Bilingual

Koreans usually think you don't know Korean and yet continue to speak to you as if you understand.  The kids talk to you in Korean, or broken English if they know it, and they still think you understand.  But once you actually show them that you really do understand, they freak out!  Then they want you to speak in Korean to them!  Or they start writing things while they say it.  It is super easy to learn how to read Korean,  but i still haven't.  Oops.

Well I'm beginning to understand more Korean these days.  Usually its a word here and there and then i can piece together the conversation and kinda make it up in my mind.  I can usually understand the kids if they are asking me something or if it colors or something because i've heard it over and over and over and over.  Today, my 3rd grades were learning the word "leftovers."  So i described it as food that is still at the table when everyone is finished.  Then one boy said some like, "oh, trash food," (but in Korean).  And i responded saying, "Noooo, its not trash food, you save it for later!"  All the boys got these surprised look on their faces and started laughing and rambling in Korean.  It was pretty cute.  

(Sidenote:  In Korea if you go out to eat you either finish your meal or they throw away your food.  Its very uncommon to take your leftovers home in a doggy bag.)

And then in my 1st grade class we were doing these workbooks and they were learning about food and how to talk about it.  One boy decided to be lazy and talk to me in Korean.  He asked me, "Teacher, can I have a pencil?"  I grabbed the pencil holder and said, "Yes, but ask me in English."  His eyes got all big and he told the boy next to him, "She knows Korean!!!!!"  He finally asked in English and then the rest of the class he asks me questions in Korean to see if i'll understand, which most of the time i did.  I tried to get him to ask me in English before i gave him the answer though.  Meanwhile, all the other kids are shouting around me, "Done!!" and then one kid keeps working and shouts out, "Yummy yummy yummy!!!!  So tasty!!!"  I love this class, they never can contain themselves and are always excited about something.  Another fun day in the field of teaching.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  Our bellies were stuffed with delight, and our bodies are moving a bit more slow.  Overall it was a pretty great Thanksgiving, considering the fact that Korea doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving.  (Note: Only America celebrates Thanksgiving.  Other cultures may have their own type of Thanksgiving, but its not the same.)  Oh and that most of my friends and family are in another country.  

In class for Art and Play i had the kids make hand turkeys.  They had no idea what a turkey was because Korea doesn't have turkeys, but they still enjoyed making them.  They thought it was a peacock.  :)  Here's come photos of Ginny class (aka the kindergartners):

Veronica

Andy 

Kevin H.

Sunny

For the eve of Thanksgiving day we gathered up a bunch of foreigners and went to a big buffet restaurant here in Ulsan.  Some of our group was actually from the UK and South Africa.  It was nice to spend time with friends.  Here's the clan:

This is a mangosteen.  It's one of the most delicious fruits in the world.

This is the inside.  It looks like a little  white orange.  Its tastes like a mango and an orange and maybe even a touch of berry.  Oh its sooooooo good.  These don't grow in Korea, but I'm pretty sure they grow in China.

We decided that eating at a buffet wasn't enough to satisfy our craving for Thanksgiving day food.  We put together our own smorgasbord, and we did this without and oven! 

I made some rosemary chicken and gravy, green beans, and pumpkin bread (in the rice cooker and topped with a yummy glaze).  We also had mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, applesauce, stuffing (stove top sent from the US), and rolls.

Us and our delicious feast.

Im now thinking of recipes for Christmas Day.

Afterwards we watched a bunch of Christmas movies, made snowflakes, and some other crafts.  Overall it was a good Thanksgiving weekend here  in Ulsan, Korea.

We also took a bunch of Christmas photos, but those will come later ;)

Things I'm Thankful For:

my family (as functionally dysfunctional as we are)

Jesus Christ

a job (and one i enjoy)

new friends and old friends

getting out of debt

traveling!  Oh the places i've seen!

Fuzzy sweaters

the color sea foam green and yellow ochre

hot air balloons

the internet

a creative mind

airplanes ( and all  other modes of transportation)

being American

laughing children

running water

an able body

life.

Education

In Korea, your education is everything.  If your not drowning in texts books of all kinds and learning at least one musical instrument and maybe taking up some taekwondo, you're not doing enough.  Or at least that's how the mother's feel.  I cannot speak for every mother in Korea, but most feel this way.

Last week was difficult.  I had four open classes.  I had two classes for the kids who are 4 years old, one for 5 years old and one for six years old.  I wasn't suppose to have all the classes, but my boss didn't feel that our part time English instructor was adequate for the job.  So i got to do her classes.  In Korea, that's a compliment.  So, i signed deeply and went forward with my job.  This is also the week that took place after our hike and when i wasn't feeling well.  So by Tuesday, the day i had to teach the little crazy kiddos, i only had half a voice, a super stuffy head, and low energy.  These classes usually don't listen to me.  They are crazy and we don't always get along.  Some days are good, but one a whole, it's not my favorite class.  However, when their mother and the boss is in the room they are a little better behaved (Praise God!).  Overall, the class went well, and the kids were kept busy and hopefully showed off all their English knowledge to their parents.  Except one kid.  He got his letters mixed up.  He wrote "m" when he should have written "h."  I noticed but i didn't bother to change it.  It would take time away from the rest of class and the kids would loose interest.  His mother got up quietly and fixed his mistake.  After class, she talked to the Korean teachers and was upset that her kid is behind and doesn't know his English.  She was very angry and seemed to demand that we (the teachers) do better.  (Just note that all the things she said was translated to me through another teacher, so i dont know everything that really happened.)  How do you tell a mother politely that they kid doesn't listen, doesn't care about English, and remind her that he's 4!?


The next day I had most of my voice back and got to teach the 6 year olds.  I love this class and was not really worried.  We had fun together and afterwards my boss told me, "Well done."  Whew!  Thanks!  I was happy to hear some feedback.  Also, later that day the 6 year olds told their teacher (Joanne) "We did so good with Alissa Teacher!!!"  I laughed really hard.  So cute and so arrogant!  I told Joanne, "Ya they did pretty good."

The last day were the 5 year olds.  Again we had fun and it went by quickly.  We were learning: jogging suit, socks, sneakers, t-shirt, shorts, and scarf.  So we had a race with two teams and they flipped over a card, ran and got whatever the card said and then had to dress a teammate.  It was pretty cute.  The shorts were over the jogging suit and the socks were over the sneakers!

Overall, my boss said i did well.  And at the end of the week she was smiling and laughing, which tells me things are going well.  Its a little nerve racking teaching here sometimes.  I teach at a private academy, so the parents can pull their kids out at any moment.  There's a lot of pressure to be perfect here.  A friend told me before i came here that, "Teachers are above God."  When i heard that i thought, well, cool i will be well respected and cared for.  Ok yes, but no.  It also shows that i should be better equipped than God!  Such a lie, how can any mother place me higher than God? I'm human?  There's a good nickname for the mom's here in Korea: "Tiger Moms."  They are aggressive and can attack at any weakling at any moment.  Ok, thats extreme, but sometimes true.  I have never faced parents who were so aggressive in pushing their kid to be a genius.  Its completely different form our culture.  They want to know everything about their kid, excuse me, their prodigy.

It was an eye opening week, and I'm so glad it's over.  I am very thankful for the other teachers at my school.  My boss and Joanne especially.  They are very helpful and they know the moms and they speak up for me when necessary.  My boss even thinks that Korean education is stupid!  Stupid because its so crazy, she knows there's too much pressure on kids to be human encyclopedias.  In fact, Korea is one of the highest rating country for suicide!  Because of not ever being good enough!  I could go on... but I won't bore you.  I'll save more Korean education for another day.

