Training Bound

Today was a pretty no big deal kind of day.  One funny story from school:

Fall has officially arrived in Gwangju!  Temperatures are in the mid 60s most of the day, making for what I would consider beautiful weather, but what seems to most Koreans to be really cold considering their intense muggy summers.  This week, I have noticed a definite change in the clothing everyone has chosen to wear.  Not only are the clothes heavier (even some of the girls have elected to wear their winter uniforms of long sleeve shirts, ties and sweater vests) but they are also adapting to more muted, winter colors as well.  I am just relieved not to be sweating profusely.  Today, I wore a plaid shirt and jeans to school.  As I was walking up the hill, the principal called out my name and told me I was not properly dressed for the weather.  "Your shirt too... light.  You get cold."  I said, "No, no!  I'm a sweater!  I'll just drink some tea!"  She shook her head and hurried into the building.  That darn woman is always looking out for me!  Bless her heart.

Because tonight was the last night that I would be in town before Emily leaves for Seoul, we had her farewell dinner tonight.  Six of us went out for a meal as follows (I can't remember the name, so no link as of now...)  pork (already cooked, so different from a previously described meal), kimchi, some sort of green bean looking item, raw garlic and bean paste all wrapped in a lettuce leaf.  We also had a seafood pancake and RAW oysters dipped in pepper paste.  Everything was tasty... though I don't think I'll be eating raw oysters again for awhile...  A weird thing happened with the lettuce concoction though...  First, I ate the whole deal as a unit.  I could taste each individual item in the lettuce bundle, but it also came together for a cohesive flavor, which was almost sweet.  I also always eat one piece of meat by itself to get a feel for how the meat is different from what I remember meat tasting like in the U.S.  I wasn't such a fan of this pork by itself (I think because there wasn't much of a seasoning on it and it was just plain pork).  Then, after I went back to eating the whole concoction again, all I could taste was the pork, and not any of the other quite pronounced flavors.  So weird.

After dinner, we walked down by the river close to where we live.  There was a festival-like celebration going on because it has been 10 years since Gwangju became an official city.  There was a big stage with a band playing, many tents and lots and lots of street food vendors.  We scooped the loop to see what was going on and were headed back to our apartments when an older man stopped us on the street to talk.  This is unusual, especially for a Korean man to stop a group of six obviously western people.  We soon realized he was drunk, both by his liquid courage and the curious smell of alcohol he was emitting from every exposed pore.  He put his arm around me and another guy in the group and talked to us about the festival.  Then, he shook everyone's hand.  When he got to me, instead of shaking my hand, he grabbed my butt!  We all awkwardly laughed it off and it wasn't a big deal.  We started to walk away and say goodbye when he tried to kiss my cheek.  I wasn't about to let some rando drunk guy kiss me so I backed away a little and off we went walking down the street in the opposite direction.  No harm.  No foul.  My first drunk Korean man experience.  YES.

Tomorrow I am off to teacher training for two nights and three days.  All sorts of foreign teachers who work at middle and high schools in the area will be there, so hopefully this will be another chance to meet lots of new people!  Hooray!  Many stories to come, I'm sure!

Back to the Grind Stone...for now.

Today marked the end of Chuseok break as I ventured back to school to teach the most delightful girls possible.  

On Mondays, I teach three classes, so I spent the rest of my time reading NPR, editing more English newspaper articles and ... opening mail!  Today, because of the holiday I'm guessing, I received three letters / cards AND three packages.  Thanks, again, to all of the senders!  I had to laugh because my mom sent me healthy oatmeal as requested (less sugar...) and my gal pal Wiener sent me caramel apple Hersey's kisses and homemade chocolate chip cookies and monster cookie bars.  I think they cancel each other out...  When I shared Wiener's goodies with some of the other teachers in my office, they were so grateful!  One teacher was very touched and said, "Oh Noelle Teacher.  Thank you for your kindness!"  I love this job.

Today in my third year classes, we practiced how to order food at restaurants and we talked about the American restaurant experience as a whole.  I told them about tipping because in Korea, tipping is basically unheard of so they aren't used to the practice.  One girl asked me, "If I leave big tip, will cute waiter give me phone number?"  The same girl, not two minutes later, after the lesson was over with a couple of minutes left in class, said, "Noelle Teacher.  I want American boyfriend.  How do I meet boys?"  I said, "Buddy, if I knew the answer to that, I wouldn't be single."  They laughed.  I still can't get over how boy crazy some of the girls are...too funny! 

For the following story, it is important to know that I wore my contacts to school for the first time today.  When I arrived at school, many teachers had fresh haircuts and / or were wearing new clothes following the Chuseok holiday.  I saw the co-teacher with whom I do Morning English each day after lunch.  He was sporting a new haircut.  I said, "Ahh.  Happy Haircut!"  (Bob taught me well...)  He said, "Uh, happy you not wear your glasses today... day...what are those things called?" to which he trailed off and left.  We're still getting to know each other...

Emily and I took off from school today during our afternoon free periods to go pay bills.  I misunderstood how to deal with bills.  Instead of everything being automatically deducted as I had previously explained, my bills go like this:  my cell phone bill is automatically deducted from my bank account each month.  My internet, electric and phone bills all go to the school and are split among the four apartments on my floors, all of which are owned and inhabited by teachers at one of the three Kyung-Hwa schools.  I pay these bills when they ask me to...  So, maybe I'll pay for one month or maybe I'll pay for three months at a time... however (and whenever...) they ask me to pay them.  I have yet to hear about how this will work...  So, on a monthly basis, the only bill I am responsible for paying on my own is my gas bill.  I looked at the gas bill today for the month of August (which was before I moved in, so I didn't actually pay it...).  It was for a whopping 4,600 won or something like that.  That is about $4.  For one month of gas.  Crazy.  Paying the bill is even crazier.  You go to the bank, stand in line, and when your turn comes, you go to a machine much akin to an ATM machine.  You stick your bank card in, individually insert each bill, and the amount you owe is deducted from your bank balance.  At the end, it totals your amount and prints a receipt.  It is the slickest bill pay I have ever seen. 

Here is my schedule for the next couple of weeks:

First, no morning English, so I still arrive at school at 7:50, but don't actually do anything class-wise until at least 9:00 when the first classes start.

This week - Monday and Tuesday are normal (aside from no Morning English).  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - I go to a teacher training workshop attended by several Westerners from all over the province (the satellite cities surrounding Seoul), so I don't teach at all, and am not even in Gwangju those days.

Next week is midterms.  I come to school on Monday, but don't teach anything because all of the girls will be taking exams.  I'm not exactly sure what I do since I don't give a Midterm and don't proctor any exams.  I guess I'm supposed to use the time to lesson plan.  In a perfect world, that is exactly what I would do.  But, alas, I still live at Procrastination Station, so I'm sure Monday will be NPR, CNN and Facebook filled.  I have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off...which makes for a six day weekend!  Sadly, no one else that I know has this time off (because Emily starts her new job that week), so traveling anywhere isn't really possible because I don't want to travel by myself...  Helloooooooo Seoul exploration!

Nothing else too exciting to report...  I got my new American driver's license in the mail today.  Hello angry looking pixelated Noelle.  Yikes.  Also, I bought peach air fresheners, so now my apartment is peachy fresh.  YUM.

Another Productive Day...

The last couple of days have been a nice mix of lazy and productive all at the same time.  I'm on the third book of my trip here.  I've completed a couple more lessons on my TEFL class, I've cooked some pretty sweet food, though some not on purpose, I've skyped with friends from home and sort of went hiking today (more on that later).  All in all, this week has been great, and the best part is that it's only half way over! 

I'm sorry it took me so long to post this picture...

My building

This is the building that houses my apartment.  I enter under the white sign on the far left side, and climb up to the fourth floor to reach my apartment.  Under my apartment, you can see the Ministop (yellow/blue/red awning) which is a 24-hour mart.  The next little shop in the same building is my favorite place to buy gimbap and is a popular hangout for the girls after school.  Above the Ministop is a place that offers music lessons, and above that is a hapkido dojo.  You might notice that the sidewalk is all torn up in front.  I don't know what happened, but when I walked down today, it was a HUGE mess and the entry way to my building was covered in mud.  Weird. 

In the last couple of days, I have been rejuvenated.  Not only am I catching up on sleep and enjoying my time off, thus being physically rejuvenated, but I also feel like my spirit has been rejuvenated.  I have discovered several little things about my life here that have recharged my batteries.  It's not like my batteries were dead in the first place, but a few serendipitous (!) discoveries  and simple pleasures came my way, and I'm not turning them away.

1.) Cleaning has become a point of interest.  I vacuumed my apartment and immediately felt clean despite profusely sweating because of the humidity in the air.  I scrubbed my toilet and was quite pleased with myself.  I even windexed my coffee table just like I do at home at Mom's request.  I also rearranged my kitchen a little and it feels much more mine now.  

B.) I did a little bit (very little...) of decorating.  I replaced the dank picture above my green couch with a collage of photos and cards.  I should have brought more pictures with me, but I worked with what I had...  While it seems like such a small task to hang pictures on my wall, the presence of these pictures has made my apartment feel so much more like home and less like somewhere I just happen to sleep at night.  It's weird how the smallest personal touch can make all the difference.  Check out my handy work:

3.) Having food in my fridge makes cooking more of an adventure.  Today, I accidentally made sweet potato and garlic rice porridge in my rice cooker.  Nice.  I've also made several different experimental versions of gimbap!

4.) I started a new shampoo bar today as well.  Peppermint and rosemary.  YUM.  I forgot how refreshing it can be to shave your legs too.  I keep rubbing my nice smooth legs together. 

E.) I hate doing things by myself.  Yes, I enjoy alone time, but when it comes to going somewhere or doing something, I am almost scarred to do it alone.  Well, all of that had to change with my decision to move to a foreign country by myself.  I am slowly learning to enjoy exploring and having adventures by myself.  I have found one exception.  Hiking.  Today, I went for a hike and didn't even finish going to the top because I wasn't enjoying it.  I think, for me, hiking will always be most enjoyable when done with others.  Nonetheless, here are some photos I snapped during my (aborted) journey:

You can sort of see Gwangju in the distance...

I had to off-road it for this one...

Proof that I went hiking in the woods

Another view of the city...

The Fun Continues...

FYI: I've linked the names of the Korean things I talk about to explanations of what those things are on various websites.  I still try to explain, but this is more comprehensive...so check the links if you want to learn more...

A breakdown of the last couple of days:

Friday after school, I rode with another teacher and the two exchange students from the Philippines to see my school's award winning play.  Walking into the play, all of the students and teachers were so surprised to see me and all greeted me quite happily.  I love the excitement they have!  They always make me feel so special!  The play was put on at City Hall (a beautiful modern new building that, curiously, has a small theater in it...) and several city officials were in attendance.  Each them was introduced, followed by our principal, vice principal and school chaplain.  I wasn't really listening to what the emcee was saying because it was all in Korean.  I just laughed and clapped when everyone else did.  At one point, he said something and then there was silence. Then, the girls sitting behind me whispered, "Noelle, Noelle, Noelle."  Then I realized I had just been introduced and should stand up.  I stood up and waved like an idiot while all of the girls whooped and hollered.  My white skin and "blond" hair (they all say I have blond hair, though I usually characterize myself as being a brown-haired gal) have made me feel like a D-List celebrity:  recognizable, though not as notable at Kathy Griffin.  The play was real cute and the girls are obviously quite talented, and those not involved are ridiculously proud of their classmates!  What an awesome atmosphere!  I had no idea what was being said, and most of the time I wasn't sure what was going on in the story, but there were some really funny things.  All in all, I'm really glad I went! 

Next, one of the teachers dropped me off at the restaurant to meet all of the other foreigners for a dual birthday dinner for Daniella (another foreigner whose birthday was the same day as mine...only one year older..) and me.  We ate at a restaurant that specializes in growing their own mushrooms and serving shabu shabu.  We sat on the floor on either side of a really long, low table.  In the middle of the table, there were three metal pans that looked like a hybrid wok and skillet.  The server poured beef broth into the pans and it was heated until it boiled.  They brought out several side dishes (kimchi, an egg souffle that was flavored with fish paste, acorn jelly (one of the two things in Korea that I will not eat) and pickled radish.  Each of us was also given a bowl of shredded cabbage with a horseradish flavored paste on it.  Then, they brought out huge platters of really thinly sliced beef, several types of mushroom, onions and other vegetables.  At our leisure, we put the contents of the platter into the broth to cook and then fished out the bits we wanted to eat.  There was a soy/sesame sauce in which to dip our pieces.  It was sooo tasty!  It's a good thing I started eating meat because otherwise my birthday dinner would have consisted of me watching everyone else around me have a foodgasm while I watched them eat.  Plus, it tasted sooo amazing!  After we had cooked all of the food on our platters, the server brought out sticky noodles that looked like thick spaghetti.  We cooked them in the broth and ate them.  Also tasty!  Next, they drained most of the broth from the pan and brought out the makings for fried rice.  We let it get nice and crispy and scraped all of the burnt bits from the bottom.  I've always maintained that the best part of any casserole is the burnt crispy edges and this fried rice was no exception to that rule.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  YUM.  After this culinary delight, we enjoyed cake.  Again.  Two couple brought cakes for us to enjoy, bringing the total cake count to six.  Yes.  Six birthday cakes in two days.  Nice.

After cake, we ventured to a noraebang.  Noraebangs are HUGE in Korea.  Basically, it's karaoke, but in private group rooms.  Instead of just the words being shown on the screen, they show random pictures with the lyrics running over the top.  The pictures have nothing to do with the songs, though they looked, to the untrained eye, as if they could be music videos.  There is a huge book from which to choose the music (they have both Korean and English songs), and there are microphones and tambourines.   What more could you ask for on a Friday night, I wonder?  Don't worry...I totally represented by singing Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield and Wanna Be by the Spice Girls.  Such a fun time, but admittedly a little awkward because by this time, the people that I knew the best from the group had parted ways for various reasons.  Still fun, though!  I came home and cut my hair.  Delightful.

Saturday, I woke up to a phone call from Hyunjoo Kim, who is the foreign liaison at my school. which means she helps me with all of my living accommodations and such.  She told me that a man was coming to hook up my internet, but she didn't know what time.  So, I had to call off my plans to go to Seoul to meet Liz and Barry because I didn't know what time Mr. Internet would arrive.  Bummer.  But, now I have my own internet and don't have to feel like a dunce mooching off of someone's wireless connection...  Otherwise, Saturday was a lazy day.  I finished a book about the school shooting at Columbine High School near Denver in 1999.  It was really good!

