Happy Halloweenie!

Well, all month long i have been doing crafts with the kids that follow the theme of Halloween.  I have hte kids make paper jack-o-lanterns, bats and tissue ghosts.  And then I used their work to decorate my classroom.  We had an exhibition this month (its like an open house).  So all the parents came by and it was my job to decorate my classroom like Halloween and have pictures of the kids too.  So here's what i came up with:

And then the last week i tried to get the kids to make each other mummies, but only one class was a success, and then we ran out of toilet paper.

they did awesome!

I told them to do their best mummy walk.  They kinda did it.  Then i told them to see how fast they could break free.

Jacob loved it!!!  

I don't really care for Halloween and it's not very popular in Korea.  Most people don't celebrate it here.  But thankfully my school did.  We had a fun little party and everyone dressed up :)

Bethany stopped by in her bear costume.  Most of the kids were scared of her.  The girl in front isnt really too scared of her, but it certainly makes for a great photo.

Joanne, Bethany, and I took photos with ALL the kids from Genius.  So here are just some of them:

two of my favorite costumes, them and Super Mario

Blonde hair is a little strange.... but cute.

Joanne, our manager teacher, Bethany and I

Our boss, Ann :)  She was an old lady for like 5 min.

We had all the kids say "trick or treat" to three of us and we gave them candy

Comy Class

(at one point in the day Comy teacher wore the blonde wig, she totally caught me off guard, it made for a funny moment)

So cute.

The teachers decorated the gym for our party.

Super Mario (he even had a mustache) and Repunzel

i love this kid.

I'm just one of the kids really.

Our pumpkin carving demo.

I made my self a dinosaur costume.  It turned out pretty good.  I won best costume at school, however, the competition wasn't very high.  I wore it all day.  My 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders got a good laugh out of my costume.  One kid walked out after our class, and yelled, "Teacher, dinosaur!"  Really?!  I think he was waiting the entire class time to yell that.

And now for the first time ever!!!! You get to see my first, second, and third graders!!!!!

Grade 1: (in the back) Brian, Lenny, Harry,

(front) Wendy, Chris, Kate and Ian

Grade 2:  Anny Emily and Ian

Grade 3: Annabelle, Eric, Kevin and Paul

That night some friends and i celebrated Halloween by carving some pumpkins, eating chili and watching Hocus Pocus.  It was a fun night and i thought i would wear my costume for them too.  They enjoyed that ;)  It was a little hard to find good orange pumpkins here, so mine is green. And one of them wasn't even a  pumpkin, it was like a giant cucumber.

The stickers on our faces glow in the dark.  So we thought when the we turn off the lights to take photos of the pumpkins it would be fun.  But here it we just look silly.

Charted Territory

Well, this week I've been reminded that i have traveled far more than i thought i have.  Sometimes a repetative lifstyle can kill your imagination and maybe even your memory.  I don't know if you have the same problem as i do, but sometimes i try and think back about my week and i can't seem to remember what i've done.  The same happens with my weekend.  Even if i did something awesome, sometimes i still have trouble remembering.  Or maybe there's just something wrong with me. 

Anyways, this month i am teaching the first and second graders about the Great Wall of China.  I am so excited to share all (or most) of the information I recently learned about China and the wall and the terra cotta warriors.  And i can tell my class, "I climbed the Great Wall of China!!!!"  I've seen the warriors with my own eyes!!!  There are hundreds of them!!!" 

The other day i did a brief writing project with the same kids and we looked at a map and i asked them, "If you were a bird and could fly anywhere in the world where would you go?  Why?"  I made them leave Korea (Heaven forbid).  I got some cute responses.  Some said they wanted to go to Antartica to see the penguins, polar bears, and seals and others said to Ghana because they have delicious chocolate (its a company they have they, like Hershey's).  Then one boy said, "Italia!"  i asked him why and he tried to tell me about the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  He kinda acted it out.  Then i remembered, I've climbed that too!!!  I don't really mean to say all this to brag but really to be thankful for all the places i've gotten to go.  The more i think about it the more thankful i am!  And thank God for photos!  Because i dont think i could even tell you all the different museums and such i've been to.  Within 25 years i have been to at least 3 continents and 7 countries!  And probably at least 30 different art museums and a number of National historical sites.  I've always dreamed of traveling and contiue to dream about traveling but i always forget to reflect and remind myself of where i have already been.  Its been quite an adventure!  Thanks Mom and Dad for taking me to new places at a young age and spending more than enough money on me and our family vacations.  I doubt you ever thought the adventure would take me so far from you, but Mom you know you did the same. ;) 

Cheers to the next adventure!  And who knows where the next 25 years will take me!  

Maybe i will finally get to go to the Southern Hemisphere!  

Peppers

Today i ate lunch with my boss.  She and most of Korea have a high tolerance for spicy food.  She had about half a dozen green skinny peppers on her plate along with some red spicy/garlicy sauce.  She dips the pepper in the sauce like its chips and salsa.  Like no big deal.  Then she says, "Try one."  I watch her and think well, why not?!  I know i can't handle that spicy of food, but they dont look too harmful.  I take a very small bite and im ok.  Then seconds later my mouth is BURNING!  Then, my eyes are watering and im pretty sure im red.  OMG.  Nothing would help it.  I tried rice, i tried my seaweed soup, i tried the apple salad.  Thankfully the apple salad kinda helped because it was cold.  I started laughing (because well, what else can i do) and crying (because it was so dang hot!), and im sure i looked pretty stupid.  And then my boss says, "Spicy?"
"Ugh, ya!"
"Oh they aren't spicy to me."
me, "Well you must be Wonderwoman."  She chuckled.