So, thank God for growing up in America.  Some of us may be a little slow, but there's always room for improvement.  And we got to enjoy the great outdoors!

When a leisurely stroll turns into a hike

Last weekend I went out to our friend's place.  They live about 20-30 mins away from us, but they live in a nice area.  We decided to go hiking and enjoy the beautiful fall leaves.  However, the trail was mostly surrounded by pine trees, which left us without the splendor of fall.  Every once and awhile some pops of color would surprise us and we'd all get our cameras out to document the burst of color.

Our friend's told us that it wasn't a hard hike, more like a leisurely stroll.  Well, we got more than we bargained for.  I wasn't feeling to well, and thought, "Well if its just a stroll, i think it will be ok."  However, the first two parts of the hike were like switch backs straight up.  It felt was worse than it really was.  Since i wasnt feeling good it felt like i was trying to carry boulders with me.  (Note to self: stay home the next time i feel a cold coming on).  We all made it and had some good laughs along the way.

those two little lumps are graves. no big deal.

this was the nice part

Katie and I

Ka pow! Color!

Our beautiful foggy view.  I live somewhere in the back on the left side.

I was so not happy.  I was little miss grumpipants.

I don't know if you've noticed these people time and time again.  But i spend most of my time with them when I'm not in school.

Garrett, Kyla, Breann, myself and Katie

the descent 

these are suppose to blow all the dirt/mud off your shoes, but we'd thought it'd be more fun to have a wind fight.

Finish!

This shop below is near where Garrett and Kyla live. 

If you have sheep or cows or goats, dont get your hair done here.

Fantastic Fall Fun Friday!

So every other Friday our school goes on a field trip.  This week we went to Munsu Stadium and the park that surrounds it.  Most of the time on our field trip is spent taking pictures of the kids, acting like we doing a lot of the things so the parents can be proud of their kids.  Overall, its nice to be out of the classroom and in fresh air.  Here are some photos from that trip.

The ground was covered with leaves :)

a couple days later Harry lost his other front tooth.  He looks pretty silly.

 notice all the joy on the right end

This particular Friday I was suppose to take care of Ginny class because Joanne was not going to be at school.  She acted like i was going to be the only one taking over for them all day.  I was a little nervous.  Then on Friday, i hardly did anything.  Most of the other teachers swept in and did most of the things.  All i did was give them some water, which i already did.  Overall it was a fun day, later we got to watch Cars 2.  It was pretty cute.  Some of it takes place in Japan, and they did a great job capturing the feeling and way life is in Asia.  Korea is a bit different from Japan, but you can feel the same vibe and get a good idea about how life is different here.  

Back to Fall....

I redid my classroom.  I had the kids color leaves and then i made a tree and put them up.

This kid is so cute.  He's the youngest one at our school and adorable.  He wanted to play peek-a-boo.  So we did. 

11.11.11

Happy Pepero Day!!

So on Nov. 11th Koreans celebrate by eating a lot of a certain kind of candy.  I dont know if there is a greater purpose for it, maybe just for the company to make heaps of money that day.

Leading up to this Holiday i noticed in the supermarket that they had boxes and boxes that were never ending of this Peperro candy.  Some of the boxes were even taped into hearts! Just like this:

 

I didn't expect to get a whole lot, but yet again many moms brought their kids to school well prepared.  I hardly got any normal box of this candy, but i got giant sticks!  Huge candy!  This is what i received on this special day:

The note reads:  

Teacher

I love you

Taylor (well his Korean name, his real name)

So cute.

These were all hiding in the box.

These were like a foot and a half long!  Its like a stale mini baguette dipped in chocolate and then dipped in other toppings.  Tasty but way to difficult to really eat.  

Korean BBQ

Alright, here's the good stuff.  This is one of my favorite meals here.  This is "galby" which means beef. You may also hear sam gibsol, which is pork.  

