Just a Regular Thursday Evening...

So, we have been doing review activities this week to prepare for the student's mid-term tests next Monday and Tuesday. That means we get to come up with our own review activities instead of working from the textbooks. I found a website that lets you make your own word searches, so I made some sweet worksheets using the unit vocab. It turns out the kids go crazy for word searches, just like my mother incidentally. Seriously, this is the first time my classes have been quiet... ever. I thought I'd capitalize on the moment and take some pictures. My plan was to pass it off like this is how my classes always look, but that would be a... lie.

This is my TTh 4th period RB class. We have (L-R) the twins Kevin and John, Paul and Jake, Judy and Michael, and Sarah and Alice. Jake was th big winner. He got a sheet of frog stickers and 3 pieces of candy.

On this side of the roon we have Nina and Isabelle, Annie and Kristi, Ron and Harry (all of my Harrys are holy terrors, just FYI), and Jack.

Next, because Alison Teacher is awesome, we played some unit Jeopardy, which was also a hit. However, since the classrooms are squashed together it's necessary to keep the children from screaming their heads off, which is difficult when there are thirty points on the line and your teammate seems unsure. Please notice the ridiculousness of the units I have to teach.

Sue's Red Shoes was deceptively challenging.

After the school Sam Teacher and I decided we were a little hungry, so we went for dinner at one of our favorite places by school. I have no idea what it's name is, but the couple that run it are hands down the nicest people we have met here. We had a slight mix-up in the ordering process and aren't quite sure how we ended up with so much food. However, when we got to the cash register the total was a whopping 11,000 won. That's about $11 for all of this food. It was crazy. Crazy good.

Kimchi Jjigea

(The rice comes on the side, but Sam had already put it in before I remembered that I'm supposed to be taking pictures of everything we eat. It's a spicy stew with kimchi, in this case tuna, and broth. Great for a cold, winter day.)

(sounds like: kim-chee chee-gay... sort of)

Kimchi Jun

(Mom, this is what you had at the Korean restaraunt in Denton!

It's a very thin egg-y kind of pancake with kimchi baked in.)

(sounds like kim-chee j-un)

I have absolutely no idea what this was but it is one of the best things I've eaten in my entire life. It was some sort of egg, cheese, ham, honey mustard goodness. The lady tried really hard to teach me how to say it after I pointed to the picture, but I forgot to write down the Korean to learn to pronounce it myself. Whatever, it's new name is: delicious.

Our meal also came with all of this as well. That's some sort of processed fish (really quite tasty) on the top left, dipping sauce for the jun top right, below that some radish kimchi, and some seaweed to wrap it all up on the bottom.

All in all a pretty typical weeknight for us. School, food, home. So, what do you think of the food so far? I'll probably take pictures of my MWF classes at some point in the near future. If I can stop yelling at them for long enough to get my camera out and fired up. I'll also give Sam a gentle nudge to jump on the picture band-wagon, too. His kids are funnier that mine, anyway.

Happy Easter!

Okay, so, a bit late, but I hope that you all had a great holiday. Being away from home over Easter was actually a bit difficult, but I finally broke down and purchased a phone card, so I had a nice chat with the parents which helped tremendously.

As usual, the weather on Easter took a turn for the worse and was gross and cold and rainy. This tempted Sam and I to blow off going to church and stay home in our pajamas, but it was Easter after all, so we bundled up and headed out to locate the church. We decided to go to Onnuri English Ministry, a part of Onnuri Community Church, which is apparently one of the biggest churches in Korea. It was a bit of a hike on the subway, and we weren't sure what we would find when we got there, but we're always up for an adventure.

It was an interesting experience. The only slightly strange thing was that although it was, in fact, Easter, the holy day of holy days, it was only mentioned a few times and the service was pretty much "business as usual", which was slightly disappointing. However, the band was really good, and I enjoyed the praise music a lot. The service was pretty packed and there was a big blend of Koreans and foreigners which was nice. The pastor, who spoke amazing English, was really young, energetic, and funny and Sam and I both enjoyed his sermon, an interesting take on the David and Goliath story. Some of his points were good talking points for us during the day, which I think always says something about a sermon. We ran into Lindsey and her friend Paul on our way out, so that was a nice surprise, too! I think we will definitely be back to that service, but also want to check out a few closer to our apartments.

