Hello from Ho Chi Mihn City

Hello everyone. Dave saying hello from Vietnam via my iPod... We leave for Nha Trang at 6am... We have tons of pics. Hope everyone had a good Xmas!!

5 Month Milestone Reached / T-Minus 12 hours to NAM

We are about 12 hours until we take our train up to Seoul for the trip to Vietnam. It is finally here! We also reached the five month milestone today. We arrived in Yeosu on July 24th, and will be here until July 31st, 2009 (working at least). It is also Christmas Eve. We had to work today, which wasn't too difficult since we did mainly Christmas activities, but we took our middle school students out for a party day. We went bowling for about an hour and a half (after we were supposed to be finished for the day). Neither Megan or I minded. The kids absolutely loved bowling. Two of them had bowled a few times before, and two of them were having their first time bowling. For the first game the kids were cheering 4/5 pin throws like they were a strike. It was a lot of fun. It is also rewarding to give those kids a break from studying. They go to school all the time, and if not they are in after school hagwons. The South Korean educational system is so competitive, but it really breaks the kids spirits, sometimes.

We are packing tonight, then getting up at about 6AM to get in touch with some of the family on Christmas Eve... From there we leave at 11:30AM from the train station (two blocks from our house). We arrive in Seoul (Yeongdeungpo-gu) at about 4:30PM, then at some point we take a bus over to Incheon. I think we will stick around in Seoul for just a bit to get some western food for our Christmas dinner. The next morning we are off to Vietnam!! I will try and get online at least once or twice in Vietnam, and post on the blog... or at least email. In the mean time you can check out the weather in Nha Trang Merry Christmas Eve!!! Happy New Year!

Yeosu Christmas Party / Oyster Dinner

Modeling our X-mas sweaters.


Hello blogosphere. Dave here. I really thought I'd crank out a few more blogs in December, but we got pretty busy. We are three work days from leaving Yeosu for a week. I've been really busy working on various things outside of work. Planning, web development, etc, so this time has been flying by. We haven't even started packing for Vietnam yet, but we are only bringing one bag and one backpack between us, so we will be traveling quite light. I think that we'll buy a lot of cheap stuff in Vietnam, and maybe even a second bag if we get enough! We have to use backpacks because everyone travels by motorbike in 'Nam, so luggage does not fit that system well. By looking forward to this trip I think both Megan and I overcame the burn out we had been experiencing at the start of the month. When you talk to other teachers, everyone goes through it. You get sick of the teaching hours, the students, the often confusing (by Western standards) communication of superiors, and other random problems that come up. This vacation is really coming at the perfect time. Jeff has said that it will be like a reset switch has been hit, and you can roll through work for another few months. I am looking forward to that.


동침 Dong Chim!!

This weekend was the Yeosu (foreigner) Christmas Party. Megan and I decided to find some nice Christmas sweaters to wear. They actually turned out pretty well, but I had to cut the turtle neck off of my sweater with a scissors! The party was at the same place as the Halloween party - "Ebada". Some people in town set up a really cool deal with a local orphanage. The "cover charge" for the party was either a gift for the kids, or a donation. A lot of people were also going to the Orphanage on Christmas day to give the presents and play games with the kids, but for obvious reasons we couldn't make it. We sang some Christmas carols, and had some delicious egg nog. I never knew egg nog was so good! I provided the party music again, and I think that went pretty well... As far as satisfying the tastes of people from 5/6 countries can go.



This evening we took a short trip out to Man-sang-ri beach to have a meal of FRESH oysters. They catch them in the morning, and serve them in the evening. Jeff paid for the entire Kim family to eat out. That was really nice of him. The oysters tasted GREAT. Basically the server puts a big plate of oysters over a flame on your table, and you just take them and eat them. You wear a handsome white glove to grab the boiling hot oyster, and then pry it open (if it is still closed) with a knife and scrape it out. I had raw oysters before which were OK, but cooked are great. It also speaks volumes to how my food pallet has increased. When I first got here I don't think there would be much of a chance that I'd try a food like that. I would NEVER had considered it back at home. Nowadays I didn't even give it a second thought - because it's so good!! I think my tastes have changed just a bit from when I've left. I mean I even (sort of) like Kimchi now and Megan loves it!



Well, we have a few pictures from both the oysters and the Christmas party, so check them out. I am looking forward to warm weather, and hopefully checking out some interesting sites while we are in Nam, so expect some blogging!

Merry Christmas everyone. We miss you so much! I hope to hear from each and everyone who reads the blog!! Trust me, even a one or two sentence comment or email makes our day.

Happy Holidays - enjoy the pictures!!!

Happy Holidays!!

Merry Christmas everyone! Here are the latest pics! I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season and enjoying yourselves. I didn’t think I would miss being home as much as I have lately. I thought that with our Vietnam trip and the lack of Christmas celebration here I wouldn’t be homesick, but that’s not the case. I miss being home during this time of year, I even miss the snow (just the pretty stuff not all the storms). I miss the cookies, the songs, the feeling you get from being with family and friends. I miss the Christmas Eve parties, Christmas day food, and the Christmas Story movie marathon, haha. I’m lucky that I have Dave here to keep my spirits up. I’m also glad that at the Nareabong (singing room/Karaoke) they have Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas is You,” which I can’t sing but love trying. We are also very lucky for the wonderful x-mas packages sent to us, thank you to all of our families! My mom sent Dave and I a singing snoopy and another dog for our classrooms and the kids love them! The kids are so entertained by the movement and music, they think it’s the best thing in the world. Dave’s mom sent us a couple of Christmas books one being The Night Before Christmas which has wonderful illustrations. When I read the story, even to the “bad” classes, the students listened in silence while gazing at the pictures. Dave and I are really excited to take out our middle schoolers on Christmas Eve. Instead of class we are taking them bowling so that should be a lot of fun. I don’t even know if any of them have ever been bowling before. These kids definitely deserve a little fun because all they do is study. When asked “what will you do on Christmas, you have no school or Academy” the response is “study.” You can just tell how stressed and tired they are even before they talk. I can’t wait to see their reactions.

I’ll give you a little update about our Vietnam trip, but look forward to a very long blog entry about it when we get back. We are leaving on Christmas day to spend five long hours on a train to get to Seoul where we will meet up with Jeff and Hyegyong. We will most likely have a fun night in Seoul (including a western style meal!) and then hop on a plane the next morning where our destination is Ho Chi Minh (Saigon). We will spend a few days there in 80 degree weather sightseeing and shopping. Then we are off to Nha Trang to spend the remainder of our trip lying on the beach and possibly scuba diving???! Overall, our trip is ten days long. We are going to spend Christmas and New Years in Vietnam, that pretty cool! I think this trip will be relaxing and hopefully re-energizing at the same time because when we get back from Vietnam Dave and I have a full schedule at the Hagwon with winter camp. We will be working in the morning and in the evenings, and even though it will be long and tiring it will hopefully bring in some extra money for our next trip

Here are a few pictures of the snow in Yeosu (it only lasted for about 10 minutes), and some Noreabong action. I’m really starting to like this Noreabong idea, I wish there was something similar back in the states. It’s a great workout too because all I end up doing is dancing, haha. This also might seem a little random but living over here where I have to speak so literally I feel like I am losing my vocabulary or that it is just getting rusty. Sometimes when I write or say a word I haven’t used in a long time it strikes me as being incorrect. I am so used to speaking as little as possible to my students, keeping my sentences short, simple and to the point so they can understand. Back home I could use complex words without thinking about their meaning because it was natural, but over here I think about the meanings of words much more (even small words). It is a really strange sensation when you are speaking to think consciously about the words you are saying. Languages and communication can be kinda crazy sometimes, haha!