That night, I went out to dinner with Emily, Richard and their hair dresser friends that Emily and I visit periodically throughout the week.  We went to a restaurant that serves galbi, though, I was told, this restaurant's take on galbi was not traditional.   At this restaurant, there is a grill at each table.  They bring out plates of meat (at this particular restaurant, pork and American style ribs that have already been seasoned and boiled) that you throw on the grill with garlic and kimchi.  Then, once the meat was grilled, we piled it, along with kimchi, rice, marinated onion and pepper or mustard sauce, on a leaf of what looked life romaine lettuce or sesame leaf, rolled it up and ate it.  Also amazing!!!  (If you visit me, we will go there!)  We shared some great conversation over our dinner and sips of soju.  Next, we ventured back to the same noraebang as the night before.  This night was so much more comfortable and fun.  We all got really into all of the songs and enjoyed ourselves by dancing, singing and enjoying a few beers.  We sang Baby Got Back (my personal karaoke must), Ironic by Alanis Morissette, Pretty Fly (for a white guy) by The Offspring, 2 Become 1 by the Spice Girls, Barbie Girl by Aqua and several others.  This was one of the most fun nights I've had so far! 

Yesterday, I helped Richard and Emily move some of Emily's belongings to their new apartment in Seoul.  It was raining, so we decided to take a taxi rather than walk for 10 minutes lugging her belongings in the rain.  Also, this way, we could take more items because we wouldn't have to transport them on the bus, to the subway, etc.  Then, Emily, Richard, Penny (Richard's (and soon Emily's) roommate from Australia) and I went to brunch at a place called Butterfingers, which serves HUGE American style breakfasts.  I had a waffle, scrambled eggs, seasoned potatoes, bacon, sausage and grape juice.  MMMMMMM!  I love breakfast!  It was refreshing to have Western food, especially breakfast, because in Korean cuisine, there isn't really breakfast food.  For breakfast, they eat kimchi, rice, meat, etc., which is the same type of food they eat at every other meal...  Then, all of us, plus Penny's friend Linda went to a coffee shop and hung out talking for awhile.  By this time, I was wiped, so I hopped the subway to go home.  I got on the correct subway line, but after eight or nine stops of no familiar looking names (and knowing that my ride should have been exactly eight stops), I realized I had been headed in the wrong direction.  Oh Brother.  I got off and walked across the platform to the train traveling in the correct direction and 17 stops later hopped on the 1113 bus back to Gwangju.

Today I took it WAY easy...slept in and read most of another book, Riding in Cars with Boys.  Remember the movie of the same title with Drew Barrymore?  It was a true story!  And, soooo funny!  Then, I ventured to E-Mart and did a good amount of grocery shopping.  That place was a zoo!  On the way to E-Mart, I was going to get rid of my trash.  I carried it out of my building and started to walk up the hill to where everyone in my 'hood drops off their garbage.  An old toothless woman that hangs out at the tables in front of the MiniStop (the mart below my apartment) started yelling at me.  I turned around and she took my box of trash bags and gestured for me to just drop them in the lobby of my building and (I'm assuming...) she would take care of them.  There are tons of old ladies in the area that dig through the trash looking for treasure so I'm assuming she wanted to stake claim on my exotic foreign trash.  She was still sitting there when I got back from E-Mart, as was my trash.  I smiled at her and bowed my head slightly to say hello and she gave me a big toothless grin.  I think we're friends now.

I just finished devouring mandu (dumplings) as my first home cooked meal (or as home cooked as taking a bag from the freezer and put them in my rice cooker with some water, oil and salt gets...)  containing meat.  Such a new world!  They were soooo good!

With the rest of the week off for Chuseok (I realized I've been spelling it wrong all along...), I hope I'll get a lot done for my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) class that I've been taking online and I'm planning on hiking a little tomorrow or Wednesday.  Hopefully, the weather will be clear and I can take some pictures that are worth posting of my surroundings.  Here are some that I took of my school buildings on Thursday.  They are arranged in the order you would see things as you walk up the hill and look starting from your left and moving to your right:

The limestone covered space where they have P.E.

The Middle School

(Behind the Middle School and up the hill is where we eat lunch (sorry...no picture of that building...))

The Academic High School...or part of it... 

The Auditorium where we have chapel every Friday morning

EB High School (this is where I teach)

So, the playground area is right across the street from the EB high school and opposite the academic high school and down the hill is where my apartment is, and the rest of my neighborhood.  I hope that makes sense...

The view of Gwangju from my classroom window

The city itself stretches for a really long time in all directions from my school.  My school is near the top of a huge hill (the academic high school has a huge park behind it with several monuments like the Statue of Liberty and the Eifel Tower that goes up even higher) and the city sort of surrounds it and several other huge hill/mountains.  Hopefully I'll be able to post more pictures of my surroundings soon....if it ever stops raining...

My Korean-style Birthday!

My Birthday went something like this....

I got to school and was greeted by one of the co-teachers giving me a chocolate muffin and a very nice card.  I didn't have to teach at all yesterday because all of my students were taking an English listening test, so it was a pretty easy day.  I did miss seeing my students though!  The head of the English Department asked me to proofread their English language newspaper before it went to print, so I spent most of the morning reading their stories.  I was also able to chat with several friends from home on Facebook!  As for the newspaper, the girls are very good writers and I mostly made corrections like adding prepositions before nouns and periods after sentences.  It took me right back to my semester of tutoring!  It was fun to read their stories about the school's many recent triumphs!  Our school won a Japanese singing contest and a (either regional or national...either way, a big deal!) play competition (kind of like large group speech I'm assuming...) and will travel to Japan over winter break to compete in the next level.  We were also named one of the top schools in our province for English education programs, specifically getting the girls to speak English on an everyday basis. They are obviously quite proud of their achievements, as they should be!

After lunch (I ate half a chicken cutlet in a mustard sauce, among other things, and didn't get sick!), I was told by one of my co-teachers that we were having a meeting in the next office.  I walked into the office to see a cake with candles lit and the whole office singing Happy Birthday to me!  What a surprise!  And, the cake was awesome!  Sweet potato cake!  Later on, another two teachers came to my desk singing Happy Birthday with a small chocolate cake and two sugar cookies!  I took that one home, so I haven't eaten it yet..but I'm sure that one will also be quite tasty!

After school, several girls stopped in to the office to wish me Happy Birthday.  Another group sang to me in the hallway.  As Emily and I were leaving school, a group of girls followed us down the hill singing!  What delightful little serenades!  Then, as Emily and I were leaving my apartment on our way to dinner, another group of girls sang to me in the street!  They all giggled and clapped afterward.

Emily and I walked all around downtown Gwangju looking for a place for dinner.  It was fun to see everything that downtown offers!  There are many cute shops and restaurants, a small traditional market and even a few pet shops with really really cute little puppies!  They made me miss Snickers!  We finally decided on a rice porridge restaurant.  I had a crab and cheese porridge and Emily got a pumpkin porridge.  Along with our selected porridge, they served us a small dish of each of the following items to be added to the porridge: kimchi (of course!), soy sauce marinated beef strips (I never thought I would say this, but it was so good!), a red pepper and garlic paste and pickled radish.  The food was amazing, as was the conversation!

Next, we walked back and hung out for a little while in the hair shop that Emily's friends own.  As we were walking back to our apartments, another one of the homeroom teachers at my school stopped us.  She asked if I would be around and/or awake at 10:00 that night.  I said I would and she said she would call me to come down for a short meeting.  I talked to Mom and Dad for about an hour and read for a little while.  Right at 10:00, I received her phone call and went downstairs to the street.  She, three students who aren't in my classes and another homeroom teacher were standing on the sidewalk with another cake and candles lit, singing Happy Birthday!  And, the cake was from Baskin Robbins, in the shape of a rabbit!  So cute and soooo good! 

