high on Christmas spirit!

It's Christmas! This is my favorite day of the year. To say I love Christmas is an understatement. I LIVE for this. Of course, this year has been different. I did a lot of the same things. I wore red and green. I listened to nonstop Christmas music. I cried my eyes out during It's a Wonderful Life. But still, things felt different this year.
Usually, Christmas Eve has an almost magical feeling to it. Yesterday, I worked a full day, finishing at 6 PM. The school did some special things for the kids. The lone male staff member (a middle age guy who bares a striking resemblance to Donny Osmond and doesn't really work at school, but rather walks around, and looks at things that need to be fixed without actually really fixing them, which is why my classroom has had two florescent lights burnt out and a broken clock for over 6 weeks now) put on a Santa suit. Prior to Christmas Eve, the parents brought in a wrapped present, as well as a list of the children's merits and demerits. One by one, the classes were brought down to the gym see "Santa" though my class knew immediately that this was an imposter "Not Santa. That is Ken Teacher." Then each student got a chance to go see Santa. Santa/Ken Teacher gave the students their presents, as the teachers read the list of merits and demerits. I felt kind of Grinchish, on Christmas Eve telling my sweet little kiddies things they do wrong. However, the list of things the parents wrote was hilarious. I saved the paper, but left it at school. I'll share it with you sometime next week. One student's (not in my class) mother wrote that she was a coward. The favorite demerit from my class was "She gets her shirt wet when she brushes her teeth" Tsk tsk, looks like someone deserves a big lump of coal.
The kids were energetic BEFORE they went to see Santa. They were nearly uncontrollable after receiving their presents. I now understand why American schools are closed by Christmas Eve. I hope that private schools in Korea jumps on that train soon. It was like I was talking to no one. To add to the excitement of the day, the owner of the school (an older than middle age Korean woman, whooooooo...where do I start?? She has had SO much plastic surgery she probably can't stand too close to ovens or radiators or her face will melt, rumor has it is she puts vodka not coffee in her mug, has been known to fall asleep at the front desk, is supposedly awful to the Korean teachers but due to her lack of English is okay to the foreign teachers, usually dresses like she is going to a New Year's Eve cocktail party rather than an elementary school, etc) decided it would be a good day to teach the kids table manners...and what better meal to do it with than ribs and fries eaten with chopsticks? I had no intention of teaching the kids table manners. Come on now, Christmas Eve, ribs and fries, chopsticks? Right, table manners, that'll happen. But I was super stoked for our Outback Steakhouse carry out lunch. RIBS AND FRIES, not rice and kimchi. Until I realized the teachers were given a "special" lunch from Outback Steakhouse, that included rice, kimchi, 3 small potato wedges, chicken bits, pasta with shrimp on top, and wilted lettuce with nothing on it. Not a single rib or fry on the plate. The best thing about the meal is that it was not just room temperature, it was ICE cold. Outback Steakhouse is just up the street from school. My guess is someone WALKED the food to school, and Korea is painful cold right now.
Despite being hyper, my kids were beyond precious yesterday. Here is a video of Cassiopeia class, after their visit from Santa, opening their presents.


Then there is Big Dipper class enjoying their ribs and fries. Big Dipper is a special class. They are the slowest of their age group, but they are cute. They spent about 10 minutes of lunch holding the ribs in their mouths while making dog noises.




And now, I have to finish packing and go to the airport! My plane leaves at 6:30 tonight. 17 short hours later, I will land at O'Hare! Christmas never feels long enough. Today, I get 15 extra hours!

I hope everyone enjoys this very special day. I wish you all a very merry Christmas!!

PS-Next week is the end of my 7th month in Korea. Holy flying by time!

education what?

In lieu of a Christmas concert, school is doing a "winter concert" at the end of January. Each class will perform two numbers (ballet dance, song, play, etc). My class is assigned a ballet dance and a song...with a pom pon dance. If you ask me, I got the short end of that stick, since I have to practice the ballet routine with the kids, as well as choreograph, teach, then practice this pom pon routine AND song with them. So needless to say, little school work will actually be done in the next 6 weeks. I love my kids, a lot. But they are slow. Some of them have trouble spelling their names still. So I am not sure how they will learn two dances and a song by the end of January. On verra bien.

Here are two videos of them practicing. The first is from ballet class. Every Thursday, for half an hour, the kids have ballet. They all hate it. They all tell me they are in a "very baaaaaaaad mood" on Thursdays. When I ask why, they always say "Because Thursday is ballet." Secretly though, I am excited for this concert for one reason and one reason alone-I FINALLY had an excuse to video tape ballet class. It makes me laugh. The songs are awful. The kids are so cute. The ballet teacher is scary. It's pretty much a perfect combination.

And yes, the ballet teacher is wearing a purple unicorn horn (Anya, Kate, Niki, I hope that reminds you of a certain horrifying Youtube video we watched way back when).

And for the song they sing and pom pon dance to, I chose the Raffi classic "Banana Phone" and the dance has yet to be made. But we have been practicing the song a lot the past week, and I am so proud of how quickly they are learning it. My kids are SO cute. And since I couldn't decide on which video to post, here are two videos of them singing.

put some music on while I pour

I bought my winter coat last week, and just in time. Baby, it's cold outside! And this cold is miserable, and from what I keep getting told, not the worst it will be. Yuck. I also keep getting asked "Aren't you used to it? Isn't Chicago known for bad winters?" Ok, so Northern IL winters do suck, but they aren't THAT bad. Plus, I spent my last two winters in Bordeaux, where I think one time in two years the temperature got down into the twenties at night. Winter in Bordeaux was the short little season when my fingers would get cold if I wasn't wearing gloves while riding my bike at night. I got very spoiled. Korea has thrown me back into winter reality, where my ears are aching by the time I finish my walk home.

So this is what I don't understand. It is COLD. I spend most of my classes teaching while standing in front of a space heater. But the hallway in the building the school is in, as well as hallways of other buildings are cold. There is a simple explanation for that. And it's not because they are not heated. They are cold BECAUSE THE WINDOWS ARE OPEN. Why Korea? Why? Why? Why when it is 25 degrees outside with that wind blowing straight in from Siberia do you think it's necessary to air out the hallway? WHY? I'd rather deal with the smell of rotting fish or kimchi or whatever it is that makes the hallways at work smell so bad. And the hallways are not even the worst cold. I can deal with a brisk wake you right up hallway. The true day ruiner for me is the open window in the bathroom. Brrrr.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays after my preschoolers leave at 2:30, I teach 3 classes of older kids (the oldest are 11 years old). I only have these classes for 45 minutes a period. The lesson plans are already made up, with work we have to complete every day. I have some really great kids in my afternoon classes, but the job is pretty thankless. There is not a lot of time to do anything fun, it's all business. But despite that, I do enjoy afternoons from time to time. The kids have some interesting things to say. Like today, in my class of 11 year olds, we were talking about countries, transportation, and directions. They were given a map of the Korean Peninsula. Then there was a list of the major cities, and they had to say where each is in relation to Seoul, and how they could get there. For example "Busan is south of Seoul. I can go there by car or train. Incheon is west of Seoul. I can go there by subway or bus." I kind of just had to shake my head and laugh when I got this answer for Pyongyang. "Pyongyang is north of Seoul. I can't go there because it's..." then she did the off with your head fingers across the neck motion, complete with the tongue out.