Well sorry for that random thought but I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Years. Dave and I appreciate all of your love and support. Keep up the e-mails and comments we love hearing from you. See you all next year!


Dave wishes they had this one at noraebong.

December Above Freezing? MC Mong!

Suncheon Bay...


Being (almost) born and raised in Minnesota, I know December to be a bone chilling month that is only justified by the fun events of Christmas and New Years Eve to make it worth while. I have found out that other places in the world are not like this. It is currently December in Yeosu, and it is still significantly higher then freezing. It feels like those days in March or April, when it's still technically cold, around 50F back in Minnesota, but it has been so damn cold all winter that you are walking around in shorts and a tshirt, but in December! I cannot believe it... I won't rub it in, I mean it's not that much better, and my house is just as cold, but I am able to be outside and not curse under my breath the entire time, which is nice.

We have some pictures to put up from the last few weekends (this is a link to them). These are from three different events. The first one is from the Thanksgiving party at Jeff's house. Unfortunately there are only a few stray photos from that night. The next weekend (11/29-30) Megan and I took a trip to the next town over, Suncheon (순천). We visited the "famous" tourist sight, which is Suncheon Bay (click for more info). It was about a 30 minute drive, and the first time I'd driven out of Yeosu. It was easy to find as most signs were in English, plus I figured out how to read it in Korean just in case. Saturday was quite cold and windy, so we didn't stay for long, but we got some cool pictures. We then went shopping at some of the big stores, Home Plus and E-Mart. We bought some clothes for the first time. Once in a while you can actually find a size that'll fit a Westerner, but not every time. That night we stayed in and I just did some work at home.

Sunday was the big foreigners Thanksgiving party. It is getting pretty neat now, since we have met many of the foreigners, so we can have a chat in English with some people, and catch up. The food was AMAZING. Shannon (from California / New Jersey) went to the closest big city (Gwanju) and picked it up. It tasted delicous. There was a lot of cool people there and a lot of good food.



Last night (Wednesday night) Jeff, AJ (Upscale) and I went to a concert at a local night club. This was a kind of strange Korean style club called a "booking" club. You can read more about "Booking" if you'd like, but the just of it is, guys just point to a girl they want to talk to, then the waiter drags them over. We didn't partake, because we just wanted to see the famous Korean rapper MC Mong (MC 몽). We had to wait until 12:30AM for the show to start, and it lasted about 25 minutes, but it was pretty cool. We were the only foreigners in the club, so we stood out. MC Mong also noticed this, so he said "where are you from?" To which Jeff replied "We are Americans (미국 사람 입니다). He then gave us props, and gave Jeff a fist pound, which was cool. All of the Koreans around tried to grab onto him when he did it. It is so strange being in the minority..! A famous celebrity still notices you.

The next weekend will be pretty good, and it is now only 3 weeks on the dot until we leave Yeosu to head to Ho Chi Minh City!! Pretty unbelievable. I will leave you with the MC Mong Song that was stuck in my head all day, I'm crazy (for you!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello blogosphere... I just wanted to write a short update on how we spent our Thanksgiving. Last weekend Jeff had a party of about 10-12 over for a Thanksgiving meal. He wisely brought stuffing from home, so we had turkey, stuffing with gravy. It was SOOO good. Megan also made homemade apple pie from scratch! It was great.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day. A few kids knew about the holiday. I had the kids draw the "turkey hands" and passed out stickers from my Mom! They love stickers. I will post some high (and low) lights of the hands. It was bitter sweet to be here, because we got to have great conversations with our families, but it really makes you miss home. There was a small party we got to after work (about midnight!) and stayed until quite late at AJs.

Today I will repeat the hand turkeys, so it should be a fun day overall (and hopefully easy). This weekend there is a big foreigner party over at Rich (a New Zealander, actually!). I will keep you updated.

Happy thanksgiving, and thank you so much to those who emailed, skyped, chatted to us today! Please do it again this weekend!

Gas Smell Explained. F***** NEIGHBORS.

The last two nights Megan and I have had to spend the night away from home because of a nasty gasoline smell that was protruding from our bathroom. I will get into details, but first I need to give a short lesson on sewers in older Korean homes. Our shower has a direct line from the sewer to our bathroom. If you haven't already thought of what kind of issues that could cause, just take a minute to look at all of the piping in your home. Notice how all of the pipes have a U-shaped bend in them, if they come from a smelly source? This is not a coincidence, this bend keeps smelly gases from coming back up from the sewer. Normally this just causes a slight problem of a little stinky air coming back up, but the occasional drain-o, plus careful bathroom door management, will take care of the smell. This time, however, drain-o was not the solution.

After we finished hiking the mountain on Sunday, we got back to the slightest of gasoline smell in our home. We didn't think much of it and headed over to Jeff's. We got back from dinner, and the smell was much worse, coming specifically from the bathroom. Of course this is quite alarming, knowing what I just explained above. We were getting headaches from the few minutes we'd been inside, so we decided to spend the night at Jeff's (who graciously accepted).

The next day our boss came over, and thought that we could possible detour the smell by pouring water down our drains. This seemed to help slightly, combined with our windows being open all afternoon, so we left for work as usual. When we got back the smell was as strong as ever. We called up our boss, who agreed that if we are getting sick, we should spend the night in the hotel (on his dime, though he wasn't too happy).

At 10AM this morning JS came back, and talked to the neighbors. Here's what happened. The dummies oil tank which held the oil to heat their home broke and spilled into the Sewer!!! Are you kidding me??? The didn't bother to tell the neighbors!!! Knowing the sewer explanation I gave above, wouldn't it cross your mind to let someone know??? ... They have know that the smell well seep into neighbors homes, let alone the affect it could have on the water... But no... They didn't bother to tell anyone. Well, JS figured out why, and we are going to follow up today to make sure these fools actually alert the CITY to what they did. This could threaten the health of our entire neighborhood, especially us... Who knows what could have happened if someone dropped a cigarette in (since the sewers are just also accessible from street level)...

F******************* NEIGHBORS!!! Apparently wisdom doesn't come with age.

Fall Colors - Weekend update!

Besides the fact that our house smells like gas (no, no, no... not that kind) it has been a pretty good weekend. After getting home from taco night at Jeff's we walked into a gasoline smelling home. We think it's coming from the bathroom drain, but whatever it is it was making us sick within the 10 minutes of being home. Luckily we have family in town, sleepover at Jeff's! Our boss is coming in the morning to check it out, hopefully it's nothing serious.

On Friday we went out to lunch with our Korean co-teachers before school. We also got a little holiday shopping done at the local markets. That night we were anticipating a small bowling night with Jeff and a few others but many other foreigners joined in the festivities which turned out to be really fun. We bowled a couple of games and decided to move the party to the bar.

Saturday was pretty much a lazy and recovery day for us. Dave was able to watch the Gopher basketball game online which was really cool. I think for the most part we don't mind not having TV. It would be nice to be able to watch some shows and/or keep up with sports, but I don't miss it as much as I thought I would. After the basketball game we went out for a country drive. The scenery was gorgeous and the sky was incredibly clear. It's nice being able to go on a drive anywhere we please, that independence makes us feel more comfortable here. That night I went over to a friend's house (Jen) with another girl (Joelle) and we cooked spaghetti and garlic bread which was really delicious. Dave went out to dinner with a friend and then later met up with some others for a little bit. It was a good night and nice that we were both able to do something with other people for a change.