This morning I awoke to find several e-mails and facebook messages and wallposts from everyone at home, also wishing me a Happy Birthday!  Thank you all soo much!  I had a spectacular birthday!

Today has been a fairly chill day at school.  It is the last day before break, so everyone is pretty relaxed and ready for the break!  We just got gifts from the school as a part of the Chuseok tradition.  What did we get?  Three bottles of grapeseed oil!  Hooray!  I don't think I will have to buy oil the entire time I am here...  Emily gave me a bunch that she had left over (as in eight bottles) and now I've got three more!  One of the teachers asked me if I knew what it was for, and I said, "Yes, for cooking."  Another teacher chimed in, "Put that in your car!"  What a clown.  We all laughed.

Tonight I am going to see the girls put on their award winning play right after school.  Then, I will meet several other foreigners for dinner to celebrate my and another foreigner's birthday (which was also yesterday) at a traditional Korean restaurant downtown.  It should be loads of fun!  Tomorrow, I will meet Liz and Barry in Seoul again...maybe round two of fish pedicures?  We'll see... and then, I'll report back!

so many things to report!

Sooooo many things happened today.

First, and most importantly, I can shout from the rooftops: in April, I will be an AUNT!!!!  Hooray!  I am sooo excited for Nick and Jess!  And let's be honest, Bob and Kris are pretty jazzed about the grandparents gig too!

Next, (I hope you're sitting down for this, Mom) today marked a major milestone in my life.  I ate meat for the first time in three and a half years.  For about a week, I have been giving this decision major thought.  A huge part of Korean culture is community.  Community EVERYTHING.  This includes, but is certainly not limited to, eating.  In several restaurant settings, it is common to share food.  This could be side dishes like kimchi and pickled radish, but could also be the entire meal, entree included.  Also, much of Korean cuisine contains some form of meat whether it is chicken or beef broth or actual pieces of meat strewn into much of the food choices.  This year (or however long I decide to stay here...), it is my goal to soak up and experience as much Korean culture as possible.  I do not want to exclude myself from Korean traditions or outings because of my distaste for meat.  So, when the opportunity presents itself, I will, indeed, be partaking in meat.  This does not mean that I will eat meat at every meal because let's not forget the reason I ceased eating meat in the first place: I simply do not enjoy the flavor or texture of many meats.  But, this way, I know I can try new things and not get sick.  For those of you who are wondering, the meat I ate today was highly processed ham on a piece of Korean sweet potato pizza that was bought by our vice principal to celebrate Chusak (Korean Thanksgiving) in our teachers meeting.  It tasted weird (the ham, not the pizza...perhaps it was the texture too.).  But, after two slices of heavily hammed pizza, my body has yet to freak out, so I'm hoping if I take it slow and don't go overboard, I will avoid getting sick.  I think my body will take it fairly well since I eat so much fish and seafood and have never had a problem.  But, (Mom) remember, this is not the end of the vegetarian (or, technically pescatarian) game, it is merely a timeout.  When I step foot in the U-S-A, it's back to my old habits.  Get excited.

On Wednesdays, I usually teach four classes of the girls and one class for teachers.  Today, in addition to the normal schedule, we also held an open class.  This means that we prepared (and practiced a little...) a class that would be viewed by other area teachers.  They give us feedback on our lesson and it also showcases our school.  The lesson went pretty well, but there were some obvious things that could be improved upon.  All in all, it was a great experience, and I got a lot of good feedback to apply to my everyday teaching.  Also, immediately following the class, we went to the meeting to hear all of the comments from the teachers who observed our classes.  This happened during the time that I usually teach a class, so I ended up teaching one less class than I thought I would, which made for a more chill day.  The girls slept and chilled during their usual class time (they've been taking exams periodically all week and will continue tomorrow, so they are wiped!) and we got the eat, drink and get advice!  Pretty sweet setup!  Also, the class that sat through open class was the same class that I teach first thing in the morning and we spent most of the regular class preparing for open class, so I only taught two of my own lessons today!  I was worried about feeling overly tired after today, but it was such a great day and went by really quickly.

In my teacher class today, there were only four "students" because everyone else (usually there are 11) was really busy with preparations for a really important meeting at the middle school.  We had such a great conversation.  We practiced my planned lesson, which took about 15 minutes since there were so few people and then talked about their plans for Chusak next week and differences between holidays in Korea and the US.  We talked a lot about traditions and I learned a lot!  They also asked if I had a boyfriend.  The whole class was middle aged men so I was surprised they would ask me such a question, but part of Korean culture is extreme curiosity and it may have been that that was an easy thing to say.  I also sort of got invited to go to Chusak with one of the men, but I'm not sure if he was serious or not...  It felt like he only invited me because I thought I might have other plans and I knew I couldn't go, but we'll see what happens...

The girls are starting to warm up to me and they truly warm my heart!  Today, as she was leaving class, a girl slyly passed me the following note (taken verbatim):

Hi No-L!!
I'm (Korean name) (in English name is Amy)
I want to be your friend!
because I want to make new friend
and I think you need Korean friend isn't it?
I think we will be good friend
I like English but I can't well.
I've very sad (Korean style sad face)
but it's okay, because you will teach me! (Korean style happy face)

Good bye ~
See you.

How adorable is that?  Of course we will be super tight!  Another girl came up to me after a class, touched my upper arm and whispered, "I like your shoes!"  That's our little secret I guess...

I also got a cell phone today!  The phone is pretty sweet.  It has some real intense LED light action and makes cool noises...very high tech.  And the best part is it was free with my contract!  I got a one year contract, which is sometimes hard to get because phone companies often refuse to let foreigners sign contracts and force them to use pay as you go phones, which make them much more money.  I only have 150 minutes a month, but I think that will be more than enough since I only have two contacts so far!  And, all of my bills (cell phone, internet, utilities) are automatically taken from my account each month, which would normally not fly with me in the US, but I spend so little money here that I think I will enjoy the convenience of not having to physically pay bills.  I'll still have statements available to me so I am aware of what the charges are, etc., but I'm glad I don't have to send a bill somewhere or worry about picking up my mail.  At school, my mail is delivered to my desk, and today someone even found me and told me I had a package before I even made it to my desk.  Such service!

More exciting news: since the first year students are taking an all day test tomorrow and all of my classes are first year students, I don't teach tomorrow.  I still go to work, but I have no obligations, so hopefully I will get a lot done!  Also, because of Chusak, we get paid almost a whole week earlier!  Hooray!

Another bit of excitement: I think (knock on wood) fall has arrived in Korea.  Today was beautiful weather for the first time since I have been here.  It has either been unbearably hot and humid or raining.  Today was the first day I didn't sweat my bum off on the way to school!  I had every intention of taking pictures of the beautiful landscape in which I live, but I was so busy today and forgot to grab my camera on the way to lunch that I didn't get it done.  Hopefully I will remember tomorrow.  I hope you'll settle, instead, for pictures of the brochure in which I was featured that caused the photoshoot hilarity of last week:

On the cover - this is the from the recovery shoot in the library...

I think I was telling her all about Snickers the Wonder dog... or my favorite food...

Action shot!  The bubble says my name and where I went to school, but they mistakenly wrote Iowa University...

I feel like there were several other things that I am forgetting to write about, but I think this is enough to take in for now...

A few quick stories about the girls...

One of my favorite moments in class so far:

This week's lesson with the second year students has been about story telling.  I was specifically practicing using the words first, next or then and finally or last with them when telling stories.  I would put up a picture of a scene from a Disney movie and they were supposed to tell me a story about the characters in the picture.  For each picture, they would tell me a three part story.  One girl would tell me the first part, then pick a new girl and she would tell me the second part, and so on.  Some of the girls took this in a very black and white context and told me only what they could see happening in the picture and other girls made things up.  For this particular story, the picture was of Cinderella dancing with Prince Charming:
Girl 1: First, they are dancing.
Girl 2: Then they go home.
Noelle Teacher: Do they go home together or apart?
Girl 2: Oh, together!
Whole class of boy-obsessed teenage girls: giggle, giggle, sex, giggle, sex, sex, giggle, giggle
(At this point, I was gearing up for a pretty juicy ending to the story, and I have to admit I was more than a little curious to see what they would say because I don't think I've been around long enough for them to know how I would react if they said anything they think I might find offensive or inappropriate.)
Girl 3: Last, they (long pause) eat dinner.
Whole class: giggle, giggle, giggle, some slapping each others' arms or the table.

While we were grocery shopping at E-Mart, we saw two different groups of our students.  They are always really quick to rush up and say hello to us but once we try to continue the conversation with small talk, they always get confused and walk away.  This also happened Friday night, only on Friday night, their school uniform skirts were considerably shorter and they had adorned make-up, which they are not allowed to wear at school.  I think I had forgotten what it is like to be a teenage girl.  They kill me.

Lastly, I got another card in the mail today from a good friend from high school, Andrea.  (Thanks sooo much!)  Before Korea, I think I had forgotten the absolute charm and excitement of receiving handwritten mail!  This one took about 10 days as well, so if you send anything in an envelope by regular post, expect that I will receive it in about 10 days' time.

Friday night and Seoul 1.0

This weekend has been adventure filled to say the least...

Friday night, 10 foreigners from the Gwangju area met for Thai food.  It was a great time and it was so nice to meet other foreigners!  The Thai food was great, I enjoyed (!) a few mugs of beer and good conversation.  After dinner, I was "initiated" into the group by drinking an alcohol that was housed in a big jar with what I think was ginger root.  They called it medicine.  Everything in Korea has a healthful or medicinal purpose whether they say spicy food is good for digestion or seaweed is good for circulation (or something like that...), and I don't what this alcohol's healthful purpose was, but I think I'd rather be unhealthy.  This stuff tasted like really bad Jagermeister...  Not my scene, but it was on the house and now I can say for sure that I have tried it.  Next, a couple of us ventured to my building to watch Emily's hapkido (a Korean martial art) class.  It looked like fun and a good workout and I'm thinking about doing it, but it is offered five nights a week and I don't know if I want to commit myself to getting my money's worth...  After the class, we went out for another pitcher, had a kimchi pancake (I can't remember the Korean name...) and more good conversation.  All in all, a great night on the town!

Saturday, I met Liz (we met at the Korean consulate in Chicago when we were going through the interview process to get our E2 visas) and her boyfriend Barry in Seoul.  They teach preschool in a new city that is on the west side of Seoul.  This was my foray into using public transportation in Korea, or pretty much ever, and it went really smoothly!  Emily had shown me where to get on the bus and explained everything.  The method of paying for public transit is super slick!  There is a small credit-like card called a T-money card that you can fill up with money and each time you get on and off a bus or subway, you swipe the card and it reduces your balance accordingly.  When your balance gets low, you just reload it.  Most convenience stores are able to reload them and there are also machines in the train stations.  Super easy!  After I bought my T-money card, I walked to E-mart to get on the bus because I wanted to make sure I got a seat on the bus for the nearly hour-long ride.  (There is another stop that might be a little closer, but Emily told me that sometimes the bus is filled up by the time it gets to that stop and i would have to stand for much of the ride if there were no available seats.)  I walked up to the shelter and waited.  For 20 minutes.  A bus is supposed to come every five or ten minutes.  I finally realized that I was in the shelter for waiting for a taxi and the bus shelter was down the street. A couple of minutes later, I was on the 1113-1 bus to Seoul.  Once I got to Seoul, I had to take a subway to the place where Liz and Barry's bus would drop them off.  I followed the crowd who had gotten off the bus with me, unsure of where to find the subway station entrance.  Sure enough, the crowd was all headed toward the subway as well.  I followed the (English!) signs to find the train I needed.  Eight stops later, I was at Gangnam station, which is where I was meeting Liz and Barry.  I was 10 minutes late because of the taxi / bus shelter mix up, so I when I couldn't find Liz and Barry at our meeting place, I was nervous that they had left thinking I wasn't coming.  I decided to wait for half an hour just in case they had gone into a shop or cafe.  After 20 minutes, I was contemplating my next move (I didn't just want to come back to Gwangju after traveling for so long, but I had no idea what was in the area and I didn't want to stray too far away from the station by myself...)  Then, all of sudden, here comes Liz and Barry!  (They had arrived at their bus stop just as a bus was pulling away and had to wait 20 minutes for the next bus.)Hooray!  The next several hours were a fantastic introduction to Seoul:
First, we went to a cafe that specializes in fish pedicures.  We got a cup of coffee/tea/smoothie respectively and enjoyed some complementary toast and jam while we waited for our turn at the pedicures.  When it was our turn, we rolled up our pants, washed our feet off in a tub and proceeded to our fish tub.  The whole premise of a fish pedicure is that there are fish in this tub that eat the dead skin off of your feet.  So, for 20 minutes and 2000 won ($1.75ish) fish feasted on our foot skin.  It was awesome!  It took a little while to get used to the feeling of tiny fish surrounding on my feet and between my toes, but after a little while it just felt like a whirlpool jet stream.  (I took a picture of this whole process, but you can't see the fish, so it's not worth posting...)  I know it sounds super strange that fish ate the junk skin off of my feet, but it was seriously cool.  We were in the tub with the smaller fish, but next time we meet, we're getting serious.   The other tub has bigger fish that don't full as quickly, so they do a more thorough job.  The smaller fish mostly tickle your feet, but we were told that the bigger fish do a little more than tickle.  I'll report back next time about the big guys.
Next, we met Janine, another teacher at their school and headed for Itaewon which is an area with a lot of western-style bars and restaurants.  We met up with Janine's friend Jillian, who was celebrating her birthday.  We went to an Irish pub for drinks, dinner and a couple games of darts.  Good time.
Next, we went to World Cup Stadium for a soccer game.  It was Foreigner Night, so along with our 10000 won tickets we got a free beer and hot dog.  We must have redeemed our hot dog vouchers in the wrong place because instead of the western style hot dog that we saw most others enjoying, we got two hot dogs on a stick, two Korean style corn dogs and two deep fried fish cakes.  We enjoyed the game (Seoul won 4-0) and enjoyed some quality people watching too!
Next, we ventured to Hongdae, which is a university district and another place where a lot of westerners go to party.  It had been raining pretty much since we got off the train at the soccer game and many of the sidewalks here are made from a stone kind of like marble that gets really slippery when it gets wet.  I experienced just how slippery it was in the subway station as I walked in, lost my balance and fell flat on my back.  My glasses flew off my face and everyone rushed over to make sure I was okay.  A nice Korean girl handed me my glasses, I got up and we were on our way.  (My tailbone is a little sore, but nothing a few tylenol can't cure...)  Once we got to Hongik, we bought drinks on the street at a place called Vinyl that sells their drinks in i.v. bags (YES.  in i.v. bags, with bendy straws).  Then, wewalked to a park where there is often music to enjoy our drinks.  In Korea, there are no open container laws, so everyone literally walks the street and takes the train with a beer or soju (rice alcohol) in tow.  It's so weird to walk around the street with a drink in my hand...
Next the whole group was going to a nightclub to further celebrate Jillian's birthday.  Liz, Barry and I weren't really in the mood to go clubbing and we certainly weren't interested in the 15000 won cover charge at the door, so we opted to go get some food and a drink and have a chat instead.  We found a nice cafe and ordered some alcoholic Korean rice juice (I can't remember the name but it is sort of like a rice beer, but a little sweet) and had great conversation about several deep subjects.  We were hungry but the menu was all in Korean, so we wondered around looking for a nice place to sit down and eat.  The first place we went sounded good because it was called the No Mess Kitchen.  We wandered up to the second floor of the building to the restaurant, but upon entry they told us they were closed.  The next place was a Japanese place and the menu was also all in Korean.  Barry was so desperate for food that he just pointed to something on the menu and was about to order it when a busboy came over to help us translate,  He informed us that Barry was about to order fried crickets.  New place.  After lots of wandering around at 2 am, we found ourselves in a hookah bar on the fifth floor of a building, eating a little, drinking a little (at this establishment, everyone was required to buy at least one drink regardless...) and smoking guava flavored hookah (a traditionally Middle Eastern flavored tobacco).  It was a great place, the people were really nice and we enjoyed ourselves until about 4 am.  Since the last bus back to our cities runs at 11 and another one doesn't start until 6 am, we had to stay in Seoul for the night, so we decided to just stay up and get on the subway shortly after it started running again at 5 to make our 6 am buses.  We had about an hour to kill but wanted a change of scenery so we went to the neighboring restaurant and ordered a seafood pancake to share.  Once we were done with the pancake, we walked to the nearest subway station and hopped our train.  Sixteen stops later, Liz and Barry got off at Gangnam Station to catch their bus.  We said goodbye and vowed to meet up again next weekend to celebrate my birthday.  They were so fun, laid back and up for anything!  Perfect Korean adventure companions!
Next, I had another eight subway stops to get to my bus stop.  Once I got out of the subway station, I wasn't really sure where to get my bus.  It had dropped me of on the street when I arrived and I wasn't completely clear on where to catch it to get back to Gwangju.  So, after a couple of minutes of wandering around, somehow I found myself at a large outdoor bus stop that housed several different lines.  I found the line I needed and waited for awhile.  To make sure I was in the right place, I stopped a man, pointed to the line I needed and said, "Here?"  He said yes, but I'm pretty sure he had no idea what I was talking about because after about 10 minutes, my bus was nowhere in sight.  Somehow, I spotted buses on the other side of the subway station that looked like a better bet.  Sure enough, my bus pulled up about a minute after I got to the other side of the station.  Perfect.  I was home by 8 am and took a nice long nap.
We had such a great time, but I'm not sure I could handle the Seoul nightlife on a regular basis!  Everything stays open and hopping until about 6 am.  Even the subway ride home was crowded to the point that we didn't get a seat for the first couple of stops.  As the nightlife is winding down and people are going home, other people are getting up and traveling to go to church or work out.  This city is literally never asleep.  It baffles me!...Quite a bit different from Welch Ave. in Ames - that's for sure!  At 4 am as we ate our seafood pancake and watched people out the window, it looked like it was 11 pm and things were just getting started for the night.  What a place!
Needless to say, today has been a lazy day.  I slept for awhile, watched a movie and read quite a bit.  One more week of teaching before my week off for Chusak (Korean Thanksgiving).  I've been told that much of the country shuts down for the week (even ATM machines are turned off, if that tells you anything...), so traveling is a little out of the question.  I think Maria (one of the foreigners I met at dinner on Friday) and I are planning to walk around Gwangju and explore what our city has to offer.  I also might wander into Seoul one of the days, but laying around and thinking about lesson plans should probably be done too...  Regardless, I'm looking forward to a nice nine day break!