That's all I've got.

I'm going to the Philippines in 58 days. Oh heck yes.

halfway point come and gone

So last week was my third Thanksgiving away from home, my third Thanksgiving without turkey, my third Thanksgiving without my mom's cranberry chutney, my third Thanksgiving evening not spent laying on the couch watching Christmas movies while in a food coma but nevertheless thinking about another piece of pie. Being away on Thanksgiving isn't getting easier exactly, but rather (and I'm sad to say it because I love Thanksgiving) Thanksgiving is becoming just another day. So maybe by some definition of the word, that is easier. There were times on Thursday when I forgot it was Thanksgiving, as opposed to two years ago when I spent Thanksgiving at a stage, hating every second of the day and cried while walking home. Every year, I've cooked a dinner with friends. The first year it was a far cry from traditional fare. If I remember correctly, tartiflette and chips/salsa were among the items served. The food each year has gotten more traditional, although still no turkey to be had. And of course, the real reason it never really feels like Thanksgiving is not because of the lack of time off workor the lack of turkey. It never feels like Thanksgiving because of the lack of these people:

And because there are just TOO many good ones of Eliza to choose from, here is one more, and possibly my all time favorite picture

I wish I had more interesting things to say. I'd probably write more if I did. It's cold here. It snowed last night. I miss Bordeaux and its "winter" where I was able to ride my bike all the time. The worst here is yet to come, and I'm already turning into a hermit. It's time I buy I winter coat.

The heat in my apartment, as with many Korean digs, comes from the floor. I need to either start being more tidy, or risk ruining a lot. I've already had to throw out 4 different cosmetic products I've left on the floor and melted. It is nice for drying clothes and warming my coat before I go out in the morning. As far as its actual heating abilities, I'm not overly impressed, although my feet are usually warm.

And now for the elephant in the room-it looks like I'll have to put my plan to go to North Korea on hold for a while. Mom and Dad, I am sure you are happy about that. I will also be waiting a few months before booking the DMZ tour I've wanted to do since I arrived here. The trip to N. Korea, I honestly wouldn't be too bummed about if it didn't happen. It is super expensive because a guide is required the entire time, everything is staged, and of course controversial due to the money going straight to the government. However, if I leave here not having been to the DMZ, I'm going to be so sad. As far as how things are in Seoul, it honestly doesn't feel too different. Although, when I can only say about 5 words in Korean, it is easy to live in blind ignorance. For all I know, the conversation could be things like "Holy cats, I'm packing my bags and hopping the next bus out of here!" But honestly, it feels like business as usual.

And here is one more picture, courtesy of the school's website. It is from our field trip to Seoul Forest a few weeks ago. I wish it was a bit closer so you could see their precious little faces. I love my kiddies so much, and I'm already dreading the day 3 short months from now when I have to say goodbye to my kinderhearts.

I have been a lousy keeper of the blog lately. My bad, sorry. I don't really know why. I write a lot of my blog entries during my looooong breaks on Tuesdays and Thursdays at school. But recently my motivation to do anything is seriously lacking. This is probably because the teacher's room at school is like Florida in late July hot. And it makes me want to do nothing aside from strip down to my skivvies and take a long nap. But since Koreans are both modest and hard working, neither of those would go over exceptionally well. So instead I sit. One week out of the month I have lots of work to do, grading the monthly exams and writing (by writing, I mean trying to remember what I said about the student the month before, and using the thesaurus to change the words up so it sounds different but I'm really saying the same thing) comments on the students. SO, here is what I started writing about Halloween, but never finished. Basically, it was two very long days, the second day ending with a feeling of extreme frustration/anger/why am I here?? by most of the employees. It's a long story that I don't feel like typing and it's of little interest to most people. So instead here is the little bit of blog I did write about it, and then I'll post some pictures of my super cute babies on Halloween, and a video of them playing a cake walk game. And I am not just saying this because they are mine, but I seriously have the cutest kids in the school.

Ah, Halloween. The day that conjures up thoughts of all things ghost like and ghoulish, fun sized Snicker bars, The Great Pumpkin, and of course, marketing. One of my first weekends in Seoul I met a guy who had been here several years, working at a variety of schools. Despite his very unlikable personality, he gave me some very insightful words about hogwons (private schools). He told me that the school is a business, and like every other business, their objective is to make money. The higher the enrollment, the more money the school makes, plain and simple. For Halloween, the boss peeps decided to have a Halloween party that the students could bring their students to in the hopes that these nonenrolled friends would say "wow, what a great place. Mom, can I go there?" A good idea in theory, whether or not it worked remains to be seen. So the teachers were grouped up, each group consisting of 3 people, some Korean, some foreign. Then each group was to come up with a theme for their room, as well as a game.

Chae Yun and Chae Hyun, both fairy princess something or others

RED POWER RANGER! With a get that camera away from me look on his face.

Tea party in the Alice in Wonderland room

Min Sol! Could she be any cuter???

We made jack-o-lanterns with the kids, then my friend Niki and I spray painted ours and used it for room decor.

We also tried to create a spooky effect by putting dry ice in it. It was less spooky, and more smelly. Here is the aftermath. Gross.

And lastly, here is me on Halloween. Yes, I am Fred from Scooby Doo. Paula is Velma. We actually had tons of random people stop us on the street and say the loved our costumes. Halloween success.

Otherwise, it's been the same old same old here.

Thursday was a very special holiday, unknown to world outside of Korea-Pepero Day. Ah, Pepero. Korea does a lot of things right-a public transportation system that is cheap (about 80 cents a ride) and extremely effiecient, rice cookers, skin products, etc. However, they are still far behind the Western world in many areas, namely that of desserts. Koreans-I've said it before and I'll say it again-bean paste and tomatoes have NO business being in anything sweet. Period. That having been said, I've found it fairly easy to lose the France weight, once I stopped eating rice. I have a hard time turning down a strawberry tart or a croissant, which is why I gained 13 lbs, TWICE in France. But saying no to a mediocre cake with tomato on top, or a pastry filled with red bean paste is hardly a difficult feat. So, the fact that this country has a day, developed purely for commercial reasons, that revolves around a very unsatisfying Korean cookie is almost laughable. Peperos are stick cookies (and I use the term cookie loosely. Flavorless dry cracker is more fitting) dipped in cheap less than delicious chocolate. They celebrate Pepero day on 11/11 (stick cookies, look like the number, get it? get it? get it? did you see what they did there?). The stores are filled with displays of all kids of Peperos. And of course then on Thursday all the kids brought in boxes and boxes of Pepero. I don't actually hate Pepero, despite what I just said. But while trying to pick and choose where I get my junk food calories from, Pepero doesn't make the cut. So I put mine on the communal food desk in the teacher's room. Then I ate some for lunch because lunch that day was octopus stew. No thank you. Then I ate more the next day for lunch because the school lunch on Friday was dried carmelized tiny fish. No thank you. But overall, I did good avoiding the Pepero calories.

I went swimming on Friday morning. I am not a good swimmer. But I enjoy it, and I'd like to get better at it so that I can hopefully sometime in the next couple of years do a triathalon. It was awkward. My friend and I went right in the middle of a water fitness class. And these middle aged Koreans were serious swimmers, and totally schooled us. But I'm going to do it again.

The school went on a field trip to Seoul Forest on Wednesday. My kids were cute. I would have taken pictures, but it was too cold to take my hands out of my pockets long enough to use the camera.

I'm going ziplining in December. I have never been ziplining, and I'm super stoked.

make up what

In case there was still any question, this week squashed any lingering doubts I had in my head about whether or not spending any time putting make up on for school when working with 6 year olds is a waste of time.

Said with a completely perplexed look on his face, one of my boys asked "Teacher, eyes. Why is purple?"

They also told me my hair looks like ramen noodles.

Expect a Halloween update, sometime, maybe soon.

you can keep your brunettes too

It's a crime of nature that I wasn't born blonde. Haha. Any guesses as to what my Halloween costume is? Here's a hint-the flowered dress I am wearing is not part of it. The brown eyebrows are staying.

chicken legs

As I may or may not have already said, fall has fallen in Korea. Fall air smells different. It feels different. It is different. My body knows this, and every year after the first time I walk outside and smell that fall scent, I start channeling my inner bear. I want to eat everything in sight and hibernate. Unfortunately, eating everything in sight costs money, and I need a job to get money. Hibernation is not an option. I have to settle for sleeping as much as possible when I am not at work. So needless to say (especially combined with the fact that unless there are skis and snow under my feet, I hate cold weather. I hate cool weather. Warm weather is nice. Hot weather is perfect), getting up for those AM runs is getting harder and harder. My runs are becoming fewer and fewer. I'm a summer runner, and I'm ok with that. But, in the interest of not gaining back the France weight I have lost, as well as not gaining any Korea weight, I decided to start going to the gym here. So tonight, despite wanting nothing more than to put on my pajamas and drink hot chocolate, I got home from work, changed clothes, and headed to the gym by my apartment. Having read a lot negative about Korean gyms, my expectations were low. But honestly, it wasn't that bad. I felt slightly scandalous in my tank top (bare shoulders!), and the machines were all slightly ghetto. But otherwise, it was fine. And working out in a gym for the first time in over a year felt awesome. I am going in on Saturday to get a membership.
There was one major difference about the Korean gym though. Asian guys are little. Average height is probably just slightly lower, but by little I really mean scrawny. I thought maybe if there was a Korean guy with big arms I would find him at the gym. Because at home, it is impossible to go to any gym without seeing at least two juiceheads. Nope. Not a single beefy gym rat in the pack. There were a lot of guys working out, lifting weights, etc. But they looked like a jr. high school basketball team's B squad rather than Bowlflex spokesmen.

Last weekend I went to Suncheon, a smallish (200,000 peeps, so not THAT small, but relative to Seoul) town on the southern coast of Korea. Suncheon is known for its bird sanctuary, with fall being the peak season. While at school a few days ago, I wrote all about the weekend. In order to not have my blog address saved on the school computers, I wrote it in Word, and then I was just going to email it to myself. Everything on the computers at work is in Korean. It makes doing really basic things a lot more challenging. SAVE AS didn't work. My blog is forever lost. So here is the condensed version, plus a few pictures.

The original plan-have an early night on Friday, and take the 9:30 bus Saturday morning. Arrive at Suncheon around 3 pm. Explore, go to the hot springs, see a temple or two.
What actually happened- Early night fail, me and my travel buddy found ourselves eating kebabs, chilling on the sidewalk around 5 am. We got home shortly after 5:30. We both slept through our alarms and missed our bus. So we took one that left at 2:40 instead. We got in shortly before 8.
Our hotel was in the middle of NOWHERE, outside of the city, very peaceful, but nothing to do. After checking in, we wanted food, so the lady at the front desk called us a cab to bring us back into town. It never showed up. But the front desk lady had ordered food for herself, and when she went outside to meet the delivery guy, she was shocked to see us still standing out in front of the hotel waiting. She ordered into the backseat of the delivery car, and asked him to drop us off in town. So we rode to town with this delivery guy, in his padiddle with what sounded like no muffler.
We woke up early Sunday morning in the hopes of getting to the bird sanctuary before it became overran with people, except we didn't know where to go, and the one hotel employee was not to be found. We just started walking. We actually found it pretty easily. What we did not find was any of the 140 species of migratory birds that were supposed to be there. But it was a lovely park.
We also went to Naganeupseong Folk Village. I wasn't sure how I felt about going, but we had several hours before the bus left, so I thought what the heck. WHOA. It was so worth the long taxi ride out there, and the questionable bus ride back to Suncheon, and then getting completely lost in Suncheon trying to find the bus terminal. People still live there, and it was probably one of the coolest things I've seen.
AND, it is harvest season. Once outside of Seoul, I got to see Korean combines. They are like miniature versions of American combines. And even weird than the mini combines, they put all of their grain on long black pieces of cloth, laid out on the sidewalk, road, wherever was paved.

At Suncheon Bay Bird Sanctuary, bird population- zero

Naganeupseong Folk Village

People still call it home

Kimchi pots! That picture is for you, Mom!

Preparing for the changing of the guard ceremony

One person was kind of interested

Even folk villagers need cuddly companions

Every garden needs old teapots

Almost unreal, and slightly touristy, a perfect combo.

Thursday twofer

I forgot this, which I have been laughing about all day. It was yet another gem from Hye Rin, the hurt tape girl. In order to fully appreciate it, you really have to know her. She is weird. She is one of my favorites, but she is weird. Like I said before, she asks me daily if I am pregnant. She calls me mama. She spends a lot of time rolling around on the floor, and frequently gives me baby wipes (water tissues) as presents. I don't have a picture of her, so here is one I stole from the school's website.
She is the one in the pink polo shirt.


I start every day by asking how the kids are. It gives each one a chance to speak, as well as wastes a good 15 minutes of class time.
Me: Hye Rin, how are you today?
HR: I am happy and odd.
Me, thinking no way I heard that right: Did you say you are happy and sad?
HR: No, odd.
Me: You are what?
HR: Odd.
Me: Odd? Do you understand that word?
HR: Yes.
Me, trying not to laugh: Who told you that you are odd?
HR: My mother.

hills

As I previously said, I am not much of a hiker. But Koreans are nuts about hiking, and I wanted to find out why. So a month or so ago, when a girl I met in Beijing sent an email asking if anyone was interesting in a hiking excursion to the Taebaek Mountains, I thought ok. I'd never heard of the mountain range (or maybe I had, everything still sounds the same to me) or the mountain we were going to hike, Seoraksan.
After a bit of research, I still could never remember the name of the mountain, but I did learn that the mountain range is in both North and South Korea, and that Seoraksan, located in the Northeast corner of South Korea, is the third highest mountain in the country, with an elevation of 5600 feet. I also learned that this particular area is packed with peeps in the fall, as the colors there are supposed to be some of the best in the country.

