An Ode to Korea!

(From a Wayguk’s perspective…)



To Korea! The land of the morning calm.
(But the blame might lie in that last Soju bomb…)

To Korea! They say "Woori Nara (Our country)" and put "we" first.
(However with shopping, traffic and in lines it becomes "ME" first.)

To Korea! Where Kimchi is eaten morning, afternoon, and night.
(But not the wee hours, when your colon starts its fight…)

To Korea! A respectful culture that is quite remarkable.
(And the lanes of any street are considered park-able...)

To Korea! Our dearest Yeosu, City of Flowers, Sea and Light.
(But never forget to be careful – The zombies come out at night…)

To Korea! Where hiking lush mountains can inspire with raw power.
(Just ignore the men in business suits and the occasional cell tower…)



To Korea! Where eating live Squid is considered appealing.
(And dog, too! Shh. Animals don’t have feelings..!)

To Korea! Where Jimjilbangs allow people to be comfortable in their skin.
(The beach is a different story – only the fully clothed may swim…)

To Korea! Of Swine flu, Crazy Cow and Fan Death the people have learned.
(As for the Nuclear Neighbor to the North? Not too concerned…)

To Korea! The president Lee Myung-Bak might be a bit pushy.
(Now you have your own version of George W. Bush-ee..)

To Korea! The people bow, and use two hands to be polite.
(But Dong-chims to me, just don’t seem right…)

To Korea! Corporations like Hyundai work with amazing precision.
(In reality, we all know Kai-Bai-Bo makes the decisions…)

To Korea! Where after a year, a piece of my heart will stay!
(For this one I’m afraid I have nothing funny to say.)



We are out of here in two weeks! Obviously a lot has been learned, and we have gotten to know this great culture. Take this lightly! Add your own. For those from home who don't get them, we can explain in August ;-)

A Perfect (Korean) Beach Day

The forecasts last Sunday called for Thunderstorms, rain at best. Megan's favorite middle school student (Jackie) invited the two of us to Mosageum beach, 2PM. We headed out at a quarter two with bleak hopes. We arrived to a full beach for a cloudy day, and I with my low expectations.

The students arrived from the Hagwon a bit late, and we could already tell it was going to be an exciting adventure, Rain or Shine (well, not so much shine!). We didn't bring any swimwear, because we hadn't planned to swim. About 30 seconds after the boys got off the bus, I could tell that was a bad choice. It only took about a minute for the first girl to be dragged into the water and tossed down... She was NOT too happy!



We started the time off with a traditional Korean game. A large circle is draw in the sand, one side cut in half, and the other cut in 1/4. These represent each of the original Korean kingdoms, Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. Basically you just needed to knock everyone out of their kingdoms, but it was pretty fun. It ended up being a showdown between myself and two small girls, they put up a good fight!



Next, it came time to randomly try to throw people in. I ended up getting soaked, but only because I got to throw three students into the water. It was a lot of fun to take out some aggression!! Even Megan got pulled in by the students, she wasn't too happy.



In the end, we had to leave early and miss a trip to the Noraebang, to go eat dinner at Jeff's. It was a fantastic home-made sam-gyup-sal meal from Hyegyong. It was so great to see Sara and Hana again. Sara can speak English amazingly now, and Hana is as smart as ever, starting to count by 10's, add, and everything! I think Megan and I will miss them the most! We'll miss you too Jeff, HG and all of our friends of course!

Here is the full picture album, plus our going away lunch!

Happy (Late) 4th of July!

Happy late 4th of July everyone! I hope you all had a safe and relaxing holiday weekend. Ours was pretty relaxing and we tried to keep some traditions alive too by re-enacting the Iwo Jima statue, singing the national anthem, and having the best firework show ever (well at least in Korea, haha). It was great weekend, and luckily for us the weather was great.



On Saturday we hung out at the beach with about 30 other foreigners, mostly Americans with some Brits and Canucks helping us celebrate. I made homemade egg salad and crab salad sandwiches for lunch and we grilled out for dinner (traditional chicken, hot dogs, and sausages). We even tried to drink American beer to really show our true American pride. I never really cared much for the 4th of July, to me it was just another loud holiday that meant no work. But living over here away from all the action automatically creates this sense of pride and respect for your country that made this 4th of July much more meaningful and celebrated event. Later at night Dave and Jeff put together a large firework show with fireworks they ordered over the internet, and it was a great display! So the only thing missing this 4th of July was the monotonous parade festivities which made it the best 4th of July ever, haha.



Now we only have three more weekends left here in Yeosu, and I can’t believe it. It still feels like we have so much time, but yet so little. It’s crazy how your mind changes day by day on your thoughts about going home. Mostly mine are extremely excited and now I simply feel that I cannot wait to get back to my roots. I know the next 25 days will be gone in a flash and I’m trying to take advantage of the time I have left with the good friends I’ve made here. While we are both excited about going home we are also both really nervous and anxious to find jobs and an apartment. Change is a good thing, but stressful thing all at the same time. I’ve been applying every chance I get to jobs I see posted online, with not much luck. I’m lucky to be home the entire month of August to visit schools and really try hard to land a great teaching job so wish me luck! Dave has been applying also to a few jobs he has seen posted but no word yet. I think we are both going to have to wait until we are back in Minnesota before we get any interviews. August will definitely be a busy month filled with job hunting, apartment hunting, and catching up with friends and family. Luckily I will be staying with my sister and brother-in-law when I get back and Dave will be staying with his parent’s for a little while. We are both really excited to see the two new additions to his family. If all works out as planned we will both start work September 1, and have an apartment by that time too, but time will only tell.

Well Dave and I wish everyone a happy 4th of July weekend and hopefully we will be seeing you all in about 3 weeks! Wish us luck on the job hunt and if you know of any teaching positions or Web developing positions let us know, haha.

Check out more pictures here!