Letters and Laundry

(This post will be pretty random, so enjoy the ride...)

On Tuesday, four first year students, Emily and I had an hour photo shoot for the school's brochure.  It was outside.  I was instructed to wear professional looking clothing (translation: no jeans, please).  It was hotter than blue blazes outside.  I began sweating immediately, to the point that my makeup was all streaky and gross.  We took several different pictures at several different locations.  Fast forward to this morning at school.  The first thing I heard today at school today was the teacher who had taken the pictures saying to me, "Uh, Noelle Teacher, we need to take picture again.  The principal no like face.  Sorry!"  It turned out that some of the faces were blurry or covered by shadows, but at first, I thought he was telling me I was too sweaty in the pictures...  No. Big. Deal.

Classes went well today, except for one.  In the future, discipline measures WILL be taken with the first section of my first year students.  They are positively unruly.  All of the other classes were absolute peaches today.  I loved them!

Lunch left much to be desired today.  It consisted of seaweed, a bean/mushroom/onion (?) salad whose texture weirded me out, (the clincher to the gross factor:) boiled kimchi with boiled fish (the kimchi was okay but the broth that was created from the kimchi juice and the fish was not delightful... dare I say, delight-less?), rice, some sort of seaweed and chicken soup and kiwis.  So, I wrapped some rice in the seaweed (which was AWESOME!  It was tasted salty like popcorn!) and ate the kiwi.  Emily was equally as disappointed in the lunch today, so we "ran an errand" (which was accurate because this morning I had forgotten to buy candy for my class...) and went to one of the street vendors that caters to the school girls and grabbed a quick bite.  (This sounds questionable, but it was quite tasty!)  I had a deep fried rice cake (of the same gelatinous variety as the dukbooki from Monday's culinary adventure) on a stick, which was rubbed with a tangy not-quite-barbeque-but-close sauce.  Emily had deep fried chicken on a stick with a very spicy sauce.  I felt like we were at the state fair...in Korea.  Quite delightful!

After lunch and before our errand, a girl stopped me in the hall.  She handed me an envelope.  I looked at the envelope.  It was quite colorful and it had my sorority's letters on the outside.  I got a huge smile on my face and jumped up and down.  I looked at the girls and said, (or shrieked, rather) "This is my first mail!!!!!!!"  They were far less impressed and excited than I was.  They starred at me a little and walked away.  They couldn't ruin my excitement though!  Inside the colorful envelope was a hand-colored, hand-written note from Ryan, one of my beloved Iowa State Thetas!  (Thanks, again, for the card Ma'am!  You made my day!)  FYI:  It appears to have been postmarked on August 30th or so, and it arrived on September 9 (Korea time) via air mail, so I guess it takes about 10 days for letters / cards / envelope-type mail to arrive via air mail.

After the last class today, we had a mini-photo shoot (in the library...no sweat zone!) to redeem ourselves for the brochure pictures.  This time, the principal came in to set the scene and pose us.  The picture taking involved three of us sitting in chairs and three people standing behind us.  The girl sitting in the middle held a book and I pointed to a picture in the book and said something that was obviously incredibly interesting so that the camera could capture the captivating looks on our faces, thus enticing students to understand the incredible intellectual energy surrounding us.  I'd say the photo was a success...  (I wore jeans today.  So much for professional attire for the photo...  Oops.)

After school, Emily came to my apartment with me to show me how to work the mysterious Korean washing machine in my apartment.  After a comprehensive lesson, including the help of some cell phone translations, I am all set in the laundry department.  My bathroom has been taken over with my drying rack and hanging clothes from the rod that would house a shower curtain if they were a fixture in Korean bathrooms...  One delightful discovery about Korean washing machines...or at least, mine: it spin dries to the point that my clothes are almost dry.  I couldn't be more pleased.