After we got home we broke out the egg dying-kit that my mother sent in our care package and had some good old-fashioned Easter fun. Almost all of the eggs in Korea are brown, though, so only a few colors took. And, we really wanted hard-boiled egg in our tuna salad like right now so we only ended up actually decorating 4. But it brought much festivity to our drizzly Easter day, so, thanks mamma!

A Trip to the Hospital

Okay, don't let the title freak you out too much, this was a planned trip. Well, I use the word "planned" in a very loose sense, really. Sam was told that we both needed to be outside the big church by our apartment at 10:10 on Friday morning and that a car would pick us up to take us to the hospital to complete the medical part of the "getting our Alien Registration Cards so we can begin living life normally" process. So, all we knew was to be on the corner at 10:10 with 70,000 won and someone would pick us up in a car. If we hadn't already been in Korea for a month this would have seemed maybe a little bit sketch, but I think we're beyond that now.

So, sure enough at 10:10ish an actual official school van pulled up to wisk us and three other new teachers from our school away to the hospital. We get to the hospital and have a bit of paperwork to fill out. I think I have gotten the wrong forms so I mention to the guide that mine don't look like everyone elses. He very politely turned them right side up for me. Awesome, this is going well already. While we waited we did a bit of teacher bonding sharing ridiculous stories about going through the new visa process and random things that have happened so far, and we all received eggs from the Easter ladies (that is not their official title, I'm sure, but they were giving out eggs wrapped in tissue paper and a sticker of Jesus coming out of a tulip, so I'm pretty sure that's the gist of it).

After that we were taken upstairs where we had our height/weight/bp/hearing/eye sight tested. And our chest measured. Just the chest. Not entirely sure what that has to do with, well, anything, but nevertheless, Korea now knows how big my bosom is exactly. After that we're told to head down to the chest x-ray area. Sure, why not. After that we are to follow the red line on the floor to the "blood department". There we get lots of blood drawn to test for hepatitis, drugs, AIDS, etc. Then we're handed a cup and told to run off and do our urinalysis. So, Lindsey and I head to the public toilet to do our business. I open the stall and encounter this:

The dreaded squat toilet. I have managed to avoid these thus far, but this time I had no other option. Let me just say that if you are a lady, the best first time to attempt the squat toilet is not, in fact, the drug test scenario requiring both balance and precision. Awkward. Lindsey and I were cracking up by the time we were done, though, which I'm just hoping the medical professionals did not take as a sign that we were actually doing drugs at the moment.

So, that is what roughly 64,000 won will get you in a South Korean hospital (that's the not-with-insurance rate). If we pass we get half refunded. Yeah, if we'd had to have all of that done in the states it would have cost probably twice as much with insurance. Seriously, get it together US! Anyway, we'll find out next week if we passed everything... fingers crossed!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!!

Just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who wrote on my facebook wall or sent me an e-mail for my birthday a couple weeks ago. It was much appreciated. Special thanks to Grandpa Forbes. I got your card today when I got to work. I am glad that you are able to keep up with us through the blog and the pictures. I miss you all and thanks again!!

Food

I really did try to think of a snappier title, but I promised myself I wouldn't blog until all of my essays were graded and it hasn't left me much time!

So, we've been trying to remember to take pictures of the things we eat. However, we haven't been paid yet, so a lot of what we've been eating has been Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches, and we figure that y'all know what those look like (they are the same in Korea, we promise).

I feel that I should preface this post with the fact that a)I don't actually speak/write/read Korean, so if some of this is wrong I blame... someone else. Also, as with any place, every Korean restaurant makes things a little bit differently, so things will will not look the same from place to place, even within a franchise. One of our favorites, Gimbap Sarang, has very different takes on some of the same dishes, and we are learning what we prefer at each.