So what we have is a very typical Korean meal.  You have about 3-5 side dishes that included free refills :)

You usually have kimchi: fermented cabbage in a hot red pepper sauce (this is the main staple of the Korean diet, this and rice, its like gold)
bean sprouts: either cooked but cold or a type of salad:
cabbage salad with a fruity yogurt dressing
pickled radishes (its the pink thing)

those are the regulars ones, and the special ones are:
pajohn: like a fried pancake (not sweet) with green onions, some peppers and usually little squid legs  (its soooo good)
chop chay: "glass" noodle, like a rice noodle (even though my boss said they are made from sweet potatoes), carrots, and some sort of veggies with a soy sauce, sesame sauce concoction of deliciousness.

Then you also have a little bowl of onions and i think garlic stems cut up in a vinegary, soy saucy, mildly sweet sauce.  You can dip your marinated beef (aka galby) in that and a lovely garlicy red pepper paste.  You can also make a wrap with lettuce leaves or sesame leaves.  You cook the meat yourself and it's usually very delicious.  This place is one of the best that i've had.  The meat was marinated and delectable.

Enjoy!

Banana

The kindergartners were learning about fruit:

Thank you Brian for telling how "banana" is really spelt.

I love this kid.

Weirdest Day Ever

Well, it all started on the train.  We had standing tickets because the all the seats were already purchased.  It was a rainy on again off again kind of day.  There were three of us trying to sit in a crammed area of the train, the part where you get on and off the train.  Yea, we sat there, because its legal in Korea.  So there's three of us.  Three foreigner girls.  We had a good time for the most part.  As good as we could.  Then two middle aged guys dressed as some sort of construction worker come over and almost sit on Breann.  She was sitting on the steps on the left while katie and i were on the steps on the right.  They were going to sit on her if she didn't move.  So she came over and was pretty much sitting in the isle.  The funny thing was the door to the car we were sitting on had a faulty door knob.  Which meant we got to watch people struggle to get in and out of the car.  And about half way through the train ride the men started smoking!  Really?!  On a train guys?!?!  After about 45 min we finally got to Busan so we could enjoy the 7th annual international fireworks festival!  I was quite excited, but horribly scared to brace the crowds.

We hopped on the subway, and with every stop more people got on until the subway was crowded.  Getting out of the subway was ok, but getting out of the subway station took a bit longer.  We didn't really know where we were going.  Thankfully, there was a large enough crowd to follow.

We made it!!  About 10 minutes later we made it to the beach and there was still room for us to set up our blanket and bring out all of our tasty goods.

the beach. the ridiculously crowded beach

there were 7 boats, 4 had giant screens on them. 

This is where they shot off all of the fireworks.

See the bridge in the background, they utilized it in the show, it was fantastic

kinda wish i was there instead

So we're at the beach enjoying our picnic, mean while Koreans are inching upon our blanket like its there's.  Except for the guys next to us.  There must have been about 4-6 guys who were maybe high school or college age.  They were real close, like really really close (with one another).  We are waiting for Garrett and Kyla.  However, they missed their train and then after awhile the police stopped letting people go onto the beach so, it took them awhile to get to us.    Eventually there was a nice cop who let them slip by.  By that time it started raining.  Oh joy!  We had our umbrellas, but that was about it.  We only had about 40 more minutes to stick it out.  The rain would be drizzy then drizzle a bit more, enough to annoy you but not really drench you right away.  More of a torturous rain.  Most of the people on the beach stuck it out, some people left.  I was actually impressed with the amount of Koreans that stayed on the beach.  