Sunday we finally got back on the mountain. We climbed the bigger mountain (Gorak) which took us about an hour to walk up and 45 min to walk down. It was perfect temperature and the trees were really beautiful. On our walk down the mountain we could hear a girl and her dad a little ways back practicing English "what is your name?" and "where are you from?" We knew they were practicing in order to talk with us, but we were just wanting to walk down the mountain in peace. They were tailing us for the last half of the walk down, and were only a couple of inches behind us. We tried not to give them any recognition and tried walking faster. We finally lost them when we turned to go a different way off the path in order to get to our car. The girl then yelled "HI!!" to us. Most of the time Dave and I gladly say hi to people who can say hello to our faces. But when they are tailing you down the mountain and not respecting your privacy it gets to be a little frustrating. Some people just see you and think "ooo, let me practice my English on them." It gets old fast. Luckily we were looking forward to taco night at Jeff's so it didn't bother us too much. He used the Peterson recipe and it turned out great.

Next weekend we are already starting our Thanksgiving celebrations. Being away from home during the holidays I have realized how big of a role media plays in our holiday preparation and celebration. Since you aren't bombarded by TV, movies, and shopping malls forcing you to celebrate the holidays it's up to you to recreate that desire. For me, I have little desire to celebrate the holidays because it's not surrounding me. I know if I was back at home I would already be listening to Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is you." It's refreshing having the holidays become much more simpler and personal. Actually it's refreshing not having to rely on the media to fulfill your celebration desires. The one thing I will miss is the fact that my family will be together when I cannot be with them. It's comforting to think that holidays have that special ability to bring people together. Lucky for me I have Dave and his family here, it makes Yeosu a little less distant from states.

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season. I've heard it's gotten a lot colder back home. Today was about 60 degrees and I am loving it! I have never lived in a place before where "winters" do not start until January and only last for a month or two, and I must say I was missing out, haha. I absolutely love the weather here. There is still enough seasonal change that reminds me of home, but it is far less drastic. The leaves have been changing colors for an entire month now. Unlike back at home where you are given an allotted week to go take fall pictures and enjoy the beautiful weather, we have been enjoying this cool weather for almost 2 months. I do think it will get colder this week, but it has definitely been a wonderful fall.


Well keep the e-mails coming and/or comments. We love hearing from you and life back at home. Until next time!

Check out the rest of the photos!!

Chunnam Dragons Fans

Dragons Stadium

Last weekend we ventured out of Yeosu for only the second time since arriving in Korea. This time we took a short trip via train and bus over to 광양 Gwangyang. It is a small town of about 120,000 people, spread out kind of like Yeosu, but most importantly it hosts the Chunnam Dragons of the K-League (top flight Korean soccer). We made the trip with Ed and Jen. We met up with some friends of theirs who were from Gwangyang. It was a fun time overall, though the soccer was sub-par. The Dragons played Jeju United, who is also near the bottom in league stadiums, to a 0-0 draw... We got to "tailgate" outside of the stadium, which more accurately means drink $2.50 Hite beers at the temporary Korean style restaurants set up outside of the stadium. It was also interesting to see the not-so-typical snacks. I had dried squid jerky, and the standard Ramen noodles, during the game... There was also silk worm larva available... So much for peanuts and cracker jack! The game was a lot of fun... Maybe about 7000 people were there. People were excited as usual to see foreigners, so we were glad to be a service. We also managed to get 4 tickets for 10000 won, which normally would've been 28000, so that was a good deal too! It was the final game of the season, but the 2009 season starts in March, so if you are visiting in spring you know where we'll be going!



Earlier in the day we went shopping in Gwangyang and found a gem. A knock-off 1987 Twins World Championship sweatshirt!! It was yellow, of course. Megan HAD to purchase the sweat shirt, especially because the Dragons home uniform is yellow. Gwangyang was a beautiful city, you can tell the local companies put a lot of money back into the community. The leaves are changing right now, much like Upper Midwest October, so we decided to walk back to the bus stop from the game. It was beautiful being surrounded by magnificent reds, yellows, and greens on the trees and mountain-side.

My new Korean friend and my new Korean outfit purchased from the sidewalk market...

Saturday HG, Jeff and the girls came over for a lunch. We had our first meat from the Head of some animal at the restaurant at the corner of our block. The food was pretty good. The restaurant was quite new and it was reflected in the slow service!!

Friday night we made our second trip of the year to the Cinus theater down the street in Yeochon. We caught the new James Bond sequel. It is always nice to check out the theater... There were even some other foreigners attending! Going to the movie showed me how much my ability to communicate (simple things) in Korean has grown. Last time we saw a movie was the first night we learned to read Hangul, the Korean alphabet. This time around I was able to quickly read and figure out movie titles, successfully purchase 2 tickets for the 11PM show though 9PM tickets were still available, and also order a unique item at the concession stand. It was kind of rewarding to know that the studying has paid off a little bit, though I have a LONG way to go before I can began to understand the SIMPLEST thing out of context... Or anything not involving shopping or buying for that matter!

Well, hope everyone is having a good time. I know the Weather is starting to turn cold back home. Here is is upper 50s or 60s during the day and I absolutely love it. It is the perfect temperature for someone from Upper Midwest. The Koreans think it is COLD! They don't even know what cold means! Hope to hear from you all soon, I appreciate the emails and blog comments from the past week! It is ALWAYS great, even a one liner.


As always, here are the pictures from the post!

Live Octopi

My Adult class wanted to go out to a meal, and upon the suggestion that I like Sushi, took us to a live fish restaurant. Of course, there are some variations between Sushi you'd expect in Minneapolis, and Sushi you get at a "moa" (Korean for live fish) restaurant. The end result was actually quite delicious, and we got to pallete some uniquely Korean tastes (For those keeping track at home, this was exactly the type of meal that nearly KO'ed my Mom and when we visited for Jeff's wedding in 2003) About 4-6 different types of raw fish, jumbo shrimp, large octopus, some seaweed and sushi wraps and last... Still SQUIRMING small octopus!! It was shocking to see this served on a plate. Of course the dish garnered little reaction (besides the normal reaction when you see a delicious dish) compared to Megan and my amazement. In the end, we ended up giving it a shot, and we decided to take a video. Thanks much to Jay Hyun for the meal, and showing me how to eat it. The videos are in order, first the dish about 30 seconds after being served, still squirming, and second, me taking a bit at a still kicking tentacle!

The SQUIRMING Delight

Now it's my turn...

Halloween weekend

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday weekend. This was our first time celebrating a holiday outside of the States, and I think it went pretty well. It was so weird celebrating Halloween over here because the majority of the people do not know anything about it. In a way it is really exciting to teach Koreans about Halloween because it is actually a really fun holiday when you think about it. My adult students were fascinated with the process of trick or treating, and why Halloween is celebrated. Having to teach others about something that is so natural for me really gave me a different perspective of holidays in general. Back in the states I feel like I never thought too much about Halloween besides partaking in the normal holiday behavior (watching horror movie, carving pumpkins, going to costume parties). I celebrated Halloween because it was something I have always done and everyone around me does as well. This year I was able to celebrate it with the reason that Halloween is a really unique holiday with an interesting history. Explaining to people that kids go door to door asking for candy and adults even dress up in costumes made me look at Halloween in a totally different way. I feel that all the holidays we celebrate over here will become more special to us than they ever could have become back in the states simply because it makes you appreciate them more.