Tteokbokki 떡볶이

(sounds like: dock bo key)

Sam wouldn't stop eating long enough for me to take the picture. He loves this stuff! It's pretty tasty. You have your ricecake tube-thingy, some ramen like noodles, and a delicious spicy red sauce. All of the other stuff comes with your meal. On the far left we have some kimchi, some pickled radish (not my favorite), some lightly flavored broth, and in the silver cups is our mul (water). All of this food costs about 2,500 won (about $2.45). You can also buy this dish on the street as a snack at almost all of the markets.

Gimbap 김밥
(sounds like kim bap with a soft k)

It doesn't normally come with the random noodle. This was part of the same meal as the tteokbokki and I'm a little messy with the noodles/chopstick combo. So, gimbap is the pickled radish (I usually take that part out), ham, carrots, some cooked seaweed, egg, and some other random stuff all wrapped up in rice and seaweed. There are several varieties, chamchi (tuna), nude (no seaweed), kimchi (pictured above), triangle (because that makes it taste different?), and some others that I haven't had, but I'm sure are delicious. One roll (again, I wasn't fast enough with the camera, so we had already eaten about half) costs about 2,000-2,500 won.

Galbitang 갈비탕
(sounds like kal bee tahng)

Delicious soup that has some galbi (beef), rice noodles, onions, and spices in a delicious broth. It's served with bap (rice). This bowl cost around 4,000 won, but I couldn't even finish it! It's not nearly as spicy as most Korean dishes, so it made for a nice change.

Banchan 반잔

This is the name for all of the side dishes that come with just about every meal. In the white dish you have some kimchi(9 o'clock on the plate), seaweed(12 o'clock), bean sprouts(3 o'clock), and lotus root(6 o'clock). You also have the pickled radish again, and the broth again. Notice that Sam is eating the tteokbokki yet again :)

Okay, so there's a start for what we're eating. It's all been pretty tasty so far, and we'll try to keep you updated!

In other news, congratulations to Erin and Jason on the birth of their first baby! I'm so so happy for them, but it is definitely events like this that make me miss you all so much. We're having a great time, but sorry to miss the important events of loved ones lives!

Our Address

We have had a lot of people ask for our address.

We are more than happy to provide it to you. The price to ship a flat rate box is around $40, so don't feel like you have to send us stuff. We appreciate the simple fact that you are thinking about us.

Here is the address:

Our names

Seoul-Si Songpa-Gu

Bangi-dong 182-8

Avalon Building 2nd Floor

138-050

South Korea

Oh yea!

Almost forgot.

The kids are enthralled that Alison and I are together.   They are always trying to pair up the teachers with other teachers.   If a teacher is seen talking to a teacher of the opposite sex, they always jokingly ask if they are your girlfriend or boyfriend.  So when we tell them yes, they thought it was the weirdest thing at first, and they would just run off giggling.  But now they have started asking questions.  Even though Alison told one of her classes that she was "married"(we say married because they do not understand engaged) to Sam teacher, this class just didn't quite understand for the first two weeks, then it sunk in one day, and created a hilarious dialogue.

Student 1: So you love Sam?

Alison: Yes

Whole class: oohhhhhh

Student 1: And he loves you?

Alison: Yes.

Whole class: oohhhhhh

Student 2(male): I  love Sam.

Student 3: AHH Love triangle!

Another instance:  Our last classes of the day on MWF are right across the hall from eachother, so we wait for each other to walk downstairs to the office.  For some reason some kids from both of our classes seemed to be hanging around while we were getting our stuff together.  As we walk towards the stairs the kids follow us and the following ensues.

Student: Sam, you are so tall.

Sam: Yes, I am.

Student: But Alison is so small.

Alison was also asked one day after class: "You love him(points at me)?  

Alison says yes.  And the students responds "Why?" and Alison says "He is nice."