It was 8 PM and the fireworks were finally starting.  The lights on the bridge moved all around and then all of a sudden, "BOOM!"  and the sky was gold!  Let the show begin!  For the next hour our eyes were fixed upon the sky.  The musical selection was quite random but impressive, some scores from Pirates of the Carribean and Sherlock Holmes, and then Spice Girls?  and some K-pop (to remind us we are in Korea).  However, it was the best fireworks show I've ever seen.  Fourth of July will have nothing on this.  There was about half way through the show and they lit fireworks off the bridge so it look like a long waterfall.  They had fireworks that were like the normal big round ones, but then there were strings of light slowly falling from the sky.  It didn't disappear as quickly as the rest of them.  It was like it was hanging on a floating lantern.  And then, there were these birdlike things, either dragons or phoenixes that would fly about and then boom!  Their wings were spitting fire!  It was amazing!  The finale was amazing!  It was like a glimpse of Heaven, the entire sky was gold!  It was gorgeous.  All kinds of fireworks, but all gold!  For that hour i was the happiest little girl!  Full of awe and wonder.  Little did i know my worst nightmare was close at hand.  

GORGEOUS!!!!

Heaven, I'm in Heaven.

After it was over we debated if we should go back immediately or if we should wait.  We figured it it would suck either way.  So, we went off!  We grabbed our wet belongings, and made a chain and braced the crowds.  We had to cross the road, which had no cars, but it had people going in every direction.  It was like being stuck in Alice in Wonderland, nothing made sense.  So, there were a group of Ajimas (old ladies, and they get their way, always.), i thought it was best to follow them across the street.  But they made no sense either, so we fought our way across the street where we then had to wait.  It was ONE area where the police were actually doing something.  It was our time to go.  The five of us made a chain that could not be broken.  We were walking rather briskly through the crowd, until we found the subway station.  Oh dear Lord, the subway station.  My heart began to panic at this point.  There were so many people:

Might have even looked like this too, except that it was dark and rainy, so everything was wet and you had no idea what you were stepping on.  

We felt a bit like herded animals.  

Thankfully when we finally got to the stairs the police were there to sort of regulate things.  (I'm getting ridiculously tense just writing this.)  No one slipped down the stairs and you actually had a moment to  breathe without someone smashed up against your ribcage.  Luckily my friends and i have had some times to get to know each other, otherwise, we would have gotten to know each other real quick.  After we got down into the subway station all you saw was this:

Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it's what i felt.  I gripped my friend Breann's arm so tight, i may have bruised her.  All i could think about were natural disasters, which is the WORST thing to think about at such a time.  Like, in the movie Titanic and for some reason Jack and Rose are still stuck inside the Titanic and have little to no air to breathe, and are stuck behind iron bars.  Trapped to die forever.  However, they escape.  And so did i, but all i felt was this: 

All i wanted to do was this:

But i didn't.  I fought the crowd, i cursed, and i hated every moment i was down there.  I tried to fight my emotions and all the horrible things i was thinking about.  But, it was still a little traumatizing.  Finally, we made it through and it was bit more clear down below near the subway.  We all made it on the super packed subway car.  I'm still clutching my friend's arm and did so all the way to the train station, even though after every stop, people got off and it wasn't really crowded anymore.  But i still stood there hugging her arm, wishing all that didn't just happen.  

We got to the train station with plenty of time to spare and when our time came we packed in the train cars like a bunch of sardines.  I felt sick.  Thankfully we had one seat.  I sat in it most of the time.  I felt sick and feverish.  I honestly think it was all due to me almost having panic attack and being able to handle such a situation.

Was the fireworks festival worth it?  No.  But would i see it again? Yes.  I would just take a different route home next time.  I had no idea that crowds would do such a thing to me.  I finally found out my achilles heel.  I'd say crowds (entering small areas of limited space), but its not just any crowds.  Its crowds in Asia.   Asia has no sense of direction, no control and no order.  It the blind leading the blind, sometimes.  Thus making traveling and large groups of people one of the most scary things.  The entire night through the crowds and home i just kept telling myself, "Gold sky!  I just saw a gold sky!  Heaven!"  Even at one time during our way back my friend Garrett shouts, "Gold sky."  Thanks man.  Praise  God for Heaven.  I don't know what i'd do with out it.