Even though at times it seems that we have acclimated ourselves to Korean culture we still have some little tendencies that come up as reminders that we are far from the “normalcy” of home. For example, on Saturday (day after Halloween) I saw an old woman sitting on the side of the road selling pumpkins. I thought to myself “Why is she selling pumpkins? Halloween is over!” After about 30 seconds I remembered that no one here celebrates Halloween and that Koreans buy pumpkins not to carve but to eat like any other fruit! This was just one of many little reminders that I am not in the Midwest anymore. Even when I feel I am becoming more used to Korean culture, I realize how big of an influence my own culture has on my behavior, thoughts, and attitude.


Dave and I really are starting to appreciate the little things while over here. When we received cards and packages from home we were ecstatic! Even if they might seem like small things, they are big for us. Dave’s parents sent us very cute Halloween cards with stickers inside. I utilized this card and the stickers as much as I could throughout the week while explaining Halloween to my students. Same with a package my sister and my mom sent. Even though it just had fun, normal Halloween things inside, to my students these things were gold! One student offered me 20,000 won for the stickers and the Pez dispenser! (I told him at least 30,000, haha).
We have been here for ¼ of a year, and it’s already November! I can’t believe it. I admit that sometimes I wish I was back at home doing the normal things I am used to doing. My attitude about living in Korea can change as fast as Korean drivers can switch lanes. This trip has made us re-evaluate many things about ourselves as individuals and as a couple. But I’m proud of the fact that we have made it this far, and are continually growing stronger together. We are lucky to have such wonderful friends and family who support us and lift us up when we’re feeling down. Thank you, we appreciate you!

We have a lot of pictures of our Halloween activities, costumes and the big foreigner party below. Dave and I went as milk and cereal. We also had a mini party at the Hogwon. We had the students touch mysterious body parts without being able to see them. Some students were so frightened; it was a really fun way to celebrate Halloween. I hope you enjoy them! Keep writing e-mails, messages, letters, anything! I can’t stress enough how much we enjoy reading what is going on in everyone’s life! We miss you, take care!

Here are photos from Halloween weekend!!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! We will be chaperoning the Yeosu foreigner Halloween party on Friday, then having a weekend in on Saturday and Sunday. Expect photos of our costume. All I can reveal is... Milk and Cereal!!

Dave's Hagwon students

Finally brought the camera into the classroom on Friday October 17th. I had my really cute kindy level class get a photo, and a few other classes through out the day.

The kindergarten class can make or break the day. Today it went really well, we played a few extra games (hokey pokey, duck duck goose (gray duck)) because they were really wound up from the photographs. On days were they do not want to behave, or someone hits some one, some one spits, etc... Well I know it will be a long day!

Here is the link!

Now and Then 10/17/2008

I have about two minutes before I have to go to work so I thought I'd write a quick blog about some of the things that have changed in the daily life here in Yeosu. Just an idea of how our comfort level has grown here, and how this place is becoming a second home versus a place in which we are visiting.

Typical Weekly lunch selection:

Then: Spaghetti Noodles / Pasta Sauce, PBJ Sandwiches, Mondu(dumplings), Ramen

Now: BBQ Chicken + Veggies and Rice / Curry + Rice / PBJ + Fried Shrimp / Eggs and Pancakes

As you can see the diversity of what we eat, as well as the deliciousness has grown significantly. The ability to cook your own homestyle food makes you feel just a bit more at home. There is quite a few times where you cannot get the things you want (tacos) or things just right (the taste of cheese), but we some creativity you can make great tasting western style food every day!

The only problem is all the Korean people complain that we don't eat an Korean food. Well, we eat it for dinner everyday, and we don't know how to make any. For now we'll stick to our new menu!

Approaching Three Months

We have now been here for well into two months. The time has had it's ups and down, but I try to be an even keeled person when it comes to personal things, although some might have me pegged as a bit impatient, or spastic (a spaz) but we are still here. It is harder then I would like to keep in touch with people, and that has made my life slightly more lonely here as of late, but there is always something to help you get your mind right. This weekend it was a fun day with Hana and Sara, last weekend it was going to Seoul and getting some re-exposure to Western culture, next weekend who knows what it will be. There are times when I feel like I could spend many years abroad, and there are times, sometimes during the same day, where I feel like I cannot wait to get home. The weather is beautiful, the scenery is beautiful, but we will see. Who knows what will happen in the rest of our year here. For now, we will sit back and enjoy it.


As far as details of what we have been up to since the "Night of the Living Slugs", I will try to keep it brief. Last weekend we took our first trip out of Yeosu, going up to Itaewon, the foreigner district of Seoul. Anthony "Upscale" joined us. It was a lot of fun. We got Mexican food, Subway, Middle-Eastern Food, delicious late night eats, met some new people from all over the place, and basically felt like we were back in America for the weekend. At the same time, it got played out fast, people trying to get you to buy things, prostitution, etc... That stuff can get old. It was a great place to visit, but it made Megan, AJ and I appreciate the exposure to Korean culture we are getting in Yeosu. It gives you a slight feeling of pride to know that you've made it in a place where there are less then .01% people like you in the population, and not many things that bring the comfort of home. At the same time, it made Yeosu feel like a home away from home - the feeling you get after arriving back to your apartment or house after a long weekend away. There was also some cool perspective for me because I visited some shops, and remembered some alleyways from when Mom and I visited Jeff back in 2003. I cannot believe that trip was five years ago!!

I think Megan and I are beginning to be settled in at school. I am not going to claim that teaching the students is by any means easy, but we know what to expect. I now know what a good day teaching entails, what a bad day teaching entails, and at least have some ideas of how to make a class go smoothly. In the grand scheme, I know that I can handle what I deal with on a daily basis for the rest of my time here, but that doesn't always mean it's easy. I think anyone here can get a new found respect for teaching, and realize how exhausting it really is. I come home exhausted everyday, but I also have a feeling of satisfaction for conquering the students that day. I know it's a strange way to put it, but sometimes the kids can manipulate you, and really hurt your feelings if they want to. At the same time, a fun lesson coupled with interested students can make the day fly by... Sometimes that just isn't possible with 7 different leveled classes rotating day by day, but when a class is fun, it is awesome!



This weekend we kept it low key. We both were in no mood for an exhausted Monday, so we stayed in on Saturday night. Megan caught a cold, so she has been battling that, and I was just plain tired. We hit up the open market to get some Curry, fruits, veggies, and the whole sale store to pick up chicken and some frozen snacks. We snapped some photos of an experience that is becoming strangely typical... We hung out with Jeff, HG, and the Girls all day at Dolsan park, which was a lot of fun. The weather was about 72 and sunny all day. We have a lot of photos, and will get them up soon. We hit up Lotte mart on Sunday morning and made a much needed upgrade to our food supply. We are finally getting a feel for what we actually eat and what is just a waste of money... Sunday afternoon was a "Canadian Thanksgiving" party, thrown by the many Canadians in town. We came expecting kind of a show up and say hi affair, but we ended up staying for about 3 hours. We played Frisbee, catch, and just had a great time with another beautiful day of weather. The local Yeosu-ites were in awe to see such a large group of foreigners out. Many people stopped by to say hello, try throwing the Frisbee, and to check out what kind of food "wayguks" eat.