A Day In The Life Of Us

Sleep

We are still, yes still, attempting to get a regular sleep schedule down. What our bodies want us to do does not agree with what we would like to do. So right now, we are still waking up around noon or so, having something to eat, maybe going to the coffee shop to get on the internet, then making the 15 minute walk to school at 2:30. We usually get home from work between 10:15 and 11 depending on whether we get something to eat on the way home or not. And this is where the fun begins, we usually try to wind down by watching a movie or some Lost or The Office. Unfortunately we have trouble falling asleep before 3 or 4 some nights. Needless to say, it is a struggle.

Language

The Korean language is very easy to learn. The alphabet is much easier to read than the English alphabet. Every character has a distinct sound. For instance, the letter A in the English language can be pronounced like 4 or five different ways depending on what it is followed by. But in the Hangeul alphabet ㅏ is always uh, as in up. so it is nearly impossible to misprounounce words. We are learning the alphabet slowly but surely. The subways are in English and Korean, so that is a good learning tool for sounding out and matching up characters with their english counterparts.

Food

Another way we are learning to read is through the menus, which is what we read most often. I believe Alison is going to be posting some pictures, so I will let her tell you more about our meals later. I love the food here, there is a decent variety, although almost all korean restaurants serve the same things. But there are also japanese, chinese and vietnamese places everywhere as well. There are also Burger Kings, McDonalds, Bennigans, Subway, Quizno's, and TGI Friday's, along with some korean run Italian places. Korean food is by far the cheapest. For instance Alison and I had lunch yesterday at one of our local favorites, the total bill was 4500 won, which is less that $4.50 and it was plenty to eat.

The Korean People

Everywhere we go we get little looks and glances. Last week we had one of the funniest things happen yet. On our walk home from school every night we pass about half a dozen schools that are letting out kids. So we get lots of funny reactions from students who think that I am a real sight to be seen. This particular night we were come up to an intersection waiting to cross the street. I noticed three high school age boys look at me, and then murmur to themselves, nothing new. I just stand there talking to alison standing next to me. And I didn't see it for my self but Alison said she saw one of the boys come up and stand right behind me, and he was making some faces and trying to appear as tall as possible. She looked back to his friends and they were showing him with their hands how much taller I was than him. Almost all the smaller school children we see in the subway will say hello to us. Some of the braver ones will ask us questions, take pictures of us and try to have a conversation.

Transportation

Walking is our main mode of transportation. We can walk to our local corner store, to buy water(cant drink the tap water) and other small items. We can walk to any number of restaurants and of course school. Our other options are subway, bus, and taxi. We use the subway to go to E-mart, basically walmart, it is where we do our grocery shopping, and they also have any household items we need. It is two stops from us(about a 15 minute trip from street level to street level) The subway costs anywhere from 900 won to 1200 won(one way) depending on how far you go. We can take a bus to work if we choose, which costs 800 won base, and increases over distance traveled. The subways stop running around 12:30 am on weekdays, and 11:30 pm on weekends. So if we are out late, the taxis are the best and only choice besides walking. the base fare is like 2200 won and increases over distance. For example to take an taxi home form e-mart would cost 4400 won compared to 900 on the subway.

Back Street's Back... Sort Of

So , I know that you have all be waiting with baited breath to find out how the concert went. Well, it was definitely an experience, to say the least. And a fun bonding time with the ladies.

The whole thing actually started the night before as we made our homemade shirts (complete with glitter glue, because, as Kendra managed to say with a straight face "the glitter will catch the lights better when we get called on stage".) Here I am putting the finishing touches on my shirt. And yes, Allison, I did pick Brian just for you!

Here, Kendra makes me practice my "sexy cry" to be utilized if we do actually get called up on stage. It's designed to say both "I'm super hot" and "I'm a huge fan". I'm not quite sure I have it down just yet.

Saturday afternoon we hopped off the subway and found this sign as our direction to the concert. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. This sign lets you know that The Boys will be playing in the Fencing Gymnasium in Olympic Park.