Thanks so much for all of the e-mails, Facebook messages and wallposts, and blog comments.  Your correspondence truly brightens my day!

A Few Funny Stories...

A couple quick quips from today before I begin a lesson-plan filled night o' fun...

Today was the first day that I taught the class for teachers to learn more English.  It was also attended by the Principal and Vice Principal.  I made each teacher go around the room and tell me their name, position at the school and two situations they would like to practice in English (the last bit was a lost cause because almost everyone said, "I want to learn everything!"). The Principal (who told me her English name is Anne because she loves Anne of Green Gables (Shout-out to Grandma Plueger!)) said, "I beautiful teacher...  (enter loud riotous laugh)  Nobody believes that."  She's a riot.  I think that class will be a lot of fun because they are all so eager to learn English, but would you believe the class full of teachers was the most rowdy and hardest to control class of the day?!  Go figure.

After the teacher class, the head of the English Department (Mr. Shin, English name: Richard) was telling me what would be served for lunch.  He said, among other things, there would be dumplings.  I asked if they had meat in them.  He said yes (pork... bummer!).  Then, he began complaining about how much meat they serve in the school cafeteria.  At first I thought he was trying to sympathize with my vegetarian needs, but then he said, "I old man.  I need more vegetables!"

Back to lesson plans now.  I seem to think that the ample free time I have during the day (except today, which was super busy!) is better served cruising Facebook, CNN, NPR and my e-mail.  I guess I'll use my nights to plan lessons instead...

On a side note, I just ate a delightfully juicy peach.  YUM.

I finally ate non-cafeteria Korean Food... And other stuff.

Today was another big day in Noelle-land. 

Teaching was good today...Nothing too exciting.  I've been teaching the same lesson for almost a week now since I'm introducing myself to every class before I start in on their class-specific material.  I've literally taught the same class 14 times as of today and I have one more to go.  A few funny questions...  Today the girls wanted to know what American boys look for in a girl.  I wanted to tell them that if I could answer that, I wouldn't be single.  Instead, I explained that every boy is different and looks for different things in different girls.  Sometimes I feel like I teach an American dating seminar.  Another girl asked me to teach her my favorite song (so cute!)  A bit of a misunderstanding:  in a picture I show of me in my powerpoint presentation, I have red eyes from the camera flash.  One girl asked if that was my real eye color.  Without looking at the picture, I said yes.  She looked at me weirdly, so I looked at the picture to see what the big deal was and I noticed my red eyes.  I laughed and explained that my eyes had turned red because of the camera flash.  Then she asked me what color my contacts make my eyes.  I was wearing glasses.  I explained that I rarely wear contacts anymore but when I do they are clear and do not change my eye color.  She continued to look at me suspiciously.  I don't think there is any winning her over.  She thinks I'm a weirdo.

Today I was also asked to do a little extra work each week.  Once a week (on Wednesday mornings in case you care...), I will be teaching some of the teachers "classroom" English.  So, this kid gets paid 20,000 won (about $17) per class to teach teachers how to speak to their students using phrases like, "Do your homework!" "Pay attention!"  "Very good!" etc.  NICE. 

Through this whole teaching a new class situation, I also found out another glorious bit of info.  Korea's equivalent to Thanksgiving falls on a Wednesday this year.  Traditionally, our school gives the days before and after off, thus giving us Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off.  Well, as they saw no point in going to school on Monday and Friday of a week, they gave us the whole week off.  SCORE.  I could not be more excited!  This takes place in two weeks, so the week after my birthday, I have the WHOLE WEEK OFF!  Happy Birthday, Me!

I took a couple of pictures of my school surroundings to share.  It has rained almost every day since I've been here, so there haven't been many good opportunities to take many more pictures, but they will come soon!  I pinkie-swear!

The entrance to the EB school

 

 

 

 

My classroom (from the doorway)

Another view of my classroom

My classroom is one of three on the third floor of the English Zone, which is a separate building from the picture above.  On our campus, there is a middle school, a cafeteria, an academic high school (for those of you that saw the school website I was sent with the giant statue of Jesus holding a staff, the statue is in front of the academic high school), an auditorium, English Zone and the English Business (EB) high school.  It's quite the property!

On a different note, tonight Emily and I went to E-Mart after school.  But, first, we stopped and bought my first (of many, I'm sure!) kimbap which can basically be described at Korea's answer to sushi.  It is imitation crab, ham (though not in mine!), cucumber, pickled radish and egg rolled (sushi-style) in rice and seaweed.  It is served warm and was delightfully cheap (1,000 won, so like $0.75!) and quite tasty!  The shop is probably a little too convenient though.  It is right next to the convenience store under my apartment...  Watch out kimbap woman!  Also, Emily taught me how to order in Korean sans the ham.  Nice! 

Next, we went to the dry cleaner and a co-teacher at another school started talking to me, asking if we could get together and (I'm assuming) speak English.  I thought...why not?!  She asked me for my phone number and I told her I didn't have one yet.  She was baffled.  "Why not," she asked.  I told her I had only been here for 10 days, so Emily gave the woman her phone number.  She'll probably never call, but if she does, it should be a good time....

Next, we went to Emily's hairdresser friends' salon and chatted briefly.  They were really nice and were watching a Korean drama.  My girls constantly ask me if I have seen the Korean dramas and which one is my favorite.  Korean dramas are more like American soap operas (but with a more defined time line) and less like Grey's Anatomy or Gilmore Girls.  Maybe they could be likened to Beverly Hills 90210 (some crazy stuff went on on that show (Thank you, Soap Opera Network!)).  At any rate, it was fun to watch the impending doom that was occurring on the show even though I had no idea what was going on...

Then, we went to E-Mart to go grocery shopping.  I had planned to go last weekend, but was too lazy and thought more of lazing about than going shopping...  On Friday afternoon I had done a little shopping at the store down the street (Home Mart).  I picked up a few vegetables and some oil, planning to make fried rice for dinner.  When I got home, I realized that what I had thought was rice was in fact a large bag of sea salt.  So, ramen for dinner, again.  Tonight at E-Mart, Emily showed me the rice section and I decided on some lovely brown rice.  Delightful.  Also, prior to shopping at E-Mar,t we ate dinner.  For 4,000 won, we purchased and split an order of dukbokki (pronounced dok-book-key):  four pieces of fried veggie/fish/whatever (we got a sweet potato (as in legit yellow sweet potato, NOT yam), pumpkin, squid and a veggie concoction) that was deep fried, tempura style.  These pieces of food are then dipped into a very spicy (almost Tabasco flavored!) sauce that is also home to rice cake (a gelatinous rice compound) and fish cake (basically, the seafood answer to spam...  made from the same fish that imitation crab is, but pounded thin and spiced -- the texture kind of weirds me out, but the flavor more than makes up for it).  SO GOOD.  For an after dinner beverage (in Korea, there is rarely a beverage taken simultaneously with eating), Emily got an Americano and I got a Kiwi smoothie.  Can you guess my reaction?  (SO GOOD!)

That's all for tonight...  I need to start thinking about what I am going to teach these girls this week!  EEK!

...

Not much to report this weekend.  I've taken full advantage of having no plans and done almost literally nothing but sleep, read, watch Sex and the City, cook and clean.  In a little while, I will venture out to go grocery shopping and then I'll work on my online Teaching English as a Foreign Language class before skyping with Mom and Dad tonight (can't wait!)