Oh man.  My mouth burned, like really burned for at least 20 min before it all went away.  Whew.  I thought I wasn't going to make it.  I can't believe she can eat those peppers like chips.

DMZ

This weekend I went on a tour of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) by the USO in Seoul.  It was such and awesome experience!  I dont have all the facts, but i have a good amount.  The DMZ is the border of North and South Korea.  There is the border and on either side there are 2 km where nothing really exist.  Just trees and stuff.  Its probably full of land mines.  We saw many sights and received a wealth of information and I only felt a little weary for a brief time of the trip.

Inside the Freedom House

Our American Soldier who gave us our tour and a ROK ready Korean Soldier.

There is always a man inside here when tours are present.  He is "ROK ready" pose which means he is ready to fight at any instance and he looks intimidating.  He also wears sunglasses so you can't see any movement in his face.  

We are standing IN north Korea!!!!!!

Myself, Katie and Breann in NK

Breann and I are ROK ready!

That cement line is literally the border in between North and South.

They only show half of themselves well, just incase.

This table was used for North and South to tall to each other.  But really its more used by the Swede's, and two other Northern European countries who act as peace makers for the North and South.  I guess they were the ones who called the Korean War to stop.  

(I'm really bad with details, you should probably Wikipedia this)

The JSA (Joint Security Area)  Panmunjom

You're looking at North Korea's building: Panmungak, the admin headquarters for NK security force

And our soldier in front and the S.K soldiers standing guard.  They are only out here when tour groups are here.  If no one is present they probably only stand watch inside the building (the freedom house is behind us)

North Korean soldier watching us.  Apparently there is at least one other one inside to the right.

Propaganda Village

It got its name because it has large loud speakers that would say how wonderful it was to live in NK.  People do live here.  The buildings are only repainted on the side that we see.  And they have fake windows.  And have only one floor. 

Oh ya and that flag its 30 meters wide.  It take 600 lbs to make it really wave.  Which means it was a pretty windy day for it to move at all.  Also it takes up to 50-100 men just to get the flag up and down.  Rumor has it there is an elevator shaft in the middle on the structure to keep the flag up.  

I don't remember why i was laughing, probably because its just so strange that i can take my photo in front of NK.

The Bridge of no return.

When the war ended, POWs were able to choose what side of the country they wanted to stay on, and once they chose there was no turning back.

I dont really know what building this was, but apparently they want unification.

Beyond that wall is NK.  You cant take photos beyond this yellow line.  If you do, the army men will erase all your photos.  When you go up to the wall there is maybe a couple kilometers between you and NK.  And there's trees and a highway that goes to NK.  You get a different view of Propaganda Village.  My friend said that they don't want photos getting out because they maybe SK men are hiding in the trees with tanks or other things.  So they don't want any photos popping up on facebook or blogs that reveal their location to NK.

Oh and check out that guy's lens!  He was in our tour group and i wish i asked him what he did and how his photos turned out.

You're looking at North Korea.  

Someone used the binoculars and said they could see people in North Korea riding bikes.  

NK landscape.  

NK city

It looked like most of their land was striped of the natural vegetation, especially those mountains.  I wonder what the rest of it looks like.  

In this area we watched a brief video about SK finding the 4 different tunnels that NK dug.  Then it finished with all the wildlife that is in DMZ.  Yay! Haha.  

Never!!

JK.

Unification!

just cause they were there

In this area you can go into one of the tunnels that SK found of NK.  Nk tried to cover up their tunnel as a mining cave, but ya, sure, doubtful.  You have to walk down 350 meters to get to the actual tunnel.  Then you walk a bit and you see a small opening which then shows you a cement wall with another small opening.  There are 3 walls.  I guess to prevent the enemy from coming in quickly?  I dont remember why.  But it was pretty strange walking in the tunnel.  I kept wondering what if something crazy happened, like an attack or an earthquake or a bomb?  What do you do when you're in a tunnel deep underground?  Luckily, nothing bad happened and everything was safe.

NK built four tunnels.  Maybe they have more that haven't been found, who knows?  The four tunnels are pretty equally spaced across the border or north and south Korea.  One of the tunnels is so large that it could drive a full size tank through it.  The one we walked through wasn't to large.  Enough space for two people to pass each other.  Most people had to duck, but i could walk through most of the tunnel without ducking.  And we had to wear hardhats.  :)  

The Hopeful Dorasan Train station.

You can take the KTX to Pyeongyang..... someday.  

(the KTX is one of the fastest trains (maybe in the world?)

Inside the train station.  SK remains hopeful.  They wish to be one country.  So they built a train station that goes all the way through NK.  This station is the last one in SK and goes the NK.  Apparently, the only things that have gone on this railroad is goods, no people have been on it.  

It was weird, i know that the people of SK are very hopeful and wish to be one with NK, but the military   seemed to be the opposite.  I guess they know better.  From what our American soldier  mentioned, it seemed like the SK military was much more skeptical.

The train station platform

The train station

You can get a ticket and visit the platform, but i didnt find it necessary.  So i got my little notebook stamped.  The train goes to Pyeongyang.  : /

We wanted the soldiers to be as happy as they were in my new stationary (below) but they didn't really care. 

The best stationary I've bought in Korea!!!  This was hilarious! They are so not ROK ready.

The End.

To leave you with the hope the rest of Korea has, here is a drawing by one of my first graders: