. He told me I had to stand in front...hahaha. So, I did...

Hahaha...he was embarrassed so he closed his eyes! Hahaha. But Sex Machine called me a play girl for posing like that. I told him it was only a picture. I have no idea why I felt it necessary to defend myself against a guy that calls himself Sex Machine. Hahaha. Actually, he's one of the Kwangjungnims at Daegu MMA so what he thinks kind of does matter since when I test for some of my belts I have to test through them. Hahaha. Anyways, next we took pictures with one of the top amateur fighters in all of Korea. He's such a sweetheart...with Douchi:

But of course with me...

Hahaha...he was goofing off! Really, he didn't want me to stand next to him (the whole big head thing), and he didn't want me to do the same thing to him that I did to my English buddy. It didn't matter to me. I think its a good thing that they feel comfortable enough with me to goof off like that. It means I making progress. Korean guys are so shy around girls! It took me a few weeks to break in the guys at Daejeon MMA, but I think the Daegu boys see how I act with our guys so they feel more comfortable with me. That being said...our next pictures were with our boys Song Sok and Tae Su. Of course once again, they were nice with Douchi's picture (it's on her camera, I don't have it), but for my picture...

I asked Tae Su to turn around for the picture like 10 times before I made lemonade. Hahaha...he didn't like it. He kept saying, "delete, delete". Hahaha. Oh well, maybe next time he will listen.

After the tourney, we went back to Hannam and ate dinner together. It was so much fun because the Kwangjungnim and one of the coaches from Dunsan MMA came out with us. The coach's girlfriend and the Kwangjungnim both spoke fluent English. We had an awesome conversation. We are definitely going to hang out again. I'm excited!!!!
Sweet!!!

Too Long Apart!!!

2010-09-05T01:00:00.000-07:00

So finally, Douchi and I were able to go out again. Her mother and brothers were in town for three weeks, and so she needed to spend as much time with them as possible. So we didn't go out at all while they were here.

Douchi's friend Michi was in town this weekend. So of course, we had to take her to Mr. Chicken and Beer for the deliciousness that is the Cajun Chicken Salad. I swear its the best salad ever made. I am never disappointed at Mr. Chicken. It's funny because one of the guys at the gym said that I was famous at Hannam because Douchi and I are always at Mr. Chicken, and apparently everyone knows me because of it. Hahaha. We are rather friendly I guess. Anyways, it was so much fun!

After, we were going to go to Kwang Min's bar, but it was closed. The Eagles didn't have a game last night so maybe they had a family night or something. Oh well, so we hit up another restaurant that was next to it. Douchi had gone there before with some coworkers, but I hadn't been yet. It was a Korean restaurant, and we ordered the Korean pancake. It had octopus and shrimp inside. It was delicious. It's weird because I like octopus but I don't like squid, and Douchi likes squid but not octopus. Hahaha. We are such opposites! Alex met us at the restaurant a bit later. He is a professor at Hannam University. It was a lot of fun, but Douchi and Michi were tired so they went home early. Alex and I hung out a bit longer. We tried to pick up some people on the street to go noraebonging with us (and by we, I really mean Alex). Hahaha. It was awesome. I think we kind of scared people because no one wanted to go with us! We ended up just going to another Korean restaurant and sitting and talking till about 4am. It was one of the restaurants that we usually go to after a tournament.

Speaking of tournaments, there is another kickboxing tournament a week from today (Sunday). I'm super excited because...Song Won, Yeu Noh, and Song Sok are fighting in it. Song Sok has been in Seoul for military training for the past month...so I haven't seen him in forever! He's one of my favorites at the gym! He is the sweetest guy ever, and he is a really good fighter. This is Song Won's second kickboxing tournament. His first tournament he lost so I hope he wins in this one. I really want him to win. He's a good kid! Of course, I like watching Yeu Noh fight because he's really good (Kwangjungnim's Ace).

Speaking of Yeu Noh, his girlfriend came to the gym this week. She is really pretty and really sweet. She speaks English very well. She told Yeu Noh that she wanted to talk to Douchi and me again. I was teasing Yeu Noh that he was a lucky guy to get such an awesome girlfriend. He said, "No, she's lucky. I am handsome guy." Hahahaha. It was pretty funny! I love it. It is true; he is a handsome guy, and they make the perfect couple. It was just fun to tease him. I asked his girlfriend if she ever went to his tournaments, and she said no because she gets scared that he is going to get hurt. So, I don't think we'll be seeing her at the tournament. I guess its a good thing because he might get distracted if she was there. He likes to focus before the fights. He is always very quiet, but after...he is hilarious!!! I'm so excited for the tournament...but tournament on Sunday means no church.

Church...I made it to church again this week. This time I sang with the band. It was a lot of fun. We met yesterday (Saturday) to practice. It was pretty sweet. Although, it made for a super stacked Saturday. I wanted to go to Costco again this week but I didn't get a chance because I woke up too late. I had just enough time to get ready for Korean lessons. Korean lessons ended at 3pm which made me a little late for band practice at 3:30 because lessons are at Daejeon Station (about a 20 minute subway ride from Government Complex which is about a ten minute bike ride from the church). If I don't have to wait for the subway, I can get there on time. It wasn't a big deal because they were still setting up the sound equipment. I think they were ok with it. We practiced again this morning (Sunday) which kind of sucked because I was that idiot once again that stayed out until 4 when I had to wake up at 8. I was so scared that I was going to oversleep that I woke up at 6 and couldn't go back to sleep. I was so tired during the service!!! Not to mention that my throat was scratchy from not resting my voice! Agh! Oh well, I think it went well. Everyone seemed to like hearing female voices on stage. Apparently for the past year, it's been a boy band. We broke the streak! Hahaha.

Alright so that's about it for this week, I will try to post again next weekend but I can't promise anything. It gets kind of crazy on tournament weekends.

Last Weekend

2010-08-28T01:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I missed my post last weekend. I was super busy, and I didn't have time to write about it.
Saturday, we had Korean lessons, and after I went to get my hair cut. It looks super cute. See:

I was kind of hesitant about going back to the same salon because last time I asked for the same haircut and the girl said that she couldn't do it (which was fine because most stylist can't do it) and so I got a different style instead. I had also asked for a "Magic Straight Perm" but she suggested a different perm instead. My hair was still wavy and a little bit frizzy as well. So I figured I should go back to the same salon and have them fix it rather than explain the problem to a different salon. I got a different stylist this time and she did an amazing job. She "Magic Straight" permed my hair and cut it perfectly!!! I was super pleased because....

Saturday night was Trevor's last Saturday night in Daejeon. He was one of the foreigners at the gym. He is moving back to Canada. So, we sent him off Daejeon MMA style. A bunch of the people from the gym went out. We started out by Hannam. We had a ton of food. Some was American and some was Korean. I tried everything including...

Oh yeah, I can say that I have eaten sea snails. Something to add to my resume...jk. Seriously, they weren't too bad...they were just very salty. It was so much fun because some of the guys that don't normally come out with us came. It was really cool. It's really funny because Korean guys can be really shy about things. So, us girls, well at least I do, like to tease them and get them to blush. One of the Korean guys did a fake kiss on one of the other guys as a joke...so I thought it'd be funny to do the same thing...

...and it was very funny! (My hand is covering his mouth in case you can't see it). I did it to Simpson, and he's always a good sport about those things. He's the one that went out with Douchi and me several times. He is super sweet and funny too! Anyways, it was a lot of fun. After, we went to Yellow Taxi in Dunsan Dong to hear a friend of Trev's and a friend of Mell's play in a band(two different people, same band). It was cool because they played a lot of the rock songs that you don't normally hear in Korea. The night was a lot of fun, but I went home early (and by early I mean 2am) because...

Sunday morning, I woke up really early because I wanted to go to the MMA Tournament that Song Won and Yu Noh were competing in. I had to be at the gym at 7am. When I got there, Tae Su and Simpson were there to wish the guys luck. They didn't go to the tournament because they stayed out all night with Trevor. This is normally the kind of thing that Tae Su would compete in except there isn't an MMA fighter in Korea that wants to compete against Tae Su. So, it was just Song Won and Yu Noh competing. One of the guys, Chin Tek, went to watch. His English is really good, and he helped me study my Korean.

The competition was in Gumi which is his hometown so he went to the tournament and after the tournament he went to his parents' house. Anyways, so we took the train to Gumi. When we got there, the boys weighed in. In case you're not familiar with these kinds of tournaments, the guys diet for a week ahead of the tournament and don't eat anything the day of the tournament until after they weigh in. So, the guys weighed in, and then we went to eat. We ate soup...I hate soup...but it wasn't for me it was for the guys so I sucked it up and ate it...well, some of it. We went with some of the fighters from our "family" gym. It's funny because when I go out with a bunch of Koreans...they always watch me eat. Here, it was no different. At first, I was self-conscious about it, but I'm used to it now. They just want to make sure that I like the food. After we ate, the guys sat and talked for a while about fighting. Koreans love Mike Tyson...so of course, Mike Tyson came up a bit in the conversation. Personally, I'm more of an Evander Holyfield fan myself so I can't say that I like Mike Tyson very much. I'm not that passionate about it anyways so it doesn't really matter. I did talk to a few of the guys from the other gym for a bit about other things. One of the guys spoke English extremely well. Guess where he learned it??? American Movies. Hahaha...it cracks me up. The best Korean English speakers learn their English from the TV or movies. Another one of the guys is a top fighter in Korea. He is really nice, and he helped out with our boys giving them advice. It's crazy because the top fighters are always the sweetest guys ever. Anyways, after a while we went back to the gym to get settled in for the competition. Song Won was up first in the tournament. He only weighs 55 kg so he's usually in the smallest weight class, and they normally have the smallest weight class go first. I was really nervous for him because I think this was his first MMA Tournament. Earlier this year, he had his first Kickboxing Tournament, and he lost. So, I really wanted him to do well in this tournament. He didn't let me down. He was awesome!!!! He won his fight.

I was so proud because his opponent was at least 5 kg bigger than he was. I don't even think the score was close (I can't tell you what it was; mostly because I don't understand Korean). Next up, some of the guys from Daegu MMA (our "family") competed. The guy that spoke English lost his fight because his opponent got a lucky choke hold on him. He had some serious points up until the hold. He was so upset. I felt bad because he really is a nice guy. In fighting, even the best fighters lose sometimes because the other fighter gets a lucky position. You just have to be content with doing your best every time. I struggle with it too though. I hate losing. The other fighter from Daegu won. Their top fighter competed the day before and won. After a few fighters, it was Yu Noh's turn. Yu Noh is Kwangjungnim's "Ace". He is very good in his weight class. He's a really nice guy as well (like I said the top fighters are always the nicest, except for Tae Su...I don't know what happened there...hahaha...jk...Tae Su's a nice enough guy...he pretends to be mean). I really wanted Yu Noh to win too, but I wasn't as concerned because he competes all the time and wins all the time. Plus, in the kickboxing tourney he won his match in 5 seconds. It was crazy. So it came as a surprise that he lost this tournament. Jk, Jk, he WON this tournament. He was awesome!!!!

After the tourney, Chin Tek went to visit his parents and the rest of us loaded onto the train to go home. When we got back to Daejeon, we went out for some celebratory samgipsal. It was delicious as always. It was interesting because Yu Noh never goes out with us. He's a very quiet guy. Even during dinner, he was still quiet, but Kwangjungnim told the guys that the last piece of meat was for me (weird but whatever). So, Yu Noh helps me put the meat on the lettuce and add the extra stuff to make "the perfect bite"...that's what he called it. Is that not super sweet??? It's definitely a Korean thing...American guys would never do this! Oh and you know what else Korean guys do? They count the number of days they have been dating their girlfriends. Yeah...they know the exact number of days they have been dating! How crazy is that? On the 100th day they have to get them a special present. Wow, it's unheard of for a guy to remember such things in America. Hahaha.

So that was pretty much my weekend, last weekend. It was definitely a good, fun-filled weekend but I was exhausted all week. So this weekend, I decided to take it easy and rest a bit. I just went to Costco for a few things and then to Korean lessons. However, on my way home I got stopped by two women who wanted to share their faith with me, and by share I mean, they chased me down the street until I would stop and listen. Seriously??? How many are there here in Korea? This was almost as weird as the last time. This time they claimed that God was really a man and a woman...there's God the Father and God the Mother, and if you don't believe in God the Mother you're going to Hell. I asked them if they believed that Jesus Christ was the only way to get to heaven why would not believing in God the Mother put me in Hell? They couldn't give me an answer. Geez oh Pete! If Korea wasn't challenging and confusing enough, you throw in all of these new beliefs that I've never heard of! Hahaha. CRAZYNESS! But, that is why I came to Korea to experience new things!

"Camping" and by "Camping" I mean "Retreat"

2010-08-15T02:59:00.000-07:00

So this weekend, I went "camping" with the gym. Camping was a lot of fun! We didn't really camp though. Hahaha. We stayed in a large cabin that had a few different apartments. They call them pensions. We stayed in one of the pensions. The last of the rain from the typhoon made it a bit rainy and muddy but that kind of made it better. I think it might have been too hot if it wasn't rainy. We also had fun playing around in the mud. The pension came to the gym to pick us up in a van. There were 15 of us and we all had to cram in this van. It was so funny.

When we got there, it was really cool because the guys did all of the work. They said that in Korea, a woman never does the work when they are on vacation. One of the guys, Tae Su, was the "head chef" and the meals were better than any of the restaurants we have eaten at here in Korea! All of the younger boys had to help him in the kitchen. I told him that he was going to make his future wife very happy. The food was amazing! We had samgipsal and bulgogi.

We got to the pension early. Check in wasn't until 2pm and we arrived at about 11ish. It was up in the mountains with several waterfalls. It was beautiful! We did some hiking. Although no one told us that we could leave our bags in the van so we hiked up this mountain with our bags. They got kind of heavy. It wasn't really too bad. I wasn't miserable, and I was still able to enjoy the hike and take pictures. Although, every time I stopped to take pictures Tae Su kept telling me to hurry up in Korean. I got so mad at him. I made San Ha translate to Kwangjungnim why I was so angry. I told her that they have lived their entire lives here in Korea, and they can see this anytime. I just got here and I don't know how long I'm going to stay or if I will be able to come back to this place. I want to see and experience everything. I think Kwangjungnim talked to him about it.

It was funny because Tae Su is younger than me but the entire trip he kept telling me he was just worried about me. Everything I did he would tell me to stop because its too dangerous. Hahaha. I was just climbing a tree and he started freaking out! I am such a kid because I still love to climb trees and this tree was the perfect climbing tree. I wanted to climb over the fence to go down to the river, and he made me crawl under because going over is too dangerous. I was teasing him that he didn't really speak Korean because he only said two words in Korean "Palli wa" (hurry up), and the only English word he knew was "dangerous".

Anyways, the trail we went up had these cool stairs its called the 300 stairs or something but there's 300 stairs to lead the last bit of the way to the top of the mountain. Some of them were really steep and it was a really good workout. Once again, Tae Su was right behind me telling me to "Palli wa". My calves are seriously sore today from the palli wa up the stairs.

There was a really cool bridge up there too leading to another mountain, I wanted to walk across it but guess what? Tae Su said it was too dangerous and to palli wa. Grrrr. So I took a picture in front of it instead. Hahaha.

After our hike, we had a few minutes before check in so we just sat around for a bit. After we checked in, Tae Su and the guys started lunch. While the guys were cooking lunch the girls took showers! Hahaha. At lunch, we sat outside under a shelter at some picnic tables. They cooked the samgipsal on a grill in front of us. It was so good because it had the charcoal flavor to it.

After lunch, we cleaned up and changed clothes to go swimming in the river. They told us that we weren't going swimming on this trip so Douchi and I didn't bring our swimsuits. I went in with just a tshirt and shorts. Mell brought her suit, and Douchi didn't go in. She took pictures. They were good pictures too! We had so much fun swimming in the river! We brought a soccer ball. While Tae Su was figuring out where would be "safe enough" for us to swim, some of us started kicking the ball around. I kicked the ball too hard and it bounced off one of the guy's legs and landed in the middle of a rice field! Hahaha. It was so funny! Have you ever seen a rice field before? It has tall grass in a flooded field. So it was very muddy and we couldn't see the ball. One of the guys went in and almost lost his flip flops so he had to go barefoot through the mud to find it. Another guy was sitting on Tae Su's shoulders to see if he could see the ball. It was so funny! He finally found the ball, and we walked down to the river. It was so much fun! The water was super cold but we splashed and dunked each other. We also played volleyball with the soccer ball. It was so much fun! We were trying to play water polo but Tae Su decided it was too dangerous with the rocks. Hahaha. So we decided to head back to the pension where we took our second shower of the day. Hahaha.

Then, we decided to play basketball on a "dirt court" which was more of a weed and mud court instead. We played with a volleyball (go figure, volleyball with a soccerball and then basketball with the volleyball). Nothing makes sense. We slipped and slid all over the court and we couldn't bounce the ball because of the weeds. It was hilarious! We were all covered in mud. So we all took our third shower of the day. We hung our clothes up on the balcony to dry so we wouldn't track the mud into the pension, but the wind started blowing later during the night and the clothes ended up everywhere! This morning, I found my shorts and tshirt along with two guys boxer shorts in a tree under the balcony. It was so funny because I grabbed them and brought them up. One of the guys was like hey that's my underwear and grabbed them from me. It was hilarious. He kept thanking me for finding them for him.

But after basketball, we took showers and Tae Su and the boys started on dinner. After dinner, we played games, talked, listened to music, and danced. It was a lot of fun. We stayed up all night. Well, I tried to anyways, but apparently I was sleeping in my chair and Tae Su made me go to bed. Hahaha. Poor Tae Su, I gave him a hard time all weekend!

This afternoon, the pension drove us back to the gym. Once again we crammed in the van. But, one of the guys got a little car sick and started vomiting in the back seat. The back seat was the most crowded because there were six guys in a four person seat. All of the other guys were really sweet about it and held a plastic bag while he was vomiting. They were tapping his back and everything. No one made him feel bad about it either. They had to have been miserable but they were trying to be light about it. Luckily, we were only ten minutes from the gym, but the back smelled like ramen from the bag of vomit. I had a window seat and Mell and I stuck our heads right by the window. Her and I were both about to vomit too from the smell. I don't know how the guys in the back did it. Those guys are quite possibly the nicest people I have ever met in my entire life.

It was an amazing weekend! I cannot wait for the next trip!

Korean Food

2010-08-08T03:28:00.000-07:00

I realized that all this time I have been talking about my experiences in Korea I haven't taken much time to talk about the food I eat. I know I have mentioned several times that Koreans eat a lot, but I haven't talked about what. I'll start with my favorites.

The Seven Elevens here in Daejeon have an extremely delicious tuna kimbop that I absolutely love! Kimbop is stuffed with rice and various veggies and sometimes a meat or cheese (it comes in different meats including ham and beef, as I said my favorite is tuna) all wrapped up in seaweed. It is very yummy!!!!

There are many restaurants throughout the city that serve samgipsal. It is the Korean barbeque that I mentioned after I first got here. It is served with many delicious sides. The restaurants have a burner in the middle of the table where they put a small grill to cook the samgipsal. There is different types of samgipsal from thinly sliced bacon to a thicker beef. They place the meat on the grill, and you can add whatever sides to the flavor the meat. I like to put the gimchi and garlic on the grill. They also have a few different sauces that you can dip your cooked meat into before eating it. One is a red pepper paste sauce, one is more of an oily sauce, and then there's a vinegar based sauce. My favorite is the vinegar based sauce. Most Koreans like to eat the samgipsal with just a sauce. I prefer to put it in the lettuce leaves that they serve with the samgipsal. I stuff the leaf with the samgipsal, gimchi, garlic, and the vinegar sauce. It is very delicious this way. However, most Koreans don't like salad so they avoid lettuce...hahaha.

Another popular food here in Korea are "pancakes". These pancakes are made with a bisquick type mix with veggies and various meats added to it. The most popular I believe are the seafood ones. I have not eaten a lot of them, but I do like the octopus ones. They are really good, but I do think that it depends on the restaurant that makes them. I think that some of the pancakes I've tried didn't taste good not because of the type of pancake but because of the restaurant.

One of the most popular dishes and one of my favorites is galbi. There is different types of galbi. My favorite is tok galbi which is chicken. Once again, the restaurants have a burner in the middle of the table, but this time they put a large skillet type bowl with handles on the burner to cook the food. They bring the food uncooked on dishes and dump it all in the big bowl with some sauces. They come by the table to stir it. It is very delicious.

Another popular dish is dopoki. I didn't like it at first, but its growing on me. Dopoki is a really doughy noodle. It's served in dishes like galbi. It is also served by itself.

One of the most traditional dishes is bimibop. The best bimibop I had was at the Buddhist temple I went to on Buddha's Birthday. It was so yummy!!!! Bimibop is rice with sprouts and turnips and I think gimchi too. It's all mixed in together with a red pepper paste. Very yummy!

Perhaps the most popular dish here in Korea is ice cream! Koreans love their ice cream (and doughnuts but we won't talk about that). Every convenient store has a variety of ice creams for less than 1,000 won (which is $1). They even have milkshakes in a pack...its crazy! The most popular ice cream dish I would say is the pabingsu. It's shaved iced with little candy jellies and red beans. It is really good. It sounds disgusting, but its delicious.

There are many other Korean dishes that I haven't mentioned, and I'm not promising that I got every ingredient correct in the dishes that I mentioned. It is very difficult to know for sure exactly what I am eating since it is all in Korean. Most Korean meals are served with rice, gimchi, and soup. Every meal that I have eaten at school has been served with rice, gimchi, and soup. They served spaghetti one time with rice, gimchi, and soup (weird).

Alright, so now that everyone's mouths are watering with the deliciousness that I have shared with you...I will start with the details of my week! This week was very hot and most people are on vacation so the gym was pretty dead all week. However, we did have a visitor. A spider decided to join the class during jiu jitsu and even though I was screaming, no man in the room offered to kill it, and no one would let me kill it. I asked San Ha why no one was killing the spider, and she said that you cannot kill a spider at night time. If you kill a spider at night, you will have bad luck. Seriously?!?!

On Friday, I went out with Kwangjungnim, Song Won, and Mike for some samgipsal after my workout. It was pretty good. Song Won is quite possibly the coolest kid in Korea. He is always at the gym training, but he takes the time to goof off with me to make gym a little more fun. He's hilarious! He helps me with my Korean, and I try to help him with his English, but I think he's the better teacher.

On Saturday, I went to Korean class with Mell. After, we stopped by Jungangno Station for some shopping and some food. We had some dopoki and kimbop. After, I made a trip to Costco to pick up some yogurt and vitamins. Later, I met Mell again for a little snack and some talking. It was pretty relaxed.

Today, I made it to church again! Yay! I was so proud of myself; three weeks in a row! I've really been slacking lately! I met some of the new girls from SLP, and I saw one of the foreign guys that had checked out the gym. He works at Poly which is a very demanding school so he doesn't really have the time and energy to make it to Daejeon MMA. So he joined a gym closer to Munnyeon dong. We talked for a bit, and I talked for a bit with the girls from SLP. They are all pretty sweet! It was a really good Sunday. I even stayed for Bible study. I was kind of hesitant because the last time I went to Bible study, it was mostly men, and I didn't quite feel welcomed to the conversation. But I heard that more women were going to Bible study now so I decided to check it out. It was really good, and I was finally able to ask my question about "seeing God" like physically. They confirmed my original suspicion that it was in fact a cult. For those of you new to reading my ramblings, when I first arrived in Daejeon, I was greeted by a sweet woman who asked me if I was a Christian. When I told her I was, she asked me to go to dinner with her. I said sure thinking it would just be us two. However, a few other women joined and started talking about seeing God physically and asked me why I couldn't see God, and if I wanted to. I was really freaked out. I told them that I had to leave and rushed out. They had said that Koreans were deeply spiritual and that's why they could see God, but the pastor of the church I am attending told me that it was not true. After Bible study, the worship team asked me again to sing with them. I really want to, but I hate saying that I will do something when I cannot truly commit to it. Maybe that is what I need to do though so that I will be more motivated to wake up on Sunday mornings. I told them that I would think about it and let them know in a few weeks after I get back from camping because I am going to miss church again next Sunday to go camping with the gym.

This weekend was pretty chilled because I am trying to rest up for next weekend! I am super excited about going camping! I cannot wait! I am not sure who all is going, but I know that Douchi, San Ha, and Mell are going and that's good enough for me!

Ah! Refreshing Summer Vacation

2010-07-31T22:37:00.000-07:00

So this past week was summer vacation. I don't think I realized how much I needed a vacation. I was kind of scared for this vacation because Douchi still had to work and Mell, Janet, and Mariana went out of town. The guys from the gym were still around and San Ha, but I was afraid that I would miss my family too much if I spent too much time alone. I'm crazy I know, but whatever! Hahaha. I'm me and I'm ok with that! This week was definitely refreshing though! I slept in late every day!!!! Hahaha. I did some grocery shopping (I hadn't gone in about a month...there was nothing in my refrigerator). I also cleaned my apartment really well!!!! I hadn't taken the time to really clean in a few months so I know my apartment needed it! I also went to the gym earlier than I normally do; so I got in a better workout! It was very nice. I did better with my Jiu Jitsu because I wasn't completely exhausted from working all day. A couple of days, I met Douchi for "dinner" before my workout. I enjoyed the time with Douchi, but eating before a workout is never a good idea! Hahaha...especially when its super hot outside. Oh well, you live and learn right?

Friday, Douchi and I skipped the gym to go to Seoul for the afternoon. We met up with one of my friends. He met us at Seoul Station, and we went shopping. It was interesting because he was super patient while Douchi and I looked at clothing. Also, I've never met a guy volunteer to go shopping. I told him we could meet up later, but he wanted to go shopping with us. He thought we were crazy though because we split up when we got inside the store! Hahaha. We always do that and don't even think about it, but he was so confused...he wasn't sure what he should do. He didn't know if he should go with me or her. Of course, Douchi and I always meet back up in the dressing room and help each other decide what we want. One of his friends met up with us while we were shopping. So we had not only one but two guys voluntarily shop with us!!! Wow! Hahaha. We only went to one store because we found everything we needed, but we also didn't want to subject them to any more torture. Although, they never would have said anything! Hahaha. They were surprised that we didn't shop more than we did. After, we decided to go to Holly's Coffee to sit and talk for a bit. It was nice. Then, of course, we had to go eat...I mean this is still Korea...you have to eat every time you go out with someone its the law! We got a Korean pancake which has octopus and veggies inside it. It's not too bad. I kind of like it!

After, we headed back to Daejeon. We met up with Song Sok (one of the guys from the gym) at Mr. Chicken and Beer. It's his last weekend in Daejeon for about a month. He is going to training for the army. He's definitely one of my favorite people at the gym. I hate that I won't see him for a month. It's going to suck even more when he leaves for the army next year. I won't see him much at all :(
It was a relaxing evening. We just hung out at Mr. Chicken all night and talked.

It was definitely a good week! I am glad I stayed here. I think if I had gone away on vacation, I may not have relaxed like I needed to!

Summer Vacation Kickoff

2010-07-25T05:11:00.000-07:00

Summer vacation officially started at 5:15 Friday afternoon! Of course like the dedicated gym member that I am...I went to the gym for a few hours before heading home. Thursday was Mell's birthday so Friday night we celebrated with a b-day dinner in Dunsan. We were only going to be out for a few hours because I had to go to Korean lessons, and Mell and Janet had to catch their flight for China in the morning. As always, a few hours is never a few hours. I totally slept through my Korean lesson, but somehow Mell and Janet managed to catch their flight. It was a really fun night, and I am glad that I went out. I am not happy that I skipped my Korean lesson, but this is summer vacation and I'm the only one actually spending my summer vacation in Daejeon...so I'll forgive myself this one time.

After waking up late for my Korean lesson, I still had time to catch my Jiu jitsu lesson on Saturday afternoon. I was still exhausted, but I had promised I'd be there so I dragged my lazy bum to the gym. Turns out, one of the girls bailed on the lesson and the other one was running late. Kwangjungnim was really mad that one of the girls had bailed and the other one was late. He kept telling me that I was a good person for keeping my promise even though I was tired. Koreans are really big on promises and commitments. I am so glad that I made it to the gym. After the gym, we went out for some Korean barbecue, I think its called sumgipsal or something like it. I had not had any Korean barbecue since the first week I was here. It was delicious!!!! After barbecue, we went noraebonging. It was fun, but there were only three of us so it was not as fun as it usually is. Then, of course, we ate again. Koreans are constantly eating!!!!!!! I have no idea how they stay so thin; they are always, always, always eating! It's crazy!

Today, Sunday, I woke up in time to go to church for the first time in a few weeks. I've felt so badly about missing church. It has been one thing after another, and I never seem to be able to make it. So I went and I met a few new girls, and I talked to a few familiar faces. One of the girls is studying in America, and she came home for summer vacation. The other girl lives in Daejeon with her family.

I am a little nervous about this week. Everyone is either working or going away for the vacation; so I am probably going to have quite a bit of alone time. It will be good for studying Korean and cleaning my apartment, but I'm not sure how much of that I can stand! Hahaha. This may be a test for strength of character. Hahaha.

Relaxed Weekend?

2010-07-18T05:20:00.000-07:00

I had a fairly relaxed weekend this weekend. By relaxed, I mean that I went to bed before the sun came up. Hahahaha. So, Friday night Douchi and I just chilled at our regular spots. At our "End Cap", we heard some guys at another table practicing their English on each other. I kept waiting for them to come over and start talking, but they didn't. It wasn't until we walked past their table to leave before they said something to us. It was cute! Korean guys are so shy! Hahahaha. Douchi and I went home fairly early because I had Korean lessons at 1 on Saturday.

Mell and I went to Korean lessons, and we got our textbooks!!! I think that it is going to help a lot. We've already started practicing reading. I practice with San Ha because she is really good about telling me what I'm pronouncing wrong. I've also started practicing with some of the guys' names at the gym. It's pretty cool.

After lessons, I had my one stripe Jiu Jitsu test. It was so hard! I only had an hour to eat, get to the gym, change, practice and stretch before the test. It was definitely not enough time for my food to settle. Hahahaha. I almost vomited! San said she felt like vomiting too, and she didn't even eat. Maybe it was just because we were exerting so much energy for a long time. The first part of the test was the techniques. I was so nervous about the technique because he is watching to make sure you do it perfectly. It's hard for me because I miss some things because he is speaking in Korean, and I can't always see everything. But I did okay on that part of the test. The next part of the test was the sparring. We had to spar with so many people!!! I lost count! It was one after another with no breaks. It was hard! But I think we did well. All of the one stripe testers passed. Only two out of the four two stripe testers passed, the three stripe tester and the four stripe tester failed. After the test, everyone went out to eat. It was a lot of fun! I love hanging out with the guys after events. It's always fun getting to know them.

After dinner, I met up with Douchi to celebrate her birthday. We went dancing at Cocoon. The music sucked this weekend. I am not sure if it was because we got there too early or what, but it was all techno junk which is okay for a song or two but not the entire night. I was tired anyways after testing so I headed out early.

Then today, Sunday, San Ha came over, and we went to get my haircut. I got the magic straight perm, but they had to put some sort of clinic treatment on my hair to strengthen it. It looks pretty good; it's not as straight as I would like it, but we'll see how it is after I wash it. I can always straighten it with an iron. I really just wanted something I could wash and go with. Also, I have to go back next weekend to receive another treatment, and the girl said that if I was unhappy with anything she would fix it then. We'll see!

2nd visit to Seoul!!!

2010-07-11T07:24:00.000-07:00

So, this weekend was pretty amazing, but that's nothing new right??? Friday night was definitely chill. I stayed at the gym pretty late, but I had a really deep conversation with one of the older guys there. He went to university in Texas so his English is really good. He is a counselor at Taejon Christian International School as well as a counselor to rape victims. We talked a good bit about Psychology, Sociology, and deviance in general. We also talked about the cultural aspects of Korea. He was telling me that Korea was becoming more and more Westernized, and how much it had changed in the past ten years. It was probably the first in depth conversation I have had with a Korean since I have arrived. It was really good to hear a Korean's perspective on life in general.

Saturday was NUTS!!!! Mell and I decided to sit outside the GS25 (a convenient store with a few patio tables outside my apartment). I had a Seoul date with Douchi at 9am on Sunday so I kind of wanted an early night. Well, some way or another we ended up changing clothes and going to Dunsan Dong to eat at a restaurant. While in Dunsan, we decided to stop by the foreigner bar, Sponge. We stayed until about three. We had fun dancing and chatting with the other foreigners. We got a few numbers and said goodbye. We caught a taxi that had the undercarriage glow (possibly a mistake on our part). Anyways, we start heading back home to Mannyeon Dong in this Disco Taxi when he starts playing some serious dance music. We are about to turn onto our street when Mell and I look at each other and decide that we need to go dancing. Hahaha. Wow, so we had back to Dunsan to the dance club Cocoon. We dance for a few more hours, get a few more numbers, and then finally, head back home! K-RAZY since I had to get up at 8 in order to get to the bus station by 9.

I went to Seoul on Sunday with Douchi on only 2 hours of sleep. We were shopping for our outfits to wear for her birthday dinner on Friday, and her birthday dance night on Saturday this coming weekend. She found some really cute dresses at Forever 21!!! She has such a cute figure so everything she tried on looked gorgeous!!!! I also found a couple of dresses for the weekend. I am so excited for her birthday!!!!!

So after spending a good bit of the day in Seoul, we came home in just enough time for me to shower and meet Mell, Kwanjungnim, and Alice Teacher for dinner. Because somehow, someone got the idea to set Kwanjungnim and Alice Teacher up on a date, and then somehow another person got roped into going on the first outing with them because in Korea you don't do blind dates. I was so tired, but it was fun. I am not sure how well it went. I will have to ask Kwanjungnim tomorrow. It seemed to go well, but what do I know; the entire thing was in Korean!

So another good weekend, here in Korea has come and gone. And I am left to start the work week once again exhausted but content! I am excited about the birthday celebrations this week!!!!!

Seoul

2010-07-03T23:36:00.000-07:00

Man, what a great weekend!!!! Mell and I went to Seoul on Saturday. Seoul has a lot of foreigners so some of the popular stores from back home have opened stores there. We went to Forever 21 and found some really cute dresses and shirts. We also looked at H&M, but couldn't really find anything there. We also went to Insan dong, a traditional Korean area that sold a lot of nice souvenir type things to send back home to family. I think Douchi and I are going next weekend to shop for outfits for her birthday party. I am super excited!!!! She said she might even get some heels!!! Yay!

When we got home from Seoul, it was still pretty early. So we met Douchi and Trevor at Mr. Chicken and Beer for some Cajun Chicken Salad. I know we go there way too often but seriously you gotta try this salad. Its the most amazing thing you have ever put in your mouth!!! Then, we hit up Kwang Min's for a bit, but he wasn't there and we wanted to go dancing. So we headed to Dunsan Dong to some of the foreigner bars. Sponge was dead when we first got there so we left and went to a restaurant down the street. We didn't get to dance but still it was so much fun. We sat next to three Korean guys that were about mine and Mell's ages (age is very important in Korea if I haven't mentioned that lately, that and blood type, weird). Anyways, I started talking to them because I noticed that they kept staring at us (I think because I was the only one dancing in the entire restaurant...hahaha). They were really nice guys. It was funny because then Mell told them that I was single. Then, they told me to choose one of them. Maybe I am weird but I have a hard time telling people that I like someone better than them. I don't want to hurt their feelings :(. Anyways, they had to meet some other friends so they left. Then, Mell got it in her head to get me a boyfriend that night. So she dared me to go over and talk to this seriously cute Korean guy on the other side of the restaurant. Hahaha. I figured that I had nothing to lose. It's not like I am going to see the guy everyday if I get shot down. Hahaha. It was hilarious!!!! Douchi and Mell told me to ask him if he had a girlfriend. Douchi told me how to ask in Korean. So I did. Hahaha. He said that he didn't. He and his friend both spoke English very well. They invited me to sit with them. So I sat and talked with them for a bit. The hottie's name is Kim Tae Young and his friend's name was Go Myeong Young. They were college friends. They went to Incheon University near Seoul. Kim Tae Young is from Seoul, and he's a civil engineer. Go Myeong Young is an architect. Both guys were really cool, and before I left, I got Kim Tae Young's number. I am crazy, I know! I haven't heard from him yet, but I was the one to ask for his number so am I the one that is supposed to text??? The Korean Dating Game is so weird! Anyways, we left and went back to Sponge because some of the other girls from work were going there. We hung out at Sponge for a minute to dance a little before Douchi and I headed back to Hannam to finish the night at another one of our fave restaurants. Another fun weekend here in Korea!!!!

I can't wait to go back to Seoul next weekend with Douchi!!!

I am getting really bad at this!

2010-06-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I am getting really bad about not updating this thing. I am just so busy. I don't remember my life ever being this full back home. It's like I am trying to keep up with everyone here and back home at the same time. Hahaha. I guess its a good thing right? I am definitely not complaining because I am really enjoying life right now and definitely living it to the fullest. I never imagined that Korea would be this amazing. I remember talking to Amanda about teaching overseas. I really wanted to teach in Europe, but she suggested Korea because it paid more. I remember thinking, Asia??? I was afraid of what I would find here, but what I found is an amazing culture that is totally different from what I grew up in. I absolutely love it. I have seriously fallen in love with everything about this city and this country!!!! I love my friends that I have here. Friends are considered family. You are only called a friend if you are born in the same year. If you are not born in the same year, you are a brother or a sister. I have formed some amazing relationships with the people I workout with. I consider them my Korean family. We are really close. I love the school that I work at because I have amazing hours. I talk to the other foreign teachers that live in our neighborhood, and they have horrible hours. I love that I have time to go to the gym everyday after school. I love that I have time to hang out with friends on the weekends. I talk to some of my Korean friends, and they work so hard that they don't have much time for anything else. I talk to my friends back home, and they are working hard just to keep their jobs and make a little money. I am very thankful for my life here in Korea.

Alright now on to the update...so World Cup has been going on for the past few weekends right? So the obvious is that Douchi and I went to the sports bar to watch the games on Friday night. Saturday, I went for a massage. It was amazing as usual! I didn't go out on Saturday night even though Korea and the US played because Sunday I had to get up at 5 am to go to the Jiu Jitsu Tourney. The tournament was so much fun!!!! I was thinking that our gym would be the only with foreigners because that's how it was at the kickboxing tourney, but I was wrong! I think because the tournament was close to Seoul that it was more of a countrywide tournament. Anyways, we walk in and almost immediately we see all of these big US Army guys. They were very good looking ;D Anyways, we sat with the gym that Kwanjungnim trained at. The guys were hilarious!!! The master of the gym told us that he had an English nickname that his friend had given him. We were thinking that it would be something like the nicknames we gave the guys at our gym (Dandy, Sweety, Cutie, Flowerboy, Pandy, Good Music Guy), but no. He said his nickname was "Sex Machine". Douchi, Mell, and I looked at each other and busted up laughing. And of course, everyone in the gym turned to look at us because girls aren't supposed to laugh wholeheartedly like we were. Korean girls giggle; they don't laugh. Whatever, it was so funny!!!! Anyways, our guys did really well in the tournament. Two of our guys got silver medals for their weight class in the gi competition, and one guy got the gold medal in the no-gi competition. Only one of our guys didn't place in the tournament. He was up against the gold medalist in the second round, but he did really well; they tied so it was the judge's decision who advanced to the next round. After the tourney, we headed back to Daejeon and had dinner with the guys before heading home. We had a really good time!!!! I am definitely looking forward to the next tournament. I am kind of nervous because Kwanjungnim wants me to compete in the next tournament. I am not sure if I am ready to compete yet. I will have to see how well I train before the tournament before I decide if I want to compete. It's kind of a bit of pressure because there is only one other girl that will compete for our gym at this tournament. We will see!

This coming weekend, I am going to Seoul with Mell on Saturday, but no other big plans so maybe I will have time to update this thing on Sunday??? We'll see! Hahaha.

World Cup

2010-06-20T02:31:00.000-07:00

So I skipped my post last weekend because it was super busy. So here's what happened. On Friday, Douchi and I hung out with Simpson again. We stayed by Hannam and watched some of the World Cup soccer match that was on that night. We had a fairly early night. Then, on Saturday night, we went to the gym to watch the Korea vs. Greece World Cup match. Korea won which was pretty sweet. So we all went out afterward to celebrate. Kwanjungnim, the gym master, even came out with us. It was a lot of fun! We went noreabonging and just hung out and had a good time! We stayed out until the buses started running again. I had on a Korea Red Devils t-shirt, and I was sporting a Korea tattoo on my cheek so the bus driver loved me! I have no idea what he was saying but I think he was asking me about the game and telling me what a good game it was. It was funny! He had a huge smile on his face. I ended up falling asleep for a couple stops and when I woke up he was looking in the mirror at me and he was still smiling! Hahaha. On Thursday, we watched the match at the gym. This time Korea played Argentina and lost. Everyone was so upset! Most people just wanted to go home, and I had to work on Friday so we called it an early night. Then on Friday, we went to the zoo with the school. I really enjoyed it with the kids. While we were in the monkey exhibit, I was trying to point out a monkey to the kids because he was swinging on the vines. Apparently, one of the other monkeys didn't like it very much because he jumped on the glass right in front of where I was standing, and it scared the crap out of me. The kids thought it was so funny, and the helper teacher was so freaked out she made us leave the exhibit. Hahaha. On Friday night, I just hung around the house because I had some things I had to get done. It was still an interesting night because Mellissa called me at about 11ish to tell me that some guys had been fighting in the walkway by her house and one had fallen on the ground and wasn't moving. She said he was laying there for 10 minutes and people kept walking around him as if he weren't there. She asked if I would come with her to check on him. So, we went to check on him. However, he did not want or appreciate our help. He told us to go home because it was his life. In all seriousness, the guy was in his forties wearing a polo shirt and dress pants, laying on the sidewalk while bicycles were nearly running over him. I think he needed some psychological help, but whatever, like he said it's his life. So last night, Saturday night, Douchi and I went out with several of the guys from the gym and one of her friends from out of town. The guys finished their finals this week so we wanted to hang out with them to celebrate. It was a lot of fun. We don't really get to hang out much with some of those guys because they are always studying, but they were hilarious! We found out that they like to dance; so I think we are going dancing next time! Yay!

Hanwha Eagles Game

2010-06-05T21:10:00.000-07:00

This week was pretty sweet! We did not have school on Wednesday because it was Election Day. So Douchi, Nari, and I went out on Tuesday night. We tried to get some of the guys to go out with us, but they all had other plans. So we were sitting at our usual table in Mr. Chicken and Beer (the cajun chicken salad is amazing!!!!), and in comes Tae Su, one of the guys who had other plans. He came in with a group of guys that he had just played soccer with. He was so excited to introduce us to his group of friends; it was funny! It's interesting because when we see the guys outside of the gym with their friends, they always get so excited to show us off. Its hilarious! Anyways, we just sat around talking and laughing. I love it!

Friday night, we decided to try again. We asked around to see if anyone wanted to go out, and of course, they all said no. Final exams are coming up so everyone is still pretty busy with school. So once again, Douchi and I made are trek up to Mr. Chicken and Beer. This time Son Ha joined us for a bit, but she had to leave early. After Son left, Nari came in. Mr. Chicken and Beer really likes us because we come in all of the time. So, they made us some french fries to show us how much they liked us. After Mr. Chicken and Beer, we went to Song Kwang Min's Bar. Kwang Min wasn't there because it was late, and he had a game on Saturday. But his parents were there and told him to come back because we were there. It was funny because he was sleeping, but he didn't make it back before the bar closed. We weren't really disappointed because we didn't expect to see him there anyway. But I think his whole family likes us because they kept bringing us food too. Just like Mr. Chicken and Beer. The Koreans that go out with us get so jealous because apparently that's not normal???? Hahaha. Oh well, free food! It was definitely a fun night, and we talked to the people at Kwang Min's about going to the game on Saturday. They promised to save us some seats in the good section. SWEET!

On Saturday, we got Trevor, the Canadian guy at the gym, to go with us to the game. It was just Douchi, Son Ha, Trevor, and me, but it was so much fun. We were right in front of the cheerleaders, and we had some really good seats! We could see everything! Not to mention, they gave us more free stuff! Hahaha! Seriously, I don't know what this is! It was a really good game! Kwang Min had a home run, several rbi's, and made some amazing plays! The Hanwha Eagles won the game 10-6. After the game, we were going to try a different restaurant, but they were closed. So of course, we ended up at Mr. Chicken and Beer. After Mr. Chicken, Son Ha had to leave. Then, of course we stopped by Kwang Min's to congratulate him on a game well played. Nari joined us at Kwang Min's. She was so excited to meet him in person! Hahaha. Once again, he sat and talked with us a bit. I think he even studied some English since the last time because he was very talkative. He is a very genuine and down to earth kind of guy. Which is very impressive considering he's "kind of a big deal" hahaha. He gave us all a signed baseball, and some cake too. You already know it, more free stuff! Nari had to leave early, but one of the guys from the gym decided to go out karaoking with us. His nickname is Simpson (I think his real name is Sim Shyun). He speaks English very well, and he was so much fun! He has never hung out with us before so we really got to know him. We karaoked for a bit then went to another restaurant that we always go to at the end of the night and talked forever! It was such an amazing evening! He's planning on coming out with us again next weekend. I'm super excited!!!!! I can't wait because the other guys promised to join us too! SWEET! I love it!

Another Amazing Weekend

2010-05-29T03:43:00.000-07:00

Wow, I seriously get super excited for the weekends now. Hahahaha. When I first got here I didn't really get excited about the weekend because I knew most of it would be spent alone. Now that I have made some really good friends, I get so excited about it! Hahaha. This past weekend, Douchi and I invited the Master and some of the guys from Daejeon MMA to hang out with us. Another girl named Nari went with us as well. She is new, and super sweet! It was so much fun! We went to a Korean Traditional Bar. It was a very nice place. I loved the atmosphere and the decor. We sat at one of the floor tables. In the middle of the meal, Master made everyone change places because the guys were bored. Apparently Korean men don't really talk to each other unless there is a female present. I don't know. So they split Douchi, Nari and me up. Whatever, it was still fun! The guys crack me up. After we ate, we sat and talked for a bit, and one of the guys went out for ice cream for everyone. It was hilarious because he came back to the bar with a bag of Popsicles from the gas station. They are such kids sometimes. After a bit, we decided to go karaokeing. It was awesome because the guys are really good singers, and they sang a lot of Korean songs. I love it! I am so glad that I found this gym because we all have so much fun!

This week is going to be pretty sweet too! Tomorrow night, I am hanging out with my friend at his bar. Tuesday, Douchi, Nari and I are going to go out because we all have Wednesday off for elections. I love four day work weeks!!!!

Buddha's Birthday Weekend

2010-05-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

Alright so this weekend was seriously amazing!!!! I cannot begin to describe how perfect this weekend was! We had Friday off for Buddha's Birthday which was awesomeness in itself! But what to do with a three day weekend? After much debating whether to hit up Seoul for the festivities or go to Busan for the beach, I decided to stay here this weekend. It was the best decision I could have possibly made! On Friday, my Korean friend Son Ha and I went to Sikjongsan to climb up 4.5 km and back down 4.5 km to see the temple there. It was an amazing hike and very challenging! My butt and calves are still sore! At the top, they served us a meal of Kimbop. It was delicious! The view was spectacular! The temple was small but there were fewer people there. It was a good experience anyways. The nature was gorgeous! I could not have asked for a better hike! We saw new born baby birds following their mother on our way back down the mountain. It was incredible! They couldn't even fly yet.

Friday night, my friend Douchi and I went to a few different bars. It was amazing. We were walking around figuring out which bar we wanted to go to when we saw this sports bar on one of the top levels. We decided to check it out. We walked in and sat down in one of the booths. I noticed a very tall and well built Korean at the bar wearing an Ed Hardy t-shirt. It was crazy because most Koreans aren't built like that and most Koreans don't wear Ed Hardy. But Douchi and I were sitting there talking and a Korean girl came up and offered us some menus. She asked us how we knew about the bar, and we told her that we didn't know about the bar; we just thought that it looked cool. Then she told us that the guy in the Ed Hardy at the bar was a famous baseball player here in Daejeon. He plays third base for the Hanwha Eagles. His name is Song Kwang Min. She asked us if we wanted a picture with him, and we said sure because we thought it would make the guys at the gym jealous. He came over and took a picture. Then, he sat with us a bit. He invited us to the game on Saturday. They told us they would save us some seats right by the cheerleaders. He also told us that we should invite our friends to the bar for a party. We talked for a bit about the game and baseball. Then the cheer captain came over to sit next to me. It was hilarious because he had kept looking over at us from his table, and so Kwang Min called him over to join us. He showed us a few of his cheers. It was fun. He acted a bit nervous. So I asked him if I was making him nervous because he was sitting next to me, and he said no but I made his heart beat super fast. Hahahaha. I was laughing so hard!!!! One of the girls reminded him that he had a girlfriend that he was about to marry. I only laughed harder. It was awesome! We stayed there until it closed at 2. After, we went to a restaurant down the road for a bit, but it wasn't as exciting as the first bar.

On Saturday, it rained so the baseball game was canceled. We were so bummed, but Douchi and I decided to go out anyways. We started out at Mr. Chicken because we both love their Cajun Chicken Salad. Then, we went to this bar called NASA which wasn't anything special. Then, we went to a couple of different "Modern Bars" that had a good chilled atmosphere but weren't exactly what we were looking for. Then, we walked into this one bar thinking that it would be a more upbeat place, and it turned out to be a gentlemen's club so we immediately turned around and walked out. It was hilarious! It's times like those that it would have been handy to be able to read the Korean. Finally, we ended up at the same restaurant as Friday night. One of the guys from the gym joined us, and we all had a really good time! I met a few guys that were sitting at a table near ours. They were really good guys. One is a soccer player (they kept telling me he had nice legs...hahahaha). The others were all kind of shy and didn't talk much except for one that really wanted to practice his English. He told me that he lives in Seoul and that I should call him if I go up to Seoul. So we exchanged numbers, and he texted me immediately after I had left. Hahaha. It's awesome that the guys here don't have issues contacting you within 24 hours of your meeting. They are always so polite too. It is definitely one of my favorite things about this city!

Today, I am just doing a bit of house cleaning and resting up for my work week. This weekend has been a lot of fun, but now I am exhausted!!! Hahaha.

Fighting

2010-05-16T03:13:00.000-07:00

Ok since last week's blog was all mushy about boys; I figured I'd change it up this week and talk about fighting. Hahaha. So last Sunday, my instructor was hosting a kickboxing tournament at another gym. We met at our home gym first thing in the morning and took a bus to the other gym. I was one of two foreigners that attended the tournament. The other foreigner was also from our gym; her name is Douchi. She is awesome. I really got to know her at the matches. It was pretty sweet. We spent all day watching matches. They were really good matches. The guys from our gym did really well! The high school boys did alright; one guy won his first match and lost his second match, another tied in his match, and the other lost his match. Our adult heavy-weight fighter lost his match; it was his second time up against this fighter and the fighter is really good. He was really upset about it. All of our other adult fighters won their matches. Only two of them had to fight all three rounds. The first adult fighter went all three rounds and won. The second and third adult fighters' opponents threw in the white flag before the first round was over. The last adult fighter fought in a special match. He fought without headgear, and he was awesome! It was a really good match.

After the tournament, we all went out to eat. The guys were hilarious! They kept teaching me Korean phrases. It was really cool because the ones that normally don't talk to me tried to talk to me. A lot of them don't like to speak in English in front of other Koreans or they don't like talking to foreigners because they are afraid their English is bad. I hate it when they are afraid to talk to me. I don't want them to think that I am going to make fun of them. Most of the time their English is really good. One of the Korean girls, her name is Son, at the gym speaks English very well, but she was so afraid to talk to me. I had to encourage her to speak in English to me. But we have started talking a lot at the gym, and she is so sweet! She is also extremely strong!!!! She can kick my butt! Hahaha. There's also a Korean guy at the gym that speaks in English very well too, and he always talks to me. His English isn't as good as Son's even though his mother is a middle school English teacher. I don't like to talk to him as much as Son because he is super mean! He says he is just kidding, but he always talks about the same thing so I'm thinking he's not. Anyways, he rides the same bus as I do so if we leave at the same time he likes to talk. Luckily, two other guys from the gym ride the same bus too. I like the other guys, but the other day he started being mean right in front of the other guys. It made me so mad; I moved to stand by the door awhile before my stop. I think he might like me, and so he's trying to pull a jerk move by breaking my confidence. He's asked me a couple of times if I have a boyfriend, and he's told me that he doesn't have a girlfriend. Guys are so weird sometimes! Grrr. Anyways, this post is not about boys right? Hahaha, but it was cool riding the bus with the other guys because I got to talk to them a bit and learn more about them. One of them is one of the guys that doesn't want to speak in English to me because I'm a foreigner which sucks because he likes to use the jerk to interpret for him. I hate that he won't speak to me in English because we are about the same age, and he is one of the guys that is really good with the little boy at the gym. So I would like to hang out with him more, but the language barrier is definitely a problem. The other guy is awesome. He is a big guy, but his skin is so soft...so I call him Pandy like a Panda Bear. He speaks to me in English when no one else is there to interpret for him...his English is good from what little he's used anyways.

Friday at school, we had birthday parties for the kids whose birthday is in May. The teachers also got a lot of presents because Teacher's Day was on Saturday and since we didn't have school the kids gave us presents on Friday. I got a lot of flowers, candy, and I even got some lotion and bath gel. It was definitely really nice!

Saturday, the gym had testing for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I went to watch because I haven't been feeling well lately and I didn't think that I would do well. It was intense!!!! They had to spar over and over with several different guys. One of the guys didn't pass his test and didn't get his stripe on his belt. He was upset the rest of the day. We went out to eat again afterward, and he still wasn't happy. It was nice eating with all the guys again. After dinner, I rode the bus home with Pandy and another guy. They were nice without the jerk there. We actually had a good conversation.

Today, Sunday, I got up early to go to Korean tutoring. It was ok. It was difficult because they taught me the Korean alphabet last time, and they expected me to be able to read stuff this time. I told them that it was going to take me some time because I have to hear the pronunciation while looking at the letter. It's also hard because I don't have a lot of time to study. I have a lot of time to practice phrases because I'm in Korea where everyone speaks Korean so I get speaking practice in. Hopefully, they understood and weren't too mad at me. After that, I went shopping. I wanted some shoes, and I had to get my Dad a Father's Day present to ship home. I have to ship home my Mom and sister's birthday presents and my Dad's Father's Day present this week in order for them to get there in time. I got my mom and sister some accessories because they are easier to ship and all girls love accessories. Dad's present was way harder to find. I went to a shop and picked up some chopsticks, a sign that says office in Korean, and some pencils with Korean writing on them. Then, I went to twenty different shops looking for a ball cap written in Korean. It is so hard to find those because Koreans mostly wear MLB caps or caps written in English. I finally found one and got it. And now, I'm doing laundry and writing this so I think we're up to date.

Boys

2010-05-08T00:22:00.000-07:00

WARNING: This post is me being all gushy about boys...so read at the risk of your sanity...hahaha...jk. But seriously, this week has been about boys. So that's what I am going to have to write about.

Perhaps, you might remember that a few weeks after my arrival I met a couple of random guys. Well, I have been keeping in touch with one of the guys. He just so happens to own a bar/restaurant by my house. On Sunday, he invited me to meet him at his bar and hang out with him. So, of course I did. Hahaha. He is the sweetest guy ever, and he makes a pretty good pizza. Yeah, he cooks. He is super cute too. Korean girls call him a Korean handsome boy; whatever that is supposed to mean. Hahaha. Anyways, so we had made plans to hang out on my day off on Wednesday, but his sister came into town and he had to cancel. In America, it wouldn't concern me that he was hanging out with his sister, but in Korea, it's different. When a guy says he is hanging out with his sister, it could mean he's hanging out with an ex-girlfriend or a girl that's a friend that he wants to be his girlfriend. So, I started thinking maybe we weren't on the same page about what this relationship was all about. In all actuality, I have no idea how to date a Korean guy. I mean there's a bit of a language barrier as well as a cultural barrier. It's like I'm back in middle school again trying to figure out if a guy likes me or not, and if I should hold his hand. It is not a fun feeling, but this guy is really sweet. So here's my plan, I am just going to treat this relationship as I would back in America. Until we have that somewhat awkward conversation about the definition of our relationship, I am going to treat him like a friend. I will continue to hang out with other people including guys. If you have any better ideas, please tell me because I am seriously way out in left field here. Although, my relationships in America haven't worked out very well, so maybe I should do it differently over here? I'm so confused on what to do here. Hahaha.

Anyways, so we were supposed to hang out on Wednesday, but that didn't happen (I went to get a massage instead). He told me that we would hang out today (Saturday) instead. So we went to lunch and talked a bit. He told me that his sister had come to visit his mom who is in the hospital here in town. So that eased my mind a bit about him being a player. But we had a good conversation. I learned a bit about his family and his ambitions. He is a really good guy. I am really looking forward to hanging out with him again.

In other boy news, there are a couple of guys at the gym that I think are interested in me as well. Or at least they are interested in whether or not I have a boyfriend so I'm thinking that means they are interested? Yes/no??? Anyways, they are all pretty cute, but I'm a sucker for guys with tight abs so...yeah, I'm not picky about looks otherwise. As long as they have a sense of humor and are courteous to other people...I'm good. Hahaha. They all try to speak in English to me which is pretty sweet. There's one guy in particular that cracks me up because he gets frustrated when I speak too quickly or throw in any colloquial words. Most of the time, I do those things just to tease him. Last night, though, he was so cute because there was a little boy that visited the gym because he wants to learn fighting. The kid couldn't be more than 8 years old. He was so tiny and very cute. But this guy took such good care of the kid, he showed him these different techniques and treated him like he was his little brother. It was so adorable! But yeah, I guess that's enough about guys for now. I'm sure that there will be more to come.

There is nothing much else planned for this weekend; except for a kickboxing tournament at the gym tomorrow. It's at the same time that I usually go to Korean tutoring, but the last few times I went to tutoring it hasn't been that great so I'm thinking I'm going to skip it this week. I hope they don't get frustrated with me and think I'm not committed to it; if they do, I guess I will be on my own with my Korean studies. It won't be too terrible because I am making a lot of Korean friends that can help me with my learning. In all honesty, I learn more from my friends than I do from the tutoring. Anyways, I guess that's it for now...later!

Miss Me?

2010-05-02T01:11:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I know I missed my post last week. Sorry! My internet was not working. So last week, nothing much happened. I got a haircut. It looks really good, and it was super cheap. I have never paid so little for a haircut. It works out to be about $12 in America. Crazy right? It's like I went to some fancy haircutting place and paid the same price I would have at SuperCuts or whatever the cheap-o hair salon is called. As for last weekend, I hung out with two other foreigners from the gym. They were really great guys. We went out to eat after the gym. Then, we hung out the apartment. One of the guys bought a guitar over here, and so we just sang songs and talked. I met them at the gym again on Saturday, and they helped me with my Jiu Jitzu which was super sweet of them because the other guys laugh at me. Hahaha. It was so much fun! I can't wait to hang out with them again. I didn't hang out with them this weekend because I skipped the gym on Friday and Saturday. Yeah, I know; I'm slacking. So what did I do this weekend if I didn't go to the gym? Absolutely nothing!!!! Hahaha. Friday night, I watched some movies and gave myself a facial and pedicure. I know girlie stuff right? Does it help to know the movie I watched was Transformers? On Saturday, I cleaned my apartment and walked around the city a bit. Today, I walked down to the river and laid out! It was such a beautiful day. I could not waste it. I took my Korean study books with me and studied. I am hoping to pick up the language soon because I suck! I can't even tell someone where I live without them thinking I live in poop. Seriously. I say poop instead of neighborhood. I can't figure out which is which. But I absolutely love where I live. The river is right outside my neighborhood. It's maybe a five minute walk from my apartment. It's so nice because there is a lot of open fields where you can just lay out or even play some ball. There is also a track where you can run by the river. Amazing!!!! I love it! I am hoping that this nice weather sticks because it is gorgeous outside!!!!!!!

The gym and randomness

2010-04-17T22:33:00.000-07:00

I really love this city!!!! It is a big city with a small town feel. I think it's amazing that I go out and random people come up and talk to me. They are so curious about what I think about the city and the food. Today, I had a random lady walk up to me shake my hand and say, "Thank you" in English. It was weird because I couldn't figure out what she was thanking me for. Maybe she was just trying to say, "hello" and couldn't remember which one it was. It was sweet.

I really love the gym that I have been going to. Its called Daejeon MMA if you live in the city and you want to check it out. Its near Hannam University. The people are so fun! They crack me up. There is a group of high schoolers that like to hang around me which is cool. They are super curious about me and my lifestyle. They even talk about themselves. One is hilarious! He was talking about being one of Angelina Jolie's adopted kids. Then, he started in on Tiger Woods. He said that his uncle's friend was one of Tiger's mistresses. I was dying...everyone thought I was crazy because they had no idea what this kid was talking about. The people aren't the only reason I go to this gym though. I heard about the gym from a guy that does some serious MMA up in Seoul, and he said that it was a good gym. Several of the top competitors in Seoul trained under this instructor. The instructor is really good and very knowledgeable about BJJ. He does one class everyday at 7PM, and the rest of the time its open gym for kickboxing, weight lifting, jump rope, and whatever. He walks around and corrects your form. I really like it because the guys at the gym are really friendly and will help me out with my form too. Some of them speak English so they help explain what the instructor is trying to tell me. The instructor speaks a little English, but he doesn't like to use it. He tries for my benefit, but most of the time one of the guys will translate it for me.

I am seriously trying to learn Korean because I think it will be beneficial for me. I went to Korean tutoring this morning. I am hoping to be able to continue attending. I have also been studying my Korean-English dictionary and my Korean studies book. It's kind of hard because the sounds are so different from English, and the letters are different from English. It's funny because when I don't understand what people are saying, I use their facial expressions to make up what they are saying. It's never what they are actually saying, but it keeps me entertained...hahaha. Well, not much more to say so...Cheers for now!

Massage=Happy Melanie

2010-04-11T05:47:00.000-07:00

Well, all in all my week was pretty good. On Monday, I decided to join a MMA gym across town. I have to take two buses to get there, but the gym is nice...the instructor is one of the best not too mention he's hilarious!!!! And I love the other members there. I got a three month membership for 180,000 won. So, if I still enjoy it after that I may keep it up.

The rest of the week went by so quickly because I went to the gym at night after school. It was relatively uneventful until Friday. At school on Friday, I had a girl pee in her pants. She had asked me twice to go to the bathroom and both times I said no. The first time she asked we had just come back from the bathroom, and I had told them to go to the bathroom and get water. The second time, we were getting ready to leave and before they leave they have to set their table for lunch; so I told her she had to set her table first and that's when she peed on the floor. I told my Korean partner about what had happened and she just laughed. She wasn't too worried about it, but later the mom called and was mad. So my Korean partner told the mom it wouldn't ever happen again. My Korean partner still thought it was funny and didn't care, but she told me that every time the little girl asks to go to the bathroom I have to let her go even if we have just come back from the bathroom. These parents baby their kids too much!!!

On Saturday, I went to the gym again and worked out for a bit. I talked to one of the guys there. He was really nice; he doesn't speak English very well but he wants to learn. I think he wants to hang out. He asked me how old I was and I found out he was younger than me. In my experience, in Korea after the guy finds out you are older he says we can be friends which I think means that he doesn't want to try to date me because I'm older. Which is fine with me because in all honesty I am not in Korea to find a boyfriend. I would prefer to just make friends. I took the bus home from the gym, and a lady from Japan started talking to me. She has just moved to Korea as well. She asked if we could hang out sometime, and I said sure. I feel badly because I think she wanted to hang out that afternoon, but I didn't realize that at the time. I told her that I had to change buses in order to get home, but we did exchange numbers. I messaged her today to see if she wanted to meet sometime for coffee. I think we are going to meet on Saturday. Anyways after I changed buses, I decided to take the bus to the subway and take the subway home. On the subway, I noticed that one of the stops was Yuseong Spa. I thought maybe the spa would have a masseuse or something. So I figured maybe I'd get a massage. So I got off at the spa stop. I didn't see the spa, but I did see a Thai Massage Parlor. So I decided to check that out. It was 70,000 won for an hour and a half massage which is a really good price since you can't get that kind of price in America for a 45 minute massage. So I decided to get the massage. It was really good! They even gave me a mini facial at the beginning, and they served me some tea at the beginning and end of the massage. I felt really relaxed and so much better afterwards. As I walked out, I saw that there was another Thai Massage parlor right by the subway exit so I might try that one next time. I may make this a regular monthly thing to unwind and de-stress. After the massage, I was so sleepy! I just went home and went to bed at like 7:30. I slept in late too!

I wanted to get up early enough to go to the Korean lesson at the church at 9:30 but I didn't wake up in time...I almost didn't make it to the service. I was running late, but I met a Korean girl outside that wanted to go to the English service but couldn't remember where it was so I took her to the service. Her name was Cherry. A lot of Koreans go to the English service to improve their English. I decided to stay for Sunday School this time. It was interesting. The pastor led Sunday School as well. He talked about the background information on the passages before we read them. I really enjoy that. He does that a bit in his sermons as well. It really helps you understand where the people are coming from when they are righting the passages. Between church service and Sunday School, there is about a thirty minute time frame to hang around and talk with each other. A lot of people came up and talked to me. There were a couple of young Korean college guys that came up and talked to me for a bit. They wanted to know how old I was. After they found out that I was 25, they asked if I was married. When I told them I wasn't, they asked me why not. I think it is uncommon in Korea for a girl my age to not be married unless there is something wrong with her. They said that I was too pretty to be single. It was funny. They were too sweet for saying that. It really made my day.

After Sunday School, I walked home and ate. Then I decided to go to the Wholesale Market in Nouen. I saw it on the subway stop list. So I took the subway to the market; it was right outside the subway exit. I walked through and they had a ton of fresh fruits and vegetables and other fresh foods. I picked up some bananas and strawberries. I want to go back and get some other fruits and veggies too. All in all this week was pretty good. I think I am definitely starting to find my place in this city!

Field Trip

2010-04-04T04:28:00.000-07:00

So, this week was pretty laid back. On Wednesday, we talked to the kids about Easter. We let them decorate some eggs, and I let the kids do a semi-Easter egg hunt with paper eggs cut in half. They had to find the eggs' match. It was fun! Then on Friday, we went on a field trip to a forest museum about 40 minutes from the school. I have no idea what it was called because everything was in Korean! I had no idea what the tour guide was telling the kids so I just looked around and took pictures. I ended up with 250 pictures in about a two hour time frame. Hahaha. The kids were super cute! They loved it!

Friday night, we went to this bar called Watermelon Sugar. It was pretty sweet mostly because there was only a few foreigners...it was all Koreans. It was definitely a good change because I feel like all the bars we go to are foreigners, and so we don't meet a whole lot of Koreans. I don't want to spend a year in the country and not make any Korean friends.

The rest of the weekend was kind of chill because everyone ran out of money. We get paid this week so it will be more exciting next weekend! I can't wait!!!!

Santa Claus in March

2010-03-26T04:14:00.000-07:00

So I mentioned that I have been sick, right? I have been going to the pharmacy every two days to get medication because they only give you two days worth of medicine at a time. It's interesting because I have been to about ten different pharmacies, and I have not received the same medication twice. Finally, the assistant director suggested that I go to the doctor, and she told me that she would go with me. So I broke down and went to the doctor. He confirmed what I had assumed all along that it was just a cold. He prescribed me some medication and gave me an injection. I did not have an appointment; I just walked right in. I was in and out of the doc's office and the pharmacy in less than 30 minutes total. You cannot even get out of the waiting room in that length of time with an appointment in the US. My only complaint about the doc's office was the table was too short, and I had to bend my knees when I got my shot.

Since I have arrived, a lot of the locals stop and want to talk to me for a bit which is super cool because I love hearing what they have to say. It's mostly the women or old men. However, this week two guys around my age have stopped me and asked me some questions. One guy is a manager of a bar near my neighborhood (or dong). I gave him my e-mail, and he e-mailed me right away. I think he wants to work on his English, but he told me that if I needed help with anything to give him a call. The second guy is the assistant master at a tae kwon do gym in my dong. He invited me to join his gym. My friends, Mellissa and Janet, and I went to check it out. However, it was mostly kiddie classes and not exactly the type of gym we were looking for. Mellissa and I also checked out this gym that offered Brazilian Jiu Jitzu classes pretty cheap. We had told one of the guys that we would come and check it out, but apparently he did not pass along the message and the other guys were not expecting a couple of girls to watch their workout. Korean men are very conservative around women, but very open around other guys. A couple of them were practicing in their boxer briefs, and the others were practicing without their shirts on. A couple of guys walked in out of the glass doors that we were standing by, and also didn't think it was important to mention that a couple of girls were watching them practice. Finally, we stopped one of the guys and asked if we could watch. When he told the other guys that we were there to watch, they all scrambled for their pants and shirts. One of the guys was so embarrassed because we saw him in his boxers, but he recovered nicely. The BJJ gym was nice, and it was the least expensive of all the gyms we visited. We also checked out this Mixed Martial Arts gym which was mostly freestyle with no class times. I don't think Mellissa liked it very much, but it's not very crowded so its a lot like having your own personal trainer. There are a few other gyms in the area that we have learned about that we are planning to check out before we make a decision. Hopefully, we can find one that all three of us like.

After checking out the MMA and Tae Kwon Do gyms, we decided to go out to a bar with a couple of guys the girls knew. The bar is called Santa Claus. We had so much fun. It was not at all crowded, and it was mostly foreigners. We played a few games and talked and joked around. It was so much fun, and the guys were HILARIOUS!!!! I was really hesitant about going out when I had to work the next morning since I have been sick, but it was totally worth it. Seriously, I love hanging out with the other foreigners here. We all have this instantaneous bond. It's pretty sweet! I can't wait to see what this weekend has to offer!!!