So Friday night at 11 PM, sporting my trusty Niki running shoes (hiking shoes are EXPENSIVE and not in the nonhiker's budget) and my new hiking backpack, I boarded a bus headed for Seoraksan. Most Friday nights I go to sleep between 4-5 AM, so trying to get the few and only hours of sleep I'd get that night was easier said than done. I did manage to get about an hour and a half of "rest" before the bus pulled into a rest area parking lot shortly after 2 AM. The rest area was at the foot of the mountain, and was packed with buses and hikers. I thought to myself, "hmmm, usually Friday night at 2 AM, I am getting my dance on in Seoul. This is weird"
But I liked seeing this whole world of hard core hikers that I had no idea existed. We were told to use the bathroom, as it would be our last chance until we reached the top of the mountain. It was in the bathroom that I saw the only wildlife of the hike, a giant bug in the corner of the stall. After regrouping, we boarded the bus which then drove us about 10 minutes to the start of the path our group was taking. People clicked on their head flashlights (there is probably an actual word for those things) and we started up the mountain. It was really crowed, like seriously crowded, but we could really see nothing except a parade of flashlights. It was cool. We hiked up very steep rocks for about 30 minutes. My friends I went with, as well as myself, were all getting sweaty and tired. We found our leader and asked him how long the hike to the top of the mountain was, he smiled and said four hours. Then we asked if it was like this the whole way, and he said "it sure is!" I generally try not to complain, but when I say steep, I mean STEEP. At some points, it felt like we were climbing a ladder, made of uneven wet rocks, in the dark. I guess the hiking group chose this path because it's the hardest, but also the most direct. So we would be to the top in time to see the sunrise. So we climbed. And climbed. And climbed. And climbed. And climbed, for 4 hours, with no sleep, after working all day. I was surprisingly not tired though. Our group ended up getting very separated. So I spent a lot of the time climbing alone, but I was okay with that. It was a good chance for self reflection. I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that it was the middle of the night, and I was hiking in the mountains in South Korea. Three years ago, when I was starting the application process to go to France, I never would have guessed this is where I'd be right now, but I am happy with how things are turning out.
A short 4 uphill hours later, I arrived at the top of the mountain, just as daylight was breaking. Sadly though, there was no spectacular sunrise because it was a misty/foggy/cloudy morning. The scenery was breathtaking nonetheless. We rested for a bit, then started our hike to the first shelter. Three shelters and 10 downhill (on rocks most of the way) later, we arrived at the bottom of the mountain. After a long drive back to Seoul, I got back to my apartment shortly before midnight Saturday.
Observations-
1. Ouch. 10 hours downhill on uneven and sometimes slippery rocks = a painful next couple of days.

2. Every Korean on the mountain hiked with what looked like ski poles. Is that normal?

3. No granola bars or trail mix here. Korean hiking/camping food = ramen noodles. They hook little pans on their backpacks in order to cook the ramen when they get to the shelters. And we're not just talking about plain ramen, they brought all the fixings (which, after 5 months I still can't identify) as well. They also drink a lot of makkoli while hiking.

4. Squat toilet outhouses, needs no explanation.

5. Ouch, more leg pain.

6. I fell...5 times.

7. Pushing is a national sport in Korea. While on the hiking trail is no exception. It didn't matter if the path was one person wide going, covered in uneven wet rocks. These hikers had places to be and couldn't be bothered to wait for us nonhikers. Sometimes it was funny. Sometimes it was annoying.

8. Saying this place was beautiful seems like a gross injustice. It was without a doubt one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Even with the 4 hours of steep to the point of feeling like we were climbing up a ladder uphill parts and the 10 hours of knee killing downhill parts and the hoards of people, I have no regrets about going. The only regret I have is that I did not know about Seoraksan before going. It makes me wonder how many truly spectacular places there are in the world, that I will never see simply because I do not know about them. At least I can rest easy knowing Seoraksan is not on that list.

9. I'm happy for the people in Chile.

10. Some of the pictures from the hike are on Facebook. For those of you not on Facebook, why not? All the cool kids are doing it. But all the pictures will be on my Shutterfly site sometime hopefully within the next week or two.

11. I need life advice. What should I do next year?

12. That's all I can think of about the hike.

One of my preschoolers grabbed my hair today and said "TEACHER! Hair is real?"

in the end, I'd still prefer the sound of the wind in the firs

Before I start, here is this. I like to exploit my kids' cuteness for the enjoyment of others. With my mom's birthday last week, I saw the perfect opportunity to do just that. Just in case you are not my mom's friend on FB, here it is again. Watch for the slap the occurs at the end. The boy is the worst behaved in my class, and spends most days sitting in the corner. The girl he slaps is the biggest bully in class, and the nemesis of the boy. So I have to break up fights between the two of them daily. I love my kids.


I went on a hike yesterday. I'm not a hiker. Case in point: last weekend I went out to buy hiking clothes (or just clothes that would be suitable to wear hiking) and came home with two new pairs of pajama pants and zero articles of hiking attire. So I'm not really sure why I agreed to go on this hike because it was serious hiking business. But I thought what the heck, and what a great decision. It was without a doubt one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It would seem surreal, except that my legs are in excessive amounts of pain today.
I'll write more about my hike later. I'm tired and have a stomach full of practice Thanksgiving (aka Canadian Thanksgiving) dinner.
Here's two pictures.

kiddie konglish

One of the number one rules at school is "don't speak Korean!" I hear this being yelled between students at least 30 times a day. Most days, the kids abide by that rule quite nicely. However, since they have a somewhat limited vocabulary, they have to come up with other words to describe every day items for which they do not know the English word. For example-baby wipes are water tissues. Worksheets are paper study. Sometimes it takes me a minute to figure out what they are referring to, and I usually smile when I realize what it is. I had to bite my tongue when I heard this one the other day. This was courtesy of a student named Hye Rin, who despite asking me daily if I am pregnant, is one of my favorites.
Hye Rin: Teacher, I is ouch and hurt tape.
Me: Ouch? Uh oh, did you hurt yourself?
Hye Rin: Yes, but hurt tape and I is ok now.
At this point, I am thinking, hurt tape, what the heck? Then she pulls up her sleeve and shows me a band aid on her arm.

une façade

Fact: women's shoes in Korea do not come larger than a size 8.
Fact: Korean shoes are very beautiful.
Fact: Korean shoes are very cheap.
Fact: Korean women have super messed up feet.

When I am in a foreign country, I try very hard to not get tooooooooo annoyed with certain super annoying aspects of that country's culture. But one thing that really really bothers me about Korea is the country's obsession with appearance.