Here's a video of my new apartment.  On Thursday morning, I was told I would be moving that day during the lunch hour so that the new middle school teacher could move in to my (now old) apartment.  I had almost gotten used to living in the old place with its cozy surroundings, but I was also growing tired of the noise from the street, the almost constant water dripping from the air conditioner and the extreme lack of kitchen space.  Enter new apartment.  As you will soon see, it is almost twice the size of my old place and much lighter, nicer and more conducive to comfort.  I was also left many apartment supplies from the guy who moved out on Wednesday, so there is little I have to purchase in order to make living here comfortable.  

Other than the move, nothing much new has happened in the last couple of days.  Every Friday, there is chapel during the first hour of school when there is normally Morning English.  So, we all gathered in the school's auditorium for the service.  The girls all sit in super straight rows by homeroom.  It was sort of weird to see how perfect it all looked...  First, the pastor led everyone in a few worship songs.  He was accompanied by a few girls playing instruments and a choir of about 20 students.  There were also six girls leading actions in the front.  All of the songs were in Korean except one, so all I could do was watch and smile.  Next, a group of the first year students did an interpretive dance that was really cute.  It reminded me of my liturgical dance days at St. John's!  After that two girls sang, which was followed by a sermon.  The sermon was punctuated with pictures on a powerpoint show of famous people (the only one I remember was Yogi Berra) but I have no idea what the sermon was about...  Then, the choir sang one last song and the service was done.  I was very impressed by the involvement by the girls, but got little out of the service.  Chapel is optional, but I will probably keep going because it is fun to see the girls participate. 

On Monday, a teacher will draw me a map of how to get to the bus, so soon I will be exploring Seoul, which will lead to many stories, I'm sure.  I'll try to take pictures of my school this week so you can see where I work.  I hope everyone has a fabulous Labor Day weekend!

Big Day!

Last night, I woke up to really loud wind outside...like, tornado style.  I had heard that there was supposed to be a typhoon, but I didn't really know what to expect and no one at school seemed too worried, so neither was I.  While I was getting ready for school, I received a phone call from the woman who hired me asking if I was okay.  I was not affected by the typhoon, but apparently the power at her apartment was taken out by the strong weather.  On the walk to school, there was a tree down, a street sign bent and leaves and sticks everywhere.  The students asked me during class if I survived!  Clearly, I did.  Things are now cleaned up and seem to be back to normal.
Another big thing:  I moved during my lunch hour today!  I am now two doors down from where I had been living all week and this place is much larger than the last, like, twice as big!  I have a large living room with a good size kitchen area, a large bathroom (with a very small bathtub, but no shower curtain...) and a separate bedroom!  This place is a palace!  Here is a quick tour of the last place and this weekend, I'll post a video of my new place.  (I need to clean a little and finish putting things away...)  Also, I'm sorry this video is sideways.  I didn't think about how it would upload when I shot it!

 
In the last apartment, I had not been sleeping the best.  At first, I attributed this to the time change, but now that I am acclimated to the time difference and still not sleeping the best, I blame the mattress.  The mattresses here are VERY hard, and I'm more of a soft mattress gal.  So, the man who lived here before me had left a comforter and several blankets.  I had already purchased my own comforter so I put his comforter under my sheet to create a cushy mattress pad.  Now, I have a sort of pillow top mattress. NICE.  I can't wait to try it out tonight!
Classes today went well for the most part.  They asked me some more funny questions..  What is my shoe size, could I give them beauty tips and bake them cookies, etc.  They were also fascinated with my haircut today.  Why was it so short?  When did I cut it?  They were even more baffled when I told them I cut it myself.  WHOA.  A girl also drew me a picture and put it by my computer.  It was my face, a heart and a big thumbs up.  Then it said, "I like you." and she signed it.  Precious.  In another class, I played a game that I had read about in another teacher's blog.  I gave the students each a post-it note and told them to put the post-it on something in the classroom.  Then, they had to tell me a sentence describing it.  I made them do it again and again until they had described 214 things!  First, they described obvious stuff: light, fan, whiteboard, marker, chair, table.  Then, they got creative.  One girl put a post-it on another girl and said, "She is my best friend."  Another girl put a post-it on her friend's supposedly fancy watch and said, "This is my friend's bling bling watch."  My favorite:  a girl put a post-it on her nose and said, "These are my blackheads."  I LOVE this job.

Noelle Teacher, what is your blood type?

Today was my first foray into the world of teaching English in Korea.  In my lesson today, I told them about myself.  I showed them a picture of our family (they were fascinated by Jessica's name and repeated it over and over to themselves...), Iowa, the Field of Dreams film trailor, pictures of Iowa State, a video of a Lady Gaga song being played on the camponile and several other pictures and videos having to do with me or Iowa.  Then, I had them write down two questions that they wanted to ask me.  I got some straight doozies!  I was asked many questions about whether or not I knew famous Koreans and what my favorite Korean food was.  I don't really know much about Korean pop culture yet, so I told them it was their job to teach me everything I need to know in that area.  They seemed okay with that...  One group even told me a recipe I have to try this weekend which seems to amount to kimchi fried rice.  Since I am teaching teenage girls, I was, of course, asked if I had a boyfriend, when was my first kiss (they ALL giggled hysterically when this was asked and answered) and what I look for in boys.  I was also asked what blood type I am for some reason...  One girl approached me after class and told me she was very interested in the differences between Korean and American culture and asked if we could talk about them sometime.  How cute!  And, two girls came into the teacher's office and asked a couple of other teachers to ask me if I would be their friend.  This job is precious.

Today was also my first time helping with Morning English.  My voice was broadcast over the television screens to all of the 2nd year students as we taught them new vocabulary and reviewed what they had learned yesterday.  The Korean English teacher that is in charge of these lessons takes each word and finds a corresponding picture to illustrate what the word or phrase means.  All of this is put into a powerpoint show and broadcast to the students in their classrooms.  I read each new word or phrase and they repeat it.  This happens twice.  Then, I read a sentence with the new word or phrase in it and they repeat it (again, done twice).  Sometimes, the Korean teacher will ask me questions about the pictures or sentences to further clarify what they mean.  For example, the first phrase was "at least" and the picture he chose was of a plane crash.  He then asked me what the picture was.  I said, "Uh, a plane crash?"  The whole time I was wondering what the heck that had to do with explaining the meaning of "at least"...  Then, he asked if I knew which world leader was killed in a plane crash last summer.  Thank god I listened to NPR all summer because that is the only way I knew the answer was Poland.  Then, he said that he heard that at least 30 other people died in the same crash.  Another phrase was "more likely to" and the corresponding sentence was:  Left handed people are more likely to be overweight.  Then, Mr. Jung (the Korean English teacher I work with) asked me if I thought this was accurate.  I said, "Well, I hope not because I'm left-handed..."  I also giggled a little after I said this.  He didn't laugh.  This made for a fairly awkward moment...story of my life, I guess.  

 The whole Morning English process is very sophisticated.  They have a room about the size of my apartment that is divided into three smaller sections that house all of the broadcast equipment.  There are two booths to broadcast the lessons.  One is used for students and one is used to teach the teachers a different English lesson.  It's a pretty cool setup and is completely run by the students!

Today was also my first faculty meeting.  It was conducted entirely in Korean (duh...).  So, for about 50 minutes, I watched people speak in a language that still sounds like total gibberish to me.  Even if I concentrate every free minute on learning Korean, there is no way I would be able to teach myself enough to understand what is being said in these meetings...  On the plus side, it was prime people watching time and I got a small bottle of strawberry yogurt milk out of the deal, so all was well!