Gettin' the Hang of it

2010-03-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

Alright so I've been teaching for a few weeks now, and I think I'm really starting to get a handle on things. My torture class is no longer torture. I have actually started to find that I run out of things for them to do! I am not sure what exactly happened that made them settle down, but here are a few things that could have contributed to such a change. I started drawing five stars on the board next to each student's name. Every time they act up, I erase a star. At the end of the class, if they have four or five stars, I give them a stamp on both of their hands. If they have two or three stars, I give them one stamp on their hand. If they have zero or one stars, they do not get any stamp. The kids love it! The second thing that I have started to do is to send the kids that are constantly misbehaving outside into the hallway. They absolutely hate that! They cry so much when I do that. If I really don't want to pick them up and put them outside, I just tell them that if they don't behave they will be going to the baby class. They hate that as well, but not as much. Some other possible contributing factors that I have no control over are the fact that I had one student drop out of the class (he was not a trouble maker, but he did encourage it). Also, the students could just be settling into the whole school routine and getting used to sitting there forever. I don't care what has caused this change, but I am extremely thankful!!!!

Alright so on to what is going on outside of the classroom. The other girls and I have gotten together to hang out so much since we have gotten here. We have really gotten to know each other. They are all super sweet and super fun to hang out with. Every weekend just about, we have gone to this bar that all of the foreigners go to. It's pretty sweet! You meet so many people from all over the US and Canada mostly; there are a few other foreigners but not many. Last night, I met a guy that graduated from UGA, and a guy that was from Atlanta. They are the first people from GA that I have met since I have been here! The guy from UGA didn't seem like he wanted to talk much, and he was actually from Jacksonville, FL, and he hated the Florida Gators especially Tim Tebow. He was a smaller guy so realistically I think he was more jealous of Tebow than anything else because they were supposedly from the same hometown. Whatever, if someone's from your hometown and they make something of themselves, be proud of them and happy for them, don't be a downer. Anyways, so the guy from Atlanta he was kind of funny. He didn't talk much either, and when he did, he was kidding. He asked me how old I was (age is a very big thing in Korea...that's the second question you will be asked just about every time, right after your name). So I told him mine, then he made me guess his. Which if you have ever had me guess your age, you know that I am super horrible at it. So, I warned him that I was bad at it, but I guessed his birthday almost down to the month. It was hilarious. I never do that, and I was seriously thinking that he was younger than what I was guessing. Too funny!

Yeah, so we were out late last night, and I was up at 9:30 this morning for no reason at all. I'm kind of glad because I would hate to sleep the day away. At the same time, I have been sick, and I need more than four hours of sleep to fully recover. Plus, we are supposed to go back out again tonight. Oh well, maybe I'll get a nap in later?

I do want to apologize now for my use of smaller and repetitive words. Since arriving in Korea, I have realized how difficult it is to explain even the simplest of words. So I have found myself using fewer and fewer words that I would have to define. Hahaha. It's crazy! The other day at school, I had to explain the word "then" without using "next" or "after" because they didn't know "next" or "after".

I am really enjoying my time here in Daejeon. I do miss my family and friends back home, and I kind of wish they were here to enjoy this with me. But it's nice being able to experience a new place and new people without having to worry about what some one else wants to do. But to the people back home, I do love you and I miss you! Come and visit me!

Second Week of teaching

2010-03-13T05:31:00.000-08:00

So this was my second week of teaching...my first full week with my new classes. I feel like I got a really good schedule for the most part. It is a little stressful that my morning classes are very young (about 3 and 4 years old in America, 5 years in Korea), and they do not know any English. However, my classes are very well behaved except for one class. Two of the kids are very disruptive. One is more so than the other. I believe he is probably the youngest in the class. I have had to take him to the Assistant Director twice (I could have taken him more but I don't want the Assistant Director to think I can't handle my class). He is always walking around and talking while I'm talking. It is very distracting to me and the other students. When I ask him to sit down and be quiet, he walks up and hits me. I talked to the Assistant Director about this, but she told me to tell my Korean partner. However, my Korean partner does not seem as concerned about this problem as I am. She said that she called his mother but his mother is very young and not mature enough to handle the situation. This frustrates me to no end because he is such a horrible influence on the rest of the class. The other day he was teaching the sweetest little girl how to give someone the finger! I took scotch tape and taped his middle finger to his ring finger so he couldn't flip anyone off anymore. I think he got the hint because he didn't do it the rest of the day, but he has done it since. I really wish that he would behave or that the school will drop him because the students are having a very difficult time concentrating on the lessons. What makes it worse is that he doesn't know his English name so he doesn't realize that I am getting on to him. I am not allowed to use his Korean name so no one has told me what it is.

Other than that, everything is going very well! The three other teachers and I went to Sponge Bar last night, and we met a bunch of other English speaking people! It was nice! We were talking about going to a bar called Santa Claus for a St. Patrick's Day celebration this evening, but I think everyone is kind of tired from the week.

Today, I walked a few blocks over to a middle school and played basketball in their courtyard. It was my first time ever playing on a dirt court with a wooden board. It took me a minute to adjust to it, but it was interesting. There were a few students hanging around after school, and they came up and talked to me. They were taking English class in school. They asked me where I was from, what my job was, where I was teaching, and how old I was. They showed off a bit using the basketball terms that they knew and showed me their basketball skills. It was sweet that they were so curious and wanted to impress me.

When I got home, one of the other teachers, Mellissa, came over, and we watched a movie. It was a very relaxing evening.

I am hoping that this week will be better than last. I hope that my classes are good for me!

Case of the Mondays

2010-03-08T02:12:00.000-08:00

My schedule varies from day to day. So far, my schedule has not been too terribly bad...until today :/ I have a feeling I am going to hate MONDAYS!!! Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are my longer days. I don't mind that they are longer because I really enjoy my last two classes. I really enjoy all of my classes...except one. The one smack dab in the middle. Out of 8 kids there are only three that behave. Seriously? It is not possible to get anything done in that class. They are way too immature to be in school. Yes, I understand that kids are going to misbehave. I expect them to; I would probably be disappointed if they did not misbehave at one point or another. But children are supposed to be able to obey simple instructions; there is no excuse for them not to. I honestly let the five that were misbehaving run around the classroom while I focused on the three that were willing to learn for about 15 minutes. I had to take some sort of break from the insanity of telling the kids to sit down and be quiet. Its not like they didn't understand what I meant because I acted it out myself. I even set them in their chairs, and put my hand over my mouth to tell them to keep theirs shut. What more can I do? I have thought that people were crazy for disliking children, but after this class I could see how it would be possible. I am not saying that I dislike these kids, but I could definitely see how someone could. Oh, did I mention that I had this class for 30 minutes for lunch, 70 minutes for English class, and 40 minutes for cooking. So 2.5 hours of torture!!!! Thankfully, I only have them the extra 40 minutes for cooking on Mondays. Other than that, I seriously love my schedule, I love my apartment (it is the perfect size), I love the city, and I absolutely love my coworkers! I am really happy with my decision to come to Daejeon. I cannot wait for my first paycheck so I have the money to experience Daejeon more.

On a different note, all of the teachers have arrived. Mellissa arrived on Saturday. On Sunday, Janet, Mellissa and I went out to eat for Korean barbeque. It was delicious once again, and it was reasonably priced. The staff was extremely friendly! They understood that we didn't speak Korean, although at first for some reason they thought that I did...hahaha. When we first walked in, we took off our shoes as is custom in most Korean restaurants. I think the hostess was pointing us to our table. However, we thought she was pointing to several pairs of sandals that Koreans wear when they are inside. So we started putting on these sandals, and she gave us this horrified look and told us that wasn't what she meant. Hahaha...we had started putting on other customers' shoes. It was hilarious! The hostess spoke a little bit of English and helped our server with our order which was pretty sweet. One of the cooks saw me using the chopsticks and came out of the kitchen to give me a lesson on proper chopstick usage...hahaha. He finally gave up and grabbed a fork for me. I still used the chopsticks as much as I could which probably wasn't the best idea because I ended up slinging salad all over myself when the chopsticks slipped. It was hilarious because the cook had chosen that moment to watch me eat. Hahaha. I think the three of us entertained the staff for the evening. We certainly entertained each other! I think that we are going to get along GREAT!!! I am definitely excited about getting to know my coworkers better. I cannot wait to see what the rest of this year will hold. I am extremely thankful that I made the decision to teach in Korea.

First day with the new students

2010-03-04T01:49:00.000-08:00

So the new teachers started teaching classes on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, we did not get our permanent students until today. The students are all so cute; so I couldn't wait to meet mine! My first class of the day is AMAZING!!! They are the best students ever. They say what I say, and they do not act up too much but they all have their own personalities. Two of the students speak English very well and understand most of what I say. They help the other students out which is super sweet! My second class is older, but they have no idea what I am saying. I have to act out everything which is fine, but they are very well behaved. My third class is wild! Hahaha, they don't understand me either, and they don't pay attention when I act it out. I have one student that likes to hide behind the white board and try to walk out the door. He will not participate no matter what I do! My afternoon class was very sweet and most had attended the school last year. I have one more afternoon class that doesn't start until tomorrow! I think it will be a good class. I only have them Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That's all for now. I will try to post again this weekend!

My First Week Summation

2010-02-27T03:24:00.000-08:00

I have been in Daejeon since Wednesday, and I have already learned so much about the city and about myself! I have already experienced so much! On Thursday, Director Kim came by my apartment to bring me to the school. I observed some of the classrooms, and I ate lunch there. I learned that the students are very loving and that I cannot use chopsticks! Hahaha. I get teased now about whether or not I will use chopsticks to eat. I try to use them everyday so that hopefully I will learn. I do not use them in restaurants though because I am afraid that people will think I am disrespectful.

On Friday, I decided to walk to school from my apartment. I did pretty well for not being in the city long. I got to the bus stop where I was dropped off the night of my arrival. Thankfully, Director Kim and the Assistant Director, Vicki, were waiting at the bus stop for one of the other new teachers. Vicki told me that if I wanted to wait with them, they would take me the rest of the way to the school. So I waited with them for a few minutes for the new teacher, Janet. While waiting, Vicki explained to me that two new teachers had arrived Thursday evening, but only one of them, Mariana, was able to catch the bus to Daejeon. So Janet had to sleep at the airport because the guest house was full, and there aren't any other hotels in the area. Janet's bus arrived, and she informed me that her luggage was in San Francisco due to a last minute change in her flight. We drove to the school, and Janet went to her hotel room for a bit to freshen up before coming to the school for lunch. Since it was the last day of classes for the semester, the classes were having parties; so there wasn't much to observe. The other two teachers and I decided to go to EMart (much like a Super Walmart) to get a few things. I bought cleaning supplies for my apartment; as well as a few mats and a pair of slippers to wear around the apartment. We all stopped by the school once more before they went to their hotel rooms and I walked back to my apartment. On my way home, I received the second lesson about myself this week, I have no sense of direction. I got seriously lost!!!! Hahaha. I figured that if I kept walking around I would eventually figure out where I was. But no. After over an hour of walking while carrying my purchases from EMart, I decided to call it quits and catch a taxi. Luckily, I was near a Taxi Stop. In Daejeon, they have places to go if you need a taxi much like the bus stops back home. Thankfully, I had asked Vicki to write down my address so I was able to show the taxi driver the address of where I wanted to go. When I finally got home, I was too tired to do anything so I went to bed.

Today, Saturday, we had orientation for the parents of all the new students. We had to dress nicely. I had decided to try to find my way once again so I wore tennis shoes with my dress and packed dress shoes in my bookbag. I looked at the time and realized that I didn't have the time to get lost again. At that time, a taxi drove by and honked asking if I needed a ride. I figured it was fate telling me to take the taxi. After asking Vicki for my apartment address, I had asked one of the Korean teachers to write down the address for the school in Korean. So once again, I showed the taxi driver the address of my destination. When I got to the school, I decided to ask Vicki for directions. However, she is bad with directions as well; so she told one of the foreign teachers to take me home using the best way for me to go when I walked to the school. She told him to make sure that he pointed out the turns.