Each classroom at school is equipped with a camera. Parents can come and watch anytime they feel there is a problem with their child, his/her classmates, the teacher, the school, etc. The students have no way of knowing they are being observed, and unless we are warned before hand, neither do the teachers. So what is the perfect way for parents to observe their child in his or her school environment? If you answered invite 10 sets of parents into our already crowded feeling classrooms for a morning of "open house" then you are correct.
Nothing about this open house is natural. The usual 2 class periods of 80 minutes each will be split into 4 40 minute blocks. Class time that should have been spent doing phonics was instead spent doing writing and making fall crafts to adorn the halls. Kids that are usually bad will be good. Kids that are usually good will be too shy to speak. I will be awkward and bumbling while trying to pretend that 20 extra pairs of eyes are not watching me, judging me to make sure they are getting what they paid for AND GRADING ME (yeah, they grade us). This is the fakest thing I've ever been a part of, and I worked in food service for 10+ years.
I am so sick of thinking about and talking about this open house. I have been feeling this way for a while now. I thought it couldn't get worse. Then as I was leaving school, rather than a goodbye, I got this from my superior "Laura, dress nicely tomorrow. Don't wear flip flops...or slippers (said as she points to my shoes)" I was so taken aback by this comment I don't even remember if I said ok. I don't wear slippers to school. I haven't worn slippers since I was 20 and living in the dorms at ISU. I wear flats. Just because a shoe doesn't have a heel, doesn't mean it's a slipper. But apparently my flats were deemed inappropriate for open house. I understand the parents' concern for ensuring that their children are receiving a quality education. But SERIOUSLY???? FLATS? If I came to school wearing hot pants and a tshirt with a picture of a car and a caption that said "My other ride is your boyfriend" then yeah, that could be distracting. Parents, mark me down. But wearing flats? To any parents who grade me based on my appearance, I have the following letter written for them:
Dear Parents,
I am with your kids 5 days a week. I sing with them. I dance with them. I pick up after then. I wipe up their spills. I hug them when they cry. I wipe their noses when they bleed because you haven't taught them not to pick so hard/at all. I break up fights. I've even cleaned up their puke. I am away from my own family so that I can teach yours. I am missing holidays with them. I am missing weddings, parties, babies, and graduations. I chose to come here. I want to be here. I want to be here to teach your kids. I am in no way a perfect teacher, and I never pretend to be. However, the imperfections I have are in no way related to my appearance.
Sincerely,
Laura
However, since I do enjoy employment, I of course will not be sending that letter. I will wear a dress. I will put on make up. I will carry my one pair of heels to school. I will put them on right before class starts, and for a few hours tomorrow morning my 147 lbs will be supported by two little pieces of H&M plastic and I will take them off as soon as the parents leave and I will put my FLATS back on. And any complaints I receive will go in one ear and hopefully out the other as I use every bit of self control I have to remind myself that the children are not their parents and I should not take my frustration out on them.
Wish me luck.

Red snappers snappin, clam shells clappItin

An egg white omelet. Howard Dean trying to appear sane after the squeal heard around the world. Crystal Pepsi and Coke 2. Any movie with Nicolas Cage. Most tv show spin offs. The DeLorean. The XFL. Rick Rockwell and Darva Conger's marriage.

That is my list of things that just don't really work, my list of all things fail. After Monday, I learned first hand one more thing I can add to that list-Korean sun screen.

I spent the last few days at Jeju with ma mere. Jeju is SO beautiful, words cannot describe it. On our first full day there, we decided to park ourselves on the beach and enjoy the sunny skies and 80+ degree day. Having spent very little time outside this summer, my skin was close to its normal winter color of don't look directly at it without special glasses white. Sunscreen was a must. After about 4 stores not having any, my mom found one store that had SPF 40. Perfect...except that it doesn't work. All week I've been sporting one of the worst sunburns I can ever remember. It's one of those burns that almost looks purple in some spots. Ouch. But today it is getting better. It no longer hurts to wear clothes or move.

Also, Koreans don't wear bathing suits. They swim in normal clothes. I even saw one lady wearing socks. And yes, she did get into the water wearing them.

new "teacher"

My mom is here! WoOt! She came to school with me yesterday. It was a good day because the kids were wearing their traditional Korean clothes (hanbok, as I learned a few days ago) because of the Korean Thanksgiving (Chusok) happening next week. It was melt your heart cute.

Kolean tlansratol

L and R. Two letters, one sound...if you are Korean. So it is no surprise that my name poses a particular challenge for the citizens of this lovely country.

Most of my students call me either "Lola" or "Rora" and my favorite argument is when the Lola sayers try and correct the Rora sayers or vice versa. It never gets old.

I walked into one of my afternoon classes today, and my kids were all laughing gathered around an electronic device. As they brought it over to me, I could see it was an electronic translator, which had this message for me from my students "Hello Rora Teacher. How are you? Can we play game today?"

Aparently even battery operated Korean electronics have a problem with my name.

My blog about the hospital visit is below the four horsemen one. I guess blogger puts them in the order when I started writing it, not when it was actually publishd. Cool cool.

four horsemen

I'm in the middle of writing what is turning into an Anna Karenina length blog entry about my first visit to a hospital in Seoul. Much like Tolstoy, I like to put adequate time into writing the classics, so in the meantime, here's what's up:

Rain.

This is what is going on outside as I write this.

Blarg. I'm not a rainy day kind of girl. Especially when I feel trapped inside and my neighbor is playing what sounds like Mel and Mel-O-Dee Caliopee style music. Sorry to my non Princeton readers who will not understand that allusion to a classic Bureau County icon.

There was a typhoon on Thursday. It was kind of cool. And it delayed the start of school by an hour. WIN! I think it killed like 5 people though. Fail.

I had my first dealing with puke on Friday. It was nasty, especially when the only thing I had to clean it with was toilet paper and a spray bottle of mystery cleaner.

병원

I am generally a pretty healthy person. I have been on prescription medication maybe twice (if that) in the past three years. Even with my self given title of "pretty healthy" my body is not equipped to handle these Asian super bugs. For the second time since my arrival here, I have fallen victim to the Korean Crud. As an added plus, this time around the Crud has done something to my eyes. I don't know if it is pink eye, dry eyes, random infection, or what. But they are red. And watery. And itchy. And burny. And for two days, whenever I walked into a room, one of my preschoolers would say "TEACHER! Eyes is red! Why?"