We will see what this week brings, but a few things an English teacher can begin to depend upon: The sun will rise in the morning, the people in the town will stare, the kids will shout hello, the Yeosu traffic will still be counter intuitive and our students will show up for English class. Looking back at my post, I hope I didn't come off negative, positive, I am just writing off the top of my head. Some days it seems difficult, and life here can be hard. Most days are good, but it is hard not to miss your good friends and family... However - There are still those moments in which you are walking down the street, looking out the window, teaching a class, shopping at the mart, where you just take a step back, give yourself that deeper perspective and think to yourself... "Wow, I am in South Korea... That's pretty incredible!"

Here are some photos...

The trip to Seoul... 12 photos.

Open Market, Beautiful Yeosu, Dolsan and the Cart Man... 40 photos.

Slugs . . .

So I had to say that last night I ran into a little problem. I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and when I walked to the kitchen to wash my hands I was surprised! There was a slug on the soap dispenser! Luckily I saw it otherwise I would have had slug hands. Well after getting up enough courage to scrape it off and throw it away (mind you this took awhile but luckily Slugs are slow) I managed to open the door to the garbage and it was a sight from a slug horror movie. A slug fell down when I opened the door scaring me half to death. I had no idea where it came from at first and ran away thinking the ceiling was going to collapse and slugs were going to fall on top of me. I had enough and decided to wake Dave out of his slumber for help. When he pulled out the garbage there was another big fat slug sitting in the garbage. Our Slug count is now 3 (small one on the soap dispenser, big one on the floor, and another huge one in the garage). Well ,Dave was not very happy with me waking him up so he put the top on the garbage and said it was fine and walked back to bed. I, of course, knew something more had to be done. I carefully placed the slugs that escaped back in the garbage with the rest of their family and lifted the garbage bag up to tie off and place outside, but to my surprise there was a slew of slugs! There must have been at least 5 other huge slugs all carefully, slowly, and slimly crawling their way up. I quickly tied off the garbage and placed it outside. I felt like I stepped out of a dream. How could there be that many slugs in our house? I have never in my life seen a slug, but now I have seen them all.

Not in a million years would I have thought I would be surrounded by slugs! What a gross and useless bug! I can't even imagine what else can get into our house, I'm just hoping it doesn't get worse!

Well, I envy all of you non slug finders and hope that you will never come across slugs late at night on your soap dispenser and in your garbage! haha. Hopefully there will not be a sequel to this story.

Slug killer,
Megan

South Koreas got Seoul!

Hey everyone. I have a few minutes before I leave for the hagwon, so I thought I'd let everyone know what we have been up to. Last weekend we went out with our Korean co-teachers for a beer, and then went to Ellui, the foreigner hangout in Yeochon. There were quite a few people there and it was a lot of fun. As usually, everyone stayed out way too late (since the bars do not close) and we ended up getting home quite late.

The next morning we were up bright and early to go babysit the best nieces, Hana and Sara. They behaved perfectly all day and did not fight one time in 12 hours! We made brownies, went to the playground, and played all day. At the playground, one young Korean boy said "Hi" and started talking to us. Soon we had a throng of 30 kids surrounding us asking us questions in English and Korean. It was quite an event. They thought Megan and I were Hana and Sara's parents, and that Hana and Sara didn't speak Korean, only English, because they were American. FINALLY Hana stopped being shy long enough to tell the kids (in Korean) that we were babysitting them. It was pretty crazy...!

Sunday was a lazy day highlighted be Megan and I cutting our hair. We have some pics that we will put up later.

This week is a short week for teaching. We have Friday off for Foundation Day. Korean flags are popping up in the neighborhood left and right. We are taking advantage of the off day with a trip to Seoul, Itaewon to be specfic. The foreigner part of Seoul. Expect a recap soon! We are going by train because the train station in only two blocks from our house, pretty nice!

Here are the latest pictures. The first few pictures are of Megan's students, then from Friday night, and then a few pictures from babysitting. Hopefully we can get some pics up from the haircut soon too...

Check out the pictures on facebook!!

Weekend update!

Hello again, I’m back! Here is the biggest update, Dave and I purchased a car! It is a ’96 Hyundai Elantra with awesome seat covers, working windows, and of course the essential air con (air con is Konglish for air conditioner since Koreans think the word is too long to pronounce). Last week on Wednesday, Dave and I test drove 2 cars. One of them started, the other needed to be jumped. Based on that, and some other minor details, we decided to go with the one that started. Now that we knew what car we wanted it was time to figure out how to get car insurance. Our boss kindly helped us out with the insurance before school. He took us down one floor to talk to car insurance people, pretty convenient eh? Even though we are 23 years old and have 7 years driving experience back in the states, Koreans must be 20 years old to drive. This means that we essentially have only 3 years of driving experience. This “lack of” experience made our insurance rate higher than what we thought. Luckily while we were figuring out the insurance, one of the other car salesmen, who worked at the car dealership we went to , happened to come in and he undercut his coworker by giving us 100,000 wan off of the car. A 700,000 wan car ($600, booo to U.S. economy) was exactly what we wanted after hearing how much insurance would be. We accepted on the spot and by the next day were driving our way around town. All together the car/insurance cost us about 1,600,000 wan ($1600) which was lovely.

On Saturday we went to the open market in Yeochan, near our house. It is about 2 blocks of vendors selling vegetables, fruit, seafood (alive and dead), and side dishes. The seafood is so crazy to see. Next time we will have to take pictures! There are live octopus, crabs, eels swimming in tanks and/or buckets everywhere you look. There are old Agima’s ( old women) squatting down cutting up fresh fish as you walk past. It is quite the sight to see. Seeing as we have no idea how to cook half of the things we say at the market we opted for the essentials: fruits and vegetables. We bought peaches, apples, carrots, potatoes, onions, green/red peppers, and curry for about $25. Then I took Dave to a whole foods place that my co-worker Liz showed me. This place was great! We were able to get boneless chicken breasts along with many other frozen foods that are easy to cook.

After shopping we decided to take advantage of our newly found independence. We took a scenic drive to the beach and around the very country part of Yeosu. Even though it was raining and gloomy outside it was great to be able to go wherever we pleased, and listen to music! The only thing stressful about driving here are Korean drivers.
The sign says "Yeosu" in hangul.


They are very aggressive drivers who do not stay in their lanes or watch for other traffic. Dave did an excellent job driving. He basically has to be aware of all possible cars which even means pretending that parked cars are moving.

That night we made stir fry as a picnic and drove to Dolsan Park to see the bridge lights. It was very beautiful and a perfect spot for a date. Our first REAL cooked meal tasted wonderful, and the view was spectacular. That night, since it was still rainy and humid, we stayed in and drank our fair share of wine and soju while playing Super Mario brothers 3, haha.

This upcoming weekend we are babysitting Hana and Sara while Jeff and Hye-gyong go out of town for a wedding, so expect to hear about the kids in our next blog post. Hopefully we will also be planning some fun trips outside of Yeosu soon such as Seoul.

We miss you and hope you are all doing great! Please please pleas keep writing, e-mailing, facebooking us whenever possible because we really look forward to hearing about updates back at home. Anyounghaseyo!