Our first sighting of The Boys! We're so excited! From the left are: Kendra, Myself, Sophie, Brittany, and Sheryl. Kendra and Sheryl are my coworkers and Brittany and Sophie are friends of Kendra. After an experience like the BSB concert, I feel I can count them as my own friends as well. Please note the hordes of other BSB fans... errrr...

Here is some of Brittany's excellent and illegal (they don't let you take pictures in concerts in Korea for some reason) (unless you're sneaky) photography of the actual concert. Several things to note here. First, though you can't see it, apparently the "Unbreakable" tour afforded neither a wardrobe stylist (case in point, AJ's shredded leather vest, shudder) nor a choreographer. We're pretty sure they just watched old video footage of previous concerts and tried to recreate it themselves. Pretty badly. Secondly, all of those red lights in the audience are glow sticks which the crowd pumps in time to the music through the entire show. Quite the arm work out! (Obviously, we purchased the glow sticks as well!)

Here we are after the concert. Though it was largely cheesy and we didn't exactly know the words to their new stuff, it was still an excellent time jamming to the old school songs we did know. And, admittedly, laughing at 4 men in their 30s trying just a bit too hard to recapture the boy band magic. It was also at this point that the Koreans noticed our shirts and went cr-azy over them. Girls asked to have their picture taken with us... people snapped shots of us from afar. The shirts were almost a bigger hit than The Boys.

Here, Sheryl attempts to get us access to The Backstreet Boys by talking up a roadie. This was after jumping up and down yelling "pah T-shirtuh" (which apparently means "green onion T-shirt... Sophie quickly corrected her). She then pushed her way to the front to talk to him and ask him (in her words "native English speaker to native English speaker") if The Boys had actually left the premises.

She then called us all over for backup which caused much squealing and cheering from the crowd once they realized we all had amazing homemade glitter-glued shirts (the technical name). Mr. Roadie then leaned in conspiratorially and said "Well, The Boys are staying in the same hotel as I am, and if you follow that van (points to sketchy white van) we're on our way there now." Sadly, following a van through the streets of Seoul on foot was not something we were up for. However, we decided not to let the fact that The Boys missed out on their most hardcore fans in Korea get us down and took our shirts for some pizza. (At Mr. Pizza you only get one cup and multiple straws, another Korean quirk)

There now, don't you just feel like you were there? You might notice that Sam opted out of this event and had male-bonding night instead. Interestingly, his night also involved pizza. But no glitter.

Taking Requests

I have been asked for a picture of my name in Korean, which will be up shortly.

Anything else any one wants to see or hear about. Just leave a question in the comment section.

That Place We Go Every Day

By popular demand....

Welcome to our school!

Because every school needs an elaborate (and completely fake) atrium.

The spiral staircase of doom. Now, imagine trying to fight your way through 250 students up to the 6th floor. In five minutes. The netting might look slightly flimsy, but we've been told it's been thoroughly tested... now, who volunteered for that job??

This is how you spell my name in Korean. In case you would want to do such a thing.

This is Sam at his desk. He was relegated to the smaller office.

They should come visit us in the big office more often!

Okay, so there you have it! There will probably be more pictures along the way of the children we teach and what not, but I haven't decided which ones are cute enough to make the

blog just yet.

Also, I feel it necessary to let you all know that tomorrow I will be going to the Backstreet Boys concert with some other women from the office. That experience will probably deserve its own post, but if you would like to pray that my eardrums remain intact I would appreciate it!

Alison Teacher's Classes

Okay, Sam gave you the basics, so I guess I'll fill you in on what my schedule looks like.

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I teach 4 classes. That means that on those days when we get to work at 2:45 I immediately start planning. Then, I start moving at 4:10 and don't have time to stop and catch my breath until after my last class is over at 9:25. We only have about 5 minutes between classes, which means there's basically enough time to get to your next classroom, or in my case, as 3 of my 4 classes are right next door to each other, to survey the chaos that is 250 kids and teachers attempting to use one tiny spiral staircase at once. It's a kind of intense schedule, but it makes the day fly by.