I also had my first visit to a Korean hospital. A few months ago, I noticed a little bump on my stomach. It grew. And hurt. And did other gross things that I won't talk about in case anyone is eating anything. So finally I decided to see a dermatologist. After a VERY awkward attempt at trying to make an appointment, I thought I maybe had the receptionist give me the okay for Wednesday at 6:30. Bad traffic. I walked into the reception area around 6:50. Oops. I was apologizing for being late, when the good Doc walked into the room and said in perfect English "Don't worry about it!" I relaxed, filled out my forms, and sat down to wait. I then realized this private skin clinic was beautiful, with modern decor, including plants and a little fountain. There were posters and brochures for various cosmetic procedures. The national sport of Korea is Taekwondo. Cosmetic surgery is a close second though. While waiting, I saw a few Korean female clients walking around the dr's office. True to form, they were perfect-perfect skin, perfect clothes, high heels, not a hair out of place, etc. I had a feeling this is what the Doc mainly deals with-botox and other issues of vanity. For a second I debated running out of the waiting room while no one was looking. I had been at work all day. My hair was messy. I wasn't wearing make up. I outweighed all of his female clients (and probably some of the males as well, tiny little fellas here) by about 50 pounds. I probably smelled weird, and I wasn't there to talk to him about crows feet prevention. But, before I could make my move, he called me back to his office. I followed him, giving myself a pep talk along the way "Suck it up Laura. You left your pride somewhere in Bordeaux nearly two years ago. Just do it. He's a doctor. It's his job. It's okay that you look and smell like crap, you are foreign. Etc" Once in his office, he asked me what he could do for me today. And of course after I told him, he made me show him. I lifted my shirt and took off the band aid that was sort of covering it. As soon as the band aid was off, he said
"GEEEEZUS. THIS IS A SEMI EMERGENCY!" And he ran out of the room, leaving me sitting there holding a band aid in one hand, and keeping my shirt up with the other. Umm...ok. A long few minutes later, he came back carrying gauze and tape. He properly bandaged my bump, yelled at me a bit for not seeing a doctor sooner, then told me it had to come off asap. And since he wanted it biopsied, I'd have to go to a hospital, and he said it needed to be done first thing in the morning. He wrote me a referral, and told me what he thought the bump was. I don't remember what it was called, and no longer am in possession of the referral sheet, I may never know. It is better that way. I would prefer people don't know what it was called. It was gross. Basically it is just a benign growth that is usually the result of trauma to the skin. I don't know what my trauma was. So I got to work the next day, and had my boss call the hospital to make me an appointment. She called, but was told that there is a policy of no same day appointments, and they told me just to show up before 3:30. I left work around 2:30. The hospital is called Hanyang University Medical Center. It is close to work, but since I wasn't entirely positive where, I took a taxi. This isn't a hospital like good ol' Perry. This is a complex. Think like Northwestern Medical Center, only all the signs explaining what's in each building are all in Korean. The driver dropped me off in front of a building. I thought, okay, here is as good a place as any. So I walked in. There were people EVERYWHERE. I found a desk that in English said "Information" GREAT! I walked up, did my sort of bow, and showed him my referral. He laughed at me, and pointed me towards another set of desks, with a few ladies at computers. I approached one of them, and she tried to speak to me in very broken English. Bless her. I gave her my referral sheet. After it became clear our language barrier was too great, she made a phone call, and told me to wait. A few minutes later, a woman approached me, and introduced herself as Dr. Grace Somethingorother (probably Kim, Lee, or Park). She said she was head of the international hospital at Hanyang University. I followed her to the "international" hospital, though there was nothing international about it. I was the only non Asian in the building. But they did offer translators. So I soon found myself following my translator up to the 5th floor. I waited a few minutes, and was then called into a room with an older doctor and a VERY attractive Korean medical student. If only I wasn't there to have him examine a benign growth of nasty on my stomach. Side note, I was looking even more haggard that day too because I walked to school in the tale end of a typhoon. No joke. Anyway, they confirmed the dermatologist's diagnosis of it being whatever he said it was (forgot the name), and told me I'd have to have it removed that day. Once again in the waiting room, my translator asked me if it would be okay if they took pictures of it. I wasn't sure if this was standard, or if it was because I'd let it go way longer than I should have or why. But I soon found myself standing, naked from the waste up holding on arm up in the air, wishing I wasn't so lazy about shaving my armpits, while a Korean medical student photographed me with a camera that probably cost more than my college education. At one point I literally had to bite my cheek to keep from laughing at the absurdity of it all. Like I said before, my pride is long gone. A short while later, the bump was gone, and I was bandaged up and walking home with a prescription for two different medicines and instructions to return to the hospital Saturday morning so they could check my stitches and change the bandage. Simple enough, except that the translators don't work on the weekend. It wasn't bad though. Being obviously foreign and looking lost and confused goes a long way here, although I think I annoyed a lot of people in the process.

Fast forward a week, my stitches are out and I am the proud owner of a Hanyang University Medical Center ID card. Good souvenir, I guess.

Mayonnaise at Plymouth

According to the English Wikipedia entry on mashed potatoes, in addition to boiled potatoes, other common ingredients include garlic, cheese, bacon, sour cream, onion, mustard, or various herbs. I don't read Korean, but if I could, I am sure the Korean Wikipedia entry on mashed potatoes would tell readers that other ingredients include boiled eggs, corn, mayonnaise, and of course raisins.

As I said before, Friday at school we had another cooking class. This month the kids have been learning about healthy habits, including healthy eating. I generally put mashed potatoes in the comfort food category more than the healthy food category (and in my world there is no overlap between those two categories). But I guess relatively speaking, it is healthier than the strawberry sundaes we made last month.

These mashed potatoes tasted more like egg/potato salad. The kids each had a cup and a spoon, and in their cup they mixed together half a potato, one boiled egg, mayo, milk, salt, pepper, raisins, and corn. I don't fully understand the Koreans love of corn. A plain cheese pizza has corn on it. Spaghetti sauce has corn in it. You can buy boiled ears of corn from carts on the street, which a lot of my student do then give them to me as presents. Ummm, thanks?

Here's a picture of my "mashed potatoes"

Ahh, doesn't that just conjure up images of family, the Macy's parade, football, and a delicious feast, with a big pile of that drowning in gravy on your plate between the stuffing and the green bean casserole?

My kids had a similar reaction. While some of them did seem to enjoy it, a lot of them told me it was "bery bery bery bery not yummy"

Here is a video of Cassiopeia "cooking"

And their reaction:


And then there is Big Dipper...what can I say? While most days their behavior is much better than Cassiopeia's, they are definitely a bit, ummm, how to put it nicely? They are the slower of the two classes (and actually according to a recent IQ test, the slowest in the school). They found some other uses for their cooking utensils.

kidlets

Yesterday was another cooking class. I'll write more about that sometime, tomorrow maybe. But in the meantime, here is a video of my Cassiopeia kiddies.

no flowing creative juices here

I've been asked by several people why I hadn't written anything in a while. Truth be told, I haven't been feeling all that creative lately, so I am afraid what I am writing will be boring. I am not saying I am unhappy or bored with my life here. That is not the case at all. I just don't feel like anything exciting/blog worthy has taken place in my life the past couple of weeks.

But, because I like to give my 3 faithful readers what they want, here is what I've been up to since my last post.

20 minutes ago, I ate a bagel. It was the first bagel I've had since January. It was delicious.

I saw two car accidents this week. On my walk home tonight, I counted 4 cars driving without headlights on. I generally don't like to think stereotypes are true...but some are.

Two new teachers are starting at work this week. I am excited for this. I am losing my title of "new person" and being upgraded to simply "newish"

I can usually start my washing machine on the first try now. I still am unsure what a lot of the symbols mean and this learning process is destroying a lot of my clothes. But the important thing is that I can consistently start the machine. Small steps.

I was out walking the other night, and I came across a man selling puppies on the sidewalk. For about 5 seconds I seriously thought about getting one. Until I remembered that most days I can't be bothered to clean up my own messes or make myself food. I would be a most unfit pet parent.

I met two guys from the US Army last night. They both claimed to be huge football fans, and told me it had been forever since the Bears had been in the Super Bowl, blah blah blah. I made some mention of 2007, and they both laughed at me, and openly mocked me saying the Bears were not in the 2007 Super Bowl, told me I didn't know what I was talking about, etc. Thanks Google. They told me I put them to shame as men. I don't really even care much about football, so I also put them to shame as football fans. I enjoyed a most satisfactory gloat.