LINK TO THE LATEST PHOTO ALBUM

Weekend Update - Chuseok Edition

Today is the fourth day of a four day weekend. We were afforded this opportunity because of the Korean holiday Chuseok 추석. This is a holiday based on the lunar calendar, instead of the solar calendar we are all used to, so it lands on different days each year.

On our day off Friday we caught a bus to Yeosu Shinae (Downtown) and set up our bank accounts at "Friendly Bank". It was soooooooo nice to finally get paid... Later that day we finally got out and hiked the mountain closest to us. It takes about 45 minutes each way, and is a nice workout. The both of us decided that we need to make this a regular thing. It is an awesome cardio workout. Our goal is to be able to hike the mountain without taking a break until reaching the top. We have some pictures from the hike posted on Facebook.

For lunch I had the bright idea to go see what was open in downtown Yeochon... Nothing... We finally found a Korean/Western fusion restaurant. The food ended up being good. We went over to Won's on Saturday and had a dinner. It was a traditional Korean style dinner, which is starting to taste good to us. There are pictures of the meal on the blog. Megan and I tried Octopus for the first time, and fish head soup broth. We also made a traditional Korean dish called Songpyong. It was fun to make, you roll some smashed up rice in a ball, flatten it, and then put some walnut in the middle and roll it, like a dumpling. There are pictures of the process.



Sunday we relaxed for most of the day, since basically EVERYTHING was closed for Chuseok day. In the early evening we walked over to the mountain we hiked a few weeks back and hit up the "gym" to do a few exercises. It was quite crowded with Koreans. People were in great moods for the holiday, so many of the Koreans were saying "Hello" or "Anyoung Haseyo" as we walked by. We even were given a deep bow from a elementary aged kid. Working out felt pretty good, hopefully it can become a regular thing. We decided to go drink some beer in the city park for the evening, and then check out Downtown. There were TONS of Koreans hanging out, but only two Wayguks, so we went back to the park with some Heinies. To close the night we checked out some random outdoor restaurant on the park. We sat and tried to read the sign in Hangul but after a few beers it gets difficult. 오아시스 was the word, and it was writing in a fancy script, which makes it more difficult to read. We finally figured out phonetically "O-ah-si-suh", combined with the pictures of palm trees in a desert... OASIS! We ordered a delicious chicken meal by accident, since we finally read a item that said "something something Chicken" and then said the the server (in Korean) "Here - Good?"... He said yes.

HERE IS A LINK TO THE PHOTOS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS POST!!


Today we are relaxing, hoping to stock up on the big items from Lotte Mart, and get some veggies and maybe some other stuff from the Open Market down the road. We also hope to check out some beater cars... Hope everyone is having a good time, remember to keep emailing or commenting!

The F***ing Way She Goes

**WARNING - Offensive language referenced again **

There are certain times in Korea, when dealing with business, that you feel really left out in the dark. Korean culture deals with non-Koreans in a certain way. Everyone is called a "way-guk" - foreinger - and is always treated as such. This occasionally comes across in dealing with school.

For example - a new student was just added to Megan's class today. The problem with this is that this class is in "review mode". They are taking one month to review the material and stories they've read for the the past six months. How many of these stories has this girl read? None. How often does she understand whats going on, or is able to keep up with the rest of class. Never. What does the boss say when this is revealed - "That's Ok - she'll figure it out.

Example two. I have a kindergarten level class. These kids can identify letters, but mostly speak Korean. They think I speak Korean. They have decent sized English vocabularies, but are really hard to maintain. A new student was added to the class. She cannot even identify a letter. I explain this to management. "That's OK - she can just follow along and copy the others".

Example three. Today it was known that the foreign teachers will start collecting homework for the Korean students. Though this has not been the case for as long as the hagwon has been running. Of course this was told with virtually no explanation - accompanied by the "Understand?"... Of course we don't understand!! You told us this in 5 minutes!

This all ties back to the "wayguk" issue in Korean culture, plus another issue of Koreans waiting until the last minute to decide things. These are examples from the last week, so you can only imagine what may happen in a years time. However, I just thought back to an episode of Trailer Park Boys (a Candian comedy) to help me understand how to cope with this. "The F***ing Way She Goes..." I realize it is just the "f***ing way she goes" sometimes :-D (if you watch this with speakers on, realize two f-bombs are dropped, so cover the kids ears)

New Classrooms + A Rainy Visit to Hyangiram

Hello everybody. It is Sunday Noon here as I speak. I caught the 4th quarter of Gopher victory number two on an internet radio stream from Bowling Green, so that was pretty cool. Megan and I are going strong during our second month here. We have a few new pictures from this weekend at Hyangiram temple, which is an absolutely beautiful temple, on a mountain, facing the sea, on Dolsan Island. It was a rainy day, but a decent temperature made the hike pretty fun. We were with Jeff and the girls.

Here are the latest pictures!

I received my International Drivers Permit this week, so I am looking to get a car after my first paycheck. A decent enough used car can be had for under 1,000,000 won. In the month since we've been here, the won has plummeted compared to the dollar. It was 1,000 -> $1, now it is about 1,200 -> $1. So, this makes the car cheaper, but getting paid... not so cool. Basically we earned $200 less in the 10 days since we earned our money... Weon, Hye-gyong's brother will be helping us out on the car front. I am pretty excited to do some exploring. We also are hoping to make a trip us to Seoul in one of the coming weekends. We only live two blocks from the train station, so rail trips are easy.

This week was the first week in our own classrooms. Hopefully we can get some pictures up one we finish up getting the rooms decorated. We can also get some pictures of the students then too. The week was quite interesting for me. I don't know if the students saw a new movie or what happened, but I had three separate "F*** you" incidents. The kids don't know what it means, or how strong of a swear it is in English language. I was pretty shocked. I explained that it is NEVER ok to do in class. I can only imagine on of the 6th graders walking up to someone on vacation and say - "Hi... F(@# YOU!" - and then getting punched into oblivion. There were some other behavior issues, but I am finding some weeks are going to go like that. I did get a nice treat last Tuesday when my adult students no-showed, so I got to leave 1.5 hours early.

The coming week is Chusok, Korean Thanksgiving. Thanks to an non-optimal lunar calendar, we only get one of a potential three days off, but what can ya do? We will be having the big meal with the Kim family, so expect more pictures. I hope everyone is doing well back home! Please send more emails, IMs, anything!!

We're Not In Minneapolis Anymore...

I found inspiration for my first post regarding some of the differences that have been presented by life in Yeosu. These posts may consist of zany English on a t-shirt, a short story about a ridiculous cultural misunderstanding, a tell-all about some signs of a conservative culture, a step-by-step comparison of how much more difficult (or easy) something is here (like taking a shower), any other slightly impersonal tales that may be interesting to our more casual readers (mostly Sue's friends for now :-D - ha ha). That about sums up what you'll see under the title "We're Not In Minneapolis Anymore..." - but I'm sure a few other random stories will find their way in... Finally - to the story.

Today I walked over to the closest mart, "GS". . This company is owned by LG, for those who follow Korean corporations. If you live in a big city, this might be the equivalent of corner store - like Harvard Market for those who went to the U. At these marts you see many American brands. Heinz, Spam, McDonalds, etc. This time, I wanted to get a pop, and was searching for the cheapest available. Low and behold, for W550 ($0.55)... it was... Mountain Dew!!