Before going home, all of the teachers had to go to the orientation. We sat in a separate room while one of the foreign teachers presented the necessary information for the parents. At the end of her presentation, we were escorted into the room to wait for the Director's presentation. During the Director's presentation, he introduced each teacher and explained a bit about each teacher's professional background. Everything was spoken in Korean of course; so none of the foreign teachers new exactly what he was saying about us. We just bowed and tried to smile. After the presentations, a couple of the mothers came up to me and talked to me about their kids. It was so sweet!!! Of course they are concerned about their kids well-being, and they wanted to make sure that I would take care of their kids.

After the orientation, John, one of the foreign teachers, drove us to our apartments and pointed out the turns as he was instructed by Vicki. When I got back to my apartment, I decided to change clothes and try my hand at my newly found directions. I walked to EMart to purchase more cleaning supplies and some food. EMart is by the school so I figured if I could get to EMart then I can get to school. My trip to and from EMart was a success! I made it home with no problems! What a difference good directions can make! Hahaha.

I have two days off this weekend, tomorrow and Monday. I am going to try to explore the city, finish setting up my apartment, and take some pictures of my apartment and the city to show everyone! Tuesday and Wednesday, I only have afternoon after-school classes. Thursday is the first day of the new semester, so my morning classes will start then!

It has been a great first week, and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the school year holds for me!!!

Arriving in Daejeon

2010-02-24T16:23:00.000-08:00

So the plane ride was not as bad as I thought it would be. It was a fifteen hour flight. The service was amazing! I've never been offered a beverage of any kind every hour or so it seemed. I slept for a bit, watched a movie or two, and I mostly read a book. Note to future-self, don't read a book about leaving when you are actually leaving yourself. I totally was not thinking when I chose the book!

A woman sat next to me on the plane that was flying home to Korea; she has been studying at Penn State. She was very sweet and offered to show me around even though we live an hour or so apart!

We landed in Seoul, and I had absolutely no cell phone service. I was planning on calling home to let my parents know that I had landed safely, but I did not have the type of phone that would have allowed that. I went through customs without any problems whatsoever. Not that I have ever had any problems but it was a very short process. On the other side of customs a man was waiting for me with a sign that said my name. The pickup guy was with some sort of escort company I think. He took me across the airport to where the buses were and purchased my ticket. Unfortunately, there was no room on the bus that was leaving and the next bus was not leaving for a couple of hours. When the pickup guy discovered that my bus was going to be awhile he guided me to a seat and told me to wait, and he just left me there by myself! It wasn't a big deal because he left me with my ticket and I was sure I could find the bus myself. Especially since I had already seen where it would be. While I was waiting I tried to use the pay phones to call my parents. I tried three times and heard my mom say hello and it hung up on me. Each time I got my money back so it wasn't that big of a deal and my mom assumed it was me. But the pickup guy did come back an hour or so later and brought me a bottle of water. I think he left because he felt awkward because of the language differences. But he paid for my ticket and my water. He told me that I needed to get off at the second stop. Which was everything that I needed from him.

So when the bus arrived, I got on and fell asleep within minutes. I was not planning on sleeping because I was afraid that I would miss my stop, but I was so tired! I woke up when the bus driver merged off the interstate to go into the city of Daejeon. I got off at the second stop and waited ten minutes for the Director to come. In the meantime, an older guy asked me if I needed to use the phone. It was so sweet. The people are so friendly even if we don't understand each other.

It was pretty late when the Director dropped me off at my apartment, so I wasn't able to do much exploring.

First thing this morning though, I bought an international calling card and went on a hunt for a pay phone to use it hoping to be able to talk to my parents. However, the pay phone I found did not accept that card; so I tried cash again and still couldn't get it to work.

I do not have internet access yet. I looked for an internet cafe, but I could not find one near my apartment. My director is supposed to pick me up at 11am which is in a couple of hours so I was kind of timid about venturing too far from my apartment. I am currently piggybacking off of some one else.

It's raining here today, but luckily the guy who lived in the apartment before me left an umbrella so I used it. The apartment is very nice. It's not small, but its not massive either. The bathroom is interesting. The shower is connected to the sink, and there's no place to hang a shower curtain. So when I take a shower, I get water all over the toilet seat, and no matter the setting it goes from being warm to cold and back to warm for no reason. It's definitely interesting.

The city itself has so many lights!!! There are lights everywhere, like Vegas. My apartment is right across the street from a Quickie Mart type place which was nice to run over there and pick up a few things. There is also a French bakery on the corner. I don't think most of the stores open up until later. So I'll have to wait until after I get back from the school to get the things I need for my apartment.

I believe that I have had a very successful first day so far! I checked my e-mails to find that Korjob Recruiting has found another teacher to work at Daejeon Wonderland. I believe the e-mail said that she would be here next week! How exciting! I suppose that is enough for now!

THE DAY!!!

2010-02-23T01:29:00.000-08:00

Today is the day that I leave for Korea! I am super excited! My bags are mostly packed. I have only a few finishing touches. I probably won't have the internet for a few days, but I will definitely post when I do. I seriously cannot wait to get there! I know its going to be an incredible experience!

Less than a week!!!!

2010-02-18T05:45:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I have less than a week before I arrive in Korea! I am super excited!

This week in the mail, I received the last remaining items of my survival kit. I got a webcam for my brother, a Korea-English Dictionary, and my beginners Korean textbook with audio cd. I also purchased a couple of books to read on the fifteen hour flight and some snacks. I am so ready!!!!!

Pickup Information

2010-02-13T13:31:00.000-08:00

I talked to one of the representatives from the school the other day. She wanted to check to make sure I received all of my documents. She also gave me some pick up information for my arrival. She told me that someone would be at the airport holding a sign with my name. They would help me to the bus station. The way she talked it seemed that I would be riding on the bus by myself which is no big deal. It is about a three hour bus ride from Seoul to Daejeon. As the details come together, I am getting more and more excited! I cannot wait to start my adventure!

E-2 Work Visa

2010-02-09T10:59:00.001-08:00

Atlanta must have an expedited process for Visa applications because there is no way that everyone's applications get processed this quickly! I turned in my application last Monday (it didn't have to be turned in until Friday), I had my interview yesterday, and I picked up my Visa today! The interview was casual; I was nervous that it was going to be harsh, and it wasn't at all. Seriously, I am so excited! I feel like I have cleared all of the major obstacles, and now I can relax and focus on my Korean studies! Yay!

Visa Interview

2010-02-08T10:30:00.000-08:00

I had my Visa Interview today. I was so stinking nervous because these people are the ones that control whether or not I get to go. The school is not that big of a deal because English teachers in Korea are in such high demand that if you are a decent candidate you can find a school pretty much anywhere, but as far as Visas go, you kind of only have one shot. So, I walk in to the consulate almost an hour early to find that my paperwork is in order as they had confirmed with me last week. They gave me a nice packet of information to read about Korea. Yay! Anyways, onto the interview, I was interviewed with two other women both hoping to teach in Korea like me. The Consul comes in and talks with us about the Korean culture, current events, and politics. He also told us quite a bit about himself and his family. Then, he interviewed each one of us while the others were still in the room. I was the last to be interviewed. It seemed that he was in a hurry to get through my interview. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing (I guess we'll find out tomorrow). He asked the others about their background, teaching history, and why they wanted to teach in Korea. Both women gave excellent answers to all of these questions. The questions he asked of me were asked in a way as if to confirm what he already knew. Such as, "Your degree is in Criminal Justice?", "You went to Kennesaw State?", "There's a large Korean population there, yes?". He did not ask about my teaching experience I believe I brought that up which probably was a mistake on my part, but like I said we will find out tomorrow if I got my visa or not! I absolutely cannot wait to find out about my visa because it is pretty much the last thing I have to do to prepare for my trip. All I have left to do is finish packing and relax!

Preparation and Visa Application

2010-02-07T18:19:00.000-08:00

Imagine an amazing adventure, leaving the city that you grew up in to teach in a country that does not speak English. It sounds like a dream doesn't it? That is the dream that I get to experience for the next year. I am teaching English in Korea!

Ok, so I haven't left yet, but I'm so excited about this trip! I wanted to layout some background information. I know some people are wondering why Korea?

So here it is, I graduated in July of 2010 from Kennesaw State University. My good friend, Amanda, told me that she wanted to TESOL in another country. She did some research and discovered that Korea was the highest paying country for TESOL, and you don't have to have a teaching degree or certificate...all you need is a four year degree from an accredited university. Since graduating, I have been checking the online job board at KSU's Career Services. It showed a listing for Korjob Recruiting, a company that recruits teachers to teach in Korea. A reputable recruiting agency such as Korjob is the best way to find a job especially in Korea. Korea is very competitive for foreign teaching schools. Therefore, some schools hire teachers and are forced to close their doors before they are able to pay the teachers a salary. This leaves the teachers unemployed in a foreign country with no way home. So in the first week of January, I sent my resume to Korjob who called me that week requesting an over-the-phone interview. That same week, they sent me information about a private school in Daejeon. I researched the school and the city. I loved the fact that it is the fourth largest city in Korea because its not the largest and its not the smallest. It's also the center of technology which is nice because let's face it, who doesn't love technology? I would have preferred a more southern location because I love warmer weather, but Daejeon is in the middle of everything, so it works! I am an 1.5 hours from the best beach in South Korea in Busan, and I am 1 hour from Seoul, the largest city in South Korea. My recruiter, David, told me that this is one of the best schools to start at because the Director is very laid back. It is a private franchised school. So I told him to set up an interview. After speaking with a representative at the school, I was offered a position a week after submitting my resume to Korjob! The contract included a fully furnished apartment, a nice monthly salary, 401k, medical insurance, and roundtrip airfare. David, my recruiter, informed me that we needed to get things in order quickly because the school would like me to arrive mid-February. If you have ever applied for a visa, you know it can be a rather lengthy process. If you have not had the pleasure of applying for a visa, let me share with you my experience. I drove to the Cobb County Jail to order a background check (they processed it while I was standing there, however some states can take up to two weeks). I was instructed to take the background check to the Superior Court Clerks office in Marietta to get an Apostille. However, they don't do that there; they only notarize. So I took it to the Superior Court Clerks office in Atlanta who said that I needed it notarized before they could put the seal on it. Something that the office in Marietta had overlooked (even after I asked them). I believe that is something you can do at the jail so request it if you are planning on teaching abroad. So I drove to the bank down the road to get it notarized and drove back to get the seal. After that, I packaged my B.S. degree, my official college transcript, three passport photos, a copy of my passport, a self-health form, and my apostille sealed background check. I paid a hefty sum to send the package via Fedex (because apparently no other delivery service is responsible enough to deliver important documents without losing them) to Korea. I waited while the school filed my documents with Immigration Services in Korea. I received my visa number a week after my documents were delivered. I filed my visa application, another self-health form, another offical college transcript, and a consul checklist with the Korean Consulate in downtown Atlanta. I made an appointment for my visa interview with the Consul. My interview is scheduled for tomorrow, 2/8. I'll tell you how it goes. They said that I will be able to pick up my visa on Tuesday, 2/9. We will see! If you could not tell, all of this has happened in a matter of a couple of weeks.

My trip is coming up soon. The school has already purchased my plane ticket. I fly out of Atlanta on 2/23. I have done so much to prepare for this trip (other than the necessary paperwork of course!). I purchased a matching set of luggage which I have already packed, and I absolutely love! I also downloaded a program teaching me Korean which I have been studying every chance I get.

You might ask what I packed for my one year trip to Korea. Well, I am arriving in late February when the weather is cold. Therefore, I packed mostly work clothes and winter clothing. I have been told that clothing in Korea is extremely inexpensive. So, I am planning on purchasing my summer wardrobe over there. I also packed two voltage converters because their voltage is different then America's. The most important items I will bring are my laptop and a webcam so that I can keep in touch with my family and friends.

If you have questions about anything, let me know! I will try my best to answer them.