A line from a student who was telling me about her former English teacher "She was, you know like you. She was blond and fat" Ouch. Does this dress make me look blond?

Did you see those Huns? They popped out of the snow like daisies

disclaimer-I'm too tired to do any sort of proofreading or even to say anything that makes any sense. Please ignore all misspellings, typos, sentence fragments, nonsensical writing, etc.


China. Whoa. Words fail me. But in the interest of not forgetting anything, here I go.

Honestly, China had never really been too high on my places to go list (and yes, that list does actually exist). I wanted to go, but not with the same aching desire that I have for other places, such as Germany, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Japan, Thailand, India, etc. But, I had a week off of work in July, and we found cheapish tickets to Beijing. So we thought, what the heck. Why not? It turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made thus far.

China was like Morocco, in that it was sensory overload. I wanted to take pictures of literally everything, which is how I ended up with over 600 (which, by the way, they are all on my shutterfly page now, if you are curious. They are not labeled, sorry mom, but they will be within the next 8 months, winter project). It never quite sank in that people live there. That is people's home. They think of China with the same warm fuzzy feeling that I get when I think of the US.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of my vacation is the heat. Holy moly. I love heat. I love summer. I love sun and high temperatures and while I don't love it, humidity does not bother me. But this was too much. The coolest day we had was 35, which is around 95 in real degrees. Most days the high temperature was 38-40, which is 100-105. But that wasn't the problem, so much as the humidity. I never got any numbers, but I've never felt anything like it. The Chinese joked that it was their "free sauna" and sweat I did. I sweat like I did not know it was possible. A walk down the street left me (and everyone else in the city) dripping. I showered twice a day. I ended up having to wash all of my clothes in the shower because after wearing them in the afternoon, they were too gross to wear out at night. To make matters worse, Beijing tap water is not safe for drinking. So I constantly had to carry around massive plastic bottles of water to keep from passing out from dehydration. It was not my most environmentally friendly trip.

Another thing that stood out in my mind was wow, this country is not an ally of the us. We joked a lot about the communist thing, but in reality, it was weird. The army was everywhere in Beijing. And I looked at them, and it was weird to see someone in person who in theory could be fighting against the US. The hostel I stayed in got an English Chinese newspaper, which I read every morning. One day there was an column written by some Chinese journalist, saying that the US/South Korean military drills in the Yellow Sea gives China the right to conduct drills in the Gulf of Mexico. Ummm...

The Chinese love to haggle. I got good at it. They will do anything to not lose a sale, so walking away worked like a charm. "How much? For you, friendly price!"

The food, cheap, mouth watering, mmmm. I ate a lot of street food from some very questionable places. Somehow, my stomach showed me a lot of love and I did not get sick. If only I knew what I was actually eating. But maybe it is better that I did not know.

Chinese babies don't wear diapers. The modest ones wear pants with a giant slit down the back. Other ones just didn't wear anything.

Facebook really is blocked in China. Weirdness.

I've been asked by a lot of people how China compares to Korea. Chinese are nicer. Koreans are better looking. Korea is cheap. China is dirt cheap. Seoul is smoggy. Beijing is sometimes don't see blue sky for weeks and woke up every morning with a stuffy nose and sore throat kind of smog. After two months with Korean chopsticks, Chinese ones are darn near impossible to use now. Korea is rebuilt. China is old. Korea lets Americans come for free. China makes them pay a year's salary and promise their first born in exchange for a short term travel visa. Korean food is delicious but spicy. Chinese food is delicious. I can say three words in Korean. I can only say 2 words in Chinese. I tried for over an hour one afternoon to get a taxi in Beijing. I've never waited more than minute for a taxi in Seoul. Overall, Seoul is (for me anyway) a way more livable city for a foreigner.

But like I said, it was an incredible trip, and has made me want to see more of China, if only that visa wasn't so expensive. Here are a few videos.

There are three little videos from the drum tower. None of them are that awesome because I like to watch it in person, not through a video screen, so I just kind of hold without looking. Sorry :P The other two are from the Summer Palace, and some traditional Chinese theater something or other. There was a sign, but it was all in Chinese.

back at it again

I'm back in Seoul after a great week in Beijing. My camera tells me I took 629 pictures. Around 500 of them are probably of the puppy that lived in the hostel. I'm working on figuring out how Picasa works, so I'll post more pictures in a few days. And I'll write more about my trip. But right now I have to go to work. Ugh, Monday after vacation, grades due this week, student comments due this week, pouring rain outside. This week might be rough.

toastin'

I write about food a lot.
When reading this, please ignore the last post about going on a weekend long diet, because really...come on now.

My momma raised me right. Growing up, there were certain forbidden foods-Mountain Dew, sugar cereal, Pringles, and store bought desserts of any kind. I love her for those rules. I am an awesome baker (if I do say so myself) as a result of them. But along with a talent for making melt in your mouth chocolate chip cookies, those childhood dietary restrictions have left me with a taste for certain store bought treats. I know they are not good. But I feel slightly rebellious when I am eating them, like I am doing something just a little bad. And who doesn't like to break the rules every now and again? Pillsbury Funfetti Cake and Funfetti Frosting hold a very special place in my heart.

Last week, I received a birthday present from a very dear friend. Along with a plethora of other wonderful things that made me smile nonstop all weekend , she included a box of Funfetti Cake mix and frosting. I saw the perfect opportunity to try something I've wanted to do for a month or so now-toaster oven baking. My curiosity for what one can really cook in a toaster oven actually started in France. I had what would be considered by most to be a toaster oven. However, this was the queen bee of toaster ovens. It was huge, had a temperature control, timer, movable racks, and control for whether the user wanted to heat to come out of the top, bottom, or both (that control probably has a name, but heck if I know it). It was basically an oven. Over the course of 7 months, I cooked our Thanksgiving chickens, coffee cake, pizza (both homemade and frozen), sweet and regular potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc. I even made toast in it most mornings, since our real toaster was broken. I really feel like despite its title of "toaster" it was a step up from the real oven I had when I lived with Maryse. Her gas oven had to be lit with a chop stick that we lit on fire using the gas burners.

There is no denying this year I took a huge step down. I have a toaster oven, by every definition of the word(s). It has one dial, which is its on/off switch. That one dial is the timer. It turns on for a maximum of 15 minutes. However, I have felt a need to use it since I moved in. I see it sitting in the corner of the kitchen. I feel like it is mocking me. It knows I've always felt ordinary in almost every way, but I can bake. It calls to me "Laura, use me. Try it. I dare you. Come on. Let me ruin your baked goods. I'll take away this thing you are good at."

Having spent most of this month's money on my visa and flight to China, the ingredients to bake something are not in the budget. So when I received this cake mix, I saw my opportunity to tackle the metal beast in the corner of the kitchen.

My battle weapons, and yes that is a pan I am using as a mixing bowl. I have a poorly stocked kitchen.

Ready to go!

So far, so good!

It was about at this point in the baking process, that I realized my toaster oven, true to its name, was in fact doing a lot of toasting, not so much baking.