The words are literally translated into the Hangul, so this can is read "Ma-un-tin dyu"! The other side says "Mountain Dew" in English. Right at the top says "Original, American Style Taste." Mountain Dew used to be less sweet, because the Korean diet was not adept to sweet flavors. Now, five years later, the Korean demand for the real "Dew" has been met, much to my benefit.

Weekend Update

Hello everyone! Dave here... I will start off this post with a news flash!! I am an Uncle again... .and this time I have a nephew!! My sister, Laura, delivered a health baby boy, Nolan, this week. We are so happy for her over here and cannot wait to meet the little guy!

Moving on... We have been here for one month! That is unbelievable!! I am almost settled in to my role of teaching, and Megan has been thriving (of course)! I have leaned on her for a lot of help and ideas, it has been invaluable. I hope we can get a few school specific posts going, and let you get to know a few of the kids, as well as a bit more about some of the nuances in Korean culture. We are starting to adjust to these, but I think it'd be something really interesting to write home about. For now, I'll just post an update.

Tomorrow marks the final week of "Summer English Camp" aka babysit the poor kids and make them go to school during summer vacation while their parents work, or sit at home and drink 소주(soju, he he). That means that Megan and I will be going on the same schedule, starting Friday. It will also mark the departure of our co-worker Christy. We are sad to see her leave as we've gotten to know her over the past month :-(.

Hopefully the change will allow us to do a few more things during the week, instead of simply punching the clock. We have some plans to begin a morning hike / work out routine at a nearby outdoor workout center. The gym would be W150,000 a month ($150), so it is not an option just yet.

Last Thursday, our co-worker (who also found the job for us) was SOOO kind and took my classes over from 7-9:30PM, which allowed me to go out to dinner with a Korean woman named Silvia, along with Megan, Christy and her boyfriend Marc. It was a delicious Korean BBQ style meal of smoked duck. MMMMM. It was much better then dealing with 2.5 hrs of teaching to say the least! Silvia was REALLY kind, and I think we hope to hang out with her when we are able to. She had excellent English, and loved to get a bit of practice. Her husband and two young children were also with. We went for a quick walk around the park afterward, and then Silvia was gracious enough to give us a ride home after taking us out to dinner! This is something that just wouldn't happen back at home. The kindness is just something else in Korean culture, something Western culture could take a lesson from.

Friday marked the arrival of Jeff, Hyegyong, Hana and Sara. I was so lucky in that I had a few hours left before I had to work, so I was able to get picked up and head over to Weon's house for lunch mere minutes after they returned to 여수 (Yeosu, hehe). It was refreshing to see their faces. The familiarity of someone you know brings an indescribable feeling after a month abroad. Weon also gave us a carpet for our living room, which absolutely rocks. We can sit on the floor now, which is quite nasty w/o it. Weon has been SO kind to us since we've arrived, he has been absolutely great. He is one of the many motivating factors for which I'd like to improve my Korean beyond... "Hello - beer please! Thank you!" (and a few other phrases). We also got a new camera... Thanks Mom, Dad and Jeff for getting that here!!!

On Saturday, we took advantage of our free time and took advantage of a nice, sunny day to get some reading in on our roof top. I finished up Deception Point, recommend it if you are looking for a thriller. I also got a horrible sun burn... Afterwards, we hooked up with Marc and Christy to go for a hike up the big mountain nearby. We walked to the trail, which was probably a mistake, and then went up. Half way up we found (hopefully) our future gym, which you can see in the pictures. We reached the top in maybe an hour, and were afforded AWESOME views of Yeosu. I also ran into one of the guys who went sailing with us at the top of the mountain...kinda crazy! It was exhausting, but a lot of fun. After we were done, we took some time to get ready for the night, and headed to Jeff's for some dinner (Thanks Jeff!). We caught the 4x400 victory for the US Women. It was the first clip of the Olympics either Megan or I had seen (besides Korean archery or ping-pong).

We went out to Ellui at about 10 for the big going away party for most of the public school employees. It was fun to see many foreingers, and to be able to speak English at a reasonable pace, instead of the normal, slow, and deliberate manner... The bar show was excellent and we have some more pictures. You can also see pics of our co-workers Gwen and Christy.

HERE IS A LINK TO THE PICTURES!!

That's it for now, I plan on spicing the blog up with a few more interesting pieces, besides just the standard journal format... That could also go the way of most "internet plans" (down the toilet), but I hope not. If anything, the journal format will definitely continue. We have more stories coming, getting an international license (and maybe a car!! *gasp*), Korean culture gaffs, etc, so keep reading!!

I hope all is well for everyone in the US... Please keep emailing, facebooking, commenting, skyping, calling, writing letters, and anything else. It feels great every time, no matter how long or short the message is.

a three hour tour . . .

So far this holiday weekend has been very adventurous. Friday was the Korean Independence Day and luckily we got off of work for it. We had absolutely no plans besides watching some movies that Dave had recently downloaded (including Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay). At about 2PM our co-worker Liz called me up and asked if we had plans. She told us to be at the yacht club by 3PM because her friends were going sailing. When we arrived at the yacht club we were kindly greeted by her friends, the old mayor of Yeochon called “captain” and with an international public relations retiree named “John.” They told us we would ONLY be sailing on the 20 meter yacht today; tomorrow would be the other boat. Liz could not sail with us, but set this nice sailing adventure up and was very kind about seeing us off and introducing us. Walking down to the bay we saw two boats. They were amazing, and I have never been on a boat this big that one single person owned!

We set sail and it was cloudy but perfect temperature. Three of the men on board spoke good English which was nice and we talked to Dr. Kahn for awhile an OB/GYN at the hospital near our house. We sailed to an island that the captain (ex mayor) OWNED! When we got there some of the men went swimming around the rocks near this island to catch seaweed. Dave was asked and jumped right in. He didn’t have his suit but in Korean culture it is perfectly acceptable to wear clothes when swimming so that is what he did. He dove for seaweed with the ex-mayor of Yeochon! (check out the link below for pictures)

The boat was wonderful, and even though it rained a little it was an exciting experience. You are treated very kindly, like family, in Korean culture when meeting new people. I felt as if these people were taking care of me and it felt good to know they genuinely liked taking two new foreigners out sailing with them. Dave and I were talking and even though they only knew some English we both felt extremely comfortable in this situation because with the lack of verbal communication you have to make up in smiles and other gestures which seems more intimate. We agreed that if we were to have this same experience in Minneapolis with an ex-mayor we would have been extremely nervous and scared.

a few pictures from sailing on the yacht . . .

We went out to eat Friday night which was nice because we could finally watch some of the Olympics. We have a TV at home but we are unable to find stations at the moment. At dinner we were trying to speak in Korean, but our server only spoke to us in English which was a nice gesutre, but dave and I really need more practice with Korean so it was frustrating. We then went out for a few drinks at Ellui and hung out with a few people we have met. It was an early night for us.

Saturday was another lazy day. We have been downloading many movies so while we were waiting for them to finish we watched "Fargo" to remind us of back home. This movie gets better with each viewing. We then walked to Lotte Mart (Similar to a target) to get weekly groceries. We didn't think we would be buying much so we only brought a little money. At the cashier we had to dig for extra money because we fell a little short but luckily we have mounds of change in our pockets that saved us.