I have two levels those days: RB and RI. My RIs (3rd level from the bottom) are my favorites by far. For one, they are super cute. Second, they know just enough English to think I am hilarious. Love it. My RBs (2nd level from the bottom) are a little bit rougher. For some reason we have a lot of older students (12-13 years old) in the lower levels this semester and I have to teach them stories like "A Hot Day" and "Hungry and Thirsty Mouse". They are so not into it. So, they get really bored and don't listen. At all. So, another teacher and I are working on curriculum supplements to make the lessons more interesting. Yesterday I had them get in groups and write down all of the foods and drinks they could think of and then write their five favorites on the board and if no one else had those on their list they got a point. It went over very well. There was much cheering and genral rowdiness, which I always appreciate in the classroom.

Tuesdays and Thursdays my schedule is much easier. I only have 2 classes those days: another RB class and an EB (4th level from the bottom). I have 2 breaks in the middle of the day, which kind of makes things drag on. I plan on using some of that time to explore our neighborhood a bit, grade quizzes and essays, and plan for Mon/Wed/Fri.

So far, I really like teaching. I know that at some point the "newness" will probably wear off and it will seem like more of a chore, but I'll worry about that when I get there. I love the look in a kid's eye when something clicks for them, and I love the challenge of getting to that point. The schedule isn't bad either! I don't know how we'll ever go back to 9-5 work after this. Another thing to worry about when we get there, I suppose.

I am, however, already suffering from a common ailment of lower-level English teaching though: sometimes I can't stop over-enunciating and speaking slowly with lots of expression and hand-movements, even when I'm talking to a competant English speaker, like say, Sam.

So, there you have it. It's what we do every day, but so far it doesn't feel like an actual "job" to me for some reason. Love and miss you all!

Sam's Classes

I suppose Alison will post a similar blog in the next few days about her classes.  I am not familiar with her schedule, so I will let her fill you in.

Our new semester started yesterday. The semesters are approximately three months long. Here is how it works.  There are three ability levels, R, E, and W.  R being the lowest, and W being the highest.  In each of these three levels they are split up three times again,(B, for beginner, I, for intermediate, and A, for advanced) so all in all there are 9 levels of students, they dont really go by age, the students take assessment tests, and the grades on those tests determine what level they are.  So, the nine levels, starting with the lowest: RB, RI, RA, EB, EI, EA, WB, WE, WA.

I am teaching 2 RB classes, 2 RI classes, and 3 RA classes.

The students schedule works one of three ways, they either come Mon, Wed, Fri,  or Tues and Thurs, or they come Mon-Fri.

Classes are 75 minutes long and run from 4:10pm - 9:25 pm, with 5 minute breaks in between each of the four periods.

The students who are MWF and TR come for 155 minutes on their respective days.  This is split between a foreign teacher(thats us) and a Korean teacher.  So 75 minutes with each of us with a 5 minute break in between.

The students who come Mon-Fri are only there for 75 minutes each day.  I only have one of those classes, so I will see these students for 75 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday, and they will see their Korean teacher for 75 minutes on MWF.

We report to work at 2:45 and work on lesson prep, which usually doesn't take too long, unless we have essays or book reports to grade.  And then we can leave at 9:45, we usually take the remaining time from when the last class ends to enter grades into the online grade book.

So my schedule goes something like this, I have three classes(out of four) on MWF, and four classes on TR.

The R levels kids that I teach have decent skills, they can understand, speak and write simple sentences with mostly simple vocabulary.  Vocabulary is the funniest thing, especially in their writing, they use a translation dictionary to find mostly adjectives for their book reports or essays, some just don't translate well.  I will start posting funny phrases in later blogs.

I suppose that is enough for now, I am sure its a lot to digest and probably a little confusing for all the readers.

P.S.  It's snowing, and it's my birthday.....technically, after the time changes its not really my birthday for another couple hours, and the funniest thing is that when it is 10:47 am on March 4th in the Central Time Zone(where I was born), it will already be March 5th here.  Not planning on celebrating too much, rumor has it that work gets everybody a cake on their birthday though.  So yall can just go out and celebrate for me.