So I turned the heat off, hoping that they would continue baking and stop toasting. It kind of worked. They turned out okaaaaay, not awesome. But it is hard to mess up cake mix cakes, except for the cupcake that I filled up too full and put too close to the edge of the pan. That is the reason my apartment smells like burnt now. I did not use the entire mix. I am not sure what I will do differently during trial run 2. But I think my toaster oven baking skills need a little work.

Unrelated note, I picked up my visa the other day. I'M GOING TO CHINA ON SATURDAY! WoOt!!

gift indigestion

Nearly two years ago, (wow, has it really been two years?) I wrote a blog about the food in France. In it, I complained about the quality of the whole wheat bread there. Fast forward to now, what I wouldn't give for a slice of that "delicious" bread. I love toast. Most mornings, my breakfast is toast (in a perfect world it is toast with Crunchy Smart Balance peanut butter and raisins or a banana). It is quick. It is warm. It goes great with coffee. Whole wheat bread does not exist here. My options are thick sliced Wonder Bread quality white bread, normal size slices of Wonder Bread quality white bread, and potato bread, which I am pretty sure is just Wonder Bread with a little bit of yellow dye in it. Along those same lines, I also can't find brown rice, whole wheat pasta, or cereal with whole grains of any kind. The huge decrease in whole grains, combined with the white rice I eat every day for lunch, has left me feeling not great. A lot of days after lunch I look about 4 months pregnant.

And then there are the gifts. Koreans love giving gifts. Sometimes the gifts are in the form of stickers, pictures, or little erasers. However, most of the time, the gifts are food, specifically junk food. I don't really know the proper etiquette for refusing a gift, so I don't. And the barrage of gifts keeps coming. Don't get me wrong, I love junk food as much as the next person (probably more honestly), but it is excessive. If I am able to throw it out, sometimes I do. But I don't know how the Koreans I work with would feel about that, so more often than not, I am unable to throw it away. This week alone I was given 3 iced latte/mocha type drinks, ice cream 3 times, cake (twice) a donut, various pieces of candy and chocolates, and half a piece of corn (ok, not junk food), all in 5 days. Not at all shocking that I felt miserable last night. My stomach hurt. I felt like my teeth were rotting out. I never wanted to eat anything sugary again. Now I am going out to buy more lettuce. This weekend will be a two day detox before returning to school Monday morning, and starting it all over again.

Unrelated note, a coworker who lives in my building asked me if I would take care of her dog this weekend. I agreed, because she told me she would give me a key to her apartment and I could just keep the dog there. I love dogs. I really really really love dogs. But I don't want one. And when it comes to inside pets, I am a cat person. They are cleaner, less smelly, they don't jump up on my bed and lick my face, they are calmer, all around lower maintenance. I don't want a dog inside, especially in my tiny apartment. So imagine my surprise when at 8 am, I was woken up by my doorbell. She was standing there with her dog. She told me her apartment was too messy and she didn't want me to see it. So she just figured the dog could stay in my apartment while she was away. Umm...what? I doth protest. I was not awake and too shocked to do anything besides stand there. It is monsoon season. The dog had just been for a walk, and was soaking wet from the rain and dirty from the nasty Seoul sidewalks. First order of business, jump on my bed. Second order of business, jump on my pillow. Gross.

Tomorrow evening's to do list: 1. Wash all my bedding.

Iron Chef Big Dipper

While the main agenda of SLP is to teach the students English, it is also preschool for them. So in addition to having phonics, language, and reading every day, the students also have various activities such as music, ballet, art, science, monthly field trips, monthly birthday parties, and every couple of months, they have a cooking class. Today was that day. The kids have been learning about summer food. So today they (me) made banana splits. I stupidly wore a white sweater, but miraculously did not get any strawberry syrup on it. Aside from everything (except my white sweater) in my classroom being covered in syrup and ice cream, it was fun. The kids were SO cute in their little aprons.

독립 기념일을 축하!!!

I love Seoul. I love it more with each passing day. I don't know how exactly this ugly, dirty, smog filled sprawling metropolis has wormed its way into my heart, but it has. After an initial first week of "oh crap, why am I here?" and crying every morning, there has been no doubt in my mind this is where I am supposed to be right now. This feels right. I look around daily, and I think "Wow, I am in Asia! This is SO cool!" Sometimes I just like to stare at my Korean visa and passport stamp in disbelief. Despite the love I feel for my new city, it has its downfalls. For example, what Seoul makes up for in people and weird smells, it lacks in green space. Before Sunday, I hadn't seen grass in over a month. So when my friend called yesterday morning to ask if I wanted to go for a hike, I was all over that. I didn't care that it was 8:30 am on a Sunday, and I didn't care where we went. I was going to see trees and maybe even some grass. Seoul is surrounded by 8 (?) mountains, so there is an abundance of hiking. We decided on Mt Umyeonsan, mainly because we wanted to see the temple halfway up the mountain. The base of the mountain was only about a 10 minute walk from the subway. Long story short, Frommer's made the hiking trail seem way simpler than it was. Daeseongsa Temple was only one of many highlights on the hiking trailS. And of course all the trail signs were in Korean. It was a crap shoot. We walked uphill, then uphill some more, then uphill some more. Plus, have I mentioned the humidity here is unlike anything I have ever experienced? Because, it is. Nothing quite like that to make me feel completely out of shape. Especially because ancient Koreans were whizzing past me wearing long sleeves and long pants, stopping to exercise at the exercise equipment along the hiking trail before continuing their uphill trek without missing a beat. At least I THINK that is what was happening. I was almost entirely blinded from the profuse amounts of sweat running off my forehead into my eyes, so it is hard to be entirely sure. We made it to the to of the mountain, never seeing the temple. We decided to head back down. We got lost again. We got to the bottom of the mountain, but rather than deposit us back onto the pavement of the Seoul sidewalk, the trail took a turn, and went back uphill. So we followed. We walked uphill a short while, when much to our surprise we came to a clearing and there was the temple! Success. It was really beautiful, and well worth it.
After seeing Seoul tower across the city from the top of one mountain, we decided to go there that evening. But we took the cable car up, rather than make another uphill hike. Lazy? Yes. Smart move because otherwise I would have quit 1/3 of the way up that mountain and I probably would still just be sitting there? Without a doubt.
It felt nothing like the 4th of July. I saw no fireworks. I did not eat a hamburger. I did not have a glow stick necklace. But it was a great day just the same. I saw two views of Seoul, from mountains on opposite sides of the city. And Mom, good news. My friend I was with did not want to actually go up Seoul Tower. So be ready, because that is still on my to do list.

The entrance to the mountain

The start of one of the hiking trails, so much green!

View of Seoul from the mountain

WE FOUND IT!

I was careful not to take any photos of the Buddhists praying inside, and I don't even know if it is okay to take pictures inside a temple, but I couldn't resist.

Temple

More Seoul, view from the top version

Seoul Tower!

Unrelated photo, there are no dumpsters in my 'hood. Rather, just throwing the trash bags out on the sidewalks works. I hate touching dumpster lids, so despite adding to the already ugly scenery, I am okay with this method.