For dinner Dave's Korean family took us out to eat at a seafood restaurant. We ate like kings. The meal was wonderful and there were too many courses to count. Communication is hard because our Korean is so limited, but we managed the best we could. There were some unusual dishes on the table, and some dishes were looking at us, eek! I had to do my best not to freak out, haha (I have a hard time with seafood when it's presented to me in the form it was caught). Overall it was delicious and was quite filling, I just wish I could speak more Korean to show how grateful I am to Dave's Korean family. Hopefully when Jeff, Hye Gyong, Hana, and Sara come back we will be able to learn more Korean from them.

Sunday we are relaxing, doing laundry, and possibly trying some different food at the restaurant called "Kimbap Nara" near our house. Next week will be very tiring for us because it is the last full week of summer camp. I cannot wait to not work overtime anymore and be on the same schedule as Dave!

School Daze

We are approaching the end of our second week of teaching. So far it has been a very tiring, confusing, and frustrating 2 weeks. Dave and I have classes that range in size from 1 student to 10 students. The students know the routine which is helpful (while we are still learning) and sometimes annoying because they do not like to stray from the routine very much. Filling the dead time is another story. We are learning early on that we must come up with a repertoire or activities, games, and ideas to use to fill time after a shorter lesson. The students LOVE HANGMAN, but when you play this every day, even though they like it, it gets really old fast. Luckily there is a folder full of ideas at our school that we will take a look at and Jeff will kindly give us access to his long list of activities and games when he returns.

Another hard cultural difference is the fact that the students will not tell a teacher “no” if they do not want to do something or do not understand. This makes it extremely difficult to know whether or not they are understanding what you’re saying and the materials you are teaching. What we have learned is to read the reaction on students’ faces as to whether they understand, usually this works but it is still very hard sometimes.

Like back in the states when you take a language class you get to choose your name in that language. It is the same over here which means that some students have very interesting names. We have heard of students named Dolphin, Raptor, and Bright (who is in Dave’s class). At our Hogwan we have put a stop to unconventional names, but since some students have had their names for many years they were able to keep them. I thought this was rather funny.

The people we work with are really nice and helpful. Dave, myself and Liz are the only foreigner teachers. There are two Korean teachers (in their 20’s) and our boss J.S. who teaches as well. Our dinners consist of a bowl of rice, Korean side dishes (mmmm kimchi) and soup. It is usually a hit or miss with me.

We haven’t done much sightseeing since we started school but I believe in a month when we are on the same teaching schedule we will be taking advantage of not only our free mornings, but the cooler (mid 70 degree) weather. Last Saturday we were able to go out with a couple of foreigners to a Korean barbecue dinner which was delicious. I tried Soju which is a hard alcoholic drink. It is not your typical drink because it is made just from chemicals. It didn’t taste too terrible, haha. It is so cheap that so many Koreans drink it regularly. A 750 ml bottle is $2 at the local mart . . .eeeek. After dinner we sat out on the deck of a newer “foreigner” bar called “Yellow Monkey.” This restaurant looks out at the bay, but it was hard to see the water because it was not lit up with lights (I think they will be adding some lights/attractions soon to this area). I had a $7 corona which I quickly switched to a $3 Cass beer. We were able to sit and talk to many other foreigners who we have not yet met which was really great. We met people from England, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and Texas which was really awesome. We were having such a good time that we stayed out until 4 AM which didn’t seem so great the next morning.

On Sunday our boss came over later in the evening to give us a microwave, exchange our washer, and bring over some de-bugging spray. Having a microwave is so awesome!!! We can quickly heat up things! A luxury we took for granted in the states, haha. Dave and I also were able to place our bed on a bed frame lifting it off the ground about 2 feet. This has made all the difference in the world! We no longer feel threatened by bugs when we sleep.

This Friday is Korean Independence day which means we get off of work! I think we really need this day off to just relax and not think of school. The sad part is that our funds are running out and we need to stretch the last of our money for a couple more weeks until we get paid. This means we are going to have to find cheap entertainment this weekend (no $7 coronas haha). My camera is also breaking down which is why there are not many pictures for this blog. Luckily for us we will have Jeff buy us a nice camera back in the states before he leaves. This is really helpful because if we bought a camera over here we would need to buy a converter for it when we moved back home.

A Day at the Beach + Hangin' with Minnie (formely Sun-miyo for those who met her :-D)

Hello again! We are sitting in the apartment on Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow we will begin teaching!! It will be nice to actually have something to do and get in to the rhythm, but we are both nervous to met our students. Megan will have a summer camp from about 9-2 MWF and 9-12 T/TH and then classes from 2-6. The summer camp will go until the end of August since all of the students are currently on vacation. What fun for them, English camp! I will go 3-9 MTWTHF with one hour of prep, which will all be the normally scheduled classes.

Last Thursday, July 31st, Jeff's sister-in-law Gumpil was kind enough to take us out to the beach in Yeosu. The beach is called Mosageum. We were there from about 3PM until 6PM. It was really hot, and the water felt really good. At one point we were offered a "fish sausage" - our recommendation - DO NOT EAT IT!!!! We did have some other delicious snacks, which we proceeded to buy from Lotte mart the next day.



However, the beach and water here is REALLY littered compared to back in USA. We take much better care to keep these things clean. It is nice to know though we have some international image issues, Americans do a few things correctly. As an aside, our cities are also much cleaner, especially MPLS/STP, so way to go us! After we went to the beach, we headed out to dinner. We ate a boiling chicken soup. Literally the entire chicken was in this soup (skinned, cleaned and de-limbed though). It was hard to eat since you have to pick out bones and things. Gumpil had to help us, we felt a bit like children, ha ha!

Friday - Megan went out with the foreigner girls to eat chili and watch the Sex in the City movie. It was good for her to get to meet some of them. I went out with "Evil" Marc and had dinner and them some drinks.



Saturday we FINALLY got the meet up with Minnie. For those who met her in Minnesota, she went by Sun-mi-yo, but has since changed her name to "change her luck." Her English has improved so much and it was a lot of fun to get to hang out with her. We went to a temple, with many pictures in the link below. Afterward we went out to dinner on Minnie's dime. It is almost impossible to pay for things we you go out with Korean family, we offered since she took us out, but she absolutely refused! We had a Korean style meal at a restaurant that, thank Buddha, offered Western style seating in chairs, instead of on the floor. Sometime during dinner I mispronounced a Korean word, and apparently the word I said instead meant something like "F@@@ you"! Minnie laughed sooo much... The dinner was really good - but Korean food always leaves this strange after taste! We then went bowling somewhere around Yeocheon. Minnie and Megan teamed up against myself and Minnie's friend, the loser had to pay. Lucky I pulled out some strikes in the end leaving Megan with the tab! (although we share all money... but it's ok!! It's the principle!) Minnie and co them came back to our house for a rooftop drink in the evening, which is really pleasant. Unlike back home, the temperature at night only drops to maybe the high 70's or low 80's, so with a cool sea breeze nothing really beats it. Sometimes it is still too hot or humid.

It was really a lot of fun because with Minnie we can have ACTUAL conversations instead of really simple, obvious conversations with lots of hand gestures. Her friend was also good at English, but was quite shy. They had studied together in Gwangju at the University. Both are elementary teachers, so Megan and them really hit if off. After that we had the standard fall asleep at about 10PM, big time party people!

Finally, here is a link to the latest round of pictures from the events I've discussed above, this time I made you read my boring stories first...

Click to check them out!

Megan wanted me to be sure and mention that Minnie thought Megan's Korean pronunciation was MUCH better then mine, :-P. Good bye for now. It is so good to hear from so many people, so keep it up.